Finally Ready

Do you remember me talking about Squishy's sweater a while back?  One I knit him in something like a week so he would have a complimentary sweater for his picture with his baby sister?  Well...I don't believe it ever truly got it's own blog post because it took so long for me to officially finish it up.

I had it knit and ready for pictures in time, yes.  But I didn't have the right buttons and it wasn't blocked (still awfully darn cute in the pictures though!).

It has since been blocked and the more fitting cream buttons have been attached.

The pattern is The Wonder Years and is not a new pattern to you, readers.  It is, in fact, one you've seen a couple times before in the form of the Coffee Bean Cardigan I've made at least twice before.  This is just the more grown-up pattern for older kids.

I chose to limit the striping to the top of the cardigan.  I thought about doing no stripes, and I thought of doing just 2 cream stripes.  But this is a nice in-between balance.

The yarn is Cascade 220 Wool in Winter White and Dark Brown.  I thought this would keep it neutral so that he could wear it with a variety of shirts and pants.  (It's a pretty handsome sweater for church on Sundays!)

I found the buttons at JoAnns and they're just rustic enough to be boy, but not so plain as to be boring.  I don't really care for boring buttons...

This sweater didn't take long because it was rushed.  If I had taken my time, I estimate it probably would have been something like 2 weeks from beginning to end, instead of 6-7 days.

I wish it were superwash wool for easier care, but now that he's a bit older and not spitting up every 5 minutes (like his sister does on occasion), it should last him a long time.

I knit the 3T instead of the 4T...the 4T seemed to be very large.  I think this means that he'll be growing out of this sweater in a somewhat rapid fashion, but I don't mind.  I can always knit him another.

Just Because I Can

 (Uptown Babe hat I designed awhile back.)

(And if I share one, I must share a picture of the other! :) )

Wee Mittens

A cute little pattern found in Vintage Knits for Modern Babies, these were finished in a matter of hours (well, split over 2 days because I didn’t have time to do them all in one sitting).  Knit with Spud and Chloe, Moonlight. (Pattern calls for DK weight but I used worsted.)

The pattern, Wee Mittens, is written to knit these flat and then seam them together.  It’s an interesting construction but I hate seaming so I converted the pattern to knit it in the round. With tis in mind I cast on 30 stitches instead of 31. 

Initially, I knit the length for fingers and thumbs as directed by the pattern.  But I had to go back and take the tops of the fingers and thumbs out and lengthen them because they were far too short for Squishy’s hands (he gets that from his mamma….).

I dislike it when I have a pattern that requires knitting 2 of something and it tells you to knit for “x” inches.  I don’t trust my measuring skills to be so great that I will get the pair the same length (some might also tell me it’s my need to be a perfectionist…).  So instead I labor over counting the rows as I go to make sure they are both the same.  Not hard to do with tiny mittens!

Anyway, I ended up adding 6 more rows to the fingers and 4 more rows to the thumb.  That’s a lot of length when you’re talking about toddler fingers!  Do you see the difference between these two pictures?

Now they fit...well…like a glove!  Squishy loves them and keeps talking about “my new mittens.”  That’s the mark of a job well done.

And to any of you out there who don’t like seaming…don’t be afraid to look at a pattern and decide whether or not it can be knit in the round.  Not everything is as simple as these mittens and would be harder to convert, but this saved me a lot of time, especially considering that if I had knit them flat, I couldn’t have fixed Squishy’s mittens and just would have had to make a whole new pair.  

Playing Catch Up

You all have to know that swap knitting is not all that I was doing while on maternity leave.  (I’m going to take a moment and just say how much I could have used a couple more weeks at home before returning to work…)  There were things knit for my family as well.

Today I share with you Little Sister’s Dress by Tora Froseth Design.  My friend Lyndsey knit this awhile back, although she didn’t make it a dress, she left it at a tunic.  Just another reason to give this pattern 2 thumbs up.   

I wanted a knit dress for Lovebug during the holidays.  We have several Christmases to attend and I wanted her to be festive.  She has had very few dresses in her wardrobe at the time, so I chose this pattern. 

