That's right, dear readers, I lied. I did not find all the pieces to Pasha. I have his stitches and stuffed body, a solitary wing, and one-and-a-half feet. I guess since he's so close to being done, I may as well finish him and knit the remaining bits. Eh.

I also started on a scarf. Yes, it is almost June. My mom wanted me to make a scarf and hat combo for my surrogate grandmother, and of course, I thought this was a splendid idea.



That's the scarf. I'm going to actually take it out and add another cable repeat...or two. It'll be a short keyhole scarf. The hat will match, and have a knitted-in lining.

The yarn is Paton's Classin Merino. I was gonna save it for Tubey, but, eh. It pills too much, I hear, which is ok in a scarf and hat, but not a sweater.

As for Short'n'Sweet, I need to crochet one more repeat on the body. I technically finished, but it was too short. One more repeat, then the borders, a quick block and weaving in ends, and I get a cute shrug. I hope.

Jaywalkers!

Completed in Milwaukee while hanging out with my good friend (who liked her kitty, btw).



The specs:

Pattern: Jaywalkers from Magknits, by Grumperina
Yarn: Knitpicks Sock Memories in Grandma

Lemony

So my brother-in-law got stranded in Chicago last night, so we picked him up and hung out until 1:30 am. While talking, I, of course, was piecing together the baby hoodie.

And, of course, I sew it together wrong. As in, I sew half of it inside-out relative to the other half.

I rip it out and redo it and start sewing in the hood. Sew THAT inside out.

At that point, it's 1:30 and Husband and BIL are going to bed. I stay up and sew the hood in right, and then start crocheting the border, totally winging the button holes.

At that point, it's like 2 am. But I'm almost done...so I do the border.

And at that point, I might as well sew in the buttons.

And at that point, I might as well sew in and trim the ends.

And at that point, it's 3 am. And I go to bed only to get back up at 6:45.

Anyway, it was worth it. See the cute?




The specs:

Pattern: Knit baby hoodie from Bernat
Yarn: Bernat Softee Baby with Red Heart Baby for the edging
Started: March 2005
Completed: May 25, 2006

I'm leaving for Milwaukee in a few hours, and will hopefully finish the Jaywalkers over the weekend. I like this whole getting things finished business.

Trellis

I was ready to leave for work at 9:15 this morning, and then I thought, "Hey, I only have the side seams to finish on the Trellis."

So I sat down and finished and was late for work...again. Well, not really, because we don't have a set time to come in.

Anyway, here it is:



And the back:



I modified the pattern to be symmetrical down the center. I also knit the smallest size, but since my gauge was big, it measures 24 inches in the chest, so it should fit a 12-18 month-old.

And, of course, the buttons:



I think the wooden buttons look really great with the rich wool and cables.

Anyway, the specs:

Pattern: Trellis from Knitty
Yarn: Merino wool my parents got in Greece 6 years ago.
Started: Early May, 2006
Completed: May 24, 2006

Sleepy knitty kitty

Aaahh, just napping in the sunshine. I wish I was doing the same.



Pattern: Jean Greenhowe's Knitted Animals
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease scraps
Needles: Boye US3
Start date: May 22, 2006
Completion date: May 22, 2006

She took about two hours to make. Which is good, because that was all the time I had to work on her! I had an oh-crap moment when I realized I'd be seeing my friend on Thursday for the first time since last July, and I had no present for her. Sooo...she's a cat lover, and likes small gifts rather than large ones, so here we are.

I am also most of the way done with Trellis's collar, and I haven't even picked up any of the others. I'm so tired today. Last night, I decided dicking around online was more important than sleeping, so...

Productivity

Ah, I've been so productive this weekend!

First, I finished the crochet baby jacket.

Then, I finished knitting all the pieces to Trellis, wove in the ends, and blocked everything.

Then, I started on Short'n'Sweet in Mainline, and have only 5 more rows to go on the body and the sleeves left to do. And then the end-weaving and the blocking. I love working with Mainline. It'so cuddly-soft!

