You Might Be a Bad Parent If....

If the only time you take pictures of your child is when you're forcing her to model handknits for your blog.

Pattern: The Wonderful Wallaby (Flickr group here).

Yarn: Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool kool-aid dyed with one pack of Pink Lemonade. One skein was more than enough for the 2 year old size.

Adjustments: I did the pocket in reverse stockinette.

Comments: Love this pattern. It's so simple, so effective, so easily modified, and it has a hood. Hoods are fantastic in kidswear. When going out the door, it's really nice to have one less thing to put on Baby Girl (no hat to worry about). Thankfully, I got the wallaby done while there's still some Winter left. I think I'll do another one in cotton for the summer. With short sleeves. And maybe cables like Brooke's.

<---- Shameless attempt to duplicate Julie's pretty photos.

















My incredibly uneven kool-aid dying. ---->

Phildar et Moi

Pattern: The Phildar Swing Jacket, aka Veste Pattern #16 from Automne 06/07 Tendances (by the way, is this really accurate - autumn ends before 2007 begins, right?).

Yarn: Peruvian Highland Wool from elann in Oatmeal Heather (13 skeins for the smallest size).

Adjustments: After I finished knitting and sewing everything together minus the pockets, I let this sweater sit around for a good week or two. Then, I finally realized that I was never going to want to knit pockets, but I did want to wear this sweater. So, I hit JoAnn again (which is, fortunately, close to my home) and picked up some cheapo remnants of a soft brown fabric whose composition is unknown (this may have been a gamble, but I figure I'll be hand washing the sweater anyway, so it should be okay).

Comments: First, I would like to thank the Academy... I mean... Vanessa for the KAL that pushed me to get moving on this super lovely sweater. Also, I would like to thank all the other ladies over at the KAL who provided invaluable information on such exciting issues as yarn subbing and bias binding and such.

It was just too much fun knitting this sweater. In part because of the sweater itself and in part because of all the weird memories that it brought back for me. I lived in France at two different points in my life. At neither time was I knitting, but somehow just the feel of the magazine took me back. The use of English reminded me of all the ads that would come in the mail for Carrefour (kinda like a French Wal-Mart). It's weird how just seeing the French language in print unlocked a ton of memories that I didn't realize I still had. As I was knitting I could almost hear the accordian player who lived next door to us in Dijon. He would play on the street for money, so he was practicing a lot at home.

Anyway, I would definitely highly recommend this pattern. Even with shipping the prices for Phildar magazines are really reasonable.

Cooking

Right now I've got two things cooking.

<-- A crockpot full of potato soup.

And a sweater. -->

I don't know about you, but I love the smell of yarn cooking. I think I spent more time this morning sniffing the sweater pot than the soup one.

The sweater is a Wonderful Wallaby for Baby Girl. I knit it using Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool, which by the way, is an incredible deal. I got mine at A.C. Moore using one of those 50% off coupons I get every week in the mail. One skein was more than enough to finish this incredibly cute sweater (it's even cute lumped up there in the pot, don't ya think?). She wore it a couple days and now it's being dyed with one pack of Pink Lemonade Kool-Aid.

They Just Don't Understand

The non-knitters, that is. They live in our homes. They've seen the stash. They've been to the LYS. Many of them have even been to a wool festival or two, and yet somehow it's like we don't even speak the same language sometimes.

Case in Point #1: The other night, I picked up Saffy for the first time in forever. I'm working on the first sleeve. The Husband asks, "When are you going to be done with that?"

I reply, "Oh my gosh, I don't know. I'm done with the back and the two fronts, but I still have to do both sleeves. Plus, the neck and button bands. The sleeves are always the slowest part. You've lost the momentum that you had when you were knitting the other parts. Plus, I think there's some sort of mental trick going on where you think that sleeves should be quick to knit, but they really aren't... " long pause as I realize his eyes have completely glazed over.

Him, "No, I meant how much longer will you be knitting... I want you to turn the light off so that I can go to sleep."