I chose it because it was a top-down construction that didn’t require cutting the yarn and rejoining on the opposite shoulder to finish the look.  I had several patterns picked out at different times that were a little fancier, but each time I looked into the pattern, I found that it wasn’t knit in the round.  This was a problem because I had a very specific yarn in mind.  I knit this with Premier Yarns Serenity Garden in Hibiscus.  It took two skeins for this size.  (At least I think only 2 – I bought 3 skeins and can only find 1 in my stash so I must have used 2…)  This is a self-striping yarn.  While I can appreciate variegated or striping yarns, it doesn’t work well for patterns that divide and knit the shoulders separately because it breaks up the color pattern and isn’t symmetrical. Yes, this is an issue for me.  There must be symmetry (at least in color if not in the pattern). 

So, again, I say, this pattern was terrific for that.  Serenity Garden is a microfiber which is a type of acrylic.  I’m not a huge fan of acrylic, but this yarn is so soft and squishy and I didn’t find it the least bit squeaky.  One of the best features of the yarn is that it didn’t require blocking.  When looking up microfiber on Google, I found some information saying it’s designed to not need blocking.  (Now, I know some of you will say –but you can’t block acrylic!! To that I say, yes, you can.  In a couple different ways.  And I had planned on blocking this dress until I saw it finished.  The information proved true – no blocking needed and it STILL looked straight and even and lovely.)

Knit in the 3 month size, this pattern went along very quickly.  Only a few days and it was finished. (It helps that I was knitting it for a bitty baby!)  I learned a new cast on called the Old Norwegian Cast On (also known as the elastic long tail cast on).  I don’t remember at the moment how to do it, but it’s always good to have tried something once – the more you use something, the easier it gets.

Lovebug was just under 2 months at Christmas and it was obvious (at least to me) that the dress was a little big.  The armholes, especially were large.  I think they would be large on a 3 month old who’s a little more rotund than Lovebug even.  The good thing about this is that as she gets older, she can continue to wear the dress and eventually it will become a tunic that she can wear with leggings or over a little pair of jeans, depending on the fit.  I love the idea that she can wear it for so long.  We knitters, crocheters, sewers, etc. put so much effort into the things we make, it’s nice to know they’ll be of use for a long time. 

I have to mention that I had something very specific in mind when I went searching for buttons.  A little back story – when I was little I had a red dress with teddy bears and hearts on it.  Although I don’t exactly remember what it looked like, I remember really liking the dress.  And it had a little white apron (is that called a frock?) that went over top.  The little bears were holding hearts and just something about it made me love it so much.  This dress, although wildly different than my dress, reminded me of that dress. No buttons would work unless they were similar to what was on MY dress.

So when I found these little teddy bear buttons and had flashbacks to my childhood, I knew they were perfect for the job.  They’re not Christmas-y or even winter-y, which allows this piece of clothing to be worn year round without looking out of place. 

I highly recommend this pattern for knitters with little girls in their lives.  You’ll love the end result and how effortless it was to get there.

My only regret is that I bound off too loose.  I wanted to ensure the hem on the dress wasn’t too tight, especially as Lovebug grew.  I achieved that, but in my opinion, the bottom looks less finished than I would like.  

Perfection

Few things in life are truly perfect. 

But a brand-new baby all wrapped up in a hand-knit blanket?  Yep, I’d say that qualifies…

Lovebug, born November 4, 2011 at 11:43am, 8 lbs 4 oz, 20 inches

Are We There Yet?

It's November!  And I'm in the final days of my pregnancy.  Within the last week I have become increasingly uncomfortable.  Everything is bearable, but knowing an end is in sight makes it easier to complain about.  I'm ready to have my body back - mostly my mobility.  At this point I just sort of waddle everywhere I go and it takes me at least twice as long as it would if I weren't 9 1/2 months pregnant!

As we reach the final hour, nesting has most certainly kicked in.  The last month or so I've been trying to space out what I want to get done each weekend.  And every week, I'm able to tick a few things off my list.  But this last weekend I was in overdrive and felt like there just wasn't enough time.  I probably overdid it a little bit - by Sunday evening my feet were the size of balloons and Monday I was so sore from my head to my toes.  In all reality, we are ready and anything that's not done or not purchased can be done after the baby arrives.

Aside from home organization, though, I'm also feeling the countdown in my knitting & sewing.  All of a sudden I feel as though there were all these things I wanted to make and, darn it, there just isn't enough time left to see them through.  I've known all along what I wanted to make, or at least a rough list.  But I think I was a bit delusional thinking I had more time than there really was.

