Little things

I've been having fun making lots of little/medium things lately!

A pile of Ice Pop Sleeves for Norah's friends....

Squishies for baby gifts....

A cushy soft cowl for my MIL for mother's day....

Pattern: Helter Skelter Cowl
Yarn: Punta Yarns Merisoft

And I did make a short-sleeve baby sweater, but I used acrylic and surprise, I didn't like how it looked/felt when I was done. It also seemed to small for the 12 month size I was shooting for! So back to the drawing board :)

Now I'm working on a secret project! This is all I can show you now....

I might have to set it aside though and make THIS: Cutting Teeth Toque
Courtney is an awesome knitting designer and is so nice to offer her pattern for FREE until August! Get it while it's hot, folks! I plan on making it for Norah. :)

Remember these?

You may remember the sweater I had tried to make for my poor nephew. You know, the kind-hearted 6 year old who had to open up his present of a sweater on the needles at Christmas????? Seriously. Sorry kiddo, your Auntie dropped the ball! Luckily for him, his mom took the poor sweater from me and gave it to her awesome friend Courtney (she's amazing). Courtney did what I should have done in the first place, which was ignore the pattern and make up my own yoke shaping! Doesn't my nephew look handsome???

Thanks again Courtney!

You also may recall that I was knitting a baby blanket for my little man. Or maybe I never blogged about it since I can't find anything! Well, my SIL and I have a tradition of jointly  knitting  blankets for our kids.

From clicking those links you will see I couldn't find a FO pic of the blanket we made for Norah (sheesh). Here it is if I never posted it!

We knew we had to make something for my little guy who showed up in January. I had got this book as a gift and thought the baby blanket would work out well for breaking into parts we could each work on. I made 3 triangles and my SIL made the 4th and then did the tough work of seaming it together and doing the border! Thanks so much Mare!

Pattern: "blanket"
Yarn: Vanna's Choice (had to go washable!)

I think Walden likes it!

Everything Else

I hope you all saw my new pattern for the Ice Pop Sleeve! I'm hoping to make a bunch for Norah's little friends too... gotta keep all those tiny hands from getting too cold! :)

Besides that, I've been making various small things for gifts:

These soft squeezy orbs are great baby gifts! I made a few for various friends. So quick to knit and easy/safe for little babies to play with!

Pattern: Squishies
Yarn: Red Heart Eco-Ways

My friend Shawn joined me in the exclusive club of people who recently turned 30, so I knit her a monster. :-) I was digging around in my yarn and found a bunch of gold... and since Shawn went to Purdue I thought I'd use her alma mater's colors of gold and black. I think he turned out pretty cute!

Pattern: Geet the Garage Monster
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool

I was debating whether or not to add a "tooth" like the original pattern but I like him as is. Did some striping on the arms/legs to add more contrast color. Shawn says his name is "Beezer Twelve Washingbeard" and that "His friends just call him 'The Beez' ". I like it!

For mother's day, since my mom carries around a bottle of water at all times (her throat gets dry easily), I made her this water bottle carrier:

Pattern: Bishi
Yarn: Sugar n Cream cotton 

I did the strap a lot shorter because I thought my mom wouldn't want to wear it like a purse. Really quick and easy pattern!


More soon, I promise I will try! This stinker is keeping me busy along with his big sister!

Ice Pop Sleeve

Just in time for warmer temperatures, this Ice Pop Sleeve was created after realizing my 2 year old hated to hold onto her ice pop. Her little fingers would get too cold! As much as I love sitting around and holding her popsicles (ha), I thought up a temporary solution of wrapping the ice pop with a dishcloth to protect her hands. Of course the knitter in me saw the opportunity to make this! Should fit any standard ice pop "tube" snugly. Two options are given for finishing the end of the sleeve... I thought they each had their advantages so I included both!

Ice Pop Sleeve

(This pattern is the property of Lauren Estes and may not be reproduced except for personal use. Please do not otherwise print or distribute this pattern without Lauren Estes’ express written permission. Thanks!)

Yarn:
1/4 a skein of Peaches & Creme or Sugar 'n Cream kitchen cotton, or any worsted weight cotton yarn
(this is a great opportunity for stash busting!)

Needles:
4 US6 dpns (or could do magic loop on a circular!)
darning needle for weaving in ends and sewing tube shut

Gauge:
Not critical for this project, although I recommend going down one needle size from what your yarn calls for so that the resulting stitch is tighter.

Pattern:
CO 12 sts, dividing stitches across three dpns (4 sts per dpn). Join to begin knitting in the round, being careful not to twist.

Knit every stitch (stockinette stitch) until the tube measures 4 to 5 inches. (or whatever length you'd like!) In the photos, the solid green one is 4 inches and the blue/green one is 5 inches.

