Christina's baby hat

One of my friends is having a baby sometime in the next couple weeks, and I made this hat for her baby. It is a wool and cotton blend, so it is both soft and warm. It knit up quickly and fairly easily. The only problem I had with it is that I cast on around midnight, and knit for a while, and then realized the next morning that I had done it completely wrong, LOL, and had to frog it back to the initial ribbing. But I got it done in one day, and it was a fun little project. I hope Christina likes it.

The pattern is available online for free, and can be seen here: http://heyjulie.wordpress.com/2006/08/18/cabled-baby-hats/

yummy sock yarn

I absolutely love this yarn. I got it at my favorite local yarn shop, Knitting Grounds (http://www.knitsfromgrounds.blogspot.com/). The yarn is made here in Alaska, in Big Lake, just a few miles from where our cabin is. This yarn is so wonderful that I had to sit right down and start knitting:

A sock, of course. But this time, I am knitting from the toe up. Why? Because I don't know how much yarn I have. I mean, I know I have 3.5 oz. But how much sock it will make is a mystery. If you start a sock from the toe, you get the entire foot done, and just make the cuff as long as you have yarn for. If, however, you start from the cuff, if you make the cuff too long, you could easily run out of yarn before you get to the toe. Then you are in trouble.

But there is more. I also had to make sure I had enough yarn to do it twice. After all, I have two feet. So, at my yarn store, I wound all this yarn into one big ball and weighed it. It weighed 3.5 oz. Then, leaving the big ball on the scale, I started winding off of it into another ball. Once I got to 1.75 oz remaining, I weighed the other ball just to make sure, and yep, 1.75 oz. Cut the yarn, and I have two fairly equal balls of yarn.

When I started knitting, I was absolutely enchanted by the yarn. It is simply red and blue stripes, but when you start looking at it, the stripes are not sharply delineated, and the shades of red and blue change throughout the yarn. It is one of those yarns that I just have to knit and knit, and when I am not knitting, my fingers itch for my knitting needles. About the only thing that successfully distracted me from knitting this weekend was my beautiful yellow walls in my loft. See below.

knitting update...

As you can seen, I got a couple of projects finished: another pair of socks, and a pair of fingerless gloves. The yarn from the socks was something I bought on eBay, and it was not supposed to have a stripe, so I thought it would be perfect for socks with cables. As I started knitting, however, it quickly became clear that it was in fact striping, and stripes don't look so good with cables. So I made them fairly plain, with a wide rib to give them some extra stretch. They are very comfy.

beaded cable socks

Got another pair of socks finished:

I posted a pic of these socks in progress back when I first started blogging. (See http://lifeonthelastfrontier.blogspot.com/2007/07/on-needles.html.) I bought the yarn and beads last May, when I was in Utah, at a wonderful little yarn store in Ogden, although I can't remember now what it is called. The yarn is a combination of wool and bamboo, and is very soft. I have heard that yarn with bamboo wears for a long time. We will see. I am really pleased with these socks. They were fun to make, they are pretty, and they feel great on my feet.

Here is a close up of the bead and cable pattern:

embossed leaves socks

Got another pair of socks finished. These are for me. This is the first pair of lace type socks I have made, and I am very happy with them. I used Koigu KPPPM yarn for them, which was another first for me. This turned out to be a very soft, luscious yarn, and the socks are cushy and soft in the hand, and extremely comfortable on my feet. Here's a closer look at the detail on the leaves:

late...

Karen, my mother-in-law, celebrated her birthday on the first. I made her a pair of socks for her birthday. These are cotton socks, as she is allergic to wool.

When I called her to wish her happy birthday, I had to regretfully inform her that her birthday present was not yet finished. Now they are, and I am going to try to make it to the post office tomorrow. Especially since my mother's birthday is coming up on the 7th, and I need to get her present in the mail as well....

socks for Karen

Happy birthday, Karen! This is the beginning of a pair of socks for my mother in law. Her birthday is October first, and I am hoping I will get them done in time. I am doing them on size 2 needles, and it is going really fast, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I have been wanting to make something for her, but I wasn't sure what, because she can't wear wool; it makes her skin red and itchy. So, after lots of searching, I found this sock yarn that is a combination of cotton, acrylic, and polyester. It is really soft, and these colors seem like ones that Karen wears a lot. It's Sockina Cotton, by Schoeller and Stahl. So far, I am loving the way they are knitting up.

I am only posting these on my blog because the secret is already out. I couldn't figure out a way to get her to measure from her heel to the tip of her toe across the bottom of her foot without telling her why, so I just told her what the deal was, and ruined the surprise.

