Finish it Friday ~ Tiny Sweater

My knitting activity has been erratic of late. The last thing I made was an extremely long (in inches and months) poncho--a project that was supposed to last the whole pandemic, but which took much longer than I expected and still was done long before there was (or is) and end in sight to the pandemic. I've bought some yarn in the time since finishing the poncho, but I haven't felt the project mojo to get started on another project. But when my brother and his wife announced they were expecting a baby girl this fall, I knew it was my chance to do something I never had time or energy for when I was expecting babies of my own--knit a baby sweater. 

And I knew I wanted to knit Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket, which is made all in one piece, a piece that looks like a weird and wobbly blanket, but which magically folds up into a cute little sweater. I started out with another yarn, a pinkier shade of raspberry, but a finer gauge and a fussy/splitty fiber that was not doing it for me, so I returned to the knitting store for this lovely, soft Malabrigo in a heftier weight (which meant fewer stitches per row, always a plus).

The directions were a little...vague (or, as the updated version of the directions say, "sparse") and leave a lot up to the knitter's knowledge, experience, and personal preference. But ultimately I only referred to the updated directions occasionally to confirm that I'd interpreted the originals correctly. I also enjoyed the humor in EZ's ("Hope you are still with me" when the pattern got very strange, and "The baby will probably be unmoved by this offering, but the parents may well be charmed, and your friends will be amazed."). Really, once I figured out how to tell where my increase/decrease spot was (and gave up being skeptical about the whole thing), it was pretty easy. 

I'd bought some cute little pink flowers for buttons, but they turned out too small for the buttonholes, so I fished these purple ones out of the button jar, hoping they'd give a "whimsical" not "Welch's" vibe.

And, wonder of wonders, even though the salesperson at the yarn store insisted I buy two skeins, I finished the sweater with about six inches of yarn to spare.

Ravelry notes here.

Weekend Things ~ Projects and Fuzzy Animals

I never know how involved I should get in my kids' take-home projects. How much help is actually helpful and how much is helicoptering? It's a conundrum I'll never know the answer to, judging by my anxiety over my firstborn child's ahem laid-back approach to researching college prospects. On the one hand, I had very little help when I was going through the same process. On the other hand, I did not exactly make the best choice and probably could have used some real guidance. The same goes for seventh-grad projects. I remember making a diorama for the book 1984, in which I used Fisher Price peg people. I put the blue peg woman with the yellow bun in a helicopter and suspended her from the top of the shoebox, hovering outside a window. I'd only read the first and last sentence of every paragraph of the book, so it's possible I didn't have a firm grasp of the storyline. It's also possible I might not have been able to pull off a more artistic diorama even if I had.

In any event, E and Z had big projects due this week and I deemed it necessary to dip in my oar, to at least encourage them to up their game over peg-people-in-a-shoebox. They had an assignment of a trifold poster and 3D model about a famous person from history (I think it was meant to be a famous American, but E stretched the boundaries a teensy bit).

E was very glad to have my assistance and I helped him recreate King Tut's coffin out of a papier-mached egg carton and wrap up a corncob in tea-dyed and epsom-salts-soaked muslin. He found lots of photos of his historic character and picked out a cool font, and I supplied colored sticky mounting paper. I think he was pleased with the results. And, because he had his project done a day early, he was able to help a friend work on his project during class, which I think is the most valuable lesson he gained from the whole process (at least on par with using colored mounting paper for effect).



Z, who has a recalcitrant streak, would disappear while I was "helping" him cut out his photos. He didn't want to use glue stick. He didn't want to fill in blank spots with more pictures. He definitely didn't want his picture taken. Fortunately his idea for a model involved woodworking, so C got to help him with that part and I got to take a break on Sunday, visiting, all by myself the Fiber Frolic.

The kids are finally old enough to not want to join me at the annual yarn-and-sheep fair, and that's okay with me.



In fact, walking past the stage where a puppet show was going on, I felt a great sense of relief that I no longer have to pretend to be interested in irritating kids' entertainment in order to trick my kids in being interested in irritating kids' entertainment.

I could just walk past, and go browse the yarn and wool and sheep.



There weren't many of the latter. The Frolic used to have tons of sheep, llamas, alpacas, goats, and rabbits. There were llama parades and drill teams and sheeps-shearing and bunny-brushing demonstrations, but now only a handful of farm animals show up, including this cute, pink-eyed bunny. I suppose it's a big pain for farmers to load their stock up and take them to an event where they probably don't expect to make many sales, but I still miss the supply side of the fiber, even without little kids who might want to pet the animals.

January Knits

I didn't set out to knit a project every month this year, like I attempted to last year, but it looks like I might be on the way to matching 2015's nine-knits record. In any case, I'm putting a dent in the stash. 

First off, I made this cowl from a skein of yummy rainbow yarn I've had hanging around for years. It came together super quick--during a long car ride and a couple of movies--and I had fun watching the wavy pattern emerge. Sometimes I think a busy stitch pattern doesn't work well with multi-colored yarn, but in this case i love the way the stripes of color emphasize the wave effect.

Not only is the cowl pretty, it's effective. It's snug enough to fit beneath the high collar of my coat without feeling lumpy and my neck has stayed cozy and warm, despite the bitter wind that has been blowing all week.

