the glacier sweater

I bought this yarn with the intention of making something to sell on Etsy, but Sophie saw the yarn and asked me if it was for her. So of course it became hers, and she asked me to make her a "shirk" (that's a shirt).

It was slow going on fingering weight yarn (Debbie Bliss Rialto 4 ply) and size 3 needles, but there it is!

As of today it's finished, wrapped, and under the tree.

I hope she likes it!

almost a sweater

Sorry for the crappy photos, I used my iPhone. But here it is!





Just needs sleeves and a collar! I had to redo the bind off on the bottom once (too tight) but now it's done - well, almost.

inspiration

I love giving handmade gifts, and I love knitting, and I love giving people my knitting. But I hate being on a schedule! So once this Christmas knitting is finished, this is what I want to knit...

I want to finish this sweater.


Make myself one of these hats out of this yarn.


Make Sophie a bright blue cardigan. (I have this yarn in my stash already)


Make my o w l s...................................................... with this. (Yeah, it's been around a while)


A twinset perhaps? In this storm blue merino (already stashed):


And how could I forget about my Central Park Hoodie? It's been in my queue for over a year, and whaddaya know, I have the yarn in my stash!

Add in a few more (let's see... 3) sweaters-to-be already in the stash, plus a huge pile of lovely silky sock yarn just waiting to fit onto feet of all sizes... sigh.

Next year, Christmas presents are going to be small, people. Small.

a new model

I'm going to put all my knits on Daisy for pictures from now on. Doesn't this color look fabulous on her?





This is the Upstairs Shawl - one Christmas present down! This is a very easy to follow and forgiving pattern, and I'm thinking of shortening the width to make scarves. I still have two more scarves to make before Christmas! Along with two hats, a pair of socks, a sweater (toddler-sized, at least), and who knows what else I'll think of along the way. Can I do it? Perhaps I was overly ambitious this year... I need a schedule like the Yarn Harlot.

Summer is over, and "cold and flu season" has begun. We've already been sick all summer! Swine flu - check. Croup - check. Ear infections, allergic reactions, more infections... maybe it'll slow down as everyone else starts to get sick. We had frost the other night and termination dust on the mountains :)

Sophie is starting to skip naps once in a while, will only eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch (uh oh... we're out of bread today!), and had her first night away from Mama last month. I can't believe that her friends are starting to turn 3 already! I still haven't found out about my nursing program, it starts in January and they still haven't decided which 10 people will get in. I've heard from some people who went through the same program that they didn't find out that they got in until November. Oh well. I'll just knit more while I wait.

still knitting

Oh, hey there, neglected blog. Sorry about that. I may have neglected my blog for a while, but I haven't neglected my knitting!

I finally finished my Hemlock Ring Blanket - blocked and everything. It turned out a little smaller than I'd like, partly due to me being scared of running out of yarn, and partly due to insufficient blocking time. Where do you block something this big? On my bed, of course. The only problem is that my bed is needed for nap-time.

So... it could be bigger. Oh well. It's sure cute, especially with a naked baby on it:

(almost) finished!

The lace ribbon scarf for my mom!



I really love this pattern, and I did end up only using one skein of the Aracaunia. It's a little on the short side, but totally do-able. It looks soo beautiful now that it's all blocked out! Just need to weave in the ends now.

I have been knitting like crazy - the other night I started a little sweater for either Sophie or Sierra (her best friend, I'm making them matching sweaters for Christmas), I cast on at around 9:00 and by 2:00am I had finished the body. It didn't help that I started watching Lie to Me for the first time online (I heard a rumor that there would be a crossover with Bones next season - I am completely addicted to Bones. It's bad.). One of the sleeves is finished now, and I hope to finish the second one tonight. I feel like I should be knitting as much as humanly possible before I start school again and have "real" obligations!

what should i do with this?

Sophie picked this out at a little yarn store in Haines - "Me! Me, Mama!" - so obviously I need to knit her something out of it. It's 50 merino/50 silk (she has good taste in yarn!)...

What should I make out of it?

let the christmas knitting begin

I'm getting a late start! Haha. Non-knitters just don't understand, do they?



I have a bunch of lace yarn to be knit into scarves and shawls for Christmas gifts, and yesterday I cast on for the first one. It's the Upstairs Shawl (Ravelry link), and I'm hoping to put two whole skeins in it. We'll see how long it takes.

This yarn is amazing, though. It's KnitPicks Shimmer, it's 30% silk, and I love it!

the buy nothing challenge

As Crunchy Chicken says... Forgive me, people, for I have spent. Sophie and I were in Haines for the first couple days of the month, so I really started once we got back last Sunday night. Since then I bought a spiced hot chocolate from Heritage (my knitting group wasn't able to meet in the yarn store as planned, so we went across the street to the cafe) and Pel Meni's for dinner last night. I will have to do better for the rest of the month, especially because I spent so much up in Haines that I need to make up for it!

my barefoot hippy child

Sophie and I spent last weekend up in Haines for the Southeast Alaska State Fair. We had so much fun! There was awesome music (Albino, Spoonshine, Nicole Fournier) - Sophie slept through most of that, but I enjoyed it! We didn't get back to our tent until 11pm both nights.





Look at that dirty face!







Crashed out in the tent on the last day :)

even more lace

I've been working on this Lace Ribbon Scarf for a while now, and just finally got around to taking pictures of it. It's going really slow... and I have 6 or 7 more of these in my queue for Christmas presents! I've been aiming for one full repeat a day of the lace pattern.



I really like the pattern, though. It's easy to memorize and to tell where you are just by looking at it.



And it's pretty, too!

half way

Here is my Hemlock Ring Blanket with one skein + a few rounds of the second in it!