I really enjoy giving hand knitted items for gifts. Last year, I gave my mother a pair of felted slippers. Her birthday is October 7, and since my mother's and mother in law's birthdays are a week apart, I decided I can only do one hand knitted gift per year, or it would just be insanity. And it's a real thin line already; don't want to lose my balance.

Instinct

So, for the last several days, it has been cloudy, rainy, and relatively cool. Makes sense... August is almost here. August in Alaska is typically cool and rainy, and it is a reminder that the weather will quickly become much more tempermental. September is a nice reprieve, being generally sunny and mild, with weather in the high 50's to mid 60's during the day, and then October hits with a vengeance. There is snow on the ground by Halloween without fail, and it lasts til April.

So, in the midst of this cloudy, rainy weather, I suddenly felt this overwhelming urge to knit something warm for my children. I had been working on a gift for someone, as well as my bamboo & wool beaded socks, and a shopping bag, but none of those were sufficient to satisfy my need for warm and comforting. What exactly is it that makes me all of a sudden start thinking about winter's chill, and not being able to relax and enjoy my knitting until I had started something that would help protect one of my children from it? Is it motherhood that brings out this protectiveness? It's not like it will be fifteen below tomorrow, and it's not like they will freeze if I don't knit for them. After all, there are plenty of warm clothes in the stores.

I didn't want to buy more yarn, since we are trying to get the cabin done, so that left me two options. I could knit a pair of felted slippers for my 4 year old, who has outgrown last winters, or I could start this sweater for Ryan, my 12 year old. The needles for the slippers were currently holding a partially finished shopping bag, so I decided to start the sweater rather than slip all those stitches (and yarn overs) onto something else until I was done making slippers.

This yarn is clearance yarn, from Wal-mart, of all places, that I bought ages ago. $2 a skein, so the entire sweater will cost $6. Can't beat that. It is Lion Brand Homespun, and since it is bulky weight, it is knitting up very fast. I started it Sunday evening, and I already have 9 inches done. I used a pattern from the Lion Brand website that calls for the Homespun yarn, and I would post the link, but you have to register to see it. Ryan loves camoflauge and the plain beige will look great with his cammo pants. The knobby texture makes it fun to knit with too, although it knits somewhat odd... the stitches look much less neat and orderly, but it works for a 12 year old boy just right. And it is soft and thick, and will keep him warm.

On the needles

Well, I didn't intend for my blog to be all about my house, but that is what it has been so far. So, to add some variety, I thought I would share what I am knitting. There are two or three projects on the needles that aren't on here because they didn't photograph well, and a pair of socks I am knitting for Ryan isn't here, because they are in the truck, and the truck is not here at the moment. And one is a gift for someone, and I don't want to give the secret away.



So, this first picture is a beautiful beaded sock. Obviously, at some point, there will be a second. But I suffer from second sock syndrome big time, so we will cross that bridge when we come to it. The yarn is an interesting mix of wool and bamboo. It is extremely soft, with a very nice hand. Makes me wonder if I could grow bamboo if I had a greenhouse. I have to tell you, I LOVE this yarn. This pair of socks will be for me. I think the socks I make are much more comfortable than store-bought (no annoying seam across the top of your toes, for example).






This is also a pair for me. It is made from Koigu yarn. It has an intricate lace pattern that winds up looking like leaves layering over each other that is just beautiful, but hard to photograph with the digital camera on my cell phone. Long story about the camera.



This is an excellent example of second sock syndrome. See sock #1? Fully complete. See sock #2? Barely begun. Has been sitting barely begun for at least a couple months. Sigh. The first one was a joy to knit, so hopefully I can reimmerse myself in it again soon.





This is a sweater I have been knitting for my 7 year old. No, I have to be honest and say this is a sweater I haven't been knitting for my 7 year old. She turned 7 in November. She was 6 when I started it. I started this on metal needles, because I conveniently had a pair the right size. I HATE metal needles. I HATE metal needles when knitting cotton especially. What does cotton do on metal needles? It slides. It slips and it slides all over the place. I have the front done, and this is the back. I don't dare switch to wooden needles because I know it will change the guage. Plus it is on long, straight needles, and it is heavy. I know a circular needle would hold the weight so much more comfortably. So, it sits in my drawer ignored.


And this is a shopping bag. A reusable shopping bag that can be crumpled up and shoved in my purse, and pulled out when needed. I think the world can use a little fewer plastic bags in the landfills. I think the next one will perhaps be made out of something a little thinner. This is dishcloth cotton. On wooden needles, where it slips much less.

So, now you see the majority of my projects. My husband seems to think it frustrating to find half-finished knitting projects on needles wherever he looks, but he is getting used to it :)