Updated patterns!

I'm in the process of updating my old patterns, particularly the bibs, to include charts. I'm rewriting some of the directions to make the patterns even easier and including alternative methods for beginning the bibs and for making the ties. Look for these patterns in the sidebar to see which ones have been added. It's a slow process, but eventually, they'll all be there!



Friday, July 5, 2013

Summer Soakers

What a crazy summer we've been having!  I think we've had more than our share of rain, but we've also had plenty of really hot weather too.  At least my flowers seem to be thriving, especially my hydrangeas.  Last year I didn't have a single blossom and this year they're popping out everywhere!

I've been busy knitting up some soakers for little Ruthie.  She's grown quite a bit and was in need of some new ones.  Who wants to wear hand-me-downs from an older brother?!  I thought I would just post some pictures so you can see what I've been up to!

First up is another daisy butt.  This is just a little daisy duplicate stitched with french knots in the center.  I thought it would be cute to embroider a little daisy on a matching t-shirt as well.  The greens don't really look like they match well in this picture, but in real life they do!  The free chart for the duplicate stitch daisy is in my "miscellaneous" sidebar.  The yarn came from The Berry Patch on Etsy.  It was such a nice soft wool and I loved the color.  I use the Snapdragon Soaker as a basic template for all my soakers.
I found a neat stitch pattern in one of my stitch dictionaries for this soaker.  The wool is also from a shop on Etsy found here.  I'm a little uneasy as to how this yarn will hold up.  It was pretty inexpensive, but it seemed to be okay.  It's dyed in 100 yard hanks so you have to join them as you go along.
I was most excited about knitting this next soaker with some gorgeous yarn I got from Marigoldjen's shop.  She has the most wonderful colors.  You should check out her beautiful sock yarn. (I hesitate to mention her shop though as it will probably mean more competition for me when she lists new stock!)  Anyway, I bought this skein of worsted called "Tigerlily".  I picked out this pattern that I also found in a knitting collection. It's called "More Bubbles".
It makes a nice, cushy fabric and looks really neat.  Unfortunately, I realized that I wasn't going to have enough yarn to make it work.  I can usually get a soaker out of about 220 yards.  This pattern uses a lot more yardage and it pulls in, so you have to increase your stitches.  It killed me to have to rip it out, but it was hopeless.  In the end, I knit this soaker instead.
It's nice, but it just doesn't have the same feel as the first one.  It also looks pretty washed out in this picture.

I didn't want to give up on the first stitch pattern, so I finally found some more wool on Etsy to use.  It said that there were two skeins available, so I assumed that they probably would have been dyed together and would match.  Wrong.
It's hard to see in this picture, but when I got to the end and had to join a new skein, the pretty green changed to a gray-blue.  If you look at the cuffs, you can see it a little better.  I was so annoyed that I hadn't spotted it right away.  Still, it came out okay and I understand that Ruthie always wants to wear this one to bed!  You don't supposed that she doesn't want anyone to see it during the daytime, do you?!
 I learned my lesson though, so when I decided to knit yet another soaker out of two skeins of Malabrigo Twist, I studied them carefully.  One skein was definitely a shade lighter.  I solved this by knitting the waistband and the cuffs out of the lighter shade and using the darker one for the body.

It's hardly noticeable.  This stitch pattern was a lot of fun to knit.  It's called the Medallion Rib and you don't use a cable needle.  Here's a direct link to a video that shows how it's done.  Of course, I had to adapt it to knit in the round, but it was easy.  You'd think I'd learn to plan ahead, but I realized that I wouldn't be able to graft the front and back together easily.  I had 13 pattern repeats which meant the pattern wouldn't line up when the two halves came together.  I solved this by just switching to a garter panel on the front.  It didn't look strange (well, too strange!) and I'll just pretend that's what I intended all along!
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That should hold her for awhile, although, I am working on one more!  I really enjoy knitting these and I know that once she's potty trained, I probably will  never knit another one.  I'm trying to get as many done now as I can!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi Elaine,

I'm not familiar with following blogs. I've registered to follow yours. Am I supposed to receive something in my Inbox when your posting something?

Thanks

Anne-Marie