Knitting Olympics Event One - Success!

Here you can see I have FINISHED the Little Bubble Baby Sweater. Event one of my Knitting Olympics pursuit is complete. This sweater is so pretty - but I am so glad that it is finally finished.

I have been knitting it for just over a month and I made relatively few modifications to the pattern - sleeves are only tapered part of the way down and I put a garter stitch edge on the cuff instead of the recommended 2x2 ribbing. It irked my aesthetics that the collar and hem were garter and the cuffs rib. The tapered sleeves are obviously 3/4 length per the pattern. But I thought that the sleeves would be a little too snug if I tapered them all of the way down. It has 6 buttons, only 3 of which are buttoned on Rose. And they are rose buttons, what else?

I may have to come back and add a few more rows of garter stitch to the bottom to keep it from rolling. It was made just as the pattern said, and the pictures on the pattern all show a rolled hem. I am not sure why they went to all of the trouble to make one-row stripes on the bottom just for it to curl - but there you go. I even wet-blocked it - still rolls. We shall see.

On to event two: designing and knitting a heavily-cabled cowl, part in the round and part flat, with button bands, buttonholes, and of course 5 or 6 mismatched buttons. Ah, cabling in dark yarn! We shall see (or not as the case may be) if my eyesight fails.

Higher, faster, etc.

Home-made Love

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all!

Taking time out of my Knitting Olympics event to spread the love.

The Knitting Olympics - OOOOOOOOH, YEAH!

I am only sometimes described as a glutton for punishment. You may officially call me that now as I have signed up to compete in this year's Knitting Olympics. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this particular self-imposed challenge, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee of Yarn Harlot fame started the Knitting Olympics several years ago. This is an exercise that takes a self-imposed epic challenge and gives it a time limit. Participants have from when the torch is lit during the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics and must finish before the torch goes out. All participants who finish get a gold-medal button for their blog.

I have chosen to finish the Little Bubbles Baby Sweater and to design and knit the heavily-cabled cowl that I am calling "Wine Dark Sea." You might not think of this as epic, but as I have a toddler who is teething wildly and wants to be held 20 hours a day, to me it is - and that is all that matters. Its nice to create your own challenges.

The first photo shows the progress I have made so far on the baby sweater. The second is the swatches, stitch pattern, and yarn for the cowl. The third is the slipper booties that I am working on for Rose until then. I modified a pattern for Dorm Boots to have a funky, elfin cuff instead of a turned cuff - for my elf.

Wish me luck!

Raccoon revisited

Friendlier baby raccoon hat. A sticky-outy tongue is always good.

Intarsia. Not for the faint of heart.

Well. the baby raccoon hat is done, scary eyes and all. This was my first intarsia project - made my own chart and everything - see previous post. Mostly, intarsia is not hard - unless you have 7 bobbins of different sections of color on the same row all at one time. Knowing me, you might not be surprised that I did a complicated pattern for my first time out. I did cheat a little, however. The center nose stripe and the nose are done in duplicate stitch.

I might change the eyes to buttons, but the scary embroidered circles are growing on me. It is sized for a 9-12 month old. The ears are gathered and tied, and are possibly the sweetest part. And the whole thing is only 5.5" tall. That is a lot of detail on a teeny hat.

Lesson learned: though the technique of intarsia is fairly simple, your first project using it should be uncomplicated and larger for goodness sake. Seven bobbins on something only 37 stitches wide is ridiculous.

Cute, though, isn't it?

Taking a long time - or time well spent.

My, my, I have had a busy few weeks. As you can see, progress progresses on the Little Bubbles Sweater - only sleeves and button bands left. It has been a lengthy project, one that I have not always enjoyed. I am, however, beginning to appreciate the concept of time well spent. The sweater is taking a long time to make - true. But Rose will be able to wear it this spring and next fall and possibly spring. I am being a careful crafter, so if it well cared-for and kept, another girl a generation later will as well. But I will say - there are a lot of stitches, a maddening lot. I, oddly enough, got a request to purchase the sweater after Rose outgrows it. Obviously I said "no," but I did offer to sell two grown-up sweaters to the two people who liked it. Time will tell. I'm glad that my handwork is appreciated for what it is.

At the top, you will see my sweet Badger knitting away on a garter stitch square. Part of his homeschooling is learning various craft skills. Knitting helps with mathematical thinking and hand-eye coordination, so I believe it is a good start. Good going Badger! He's picked up the knit stitch very fast, but I knit alternate rows for him so that he doesn't get discouraged by the time that knitting takes.

And the last photo is the chart the I just finished for a custom baby hat. A baby Racoon. In intarsia. Knit flat. In 3 colors. Due on Feb. 26. Ok, back to the knitting.

Keeping busy.

Well, its been a month. Lots of making for the holidays, lots of making for the cold weather. The next sweater begun. Computer crashed, photos lost, some found.

It was a busy, frantically busy holiday season. We had decided to make everything for everyone on our list. Good idea - but we could have used more time to execute it. Got everything made, finally. Two things were late, but only by a few days. I thankfully have an understanding family.

I had to jump right from that to making all kinds of cold weather clothing for my kiddos. It got down to 10 degrees here - in Austin, Texas! I lived in the Midwest for 14 years, and never got used to the cold. I moved back down here, and it's cold. They are now fully outfitted in polarfleece and wool.

Our computer crashed. It has taken a few weeks to get up and running, and I am thankful that I had put so many photos on this blog - it was the only copies that I had left of some. I have had so little time to write, but so much desire. Thanks for your patience.

The next sweater has now been started. Above, you see the progress on the yoke of the sweater (it is knit from the top down) Technically, little bubbles stitches (or blister stitch depending on your reference book) is not terribly difficult - just laborious. But, as Rose likes to wear necklaces , she will have a sweater that looks like it is covered in necklaces. I'm using a really soft Pima cotton blend yarn, 2.75 mm needles (one of the two size 2's, and losing my eyesight. It's some tiny knitting.. You'd think that knitting lace would be harder -but no. Knitting tiny yarn is harder when knitting plain, or just not as interesting - I'm not sure. We'll see how it turns out.