Tales of a KNITTING mom

Oh yeah, knitting. I've been doing that too...between all the mommying, I have been knitting. Here are a few knitted items to prove it:


Shedir Hat (FREE pattern here. PDF. Scroll down--Shedir is the second pattern.)
Yarn: Rowan Calmer (one skein) (This was the recommended yarn and I'm glad I used it. It's really soft and stretchy which is necessary for this hat to fit properly. Nice to work with.)
Needles: Size 3 (16" circular and doublepoints)
Modifications: None

I made this hat for my cousin Christie because her latest cocktail for chemo has made ALL of her hair fall out. The first cocktail she tried made some of it fall out so she was shaving her head, but this new mix made the rest fall out and she mentioned her head was cold. So I, of course, had to knit her a new hat.


This pattern was mentioned to me a while ago and I've seen tons of them on Ravelry, but I was always a little overwhelmed by it and avoided it because it looked so tedious. 128 stitches on size 3 needles with LOTS of cables and twisted stitches just didn't sound like fun. But I actually really enjoyed knitting this hat. The cables and twisted stitches have a nice symmetry and rhythm to them which make the pattern easy to remember and thus fun to knit. I am happy to report that as far as I know there are no mistakes on this hat--and I only had to rip out and redo part of one row after I apparently hallucinated while reading the pattern and made up my own stitch for one of the chart abbreviations. I guess I was up a little too late that night.


Anyway, thanks to all of you who have been keeping Christie in your prayers. She could use a few extra right now as she's having a lot of respiratory issues (related to one of the drugs in her chemo cocktail). Unfortunately, chemo attacks the good stuff as well as the bad in your body. So if you have a little extra prayer time, please send some her way. Thanks!



Ike-a-saurus
Pattern: Knitted Stegosaurus by Jacob Haller (FREE pattern here.)
Yarn: Red--Caron Simply Soft (less than one skein), Yellow--Baby Bee Pitter Patter in babygold (a very small amount)
Needles: Size 5 doublepoint
Modifications: I knit this entirely in the round on doublepoints instead of knitting it flat and then seaming. I also picked up stitches and knit the legs directly onto the body. I totally changed the pattern for the legs to accommodate this. I also knit the scales in the round by doing a figure 8 cast on and then knitting both sides at once. Because of this, my scales are in stockinette stitch instead of garter stitch. I only did one row of scales instead of the two in the pattern. I put more details about both of these on Ravelry.


I knit the Ike-a-saurus for baby Ike. I plan on making two more (one for his brother and one for his sister). Baby Ike is doing better these days (he's out of the hospital), but he still has a lot of struggles that he's dealing with including a lot of feeding issues so please keep him and his family in your prayers.

In other knitting (no prayers needed) news, I'm knitting this sweater for my nephew. It's a topdown raglan crewneck cardigan.


I need to get busy or it will be too hot to wear it by the time it is finished. I'm hoping I'm making the sweater large enough that Oscar will be able to wear it next year too.

I also finished another little knit, but I will have to blog about that later as it's a surprise for someone who reads this blog. Hee hee.

Happy Monday, everyone!