Baby sweaters are so fast

that I didn't even see this one coming! How could I have three projects started and then cast on this one, I don't know. Anyway, I cast on this lovely little white sweater Monday night, and since the back and fronts are knit together, it is more than halfway done. I has little pink ribbon roses to be attached in the centre of the 'v's, and the finished effect will be very delicate and sweet. Two sleeves and a bonnet to go - should be finished soon as I am on Spring Break.

I haven't neglected the other projects, though. Well, one other project shows progress anyway. Stewart's green ribbed sweater now has a VERY large back. This is an oversized pattern, but I think this sweater will fit him when he is 16! I love the way it feels and hangs. He is liking it, too.



We have just come home from a trip to Victoria to visit Grandma, and I managed to convince her that she was knitting too many socks. She was coerced into knitting the lovely little bumble bee bootees that I had purchased the yarn for. These are for her great grandson, Sweet Baby James. I knitted the edge around the ankle, but that is all I can lay claim to in this project. The colour of the yellow in these bootees is much brighter than shown in the image. It is almost an orange - very vibrant with the black. Mom found it very hard to see the stitches in the black yarn, much as Holli mentioned in a recent post...

So, sleeves await me. White baby sweater sleeves and green ribbed sweater sleeves. I like sleeves. They go faster than backs. :)

Spring fever

That has to be it. Otherwise, how can I explain three new projects that just happened? And yarn for a fourth? Yikes. Take a look at my backyard leaves scarf. It is almost halfway done. For each half, you knit eleven repeats and I have nine repeats done. Yahoo. the colour in this photo is off. I took the shot without flash so as to be able to see the stitch definition, and the colour came out much too blue. The actual colour is closer to a dark Kelly green. I don't like how heavy this yarn is. I would definitely choose a lighter weight yarn if I were to knit this again. A yarn like, for example... this stunning Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool that I purchased to make a ribbed sweater for Stewart. I love the feel and the drape of this yarn. It is linen-like and yet soft. Stewart chose the colour himself, so I hope he will like the end product.



Then, I had this Goldielocks yarn from Fleece artist. It is a lace weight, and I thought I would try out some lace patterns and make a shawl with it. I found, however, that the locks on the yarn make it difficult to see the pattern in the knitting, so in the end, have decided to simply knit the garter stitch shawl included in the ball band. It is knitted on 6mm needles, so the overall effect will be lacy and light anyway.

Green for spring. Nice, n'est-ce pas? Ok, Ok, so I also purchased some baby Bamboo from Sirdar to make the lovely little baby cardigan in Vogue Knitting (Spring 2007?). Yes, I have my work cut out for me for the spring.

Curious Oliphaunt

Stewart loves his new Oliphaunt. Just finished, we thought he looked like he was asking a question when he has his head tilted to the side a little bit, so Stewart decided he would be "curious Oliphaunt". I am particularly happy with his eyes. I found some of the black Zephyr left over from the Kitri socks, and lo and behold, there were still some beads strung on it! So I decided to try and integrate a bead for each eye, and make his eyes look a bit more interesting. While this was a fairly easy knit, I am still not crazy about knitting stuffed animals. I don't like the finishing, trying to hide ends inside a body and not sure if the ends will stay afixed. I did change the ears for this guy - several people had done knitted ears rather than the crocheted ears called for in the pattern. While I can crochet, I just didn't like the way the ears were turning out when I crocheted. I thought the knitted ears looked better. With his big floppy ears, he is definitely an African elephant!





Moving along to my next project, I decided to cast on Annie Modesitt's Backyard Leaves scarf instead of beginning the grey sweater for me. Numerous reasons for this, but I am not unhappy to put the sweater on hold for a bit. The backyard leaves pattern is beautiful and fairly easy to follow, except you have to be right on top of the pattern all the time. No watching TV and knitting on this one. This will probably become less critical as I knit a few repeats and get the pattern down pat. Anyway, love the pattern and the colour of the yarn. I'm thinking ahead to spring...

