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!

Happy New Year

Well, it is nice to finish out the year with a photo of a finished object (there are still projects in the wings, but hey, let's celebrate the small victories!). Only one sock is showing here as this photo was taken at the airport in Houston on our way home from a week on a cruise. My niece Jennifer is the recipient (and Harry Potter fanatic) and she is modelling and displaying the sock here for out viewing pleasure. The first sock is packed somewhere in her bags as she actually received it on time - Christmas day... What can I say? We were all laughing at the fact that this, the second sock, was begun the night before the flight left for our vacation and was unaccountably narrower than its fraternal twin. Could it be that the stress of vacation messed with my tension just a little??? In fact, our trip down was harrowing and exhausting - delays at every step of the journey. Not surprising that the tension shifted. A perfectionist would have frogged the whole thing and started again. However this sometime perfectionist had to get the socks finished before we came home, and they will both still go on her feet.


So pleased to report that Jennifer, along with her sister Kirsten and Stewart participated in the Harry Potter trivia quiz aboard ship. After correcting the judge on his pronunciation of J.K. Rowling's name, and asking for clarification as to whether he was referring to the British or the American version of the film of book one, HP and the Philosopher's Stone, it became rather obvious who was a front runner to win - and indeed they did win, missing only one question, and that by only a small error! Yes, these socks knew who they were destined for - the greatest HP geek on the planet. So a little Weasley error like differing tension on the two socks is no big deal. :)

Happy New Year!

Gryff 'n' Dor

These lovely little mittens are winging their way east to the Bronx. Our Knitting Guild sends mittens to a kindergarten class in the Bronx, and for my pair, I decided to use some leftover yarn from the famous Quidditch sweater and build some Harry Potter mittens. Gryff and Dor are red and gold coloured mittens in honour of Harry's house, Gryffindor! Very easy to make, I whipped these out over a weekend and am very happy with the way they look. I tried to figure out how to do a jogless round with the colours as I changed colours; it is not perfect, but I managed to get the colours somewhat aligned. Though I like knitting in the round, this is one drawback that has always frustrated me. The magical mittens should be cosy; they are made with superwash wool, and doubled yarn for extra thickness. Hope they go over well in New York!


Kate Gilbert is a very talented Canadian designer of knitwear and this little sweater, which she called the Pea Pod sweater, is absolutely adorable. My mother will be horrified at the choice of colour for a baby, but I think it is charming. The leaf detail on the sweater is lovely and I think the off-centre closing is so creative. The buttons I chose reminded me of the shape of a pea pod, and I tried to alternate the direction they lay as I sewed them on down the front. Like all buttons, however, they have some wiggle room, and don't stay neatly aligned where I placed them.


I made the little beanie to match, and searched through Zoe Mellor's bootees book to try and find a bootee that might look good with the sweater. I found one with a leaf design on it, and was going to make it, but then realized that I could make the bootee and place the leaf design on the legging part. Topped off with a band of the distinctive ribbing, the bootees look like they were designed to match. They just need some stitching up and then a length of ribbon to tie at the ankle and the set will be ready to go. Most of Zoe's bootees are designed to be knit flat and then sewn up. I understand that you have to start flat, but I reasoned that once you got to the leg part there is no reason why you can't begin knitting in the round. So, once I knit the sole and the ribbon eyelets, I transferred the stitches onto DPNs and joined the bootee together at the back of the ankle. I like the look of it much better when there is no seam on the back of the leg. Take a look at the detail on the lace leaf band; isn't it beautiful?