Category Archives: Knitting

baby knits

I finished a couple of knits recently, one smooth and easy, one not so much.

First, I made a bunting in bulky cotton for Karen.  The problems started when I chose super bulky yarn.  It was almost impossible to achieve the correct gauge with the yarn.  Nevertheless, I went up a needle size and persevered.

Briony obligingly modeled the bunting:

The thing was a bit of a beast and weighs a ton.  But, it is warm and very soft.  Cotton is a pain to knit with (because it’s not flexible), but it’s great for babies.

Next, I wanted a quick and easy knit for a co-worker’s baby.  I chose to use my favorite yarn, Debbie Bliss Luxury Aran Tweed in a beautiful green.  It’s not ideal for babies as it’s not machine dryable, but wool is pretty tolerant to spit-up and can easily be spot cleaned.  I’ve never had to wash L or B’s wool baby blankets for example.

Once again, B modeled.

 

I couldn’t manage to coax a smile out of her long enough to get a good shot.

 

the goose is getting fat

I was telling a L a story about some seafaring rabbits tonight, and they made landfall in Ireland.  She said, “My ancestors lived in Ireland!”  So cute.  And H took her for pizza, and at the pizza store, she asked, “Did they buy the pizza oven on Amazon?”  Jeff would be pleased with that, no doubt.

I assigned names for our family gift giving round robin tonight.  I just use a random number generator.  Anyway, I really love that we do this.  For me, it makes it more fun to really focus on thinking of a cool gift for one person rather than getting stressed about buying for six people.  I got my SIL.  She is someone who would appreciate a handmade gift, so I am thinking that I will make something for her.  I had been planning a quilt as a potential gift, and I ordered fabric for it from fabric.com on Monday.  They haven’t even shipped it yet!  I seriously don’t know how they stay in business.  Of course, the reason I ordered from them is that they have the best selection, but still.  Very frustrating.

I am torn by just keeping things simple and buying her something.  Or I could knit her something.  Given the constraints on my time, i don’t think I could knit more than a hat or mittens.  We usually spend $50 to a $100, and I’m just not sure a hat is up to snuff, even if it is handmade.  If I knit a hat, I’d do something like this:

8_small2

(minus the bobble, probably)

Or:

7081886329_26a77a7c41_b_small2

Alternatively, I could attempt a simple quilt.  I’m mildly obssesed with Carolyn Friedlander lately, and she recently published photos of the following quilt.  I think something like that would be achievable.   Probably.

Totem quilt for Laurie_Carolyn Friedlander

Which would you rather get for Christmas?  A hat or a lap quilt?

Speaking of Carolyn Friedlander, I’d really like to make this quilt.  I don’t think I have time before Christmas, but it’s definitely on my list of projects for next year.  I think she put the pattern in her book.

 

Aerial Grove quilt in Kona Cotton_Carolyn Friedlander

 

 

 

another rainy day

L has definitely reached the Why? stage.  Some days, it seems like she asks why from morning to night.  I think the fact that I spent eight months (from 12 to 20 months of age) worrying that she wasn’t talking makes me appreciate her incessant – and beautiful – chatter nowadays all the more.  Toddler speech can be a beautiful thing, though we’re still working on pronunciation (her) and comprehension (me).  Today’s QOTD was, What do kangaroos eat?  Really, I have no clue, though I’m about to google it.  L’s favorite request these days when I’m reading to her is – Talk about it?  This is a request to explain the book page by page.  If I dare turn the page without a supplementary explanation it quickly gets turned back.

L really isn’t too discriminate in what she “reads” these days.  She is working her way through every book on our bookshelves.  Her current favorites are the various photo books I’ve collected over the years – mountains of Washington, the various national parks, and so on.

B is rolling over quasi-consistently, which is pretty advanced for her age, but she is not very good at holding up her head.  I came to this realization yesterday and am now bound and determined to give her the recommended tummy time which I’ve been slacking off about doing.  It’s so easy to just keep her happy enough such that she doesn’t cry and neglect the other aspects.  It was a lot easier to keep up with reading, talk, bathing and so on when there was only one child to take care of.  These days I feel like I’m neglecting one or the other of them most of the time.

