Old knit-alongs never die, they just move to the knit-along archives.

smooch

all seasons cotton collection

project archive here

(If you've finished a smooch tank and I don't have it noted, please let me know and I'll update the list. I'm also happy to post a finished picture if you don't have your own website. Thanks for an awesome knitalong, everyone!!)

I've just started teaching a beginning knitting class at my LYS. I really enjoyed the first session. (I guess I've missed teaching!) I've got a little group of advanced beginners and we've got four weeks to work our way through a clear, basic baby sweater pattern (Yankee Knitter #30). I'm not actually making the baby sweater, but instead I'll be spacing my projects out a bit so that I always have something at the same stage as the group to use as an example. Last night's agenda was swatching, reading through the pattern (always a good lesson!), and casting on for the back.

Between demonstrations, I swatched up some fun variegated Classic Elite Waterspun that I'm planning on using for the front of my redesigned Phildar knitalong project.

Recipe: take one Phildar summer top, nix the sleeves, add a dash of Phildar funky cardigan and (fingers crossed), I'll get a funky vest. We'll see! I guess there's a lesson in there for me as well. Project ressurection - how to design your way out of the project blahs.

Homework: finish the back (all those tiny stitches, oh my) and get ready to start the funk, um, I mean front!

The first half of the poncho is done! I like how this pattern works with two identical pieces sewn together at an angle. Here's how it should look from the front - blue stripe down the right side to the point, green forming the majority of the body.

Can you tell that I was inspired by the Villa pattern from Knitty?! Unfortunately when I saw the pattern, I'd already decided to use the Manos yarn that I found in my stash and I know that Manos doesn't have anywhere near the same sort of drape that the GGH Esprit yarn does. I couldn't count on a one-piece poncho really working in this yarn. So I swiped the cool stripe idea (I love stripes!) and will stick with the two-piece poncho.

And I thought my days of wearing a two-piece were over!

Finished the back of my summer top turned funky vest knit-along project.

I'm still feeling guilty that I didn't end up making the summer top I'd planned for the knit-along. Did any of my fellow knit-alongers out there finish the top or have you given up the project as well, or put it away to hibernate until next spring? Perhaps I should rethink the knit-along and open it up to fall Phildar projects, since we all seemed to have moved on?

Speaking of moving on, you all have convinced me to start the filly cardigan next and bring it along with me on vacation. That'll be the second of four planned Phildar projects for me! This funky vest and the striped cardigan, then leigh's sweater and for winter, pinkie. Any more and I think I'll need an intervention!

For the second time in as many months a stranger has approached me during my normal 'pushing the kids around in the stroller' life and told me they recognize me from my blog. Okay, to be honest, they recognize the boys and then they recognize me. Still, pretty cool, huh? I guess I never thought about how many people in my area might happen upon my blog while surfing the net. But there are so many Boston-area knitbloggers, we could probably start a new hobby: blogger-spotting!

Also spotted this weekend:

I spy two kiddies wearing their fall vests. "Look ma, they still fit!"

And it's fall foliage time in New England, which of course means that the trees are losing their... buttons?!

This is your machine on steeks.

Any questions?

Yeah, still on sewing hiatus, but I did rev up the Bernina this weekend to do the steeks on the ladybug sweater. Like my pretty little stitches? Snip, snip and ready for sleeves!

So watch out - the finishing frenzy is back on. I've got a load of finishing to do and there will be no cheating and starting new projects this time, because I've got a sore knitting hand. Due to a little too much knitting, a little too much stroller pushing and way too much across the table cup holding for toddlers ever so anxious to use the 'beeeeg kupp'. Get those party hats back on, the finishing fiesta is coming this way.

We'll kick off this week's finishing fiesta with the last two scarves for the scarf project.

This garter stitch scarf thing is fun! And these sideways scarves are my favorite. I love the look of the stripes going the length of the scarf. But the best part is that there are no ends to weave in. Woo hoo! Simply wrap the ends into some fringe and voila, no finishing a-tall. Too bad I can't do fringe at the seams of all my sweaters! (It would work well for a poncho though, right Kimberly?)

