June 2010 – Knitting Up North

Back in the Day

Sometime after I had graduated from a scarf (my first one was never finished) and a blanket (a pattern I was trying to make up as I went and again, was never finished) I started making matching hats and scarfs for my family. I believe my younger sister will tell you that the hat I made for her more closely resembles a yamaka. At least I was smart enough with those first few projects to use good wool (for everything but the blanket – I still have chenille yarn sitting in my basement from that).

Athough I don’t remember exactly when I started knitting, I do know that this little shirt was made 6 years ago. I made 2 of these little shirts. One was done in green and yellow self-striping sock yarn for a friend who was pregnant at the same time I was. The other was this one, again done in self-striping sock yarn. I cannot believe that 6 years ago I was pregnant with my first baby. In so many ways, it seems a lifetime ago.

And can you believe that this little girl once fit into this shirt?

I no longer have the pattern. I believe it was from the book, "Simple Knits for Cherished Babies." We didn’t know if we were going to have a girl or a boy, so I chose this multi-colored patterned yarn in the hopes that it would work for either. I do remember that each shirt seemed to take forever to knit and that I was very worried about the seaming. I hadn’t really seamed anything before and I wasn’t sure about the "proper" way. It all seemed to go together well though. I know there were lots of patterns in this book that I liked, although I don’t know if I knit any others before returning it to it’s owner.

Looking at this shirt 6 years later, I think I did a pretty good job. Who would have guessed then that I’d still be knitting today?

Look, A Finished Project!

I was talking to some men not of my generation a few days ago when one of them mentioned that I have a knitting blog. This gentleman looked at me and said something along the lines of, "what’s it about?"

"Knitting," I replied.
Clearly, this was not the answer he was looking for. I don’t think he could imagine what someone could write about knitting that would hold anyone’s attention. So I explained that I showed pictures of my finished projects. That seemed to make more sense.

So I give you an actual. real. finished project. Whoo hoo! Strike up the band because I actually finished something that I can show on the blog. Secret Squirrel projects are nice for the pocketbook, but rough on the blog.

It’s a hat made out of stash yarn. It’s a wool yarn, but the type is a mystery as the ball band was lost. I think I bought the yarn on super discount a while back because I wanted to break out of my blue rut – what I didn’t realize, was that I was only getting into a green yarn rut. The project I bought this for never really peaked my interest and the yarn just sat in my basement. I finally got it out for a little boy’s birthday hat. Now I realize that it’s kind of strange to give a little boy a wool hat in June, even in Northern Wisconsin it’s not that cold. However, I decided that this little boy’s brother got a hat last year for his birthday (his birthday is in November) and it just wasn’t fair if the one child got a hat and the other one didn’t.

The hat is loosely based on Jared Flood’s Turn a Square Hat. It’s my favorite hat pattern as it seems to flatter everyone. I found a gauge that was good for this yarn and just guestimated how many stitches to cast on. I knit purl 2 knit 2 ribbing for about an inch and then changed to stockinette. When it got to be time to decrease, I divided the stitches by 4 and put markers at those four points. Easy peasy. It’s a simple hat that takes very little time to knit (that is, as long as you don’t let it sit for a month before doing the decreases).

By the way, have you heard that the Knitmore Girls podcast is doing a preemie hat design contest? The rules are here. You use leftover sock yarn to knit hats for preemies. The deadline is August 31, so you have plenty of time.

Remember Me?

Hi, remember me? I’m the woman who used to blog here on a semi-regular basis. Lots has been going on lately but I don’t feel like I can coherently put all of it down.

"So, let me ‘splain. No, there is no time, let me sum up."

I feel like I’ve been running around like a crazy person. We’ve been travelling almost every weekend and the house is really getting out of control. I put the girls to work organizing the shoes in the front entry way tonight because it was out of control. I’m not sure it’s any better than when they started, but at least the shoes are paired up.
I started going to an excerise class at the Y 3 days a week. I get up crazy early to do things I hated doing in high school phy ed. You don’t know pain until you wear high heels after doing squatting jumping jacks.
I’m making slow progress on my knitting. I finished the Secret Squirrel project only to pick up another one that needs to be done in the next month.
I’m trading mittens for some work on my car. The guy wants a Lexus symbol on the backs of the mittens – I have no idea how I’m going to do that. Duplicate stitch maybe? I don’t really want to do intarsia, since I don’t want to knit them flat.
I’ve been having some wrist pain and am seeing a chiropractor for it. Hopefully that’s as far as it will need to go. I can see a lump in my hand near my wrist and it bothers me when I type, knit or drive – all things I do on a daily basis.
I am tired. Very tired.

ADD Knitting

I’m starting to wonder if perhaps I wouldn’t finish something if I actually knitted solely on that project. I am feeling very ADD with my knitting lately. I’m also feeling like absolutely nothing is getting done. Am I the world’s slowest knitter or what?!

Here’s a short list of what I have going on (a.k.a. this is a list of things that I am actually working on, not things that are sitting in bins long forgotten).

A Simple Things Shawl
A Secret Squirrel project that I may never really be able to talk about
No purl Monkey Socks for my husband
Skew socks for my sister
A hat that had been sitting for months, I’m finishing it for a little boy’s birthday this weekend.
Oh yes, and I’m planning mittens for a friend who is doing some work on one of our cars. I haven’t cast on yet, but I’m anxious to do so.

Hopefully I’ll have something fun to show you soon. For now, "please enjoy the music while your party is reached."

Peace Out, Man

My daughter’s school had a concert last week, and the theme was Flower Power. The kids were supposed to dress up in bellbottoms and tie dyed shirts. What’s a crafty mom to do? Make bellbottoms out of ripped jeans, of course!

I remembered hearing about some of my Mom’s friends who, back in the day, cut out triangles of cloth and sewed it into the legs of their jeans to make bellbottoms. I turned to the ever trusty source, You Tube, and searched for a video. I half followed the directions and half winged it. Since I managed to break my sewing machine bobbin holder in the midst of this project, I used Steam a Seam instead of sewing the seams. My intention was to go back over the stitches with a whip stitch just to hold everything down. However, I ran out of time and energy on the project. I did cover up the ripped knee with a fun patch that my husband cut into a flower-like shape.

For the final outfit, we added a flowered shirt, knitted headband, sunglasses and love beads. Now she’s a flower child!