Hot men knitting

Last night, as it was icing and snowing outside, I asked my husband if he wanted to learn how to knit. While he has been saying he'd like to for a while now, last night he actually said yes to sitting down and learning right away!

Wasting no time, because who knew how long the whim would last, I sat down and cast on some Simply Soft for him and showed him how to do a knit stitch. He got the motions right away, but the yarn was uncooperative and splitty. Still, he made it through two rows, and says he wants to do more tonight.



Back off, ladies, he's taken! Now you see why I married this man. That and the supportiveness of my own yarn habit.

I also have some stuff to show y'all. I finished both baby sweaters and a pair of socks!

I was afraid to take knitting needles along with me on the plane, because it was the day before Thanksgiving and security is tight. So I went to Walgreens the night before, and bought a learn-to-crochet kit for kids, which had a plastic crochet hook (sparkly! purple!) and a plastic darning needle, and took that along with completed parts to both sweaters.

Well, figuring that since Thanksgiving is the busiest travel time, especially the day before, and that we'd be traveling from the second-busiest airport in the country to the busiest airport (or is it vice versa?), we'd better get there 3 hours early, just in case.

We did. There was no line at check-in, and one family ahead of us in security. That's it. We sat at O'Hare for 3 hours. Husband read, while I sewed together the sweaters. By the time we were back in Chicago, the collars were all I had left to do.

Speaking of traveling, check out my BRAND-NEW NIECE! (Blogger is suddenly uncooperative with putting on new pictures.) She's 3 days old in that photo, and 10 days old total. Awww. Her big sister is no slouch in the cuteness department, either, although we've gotta cure her of that TV habit!

Anyway, back to knitting.

First up is the Robin Hood hoodie from Adorable Knits for Tots. It's for a friend's baby, born Monday!



The yarn is Swish from Knitpicks, and while it was lovely to work with (soft, non-splitty), it was leaving all kinds of fuzz on me after I hand-washed it. It also bled rather badly. So now I'm not so sure about its machine-washability. It dried beautifully, though. It also bloomed somewhat, and will probably fit the baby NEXT year.

It obviously needs buttons, and I've sewed them on since then; they're the same wooden buttons as on my first Trellis.

I used size 8s circs from my Boye Needlemaster kit (LOVE), and had no major issues with the pattern. Or any issues, if I remember right.

Unlike with this sweater, for a friend's 16-day old boy:



Also from the same book, it's the Chunky Cabled Sweater, and it was a bear with mistakes. All that was wrong with the cabling pattern was that it was supposed to say "^th row: as 2nd row" rather than as 4th row. But it took me forever and 5 froggings to figure it out. The sleeves were also way too narrow, so I reworked them 3 times before getting them right. I think I cast on 32 stitches...or was it 36? And increased to 50.

The yarn is Wool-Ease, and the needles were a size small, at 7.5 instead of 8 (I forgot to switch after the ribbing during one of the many froggings).

Finally, socks for this little guy's mommy:



From Sensational Knitted Socks, of course, in Swish, again. I'll wash them and see how they hold up, I guess.

These have the nifty Eye-of-Quail pattern heel:



The momma is also getting my own lip balm and shea butter, and a necklace handmade by me (probably this one), as a belated birthday gift. Her older daughter is getting the elephant. Her husband is getting...cookies, probably.

And lest you think the momma of the green hoodie recepient will be left out, she'll also get socks, lip balm and shea butter, and a gift certificate to someplace (her birthday is coming up. The big sister gets Cinderella. The dad gets dinner, because we're cooking a dinner for them sometime next week, because, wouldn't you believe it, they're busy.

Currently on the needles is a big Santa for my mom, the biggest fan of my toys, and more socks.