After attaching the fringes, I have barely a foot left over of each color. I just scraped three scarves out of the five skeins that I had. I so enjoy not having extra yarn left over. It's like doing the extra credit problem - okay, this time make three scarves, but don't have any yarn left over. Bonus points for me!

Keeps the doctor away, I hope. As promised, there will be no starting new projects this week. But I am thinking about what I will do once the finishing fiesta is over and I'm on vacation! I had planned to start the filly cardigan, but after feeling that little soreness in my hand over the weekend, I'm considering putting smaller gauged, more fiddly projects on hold for a while. In fact, I'm toying with the idea of doing the next project continental style so as to give my right hand a nice long rest. So that meant that I had to knit some swatches to see which of my projects would be the best to bring with me on my vacation/convalescence. Is that cheating??

I started by swatching up some dreamy alpaca I have earmarked to make the Mystical cardigan from the latest Rowan mag, but it wants to be knit on like US#3's, so it's out for now. Sorry, fall/winter sweater knit-alongers, I'm going to be a bit behind!

Taking a dramatic turn away from fine gauge wool, I knit up a swatch of the Colinette Fandango yarn that my mother picked out for her asymmetrical vest from The Knit Stitch. I really liked knitting up this yarn. Big gauge, but not too large as to be awkward. Still, it was too chunky for me to knit continental. Nevertheless, it's a possibility.

Then I had to knit some swatches up for knitting class last night. I didn't know what yarn to use, so I just pulled out some of the yarn for leigh's sweater. I was able to knit it up with my left hand with no problem and the yarn seemed very forgiving of my not quite perfect tension. So I'm also considering this one for the vacation. Not the filly, but a phil'leigh. Hey, it's close.

My hand's doing fine, by the way. No twinges or soreness while swatching. But now that the little swatch interlude is over, it'll be back to the finishing for me. Keep your fiesta hats ready!

Time for a poncho party!

Okay, I'll admit it: knitting up the second piece of this poncho in a week clearly did not help my wrist situation. But once I'd finished the knitting over the weekend, it was a snap to sew up. Just two little seams. Zip. zip. And it's a poncho. That Sally Melville is so clever!

I did have a little problem with the neck, though. Since I wasn't using the same gauge and was doing stockinette instead of garter stitch and also added the stripe, I was readjusting the numbers in the pattern quite a bit. I ended up making each piece a bit wider than the pattern called for. I didn't think much of it while knitting, but when it came time to sew it up I realized the problem with adding width and not length. The 8" inch difference between width and length creates the neck opening. My wider poncho ended up having only about a 3 inch neck opening. Whoops! I finally decided to fold down a bit of the extra into the neck, so that the opening is sort of angled. I'm really pleased with how it looks - much more stylish than a regular neckline would have been. It seems Stella and Pioneer Melissa had a simliar issues which they also solved very fashionably. Hey, these things aren't problems, they're design opportunities! Well done, my poncho pals. Okay everyone, slip on your ponchos, pick up your maracas, and dance!

Remember how I thought this phildar top was going to be so small that it would probably fit my boys? Luckily, I was able to remember way back to how I tend to overestimate my own size when I knit. Wouldn't you know it, the funky vest came out just right!

(Like my LoobyLou pose? She's the queen of tanks, so she ought to know how to show off a sleeveless top!) Here's a side view where you can see the solid lilac back.

This top was a great experiment. I wasn't excited about the little summer top anymore (it being fall and all). And I wanted to spice it up a little. So I picked up a couple skeins of variegated yarn that coordinated with the lilac and set about readjusting the numbers for the front, which has a totally different gauge. I picked up stitches on the back to add a ribbed edge and after completing the front I added one there as well with the yarn used on the back. It was tricky picking up stitches in the front using the finer gauge yarn. I ended up picking up all the stitiches I could and then in the first row adding about 25% more stitches evenly across the band. I did the same on the front of the armhole bands and neck edge. I think the final look is pretty neat. I like vests anyway and am thinking about experimenting with making a couple more. All I need are some more patterns to deconstruct. Tee hee.

