Free At Last!

I finally have finished all the obligated knitting I had and now I'm free to work on whatever I want!  Such a wonderful feeling!  I managed to knit yet another duck sweater, this time for a little girl in mint green.  I love the way this sweater comes out, but I just hate fighting with this yarn and I'm not crazy about having to sew up all those seams either.

 

 

This time around, I thought I'd get creative with the hat.  Since it was for a baby girl, I decided to knit a little ruffle for the brim.  How hard could it be to figure out?  Double the stitches, knit for an inch and then decrease.  Easy.  HAH!!  My first attempt was going along fairly well, until I realized that I had way too many stitches.  The hat would be huge, so I ripped it out and started over with fewer stitches.  When I was almost ready to begin decreasing, I noticed a large hole right in the beginning.  Since there was no way to fix it, I had no choice except to rip yet again.  Third time should be a charm.  I cast on even fewer stitches and this time I made it all the way to where I should begin knitting ducks.  I managed to get three rows done before the yarns all tangled up with each other to the point that I couldn't even pull them apart.  I looked at the mess in my lap, then I calmly picked up the hat, the yarn and my needles and threw them across the room!  My poor husband who happened to be sitting with me, just turned his head and said "feel better now?"  Actually, I did!  LOL!  I never have thrown knitting in my life, but it was actually a relief to just give up.  A word to the wise, don't try to invent a pattern when you have a deadline to meet.  I had wasted three whole days on this disaster!

 

At this point, I decided to just move on and start on some bibs.

I had to knit another duck bib and I thought it would be fun to knit my "Puddles" pattern.  You know, the one with the butterfly?  Anyway, I knit the whole thing and when I went to block it, I discovered that I had knit two eyes.  This would be fine, except that the duck was supposed to have one eye.  This creature looked like something Picasso would have drawn!  It was already done, the ends were all woven in and I was ready to begin bib #2. Grrrr!  I just decided to go back to the Quacking Up pattern and knit that instead.  You might notice that this duck is facing the opposite way.  Not only did I knit it in reverse, but I actually reduced the size of the bib so it conforms with the stitch and row count of all my recent patterns.  I'm wondering if I should write it up or if that would just confuse everyone.  You will notice that this duck does have one eye!!

Bib #2 was my Heartbeat pattern.  I love this design.  It always comes out cute no matter what color it's knitted in.

For Bib #3, I went back to one of my early designs, Rhonda's Delight.  This is such a neat pattern for using up those pretty variegated yarns.

It's fun to knit (in my opinion) and seems to go pretty quickly.  This design is named after Rhonda White who first published the DW Washcloth .  The bib was published in the 2009 Dishcloth Calendar.  It also is in need of a serious update!  I think it's good for me to go back and actually knit some on my old patterns so I can see what needs changing.  Those old pattern writing skills were a little shaky!

Back to the hat.  As I was knitting on the bibs, I decided to give it one more try.  Since I only had one day left before my deadline, I went for a simple rolled brim hat and only knit one duck in the center.

I cast on 72 stitches and knit in the round for about 2 inches, then I knit a couple of rows.  To begin the design, I cast on one extra stitch and knit back and forth so I could knit the duck with intarsia. When the design was completed, I started knitting in the round again and decreased the extra stitch.  When the hat was about 5 inches in length, I decreased the crown as follows: " k6, k2tog" to end; knit one row;  *k5, k2tog* to end; knit one row; *k4, k2tog* to end; knit one row, etc. until I ended up with four stitches.  Then I just knit an I-cord for about two inches and tied it into a knot. 

I just had to sew up the couple of inches in the back.  It's only slightly noticeable.  By adding the extra stitch, it made up for the seam.  (I'm aware that there is a method for doing intarsia in the round, but I didn't have time to try and learn a new skill!)

So there you have it.  All the baby presents for a shower I'm not even invited to.  I told my mom she could take credit for the knitting if she wanted!  She's almost 87 so let her have a little fun!

PLEASE DO NOT ASK ME FOR THE DUCK SWEATER PATTERN!!!  As far as I know, this pattern is still protected by its copyright.  I don't have any proof that the pattern is no longer available, but if you really want it, perhaps you could try contacting Sirdar.  Ebay has a lot of vintage patterns and there are a lot of other companies that specialize in old patterns.  If it was my own design, you know that I would share it in a heartbeat.

 

Forced Knitting

Last month, I was chatting with my mom, who'll be 87 next month.  She was lamenting that she had been invited to a baby shower for her neighbor's daughter and she just didn't know what she was going to get.  This actually translates to "would you knit something for me to give to the baby?".  I would do almost anything for my mom, so I decided just to go ahead and knit a sweater for her to give.  Mind you, at the time, I wasn't working on anything in particular so I was happy to help out.  I have a favorite sweater that I've knitted at least eight times over the years.  It's an old Sirdar pattern.

I've had this pattern for almost 15 years and the yarn has long since been discontinued.  When I heard that they weren't going to make it anymore, I bought up as much of it as I could find.  I even ordered some from England.  It's a pain to knit with, but when it's done, it feels and looks just like a light weight fleece.  It's incredibly soft.

