Block Party!

It's been a while, but I can't say that I haven't been busy with knitting. Shock of all shocks, I've actually finished all of my current knitting projects. Tonight I had a block party to celebrate:



In the center you've got Twist & Shout, which I so excitedly started last January, then lost steam on mid summer when it came time to work on the sleeves. Now that it's starting to get cold again I decided I had better finish this up in time to wear it! After seaming and trying it on I think I may have made the sleeves too long (as a result of not wanting them to be too short) but we'll see how it lays after it dries completely.



Below that is my baby girls first mom-made sweater, Twinkle, which I refer to as the sherbet sweater. I modified the body to be all stockinette stitch instead of garter then added an arrow cable down both sides.



On top in the red is a set of Bella's Mitts, which is a totally quick and satisfying knit. I think these only took me a couple of nights in front of the tv to finish up. Totally cute and similar to the styles that I'm seeing all over the mall this season.




What's left are three hats. The middle one was actually made for me by knit knacker Kelly and I decided to block it to stretch it a bit so it will fit more over my ears. Love this hat and am so glad it finally became cool enough here for me to wear it!

The hat on the left was supposed to be for my baby girl, but since it's too big for a newborn I think I'll see if it will fit a friend's baby. That's a pattern that I developed on the fly last weekend while on a road trip up to San Francisco with my mom and sister. I'm hoping to fix it up a bit and publish it here on my blog eventually.

And on the right is a second draft of a tam pattern that I've been working on for way too long. I feel like I need to make one more version of this before it hits the street, but alas I don't think I have it in me. We'll see...

I also successfully finished In the Pink, but since I don't have a lot of space in my condo that will need to wait for another day to be blocked. All I can say is that it turned out lovely and I'm excited to have it finished as well.

Hopefully I'll be able to post some modeled pictures of these after they finish drying completely. All in all, it's rather satisfying to get so much blocked at last!

Mmm... Sherbet

It's official, I have started my very first knit item for our little baby girl. It's not that I didn't want to start knitting something for her, it's just that no pattern was really yelling to be made. When I stopped in at Ancient Pathways last week to order the ball of yarn for my shawl they were having a trunk show of Anzula yarn (the same company that made the yarn that I used for Waiting Room). I found this gorgeous superwash merino/nylon blend that looks just like Sherbet (it's a little lighter in shade than the pictures make it appear).



I couldn't resist and I knew that I needed to make something for baby girl!

When I got home I started queuing baby sweaters and ponchos. I decided to go with Twinkle. So far it's been easy going, and I'm at the garter ridge of the yolk. I'm thinking on the arms and the body I'll add in cables (because I love knittin' me some cables) rather than just going with a stockinette or lacy body.

Balls!

Balls! As in, ah crap, I don't have enough balls of yarn to finish up In the Pink! In my excitement of finally getting to the homestretch on the shawl I didn't take a look at how the skein was quickly diminishing. In all honesty, I suspected that I wouldn't have enough from one skein to do the whole project, but my denial knows no bounds.

Now it's off to the LYS to see if they can order another skein of the somewhat expensive Spanish Dancer fromBlue Heron Yarns. Well, at least I get to go and fondle some yarn, and maybe pick up some more Anzula, since Ancient Pathways is having a showing.

Again I say, Balls!

Keep Moving Forward

I'm learning that with knitting (and in some cases life as well) sometimes I just need to follow directions whether or not they make any sense at all. I can't tell you how many times I've read and re-read a section of a pattern trying to figure it out, and have just not been able to see where I'm going with it. I'll get to a point where I'll do one of two things: either throw down the project in exasperation and ignore it for months or just start blindly following the directions, hoping for the best. The funny thing is that when I go with the latter, nine times out of ten it'll be exactly right and actually make sense once it's on the needles.

Case in point is the edging for In The Pink, the spiral shawl that I was working on in spring. My goal was to have it finished in time to wear to my girlfriend's Tahoe wedding in June but clearly that did not happen. Mid May I hit that border edge, didn't totally understand what I was to do, and put it down in frustration.

