A great knitalong started by Leigh and Carolyn, that I just had to join. Yes, several people stopped knitting along the way, and I ripped out my finished ribby to make Banff out of the yarn, but there were some gorgeous ribbies made too (be sure to check out Claudia's tips if you're thinking of making a ribby). And some are still ribbing on (like Kerrie, who's working on Bonne Marie's new 2x2x3x1 ribby pattern!).

ribby cardie

started august 2003

Just in time for the Tricot-along, you asked for it, you (finally!) got it, upsized numbers for Tricot! Go get 'em here.

And I'll let you in on a secret - shhhh... I'm working on a mini-sized Tricot, something to fit my little guys. (Be sure you sign up for the Magknits newsletter so you can get the pattern when I'm done!)

Yes, you knew it had to happen, a sew-along for that little Butterick pattern that everyone seems to have.

I know that some of you will be done in no time, so we'll make this a brief one. How about the month of May? That gives me a goal to shoot for too.

To get warmed up, I'm trying out what looks like a pretty simple Burda pattern for a cozy, blousy top. Well, the pattern instructions look simple once I find the pattern pieces in this maze of lines.

Yikes!

My NYC shrug at Knitsmiths yesterday. I'm working hard on making my mother's day deadline. Three of nine balls knit = a third of the way there. That means six more balls worth of black stockinette stitch. Sigh.

In slightly more exciting news, I solved the Burda maze and was able to trace and cut out my pattern pieces for my simple, slouchy top.

Just wait till you see the fabric! The boys will love it: biiiiiiiig, yebie flowsies.

Hot off the doorstep - my yarn from the Netherlands. Yup, the Breiweb folks and the US Postal Service finally came through. And here's what it was all for - that little green ball in the center.

Phildar Plaisance in Piscine. Not available in stores, anymore - that's right, discontinued, baby! Thankfully Breiweb still had some in stock. And then I had to order a few more things to make the shipping worth it. You understand. And just for fun, I ordered one of the Phildar catalogs from them. In Dutch. I enjoy working my way through German and French patterns, so this should be a real laugh.

I'm in such a good mood now that my yarn has arrived. Here's wishing you all mooie dagen (lovely days) like today!

In the homestretch. One sleeve in, one to go. Buttons, collar still to come.

Six of nine balls knit. I'm getting there! 35" long and getting too big to photograph. While I was trying to snap its pic on the dining room table, this guy came zooming by:

I'm real busy these days getting the house ready for an extended visit by the in-laws. In addition to "clean sweep"ing a lot of the crap out of the guest room/office, I finally got down to reorganizing all my stash and current projects. Wow, I've got a lot of things on the needles right now! And I also found three unfinished sewing projects to add to my two new ones. My side of our bedroom is suffering from some serious craft creep!

Last night's feeble attempt to stem the tide consisted of cutting out the fabric for my big Burda top. Here's the pattern pic (from the 12/03 issue). The pattern is written for fleece, but I wanted something springy, so I'm using this flowery cotton print my mother gave me gobs of, since the pattern requires lots of yardage. If the cotton doesn't work out, I might try it again with some polyester knit fabric I have. And if it does work out, I'll definitely be trying it again with my knit fabric! Here's a peek at the flowery fabric. It's the wrong side, so imagine it all brighter and bolder, if possible!

I hope to be able to sew up this top relatively quickly, so I can reacquaint myself with the machine and gain enough confidence to start the Butterick top. Hey, sew-alongers - any progress on the Butterick top so far? Did you check out the pattern reviews?

I found the perfect little daisy buttons to match the daisy cardigan and sewed them in last night. I'm getting the finishing done on this one a little at a time. A few minutes of seaming here, a few minutes of weaving in ends there. I still have that collar to do, but then she'll be all done and she can be on her way. Sniff, sniff. I'll miss this little cardigan. She was a real pleasure to knit.

And I fired up the Bernina again and have begun sewing my big Burda top. Look, I'm sewing my first sleeve!

(Shrug update: all nine balls knit - check back tomorrow for the big mother's day reveal!)