In this picture, the blue almost looks gray, but in person it's a very pretty shade of blue.  I even found duck buttons for the back.

After it was done, I thought I might as well knit a hat so it would be a complete set.  I didn't have a pattern, but I just charted some small ducks and "winged" it.  It looked pretty big to me, but I measured it and tried to remember that babies almost always have huge heads!

This made for a cute baby gift, but then my sister chimed in and said she wanted to go in on the gift with my mother (my parents live with her) so I thought maybe I should add a bib.

This is my Quacking Up pattern and I thought it was appropriate with this whole duck theme.  I suggested that they finish it up with a little rubber duck and maybe even a duck book!

My mom was just thrilled and was very grateful.  Personally, I was just happy that it was done so I could move on to other things.  My sister, however, was really happy, so much so that she informed me that she needed another sweater for a little girl that was going to be born at the end of this month.  Not only that, but she had already bought a duplicate book and duck!!  I can't begin to tell you how thrilled I am to have to knit another identical sweater.  I guess because she doesn't knit, she doesn't realize how boring it is to knit the same thing over and over.  I'm dragging my heels on this second one, first because I just don't want to do it, but also because I just finished charting up two brand new bibs and I want to work on them instead! 

On a personal note, I lost my wonderful aunt a couple of weeks ago.  It was so unexpected and sudden.  She lived alone and they found her on the floor in her apartment.  I was really close to her and I've had a hard time dealing with the loss.  I was her flower girl over fifty years ago!  We always had a special relationship and we shared a lot of the same interests.  I remember when I was young, someone gave me a little kit of embroidery pictures of nursery rhymes and she offered to show me "how to do it".  I sat right beside her while she stitched. . .and stitched. . .and stitched!  I kept begging her to let me "try it now", but she kept telling me that I should let her just do a "few more" stitches.  Well, as you might have guessed, she ended up stitching the whole thing.  I don't remember actually learning much, except that she did tell me that I had to keep the back nice and neat.  I've always remembered that and, to this day, I still keep the back of my work neat.  I really miss her but I have lots of wonderful memories.

On a more positive note, when I finish this sweater, I'll start on the new patterns.  One good thing is that I won't have any more of this yarn when the sweater is finished so I won't have to make another.  For a girl anyway.  I do still have lots of blue. .


Cheep Feet

You may remember that my grandson, Jack, has a parakeet (Fred) that he just loves.  I thought it would be fun to surprise him with some parakeet socks after I found this chart on Ravelry.

I changed the pattern slightly by eliminating the yellow and by adding an extra space between the birds.

I needed to go back and add the yellow beaks, but I just duplicate stitched them.

I think it's really tricky to strand socks, as there's no stretch, so you have to make them large enough to pull on or be super careful about leaving enough slack.  Unfortunately for me, the first sock was way too tight.  I had to just cut the yarn and start all over again.

Usually I cast on between 52 and 54 stitches for his socks, but the only way I could get the pattern to work in this case was to cast on 66 stitches.  I made up for all the extra width by ribbing the foot.  I also made them a little longer, so they'd last.  My thought was that if they were larger, I might not have to make another pair. . . ever!

The yarn is Holiday Yarns Flock Sock in Ice Bear.  It's almost the same color as Fred.  I had some leftover Bamboo Regia that was mottled just like his head. (Fred's, not Jack's!)  I like having the varying shades of gray. The white was Cascade Heritage.

Jack just loves the socks and his mom says that he wants to wear them ALL the time.  Sigh, looks like I may end up having to knit another pair after all. 

Long Sleeved Tee!

Wow, I'm overwhelmed by the response to this little t-shirt.  Fortunately, I have some very nice friends, one of whom is my pal, Tim, who has worked very hard on helping me perfect the Sweet Tee pattern.  You can check out his shirt by clicking here. Tim has a good eye and was able to catch some little confusing bits in the instructions.  He also had some excellent suggestions which I have now incorporated into the pattern. 

In addition to Tim, I've made a new friend, Barbara, from Italy!  She sent me some pictures of her shirt and graciously agreed to let me share them with you.

Don't you just love it in blue?

As if this wasn't exciting enough, she also knit it with long sleeves!

When I was knitting this myself, I thought it would be easy to make with long sleeves, but I just hadn't tested it yet.  I wanted to work out all the bugs with the original pattern first.  It's really simple to add the long sleeves though, so I think I may add those instructions to the pattern at some point.  I also have the boy's version ready to go, but I'm waiting for my yarn to arrive from WEBS .  (They were having a sale and I couldn't resist!) 

I want to urge all of you to go to Barbara's designer page .  She has some amazing baby patterns.  She's so talented that I was really humbled when she wanted to knit my little pattern!  I love her Leaves of Garter Stitch and I think one of those will be making its way to my Ruthie before long!  Barbara is also going to be translating the pattern into Italian, so when I have the link, I'll share it with you.

