Knitting, sewing, cross stitching, my life in general.





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I'm still alive. Auntie Kerri (my sister) is visiting and we've been busy entertaining Mr. Henry and trying to survive the heat. I am knitting preemie hats for charity whenever I get a chance--more on that later!
posted by Stephanie at 10:10 AM

 

Go Packers!

Look what Henry got in the mail from Auntie Karen! A Green Bay Packers moose, socks, pacifier, and bottle. You see, even though Henry was born in Southern California, he is a huge Packer fan. He is looking forward to his first season.
posted by Stephanie at 2:21 PM

 
Sock blahs

Socks are my comfort knitting. I always have at least one pair on the needles, usually a nice mindless pair in some pretty self-patterning yarn.

Of course, I haven't had much knitting time lately. Socks are good for just getting in a few rounds here and there, but I don't even like any of the socks I'm working on at the moment!

• Friday Harbor. These are stalled until my sister tries on sock #1. The pattern annoys me to no end.
• Amble. I ripped out my first attempt because I didn't like the pattern in the yarn. I like my second attempt much better (different yarn), but I can't tell if these socks are going to fit me or not. They seem a bit too snug. Which annoys me to no end.
• Plain Opal cotton rodeo. I don't like this yarn. The colors and patterning are really ugly to me. I ordered the yarn off eBay and I did not get what I was expecting. For some reason I decided to knit up a pair of socks anyway and give them as a gift. I mean, I think my mom will like the finished socks, but who wants to knit with ugly yarn?
• various ufo/single socks that annoy me to no end (hence the long-standing ufo status).

Maybe I should make a trip to the frog pond. Maybe I should just finish some of these up and get them out of the way. Maybe I will wait until my patternworks order arrives and start some new koigu socks for me...

posted by Stephanie at 8:32 AM

 
Three months old!


posted by Stephanie at 8:16 AM

 

No knitting news to report. Here's a pic of Henry wearing the apple hat I knit for him back in November. I used the famous Ann Norling pattern and some Ironstone cotton my mom bought for me at Knitting in La Jolla. I definitely need to make a pumpkin before October.
posted by Stephanie at 8:59 AM

 
Thursday

While I haven't been doing a lot of knitting, I've at least been reading about knitting. I joined the summer of lace list and it's fun to read about what other people are knitting and look at their gorgeous pictures. Along those lines, here are a couple of pretty free lace scarf patterns: the dayflower lace scarf (pdf) and the little leaf lace scarf. I think these will make great gifts and you can use up single skeins of yarn that you aren't sure what to do with.

I've made a decision regarding the Friday Harbor sock. I was thinking about frogging it entirely, but I'm going to wait until my sister gets here at the end of the month and have her try it on. Then if they don't fit I will at least know how I want to modify the pattern. As far as my amble socks, I am loving them in Dale baby Ull. I'm working on the gusset of sock #1 and I decided not to carry the pattern down the heel or the foot.

Henry is starting to outgrow his newborn size cloth diapers so yesterday I started cutting out some fabric to make some in the small size. I also need to make some more wool soakers, since I seem to have several in the newborn size (too small) and several that are about size large (too big).
posted by Stephanie at 9:18 AM

 
What I've been up to

Not much knitting, that's for sure. But I've come to accept that I probably won't get much knitting done until oh, Henry starts the first grade.

I finished one Friday Harbor sock and I am totally annoyed with it. I made some mistakes and I'm also not really sure how well it's going to fit my sister. I still haven't been able to get a good shot of it, so here's one next to Henry just for fun. Needless to say I am so not in the mood to work on sock #2.

I frogged what progress I had made on the amble sock (from 6sox). I liked that pattern and the yarn, but not the pattern in the yarn. I started over using some Dale Ull (pale yellow, of course) and it looks much better.

