FO Friday - Irish Hiking Armwarmers

This FO is not baby knitting - it's something for me!

Part of our vacation this summer included some time in Oregon.  We did part of the Fruit Loop Farm Tour - which included an alpaca farm (Cascade Alpacas).  Not only did it make me dream of owning alpacas one day (even more than before), the owner's story of how they started the business was very inspiring!  They have a wonderful little yarn store on site.  Having passed up the opportunity (maybe better to say resisted the extreme temptation due to the "More yarn?  Really??" look on my husband's face) to buy yarn from an alpaca farm we visited on San Juan Island, I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice.

I ended up buying a few skeins of gorgeous yarn including this skein of gorgeous, super soft 100% baby alpaca, hand dyed in the colorway "The Gorge":

To justify my purchase, I had to come up with a project on the spot that I would use it for.  I had been wanting to make the Irish Hiking Scarf Armwarmers for quite some time and thought this would be great yarn for the project.

It's even more gorgeous once it's knit up.

These were easy to knit and fast.  They would make great gifts...but I'm keeping these ones for myself :)

Thanks again to Tami's Amis for hosting the FO Friday linkups!

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Sh*t Knitters Say

I had to share this!  I'm definitely guilty of many of these.  How about you?

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WiP Wednesday - Bandana Cowl

My WiP this week is a Bandana Cowl.

I'm using the yarn Nashua Ivy - it's a sage green color with little bits of silver in it.  It's really soft and not itchy at all!

I think I'm going to give this to a friend as a birthday gift.  If it turns out well, I'll probably end up making more as gifts -- it's a great pattern, an easy and quick knit, and I think my friends would get a lot of use out of a piece like this!

Because of the yarn and needles I used, it's a bit of a looser knit than the original pattern.

It's almost done in these pictures...I'll post the final result this Friday!  As you can see in the final picture, I made some sort of mistake.  I didn't rip back though because I figure you won't be able to see it when it's being worn.

Oops!

Now head on over to Tami's Amis and see what everyone else is working on!

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FO Friday - Isabella Bonnet

Thank you to tamisamis for hosting FO Friday!  Hop on over and check out what everyone else has to show off!

This is my first FO in a while and I can't wait to give it to the recipient.  For Ava's first birthday, I knit her the cupcake hat - over a year later, she's still wearing it.  It's so nice to knit for people who actually wear and use what you knit!  (Ok, at 1 and 2 years old, maybe the decision on what to wear lays more with the parents, but still, she's wearing it a lot!)  Anyways, I wanted to knit Ava a new hat for her second birthday (which was back in November).  I think the Isabella Bonnet will really suit her - especially in the hot pink color.

This was a really easy knit - it only took me so long to complete because I didn't have the time to work on it.  This is definitely one I'd knit again as a gift for a little girl (would even be great in a 'big girl' size). The instructions weren't always completely clear but it was easy enough to figure it out.

I like working with this yarn - not only is the color great but it feels nice.  It's acrylic but it is a micro-fiber yarn and it's nice and soft.  It reminds me of some of the bamboo yarns I've worked with.  It's machine washable which is nice for kids' clothing and accessories.  It's part of the 'collection' I picked up from the massive Dressew sale last year.

Now I have to determine what I will work on next.  I have a few projects 'hibernating' but I think I might just knit up some simple baby hats and do a bit of stash busting.  I know a couple people with new ones or that are expecting so I won't be at a loss for babies to give them to.  Baby hats are good too since I can make reasonable progress on them  by knitting during my study breaks!

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WiP Wednesday - The Hat Full of Friends

I'm excited to have a WiP today to share!  I have a couple of friends expecting baby boys so I decided to work on some hats as I do my reading for school.

A while ago my boss was clearing out some of her stash and gave each of us who knits some yarn.  I received a beautiful skein of hand-dyed sock yarn in shades of blue (I'll have to ask her again what the fibre content is).  It seemed like the perfect yarn for the Easy Peasy Newborn Sock Hat.  Since most of this hat is just straight stockinette stitch, it's a project I can work on without having to constantly look at it (hence why it is a good project to do while reading).

One of the most exciting things is that I got to use my new skein holder/swift!  A friend's girlfriend found out that I knit (as does she) and gave it to me for my birthday (amazing!).   Using my coworkers ball-winder that she doesn't use, I was able to set this up:

I had some issues finding surfaces which I could clamp the skein holder and ball winder to but I think this worked quite well in the end.  No more putting my skein around the back of a chair and winding it onto my thumb!  YAY!  I think my cat had as much fun with it as I did :)

I ended up with three balls of this beautiful yarn.