So this week I'm spending time tidying up and preparing our house and lives for the arrival of the fourth member of our family, but I'm also trying to take time each night to sit and knit.  Because it's relaxing and because I know I won't have time/energy/the desire to do so for a little while after we make it home.

With all that being said, I'll take this moment to mention I'm not sure when I'll blog next.  Perhaps one more time this week, but I'm not making any promises.  Certainly once we are home from the hospital (I'm very anxious to share her with all of you!).  But beyond that, I can't even being to guess what my days will look like.  So expect a bit of a blogging break and I'll talk with you all when I return!

Baby Chalice Blanket

You’ve heard me talk about it, lament over the differences in skein color and ripping out to start over, etc.  Now the blanket is done and it’s even blocked!  Wahoo!

Honestly, once I bound off that last stitch, I was glad not to have to think about it for a little while.  I didn’t yet have blocking wires and I wasn’t going to tackle it with just pins…this is for our baby girl after all.  Putting it aside, recognizing it was finished, was enough for me.  When the blocking wires came in the mail I was excited to pull the blanket out again and truly finish this project.

Knit in Madelinetosh Tosh DK in Flashdance, this blanket was completed using almost an entire 3 skeins of yarn (almost 675 yards!).  The pattern doesn’t call for this much, in fact, I’m sure the actual baby blanket as the pattern is written is significantly smaller.  You all know I like to do things my own way.  Mr. Man would call that my need to control things….

I cast on 135 stitches and did a 6 stitch garter border along each side.  I knit somewhere between 200-300 rows, I lost count in there somewhere.  Each lace repeat is 20 rows.  When I was nearing the end, I took a gamble trying to decide how much yarn would be needed for the 10-row garter stitch edge.  I was lucky and had plenty to spare – but not so much I felt the yarn was wasted.

I previously shared the Baby Mitts I knit using the leftover yarn.  These two items paired together will be sweet.

After discovering that my skeins were significantly different colors, I opted to alternate skeins of yarn so there would be a bit of a gradient to the color.  I gave the skeins an order from light to dark and got started, a second time.  Although the striping is obvious to me (I know what I’m looking for), it actually looks intentional and like it’s just a characteristic of the yarn.  I’m very, very pleased with the results. 

When all was said and done I gave the blanket a good soak.  I really need to get myself some kind of wool soak so that my knits smell pretty, instead of sheepy, when finished. 

It took me 1.5 hours to block this sucker.  I was very excited to use my new blocking wires, which I’ve decided I should never have gone without.  The process was so much easier.  I’m a bit obsessive about straight lines and such so I probably was more aggressive than necessary and spent a lot of time adjusting and readjusting the pins.  It was worth it.

And now this blanket is finished!  It’s large enough to wrap around Squishy (who at 2.5 years old is tall for his age…) and still have plenty of wiggle room.   Even though it’s a lacy design, I think this will keep our little girl “snug as a bug in a rug.” 

I also need to take a moment and admit something to you all.  Have you ever been so excited about a project that when it’s finished you can’t do anything but just stare and wonder how you accomplished that?  That’s kind of how I feel about this blanket.  The pattern wasn’t difficult, the yarn was a pleasure to knit with, and I’ve been knitting long enough I was confidant I could make this blanket.  So why am I so enamored by the finished product?  Why can’t I stop staring at it? 

It’s somewhat like when I get new clothes.  They are purchased and brought home and then I have to try everything on and wear it again ASAP.  My mom will tell you I’ve done that forever.  It’s like that – you love it so much you have to see it again and again. 

So on Sunday night after it was blocked and dried, I sat and stared, and petted the blanket, and folded and refolded it.  And draped it around Squishy and then squished it and folded it again.  Part of my love of this blanket MUST be the anticipation that it will soon be keeping our little girl toasty warm.  I MUST have knit a lot of good juju and love into this blanket because it just makes me so very happy.

I’m almost always satisfied with how my knitting turns out.  Sometimes I wish I’d done better and sometimes the finished product is “ok.”  Hardly do I ever sit and obsess about something.  So with a week to go in this pregnancy, it’s no wonder I’m so thrilled.  Please excuse my lack of humility with this project.   I hope the rest of you get as much joy out of your knitting as I did with this!