Then, I found a baby hoodie I started a year ago. I have all the pieces knitted, and all that needs to be done is seaming and edging. It's going to be too small for my niece, but since it's in gender-neutral yellow, it'll work for the new babe.

I think I also found the pieces to Pasha, so I'll be putting that together.

Unless I get really bogged down with work and chores this week, expect to see quite a few FOs in the next week or two! Trellis, baby hoodie, Pasha, Short'n'Sweet, maybe a duckling (I think its pieces were with Pasha's, so since I found Pasha, I probably found the duckling), and stuffed kitty that I need to start for my friend whom I'm meeting up with this weekend. I'm meeting her in Milwaukee, which means a 2-hour bus ride there, and a 2-hour bus ride back, so I'm bringing the second Jaywalker. Between the bus rides and sitting around the hotel while she has her conference, I should get it finished. And the lace shawl...hasn't seen any more progress since I last mentioned it, but I think I'm just going to fake it and finish it up in the next few weeks. So expect maybe 8 smallish FOs. That oughtta keep y'all in suspense!

Limey

The completed crochet baby jacket. I actually finished it within a week of starting it. Amazing what happens when you make yourself work on only one project until it's done.


(That's my favorite childhood cookie...a Russian almond cookie. It was in the yarny care package my mom sent.)

The plastic heart buttons left over from the stripey sweater:



Pattern: V-neck crochet jacket from Gifts from Heaven: Baby Sweaters to Knit and Crochet
Yarn: Red Heart Baby in lime. Because mint green is just not my thang, although I have used it.
Hook: Susan Bates aluminum Size F
Started: May 13th, 2006
Completed: May 20th, 2006

I'm not crazy about it. It might turn back into yarn. I never thought I'd be a yarn snob, but having worked with mostly natural fibers the last few months, things made in acrylic just seem fakey. Although I still maintain that acrylic is good for baby items. It's washable, and since the kids grow so fast, it doesn't need to be expensive. Ah well. The other sweater I'm making, the Trellis, is in nice merino, and the stripey sweater is a washable wool blend. So I guess I broke my own rule :)

From Russia with yarn

My mom (who loved her scarf, by the way) just got back from visiting my brother and niece in Russia. When she got back, she sent me a big box of Russian treats, and she used this as padding:



The top four skeins look like variagated sports or DK weight, in a VERY soft 75% wool/25% acrylic. Each skein is 400g.

The bottom skeins are unlike anything I've ever seen. It's basically white, light mohair with black chunks of fluff thrown in. I'm not sure what the fiber content is, as the label is in neither Russian nor English.

She also sent a big ball of unidentified black yarn.

I'm rich! Mwahahaha.

Reproduction

Knitting and crocheting (how inconvenient that English has two separate words for this) for babies is addictive. Such cute tiny things. So quick to make. Yet, with all the shaping of a big-person garment. Yay!

It's a crochet jacket for my niece. I feel kinda bleh about it. It's a bit stiff, but that's common with crochet. It's a pretty green, though. None of that minty green crap.



Here is a picture from the booklet ("Gifts from Heaven: Baby Sweaters to Knit and Crochet") of the finished product.




And the Garnstudio baby catalog for the summer came out, and everything is SO CUTE. It's a good thing I know about 10 pregnant women/recent mothers at the moment.

One lonely little Jaywalker

I'm saving the mate for a bit. It's not the second sock syndrome; I just don't want to be done with these yet.

Guess what I finally finished!

Why, it's the striped baby sweater! Here it is in all its stripey, sweatery glory!



Pattern: Last-Minute Pullover from KnitPicks
Yarn: KnitPicks Simple Stripes in Autumn. I used a little over two skeins.
Start date: December 2005
Completion date: May 12 (12:30 am), 2006

It's not a particularly cutesy sweater, what with the colorway and all, so it needed cheesy cutesy plastic heart buttons!



I love buttons. The cheesier, the better.