Whew, that was some week of finishing! But I've still got the two big projects left to clear out of the knitting basket by mid-week next week. Can she do it?! If it means more opportunities for fiesta-ing, you bet! Join the party, everyone. Tell me what you're finishing. And if you finish something this weekend, be sure to bring it to next week's final finishing fiesta so we can celebrate together.

The giranimals jacket. You thought maybe I was neglecting it? I guess I was a little. To be honest, I'd forgotten how to attach the collar with the backstitch. After a week of trying and ripping and doing something else, then trying and ripping again, I finally got it.

Now, the jacket is all sewn up, ends woven in, neck and buttons attached. Done! Hey, hey, not so fast. What about that giraffe pocket? Oh, yeah. Back into the finishing basket. One giraffe and about 40 bugs. It's a zoo in there!

Did you lose weight? Get a haircut? Nope, I got an "afterthought buttonhole".

It was so nice of everyone not to notice (or remark on) the totally missing buttonhole on the neck of giranimals #2. Here's a look at giranimals #1 again and a close-up of the neck with obvious buttonhole. It seems that six months ago when I did the knitting on the second jacket, I, whoops, forgot to put a buttonhole in the neck! Elizabeth Zimmerman to the rescue. One little snip and some some quick seaming and you got yourself a buttonhole. No one will ever know.

Um, except all of you, whom I just told.

I've been knitting much less these last few days and, well, it's driving me positively stir crazy! In those down times during the day when I usually knit, I'm missing my needles pretty bad. I filled one gap by going to the yarn store and buying supplies for a few Christmas presents (stripey scarves for everyone!). And another evening was spent working out the technical details for my mother's asymmetrical vest (which I'm not knitting in garter stitch in one piece, but in stockinette in three). I also dreamed up a few new projects (a little down-time can be a dangerous thing) and even fantasized for a while about designing something myself (someday, when I can knit again).

Of course, there's always the boys, who are happy to distract me from my knitting anytime. But what a happy distraction they are. We went to a local farm over the weekend for a hayride. I wore my ribby and the boys wore their curls.

Giranimals jacket, numba two:

Wanna see some more pics? Okay.

Boy in giraffe jacket with runny nose.

Boy in giraffe jacket with bowl of raisins.

Together, at last.

Just in case I wasn't getting tired of finishing yet, class time. We were working on seaming shoulders and picking up stitches for starting sleeves. For seaming shoulders, I usually I prefer weaving the shoulders together. I like the way you can get the stitches to look like they just go right over the shoulder. With a three-needle bind off they're matched but going in different directions. Don't know why, but that bothers me a little. I brought the ladybug sweater to work on while the students practiced their seaming. I really like the shoulders on this one. Dale has you do a couple of purl rows at the top of the shoulder and then seam through the purl bumps, leaving a little purl row at the edge. Cool look for a baby sweater. They have you leave a purl row at the sleeves too.

I've got the sleeves all done (facings sewn down too!) and just have the neck to go to finish. Tonight!

Time to retire the super chic chicKami knitalong. Just thinking about my chicKami here in the throes of fall makes me want to knit more ponchos. Hmmm.... maybe a MiniChic poncho.

ChicKami
ChicKnits Pattern

green = finished

Look, ladybug buttons!

I feel like I've been working my way towards this sweater since I started knitting. It was one of the first patterns that I saw and thought, now that I have to make. But I knew I couldn't do it right away. So I practiced my basic knitting skills on those first giant blanket projects, made my first couple of sweaters, then learned continental knitting and took workshops on fair-isle knitting and steeking. Whew, what a long trip it's been. But I made it (literally!). And not a moment too soon - the pattern only goes up to a two-year size!

Stay tuned: as soon as the boys wake up, I can get an action shot of B in his bug sweater.

And here's B bouncing around in his new sweater.

Boys and their bugs.

Well, adiós, my finishing fiesta amigos! I've cleared out my finishing basket and definitely earned a vacation. Oh, I'll still be knitting. And blogging. Just at a vacation pace. Blue blog, fly away home.

The blue blog vacation report - first edition. We made it and once I get over this jetlag, I'll hope to have some vacation knitting to share. What will I be knitting, you ask?