As soon as I finished the cowl, I got started on a cute stripey baby hat. Right around Christmas, I received an invite for a baby shower I couldn't attend and promptly forgot about it until I saw a picture of the baby of Facebook last week--oops! I dug out some yarn from my stash--leftover super-soft cotton/wool blend from the fingerless mitts I made last spring--found a pattern and got to work. After a long stretch of late-night PBS shows Sunday night and a visit Monday from a friend, who didn't mind my knitting while we chatted--ta-da!--the hat was born. I have just enough yarn for a second hat, which I've already started on for another baby I know of who's on the way (trying to get ahead of the curve this time).

Yarn and pattern information on my Ravelry page.

November-December Knit ~ Legwarmers

My final knit of the year was a pair of leg warmers made from a skein of cloud-soft angora/mohair blend. The lace at the top gave me fits at first, but once I got that under control, they knit up pretty easy and were a good watching TV/riding in the car knit. I've worn them around the house a bit, and they are a bit slouchy, due, I think, to a combination of the pattern not being really stretchy, the yarn not being super springy, and my knitting style being really loose. But, oh!, they are so warm and so, so, so, so soft. I almost want it to get really cold so I can take full advantage of them.

I had set myself a goal, at the beginning of the year, to knit one thing per month for 2015. I managed nine knits, which, while not quite hitting my goal, is pretty good for me (even if some of them are dinky little things. Baby steps--or baby stitches, as it were). As always, summer was my Waterloo. I should just face the fact that I'm not a summer knitter (or find something cool to knit--cotton or silk--in the summer). I had started up another project as soon as I finished the leg warmers, thinking I might get one last knit in this year, but I haven't even finished the first round, so that's not going to happen. Oh well, it can be the first knit of the year for 2016.

I'm happy to see that only four of the nine I knit for myself--I was starting to feel like a selfish knitter (but not feeling too bad about that). You can find pattern info and minimal notes on all these projects on my Ravelry page.

Stash

Most of my knits from the last year have come from my stash (all but my January hat, which I made from yarn I bought because I hadn't purchased enough for whole hats when I was in Ireland, and half of the yarn for E's replacement mitten). Otherwise, I haven't bought any new yarn in a long while! Yet I haven't quite made as much of a dent in my stash as I would like. It takes up the top shelf of my craft cabinet, and had gotten all jubled and tangley after a year of rummaging around for what I was looking for.

So this weekend, I pulled it all out to tidy it up, take stock, and make sure there was no sign of wool moth activity (there wasn't). There's a lot of uninspiring yarn in that pile--single skeins and leftover odds and ends and things I inherited from ex-knitters.

 I decided to choose my next projects based on the yarn I most want to play with and came down to a skein of grey angora I bought at the Fiber Frolic a few years ago, a skein of grey lace-weight cashmere that I got on really good sale somewhere a long time ago (I remember my sister was with me, but I don't remember where we were!), and a skein of Noro Silk Garden. I then had to patterns that use single skeins, are something a little different from the usual, and are a little bit challenging (but still TV-compatible). I settled on a pair of leg warmers with a little lace along the top edge for the angora, a slouchy hat for the cashmere, and a crocheted flower scarf for the Noro. Now I can't wait to get started!

Fiber Frolic

I've been feeling kind of cranky lately, due to a lack of time to do any of the things I want to do, so this weekend, I staged a protest. I said "no" to baseball--instead of sitting in the sun to watch M's double-header of rescheduled rained-out games, took E and Z (after their practice) to the Fiber Frolic.

Where we ate falafel and French fries.

Patted sheep.

And lambs.

Collected fresh bunny fuzz.

Watched collies herd ducks.

I've been to the Frolic now almost every year it's been around, the most memorable being when E and Z were about two weeks old and my mom and I each carried one of them in a front pack, and it was about a bajillion degrees and a bajillion percent humidity. Now they're old enough, I can just park them at the sheep dog demo and go look at all the delicious fiber by myself, which is a much less sweaty way to enjoy the frolic than with a newborn glued to your chest.

I actually bought one of these dreamy hand-woven dish towels (shh, don't tell my husband how much it cost).

I kept my money in my purse, though, when it came to yarn. I still have that skein of angora I bought last year, not yet made into anything, not to mention a whole lotta yarn from Ireland (and elsewhere) that needs my attention.

Oh, yeah, and ice cream.

Z really liked this knitted square bunting on the way out, especially the rainbow one. So bright and cheery.

We made it to the last half of M's second game, just in time to see M hit a grand slam (and, later, catch a fly ball in center field), as the team made a come-back and won its first of the season.

Frolic

Last weekend, the boys and I spent a day at the Fiber Frolic. Watching the sheepdog demonstration is always a highlight of the event.

As is, of course, all the gorgeous fiber.

 

And a whole booth of fantastic vintage notions, beautifully displayed (from here).

Maybe it was the heat, but there didn't seem to be as many sheep and alpacas as usual (and I didn't see any llamas), 

but the boys were fascinated to watch this alpaca being shorn.

They always try to talk me into buying a bunny ("Pet this one mom. See? You're not allergic. You didn't sneeze or anything.").

We managed to walk away without a rabbit, but I did come home with a gorgeous skein of grey angora rabbit yarn, which needs to find its way into a project very soon.