Just last week I finally picked it up again. I read through the directions a couple of times and still couldn't picture it but thought, "What the heck, I'll give it a shot." Lo and behold, it actually started to make some sense! I hadn't realized that the edging would be worked perpendicular to the body of the shawl until I actually gave it a shot:



It's amazing that time and time again if I just take a "Keep Moving Forward" stance on knitting I will have success. It's not like this is a new lesson for me, yet I still have to remind myself of this fact every time I hit a wall.

"Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things... and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney

Why Yes, Yes I am!

One of the most common things that folks ask me when they see me knitting is, "Are you pregnant?" (The second most common comment is always something oh so witty about being an old granny in a rocking chair. Very original, people). There's something about knitting that makes non-knitters assume that the only reason a person would do it is because they're old or nesting.

Historically this has been an annoyance to me but now, I can actually respond in the positive. Yup folks, after five years of marriage hubby and I have finally decided to reproduce. We're really excited to meet the little girl, who is currently due December 2.

Over the past few months of being pregnant, I have discovered that pregnant women spend countless hours in waiting rooms. The remedy? This scarf, Waiting Room, which is interesting enough not to become boring and simple enough to quickly memorize. These factors combined make it easy to put down or pick up at a moments notice, a necessity when knitting on doctors' time lines. It also helps using a yarn that is delicious to the touch, such as the camel silk blend that I used by Anzula (check out the etsy shop at www.anzula.etsy.com).



The first shot above is for all you knit knackers who have been bugging me for a baby bump picture. Happy now?

Click for the pattern: Waiting Room

The pattern link will divert you to where they are saved at www.acrobat.com when that opens up in your window click where it says "Download" in the top right corner to save the pattern to your computer. You will need to have Adobe Reader installed on your computer in order to open and view the pattern. You can download Adobe Reader for free. Click Here to be linked to Adobe Reader.

If you are on Ravelry you can access my original patterns through Ravelry free download.

Sign Me up for Spinning Class

My mom recently went on a trip through Alaska. When I arrived at her house to hear all about her vacation, she was nearly bubbling with giddiness to show me what she had brought back for me. For the record, let me just mention that we're not the kind of family that brings back trinkets for everyone when we go on trips - we just don't do that. So imagine my shock at not only seeing that she did bring back something for me, but that she was ever so excited for me to see what it was.

Without even having a chance to put down my purse, this was thrust in front of me:



A drop spindle and raw fleece.

Some of you are probably thinking to yourself, "wait, I didn't know that Shanny spins." You're right, I don't. I've avoided it up until this point for several reason, one of which being that don't have the foggiest idea how to do it. The other and more pressing reason is that I know me and when I start to enjoy a past time I have a tendency to go fanatical about it . I'm now imagining bundles of fleece and various spindles, not to mention dying accessories, overtaking my small townhouse. I just have this feeling that as soon as I get the knack for spinning I'm going to get all energizer bunny about it.

But my mom was so excited as she gave me the fleece and told me tales of the cute little Alaskan lady sitting on the street spinning wool with the drop spindle who even went so far as to try (unsuccessfully) to teach my mom how to use it, a fact of which brought mom to raucous laughter. I couldn't help but get equally excited about the prospect of spinning as she went on and on. As her eyes gleamed with joy she got me hook line and sinker: "I know you've said that you are avoiding spinning because you think you'll get too sucked into it, but I just couldn't resist!"

Ahhh mom, you are such a fiber enabler! Now for the next step... learning what to do with this stuff.

Instant Gratification

As per usual, it's been way too long since my last blog post. Don't fret, floating in my brain and waiting for a few finishing touches I have a few good blogs in store for you including a new free pattern, some exciting news, and a possible new obsession!
Just to prove that I am still knitting and even finishing projects from time to time, here's a little instant gratification for you:



This is a quick and easy project, The Runner's Companion, (version 1) which probably took around 5 hours, if that, to complete. I used the pattern's specified yarn, Cascade Fixation, in red to match the ipod. I imagine that any stash yarn in the same weight would work fairly well, although yarn with elastic will yield the best results.
Big thanks to Mary for bringing this pattern to my attention! Check out the one that she made here: Knit To My Lou