Start 'Em Young?

In one of her many books and/or blog posts, the Yarn Harlot wrote, years ago, about the belief that knitted items somehow "soak up" the vibes that surround them while being knit. This is sort of the idea behind prayer/comfort shawls and really, all items we make for dear friends and family. Steph said something about how this worried her, though, because there was often a lot of frustration and cursing surrounding her knitting, and she didn't want that to be transferred to the recipient, haha.

Along those lines, I felt the need to notify my friend J that her soon-to-be-born daughter might have an unexplainable obsession with Viking vampires. Not only are the repeats of her blanket-in-progress marked with True Blood stitch markers--one seen on Wednesday and also here

--but also I've been working on it while watching my brand new Season 4 DVDs. I don't have HBO, so I'm perpetually a year behind, waiting on the DVDs, but it does have the benefit of letting me watch everything at once, usually over the course of a week. So, if it's true that knits can soak up their surroundings, this little girl is destined to be a True Blood fan! (But only when she's old enough!)

Wordless WIP Wednesday: Automobile Edition

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 Hats

Wow, I've made a lot of these lately!

For Peanut:

(Rav Project Page)

For MR:

(Rav Project Page)

For AM:

(Rav Project Page)

For JC:

(Rav Project Page)

An average baby hat takes me about three or four evenings to make...not too shabby!

Big thanks to Entrelac who destashed the yarn for the second and fourth hats to me for only the cost of shipping! Go check out her stitchmarkers--they're wonderful!

Also, more pretty yarns came in the mail this month, in my next-to-last VSC2 shipment:

Sonja (purple/brown) and Viktor (blues), both inspired by characters from the Underworld series, which I haven't read seen (Thanks Panda!). They're so beautiful!

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. =)