Knitting Update

I finished knitting my mother-in-law's Peacock Tail and Leaf scarf a few weeks ago. Blocked it about a week ago and wove in the ends today. This is the second time I knitted this pattern and it's a relatively simple one if you are comfortable with lace. This one went quickly with very few errors to correct along the way. There is something to be said for knitting a scarf you have already knit before.


Pattern: Peacock Tail and Leaf Scarf by Nancy Bush
Yarn: 2 skeins of Schulana Kid-Seta in Color #13 (70% Kid-Mohair/30% Silk/ 25g/ 210m/ laceweight)
Needles: Size 3
Modifications: Added two repeats of middle lace pattern for a little additional length.


Then I decided to knit this hat.

The pattern is called Courtyard and I spotted it on Ravelry a while back and fell in love with the twisted stitch pattern. I want to make a boatneck shell featuring this stitch pattern and thought that knitting the hat would be good prep for that. I really wanted to do a bright marigold yellow and white (inspired by one of the hats on the Ravelry page). The only yarn I found that I liked in these colors was full o' sheep yarn by Stitch Nation. Although this yarn worked fine for the hat, it was too itchy for a shell. I like the way this yarn looks--and the colors are lovely--but I didn't really enjoy knitting with this yarn. Can't tell you exactly why.


Pattern: Courtyard by Melissa Thomson
Yarn: Stitch Nation by Debbie Stoller Full o' Sheep (100% Peruvian Wool/ 100g/ 155yd/ 142m) One skein of Little Lamb (white) and one skein of Honeycomb (yellow). Had between 1/2 and 1/3 of each skein leftover.
Size: Larger size. Probably could have gotten away with smaller size for my pea head.
Needles: Size 6 for ribbing. Size 7 for rest of hat.
Modifications: None.


Since I didn't love the yarn I used for the hat, I went to my local yarn shop and looked through the tons and tons of yarn options. After much debate, I decided to go a different route. I chose a 4ply in a white and a pale blue. I think it will be a much subtler combination, but nice all the same. The yarn is very soft--baby cashmere merino silk--and will feel nice next to my skin. Here's a picture of my swatch.


It's a 14" circle that is about 4 inches tall. I knit it in the round since I plan to knit my boatneck shell in the round. This will be my first real design project so wish me luck. I'm going to try and work out the numbers tonight. Can't wait to cast on!

Best Visit EVER!

Sorry for the blogging absence, but life has been too busy to blog. My sister and her two children and my mom just came for a week long visit and it was WONDERFUL! My sister and her children hadn't been here in two years and it was so exciting to have them back. We just had so much fun. Her son is 7 (almost 8) and her daughter just turned 6. The boys love hanging out with them. We spent lots of time at the pool, a morning at Build-a-Bear in honor of Lizzie's birthday and a day at the zoo. I didn't get a lot of pictures because I kept forgetting my camera--oh well. Trust me, we had a blast. To top off the awesomeness, I got to spend a decent amount of time knitting with both my sister and my mom. Can we say "little piece of heaven"? I think we can.

Here a few pictures to show off the adorable children.

Everyone coloring their Build-a-Bear "houses:"

Sorry I didn't take a picture of the actual animals. N built a Dalmatian complete with a button that played the Star Wars theme in his hand and a set of Cars 2-themed pajamas. He named him Spot. J built a panda bear with a button that played the Star Wars theme and a Darth Vader costume. He named him Pandy. Michael built a camouflage-colored bear that played the Star Wars theme and had a Jedi warrior costume. He named him Camo. Lizzie built a pink daisy print bunny with a button that said "I love you." She picked out a cute top and skirt, Hello Kitty underpants and pink jelly sandals for her bunny. She named her Daisy Bunny.

Mooma and four of her grandchildren at the pool:

J jumping in the water: He just decided yesterday that he liked jumping in on his own and did it over and over.

Michael jumping in the pool:
Love this photo and this little boy!

And a bonus photo:Cat and I knitting together. Heaven!

3!

My littlest man is three! Can't believe he is three already. In fact, he turned 3 almost a week ago.



But with the craziness of having my in-laws in town and making cookies (M&M) for a school birthday party and cake (chocolate) for a home birthday celebration and the last week of school, I never blogged about N's birthday.

But despite my state of denial, my littlest man is three!