I started working on the first hat (I should have enough yarn for 3 of these hats) and also finally got to use one of the beautiful stitch markers a friend gave me as part of my bridal shower present.

In one day, I almost finished the whole hat (I guess that is one benefit of having so much reading to do!) (I am not the fastest knitter around so almost finishing something in one day is an accomplishment!).  I'll share it in an upcoming FO Friday post.

I love that this hat is 'full of friends' - my boss/friend who gave me the yarn, the swift that was a gift from a friend, the ball winder who came from a coworker/friend, the stitch markers from a friend, the final product for a friend.  Having friends who knit rock!

Be sure to hop on over to Tamis Amis and check out what everyone else is working on!

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WiP Wednesday....Already?!?

Sooo, as I was sitting in my evening class last night, I was reminding myself to take some pictures and prep my blog post (as I actually have a new WiP to share this week!).  I even stopped on my way home from class and bought another ball of yarn for my project.  I got home and proceeded to fall asleep on the couch, turned off my alarm when it went off early this morning, heard my husbands alarm upstairs and tried to ignore it...and then FINALLY got up when I heard my cat working on a hairball (which made me spring up from the couch and sprint to him to try to get him onto the laminate floors but OF COURSE he puked on the small and only carpet in our kitchen.  Why?  WHY?)  So, in order to get to work on time this morning, I had to forgo decent pictures of my WiP and will now have to provide you with the lovely cell phone picture taken on my work desk below.

I started work on an oversize, chunky cowl for my sister-in-law.  Her birthday was back in June and I have been wondering what to get her (lol).  Nothing was quite right...until I saw one of her Pinterest posts (have you been to this site?  Pinterest.com.  I warn you, it is slightly addictive.)  She 'pinned' this gorgeous cowl and I thought "ah!  That's it!"

I'm using Lion Brand Thick and Quick Wool Ease yarn in "wheat".  I'm knitting on US 19 (15 mm) needles.  It's quite meditative to knit this project - the yarn feels quite nice and it's straight knitting (so I can do it while reading my articles for school!).  It's going to be really wide - something similar to this but maybe not quite as wide:

I cast on 80 stitches and will knit until I feel it's to my liking.  Then I will seam it up.  I considered knitting this in the round but I've seen some pictures where people use the seam (inside-out) as part of the fashion, so I decided to keep that an option for my sister-in-law.

I'm hoping to have this finished by the end of this weekend!  There's an FO Friday in my future!

Go and check out everyone else's WiPs over at tamisamis.blogspot.com!

WiP Wednesday - YUM!

Here is my most recent project - and it's not for a baby!  It's a cowl for my future-mother-in-law (for Christmas).  The pattern is the Burberry Inspired Cowl found here or on Ravelry.

The yarn is amazing!!  It's Diamond Luxury Collection Baby Alpaca Sport - nice and soft and so great to knit with!  It sheds a little, the only drawback I've found so far.

I'm liking the way the cowl is looking - I'm just over half-way done.

For this project I had to learn the provisional cast-on and it's also my first time doing cables.  I think they are looking ok so far but there are a couple long threads I'm wondering about - should they be there?

I believe it's the last stitch of the stitches that go on the cable needle.  What I am doing is slipping the stitches to a cable needle (smaller than the needle I'm knitting with) then, when I get to the part where I need to knit those stitches, I slip them back on my knitting needle and knit them.  I'm trying to be conscious of my tension and I even gave them a little 'pull' after I noticed these longer threads.  It didn't seem to help.  So are they unavoidable?  Or am I doing something wrong?

Hop on over to Tami's blog and check out what other people are working on!

WiP Wednesday - Better Late Than Never!

I was all ready to get this post up first thing this morning when I got into work.  Unfortunately, my computer has been having difficulties all day so I'm finally getting around to hitting the post button!  Better late than never though!

So, I'm almost finished the "hat with the duck part", and I've run out of yarn.  As you can see from the picture, there isn't enough left to finish the remaining 10 rows or so, then stitch the brim up :(  I thought I might have just enough, but no :(  I've contacted a couple people on Ravelry about selling me a skein.  One got back to me and it will cost 5 times as much as what I paid for a skein to get me hers, but I might have to suck it up and do it.  I'm soooo close!