Hey ma, happy mother's day - your shrug is all done! Now you have to come visit us to get it.

And here's a picture of the back. Neat pattern, huh? Just a long rectangle sewn cleverly together to make this cool shape. I really like it. If I didn't already have a poncho of my own....

While I resign myself to having no nyc shrug of my own, I can enjoy my new big, slouchy, beachy Burda top.

I love it! The big sleeves are so fun to wear. I just want to hug myself the whole time I've got it on. The fabric was a gift from my mom and the pattern book a gift from my mother-in-law, so thanks moms!

I love that ponchos are back in style - they're so fun to wear and make such interesting knitting projects! Some are rectangles, some are diamond shaped, some are knit in the round and some in pieces. So many neat ideas for such a simple garment. I hope you all got to watch as Bonne Marie designed her Mini-Chic Poncho during the ponch-o-long. Knitty editor, Amy, also just came up with a great poncho design of her own. My absolute favorite new poncho pattern though is FoKnits' sheer poncho (if that pattern had been available back in September...). And did you see that there's now a Poncho Crochetalong? Look what we've started!

Yes, the poncho craze is catching on. But now that I've finished two, count 'em two, ponchos (mine and mom's) and helped my advanced beginner's knitting class make Melissa's Cape Mod poncho (from Stich n Bitch), I think it's time to call it a knit-along and move on. Thanks to everyone for knitting along. I had so much fun!

ponchos!

started sept 15, 2003

While I was waiting for my yarn from the Netherlands that I need to knit the last piece of the cardi raye, I started sewing the other pieces together. Just a few inches seamed so far, but enough to get me really psyched about finally finishing this sweater!

We recall that in another still-no-yarn moment of weakness, I put the frankensweater aside and started Ava. Although I love the Calmer yarn, I still haven't gotten much further than the armholes on the back. I guess my eyes were bigger than my needles!

And in the meantime, the knitalongs went rolling on. Shannon, Colleen, Kathleen, and Larissa all finished fabulous spring fling projects. There are at least THREE linen drape projects already well underway (Anne's, Becky's, and Amy's). And because my swatch for the Vintage Knits lacy ribbed top did not come out looking anywhere near as good as Anne's or Hope's, I've changed my mind about what pattern I want to make with my linen drape. Now I'm thinking maybe this one?

Thank goodness my yarn is here. Who knows what other trouble I could have gotten myself into!

And while I was waiting for my yarn, I also finished the little daisy cardigan.

She's so sweet. The Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino really knits up well. And the Pipsqueaks pattern was fun to knit (yes, I do like me a good chart to follow).

So now this baby has the green light from me to be born. And I've got to work on getting some more non-knitting, baby-girl-having friends!

I've been so sick this week. Got sick on Saturday and I knew I couldn't handle any serious knitting this weekend, so I brought a small stuffed animal project to Knitsmiths on Sunday.

This is all I managed at Knitsmiths and I've done very little since then. I tried a little of the duplicate stitch, but it required more concentration than I could muster with sinus pain and stomach cramps. If I ever feel well enough to continue with this little giraffe guy, he's going to be pretty cute though, I think. I've never done a stuffed animal before, so I've joined the Zoo-Along to give me some inspiration and support. Such fun little projects!

And here's something that'll make you sick. My yarn that I waited so long for to finish the cardi raye doesn't match what I already have. I suppose that's what I get for not ordering enough the first time. So I sent out a desperate message: "be your best friend if you have Plaisance Piscine in my dye lot." And that is why Kimberly is my new best friend! So until I see her at Knitsmiths next Sunday, it's back to the cardi wait-ing game. Not that I could knit right now anyway.

I was feeling well enough yesterday for some simple straight knitting, so I worked a little on my Ava cardigan. The unfinished back was downstairs, whereas I and the kleenex were upstairs, so I just started another piece, one of the front panels.

Calmer is such a wonderful yarn to knit with - perfect for recouperative knitting. In fact, I think the Calmer's done more for me so far than all the Robitussin, Tylenol and Afrin put together.