Case in Point #2:

Normally, the Husband is the one to bring in the mail. The other day he was home for a good hour when I asked him if there was anything interesting in the mail. "Uh, well, there was something from Phildar."

Me, "And you're telling me this now?!"

I think it should be obvious that when mail comes that is in any way related to knitting, the knitter should be notified immediately upon arrival. Especially if it's coming all the way from another country. Right?

I got buttons

Well, I decided to give Joann one last go. On Saturday, I made what I had decided would be my final trip for buttons. It was all or nothing. If they didn't have what I was looking for, I was going to order online. So, I went, fulling expecting to be let down again. I turned the display thing (which, by the way, was way hard to turn... it seems like all their turny display things are that way) and there they were. The weird thing was that there weren't just two, but like five or six available... which was weird because before the lady who worked there had told me that they only have stocks of up to three button cards at a time. I'd like to think that my constant complaining about this policy is what prompted the change.

She's still missing pockets, but here she is... the Phildar Swing Jacket:


Unfortunately, it's now too cold to wear outside. So, for now, I'm just wearing it inside at home all the time and then carefully taking it off when I have to change a diaper or serve a toddler meal (we've now entered the stage when Baby Girl only wants to feed herself even with the utensils... let's just say that it's a messy process). Anyway, I plan to do a full post on this project once I actually put in the pockets.

On the home front, sometime a couple weeks ago, the Husband and I decided that it would be fun to expose Baby Girl to "Bye Bye Bye" by N Sync since that is one of her favorite vocabulary words. And it was fun the first 10 or so times that we all watched the video together on Youtube. Baby Girl quickly picked up on the most obvious lyrics. She danced. She laughed. She did the marionette thing like the hands in the background. Now, though, I think we're approaching ~ the 100th viewing. What's weird is that even though I never went out of my way to listen to the boy bands back in the day, I've somehow unlocked a section of my brain where they all exist. I've now got boy band songs stuck in my head all the time. "Tearin' up my heart", "It's gonna be me", and a million others whose titles I don't even know. Anyway, here's her fav version of "Bye bye bye." It's from the AMAs goodness only knows how long ago.

In the Meantime

Still no buttons. I feel like I'm living the same day over and over again a la Groundhog Day. Every morning I wake up with a certain level of excitement... with the anticipation that today might be the day that I finish my Swing Jacket. I do my errands early in the day and swing by Joann first thing. I go to the button section. I try to just find the buttons I need without looking at what the exact model is. Then, when I don't find them, I pull out the tag from the one button I have and actually look in the right spot, every time to find that the slot is empty. Last, I peruse all the other buttons just in case someone might have misplaced MY buttons. Sigh. I guess it might be smarter to just call Joann, but somehow that seems less exciting. Less of a challenge.

In the meantime, I'm working on a couple other smaller projects. I finished up another pair of baby mittens a la Lisa. This pair was done with the Koigu leftovers from my Anemoi Mittens. One of the moms in Baby Girl's playgroup had seen her pair and was so taken with them, I had to make a pair for her daughter as well.

Who needs buttons anyway?

The Phildar Swing Jacket is sooo close to being done. And it's been that way for over a week. Last week I purchased the bias binding tape and the one button that Joann had in in the only style that I liked. For a while I was torn if I'd made the right selections, but I ultimately decided that I liked the lavender binding. As I'm sure you can tell, I still need two more buttons, but they've been out of stock for a week. Plus, they told me that they don't really know when they're going to get a new shipment in. So, now I have a beautiful jacket that I'm dying to wear, but that only has one button. Okay, technically, it's missing the pockets too, but I'm totally willing to wear it without those. I don't know why, but I don't feel like starting or working on anything else big until I get this finished. I'll post better pictures when I really am finished. As a side note: I had no idea that my bathroom mirror was that dirty.

Oh, and I have to send a huge thank you to my sp9 pal, Karen. She spoiled me so bad. That's the last package I received from her last week. She even included a book for Baby Girl. Too sweet. She also sent some Knitpicks dpns, which I forgot to photograph because they were immediately put into use. And more candy. Yeah, that got eaten pretty quickly.