Bind off loosely and weave in the end. Now you have 2 options:

Option 1: At the beginning of the work, use the tail to sew shut the tube using a darning needle.  Example is the blue/green/white one in the photos. This keeps the ice pop securely inside the sleeve.

Option 2: Weave in the other end leaving both ends open. This allows for the sleeve to be moved up and down the ice pop as needed. (green version in the photos)
 
Add your favorite ice pop and enjoy without freezing your fingers!

Ravelry link: Ice Pop Sleeve

Back in the saddle

Well I actually have been knitting! That is crazy since having 2 kids is definitely a big time commitment. My little man doesn't like to go very long between meals and today he didn't even want to sleep. Eesh!

Anyway I found a great project to ease myself back into the world of knitting.... bulky weight yarn, mostly stockinette, and a small project: a sweater for Norah! It's a pattern I testknit for the fabulous Courtney. Yarn is Lion brand Wool-Ease Chunky. I will keep you all updated as to when this pattern is available to the public! It's simple and really cute.

I just found out I'm not supposed to post pictures of the finished item due to the rules of pattern publishing... oops! Will share them later when I can. Sorry about that Courtney!!!

My latest FO....

It took me 9 long months to finish this project, but I am finally excited to welcome Walden Michael, born 1-17 at 9lbs 1oz and 22"!

Our handsome little man!

Thank-you Gloves

One of my newest friends that I have met this year is a budding professional photographer! When christmas was approaching I was panicking a little that we didn't have a good family photo for a christmas card. Of course I have an amazing SIL who takes great pics.... but lives 2 hours away. Hard to find a good time for her to do my photos! As a last minute thought I asked my new friend if she'd be interested and she said YES! We squeaked in a photoshoot and I had the photo cards ordered the next day:

Amazing, right? I made sure to take her and her daughter (who we love to playdate with) out to lunch. Of course the lunch bill didn't come to much and I felt like I needed to do one more thing to make sure she knew I appreciated the photos. What I thought of immediately was fingerless gloves - when we did the photoshoot it was freezing outside, and she didn't have any gloves on when she arrived. I had lugged our entire winter wardrobe in the car so I lent her my susie's reading mitts that I had made awhile back. She commented on how nice they were.... so I decided to make her some with the same pattern!

This yarn was a gift from another friend that I used to make a kitty hat previously! What made me super excited was how the striping turned out - they almost are identical and it was totally an accident!!!! I love when that happens. :-)

Hat & Glove set

Recently I was able to do a commissioned project for my friend Natalie! She was awesome and sent a package containing not only the yarn for the project, but homemade marshmallows, fancy hot chocolate, and some teas! YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The yarn is amazing too.... it's wool, but SO springy and cushy and soft! It's Stonehedge Fiber Mill Shepherd's Wool. I am now a big fan.

I ended up making up my own pattern for some fingerless gloves: (More details on my ravelry page here)

And she had told me she liked this hat pattern, so I was able to sneak in the Regina Hat as a surprise for her too:

I mailed them off this last week and I am happy to say she recieved them well! I love this pic she took of her in her matching set:

I love knitting for people who send pics of them/their kids/etc wearing the items!!!!

Christmas recap....

Happy 2013!!! Well.... I did not finish the secret project in time for Christmas. Wop-wop. I can talk about what it is now though! I am making a sweater for my 6 year old nephew: Lancelot Sweater

You can see my curly unraveled yarn. I think I've ripped out the yoke at least 4 times so far..... luckily OR unfortunately its not just a "user error", as other knitters on ravelry have said they've struggled too! Oops. Well my current plans are to make up some basic raglan decreasing and see if that works... OR rip it out a little bit more to separate the sleeves and body again, and then try one more time to follow the pattern. Argh! I'm kind of mad at it right now but I feel bad I might not finish it anytime soon. We will see.

In non-failure related news, when I was procrastinating the sweater in December, I decided I wanted to knit little stockings for random gifts. I searched for an "ornament" sized pattern, and started with this one: Mini Stocking Ornament

It came out a little big, so i ended up sticking a subway giftcard inside and giving it to my brother for christmas :) I think he was actually happy to get the stocking (as well as the card) seeing as he mentioned not having any christmas decor for his house!

In my second test, I went with this pattern: Mini Holiday Stockings (Seen here next to the first stocking I made!)

These came out more to the size that I wanted! On all of the stockings I made I kind of fudged the heel to follow more of a traditional sock flap heel (from some basic instructions that Cynthia gave me once upon a time!). I think they turned out okay. I made an additional green and white one, and then another red and white one. I gave them to various friends/family. I like these and I might have to make a bunch more for next christmas. So if you are my friend or related to me, please forget all about this post by next December so you can be surprised. Ha!