We're having too much fun with the in-laws for mommy to knit, blog, or surf. She'll be back soon!

Ooooh, pretty finished edges.

These are the facings for my flowery summer blouse. Anyone remember this project from last summer?

As you see, I'm still warming up for my sew-along project. I passed the Burda one-dot test and this summer top here is supposed to be a "one hour" project. So once I have these two under my belt, I'm hoping I'll feel confident enough to tackle the Butterick top next. I want to see a few more finished tops and hear a few more suggestions before I get started on mine. Have you checked out the finished tops yet??

I'm feeling better, but my little giraffe has broken out in spots!

At first I found the duplicate stitch to be pretty slow going, but after a while I got the hang of it. Especially after one of my fellow Knitsmiths reminded me that no one will ever see the wrong side of the work, cause it'll be all stuffed and sewn up. Oh yeah! That makes the thought of weaving in all those ends slightly less paralyzing.

When one of my boys drops something or can't get something that he wants, he says "oh no, what'da gonna dooooo?" I blame Boots the Monkey for modeling this behavior. But I found myself saying this more than once in the last few days whenever I thought of working on my cardi raye. Still no green yarn - oh no, what'da gonna doooo?

I've resorted to knitting ava non-stop. She's coming along nicely. The back and one of the front panels are done.

Not that I'm not enjoying ava, but I just keep thinking that Dora would have some green yarn in that backpack of hers!

I ran into Amy at the playground yesterday! She spied me starting a new project. Someone needs a Sophie bag. I saw Carolyn's recently finished and totally fabulous Sophie bag and when I realized that it only took one skein of yarn, I thought, hey, I have one skein of yarn!

Just call me the bag lady, 'cause I got another gift from my secret pal - a cute little tote bag (from Target, I think - gotta love Target!). It's striped and blue (my two favorite things) and is perfect for bringing my knitting to the playground. Thanks secret pal!

Bag lady (that's me) to knitalongers old and new (that's you, banffers, pant-alongers, spring flingers, and linen drapers): hey, how's it going?? I fell behind in my blog-surfing while the in-laws were here, so please let me know about exciting progress updates and/or finished projects. I can't wait to see what you've all been up to!

My new sew-as-you-go policy is great for getting my knitting projects finished in a timely fashion, but also means that I feel like I'm seaming all the time. I was hoping to have a little break from seaming until ava and the little giraffe toy were that far along, but then Michelle's gentle suggestion that I seam and weave in ends on the cardi raye while I wait for my yarn got me feeling guilty. Then, I saw that poor Jenn was suffering through the seeming on her cardi raye, and I didn't want her to have to suffer all alone. So here are the back, one sleeve, and one front panel sewn together with the ends all woven in.

And since Jenn showed her seams, here are mine!

Now, I've done just about everything I can do until the yarn comes and I can knit the other front panel. I'm being so good. I so deserve for the yarn to come today.

I'm up to the i-cord on the sophie bag. Despite not loving making i-cord, I have decided to lengthen the straps a couple of inches (after reading Carolyn's suggestions). I should be ready to felt this weekend. I've never felted anything before, so this will be a real adventure for me. Wish me luck!

Remember these groovy pajama bottoms I started over a year ago? I pulled them out of the sewing stash and was shocked to see how little there was left to do to finish them up. I'm feeling so much more comfortable with the sewing this year - with the pressing and pinning and stitching and such - that it didn't take me much time to get these back on track. I started out by doing a little fitting and resizing here and there. My big sewing accomplishment was adding the cuffs on the legs.

I had meant to spend my sewing time this week finishing off my summery top, but after sewing it all together and trying it on, it was clear that the facings were way too stiff and large. It felt like I had a light, little top on over some sort of football shoulder brace thing. So I decided to cut down the facings. Remember my pretty little facings? Here they are now.

I need to finish the edges on them again. But since I'm cutting and reworking the thing anyway, I'm thinking that the neck is a little too high for me. I may just open up the shoulders, cut a new neckline, piece together some scraps to make a new front neck facing and resew.