Well, I had a real hard time deciding. After toying with fandango and then with the leftovers vest (there's a blast from the past!) and reconsidering all my Phildar projects because of the smaller gauge and my wanting to rest my hand, I decided on sooty mango. Easy knitting at a relaxing gauge. Should knit up quickly without being a strain on my hand. I'm going continental on this one. When in Germany....

And the boys will not be left out during this vacation. Becky made sure there was some yarn waiting for me at my in-laws to make little Phildar vests for the twins. Thanks, Becky!

Psst - the knit-alongs are still on, but please email me if you finish something so I can update the list and check it out! From here, I won't have time to surf all my daily reads and fellow knitalongers' sites. (Sniff, sniff). So, be sure to let me know when anything interesting happens, okay?!

As I explained to the boys that we were in an airplane, S started to say, "fffly, fffly."

After a take-off snack of cookies and juice, we looked at the "beeeg book" for a while.

And finally B laid himself down on the floor and went to sleep.

Just like that. For four hours. We were wondering how in the world they were going to sleep in the airplane seats. Gotta be two years old, I guess, to think outside of the box like that. S streched out across his and B's seat and slept until we reached the other side of the Atlantic.

And there were many thumbs-up exchanged across the row between me and my husband.

In case you thought I was joking about vacationing in the Hinterlands, here's a picture of the Sunday paper.

As you might expect, it's pretty rural out here. And I do mean pretty.

This is a pic from the balcony. The backyard ends at the hedge row right before the sheep. And that's the town beyond the fields. Many of the locals have a small field or two out in the hills that they farm for themselves.

We took a little tour of the village with the boys in search of farm animals and found cows, horses, and some chickens and geese. The geese were very funny.

I mean really funny.

After spending one evening recovering from jetlag and the next going to the movies (Seabiscuit dubbed in German!), I found some time to start my vacation knitting and cast on for sooty mango. Here's my progress after a day and a half. The ribbing is a little wonky thanks to my not quite so perfected continental technique, but it's black, so the little imperfections really don't show up. I'm hoping that I'll have better control over my tension when it comes time to start the front. More annoying though are the two knots I've already found in the first ball of yarn. See them hanging there taunting me?! Grrrr.

Besides doing practically no knitting, I'm hunting through the yellow pages for a knitting store in the area. I gotta at least look, right?

Much knitting progress to report. Sooty mango is well underway. Once the silly ribbing was over (of course it's ribbing up to the waist), my tension evened out beautifully (yay!) and I made it all the way up to the armholes on the back. Here the official photo.

And here a few seconds later as B ran across my knitting to get his blankie.

And in the time it took my husband to read the boys their goodnight story (um, well, repeat the goodnight story from memory, since we kinda forgot the books!), I knit up a swatch for their Phildar vests. This is going to be a super easy, quick knit. Bulky yarn... good.

And check out this discovery in the in-laws' attic: an old knitting machine that belonged to my husband's grandparents.

All the parts are there including the old instruction booklet. The machine model is called "Frauenlob" (women's praise). Don't you just love it?! Could it be any more 1950's sounding?! Could it be any more German sounding?! How funny. My father-in-law wants to see if he can get it in working order again so I can try it out. So, more to come!

If you know anything about German boardgames, you'll recognize the Sielder bus (if not, you can read a quick intro here). While we're here on vacation, the annual Essen boardgaming convention is taking place. Since we're just a few hours away we took a ride out to Essen each of the last two days to check out the new games, meet up with some fellow boardgaming fans (yes, others from Boston and all over America fly over specially for the event) and just join in on the fun. Two hours each way, each day, makes for some nice car knitting!

Here is one of the boys' Phildar vests in progress on the road. After our first daytrip to Essen, I'd finished the knitting on the first vest. Man, that bulky yarn sure does knit up fast! I was able to knit the second one yesterday in the car. Next up, blocking. Man, that bulky yarn sure does need a good blocking! Then seaming this weekend and the boys can be wearing their warm little vests next week. (Which is good, cause it's freezing over here! The car's outside temperature gauge read -8� celcius at one point on the ride out to Essen yesterday morning and we even saw snow falling outside through the window of the convention hall.)