For one of Norah's little friends I whipped out these Sucky Thumb Mitts. You may recognize the pattern, I used it to make Norah's halloween costume mitts!

My husband had asked me if I had time to make something he could give to his secret santa at work for their "end of the week" gift. I thought, sure! Luckily I was able to whip out some Evangeline gloves with plenty of time to spare. I hope his coworker likes them! (Sorry no finished pic... here's one of it in progress!)

OK This post is long enough for now!!!! I have a few more little things to catchup on. My baby boy is going to be making his arrival sooner than later, so my blogging will probably be even more pathetic than usual after that... but I will try and cram in as much as I can in the next few weeks!!!

Sigh.

One week till christmas, and here I am ripping out part of this project (secret so I can't post about it!).... I knew I should have checked on it better while I was knitting but it SEEMED okay.... now my numbers are all off and it's just... wrong. OOPS. Let's hope I feel like staying up late for the next week!!!

Lucky 7 (& YOTM recap!)

It's my 7 year blogiversary! Wow. I've been blathering on about my knitting for 7 years? And I still only have 3 readers? Hehe! Well to be fair I don't really promote my blog OR post very consistently. Thanks to anyone who has ever visited my site though!

A fitting tribute to 7 years of "knitblogging" is my final Yarn of the Month, which if you don't remember is a gift of yarn EVERY month (for a year) that my mother-in-law has been personally giving me (with thanks to my SIL for helping her pick out the yarn a lot of the time)! It has been an AMAZING year and I have gotten SO much beautiful yarn. I can't write a thank you note big enough for this gift!!!! (Did I win the in-law lottery or what???) I haven't even begun to knit all the yarn she's given me. Let's do a YOTM recap in honor of my year of yarn, shall we?

Christmas 2011: I opened a christmas gift from my MIL to find not only a gift certificate to a local yarn store (among some other things), but this gorgeous cream-colored skein of Cascade Eco Duo:

January 2012: The new year kicked off with a package in the mail containing my second YOTM treasure, a sage green Rowan Felted Tweed:

February 2012: I received two fun multicolor skeins of Adriafil Knitcol. This was eventually turned into a cute halter top for Norah, but I think I only put it on her once because for whatever reason it made her mad and she tried to rip it off :-(

March 2012: Again I got 2 skeins! Wow! This time it was Berroco Peruvia in pretty blue and soft brown shades. I still plan on using these together somehow... I need to think about that!

April 2012: Another skein of Rowan Felted Tweed, this time in an emeraldy green. I am thinking this would be fun with the lighter green skein I got in January... tone-on-tone stripes? Hm.

May 2012: Gorgeous and amazing Malabrigo... 2 SKEINS... in this sky blue. I can't even imagine what to make with this because it's so pretty I hate to touch it... LOL.

June 2012: Another fun and unique yarn I've never seen - Rowan "Amy Butler" Belle Organic DK! Love the pink!

July 2012: Oops I don't think I ever blogged about this one! A different kind of Malabrigo, "Finito". Love the gold and purple tones in this one! I think it needs to be some sort of lacy cowl perhaps?

August 2012: Oh man, yet another one I never blogged! JEEZ! This is Cascade 128 tweed. Very nice!

October 2012: My birthday month! As a fitting fall/halloween tribute I recieved this festive pumpkin orange skein of Cascade 220.

November 2012: Last but NOT least is another unique find, Punta Yarns Merisoft hand painted! Very fall-ish!

WHEW! Seriously... I do not know how I deserved all that amazing yarn or such a generous MIL, but I am a lucky lady. I hope I can continue to come up with fitting projects for all of those skeins!!!! If anyone has a brilliant idea (for any of them that I haven't knitted up yet), feel free to shout them out!

Thanks again to my MIL <3

P.S. Is it December already???? YIKES! MUST KNIT THINGS FOR CHRISTMAS!!! :-O

Gobble Gobble

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! We have our christmas tree up (already!), and Norah couldn't be happier! Our fridge is full of leftovers that I DIDN'T cook (thanks mom!!!), there is a little boy dancing around in my belly, and I finally have some of that lovely yarn on the needles for the first time:

Hope everyone else is as feeling as thankful as I am! :)

Buttons!

Just ran and got cute blue buttons and sewed them on my finished baby cardi.... voila!

Wound up

I wound up a ball of the Purl Soho yarn, but haven't knit with it yet. It's ready and waiting for me though! :-)

In other news, I am blocking a wee cardi for my friend's little boy. This time (first one I made see here) I did the tapered sleeves instead of the straight ones, as I think it will be better to stay close to little newborn arms. I still need to get buttons but here is a progress pic from when I was still knitting it:

Pattern: Puerperium Cardigan
Yarn: Alpaca with a Twist - Baby Twist

Currently on the needles is a pair of fingerless gloves for my friend Natalie. She sent an amazing package in the mail which contained not only YARN, but hot chocolate mixes AND homemade (yes!) marshmallows. YUM!!!! In exchange all I "have" to do is knit the yarn up into things. The yarn is super amazing, so it's really just like one big treat for me!!!!

