A Little Early Gift Knitting

I think the recipients of these knits don't read this blog, so I'm safe. Here's a little taste of my gift knitting this year. 

Quant from knitty.com; it took a little less than a skein of Noro Silk Garden Lite. This was a nice solid pattern and, by the gods, I love entrelac. Just interesting enough to feel like you are performing knitting gymnastics, but simple enough to be able to do it while watching a movie. The picture shows less of the color change than the actual Quant has, as it is quite subtle. It's more greenish on the other side, and quite lovely. The only problem for me really was putting it on to model it -- I kept knotting my hair up in the ties.

And Spirogyra from knitty.com; knitted with maybe 1/2 a skein of Knit Picks Shadow in Oregon Coast Heather (a lovely color!), held double. I was very happy with the product and it was a very quick knit. I think I finished it in a week, knitting nights in front of the "tv" (OK, we don't actually have a TV, but we watch shows on the computer. I think the first series of the new Dr. Who was the accompaniment for these.) The product was so similar to my beloved Pomatomus,  and I can't quite wrap my head around how the designer did it with a chart half the size. All in all, I proclaim the Pomatomus superior. I knit the two patterns with different yarns, obviously, so maybe that's a factor (though I did knit Pomatomus with three different yarns), but the Pomatomus mitts seemed to turn out squishier and the pattern seemed to pop out a little more, plus I have a strange affinity for twisted stitches.

All in all, I am satisfied, as I hope my recipients will be, too.

Itty Bitty Knitting Committee

Tiny Knits! Sock and sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Hat and mitten inspired by the same. The sock actually seems a little out of scale with the others; I may reknit it slightly smaller. I may also add pants to the set, depending on my level of ambition. The set is meant to be an activity in a Montessori toddler classroom. Knit with samples from Colourmart (the mitten and sweater), and leftovers from the stash (sock and hat).

No, this isn't all the knitting I've been up to. There's been a lot of gift knitting getting done (go me!) which will be blogged when gifted. I also completed another large project which experienced a few glitches. Details to come...

Delayed Isabella

Isabella was begun last summer, and set aside for a more pressing project, and then for more winter-appropriate garments. I forgot to get her back out again at the beginning of this summer, indeed only starting again in August. I didn't have too much more to do, though, just one armscye modification and a sleeve.


After knitting the body (modified to knit in the round), I discovered that I miscalculated where the sleeve needed to begin and the armscye was much too deep. It's always something with me. Being too lazy to rip back and redo the under arm bit, I did a cheaterish thing. I picked up stitches across the bottom edge of my malformed armscye and ribbed a couple of rows and then used simple short row shaping to create a curve. It looks nice, I think.

All in all, I'm happy with the product. A little worried about the drape of the cotton (or droop, rather) but so far it's behaving well.

Bonus: Isabelly! First belly shot on the blog...

I forsee baby knitting in my future...

Reincarnation

What was this


Has become this

and is much happier in its new life.



Du Store Alpakka (tynn), about 2.5 skeins.


Well, really less because I didn't bother to unravel the back of the shrug, I just cut it out and knit up the arm/leg until it was long enough to join. The arms-cum-legs had enough width that I didn't even need to shape for the butt any. The fit is a little wide-legged, but I'll tell myself it's fashionable. She loves them!

Knitting Tourist

We love to visit the Norskfolkmuseum but rarely get out there. We are still discovering new things in the place. Like this lady quietly knitting in one of the cabins -- how's that for a summer job!

And I don't know how I ever missed it before: the weaver's shop. Really, all things fiber, and lots more than just knitting. There were old spinning wheels and huge looms (both of which I failed to get pictures of) and some great displays on lesser-known fiber crafts:

Nålbinding, which I think ususally looks a little stiff and awkward like this:

but can also look soft and airy and beautiful like this:

I wish I'd bought the learn-to-nålbind kit. For that matter, I wish I'd bought the learn-to-use a knitty noddy (knitting nancy, strikkelise). As it is, I saw this display:

and bought just the knitty noddy, thinking "hey the internet is a big place, I'm sure there's good instructions somewhere..." Well, sometimes even Google can't help you, and you know how it's harder to find things in a really big place sometimes? If anyone has any pointers to online tutorials or anything, please share.

Little Boy Blue

A dear friend of mine is expecting her second little boy, and it took me the better part of her pregnancy to decide what to knit for her. I finally decided the project should have two special elements: 1) it was to be my first Baby Surprise Jacket (truly a milestone) and 2) it would be knit from yarn that I bought while I was with her, so long ago, before either of us were considering having babies (more than in an abstract sense anyway).

I bought the yarn in Munich, not even at a proper yarn store, because I was not even enough of a knitter to seek one out. It was a department store in Muenchner Freiheit... I can't even remember the name it was so long ago! The yarn was intended to be my first pair of socks (having already knit 1.5 socks, I thought I was ready for two!). The pattern was beautiful but ill-fated as a sock, not stretchy. I had to frog it off of my foot after the first time I tried it on. So I hope this is a better fate for the yarn.

And, knitting the BSJ for the first time... it reminds me of the first time I ate a mango. I couldn't stop. And I could not get enough (indeed BSJ #2 is en route right now). A truly delightful experience.

There's a third special aspect about this project. I've had two wonderful birth experiences, both at home in the water. The same midwives attended both births. During my second birth, the senior midwife was knitting through most of it. It felt so serene... just right somehow... like "just another normal birth, nothing to get excited about, I guess I'll just knit". It gave me confidence to feel she was so relaxed that she could knit! Two days later, she gave us the finished product: a perfectly beautiful BSJ. The first time I'd ever seen one, and I knew it was a special pattern right away. It turned me on to Elizabeth Zimmermann, and started me on the path to being a better knitter.

Glutton for Noro

Who could get enough?