FO: Soon-To-Be-Newlyweds Dishcloths

My brother is getting married this June. Last weekend, I went to a bridal shower for his fiancee, my FSIL, who's adorable. And also about to finish up school at the Naval Academy and be commissioned into the US Marine Corps. Which means that they won't be able to live together after they get married for awhile. So I made them matching sets of dishcloths:


Each set has the six same cloths. Brother took brown, and future-sister took green.

That way, when they use them, they can think of the other person and how they have the matching piece.

I listed each of the stitch patterns on the Rav project page, and you can see them all here:

Mostly my standards, all good and scrubby.

Lastly, all packaged up, unwrapped so they'd make it through airport security:

Baby Blankets

*insert generic "I haven't blogged in forever" paragraph, with the current excuse being "I wrote and defended a 250 page astrophysics Ph.D. thesis"*

As is traditional for the late-20s/early-30s age group, it seems like everyone I know is having a baby these days. It brings me great joy because I can't have one of my own yet, so I just knit for (and occasionally borrow) the ones that belong to my friends. Here are two blankets I've finished recently that I was very pleased with:

Hazel's Blanket

Full details on the Rav project page.

I bought the yarn (KnitPicks Swish, my favorite baby yarn!) a long time ago because I knew the colorway would match Hazel's bedding nicely, but then I went through about 14,000 different patterns searching for the perfect one. I almost started a few different ones, and I almost designed one from (mostly) scratch, but then this Zig Zag Baby Blanket showed up in one of Threadpanda's Friday Finds posts and I instantly fell in love with it! I knit the pattern as written, and it turned out a bit narrower/longer than I would have liked, but that mostly blocked out. If I knit it again, I'll probably add another repeat of the stitch pattern to make it wider. I got to deliver this blanket in person, which was pretty great.


Isn't she wee and precious?

Ava's Blanket

Full details on the Rav project page.

My fourth pinwheel blanket, and almost certainly not my last. They are so easy but they look so nice when finished, they're good for both boys and girls, and you can play with colors however you want. Love love love this pattern!



Ava hasn't arrived yet, but will soon, and hopefully then her mom and dad will send me some modeled shots!

I have two more blankets in the planning stages. The yarn has been acquired for one, and excavated from the stash for the other, so hopefully I'll be able to pick patterns and get going on those soon!

On Sweaters

One of my most recent, non-secret, non-swap* finished objects was simultaneously a test knit for a Rav friend and a first birthday present for a local friend (well, technically the daughter of two local friends, but that's semantics). The pattern is the Daisy May Cardigan and it's adorable. It's even more adorable when modeled by its recipient at her very first birthday party:


I made it a little bit big so that Coco could wear it in a few months when it actually starts to cool down around here!


I also finished it at the very last minute and was embarrassingly late to the party, but luckily Coco won't remember that part. ;) That's why it's not blocked--there wasn't time!

I think my favorite part is the buttons. I've yet to find a good local button supplier, but shortly before this party I was at a meeting in Padua, Italy. The meeting ended Friday, but I didn't leave town until Saturday afternoon. On Saturday morning there was a market in the park across from my hotel, so I wandered around and, lo and behold, found a stall selling fabric, yarn (of course I got some, the Cable 4 yarn you can see in this post), and buttons, including these which I knew would be perfect:


A successful endeavor, all around! Details on the Rav project page here.

And now I've decided I should graduate from baby sweaters to the big kid version. I started a March Basic for myself years ago but got terribly bored with the miles and miles of stockinette so it has sat untouched for a long time. I know I could finish it, but I don't particularly want to, and I really don't want to do all the seaming. But a few weeks ago I tried on a fellow knitter's recently completed Vitamin D and, according to her, it was very flattering on me. I'm headed to my first fiber festival in about a month and a half, and I'll be very pleased if I can attend wearing a sweater I made myself, so I'm going to give it a shot. Again, miles of (mostly) stockinette, but at least it's all knit in once piece! I'm going to order the yarn this week...I'll keep you updated!

*Swaps have consumed my recent crafting time, in a (mostly) good way. I should blog about those, shouldn't I? Hmm...

Baby Blankets!

I'm definitely at the "everyone I know is having babies, or trying to" stage of life. It is wonderful, because I love babies! I can't have my own just yet, but I very much enjoy borrowing kiddos from my friends, and knitting for them is always a blast. Baby stuff is just cute, y'know? And it goes quickly! I can't knit blankets for all the babies around because that would take too much time, but here are a few recent ones:

Rock Chalk Wilfred, for Baby H in Kansas:

Ravelry Link

It is affectionately known as the Spiderman Blanket...

...and is really good for napping.

(All together now, "Awww...")