I also need a digital camera that doesn't suck, but that's a diferent story.

Let's see, so yeah, last night I convinced myself to put down the Jaywalker and sew up the sweater. Until last night, I had one sleeve set in and seamed up to the armpit. Last night, I set in the other sleeve, sewed up the side seams, picked up and knit the neckband (which I changed to be ribbed, because the stockinette neckband just didn't go with the rest of the sweater), and sewed in buttons. There are tons of little yarn ends sticking out on the reverse side where I wove them in and trimmed them.

In my haste to sew everything up, I sewed the button hole band under the button band and had to snip the yarn and resew it.

I also forgot that I like seaming. It was fun. The finishing took a while, though, and I was up way too late.

And here is the interrupted Jaywalker, in KnitPicks Sock Memories, Grandma colorway:



I must admit, I didn't even look twice at Jaywalkers when it first was published. I didn't even notice the zigzag pattern due to weird contrast of my monitor, and so couldn't understand why suddenly EVERYONE wanted to make a pair of Jaywalkers. Then I saw someone's pair that were a deep orange and yellow and the zigzagging was very obvious, and I was in love. Now I understand. I love how this yarn makes the zigzags look so crisp, and of course I love the colors themselves. Plus, it's merino. Love. LOVE.

Good and bad

Good: The body of the shawl is completed.
Bad: The edging has me stumped. I actually contacted the creator, and will sit down and try to figure it out (read: make it up) tonight.

Good: I learned the two-handed Fair Isle technique! Which means I also kinda learned to knit English. It's not nearly as difficult as I thought, and my biggest problem is establishing tension.
Bad: The project I was two-handing, these socks, came out too small. I discovered this after starting the foot of the first one. It does not fit over my heel. Fair Isle just isn't elastic. I'm not sure what I'll do, though, because it will fit fine as is over my ankle and foot. Maybe I'll increase just around the heel. I don't know. In any case, it's been frogged. Shame, too -- it was looking good and I was enjoying working on it.

So I cast on Jaywalker instead. It's pink and purple Merino (Knitpicks Sock Memories in Grandma colorway), so what's not to love?

Big Purple Blob!

I spent most of the numerous car rides this weekend knitting the shawl. I went through one complete skein of Shadow and most of a second, and I think I've finished my very last pattern repeat. I say "I think" because I'm not terribly sure how big this sucker is. Before this last repeat, it was about 29 inches long, unstretched, down the center symmetry line. If lace grows 30%, it'll be almost 40 inches after blocking. Plus there is an edging that goes around the shawl.

So I might end up with a Ginormous Shawl. Which would be ok, because I'm tall and not the thinnest person ever. But at the same time, I'm not sure how much I like Ginormous Shawls.

But since I'm not too sure how much it will grow, and since I didn't want it tiny, I decided to do as many repeats as I did. A big shawl is better than a too-small one, I think. I'm aiming for about 3 feet long and 6 feet wide. Right now, it's 29 inches long. Edging will give it...3 more inches, I think. Blocking might give it as much as 6 more inches.

We'll see. Wish me luck.

FO: Mom's lace scarf

I finished and blocked it last night!

Whole thing, draped over that damn chair on my porch:



And a detail shot:



Yarn: Knitpicks Shadow in Jewels
Needles: US size 6
Pattern: Thistle Leaf Lace pattern from Barbara Walker's 2nd Treasury, with garter stitch borders
Start date: April 29th, 2006
Finish date: May 4th, 2006

This was my first completed project in lace-weight yarn, and my first experience blocking lace. It's also the gift for my mom for Mother's Day, and it's ready to be shipped on Monday!

In other news, I've gotten alot of progress done on the shawl, which now measures 2 ft down the center line. I want it to be just short of 3 ft, and then I'll cast off and do the border. I'm guessing that 3 ft down the center means that it'll be about 6 feet in wingspan. We're going out of town tonight, so I'll be in the car for 12 hours this weekend, and guess what's coming with me.