Twinkle, twinkle

In my recent stash diving adventure, I found a UFO that I'd left to stagnate for a year or so. It was taking up most of a box, and I had been knitting it out of a baby sweater I'd started and was frogging.

So I pulled it out and finished it:



It's the Little Star afghan that was ubiquitous around the crochet community for a while. My mom found some fluffy yarn at Big Lots, and I couldn't think of anything else to make with it. That's the white and pink stuff you see here. Those two colors didn't give me a big enough blanket, so I added some Bernat Baby Boucle, from a baby sweater I became disillusioned with.

So, yeah. It's done. I'm not sure whom I'll give it to.

And I can't resist putting up this picture of Baby Niece wearing the the Trellis I made her:



I also tried to buy sock yarn today, but the store didn't carry any solid-colored sock yarn. I was sad.

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

Yarn porn, progress, and an FO (!)

Today was Christmas, people. The mail carrier showed up with 5 packages! Four were the Husband's Amazon book orders, and the last -- and biggest -- was my Knitpicks yarn!

This is what it looked like:



The brown stuff was 15 balls of Main Line, and the rest was sock yarn:


On the left: two balls of Essential in Navy, with two balls of Simple Stripes Snapdragon to make Fair Isle socks from KnitPicks. Then come two balls of Essential in Grass. Two balls of Sock Garden in Daffodil, and two skeins of Sock Memories in Grandma. I've never worked with Garden or Memories, but they feel so soft. Main Line feels quite wonderful, too, and I hope it gives nice fabric.

I provided the links for what I'm going to make with this yarn earlier, so I'm not gonna do it again.

Anyway, I've made quite a bit of progress on Trellis:



This is the completed fronts and most of one sleeve. I'm still maintaining central symmetry and reversing cables, and I'm doing the same on the sleeves. It's such a quick knit! Each front took maybe an hour-ninety minutes. Unfortunately, it's coming out a bit small. Blocking will stretch it, and it is a stretchy fabric, but it might not fit my niece. Which is ok, because my brother and his wife have another on the way, and it's a pretty unisex sweater!

Moving on.

I started a lacy scarf for my mom for Mother's Day. That means I need to have the sucker knit, finished, blocked, and sent by next Wednesday. Yes, I'm insane, and yes, I'm looking into other gifts.


It's the thistle leaf pattern from Barbara Walker's Second Treasury. Have I mentioned how much I love that book? I love that book. The yarn is Knitpicks Shadow in Jewels, and I love Shadow yarn.

And finally, sort of a FO:



It's a little baggie/clutch made with my handpainted yarn. It still needs buttons, but it's pretty darn completed otherwise. I didn't count on the seed stitch border to spread out quite so much, but, whatever. The stitch pattern is from the Second Treasury, of course. Basically, it's going to be a little baggie to carry tampons in, so that instead of pulling out tampons and carrying them to the bathroom in hopes that no one sees, I can pull out a cute little bag and carry THAT to the bathroom, and hope that no one stops me to ask, "Did you make this? Lemme see!"

If I had project monogamy...

I'd have an FO for you right now.

I spent all of yesterday knitting. It was wonderful! The last few weeks have been too busy to knit very much, so last night, I plopped down and knit for 7 hours straight, taking a break only to go out to dinner with the Husband.

If I had any sort of project monogamy, I'd have an FO of the baby sweater to show you now. I was halfway through the second sleeve.

Instead, I cast on a Trellis:



That's the completed, shaped back. The yarn is merino wool my parents got me in Greece a while ago. It's a lovely deep rose, and quite soft and sturdy. I thought it was worsted, but it's closer to Aran. I have 4 skeins total, so it'll be just barely enough for the sweater.

My gauge is way too big, so I'm following directions for the 6-month size, with row directions for the 12-month size, and ending up with the desired 18-month size! I could have tried to get better gauge, but I would've ended up with a fabric nearly bulletproof in density.

It's a quick, easy knit. I'm modifying it to have the cables be symmetrical down the center. You can see on the bottom left side where I didn't know how to reverse the twisted stitches.

I finished the second sleeve of the Simple Stripes baby sweater this morning (making myself very late for work, but they knew not to expect me!), so tonight is assembly time!