I’m trying to remember if there was anything bad about this process or pattern.  My biggest gripe would be having to rip back and refigure the order of skeins, etc.  But the pattern is well written and clear.  There are written instructions and a chart.  The knitting wasn’t tedious – instead it felt engaging.  As long as it wasn’t the only thing I was working on.  And if you were to knit it in the original size, it would go much quicker. 

So there you have it. The long awaited baby blanket. 

Over the Weekend

It was a busy weekend.  In a good way.  I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish going into Friday evening...none of it got done.  Most everything was a "prep for baby's arrival" sort of thing.  I'm just not feeling the pressure yet to clear up those last few tasks...probably after this week I will feel the time crunch.  Most of it involved clothing - washing, sorting, putting away.

Instead, I spent a lot of my time knitting.  Something I thought would take me a couple hours Saturday morning ended up finished Saturday evening.  I was working on Elefante for the E is for Elephant Swap I'm participating in.  More details on all that later, but I forgot how much time the finishing up can be.  When he woke up from his very late nap, Squishy found the Elefante and played with him a lot.  Good thing I've got a 2nd one in the works because he's gotten a bit attached...

Because of a booboo I made on my first Elefante attempt, I decided to make up for the small delay by including another knit item in the package.  It's ALMOST finished - I should be able to complete it tonight, do a gentle blocking and get things packaged up.  I'm past the mail-out date.  I hate that.  I hope my swap partner feels that it's worth the wait!  I know I'm not the only one waiting to mail out a package, but I just don't like missing the deadline.

While I have been furiously attempting to finish up the swap requirements, Lovebug's blanket has been put on hold.  I'm anxious to get back to it and finish off the remainder of the yarn.  I only have a few more weeks to go and I have promised myself it will be finished on time.  Besides, one's queue never gets any shorter and there are so many other things I'd like to knit.

Friday we took Squishy out to the Corn Maze outside of town.  He's really a bit too young to fully appreciate what the maze is all about.  The three of us went with Mama & Papa and we enjoyed watching Squishy explore.  There was a small kids hay maze that he ran around in, some tires to climb, and some animals to meet and pet.

Squishy got to talk to a very chatty turkey, pet a horse and donkey, and feed crackers to two llamas!  He thought all that was pretty neat.  The maze itself had 3 levels - easy, medium and hard.  We only took the easy route and when Squishy was done running through the corn (on the laid-out path), we went for supper.

It was a fun, family-friendly outing for a Friday night, and from the sounds of it, the maze has seen a lot of activity, which is great.  I hope they continue to do the maze because as the kids get older, it's something that could be enjoyed each Fall season.

What Fall activities have you had the pleasure of participating in?  Soon we'll be raking leaves and painting pumpkins...where has the time gone?

Botanic Hat

Over the last few months you’ve seen and heard about several knit items made for the new baby.  It’s so easy to get sucked in to small, quick projects.  Babies are so little that anything you make for them can be finished in the blink of an eye.

Feeling a bit guilty that my knitting had shifted from making things for Squishy, to making things for Lovebug, I thought I should focus on Squishy a little bit.  I have a couple long-term projects on the needles for him, but I needed something quick and easy.

I’ve been perusing Ravelry for a hat pattern I really liked.  I wanted something more than just a basic beanie.  Squishy always loves wearing Mr. Man’s hat when they’re finished, so I thought something a little more grown up would be fitting. 

And every time I would pick a pattern and get ready to knit, it didn’t feel right.  I picked out so many hat patterns.  It shouldn’t be this hard!  But you know how sometimes you have a certain look and feel for a project in mind and you can’t move past it until you get exactly what you want?  That was me and my quest for the perfect hat.

In strides Botanic Hat by Stephen West.  The pattern is written for adults, but several people had modified their version to fit children, specifically toddlers.  Perfect!  So following the notes of several other Ravelers, I cast on exactly as the pattern directed, but with US 5 needles, instead of US 6.  And after the ribbing, I switched to US 6s instead of US 7s.  So by only going down 1 needle size, I got great gauge for my little boy’s head.  Other knitters had knit for 5.5” before starting the decreases so I followed suit.  As it turns out, my little man has a somewhat large head.  Although the circumference is great, the length, is not.  The pattern says to knit for 6” before decreasing.  Since I had left everything except needle size the same, I should have listened to Mr. West.  The bottom of Squishy’s earlobes stick out so this won’t work as a winter hat.  C’est la vie!