Evidence of Knitting

I haven't been so good about the blogging lately. I have been doing at least some knitting, though. AND I have the proof. From the night stand:


The Husband actually asked the other day, "Is there a reason that you don't throw these away?"

Me: "No, why?"

Husband: "Because they're all over the house!"

I didn't even notice. A lot of the time I will have the finishing a ball of yarn as a goal for the end of the day, so I guess maybe I'm so tired that I don't bother to throw away the ball band. It could also have to do with the fact that even when I clean my home, I don't really clear out my knitting. You know, the needles and yarn belong on the back of the couch. And that color card needs to be on the coffee table. And I must have at least three knitting books/magazines out at all times.

So, I'm still working on the Phildar Swing Jacket. I've finished the back, two fronts, and am now working on sleeve one. I originally thought that I would lengthen the sleeves, but I think I've decided that it will be okay to wear long sleeves under it. Any thoughts?

Oooh, here's another one. Spotted on the back of the couch:

I really hope I'm not the only one who does this!

6 Weird Things

I can't believe that it's been so long since I've posted. Life has been so busy lately. Nothing super interesting. Just traveling to visit family and such.

I've been doing a little knitting here and there. Most notably, I've finally found a way to knit in the car. I just have to plan ahead and have a project that I can do without looking down at all. If I look down, I get immediately carsick.

Anyway, Veronique said that we could consider ourselves tagged for the 6 weird things meme, so here goes:

1. Although many mothers suffer from what is commonly known as "Mommy Brain," I suffer from "Mommy Nose." What is "Mommy Nose"? Well, it has to do with thinking you smell baby poo all the time. It can actually be a powerful tool. I swear, I can smell a dirty diaper from 20 feet away. It can also lead to paranoia, though. I have found that a lot of things smell like baby poo. Most recently, I couldn't stop sniffing a bag of yarn that I got from Elann. It aired out nicely, but when I first opened it, I went after Baby Girl, thinking that she had filled her diaper.
2. I really have a hard time with those security things that you have to fill out to post comments on some peoples blogs. You know, those things with the grainy background and the letters. I often get them wrong at least once.
3. I first met my husband in junior high school. We had lockers next to each other. At the time, though, I really disliked him (he was the A student/teacher's pet), so pretty much every day I would turn his lock around. He never had a clue that it was me.
4. When I was in 4th grade I went to a summer art class. There I met a boy named DS who taught me how to draw a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. I later learned that the Husband had made up that way to draw a TMNT and taught DS.
5. I'm obsessed with numbers. When I see a string of numbers I have a hard time keeping myself from finding an equation within them. Like the time. Right now it's 11:42. I like to think of that as 1+1=4/2.
6. I almost always wear tennis shoes. Even if I'm wearing a skirt or a dress. I know that it looks bad, but I don't care.
   

That was pretty fun! If you're interested in coming up with 6 things about yourself, consider this your tagging.

Anyway, here's the back and one front of the Phildar Swing Jacket:

I'm using elann's Highland Wool as was suggested by Jenna over on the Phildar Swing Jacket KAL page. So far, I love it. Here's a close up:


I haven't decided what I'm going to do about the pockets or lining on this one. I still have plenty of time to decide, though, as I still have two sleeves and a front to go.

I love these mittens so much I can't even stand it

Is one mitten bigger than the other? Yes.

Is there a difference in gauge between the two yarns used? Yes.

Is the cuff just a little too tight on both mittens (but more so on one than the other)? Yes.

Do I care? No.

Pattern: Anemoi Mittens.

Yarn: Koigu Kpppm 816 and Henry's Attic Kona Superwash.

Comments: I am absolutely 100% smitten with these mittens. I truly think that they are two of the most beautiful things that I have ever knitted. I love the variegation of the Koigu against the creamy Henry's Attic.

