Fiber Fool

Yes, there has been *some* knitting going on around here. There have been many other things going on around here as well. Above is a baby hat in progress for DH’s office manager. Friday will be her last day in the office until her maternity leave is over. They are shooting for a Halloween baby like my sister. Since DH was unsure if they found out the sex and which sex it was if they did I decided a nice orange hat for a Halloween-ish baby was just right.

I’ve also been knitting swatches where I turn a picot edge and tack it down while binding off. I’m testing to see which way has the most give with the least amount of bulk. It seems everytime I do toe up socks I want to do a picot edge and I’m not a fan of going back and tacking it down after casting off. That just makes for more finishing work which I seem to have a mental aversion to. I’ll be sharing my swatch results this week. I have two or maybe three more versions to try.

Pattern: A “Ripple Wave” stitch pattern I found on the Internet a loooong time ago and cannot locate
Yarn: Red Heart Baby Soft in Lilac
Needles: US9 Turbos (mom knits super tight)
Dimensions: ~32″ square, though it will measure different each time you lay it down because it is super stretchy
Recipient: Aunt Barb bought replacement yarn and is using it for a benefit auction for her church

Mom has been knitting this on and off with a yellow one like it as well as two Seraphim shawls. She has a few projects going at once so when she makes a mistake that needs to be taken into grandma to fix she still has something to work on.

This blanket got the kitty seal of approval…

Despite the lack of posts on the topic of knitting, there has been some knitting going on around here. Early last week I learned that some college friends of mine had their first baby, a girl, recently. While we haven’t been keeping in touch real well they were very good friends of mine so I decided to knit a baby blanket. I had been contemplating a way to mix up a log cabin blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting for a while. I was thinking about ways to incorporate fibonacci sequences or that when I read about Cara’s random number version. So, I chose 6 colors of Lion Brand MicoSpun in bright colors and had Random.org generate 50 numbers between 1-21 with repeats. So far I’m about 2/3 of the way through the 11th random number and I’m liking it. It has a distict oblong format which I may end up needing to fiddle with as I near the final dimensions (I’m hoping for 36 X 36 inches roughly) but I’ll hold out until then because it is indeed random so you never know!

Microspun is not my ideal yarn. It is very splitty so you have to keep tabs on it much more frequently than a better yarn, however, it seems the only economical, washable yarn that feels nice and soft and isn’t an overdone baby pastel. I’m not a pastel person in most instances and I can only assume that mothers get sick of all the pastel colors so I opted for this color combination. To make these bright colors pop even more I chose my order for the colors to progress in complementary color pairs - red, green, yellow, purple (the darker blue in that color is really a grape color), orange, and turquoise. I think it has turned out well. It does mean that all warm colors are knit horizontally (in the above picture) and all cool colors are knit vertically. It’ll be interesting to see what effect that has on the final product. It is hard to tell now with not quite two repeats of every color.

I did tire of turning the blanket when it was small because it was so few stitches and then you turned and now because each turn requires adjustment of how the blanket lies in your lap so I taught myself to purl backwards so I can do the garter stitch without having to turn my work around. It only took a few rows of that and I was very nearly as fast as my regular purling so only slightly slower than knitting the row from the wrong side. I’m not doing it on every wrong side row as sometimes I just want to crank out the rows, but it is nice to be able to mix it up a bit. And as a bonus I’ve found I am less likely to split yarn when purling backwards!

My first pair of man-sized trekking socks are growing too, although rather slowly. With the baby blanket project and my recent obsession with sewing and cooking lately this sock probably hasn’t been getting the attention it deserves. The last two weeks I think it has only been pulled out at SnB. But, I’m about half way through DH’s feel flap (eye of partidge, I’ve been on a kick for my more recent socks). I’m really liking the socks and think this colorway does a great job of bridging men’s need for understated colors and the knitter’s need for interesting knitting.

