Clockwork

I'm in the middle of a huge mess at work. It leaves me online for about 18 hours a day. Every day. Including the past 2 weekends. I needed SOMETHING to make me happy, but not taxing on my brain. I cast on for this fun project - I'm making Clockwork by Stephen West. It's an awesome pattern, made even more awesome by the Noro Kueryon sock yarn I'm using.

Watching the stripes appear is very entertaining when your brain is fried from too much work.

Itty Bitty Bunny

Yarn Miracle was asking for test knitters this weekend, and I said yes. Because she makes the most awesome patterns ever. They are all cute and sweet and fun to knit.
The white one was my first bunny, and I kind of overstuffed his arms. The orange one I did less stuffing, and put beans in the bottom of the main body - he has a really nice feel to him.

My new thing. Knitting Itty Bitty Bunnies. My current plan is a rainbow of bunnies... and then possibly a basket of pastel ones.... and maybe a few for friends....

Itty bitty bunnies. Buy it. Knit it. Love it.

Is this thing on?

I know, I know. Awful knit blogger. I swear, I knit, but the time I have to dedicate to taking pictures and blogging is low. And the progress I make is so slow, that it would be like watching paint dry for everyone! I did finish a few things lately - a couple hats and some mittens for the kids, a sweater for Maggie and then - a sweater for ME! I still need to sew the zipper in, but it's the Eileen Cardigan I started for Rhinebeck in 2009. Love it.

What brought me back to writing here, was for the first time in a long time, I saw a sample in a yarn store and I just HAD to knit it. The sweater is Halo made out of JoJo Land Rhythm and Baritone.

When you look at the sweater (I'm knitting it in the exact same colorways) - it's hard to figure out how the color work is done - and it's all achieved by a fun self-striping yarn and tiny little shapes knit separately! I freaking LOVE it. Here is my progress so far - crappy iPhone picture, but you get the idea.

The sweater is a 'one-size-fits-all' size, and that isn't super true - so I've up sized it a little bit just by going up a needle size.After I finish each little section, I weave in all the ends so it isn't a freaking nightmare at the end. But it's a happy little (well, actually daunting - I think I need to make 60 or so of these octagons, and then there are the little triangles in between each row) project that I'm enjoying.


I used to be all about cranking out finished things, but now, as my knitting time is more precious, I finding myself looking for patterns I truly enjoy that will produce a very special finished product.

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.