So much for the one-hour sewing project!

Here's Mr. Spots, with duplicate stitch all done, ends woven in, and seams begun.

Wanna see the inside? Thanks to Gina, who brought some stuffing for me to Knitsmiths, stuffing is already underway!

Note: for those who have asked or are thinking of asking, the giraffe toy pattern is from Phildar's Tricotez Calin #2 (spring/summer 2002). It's an out of print French pattern book and unfortunately, I've never seen any back issues of Phildar patterns available anywhere. It's not a difficult pattern to recreate though. The shape's pretty clear and you could place the stripes and spots wherever you like. Julia also suggested that this Fiber Trends llama pattern could be easily adapted to make a cute giraffe. She's made one and will post her pattern mods soon!

Isn't that the plural of sophie?

Here's the first sophie bag. It came out perfectly after felting. I stuffed some plastic bags in it to hold the shape as it finished drying and now need only to sew in a snap. What a great little pattern! I enjoyed it so much that I immediately searched through my stash to find more wool. And what do you know, I had about a ball and a half of Kureyon left over from my new year's stripey sweater. It wasn't enough for a full-sized sophie, but I like it as a short, rectangular bag too.

I found some more Cascade 220 in my stash and picked up even more at the Knitsmiths' swap, so stay tuned for more sophies!

Cardi raye.

Still waiting.

So I knit the collar.

Sigh.

Memorial Day's almost upon us, the unofficial begin of summer, time for a check on the spring flingers!

Marg posted a picture of her spring fling top, which she wore at her daughter's wedding. Lovely! And Dava just finished a beautiful pink purse, which totally says spring to me! Poor Jon seems to have had a small edging accident while working on his polka purl dot top. Go send him your sympathies. Hey, Lynn just finished a version of my spring fling tank. It's exciting to see it done in another yarn. And she'll kill me for pointing it out, but Amy also made a "fuzzy green thing". I think it looks great, but she wasn't convinced. Elsewhere in knit-along-land, Sarah has finished the back of her linen drape tank. Oh yeah, summer's almost here!

Despite all the warm weather knitting that's been going on, it hasn't been all that warm here in Boston. My feet are cold. Remember my old "swift", um, slippers? Well, they have suddenly given up the ghost. So I've decided to make myself a new pair. Crochet myself a new pair, to be specific. The turkish slippers from Simple Crochet looked so pretty and simple is in the title, so I'm game!

And I'm not the only one who's been knitting warm recently. Blog-reader Melanie sent me a picture of the mittens she made from my plaid mitten pattern. Yay, Melanie - they look great! But I have to admit, I hope it'll be a while before you get a chance to wear 'em.

Come on summer!

Took the boys to Chuck E Cheese this week. No special occasion, I'm just that kind of mom. Okay, the boys have hit the terrible twos big time and Chuck E Cheese seemed like a small price to pay for a day full of smiles and free of fighting. The kiddie arcade games were just perfect for the boys. Since they have the attention span of gnats. We tried out every one, several at the same time even. It went pretty much like this: hop on, insert token, hop off five seconds later while ride is still going, hop on another, insert token, repeat.

Luckily, the "photo ride" snaps a picture of your little one early on in the ride, so we got a good shot of St's first seconds of interest and fascination.

B however was too quick for Chuck. "Got to get oooouuuuuuttttttt".

So much for the mouse. And on to the giraffe....

(If you're a friend of mine, are expecting a baby, and your last name is a color, stop reading now please.)

And in another what won't we do for our kids and other people's babies moment, I'm putting the last finishing touches on the giraffe stuffed animal. Man, it's a lot of work making a little baby toy. But just look at its cute little tail! So worth it.

Look what arrived from the yarn fairy yesterday!

Now I have the yarn I need to finish the cardi raye. Hip, hip, hooray!

Start the clock...

Finished the green section. Two months wait for those few inches. Unbelievable.

Onward, knit!

Up to the pink! My favorite part.

Beginning the neck shaping. Yay!