This past week Karen has been here to help me out with the Hankster. It has been so wonderful, I can't really even put it into words. She has been watching the baby, walking the dog, cleaning the apartment, bringing food, and keeping me company! Now that's what I call a friend. And she is going to be here for another whole week! Joy.
posted by Stephanie at 2:52 PM

 

posted by Stephanie at 5:54 PM

 
Socks

I got a lot done on my Friday Harbor sock while I was at Starbucks on Sunday. I tried to take a picture, but it just looked like crap since the yarn is dark and the lace pattern doesn't want to show up. It looks pretty good in real life, though. This is my first time using this yarn (Mountain Colors Weavers Wool quarters) and I really like it. It's nice and soft and the colors are gorgeous.

Oops, baby crying!
posted by Stephanie at 5:45 PM

 

AIO

This is a size small all-in-one (AIO) diaper that I sewed up for an exchange (AIO because it doesn't need an additional cover). I used this pattern. The outer layer is waterproof PUL cotton print (from here) and the inner layer is "alova suede" (from JoAnns) which is 100% polyester and is very good for wicking moisture away from the baby's bum. The hidden soaker is a microfiber towel (the kind you use to detail cars) folded into thirds and sewn in. These work great for this purpose since they can hold up to 8x their weight in liquid! There is elastic in the back and the legs and the closure is aplix (which is like velcro, but lasts much longer and costs less). I hope my swap partner likes it!
posted by Stephanie at 12:38 PM

 

Weekend

Funny how weekends take on a different meaning now. I still look forward to them because I get to spend some time with DH and he gets to spend some time taking care of Mr. Henry (in other words, giving me a bit of a break). He will probably have to work this afternoon, but tomorrow his brother is coming for a visit and I think I will go to Starbucks with my knitting. ahhh. Did I mention that Starbucks is air conditioned? I'm sick of summer. Henry and I just got back from a walk and I'm sweating (and it's only 10am). Here he is in his stroller (wearing his Padres cap, of course).
posted by Stephanie at 10:12 AM

 
Progress, I think

I started Amble (from the sixsoxKAL) with the coppermoth yarn. I did the ribbing and one pattern repeat. It's fun!

I'm continuing to work on the feather and fan baby blanket. At first I was only working on it when I went to Starbucks (so I could concentrate), but now it's sitting next to my bed for whenever I get a quiet moment or 2 (yeah right). It's a pretty easy pattern and now that I'm back into the swing of it, I can pick it up and do a row (or 1/2 a row) here and there. It's knit in the round and I'm starting to get a lot of stitches on the needle (over 300 at the moment). One problem is that I changed the pattern (I'm using laceweight instead of worsted) so I'm going to have to add repeats to make it big enough. The thing is, it's hard to tell how big it is while it's all scrunched up on the needles and I have no idea how big it will block out. I guess I'll have to wing it and if it ends up too small I can always knit on an edging or something.

As for my Friday Harbor socks, I managed to dig the yarn out of my stash and that's about it!
posted by Stephanie at 6:34 PM

 
SOCKS

1. I really like the new pattern for the six socks knitalong. It's a gansy-type pattern that really needs a solid-color yarn. I would actually prefer to do it in a 'traditional' neutral color, but I don't think I have anything like that in my stash that will actually meet gauge. I need something that's slightly thicker than most of my sock yarn since the pattern has you cast on 60 sts with US 1 needles (there is a 30 stitch repeat, so adding stitches won't be trivial). I think I will go ahead and use that great 'lemondrop' yarn I got from the copper moth last week. It reminds me of koigu, which I usually knit at 60 sts on US 1s. Not a 'traditional' color, but one of my favorite colors (plus I think the stitch pattern will show up well).

2. I also joined the Knitting on the Road knitalong. I bought the book several years ago specifically because I wanted to make the Friday Harbor socks for my sister (she spent a summer doing research on Friday Harbor). I even have the exact yarn called for in the pattern in the exact color. Since Friday Harbor is the pattern for Aug/Sept, I'm hoping this will get me motivated!
posted by Stephanie at 7:33 AM