Speaking of the boys, they had quite a bit of fun of their own while we were away. They went to visit their great uncle and his tractor!

The stores are closed here on Sunday of course, but we did get some vacation shopping in during the week. At the local grocery store the boys got to ride in fun kid shopping carts with "autos" on the front,

and I found all the great knitting and sewing catalogs. I bought the new Verena knitting and Burda sewing mags right away and plan to pick up the latest Ottobre, Rebecca Baby & Kids and Filati magazines next time we go out.

The best yarn selection I came across was in a toy and hobby store; still I didn't see anything I couldn't live without. But I did find some material remnants marked down to a reasonable price, which will do nicely for some summer tops once I get back in the mood to sew again.

And now it's Sunday, a day of rest, at least from shopping. Not from knitting, though! I've begun sewing up the boys' vests and the back of sooty mango is all done (no pictures, as it's hard to photograph dark knits in this sun-less weather pattern we've got going on here). The boys will definitely have finished vests before we leave, but I'm pretty sure I won't be finishing sooty mango here. After all, the stores do open again tomorrow! And this week the kiddies get to go to the family stationery store to pick out something fun for themselves.

Remember picture day at school? I was always laying my best clothes out the night before and hoping for a good hair day. Well, it's a relatively good light day today here, so I thought what better time to get all the knitting photos taken.

First up, the boys' Phildar vests. I used five skeins of Phildar's oh so fabulous fantasia yarn for these. The pattern called for three skeins for one vest, but a little bird told me that there would be some leftover, so I got five skeins and hoped for the best. Here's what I had left over. Now that's what I call cutting it close! I should have some action shots of the boys in their new vests tomorrow.

Hey, check out what I found in the magazine section of the family stationery store: a german version of Phildar's baby catalog, the one from last year that has both the giranimal pattern and the pattern I used for the new fantasia vests. Yeah, I have it in French, but it was so neat to see it all in German, I got it anyway.

And finally pictures of the back of sooty mango in all its sootiness. I've only taken the back out of the project bag twice to photograph and I'm already picking little light linty bits off of it. Oh boy! Despite the black being a big lint magnet, I think I'm going to like this sweater. I'm making it a snug fit, mostly because my continental gauge tightened up a little. And I'm hoping that with a little tip from ssk, the ribbing on the sleeves will be better than on the body.

Ten hours to take off. Time for a vacation wrap-up.

The vests are finished, although it's unclear whether they're a success or not. As I mentioned in the comments yesterday, a few minutes after snapping the photos, S started tugging at his vest and saying "no, no". I let him take it off (sad mommy moment) but am officially attributing his vest-aversion to a "no"-phase that he seems to be going through right now. B, thankfully, maintained his usual fashion disinterestedness. Although I didn't end up having enough knitting time to get sooty mango finished, it is almost half done now. I set it down the front here, having just finished the armhole decreases.

One last thing to report - my father-in-law got the knitting machine up and running! Now that it's bolted to a table and oiled up, I can move the shuttle back and forth smoothly. My brother-in-law is the only person still living who actually knit something with the machine, so I had him help me knit a few rows while he was here to see the boys. Here we've got actual live stitches in the machine! And here's the knitted piece hanging below. Yes, it's a little hole-y, but it is knitting. As the Germans say, 'aller Anfang ist schwer.' And here's a slightly better piece of knitting that I managed with the help of my father-in-law. I'm still not clear on how to cast off from the machine. Maybe I can find some general info on machine knitting that can give me some clues.

All in all, a pretty cool vacation, knit- and other-wise!

We had a happy flight back, thanks to Dora the Explorer and Bob the Builder. Some Dora books and Dora Leap Pads were good for the first few hours. Then my husband set up the laptop on the seat back tray and we got at least two hours of Dora and Bob DVD's in on the plane. And finally new Bob toys kept the boys entertained until landing. Thank you, Bob!

Speaking of Bob, we've got two little Bobs here for Halloween.

Now, if I could only get these little Bobs back on a regular sleeping schedule, I could get back to knitting again!

(Nowie is how the boys say more. So everytime a Bob video ends, we hear a chorus of "nowie Bob, nowie Bob, nowie, nowie!")