Aside from my own mistake, this hat is perfect.  It’s a reversible pattern.  Side A is a 2-color slip stitch pattern that looks much more complicated than it really is.  Because of the construction for side A, side B is a simple 3x1 rib.  I knit this with the same yarn as the Coffee Bean Cardigan for my friend’s son.  Cascade 220 Superwash Wool in Cordovan and my own Woodland Fairies Superwash Wool.  I have a tiny amount of brown left and enough green for another project.

Pictures of Squishy in the hat will have to wait.  At the moment, he won’t leave it on his head for more than 10-15 seconds at a time.  He’s always like this before the cold weather.  But once those winds start blowing, I know he’ll leave it on. 

I’d recommend this pattern to anyone looking for a quick gift, whether it be a child or an adult.  I imagine if you have a child older than a toddler, the adult size pattern would be okay – but I suggest reading others’ notes!  

After the Weekend

It’s Monday.   It feels like a Monday.  These are always long days for us because Mr. Man works nights on Mondays and Squishy doesn’t really get to see him until Tuesday afternoons (he’s in bed by the time Daddy gets home). 

After a very dreary weekend full of cold and rain, today has been a little warmer and sunnier.  Allergies have attacked and taken over my body, I’m hoping they calm down soon.

I got just a little done by way of knitting this weekend. A few more rows on the baby blanket and the elephant saw no love.  Instead of working on knitting or sewing projects this weekend I slept (on Saturday) and Sunday was spent helping some family move.  I sort of feel like I need a vacation from my weekend! (It wasn’t bad, just tiring.)

All week at work last week was go-go-go.  The further into the week we got, the busier my days became.  Friday flew by because I had another doctor’s appointment.  It’s amazing how fast 2 weeks can go.  Friday marked 32 weeks in this pregnancy.  Little Lovebug is NOT shy about moving around and making Mamma uncomfortable.   But the doctor’s appointment was good and  for the most part unremarkable.  I’m having some muscle pain so the doctor gave me some stretches to try, as well as recommending to apply heat or cold packs (whichever is most comfortable) and Tylenol if needed.  If that doesn’t help, she’ll refer me to physical therapy. 

I like the quick appointments when I can go in, take care of business and be done.  The doctors are good at listening to my concerns and questions and taking the time to answer them.  But I really prefer them to be boring and easy.  It means everything is going well and I just have to keep on for another few weeks.

We’re halfway through September, but I find myself feeling like we’re already in October.  My brain has a way of thinking forward to the next week instead of remembering to take care of things the current week.  I’m always a week ahead of myself!  Very soon I think we’ll be making a trip to Kmart or Target to find Squishy a Halloween costume.  Nothing fancy, but I think he’s old enough to enjoy a walk down our neighborhood block and a stop in at Grandma’s house.  :) 

Friday Favorites 8/26

Air Conditioning

Yep, central air is a must in our house.  Usually, I’m the cold one in the family.  Mr. Man gets overheated very quickly and doesn’t like/can’t tolerate the really high temps and energy-sucking humidity we get in Iowa. 

Lately, he’s been cold and I feel like I could overheat!  The weather has cooled down a lot compared to what it HAS been this summer.  But at almost 30 weeks pregnant (29 weeks today), I find myself VERY warm most all the time.  My office at work is a stifling 81 degrees or so.  No windows, just a door to the hallway.  Getting up and moving around is a must to staying cool.  Then to get in a hot, humid car, pick up Squishy from Grandma’s house and drive home is terribly uncomfortable. 

Evenings haven’t been too bad. We can get some time in outside after the sun has past the peak of the day.  So today I herald central air!  What a blessing!!

Healthy Children

Squishy was sick again this week.  For whatever reason, yesterday he had some sort of stomach bug.  I hate it when he’s sick.  How do you explain to a 2-year-old why they don’t feel good and how it WILL get better?   And if said 2-yr-old doesn’t want to sit still, how do you tell him that it’s really better if he just sits back, relaxes, and stays calm so his tummy doesn’t get upset again?

