This is my progress on Sweetpea. The back is complete, up to the armholes shaping.
What a quick knit! I like the barely spun, bulky yarn. It's soft and pretty.
I'm a little bit nervous about the short row shoulders-I seem to have a real knack for missing the wraps. This is just a few of them, so hopefully I'll get them all the first time through. I'm really looking forward to seeing this one all knit up!
Ellie has an absolute requirement that the cornucopia comes out the day after Halloween. There was a year, back when she was in first grade, where it failed to make an appearance. The result was unfortunate, involving a long series of entries in her school journal that convulsed both her teacher and me in laughter when we read them together. Since then, I make sure the cornucopia comes out in a timely fashion.
But, this first dash of the holidays always makes me think about gifts, which in many cases means making gifts. I don't want to reveal too much, but thought I would share pictures of a couple of early gifts in progress. First, some roving in one of my favorite colorways, Copper Patina. This is Blue Faced Leicester roving, which is very finicky too dye -- requiring a very slow temperature rise and then sustained, consistent heat before cooling overnight in order to avoid felting.
This roving always turns out so soft and so beautiful that I forgive it for all the extra attention it requires.
I'm also dyeing up a skein of Blue Faced Leicester aran weight yarn, here it is in the first of two baths it will go through, as a present for a special friend.
I feel good about having started. I still have time to make a few special presents and get in some early shopping before we hit the serious baking season sometime around Thanksgiving. I've also started in on my holiday knitting project, The Sweet Pea Sweater, which I'm knitting for myself. I did the border on the back of the sweater over coffee this morning. The yarn is luscious and bulky, and although I'm not a quick knitter by any means, I hope to have some time to work on this and perhaps be wearing it for the holidays.
I picked up some Spud and Chloe super bulky merino-cotton yesterday, and interruped the linen clapotis to knit it into their boyfriend hat today.
The color work was a first for me and I didn't know to let the strands of unworked yarn hang loosely. The hat is nonethess very very cool, but it's now destined for the 6 year old, not the 18 year old.
Fortunately I have enough yarn left to reverse the colors and do a second hat, and this pattern is interesting enough to have a second go at it
This is a little bit of late night business trip knitting--the start of a Clapotis in my own hand-dyed linen. I only have two skeins so it will be, of necessity, a miniature version.
I'm internetless here, so I'm reading the pattern off of my iPhone as I go and hoping that will work.
Why is it that finishing my knitted pieces becomes an overwhelming challenge sometimes? I knit along, incredibly eager to see the finished project, but, after all of the pieces are knit, I seem to find excuses to avoid doing the finishing work. Making up is hard to do.
I'm not sure if it's sewing anxiety or some other form of generalized laziness. But, right now, I've got a Baby Bolero and my Debbie Bliss Manos Silk Shrug both in unfinished pieces. I'm knitting the last piece of Ellie's Miho Shrug, done in the same yarn as my own Shrug, and I've decided this is it. When I'm finished, I'm going to have to devote an entire weekend to getting some finishing skills.
Here are the pieces of Ellie's Miho Shrug.
The yarn is Manos's silk/merino blend and the colors are fabulous.
I like the colorway so much that I decided we had to have coordinating Shrugs, and there is no doubt that this is the kind of colorway that goes with just about everything.
There are about 4" left to finish that last piece of Ellie's Shrug. Will finishing anxiety overtake me again? I hope not. I'm determined to conquer it and finish these pieces this month.
Isn't it wonderful? The internet find my grown children send to me! It's wonderful having a child who is old enough to have a girlfriend who knits, so that he has to value that activity. Ah, sweet justice.
This cartoon comes from the nice people at http://wondermark.com/491/
I had no idea that the midnight-Iphone photo of the fresh-off-the-needles Baby Surprise Jacket last night was a blurry horror until I took a look at it a moment ago.
With apologies, I'll provide a better picture and show you how I figured out the way to finish the sweater.
This, for those of you who have never knitted one, is the Baby Surprise Jacket Blob.
It's a blob because you knit it all in one piece, and although I kept trying to guess at how it would fold together like a complex origami piece at the end, I just couldn't see how this strangely shaped piece could become a sweet little baby sweater. (The original pattern was written by the legendary knitter Elizabeth Zimmerman, and can be purchased in book form here.) The pattern includes a chart that labels the folding points, but my brain doesn't seem to work that way and the chart was not helpful.
There were two clues, though. On opposite sides (you can see them a bit down from the top in the blob picture) were squared off corners that looked like the front neck.
This is also the only picture that, at least on my monitor, gives an accurate impression of the colorway, which is incredibly baby-girl pretty.
The other clue was buttonholes down part of one side.
They're sort of hard to see, so here they are again, up close.
Figuring that the buttonholes had to march down the front and the two square corners had to be on either side of the front opening, I finally folded the blob to come up with this.
Hmmm....this jacket just does not like to photograph as pretty as it is in person, but here it is, and you get the basic idea. The only seams that need sewing are two short stretches at the top of the sleeves.
I'm hoping to find an accommodating small child to model it for me after it is sewn up, as the wee one it is meant for is not here yet. After knitting this pattern for the first time, I totally get its allure. I want to try one in a solid color. And I'd like to do another with stripes. And, I really want to do one in a heavier weight for Ollie next fall. It's a very cool exercise in geometry and "knitting around corners" -- just the kind of thing that makes knitting fascinating.
It's an oddly shaped little thing, isn't it?
This is the Baby Surprise Jacket I've been knitting. I'll put it together this weekend, but it's hot off the needles and I couldn't wait to share it!
The Baby Surprise Jacket has now visited Montgomery, Alabama, Orlando, Florida, and Washington D.C. I'm sad to say that it hasn't grown much on its travels. I've finished the decreases and am just starting the increases.
I'm very happy with the colorway, but not quite sure I'm going to finish this one in time!