Purple Pinwheel, for Baby L in Oregon:

Ravelry Link

Also good for napping.

(Thanks N for the photos!)


Coco's Blanket, for Baby Coco in Louisiana:

Ravelry Link

I don't have an action shot, yet, but this is me and Coco:

She's so tiny and soft and wonderful!

I really like the pinwheel (purple) and chalice lace (green) patterns, and it wouldn't surprise me if I make more. What's your favorite baby blanket pattern?

A Bad (for Blogging) Cycle

Lately, I've been stuck in a cycle: knit something as a semi-surprise gift for someone, take pictures, wait to post pictures to avoid ruining the surprise, finally get to the post office, mail it off, get excited when they receive it, forget to post those pictures. Oops!

Here's one of those, a Pinwheel blanket for my cousin's new baby:


Spiral close-up:


I really liked this pattern! It's quick and easy, and looks pretty sharp. More details on the Ravelry page.

I also finished a second Clap for me, using FFtC's New Moon colorway.


I actually comissioned Jen to custom dye the colorway and she did an amazing job. I wanted something that was sort of a mottled black/navy on her silver sock base and she came up with the idea of doing indigo with a black overdye. It's gorgeous! It turned out so nicely that she decided to offer it as a regular colorway...yay! It's fun to see what other people are knitting with it.



My pictures don't even begin to do the yarn justice. It's just stunning in person, and the wrap is great. Perfect for spring cold fronts and over-air-conditioned offices! As always, details on Rav.

Now, I'm working on some more semi-secret projects. I think the people know I am knitting something for them (hint: if you are having a baby and I asked for your mailing address) but they don't know the colors or pattern! Hopefully I won't forget to post those pictures after they are received. =)

Socks & Scarves

That's pretty much what I'm knitting these days! If you check out my Rav progress bars, you'll see that all of my currently-listed WIPs are either socks or scarves. Socks are perfect for the bus, and scarves are good for TV and movies. I've actually got a pair of wristers going that I haven't added in to Rav yet, but those are, so far, no different than socks. Instead of turning a heel and making a foot, I'll leave the end open and make a thumb!

Most recent pair of socks that I finished:



Oak Ribbed Socks



What's neat is how the stripe patterns line up:



It was two separate balls of yarn, and apparently they were either wound in opposite directions, or I started with a different end each time -- too funny!

Also, these are the socks during which I figured out my personal cure for SSS. I almost finished the first sock on one of my trips this summer, but I didn't want to graft it shut while I was away. That would be a recipe for disaster! I still didn't want to graft it after I got home, so I started on the second sock, and it went so quickly. It took significantly less time to knit than the first, and much less time than a second sock usually takes me. So I think my new plan is to never finish the first sock in the pair...we'll see if this works!

Photoshoot, Part I: S

Since I don't have any pictures of my recent FOs, let me show off my friends and their excellent knitting. First up, S, a fellow grad student. You saw her hat from the front (sort of) in the last post, but it's super-cute from the side and back, too.




I just love how the decreases look in the back, and I'm jealous of S's perfect hair for hats like this!

She also had a lovely pair of socks:

One thing I think is really neat about these socks is how the stripes match perfectly in the front:

but not in the back:


Too funny. =)

A little teaser for you!

(Note: This was posted as a teaser on the old site of this blog, but I thought I'd share the pictures here too...I'm just too tired to re-write the parts at the end. *wink*)

A few weeks back I won a contest on Leah's blog, and the prize was a skein of her handspun!



Isn't it beautiful? I love the colors, and I've picked out the pattern I'm going to make: the Flame Chevron Scarf. I'm so excited, but I'm trying to wait a little bit because right now I have too many projects on the needles!

Leah was also a participant (with A and S) in a little knitting photoshoot on the LSU Campus last week. The three of them had FOs that needed pictures for their Ravelry pages, and we all have the same lunch hour free, so we decided to meet in the quad and take pictures. It was so much fun, and some of the pictures turned out really cute. Some of my favorites:


Leah's Clapotis


A's Beret


And S's Hat/Beret.

So why did I call this post a teaser? Because I have lots more pictures of their beautiful FOs to share, and I'll be posting them soon on the new location of this blog:

http://ashpags.blogspot.com

For various reasons, I'm switching away from Xanga to Blogger, and I hope you'll follow me over there. (The new RSS/Atom feed is here if you want to update your aggregator/reader of choice.) I'll still keep this site, of course, and all my entries will remain here, but there are a lot more options at Blogger, especially since Xanga has discontinued support for some Java codes I really like, like Ravelry Progress Bars, which are important so that I have some semblance of accountability for all those WIPs! ;)

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend and getting lots of knitting time! =)