I love this blanket! This is a pattern that I will definitely make again someday. It's going to be big, too - I'm already just a few rounds away from the "normal sized throw" line, and I have a lot more yarn to knit into it. Good thing there is an extended version of the pattern!

The same designer - Jared Flood - just came out with a new pattern for a baby blanket. Somebody needs to get pregnant just so I can knit that blanket! Come on, people... :)

new friends

Sophie hasn't been well lately, so to make her feel better we went to the fish store...



And came back with these. They don't have names yet, but I made the fish guy work really hard to get one of each color so that we'd be able to tell them apart when they have names :)

a diversion

Last night I hemmed Sophie's long underwear onesie into a shirt (now that she has to go potty all the time those onesies don't work so well!) and I had the leftover fabric just sitting there, so...



Ta-da! A jellyfish shirt. Two "new" shirts in one night, not too bad, eh?

socks off, socks on

Donna's socks are done! They are the "Mermaid Lagoon" color of Imagination sock yarn.





It's more purply than the pictures show, very pretty. And I think there might be just enough extra left over for a pair of toddler socks for Sophie.... :)



And there's new socks on the needles already. This one looks like it's nearly done, but it's actually for my dad and has a long way to go still. It's working up super fast in worsted weight Fisherman's Wool and size 6 needles. They will be warm - and soft and squishy too. I might need to make myself a pair of these this winter.

Here I am last night, enjoying summer still - what's better than knitting in front of the fire??



I was working on my Hemlock Ring Blanket. I'm almost done with the first ball of yarn - Eco Wool - and I think when it runs out I'll put it on scrap yarn and lay it out flat... I can't wait to see the lace stretched out!

knitting lace

My first adventure into lace knitting has somehow turned into three adventures all at once:



The Mystique Sweater (Ravel it) I'm knitting for myself - I'm into the lace panels on the body now - I love this sweater so far, despite having had to cast on three (3) times to get it right. This pattern is a challenge, which is nice, assuming it all turns out right anyways. We'll see! I did the miniature cables in the raglan section, and I'm really glad I did even though it was kind of a pain. If I make this sweater again I'll have to experiment with cabling without a cable needle.



The Hemlock Ring Blanket by Brooklyn Tweed (love this blog!), which is growing so quickly that I had to order longer cables for my new Options needles already! (I love them, by the way.) I'm still on the first ball of yarn, so I think I'll be able to keep going to the very end of the chart rather than stop at the 'standard size' line.

I don't have pictures of the next one yet, but I'm so happy with it so far that I've already ordered yarn for about six more of these (or similar, depending on how bored I get with the same pattern :)... Christmas is coming, you know! It's the Lace Ribbon Scarf, and I'm beginning to wonder if the yarn I have will be enough. That may be a problem as it's in Araucania Ranco and is hand dyed - crossing my fingers that it will turn out to be an acceptable length. The yarn lady assured me that one skein would make a "very long scarf."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Happy 4th of July!

sleepy time - finished!

It's done!







I love it! Now I just need to find the right baby to sleep in it...


P.S. I've been knitting - really I have! I promise to be better about posting from now on. Coming up: Picky Pants, Hemlock Ring Blanket, and more...

summer knitting... and then some

I may be getting ahead of myself with project planning. Right now I have yarn in my stash to make three (3) sweaters for myself... (Ravelry links) Owls, Mystique, and Corona. Wool of the Andes for Owls, City Tweed DK for Mystique, and City Tweed HW for Corona - I love love love the new City Tweed from Knit Picks (It's where I get practically all of my yarn). Plus yarn in the stash for Sophie's next sweater (also out of City Tweed DK), and this beautiful yarn I picked up today at Skein's:



For the Lace Ribbon Scarf, for my mom.

I have one sock finished and need to start the next, and I'm almost halfway done with the Sleepy Time baby sleepsack - I'm knitting it out of Frog Tree alpaca (yarn candy), and I wish it were my size. So soft.

One finished project to show:



A simple raglan pullover, sized 9 months for a friend's baby-on-the-way. This one is out of Shine, which I absolutely love. It's made out of beech trees! I think another one of these (perhaps a striped one?) is on the way. It only took me about four days to knit, from beginning to end. Gotta love knitting for babies!

I also finished Sophie's pants - just need to sew down the elastic, and then take a picture! And then get her to wear them. She LOVES being naked, and the weather we've been having hasn't encouraged much clothes-wearing, either. It's looking to be an awesome summer!

a rainbow party

Sophie's birthday party was a blast. The forecast said mostly cloudy with a chance of rain, which around here usually means it will be raining, but we got lucky - by the time her party rolled around, it was sunny and hot.



Nana made her birthday dress (with matching bloomers!) and since it buttoned down the back, she actually kept it on for most of the party.



There were rainbow sugar cookies, rainbow playdough party favors, and rainbow ric rac around the punch glasses (otherwise known as jelly jars). My mom made beautiful (and delicious) rhubarb-raspberry punch.



There was lots of running, jumping, screaming (in joy), playing...



Bubble blowing....



Nana and Papa made her a teepee out of bamboo poles and covered with all her new silkies.

And here is her fruit pizza!




Play Dough:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Combine ingredients in a saucepan and place over medium heat. Stir constantly until a ball forms; remove from heat and knead for a few minutes. Add food coloring and knead until the color is even.


Bubbles:

5 cups water
14 oz. Dawn dish soap (eco-friendly soap doesn't work)
1/2 cup corn syrup

Mix. Dip. Blow.
We used egg dippers (for dyeing Easter eggs) for wands - just use pliers to complete the circle.