At the expense of my children, no doubt, I have been making progress on B’s quilt.  I bit the bullet and started spiraling.  The spirals are all a bit wonky, but I don’t think B will mind too much.  She’s not to picky at this stage.  I think any quilter would go “hmm” upon seeing this quilt but the uneducated public probably won’t notice much.  I ran out of thread, so the project is temporarily on hold until I can get more.  The quilt is 36″ by 54″ which really doesn’t seem that big when I write it down, but basting it and maneuvering it through my sewing machine has been quite a challenge.  I can’t imagine trying to do a quilt much larger than this one.  I do have ambitions to make a twin-size quilt for L’s bed at some point.  That would be at least 65″ by 88″.   Eek.

 

baby knits

I have been knitting like a fiend lately.  A significant portion of my knitting occurs while nursing between 12 and 5 am.

The first thing I made for Briony was a little baby hat out of a wool / cashmere blend (mostly wool):

It wasn’t long before Briony arrived and was able to wear it:

Then, I knit a blanket for her.  I used the same wool I used to knit a blanket for Daniel’s Henry and for Isla, though in gray.  I absolutely love this wool, Debbie Bliss Luxury Aran Tweed.  I love the colors, the weight, the smell – pretty much everything about it.  Once again, it wasn’t long before Briony was ready to enjoy her knitted item.

 

Next up was a cute little sheep sweater.  I will probably give this one away, though I haven’t decided for sure yet.  I have three friends having babies late this year, two girls and a little boy, so one of the girls will likely be a recipient.  But we’ll see.

My fondest for sheep was unabated, so I set about making another sheep sweater, this one for Briony and sleeveless.  It was a quick easy knit, and I love the result.

 

The sheep is made mostly out of French knots.  I do French knots about once a year, and I always have to look up how to do them.  I think the sheep turned out reasonably well, all things considered.

Most of these patterns are free or nearly free, so let me know if you’d like a link to where you can find or purchase them.

Last but not least, I knitted a quick sweater for Isla.  She is such a good model:

    

Next up will be a pair of baby mittens for Briony.  Cold weather is fast approaching.  They should be a quick easy knit.  Maybe I’ll even do a couple pairs.

I’ve also started picking out fabric for a second quilt project.  I love the quilts here:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/btaylorquilts?ref=l2-shopheader-name

I’m going to try to do something vaguely resembling them, though I’m guessing the resemblance will be slight.

We didn’t have room in our old house to leave the sewing machine out, and while I was pregnant, I was too tired to sew, and I also literally didn’t have the strength or ambition to haul out the machine from it’s very awkward and hard-to-reach storage location.  It’s been about a year since I tried sewing last, so I’m excited to do it again.

 

 

 

 

multicolor mittens

I made L some new mittens.  They were easy to make, and the pattern is free on Ravelry.  The original pattern was sized for 12 months, so I adjusted to make them a bit bigger.  They’re a tad on the large side, which hopefully means they’ll fit this winter.  L has been insisting on wearing them despite the fact that it’s been 70 degrees.

On a side note, our hydrangeas are beginning to bloom, and they are beautiful.  When I moved in, we had no hydrangeas.  Now we have about 20 bushes, mostly the traditional blue, but also a few variants.  They continue to be my favorite plant.

 

 

 

 

 

visitors, knitting, and house shopping

L finally got to meet Sarah’s little girl, Emma, this weekend.  I feel like I know Emma already having seen so many photos and read about her on Sarah’s blog, but it’s really not the same thing as meeting her face to face.  Sarah said Emma was more energetic than usual, but I amazed that she literally runs everywhere!  L has to be somewhat motivated before she will run, and she was actually not yet running at Emma’s age.  Anyway, it was great to see Sarah’s entire family.  My only regret is that I have no photo documentation of the meeting!