Happy Belated Birthday to my sweet little cinnabun. I love your infectious laugh and the fact that I can make you laugh so easily, Mr. Super Ticklish. Even though you are getting more opinionated and not so easy, you are still my laid back little man. I love the way you always want "little" hugs because you don't like to get squeezed too tight. I love how you are usually willing to try new foods and even request healthy things like carrots and salad. I love the way you get attached to your toys like your broom and your new rolling suitcase. The simple things make you happy and that makes me happy. I love the way you love the sweater I knit you and wear it all the time even when it is way too hot to be wearing a hooded sweater. I love the way you're not afraid to climb and jump on anything even though it may mean some trips to the ER in your future. I love how you try to keep up with J and his friends and how you think you're a big kid too. I love how you hug Pepper because it reminds me of me when I was your age. I love the way you remind me of my dad because he is one of my favorite people in the whole world. I love watching you crawl up in your daddy's lap and the way you settle in like he is the most comfortable seat in the house. I love how you love to count people's fingers right now because you are so proud of your discovery that everyone's hands count up to five. I love listening to you in the morning when you lay in bed and sing songs like the ABC song, Happy Birthday and the Itsy Bitsy Spider. I love how when people called you on your birthday, you told all of them "Happy Birthday." I love that you are my littlest man and I am so glad to have had you for three whole years. Can't wait to have many, many more!

Animal Photos

A Trip to the Zoo

My in-laws came in town to help celebrate B's birthday and N's birthday. On B's birthday, we went to the zoo.
While we were in the Giants of the Savanna section, we caught the end of the cheetah zookeeper talk. They told us that they had hidden meat throughout the cheetah enclosure and that they were going to let the three cheetahs go look for it. So we went next to the "safari jeep" and waited. We soon saw the cheetahs approaching.


Then they went to explore other parts so J and N took a break to pretend driving the jeep.

Then a cheetah jumped right up into the back of the jeep to eat a small morsel of meat. It was super cool!

Later in the day, the boys and I took a camel ride (the person working the membership booth had given the boys free ride passes in honor of N's birthday).

Towards the end of our visit, N asked to revisit the Reptile Building so he could hold a snake. So we did.

Oh, That's Clever!

I recently received my copy of the Summer 2011 Interweave Knits magazine. I've been getting this magazine for a few years and I don't knit that many things out of it, but I find it fun to look through and I always learn something from it.


In this issue there is only one project that I immediately wanted to knit, The Swirl Skirt by Annelena Mattison:

I think it is so pretty. I love the diagonal lines (it is cast on waist to knee and knit on the bias) and the fun play of the cotton (for stability) background and the fun color-changing wool (for a little more elasticity) accent stripes. The short rows that add some flare at the bottom of the skirt seem nothing short of genius. So clever!

Anyway, as I ponder more and more the idea of designing my own knits, I am always on the look out for clever ideas in others' patterns. So I decided to read through the patterns to see how the different pieces are constructed--even though I didn't want to knit that particular piece. Here are some of the clever ideas I found:

In the Camp Smock, Mary Keenan added this nice pleat detail. The smock is knit from the bottom up. To create and hold the pleat in place, she does the clever "folds" where she places two sets of stitches on doublepoints and then knits them together (kind of like a 3 needle bindoff without the bindoff part). SO CLEVER!


In my other favorite clever find, Lisa Shroyer makes this lovely curved V-neck in her Banstead Pullover. To create this lovely v, she adds that simple column of slip stitches in the middle of the bust. That creates that lovely v shape without any decreases. How simple and how very CLEVER!

Sorry for the sideways photo, don't know why Blogger does that sometimes!


I found a few other little design ideas in the following projects. In Allyson Dykhuizen's Cumulus Tee, a decorative band is knit in a long strip, then joined and turned to make a neckband, then stitches are picked up and the tee is knit top down from there. Very clever.



In Alice Tang's Al Fresco Camisole, stitches are dropped and the resulting ladders are crocheted together (four at a time) to form the interesting vertical bands of large stitches.


In Stacey Gerbman's Lion Oh! Sweater, the decorative lion body shape is added by making a crochet chain (crocheted directly onto the finished sweater). I don't think I'll ever knit this sweater, but I might use that technique sometimes. Seems like a simple, but clever way to add some embellishment.

I am so impressed with people who can come up with such interesting knits. So what clever ideas have you seen lately?

A little boy and his broom

N has always loved to play with cleaning tools--brooms, vacuums, feather dusters, mops. His birthday is next week and his grandparents (my in-laws) are in town for it. They took him to Toys R Us yesterday to pick out a toy. Of all the toys there, he choose this broom.



He LOVES it! He's taken it to bed with him for the last two nap times and last night for bed. Nothing cuter than a boy with his trusty broom tucked into bed next to him:).



This little boy just cracks me up.