Isn't this cool?!
Monday, April 30, 2007
Saturday, April 28, 2007
FOs!
Yes, I have Finished Objects! While Baby Girl's red vest is still on Mom's blocking board, I've got others to show.
Here's Baby Girl's Loop-d-Loop Ballet T-Shirt, knit in Farmhouse Yarns' I Am Allergic to Wool:
It should be just about warm enough for her to wear it, once her two-year molars come in. She's been working on them for about a month (what a trooper!) and is quite drooly, so I'd like to give the knits a break!
One of this month's Socktopia themes is "April Showers." Since I've been under the gun to finish baby gifts for a girlfriend who is due at the end of May (but is likely to deliver early), I decided to knit booties: fast, easy, and we could kind of make it a "shower" gift, even though it's baby no. 2 and there is no shower. Then, SheepsPyjamas beat me to it. Oh well--I'm still jumping on that bandwagon! I have two pairs of booties.
First, here are the fabulousyarn.com Artyarns Regal Silk baby booties in Dawn :
First, they're not really lopsided, I just didn't have enough time to fiddle with the tissue paper stuffing (with children leaning on the screen door calling, "Mommy! Mommy! What are you doing, Mommy?"). The fabulousyarn.com site shows the booties with a ribbon tie, but I skipped the eyelet row for the tie; I wasn't in the mood. The booties are pretty, but I don't really like the color. I love the sheen of the silk, but didn't like working with it. It doesn't have enough give; in fact, it doesn't have any give. I also made the booties out of Artyarns Supermerino in Sea Greens, with the eyelet row. I haven't made the I-cord ties because I tried to make the hat and ran out of yarn. I'll post a picture when they're done. The Supermerino was a lot of fun to work with, and the booties look great. The color is even better in person, too! I'm not under pressure to finish, though, because my girlfriend is having a girl, and Sea Greens is a boy color (not that I wouldn't put it on Baby Girl).
The other set of booties are the Lorna's Laces I-Cord Boogie booties, in Shepherd Sport Tickled Pink:
Again, lopsided due to tissue paper stuffing under pressure. These were a lot of fun to make, and I think I like this pattern better. Tickled Pink turned out to be a fabulous color, too! I didn't make the I-cord to keep the booties from getting lost--I just couldn't see taking the trouble to thread it through a baby's pants, have the baby lie on it, or even worse, have a diaper accident!
The final baby gift (so far, we'll see if I finish the One Skein baby bolero) is the Tilli Tomas Flurries baby hat:
It's really cute, although the decreases did not give me the number of post-decrease stitches called for in the pattern and I had to do some creative sewing to close the opening the size of a quarter at the top of the hat. Plus, I had to push all those beads to the front! But it's beautiful, and my friend is a practical person who would never buy anything like this for a baby (it's dry clean only!), and she deserves something like this. The silk booties are dry clean only, too, but the Lorna's Laces are superwash.
Ok, the One Skein Baby Bolero. I'm hitting a few snags. First, I may not have enough yarn to do the ribbed border. In order to conserve yarn, I'm unraveling my gauge swatch to use to seam the shoulders and sleeves. Instead of sewing the shoulders, I used the three-needle bind-off. Always looks good, and is always easy--thanks to my sister for the tip! My challenge is seaming--never a favorite job. Here, the bolero body is knit in one piece, and the sleeves are knit separately. Then you sew (or three-needle bind off) the shoulders. Then you sew in the sleeves. So I had to sew flat sleeves into a round opening. I used backstitch and that worked pretty well. I'm having trouble sewing the shoulders closed; not only is there a hole at the base of the sleeve, where the sleeve meets the body, that I have to creatively and invisibly close, my sleeve seaming is not pretty. Which is ok, because no one ever sees it, mostly, but I think it's ugly enough to not be right. So, I have to wait for Mom, seamer extraordinaire, to come back from vacation to help.
Oh, and last but not least, I shipped my Knitters Treat Exchange package to my treatee, who can be found at The adventures of SanFaerieAnne. It should be arriving any day now--hope she enjoys it! I certainly had a good time putting it together. So much so, I've joined the Knitting Gnome Swap. I know Norm (or any of his friends) will have a great week with us this summer!
Here's Baby Girl's Loop-d-Loop Ballet T-Shirt, knit in Farmhouse Yarns' I Am Allergic to Wool:
It should be just about warm enough for her to wear it, once her two-year molars come in. She's been working on them for about a month (what a trooper!) and is quite drooly, so I'd like to give the knits a break!
One of this month's Socktopia themes is "April Showers." Since I've been under the gun to finish baby gifts for a girlfriend who is due at the end of May (but is likely to deliver early), I decided to knit booties: fast, easy, and we could kind of make it a "shower" gift, even though it's baby no. 2 and there is no shower. Then, SheepsPyjamas beat me to it. Oh well--I'm still jumping on that bandwagon! I have two pairs of booties.
First, here are the fabulousyarn.com Artyarns Regal Silk baby booties in Dawn :
First, they're not really lopsided, I just didn't have enough time to fiddle with the tissue paper stuffing (with children leaning on the screen door calling, "Mommy! Mommy! What are you doing, Mommy?"). The fabulousyarn.com site shows the booties with a ribbon tie, but I skipped the eyelet row for the tie; I wasn't in the mood. The booties are pretty, but I don't really like the color. I love the sheen of the silk, but didn't like working with it. It doesn't have enough give; in fact, it doesn't have any give. I also made the booties out of Artyarns Supermerino in Sea Greens, with the eyelet row. I haven't made the I-cord ties because I tried to make the hat and ran out of yarn. I'll post a picture when they're done. The Supermerino was a lot of fun to work with, and the booties look great. The color is even better in person, too! I'm not under pressure to finish, though, because my girlfriend is having a girl, and Sea Greens is a boy color (not that I wouldn't put it on Baby Girl).
