The Traffic Signal Hat

Henry is a great little guy.  He is at the age at which he is a lot of fun.  He is about to have a new little brother or sister who will get a present.   I decided that Henry should have something too.

When my nephew Mike was small, I made him a pair of the Child's Safety mittens from a vintage pattern book.  He loved them.  He wore them until he grew out of them.  When a friend of his really, really wanted those mittens, he passed them on to the friend.

My sister reminded me of those mittens.  She thought Henry would have a blast them with them.
Naturally, as a really good auntie, I made sure I had the right yarn and made a pair.  The mittens
are ready to go.

I decided he needed a hat to go with his new mittens.   The light bulb popped on over my head and I hit Knitbird to graph the pattern.   Round 1 did not work.  Round 2 did.   My knitting could be better, but the had and the mittens are now waiting to go to Henry!

Hope he has a lot of fun with the mittens!

Playing with these may help him to behave in the car...or when the new baby is getting attention.  Let us hope!

I wanted to find out how the hat would look worn.....and did not have a good model.   Fortunately, I could turn to the kitchen for what I needed!  A ripening cantaloupe worked perfectly!

This was good practice both with intarsia and Knitbird.    I think the hat and mittens makes a nice set!

Now I am contemplating what to make the baby.   A blanket is
in the planning stages.   When the baby arrives, I will choose an animal pattern in hopes that the new baby loves the animal as much as Henry loves his tiger.

Knitbird......software I am VERY happy to have...

Knitbird is a charting software that one of my friends told me about.   I think I have talked about it before here.  Over the past day or so I have learned a lot more about working in this program by working out a design for a hat I want to knit.

Being able to see in front of me the color patterning I was able to make decisions before having to rip out...a lot.   I found this really, really fun.  While I was doing this, I was able to get a better visualization of my finished project.

Tomorrow, on my time off, I will locate the yarn and begin this hat.   I am excited and hope that the hat looks like the picture in my mind.

Thoughts on shopping from my own yarn store

Today I spent some time checking boxes of yarn here.   I am not saying there are a lot of boxes, but if I knit ten copy paper boxes of yarn into projects per year, I will have this knit down when I retire.   There is this much at home.

It is time that I got serious about knitting down my stash.   Lately I have been thinking about it like paying off my bills.  Both need to be done.  Unfortunately, I cannot give away bills as easily as I can give away yarn.

This will stretch my creativity as I will have to fit the project to the yarn rather than the other way around.    Some yarn may get re-homed.   The project I bought it for may no longer be something I want to do.  I may not care to wear the color anymore.   There can be any number of reasons that some skeins have lost their luster.

This blog was originally started as a record of knitting out the stash.  It has grown instead.  Time to turn it around!    Well, after I use my Needlework Unlimited gift card......

In the many, many years I have been knitting, the things I like to knit have evolved.  The fibers I can and want to knit with have also changed.   What has not changed is the ability of of color and texture to seduce my mind and fingers.

While I knit because I like the finished product, I have begun to have more of an understanding and appreciation of process knitting.   The yarn slipping through my fingers is soothing (most of the time) and the repetitive motion slows down the crazies.  When I miss knitting for a day, I notice it.

Let us begin...the real journey to the center of the stash.....

Owen's Nursery Has a Forest Friends Theme

When I saw a picture of the set that Allison and Mike are buying for Owen's room, I immediately thought of one of the blankets made for one of the Rocksusto girls.   In one of my many, many boxes of yarn there was, waiting, just the right yarn to make another Leafy Baby Blanket. 

The yarn was originally purchased to do an afghan for me.   After a time, I decided that I did not want to do that afghan and allowed the yarn to languish in the stash waiting for the right time to do something with it.

Owen's blanket....begun and growing......

The time is now.   Saturday, after finishing the Elf Sweater late Friday, I cast on for the Leafy Baby Blanket using my stash of soft mossy green Willow Burrow Bulky.    I will admit I did not do a swatch.   This is a sin.   Swatches are important.   In my defense, I had just done another blanket (for Owen) using the same yarn in a different color.

The blanket is moving along.  As the yarn is bulky weight this round, it is moving quickly.  While I think I really like the pattern better in a smaller weight yarn, this is looking nice and will be cuddly for the baby.

The "holes" in the pattern may not be the greatest for little fingers and toes....but it is pretty and fits with the theme.  

Next in queue for Owen is a short series of stuffed animals.  Three are (more or less) forest creatures for his themed room.   One is just because I think it will be funny.

Baby Bredeson will arrive next month.  Until I know who this baby is, I am not planning the project(s) to greet the new family member.  Henry, who will be an excellent big brother, will be getting mittens and a hat at the same time.   The mittens will be the vintage Safety Mittens pattern which his cousin Mike loved when he was a little older than Henry.  The hat will be a coordinating pattern that I need to design.

The Elf Set

The Elf Hat with the Elf Sweater

The Elf Set is done.   One thing I would change is to have the stripes match.   In the long run, it does not matter.

The buttons have deer on them and are perfect for this project.   As JoAnn's does not do a good job with buttons anymore and I did not want to expose myself to the temptation of a brick and mortar yarn store, I shopped for these buttons at Knitpicks.   What a find!

The yarn is Willow Burrow worsted.  Plymouth Encore and Willow Burrow are very similar.  I love them both for projects that need to go through the washer and the dryer safely.   The hat and the sweater went through the washer and dryer last weekend and emerged must softer.

On to the next project!

Still knitting...knitting...knitting

The needles have been working too much to slow down and take pictures.   

This weekend I hope to finish the Elf Sweater that matches the Elf Hat that is done.   Baby knitting has been a really fun adventure.

After the Elf Sweater, I will be doing more stuffed animals and a baby blanket.  Pictures will come.

My travel project is Raggi socks for Christmas.  Raggi, I am deeply sad to hear, is not going to be available as the distributors in this country are retiring.   I bought some up for me.  I have no Raggi socks out of the many pair I have knit.

In my quest to knit more interesting socks, I have decided to take on the pair of Raggi socks that were just published in Interweave Knits.   Those will be for me so they will be knit....later....sometime later.

September is nearly done.....knit faster!  Knit faster!!!!

Knitting through the Madness

The past month has been crazy.   Fortunately, I had my knitting.   Knitting, even troublesome knitting, is calming.

I just finished leg warmers for Piper.  Sharon, a.k.a. Grandma, knew exactly what Piper needed.  She and I conferred on the patterns and choose the best one.   The color had to be black for Piper's skating costume.  The result looks narrow but it is a one by one rib.  VEEEEEEEEEERY stretchy.

Piper's Legwarmers

Ravelry makes choosing projects so much simpler than that process used to be.  Seeing a lot of patterns quickly gives a good idea of what can and can't be done easily.   This gives me a better shot at knowing the project will work for the person the project is for....

Sometimes, I just take an idea and run with it.  I think I have previously talked about my love of seed stitch.  As this is not the most exciting stitch in the world to do a lot of, even I find this puzzling.   Some skeins of True Blue burrow bulky wanted to be knit into seed stitch.  Really.  They told me.   That is how Owen's baby blanket came to be.  It is nice and squishy..and launders well.

The Garden Bunny has overalls that match the blanket.   This bunny was a weird pattern in many ways.   While I learned a lot, I am not sure I would do this again.  The head is oddly small.   I accidentally sewed the head on as a foot.  Cursing ensued.   A lot of cursing.

The bunny is cute.  Not what I had hoped.....but cute.   The picture has the second attempt at a face.  The first go made the bunny look a bit psycho.  That had to change.  

More knitting for Owen is in the works.  Hope life calms down.