I finished knitting a long-requested blue dress for L this weekend.  She’s been asking me to knit her a blue dress for probably months, and I finally got sufficiently caught up on my baby knitting to do it.  The pattern was really easy, and I was pleased with the result.  We had fun taking photos in the backyard this weekend.

 

 

We’ve had fabulous weather the last few days – not too hot and not too cold, and so we’ve been enjoying it by spending plenty of time outside.  L is obsessed with playgrounds right now, and requests going to the playground several times a day.  It’s nice that we have not one but two playgrounds within a quarter mile of our house.  Despite the many things that annoy me about where we live, there are some wonderful upsides as well – nearby playgrounds, great yard, cul-de-sac, lots of kids around, close to work.

We went to see four more houses this weekend.  The first two were in Lico.rice Fern.  This is an affordable area with good schools with the drawback that it is far from pretty much everywhere.  But it’s quiet and beautiful.  It’s basically on the edge of a mountain.

Here’s the first house we saw:

Beautiful, eh?  However, note the bridge out front.  This went over some kind of large drainage ditch with standing water in it.  We haven’t had much rain lately, so I’m definitely concerned about this.  Other than that, and the somewhat remote location, we liked everything about the house.

At 3300 square feet, it’s nearly three times as big as our current house.  Crazy.  More than we need, but very, very nice.

Next we went to a house right up the street.  This house was even bigger (3700 sq. ft.) and had very nice views inside and out.  However, the driveway was very hard to get in and out of, and the yard is very steeply sloped.  I think yard maintenance would be a nightmare, tough even for professionals.

 

Next up was a house in Issa.quah.  The neighborhood was beautiful, but we vetoed it based on the small yard.  The house was not nearly as nice but was certainly adequate – built 1977, 2700 square feet, decent condition, but this was compensated for by the great location not far from Lake Sammam.ish.  However, we are quite fixed on having a nice yard, so it was on to the next house.

The next house looked nice on paper.  An “affordable” house in Belle.vue proper is not common, so I guess I knew there had to be a catch.  The catch was obvious when we opened the door and were greeted with the roar of the highway.  It was really, really loud.  The house itself was built in 1960 and had 2300 square feet and was in good but not great condition.

 

 

knitting for babies

Another month, another knitting project.  I didn’t knit a lick while I was sick with nausea, which is a pity because I spent a lot of time in bed doing nothing.  I just didn’t feel up to it.  I’m feeling much better these days, though, and the knitting must resume.  It seems like everyone is having babies, and I have my own baby to knit for, and L has been asking me to knit her a blue dress for ages.

I started with knitting for N.  Originally, I was going to make her this hat:

Photo: Isla modeling my latest knitting project.

However, I was too lazy to swatch, and it turned out bigger than expected.  Also, L really liked it, so I decided to just give it to her.  She has actually been wearing it a lot, and I do think it’s adorable on her.

I wanted to do something a little special for N, anyway, more special than a hat.  I ended up making her a lace sleepsack:

 

The pattern was nearly identical on the back and the front.  I made several mistakes on the back, which I did first, but got it right on the front.  I figure the front is what people actually see, so it’s all good.

After knitting, the next step is blocking.  This is usually important, but it’s especially important when knitting lace.  You can see what blocking looks like below:

I still had two more babies to knit for, so I picked out a little sailor dress for my next project.  I ended up getting pretty sick of this one . I was happy but not overjoyed by how it turned out.

The finishing was a huge pain.  So many pieces to knit together, so many loose ends to sew in.  The project called for a crochet border.  Have I mentioned that I hate crochet?  I’m not very good at it, and I do it extremely infrequently, so it’s always annoying when it’s called for.

One of my favorite parts of the dress was the ladybug buttons I found for the back:

 

All’s well that ends well, I guess, and I’m glad to be moving on to a new project.

I’m planning to finally make L that blue dress she’s been asking for.  Below is a swatch (for gauge) using the yarn I picked out: