Hot and Stupid

That's the expression that my grandma always used on hot, humid days whenever anyone asked her how she was.  She'd always reply "I'm hot and stupid.".  It always made me laugh, but now that I'm older I'm starting to understand exactly what she meant!

My mother and sister were invited to a baby shower for a really distant cousin.  Naturally, whenever a baby shower pops up, they immediately turn to their resident knitter for help.  Since we know the baby is a boy and since I have lots of experience knitting for boys, I agreed to make something.  Unfortunately, I guess I should have stuck to a tried and true pattern instead of trying to get creative.

I started out with deciding on a bear theme this time around.  The last baby project had a duck theme and I wanted to do something different.  I picked Plymouth Yarn's Jeannee.  It's a nice soft yarn and you can machine wash and dry it with hardly any shrinkage.  I used it for Ruthie's blanket awhile ago.  Then I wanted to use my Sweet Tee pattern and turn it into a cardigan.  I added four extra stitches to the cast on so I could have button bands with five stitches.  So far so good.  I drew a bear head that I wanted to knit on the back. It was small enough to fit, so I started.  I hadn't got very far along when I realized that somehow I had managed to put a hole in one of the sleeves.  I didn't mind ripping out at this point as I hadn't got very far. However, it was soon becoming apparent that this bear head was going to be too big.  Back to the drawing board to scale it down and another rip.  This time, I managed to get all the way to the bottom with only the band left, but I just wasn't happy with it.  I thought the bear might still be too big.

At this point, I didn't feel like ripping it out and starting all over again, so I went back to the drawing board, yet again, and did an even smaller bear.  I pushed the sweater aside and, reluctantly, started a second sweater with a new ball of yarn.  I was only about four rows into the pattern when I decided that this time the bear's ears looked more like a cat than a bear.  One more rip, one more design.  This time I made it to the underarms.  At this point, I thought I would stop and snap a couple of pictures to document my dilemma.

A funny thing happened.  When I looked at the first sweater, I decided that the bear didn't look that bad after all.  In fact, I liked it a lot better!!  After two days and five rips, I went back to the first sweater and decided to just finish that one!  I even found these cute buttons.

They're a little brighter than the yarn, but it's the same shade so I think they'll work.  I have a huge button stash, but I didn't have anything that would work.  (I can't believe how expensive buttons have become!) Anyway, I'm glad I had the presence of mind not to rip out the first sweater.  I blame all this heat and humidity.  That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it!

I'm knitting a hat and some tube socks to go with the sweater.  I also knit some bibs, including a brand new bear, which I'll post when I get this whole set done.

Now for the kicker.  The other day in the mail I received an invitation to the same shower!  Sigh.  For my gift, I'm going with something tried and true.  Maybe a Baby Surprise Jacket.  Over 20,000 projects have been posted on Ravelry so that bodes well for my chances.  At least I hope it does, if we don't have another heat wave.

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!

Turtle Love Cloth

Oops!  It was pointed out to me that the pattern for the Turtle Love cloth wasn't listed in the sidebar.  I'm not sure what happened, but it's there now!  Here's a direct link:  Turtle Love Cloth

An Oldie

I've been feeling pretty awful about not posting more and I reached the point where I almost thought about giving it up entirely.  Almost.  My son gave me a lecture and I've actually had a few nice knitters contact me. So, I guess I'll try harder!  LOL!!

I thought I would start by posting an "oldie".  This is one of the patterns that I did for the tribute book for Peaches & Creme after they went out of business.  You could only get the pattern if you bought the book, but I get requests for it all the time so I'm just going to post it.  The pdf files are in the sidebar.

 

This was called "Turtle Love".  I knew the gal who ran Peaches & Creme loved turtles,so that was my inspiration.  I do recall that I had a hard time getting this to look the way I wanted.  My daughter-in-law loves turtles too, so I felt a little pressure to make sure it was okay!

I added a chart to the pattern which wasn't included in the original.  I know that a lot of knitters prefer to work from charts, including myself.  It would be so much easier if all the patterns were just charts, then there would just be minimal test knitting required.

Another soggy, rainy day here in Western Massachusetts.  My poor window boxes are starving for some sunshine, but my hydrangeas are loving it.  Good weather for turtles!

