Baby Clothes

I've never done any baby knitting. I wasn't knitting when my children or grandchildren were born. I wasn't confident enough to knit for the few friends of mine who had babies. And then my best friend's daughter had a baby boy and my new step-son and daughter in law had a baby girl, both this year! Yay!!! One of each!!! So the first thing I did was knit the famous Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Surprise Jacket. Very easy pattern but you have to trust the pattern and just knit it! That was for Krysten's baby boy Aiden. The challenge here was that Aiden was born premature and I had to figure out how to size the pattern. In the end I just knit the smallest size I could figure out, out of cotton yarn. Its too big for him, but he can grow into it...

Then I found a lovely pattern for my new granddaughter Brielle called  Seamless Yoked Sweater by Carole Barenys. It was easy and knit up really fast. I used a soft acrylic yarn for easy care from JoAnn called Sensations Cuddle Muffin. It is really lovely to work with. I also found a sock pattern online at Discontinued Yarns for a simple baby sock. 

I'm looking forward to more baby knitting as these one grow up. I've also started collecting patterns and making lists of what I want to knit for my older grandchildren now that I have more time to knit. 

New Socks Done!!

I got some beautiful yarn for my birthday back in March and have carefully been considering what to do with them. I got 2 skeins of Happy Feet from Denise and of course made socks. Even though I have several projects in process I wanted to do the socks cause they are so portable. I used Wilma Becker's Waffle Stitch pattern with size 0 needles and did them toe up 2 at a time. I'm pretty happy with them. The fit is great and the pattern is very forgiving. Thanks for the yarn Denise and the inspiration to start knitting a new project!

Seaside Shawlette Blocked

Yea! The Seaside Shawlette is done! I'm very happy with how this came out. Its lovely and soft and a perfect weight for a lightweight cover when sitting in the evenings and knitting. It will also be a perfect wrap for going to a restaurant in the summer when you have summer tops on and they have the air conditioning blasting away! It folds up very nice and compact so its easy to carry along. It was easier than I first thought it would be and makes a great stay at home project. It takes a bit more concentration to keep your place in the charts. I think I will be making more shawls in the future. I used less than 1 skein of Schaefer Anne yarn in the Bay Leaf, Sage and Rosemary colorway and Wendy Johnson's pattern Seaside Shawlette. I haven't weighed the left over yarn but it feels like about half. I'm going to see if I have enough left to make socks.

Yea! My Seaside Shawlette is done!

Ok, so its not completely done, but it is bound off the needles. Its lovely. I have to find my pins for blocking. It did take me a lot longer to do that I anticipated but I had 3 long breaks while knitting it. But once I got moved and unpacked I zipped through the last chart. I really loved knitting this but I had to do it at home. Sometimes even the TV distracted me enough to make mistakes but it wasn't really that hard. I'll post again once I have it washed and blocked. Can't wait to wear it!

Shawl and Sock Update

I figured I better get an update on here. Here is a new picture of my shawl in progress. Its coming right along. I've completed Chart A and will be starting Chart B. I estimate its about 60% complete as I only do Chart B and C once where I repeated Chart A 3 times.

I'm also updating you on my Diamond Chain socks. I'm really happy with the look of the pattern. This yarn really shows it off. I've learned alot about yarn/pattern choice. I think I will save the lace patterns for smoother yarn as it really shows up better. The fuzzy yarns I'll do a simpler pattern like Wilma Beckers Waffle Stitch pattern. It make a lovely texture. On a side note while I was waiting for my car inspection to be done yesterday I pulled out these socks to pass the time. I had quite an audience in the waiting area.

Knit Olympics Shawl Update

Ok, a quick post to show my progress. It may not look like much but if you look close you can see the white string running through as the lifeline. In the last picture the string was several rows lower so I think I've done about 20 rows since the last picture. I'm going to visit Katie next week in Bosser City and will have time to work on it while everyone is in school and work so I still hope to be in Gold Medal contention. For those of you who don't know, Gold Medal is completed by the closing ceremonies.

Knit Olympics Shawlette

When Regina Dale from the Song and Dance Ranch and Howling Wolf Herbs suggested a Knit Olympics I decided it was a great idea and that I needed to use the opportunity to try a different project. I have been following Wendy Johnson's blog called Wendy Knits and watching her make shawl after shawl. When I mentioned this at a Grapevine Stitch n Bitch meeting several people told me they use shawls all the time. With that I was hooked. I dug through my stash and found a yarn I thought was suitable and then sent a message to Wendy asking her advice for which pattern to try for my first lace knit shawl and told her what yarn I was going to use. She very kindly replied back with two suggestions and I chose her Seaside Shawlette. I cast on last night during the Opening Ceremonies and by the time they were finished I have worked up to about halfway through the set up chart. It seems to be going well and I have every intention of completing it by the end of the Olympics. I am using Schaefer Anne yarn in the Bay Leaf, Sage and Rosemary colorway. This is a beautiful yarn with a lovely hand. I'm very excited. I've taken a picture of the yarn wound in a center pull ball along with the knitting so far and a picture of the pattern. I also have a close up of the knitting so far. I know it doesn't look like much right now but I am confident it will be beautiful! I will keep you posted on my progress.