Thank you Tim and Barbara for all your help!  And, I haven't forgot all my other friends who are testing the revised version.  Eventually, I'll be able to heave a sigh of relief!  In the meantime, if you want to help out too, the revised version is posted in the sidebar.  All you have to do is click on the picture and it will take you right to the pdf file.

Testing Sweet Tee

I thought I better clarify, once again, that the Sweet Tee pattern HAS NOT BEEN TESTED.  I tried to think of someone to ask/beg to help me out, but it didn't happen.  Now, I have lots of knitters offering to help.  My friend, Tim, has already started and it didn't take him long to discover a mistake in Row 4.  I have corrected that row in the pdf and have highlighted it in red.  As you may have noticed, I have a separate picture of Sweet Tee at the top of my right sidebar.  As I learn of each mistake (hopefully, there won't be too many!), I'll post the date of each correction (and I'll highlight it in red), so you'll know you have the latest version.  Once I know that all the bugs have been worked out,  I'll post the fully corrected pattern.  In the meantime, a huge thank you for all of my friends who have offered to help.  Please if you find any errors, email me so I can add those!

Yes, I am working on a boy's version, but that won't be posted until we get this one straightened out!!

Sweet Tee

At last, here is the pattern for the little t-shirt.  When I first posted the pictures, I had no idea how difficult it would be to write up a pattern!  It's a very easy  to knit, but not so easy to explain!  I hope that in my efforts to make it understandable, I haven't complicated the issue.  Please note that this has not been test knit!  I'm hoping that some of my dedicated followers will be able to help me out with the testing!  I've knit it about six times, but the real test will come when another brain tackles it!

The shirt is knit in the round and the only finishing, other than weaving in ends, is a little button loop at the neck. You begin by knitting back and forth forming the placket as you go and then, when you reach the required depth, you switch and knit it in the round.

The placket is made by making seed stitch borders and, after joining to knit in the round, the stitches are tapered down to a point.  It lays nice and flat without any bulk.

The pdf file is located in the sidebar under "Miscellaneous" or you can just click here.

I do have lots of ideas for variations, but I haven't included them in this pattern.  I want to wait and make sure that the pattern is correct, before I start offering other designs!  I hope you enjoy it and will help me out with testing it!

Struggling

I bet some of you were wondering if you'd ever hear from me again!  I'd like to have a good excuse for not posting earlier, but the truth is I was just burnt out.  I had absolutely no desire to knit anything.   I didn't feel like reading about knitting or writing about it!   I think a lot of it was an accumulation of failed projects.  Everything I tried to knit, I ended up ripping.  Remember the ladybug soaker?  Too small.  My daughter-in-law did squeeze poor Ruthie into it, but I think it was just for my sake and just for that one day.  It was pretty obvious it didn't fit. Add to all of this, a root canal to just add to my lousy mood!

This was going on for a couple of weeks, when my youngest grandson came to visit.  Marty has a little stuffed animal that he calls his "baby".  It's not very big, but he was dragging this huge crocheted blanket around in case his baby was "cold".  I told him he needed a smaller one, so he said maybe I could knit him one!  Oh dear, how could I say no?  He told me his baby's favorite color was yellow, so we checked out my stash and came up with an intense egg yolk yellow.  Since he was spending the day, I started on it.  It was only about 14 inches wide, but Marty said it was too big, so I had to rip (again) and start over.  This was actually a good thing, because I only had to make it 12 inches, so it went a little faster.  Not fast enough for him though.  We were sitting on my front porch and he remarked that it sure was taking a long time!  Fast forward to dinner.  I was trying to bake something in the oven, I had food on the grill and something on the stove.  Older brother Jack was calling me to go outside on our deck, while Mickey was calling me from the bathroom.  In the midst of all this, Marty marches into the kitchen and demanded to know "Why aren't you knitting, Grandma?"!!!  Too funny.  The blanket did get finished the next day, but I didn't get a picture, since it was snatched up immediately.  I think this was the kick I needed to get going again.

As for that tee shirt, I started writing up the pattern, but I discovered that I didn't take enough notes.  I promise that it's really simple to knit, but not so simple to explain.  I also had a great idea for knitting and finishing the placket at the same time.  It's so much easier than trying to crochet around the edge.  I don't crochet well, and I know that I'm not alone.  The knitted placket looks nicer and lays nice and flat.  I have no choice but to knit another and try to clarify the instructions.  This afternoon looks to be quiet, so I'm hoping to be able to get going on it today!

Finally, here's at least one picture of a recent project that worked out!

This is Kathleen Taylor's pattern called "Purl When Ready" from her Big Book of Socks .  The yarn is Lorna Laces' Solemate.  Basically, you pick out a color and whenever you come to it,  you purl that one color.  It makes an interesting pattern.

You do have to pay attention though.  If you're engrossed in watching a tv movie, it's easy to forget that you're supposed to be purling a specific color!  I left the feet solid so it would be smooth inside shoes.  I did an eye of partridge heel and they are just fun, quick socks.  Jack wanted a rainbow and this meets that request.

I'll start to work on the shirt this afternoon.  I'd ask if anyone would like to test knit it, but since I intend to offer it for free, maybe I'll just post it as is and wait for feedback!