A friend, who appreciates my knitting, has asked me to knit a pair of leg warmers for her baby as she is crawling now.  I said yes, even though I have so many projects needing to be finished by Christmas.  I told her that I couldn't guarantee when they'd be done and she said it would be fine - I'm worrying that she'll be done crawling by the time they are knit up!  I don't know if my friend realizes the time it takes to knit - especially with little needles and thin yarn!

Anyways, I picked out some yarn and started to knit the leg warmers; I figure they are a good 'before bed' project - quite straightforward so go to knit when I'm tired.  I chose to use Regia Stretch Crazy Color yarn.  I checked out some projects on Ravelry that use this yarn and I really liked the colors.

I started the 12 month size but I think I'm going to restart and do the 18-24 month size since the yarn I'm using is a bit more thin than the yarn the pattern calls for.  I would hate to get these done just to find out that they won't fit around her little legs.

I used the tubular cast on as it gives a nice edge and a good stretch.  For a cast on that gave me a bit of a headache the first time I tried it, I'm actually starting to like it and this is the third project I will be using it on.

As always, thanks to Tami for hosting the WiP Wednesday on her blog!

Those are my WiPs for this week.  I'm hoping in the next week or two to have some new ones to share.  I'm going to attempt cables!  Wish me luck ;)

Cupcake Hat!

I couldn't wait to blog about this project.  I love it!

A friend is having her daughter's first birthday party in a couple of weeks - the theme is cupcakes.  I wanted to knit something for the birthday girl since, when she was born, I knit her a hat and booties set that she wore all the time.  I figured this was the perfect chance to knit the cupcake hat from Itty-Bitty Nursery Knits.

I started with the tubular cast-on.  Despite the challenges I had trying to learn this cast-on a couple weeks ago, I like the way it looks and it is stretchy so I decided to give it another try.  I'm happy to report that this time it all went smoothly!  I found this video really helpful.

The result of the tubular cast-on.

After you finish knitting the hat, you go back and add a crochet picot edge.  Since I don't know how to crochet, this posed a bit of a challenge!  I used a couple youtube videos to learn to do this.  Susan B. Anderson has a video that shows how to do the picot edge with a crochet hook but, not knowing how to crochet, her video wasn't enough.  The explanation was useful, once I sort of knew what I was doing.  I used this video to learn how to do the stitches.  The only thing that threw me for a loop was that all the videos I could find were showing the picot edging, well, on an edge!  The one I needed to add was in the middle of my project!  I figured the only way to do this was to pull the crochet loops through the individual stitches on my hat - I think I was right because it seemed to work.

Picot edge using a crochet hook.

Then, I needed to learn to crochet the cherry.  Again, thanks to youtube, it wasn't too difficult.  I used WireMySoul's video for this.

Crochet cherry.

I know that it may sound like watching all these videos to learn to crochet was more work than it was worth, but it wasn't.  Plus, I'm sure I'll use the skills I learned on future projects!

The finished product!

WiP Wednesday: Elefante!

Since last week I have one WiP to add to the list.
~1~
I came across this Susan B. Anderson pattern on Ravelry and had to knit it up!  (It's available at that link for FREE!)  I'm hoping to have it finished in time to include it in Sophie's baby shower present.  Then, I plan to knit the Hippo from Susan B. Anderson's "Itty Bitty Toys" book in the same yarn for my niece Lucy (who is Sophie's cousin, once removed...or something along those lines).
 

By the way, I just received "Itty Bitty Toys", "Itty Bitty Hats", and "Itty Bitty Nursery" as a gift and the patterns are to die for!  I want to knit them all!...but will start with the Hippo :)  I would definitely suggest these books for anyone who knits for babies.  Be sure to check out Susan B. Anderson's blog for corrections to patterns.  The links to the corrections can be found on the left-hand menu.
 
The yarn I'm using is Schachenmayr "Boston Fashion Color".  The color is 01485 and it is mostly a deep pink color with some lighter pinks and oranges in it.  It's perfect for this project!

The pictures are taken with my phone so excuse the poor quality.  I'll have her done by Friday and I'll post some better pictures of the finished product!

Here are the feet, ready to be stuffed and the beginning of the body:

A couple days later, the majority of it is done.  All she needs is ears, eyes, a tail, and then to join the head to the body:

She is almost done now and she is SO cute!  I'm going to have a hard time giving this one away.

