NaKnitSweMo`

This month is the yearly challenge to knit a sweater in the month of November. One of my facebook friends posted about Sylvi, and I remembered my INSTANT love of this sweater when I saw it at Rhinebeck. I bought the yarn the minute I got the pattern.

And I never started it. It has a lot of seed stitch, and I thought I would hate knitting it. But seeing it again, and with the challenge of NaKniSweMo, makes me think I should give it a whirl.

I've decided to upsize it a little, but I'm on my way!

Hats!

I managed to finish hats for both kids before the first snowfall! Gotta love New England. I used an awesome Malabrigo for Cam that I got as a gift - and his hat turned out perfectly. Maggie's took me 3 tries.

I have some sort of defect when it comes to making hats. Its ridiculous. And her final hat still isn't right. I'm doing it again. I used a really fun Lorna's Laces color for hers and I think I have enough for another try.

For these hats I used the book Itty Bitty Hats, and did the Simple Baby Cap #2 for Maggie's Hat and the Simple Baby Cap #3 for Cam's.

So happy that my kids are loving wearing the hand knits this year.

Isle of Trucks

This summer, I was on the KnitPicks site looking for yarn, and I saw, saved in my cart, this pattern. And I thought - I should totally make that for Cam!


He now has a stated preference for all things ORANGE, so I thought I would make an orange sweater ("Dat my favorite color, Mama!") and with the addition of TRUCKS it would be a huge hit.


Two weeks ago, sweater weather finally arrived. I excitedly pulled out the new, orange, truck sweater. This was the conversation:


Me: Cam! Look at this fun sweater Mommy made you! It's your favorite color! And look, here are some trucks.

Cam (after a looking at the sweater). Mama. Dat sweater no make me happy. Dat sweater make me sad. I no wear dat sweater.

What am I supposed to say to that?! So we just moved onto a different sweater, and I would try every few days - and yesterday he was distracted by a kazoo - and I got the sweater over his head. He looked at it and said - Hey! Dis my favorite color! And just moved on with his morning:


Without further ado, I present the Isle of Trucks:




I knit the 4 year size. The sleeves are nice and long (the designer makes a point of stating that the arms are long so the sweater can last more than one year), but the body isn't. If I knit this again, I would add another couple inches to the body. It fits perfectly now, but no room to grow. I used Berroco Comfort, which is my new go-to yarn for kids knits.


And now - he loves the sweater, so I'm a happy momma!

I'm back!!!

Well. I haven't posted in 6 months. And honestly, I wasn't knitting all that much. I had a wonderful summer, played with my kids, took a trip to INDIA(!).... but as fall approached, I couldn't resist the call of the needles.

I've finished a few things for the kids recently.

First, a design by my buddy Jussi:

I don't think it's been released yet, but it's a great hoodie - nice easy pattern and I used cashmerino, so it's soft and wonderful. And Maggie loves it. Bonus.

This next one is a Pirate Sweater by Zoe Mellor. I made the biggest size, and used Berroco Comfort DK. I didn't get gauge (5.5 stitches to the inch instead of 5), but it's the exact size of one of Cam's 4T shirts, so it's the perfect size for him.


Now, to get him to actually wear it. I made him another sweater this summer, in orange (Dat my favorite color, Mama!) and with trucks in the yoke. I was all excited when it finally got cold enough so he could wear it - and when I tried to put it on him, he says "That sweater no make me happy. It make me sad." And he wouldn't wear it. Sigh.

But I will keep trying. If I've learned anything, it's that an almost 3 year old manages to change his mind from day to day.

With all these fun knits, I remembered the ladybug sweater that I started over 3 years ago. It's the perfect size for Maggie! I just need to finish it up! So I pulled that out and got back to it.


Hurrah for cute toddler sweaters! I'll try to get pictures of the kids actually wearing some of these - I may be biased, but I think the kids are pretty cute, so cute kids in cute sweaters? It's epic, the cuteness.

April is here

And so is my sock pick. I'm kind of excited, as this is new to me yarn (Shibui Sock) in a fun color. The pattern is one from BMFA SOTM - and the yarn harlot thought it would be the next totally addictive pattern (Holidazed).

I'm only on the cuff, so I'll have to report back on the addictive nature... but I'm just enjoying knitting something pretty right now.

March Socks

Done.


The pattern is Central Air from the very first STR sock club package. Years and years and years ago. I knit up some Opal Hand dyed that I got at Central Yarn in Portland, ME. I didn't mean to pull green yarn for March - but the combination of a really fun pattern, green for St Pat's day, and the hope of spring coming - these knit up really fast!

And because a post with pictures of my feet is boring... how about cute babies dressed in green for St Pat's day?

Handspun!

I didn't finish my Feb socks - and that's ok. The bigger emergency was to get my knitting mojo back, and I did it in the form of some hand spun yarn. More than a few Cummingtons ago, I bought a fleece thinking that I would get a sweater out of it. I had it processed into pencil roving, thinking that would be something even I, a very, very, VERY novice spinner could make some good yarn out of it.


And then I had two babies.


And the fleece was sitting there. I organized my yarn room and had this plan to see if I could give some good spinner a bunch of my very nice fleece in return for spinning up this fleece. And I did! A wonderful woman from my spinning group volunteered, and did an amazing job. I'm knitting the pattern, Town and Country from the book A Fine Fleece:

I'm loving it.