Plus, besides loving the finished outcome, I also completely loved the process too! Reading the chart for the front panels really took me back to my counted cross stitch days. I love the complexity of the colorwork because it's the kind of complexity that allows for knitting while caring for a baby (which is what I was doing).

I was definitely totally addicted to these as I was knitting them as evidenced by the facts that:

1. I had a dream that Baby Girl had also learned to knit stranded work.
2. I now have all our Baby Einstein videos memorized.
3. I saw past the stand-up portion of "The Late Show," on more than one night (okay, I didn't make it to the guest portion, but still that's way late for me these days).

Unfortunately, the pictures don't even do them justice. I probably should have waited until a sunnier day to do the photos, but my excitement wouldn't allow for that.

Mitten #1

Anemoi Mitten #1 - still blocking. Couldn't wait to take photo.

Eunny, I love you

Well, my very first stranded project is done. It was definitely a learning experience. Overall, I'm extremely pleased with the result. The section that shows my lack of stranding skills the most is on the cuff of the first glove, so since I'll be wearing these with jackets and such, that section won't even show. I know that I probably should have ripped it, but since they're far from perfect I have even more of an excuse to keep them for myself.

Pattern: Endpaper Mitts

Yarn: Opal Sock Yarn Uni in 1267 (from my tea pal, Meg) and Cherry Tree Hill in Bark (leftover from the Brother Socks).

Adjustments: Well, nothing intentional. I didn't get the Italian tubular cast on. Also, I didn't have the pattern with me when I was finishing up the second mitt, so I forgot to do the set up rows before casting off. This could easily be fixed, but I'm not going to fix it.

Comments: I am in love with these mitts and absolutely in love with stranded knitting.

Usually when I'm bad at something I pretend like I don't like to do it so that I have a reason for not being good at it. For example, I'm not a very good cook. I really do enjoy cooking, but I'm always setting the timer wrong or mis-measuring ingredients or something. So, I tell people that I'm a bad cook. You know, so they don't get their expectations up. I'm also completely uncoordinated. I absolutely stink at all sports. I was always the last kid picked for any activity in gym class. I would always say that I disliked sports, but the truth is that I really do enjoy them.

BUT, I can't even pretend that I don't like stranded knitting. I love it that much. Even though I know that I'm not so good at it right now, I can't hide my adoration for this new type of knitting. So, even though there are some gifty-things that I'm supposed to be knitting, I immediately cast on for my next project, the Anemoi Mittens. I'm using Koigu Kpppm and Henry's Attic Kona Superwash. Unfortunately, I think that these two yarns might not be close enough as far as weight. I'm going to go a little further, though, before I make any decisions.

Don't have your gift knitting done?

Are you sick and tired of all your gift knitting? Is there a good chance that you won't even get all of it done? Well, don't worry! I'm here to help! I have the solution for you, plus it will also benefit someone else (plus the giftee). Really, can you beat a win, win, win situation?

"What's the solution?" you ask.

Women for Women International. This incredible charity provides women survivors of war, civil strife and other conflicts with the tools and resources to move from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency, thereby promoting viable civil societies.

How does knitting come in? Well, Women for Women also offers a Bazaar where they sell items made by these women survivors. Scroll down a little and you'll notice there are a number of hand-knit items including my favorite, the wool slippers. I mean look at those... for $25, they look like a steal to me!

Please do check them out!

I Want to be Stranded

What are your projects for this knitalong?

Well, like so many others, first off, I'm going to attempt Eunny's Endpaper Mitts, then the plan is to do Eunny's Anemoi Mittens. The mitts will be for me and the mittens will be for my grandmother (assuming that my ability has improved such that they don't totally suck).

Is this your first colorwork project? If it isn't, what was your first, and has it survived the test of time?

I would absolutely consider this my first colorwork project. I actually started the Endpaper Mitts yesterday and it's a good thing that I'll keeping these for myself as my stitches are horribly uneven (I refuse to frog).