My post is quite late today because at about 1:30 am or so when we had some thunder rolling through (I don’t think we got any measureable precip, unfortunately) Emma decided it was time to be up and playing. She didn’t act scared, but she was prancing all over the house and sticking her nose in DH’s face so I got up about 2 am and took her downstairs with me so DH could get some sleep. I finally got around to watching the first three episodes of Psych I had on the NOT-TiVo as well as this week’s The Closer. But, it meant I got about 2 hours of sleep and then didn’t get back to bed until 6am when DH got up. I’m exhausted! *yawn*

It has been baby central around here. Water aerobics classmates, neighbors, and multiple cousins. I don’t always knit for babies, but with it being summer baby things are much more pleasant to knit. They are small so they don’t make me hot. They also give me a great sense of accomplishment because they are so quick to knit.

Last Thursday I gifted the neighbors with a Katja from Knitty. As I often do, I bastardized it. I knit it from the bottom up in the round with a picot hem. Then, I took a hint from Mason-Dixon Knitting and I hit the edges of the picot and the purl bumps with a bleach pen. Because I didn’t want it to go completely white most of the effect is *very* subtle because where you put the bleach first is what gets whitest and that was the picot bumps. The rest just lightened enough that you aren’t even sure if it lightened or if the light is just hitting the purl bumps differently.

This is knit from the discontinued Lion Brand CottonEase. I have to say I’m really disappointed that they discontinued it. I hope they bring back an equivalent with a better color palette. It is a bit splitty, but it is a nice blend that lightens the weight of the cotton and it softens so nice with each wash. Best of all, this top in the 3 mo size used only 1/2 skein so it makes for very economical baby gifts. It also counts as a Project Spectrum knit too!

I gifted this to the neighbors last Thursday and it was met with very positive exclamations of cuteness. The recipient is only 3 weeks old so it is a bit big for her yet, but come August it should be a cute fit. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a modeled photo sometime.

Since I had changed the construction of Katja so much I decided to jump off on my own and knit one with a lacey bottom for my cousin’s baby who is also about 3 weeks old and lives in Hawaii. There were some additional changes I decided to make. I figure since this baby is in Hawaii the longer time she can wear it, the better. So beside knitting it in the round from the bottom up I put in a row of eyelets before the “cups” of the halter so a ribbon could be run through to snug the top up now while she is really little. I suspect she may be able to wear it until 4 or 5 months with the give of the fabric.

I then still had half a skein left and no summer baby girls coming up so I decided to knit a little coordinating diaper cover. It too has eyelets for cinching the fit a bit better and I used matching ribbon. I also added a smaller version of the lace that is on the bottom of the halter top around the leg openings. I think it gives it a bit more of a girly, frilly look which I think mom will like since this is baby number two, but girl number one :-) I’m guessing the diaper cover may not fit as long as the top does, but I couldn’t go up a size or I would have run out of yarn.

This set is also knit from the discontinued Lion Brand CottonEase. One skein made the entire playset. Again, I’m hoping mom and dad will send me a modeled shot at some point. It will be winging its way to Hawaii next week. I know one grandma and one aunt are knitters so I know the work will be appreciated.

Anyone have any recommendations for a cute summery knit for a baby boy? My streak of girls has been officially broken!

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On a slight side note, does anyone have any first hand experience with placing phone orders from any knitting shops? My mom wants a few phone numbers for some yarn shops who will be able to help her over the phone to order needles and/or yarn. She’ll want people who can describe color well as she remembers colors and really likes being able to visualize that. Also people who can ship quick. She is in Minnesota so mid-west shops would probably be preferred for lower shipping costs, but as long as they are helpful I don’t think she cares too much. She’d probably want a shop that has a nice range of yarns as well, from economical (i.e. Encore) to utilitarian (i.e. Cascade 220) to just plain really nice to work with in a wide range of weights as well. Leave a comment with any suggestions you have.

Have a great weekend everyone!