The other set of booties are the Lorna's Laces I-Cord Boogie booties, in Shepherd Sport Tickled Pink:
Again, lopsided due to tissue paper stuffing under pressure. These were a lot of fun to make, and I think I like this pattern better. Tickled Pink turned out to be a fabulous color, too! I didn't make the I-cord to keep the booties from getting lost--I just couldn't see taking the trouble to thread it through a baby's pants, have the baby lie on it, or even worse, have a diaper accident!
The final baby gift (so far, we'll see if I finish the One Skein baby bolero) is the Tilli Tomas Flurries baby hat:
It's really cute, although the decreases did not give me the number of post-decrease stitches called for in the pattern and I had to do some creative sewing to close the opening the size of a quarter at the top of the hat. Plus, I had to push all those beads to the front! But it's beautiful, and my friend is a practical person who would never buy anything like this for a baby (it's dry clean only!), and she deserves something like this. The silk booties are dry clean only, too, but the Lorna's Laces are superwash.
Ok, the One Skein Baby Bolero. I'm hitting a few snags. First, I may not have enough yarn to do the ribbed border. In order to conserve yarn, I'm unraveling my gauge swatch to use to seam the shoulders and sleeves. Instead of sewing the shoulders, I used the three-needle bind-off. Always looks good, and is always easy--thanks to my sister for the tip! My challenge is seaming--never a favorite job. Here, the bolero body is knit in one piece, and the sleeves are knit separately. Then you sew (or three-needle bind off) the shoulders. Then you sew in the sleeves. So I had to sew flat sleeves into a round opening. I used backstitch and that worked pretty well. I'm having trouble sewing the shoulders closed; not only is there a hole at the base of the sleeve, where the sleeve meets the body, that I have to creatively and invisibly close, my sleeve seaming is not pretty. Which is ok, because no one ever sees it, mostly, but I think it's ugly enough to not be right. So, I have to wait for Mom, seamer extraordinaire, to come back from vacation to help.
Oh, and last but not least, I shipped my Knitters Treat Exchange package to my treatee, who can be found at The adventures of SanFaerieAnne. It should be arriving any day now--hope she enjoys it! I certainly had a good time putting it together. So much so, I've joined the Knitting Gnome Swap. I know Norm (or any of his friends) will have a great week with us this summer!
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Busy, busy, busy!
Lots going on. I'm all over the place in knitting. And I got my Knitters Treat Exchange Pal: SanFaerieAnne. I'm working on her treat, but in the meantime, found this cool book thing on her blog. Here it goes:
In the list of books below, bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a ten-foot pole, put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of.
1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. +Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L. M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. *A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. *Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. *The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. *The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. +The Time Traveler’s Wife (Andrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. *Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
9. *The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. *Not Wanted On the Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. *The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. *Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. *In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum
96. The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)
Of course, being me, my formatting has gone wacky. Oh well. When I have more time (ha!), I'll break down the percentage that I've read. With an ear infection and possible strep throat, I'm not up to the challenge right now. But at least the kids are ok, so far! And the 3-4 inches water is mostly gone from the basement, or down to 1-2 inches in areas.
But I will get knitting photos up, I promise. I have the loop-d-loop ballet top, knitted in less bulky yarn and on smaller needles for Baby Girl (who has been cutting her two-year molars for over two weeks and is still working on them); baby booties in Artyarns Regal Silk (not so fun) and Artyarns Supermerino (fun!) in a kit from fabulousyarn.com; and Knitting Pure and Simple's vest (which is being blocked at my mother's house, so maybe no pictures yet). Oh, also Lorna's Laces I-Cord Boogie booties in Tickled Pink which are totally awesome! My friend's baby is due soon, and since I had blanket trouble, I'm working on small things, i.e. hats and booties. Which reminds me, I will post photos of the Tilli Tomas Flurries hat once I'm done seaming. Plus, the One Skein Baby Bolero is in progress.
My socks for Socktopia are still suffering (I'm not in the mood to pick up gusset stitches), so I am hoping my booties qualify.
In the list of books below, bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a ten-foot pole, put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of.
1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. +Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L. M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. *A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. *Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. *The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. *The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. +The Time Traveler’s Wife (Andrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. *Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
9. *The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. *Not Wanted On the Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. *The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. *Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. *In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum
96. The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)
Of course, being me, my formatting has gone wacky. Oh well. When I have more time (ha!), I'll break down the percentage that I've read. With an ear infection and possible strep throat, I'm not up to the challenge right now. But at least the kids are ok, so far! And the 3-4 inches water is mostly gone from the basement, or down to 1-2 inches in areas.
But I will get knitting photos up, I promise. I have the loop-d-loop ballet top, knitted in less bulky yarn and on smaller needles for Baby Girl (who has been cutting her two-year molars for over two weeks and is still working on them); baby booties in Artyarns Regal Silk (not so fun) and Artyarns Supermerino (fun!) in a kit from fabulousyarn.com; and Knitting Pure and Simple's vest (which is being blocked at my mother's house, so maybe no pictures yet). Oh, also Lorna's Laces I-Cord Boogie booties in Tickled Pink which are totally awesome! My friend's baby is due soon, and since I had blanket trouble, I'm working on small things, i.e. hats and booties. Which reminds me, I will post photos of the Tilli Tomas Flurries hat once I'm done seaming. Plus, the One Skein Baby Bolero is in progress.
My socks for Socktopia are still suffering (I'm not in the mood to pick up gusset stitches), so I am hoping my booties qualify.
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