Necessity

The other day when I was taking Baby Girl out on one of our many mini-outings, I realized that there are things that I actually need that I can knit. It was a really bizarre revelation as I spend so much time knitting things that I want, but I don't really need. And yet, I don't have any gloves or mittens. Baby Girl only had one pair of mittens. This was clearly a situation that I had to remedy as quickly as possible.

So, yesterday I knit up a quick pair of gloves for Baby Girl using the pattern (second post on the page) detailed by Lisa. Unfortunately, though, I don't have a nifty i-icord maker thingy. I had to make mine the old fashioned way. I used stash yarn. I think it's Henry's Attic Superwash Sport. It was hand-dyed by someone else. I think Theresa at LTK, but it's been around for a while, so I'm not really sure.

Anyway, at first I wasn't too crazy about the color. Definitely not girly. And since I'm that mom who doesn't always dress her girl in girly colors (does she really have to wear pink 100% of the time?), I'm afraid that this little touch will only add to the number of times that people ask if she's a girl. BUT, then when I took her out for some in-use photos, she promptly took the mittens off (it was over 60 degrees out) and started swinging them around. Then, she took off her coat and threw it along with the mittens into the dirt. That top photo was taken after all this happened. Can't tell, can you? Maybe not such a bad color choice after all.

Is it a pattern or an excuse to email cool designers?

The Winter Knitty is up and so is my pattern, the book of Knitty!

This pattern was so much fun. Mostly because between the knitting and the writing I got to email the designers of all the patterns featured in "The Book of Knitty." AND they wrote me back. Woo hoo. Seriously, it was too much fun. Every time I'd get an email back that whole day I'd be like "Hey Husband, can you believe I just got an email from ____?!"

And he was like, "Who's _____?"

It was great.

Anyway, it really is a fun pattern and I hope all you Knitty fans with little ones in your life enjoy it!

Under the Sea Jumper

I love the amount of cuteness that you can get away with when you're knitting for little girls. The flowers, the prints, the animals... you know, the super-cute. This jumper definitely falls in that category. It can be worn easily on its own or over a t-shirt or even a turtleneck, making it season-less (a big plus when knitting for someone who grows inches overnight).

Sizes

6-12 months (12-18 months, 18-24 months, 2T, 3T, 4T, 5T)

Finished Chest Across

20”(21”,22”,23”,24”,25”,26”)

Materials

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino (55% wool, 33% microfiber, 12% cashmere; 137 yards [125 meters] per 50g):

• MC: 3(3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4) skeins color #203 Teal
• CC1: 1(1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1) skein color #104 Orange
• CC2: 1(1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2)skeins color #03 Mint
• CC3: 1(1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1) skein color #204 Light Blue

Needles:

• 1 set US 4 straight needles, or size needed to obtain gauge
• 1 US 3 circular needle

Gauge

24 sts and 32 rows = 4" (10cm) in stockinette on US 4 needles, or size needed to obtain gauge.

Possible Yarn Substitution:

Debbie Bliss Cathay and Knitpicks Shine come to mind.... let me know if you know of any others!


2.75MB PDF file to be sent via email upon receiving payment.

$5.50

The Memories We Stitch

One of the strangest things, in my opinion, about being a knitter is the way we incorporate so many memories into whatever we're working on. I know that this has been discussed by many other knitbloggers, but my two most recent projects really brought this to the forefront of my mind.

First, Saffy. Over the past couple of weeks I've been breaking Baby Girl of all her co-sleeping ways. This probably should have been done a long time ago, but as with so many other things, although the long-term good was obvious, it was impossible to overlook the short-term difficulty. So, I put it off for way too long. Finally, a couple weeks ago, I decided that I'd had enough. She wasn't sleeping well and neither were we. One day I just ended it. From that day forward, she has slept exclusively in her crib. The first few days were torture. She screamed at least an hour before she would go to sleep and tried as hard as she could to get out of the crib. She was so persistent that she would actually fall asleep standing up. Of course, I needed something that I could work on to keep myself sane during these long crying spells. Saffy was the perfect company. Complicated enough to keep my attention and keep me from crying as well, but also simple enough that I didn't have to think too hard. I know I'll always think of poor Baby Girl asleep standing up whenever I wear Saffy (not that I'm even close to done with it, but you know, in the future).