Pure Imitation

I don't belong to Pinterest (or Facebook for that matter) but I do like to check out some of the boards, particularly those that pertain to babies and kids.  I came across this sweet little cardigan.

I loved the whole design especially the little feather and fan detail at the hem.  Unfortunately, the post was all in French and even with the Google translator, I just couldn't figure out how to get the pattern.  Or even if there was a pattern!  I decided that it couldn't be that hard to recreate it, right? Well, yes and no.  The trouble with trying to recreate something is that there is a lot of trial and error.  A lot.

I started with my own Sweet Tee pattern.  Because I wanted a cardigan, I added two extra stitches to each end so I could have button bands with five stitches.  From there, I knit the whole yoke in garter stitch.  This was a little tricky as I had to knit more rows because the garter stitch shortened up the length.  I ended up with a few more stitches than the pullover has.  This was okay, because it just meant that the armholes would be larger and that's never a problem when you're dressing babies. The other problem was that I had to figure out how many stitches I needed to complete the feather and fan pattern.  Once I worked that out, I added the increases in a bunch at the center back.

They don't really show up in the picture but it added a little extra flair, if you will.  I'm not crazy about my shoulder increases compared to the original.

I added the same eyelet band to the sleeves and used some buttons that I had in my enormous button stash.  All in all, I think it came out pretty cute.  I used two skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I will admit that there was one huge, glaring error.  I hadn't seen Ruthie in awhile and wouldn't you know, the little bugger had the nerve to grow and the sweater was too small!!  How could she do that to me??! Still, I know the sweater will go to a good home and will keep some other little girl nice and toasty, but I was disappointed not to see it on my own grandchild!  They tell carpenters to measure twice and cut once.  I think that advice could also apply to aging grandmothers!  Measure first and then knit!!

Little Porker

Thank you for waiting so patiently for me to get my act together and to finally post another animal from Ruthie's Farm.  This time it's the pig.  I had a hard time coming up with a name for this one.  All of my great ideas were already taken.  I was complaining to my good pal, Tunie, that I didn't know what to name the little porker, when she said to name it that!  Duh!

I used Peaches & Creme in Sunburst, but I think it would look good in almost any color.

For the cloth, I used Army Tan.  I love this shade of brown.  It's a pity that they discontinued this yarn.  I know it was bought out by Lily, but it just isn't the same.  Fortunately, I stocked up on a whole bunch of cones before they went out of business.

The pdf files are in the sidebar or you can click here for the bib and here for the cloth.

The aforementioned Tunie knit both the pig and the chicken as hostess gifts for a friend.

Anyone for bacon and eggs?

Angry Feet

The Angry Mitts were such a big hit with the grandsons, that I decided to take it a "step" further (no pun intended!) and make them some angry socks.  My goal was to knit each of the boys a pair to tuck into their Easter baskets.  This sounded like a good plan at the time, except that the idea didn't occur to me until about two weeks before Easter!

This project turned into a marathon knitting adventure, but as you can see, I managed to get them all done!  The socks use the same premise as the mittens.  You use your favorite, basic top-down sock pattern and then embroider the faces.  They're really simple to make.

Mickey loves the blue bird.  I knit his pair first to try out the concept.  Then I knit the black bird for Jack.

Ugh.  I forgot  how much I hate knitting with black yarn!  I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that this is probably the most difficult bird to make.  It's so hard to see the stitches to do the embroidery.  I had to sit in the sunlight (when there was some.  It's been pretty scarce around here!) to be able to do it.  It was actually a strategic move on my part to knit this pair second.  I knew I couldn't give a pair to one and not the other, so I had to keep going.  Fortunately, the third pair that I knit for Marty were the easiest.

The white yarn was a welcome relief and Marty has much smaller feet!  Of course, I couldn't forget our Babe Ruth and since I discovered that there's also a pink bird, I decided to include her in the fun!

The hard part was having to actually buy pink yarn.  You all know how much I hate pink!  Still, I have to admit that they did come out pretty cute.

I've put the pattern for making the socks in the sidebar.  As I said, it's not really so much of a pattern as it is a recipe for making your own.  You can grab the pdf file there or you can just click here.

I also have updated the Angry Bird mitts pattern by including charts for the black bird and the pink bird.

Now who's to say that you couldn't knit a pair of socks using two different birds?