My First Project - Baby Leg Warmers!

Here is where it all began.  My sister-in-law (ok, not sister-in-law yet but hopefully in the near future!) was pregnant and I wanted to learn to knit so that I could create something for my future niece or nephew.  I needed to find a project! Mizz Rizz had a copy of the Expectant Knitter on loan so I browsed through and found a pattern for some adorable baby leg warmers! Looked like a great first project (not everyone agreed and suggested beginning with a scarf or something simple.  Pfft! ;) ).

I went to Michael’s and found some yarn – Patons Kroy Socks Jacquards in Denim and some plain black wool yarn. The original pattern called for six different colors but I figured using just two would be good enough – especially since the sock yarn would naturally create stripes for me (bonus!). I also picked myself up some small double-pointed needles.

I really wanted these to be ‘perfect’, especially the tension. I thought I could accomplish that by making sure my stitches were tight…so tight that sometimes my yarn barely slid across the needles (my poor fingers)! They ended up looking good, but since then I’ve definitely been able to loosen up my knitting and let the needles and yarn do the work of making my project look uniform and tight.  Mizz Rizz and Coco would constantly comment on how tight my stitches were and that I needed to learn to not knit so tight…at that time I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to do that.  I did try.  It didn't work.

I learned a lot during this project, in addition to the basic stitches, including how to knit ribbing and how to knit in the round using double-pointed needles.  I learned about recognizing stitches, and that dropped stitches could be fixed (mistakes - I make plenty - are a great way to learn new things!).  One thing I love about knitting is that in almost every project so far I’ve learned something new.

In May 2009, a beautiful little girl - Lucy - was born! While I have no problem with girls wearing boy colors, I decided I wanted to give her something more girly so I bought some beautiful pink and brown yarns (I think it was Sirdar Baby Bamboo, which I LOVE!) and whipped up another pair.

When another friend of mine was pregnant (baby was to be my future godchild), I told her that she could have the original leg warmers if she had a boy. She ended up having a boy…but I just could not bring myself to give them away! Looks like my first-born will be the lucky recipient of this (sentimental) project!

If I were to make these again, I'd use Jenny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off to be sure that chunky baby legs would be comfortable in these!

My Little God-monster

My godson is a good eater, and it shows in his size. At two months old, he is in the 100th percentile for his length and is 13 pounds.

I made these for him just after he was born (April 2010).

I LOVE the yarn I used - Fleece Artist, Peter Rabbit - it's so soft and beautiful! 70% angora, 20% nylon, and 10% wool. I purchased it at Urban Yarns in Vancouver. It's a bit more pricey than some yarns but you can get at least 3 pairs of booties out of it (probably more!). I had it wound into two balls and held it double to achieve the correct gauge (US 7 - 4.5mm needles).

It seemed like they would be easy for a baby to kick off so I added a crocheted chain as a tie (I don't know how to crochet but it's easy to do, just search youtube for directions). Jenny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off was perfect for this pattern (I would definitely recommend this bind off for any bootie, sweater, or project that might need some extra stretch at the edge).

I wanted them to come up slightly higher on the baby's leg than the pattern called for so I added some extra rows of ribbing (I did 10 instead of 6 rows).

Youtube was definitely helpful when it came time to make the french knot toes! Check out this video if you are looking for instructions. This video was also helpful. The french knots were my least favorite part of this project (but totally necessary!) - it took me a few times to get them looking half-decent and to not pull them through to the wrong side of my knitting! Weaving the ends in was another story...so many ends, so little room to weave them in. I ended up mostly tying tight knots in the yarn of the french knots on the wrong side of the project. I wonder what an experienced knitter would have done? Oh well, it was NOT pretty but it worked!

I was so excited to make these monster booties for him, they are too cute! Unfortunately, they barely fit him. The pattern is for a newborn but his feet were too big even though he was only 3 weeks old when I gave them to him! Good thing they are planning on having more children :) I think they would fit a 'normal-size' newborn. I may end up making him another pair and adding a bit to the length (which would mean adjusting the pattern slightly - another new adventure!).

Here they are on his feet, since they were too small, it was easy for him to kick them off. They are stretched to the max lengthwise.

I ended up making another pair for a friend who was expecting. These make great gifts and I will definitely be making more!

This was a free pattern I found on Ravelry by Shana Kreikemeier - here is the link to the pattern on needyl.com: Monster Booties.