Squishy is quite good at communicating what he wants or needs or how he’s feeling.  But there are still gaps, like telling Mommy “I have to throw up!” 

So we had a rough morning yesterday.  By suppertime, he was doing much better and I’m happy to report that he’s back to himself today.  No tummy problems, lots of energy (at least there was this morning), happy, healthy child.  My favorite!

Weekends

It’s the first week back to school with students (last week staff returned).  I like having all the people in the building because otherwise the high school is a bit of a ghost town.  But goodness has it been busy!  I’m appreciating that the weekend starts this afternoon and there’s a break before we go through it all again next week.  I know it will slow down into a rhythm very soon, and I look forward to that!  

WIP Wednesday 8/3

Just a few pictures to share with you of this week’s WIP. 

Okay, so really it’s an ongoing WIP at the moment.

25 weeks, 4 days – Profile of Lovebug

3D/4D photo of Lovebug – she cooperated this time! 

She’s a growing girl and likes to make her presence known.  She kicks all around and was pushing back when the ultrasound tech lingered for too long in one place. 

Is this any indication of her future personality? :) 

Week 16

I don’t know how many of you are interested, but I’ll post it anyway.  Last Friday (May 27) marked 16 weeks in my pregnancy.  That’s just a couple weeks into the second trimester.

I’ve been feeling much better than those initial 10-12 weeks of the fisrt trimester.

We had a surprise ultrasound last week so they could measure Baby’s heartbeat.  It was nice and strong at 151 bpm and a relief to see that little heart pumping away on the screen.  The technician said Baby is measuring about 7 oz at this point.  In case you wondered, that’s big.  (In comparison, if you read week-by-week guides on your developing baby on websites, they’ll tell you 16 weeks should be about 3.5 oz – this baby is measuring around the 18 week mark!)

(sorry for the blurry photo - I took a picture of the picture they gave us w/ our camera)

Squishy and Mr. Man came with me.  Squishy watched the ultrasound screen occasionally, but was more interested in what the tech was doing to Mommy’s tummy.  We heard a lot of the following conversation:

Squishy: “Whadya’ do’n’?”

Us: She’s looking at the baby.”

Squishy: “Baby?!”

Us: Yep – she’s checking to make sure Baby is healthy.”

Squishy: “Ohhhh…………Whadya do’n’?”

And so it went for the remainder of the appointment.

No news on boy vs. girl yet.  We want to know and hoped to find out a little early, but no such luck.  Now I really can’t wait for our 20 week scan!

The End of Another Weekend

I was certainly sad last night when I realized that the following day was Monday.  Although busy, we had an enjoyable weekend.  We saw a lot of family this weekend and even got some time outside.  The weather couldn’t make up its mind, so we saw both rain and sunshine, but we had a beautiful, sunny day yesterday to celebrate my grandparents’ 60^th wedding anniversary. :) 

Squishy enjoyed seeing cousins and playing with fellow little ones, not to mention having free reign (mostly) to play outside on the farm.  He loves it outside.  By the time we got home, we had one very exhausted little boy on our hands!

And do you see these curls?  EVERYONE comments on the curls...

I didn’t get much crafting done.  Since I drove to the farm and back on Sunday, there was no “car knitting” time.  I finished up the cloche on Friday and worked on the frog clip on Saturday.  My goal is to have a completed frog clip by Wednesday.  This project has lingered too long!  I thought it would be done mid-April and here it is the 3^rd week in May!!  Once it’s finished I can get everything shipped off to Sis.

On a side note, I visited a somewhat local yarn shop this weekend, Crazy Girl Yarn Shop.  I had gift certificates from my dad and since we would be driving right by it, I found it necessary to stop.  Once inside, I found a beautiful shop, stocked with lovely, colorful yarns such as Lorna’s Laces, Debbie Bliss, Malabrigo, Ella Rae, Noro, Manos, Cascade and many, many more.  This was a treat for me since my LYS leaves a bit to be desired!  This will become my shop of choice in the future, especially when they carry so many of the brands I enjoy knitting with.  While I was there I just happened to pick up some yarn, as well as some goodies for my swap partner in the Cupcake Swap on Ravelry.  Tonight I will be finishing up last-minute swap details and hopefully sending the package on it’s way very soon. :) 

Hopefully, with small goals and a lot of time on my hands this week, I can make some progress!!