St Valentine's Day

I have never been too keen on the idea of knitting stuffed toys, but when Stewart asked me to make him this cute little elephant it was hard to say no. The designer created this elephant in striped colours, but Stewart decided on this bright variegated yarn. It needs ears, a tail and embroidered eyes, but the bulk of the work is done and Stewart likes the way he looks so far. Thanks, Julie, for showing us your Oliphaunt and inspiring me to create one for my boy. A great way to celebrate Valentine's Day - making something that he will love!

This is a good point to mention how much I am enjoying Ravelry. I found Julie and her Oliphaunt on Ravelry and I am spending time (that could probably be better spent knitting - or - perish the thought - doing housework) looking at peoples' projects and oohing and aahing over the beautiful yarns that are available. A great time waster...

Geometry and colour

I always did love geometry. However, I am reminded once again that I don't like colourwork (either Fair Isle or intarsia). I know, I know, you are supposed to turn the needle carefully back and forth as you work, and one row you cross the yarns and the next row you untangle them. That's fine in principle, but I always end up with a tangle to sort out anyway. I hate tangled yarn. So this project kept being put back in the basket while I got on with other things. Result was that I lost my tension control (or switched needles - who knows?) and the front and back tensions don't match. It has reiterated once again for me that I need to be a one project knitter. Well, this little sweater is not my best work. I should probably have taken the thing apart early on and started again, but as it was not a project I was enjoying too much, I couldn't face doing it a second time. The result is not too bad, considering that I was so frustrated a few times. The bonus is that my backlog is now clear (except for the bark pattern sweater), so I can begin a new project. Wish me luck!

Duck feet

Whenever I say Duck Feet in my head, my brain goes to that old commercial for a seafood restaurant (can't remember the name) where the ditty was "Who's got crab legs?" I hear the tune and I see those silly feet in my head. But just look at these little cuties! One more finished object for the files. Stewart and I are so excited because we are going to Chilliwack tomorrow to see new baby boy and gift him with these latest projects - the duck feet booties and the new fuzzy white and blue sweater. Hope he stays small long enough to get some wear out of them!



I almost have my knitting basket up to date now. Just the little purple and green cable sweater to finish and then the only unfinished project I will have will be Kerry's Norah Gaughan sweater. That one I had already decided to put to the side for a while, so I should be clear to start a new project!! Excitement and drum roll, please! Next up is the two tone grey cable front sweater in Vogue knitting (Fall 06?, maybe). Looking forward to it!

Haste makes waste

Never get too cocky with your knitting. This project is a pure case in point. Having knitted this sweater recently, I thought it would be a no brainer to knit again... HA! First problem was that I forgot which knitting needles I used last time. And since the nature of this yarn is such that it is virtually impossible to see the individual stitches, counting them to see if you have gauge is quite the challenge. After three false starts and three different needle sizes, I switched back to the initial needles I tried, only to figure out when the sweater was partially done that this time the sweater was considerably smaller than last time. Since baby is already here, I decided to press on, and simply have a smaller size - however, that means that speed is even more of the essence as wee boy is growing daily, naturally... I was trying to adapt this sweater for a boy. The original sweater, done with pink and green trim, is very clearly girlish, but I thought that with blue trim and some minor adaptations, I could make this suitable for my new grand-nephew. I do like the blue, and I decided to do less of the shell crochet for the edging, since that seemed frillier. I like that look. However, the embroidery on knitted fabric remains a huge pain, and I started the sleeve embroidery at least three times in an effort to get it to look right. I thought a wave pattern, instead of zig zags would look nice in the blue. I do like the results, but this came at a price. It took easily twice as long to do the embroidery and the crocheted edgings as it took to knit all four pieces - and I took out the bootees and did them a second time. (Too big first time around.) One innovation I am pleased with is that I took some iron on interfacing (very soft) and placed it where the embroidery was going to go. This made it easier to set the stitches where I wanted them, and I was also able to draw directly onto the interfacing so I could see where I would be stitching. All in all, this helped, but it was still a fairly time intensive project for what is, after all, a very easy knit. Hope that it is appreciated, and will still fit baby boy for a little while, anyway!