Yarn: Shepherd's Wool (Stonehedge Fiber Mill) - worsted weight

It's super springy and cushy for 100% wool! Plus when I was winding it up it DIDN'T shed little bits of fuzz like a lot of wool has in the past. I'm a big fan of this stuff! :) As for the glove pattern, she had sent me a photo of some gloves she had seen in a store that she liked. Working roughly from that, I am really just winging it with my own pattern. (scary!) Here is what I came up with:

I borrowed the amazing stitch pattern from this hat: Claudia Hat

The rest is cobbled together and I am hoping they will suit her tastes!!!! I will keep you posted to see if I can make the 2nd glove the same size/pattern. LOL. (I took notes but it's still hard!) I might also have some ideas for the rest of the yarn (seeing as I am going to have plenty leftover!).

Last and also least, I finally gave it up and frogged that sweater I had started for Norah. It just wasn't what I wanted, and I'd much rather make something we will both enjoy wearing and using. Oh well!

Thank you Purl Soho!!!

Yes that's right folks - I am a WINNER! Specifically, I won an online giveaway! I occasionally comment on blogs and enter myself in various giveaways but have never won something. UNTIL NOW. The best part is that I won one of the best things in the world..... YARN!

I've been reading/following the Purl Bee blog (run by the Purl Soho company) for awhile now, mostly because they have GREAT free knitting patterns! Besides being free, the patterns are stylish and things I would actually want to knit. All-in-all it's a great site. Recently they decided to go into the yarn biz and introduced their first yarn, Super Soft Merino! It's a beautiful super bulky merino wool. (Click through that last link to see all their colors!)

Anyway, if you clicked the link you will see they had a giveaway on the blog of some free yarn in honor of their first production. Of course I entered! Lo and behold... I WON. I still can't believe it! They sent me the nicest email and asked what colors I wanted for my FREE 10 SKEINS OF YARN. 10!!!! ZOMG! It took me awhile to decide (and frantic emails to a few friends lol) but I finally emailed them back using 1 zillion exclamation points. Not even a week later this arrived on my doorstep:

_{(4 peacock blue, 4 oyster grey, and 2 yellow yellow)}

Is it not amazing??!?!!!? This is the best contest I could have ever won! :) I had my assistant helping me to open and asses the yarn:

...and she knew exactly what to do with it (rub it on your face to check the softness!):

Needless to say, the name of this yarn totally lives up to the hype. IT IS SUPER SOFT. Like butter. I am sooooo excited to get this on the needles and see how it knits up, but as it is in the skeins I am more than pleased! I promise I will share when I get something cast on. In preparation I have created a folder on my desktop in which I am saving knitting patterns that would suit this yarn. I hope to be able to get as much as I can out of this amazing free yarn!

THANK YOU AGAIN PURL SOHO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I promise I will buy from you in the future! :)

Growing boy

My post title is not referring to my little unborn baby boy (although man is he getting big in there!!!).... I am talking about my nephew Holden!

Back in August of 2011 I finished this adorable striped sweater (and never blogged about it? what??) for my then three-year-old nephew. It was supposedly sized for a 4 year old, and I thought I was playing it safe. Well it ended up fitting, but it was BARELY long enough to cover his stomach. (boo!)

Pattern: Child's Sweater Size 4
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease
Mods: Stripes inspired by Ravelry user's sweater: DomesticImpostor

I had the bright idea that I could lengthen the sweater (seeing as I had some of the yarn leftover in the stash) so that he could wear it this winter! (I hate to see a sweater grown out of so fast, hehe!) I had my SIL give me the sweater and then I got to work. First issue: the original sweater I knit flat and sewed up the pieces. For the lengthened part I knew I wanted to do it in the round (plus how else would I do it... it'd be really awkward to try and do it in pieces for an addition!). My solution ended up being to just muddle through and see what happened. :)

I put the stitches at the bottom of the lowest (green) stripe on a large circular needle. Next, I cut off the grey ribbed edges and pulled out any leftover bits until I was left with just the green stripe on the needles. For the leftover seams I just tried to tie them off as best I could. If they ever do unravel I will bust out some sewing thread, but for now it seems good to go! (whew).

Next I grabbed my spare yarn and added a blue and brown stripe, and then redid the grey ribbed edging. I think it blended in pretty well - I wish I had done a tiny grey stripe between the blue and brown but I was worried about not having enough for the edging.

I plan on giving it back to my SIL next time I see her... I hope I lengthened it enough!!! Cross your fingers for me!