Second, writing up the pattern for the Fishy Jumper, now named "Under the Sea Jumper" (thanks to everyone for the help choosing a name and special thanks to Elinor, who was the first to suggest the one I chose). This past week Baby Girl has been sick for the first time with a stomach bug. It's been so hard on her and by extension, me. I had no idea that it took such a toll on parents whenever their children were sick. I actually called my own mother to thank her for taking care of me all those times when I was sick. So, between the million dirty diapers a day, the forced consumption of Pedialyte, the sleepless nights, and the general anxiety, I was able to take advantage of the one semi-benefit of a sick baby - longer naps.

Do you have any knitted items that will always bring back specific memories?

What's in a name?

Okay, I've posted about this jumper a million times and I keep recycling the same old photo. I apologize for that. Now, I need help coming up with a name for its pattern. I've been calling it the "fishy jumper," but I don't think that's a great title. The Husband came up with: "Something's Fishy" and "Nuclear fission." I don't think those will work. Any ideas?

It's like having deja vu all over again.

Do you ever find yourself making the same mistakes over and over again? I don't know if I'm a slow learner, lazy, suffering from mommy brain, or all of the above. In any case, lately I have most definitely not been learning from my mistakes.


Case in Point #1: The Too Big Sweater

A big part of the reason that I bought Tricotez Calin was for the cover sweater. In particular, I love the large garter section on the sleeves. It just has that simple, cute, je ne sais quoi, thing going for it.

Actually, this sweater almost wasn't made at all because when I looked at the directions, I only saw the top part, la brassiere, which is sized up to 6 months. Then, after complimenting Aimee on hers and bemoaning the sizes being too small, she politely informed me that the second option (visible right under la brassiere), le pull, was sized 12/18 months (aka the perfect Winter size for Baby Girl).

This habit of not looking carefully enough at the directions would come back to haunt me later when I realized (way too late) that proportionally speaking, the garter section on the 12/18 month size is much smaller than on the other sizes.

Oh, and also, I ignored gauge.

So, the mistakes in this sweater were: not looking at the pattern closely enough, ignoring gauge, and not looking at the pattern closely enough.

Case in Point #2: The Baby Toys

I don't put away the baby toys at night. Or at least, I don't put them all away all of the time. It's usually more like I put some of them away sometimes.

This one, though, is the one I know I have to watch out for. That's because this puzzle has a light-detecting sensor. Every time your little one gets the right animal in the right place, you get to hear said animal's noise. Or, if you don't put all the pieces away, leaving the board uncovered, once you turn out the lights at night, you will hear a cacophony of farm animals. Worse, if you did that and then forgot, went to bed, and woke up thirsty in the middle of the night, you will turn the lights on and think you were in the middle of a barn instead of the living room.

Case in Point #3: The Sweater with the Million Stitch Cast On

Right after I finished the Too Big Sweater, I cast on for a sweater for myself. I'd been going back and forth for a long time about which sweater I wanted to knit from Rowan Denim People. I love Bestitched's Saffy, but I also love Jen's Bomber. I was conflicted for a long time.

So, since they have the same gauge, I went ahead and swatched a while back and determined my needle size for the pattern (US 5). Since I was a little disappointed with the Too Big Sweater and I had already determined that I was on gauge, I went ahead and starting casting on for Saffy w/out looking at the pattern. I cast on about 75 sts on my US 5 straight needles, then looked at the pattern. It said to "Cast on 337 sts". I had my doubts about fitting that many stitches onto straight needles, but I kept right on casting and smashing those stitches together until I had the right number. Then, I looked at the pattern again. "Cast on 337 sts using US 3 needles." Woops.

You'd think I'd have learned my lesson about not reading the pattern from the Too Big Sweater. I mean, there wasn't even anything on my needles between this two. Oh well. I decided to leave it as is.

Oh, and making a late entry... Case in Point #4: Trusting blogger.