baby hat/scarf for my boys, knit in tandem with skinnyrabbit



pattern from Phildar catalog #381, knit in Cascade 220

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My in-laws have arrived from Germany and they brought with them my copy of the new Rebecca magazine! Woo hoo! (The website doesn't seem to have any pictures up yet. Be patient!) I enjoy the Rebecca magazine a great deal. Remember? Well, this is their Spring/Summer catalog and they've got a few really lovely tops that almost make me want to start knitting in cotton again. Almost! But seeing as we've pretty much had snow and below freezing temperatures every day since before Christmas, I'm thinking about just adapting some of the styles to increase the fabbiness factor of the wool sweaters I already have planned. There are some sexy scoop-neck/off-the-shoulder looks that are really calling to me.

Remember how I was knitting the mutssjaals together with Becky? Well, she's finished hers and it is sooo lovely. Go see! Seeing Becky's makes me I wish I'd had the patience to knit mine in the beautiful Lambswool that the pattern called for, but the bigger gauge of the Cascade 220 allowed me to complete my two in about the same time. And that has allowed me to get back to knitting the Dale sweater, which is a good thing. I'm well into the next row of bugs (photos coming when the server is working again).

And do the words Wild & Wooly Semi-Annual Clearance Sale ring a bell? Well, it's tomorrow, starting at 7am. I am so there!

And remember, say hi in the comments and let me know that my site is alive and well (despite my being unable to see it) and I promise to write back and/or come visit your site.

Happy New Year, everyone!!

My new year's goal was to finish up all my recent projects so that I can now get back to the older projects I've still got on the needles. And the results...

Newly completed:

• my blue hat: Finished the quick little hat for myself in a jiffy and I love it. Lookie! The yarn is so soft and it feels so warm and snuggly on. I've named this project 'my blue hat' in honor of Becky (my blue house), who managed to find me what were practically the last skeins in all of France of this now discontinued color! Yea for Becky!
  
• mutssjaals: I finished weaving in the ends over the last few days. Obligatory cute pictures:

 

Old, but not forgotten:

• native, now in progress since Spring 2002. My mother is getting anxious to wear this and I'm excited to see what leftovers I might have of the Rowan Handknit DK Cotton.
  
• elizabeth III, in progress since Fall 2001. I have reknit the front and back (again!) and still need to rip out the sleeves, reknit them, sew it all up again, and pray!
  
• dale bug sweaters, in progress since Fall 2002. I was doing well on the first of these when Christmas knitting interrupted me. I'm looking forward to getting back to these and to try out the steeking with my new sewing machine.

Wishing you all a wonderful new year filled with many successful projects!

After a few days break from knitting, my 1x1ribbing-finger injury was pretty much gone, so I picked up the second mutssjaal and went to work on the scarf part. My husband got the Lord of the Rings DVD for Christmas, which he just HAD to watch last night, so I got a LOT of knitting done on it then. Before I knew it, I had finished the knitting on mutssjaal #2! Now I've got four days to weave in those ends to get this project completed before the new year.

But I hate just weaving in ends. My fingers get restless for actual knitting. I don't want to pick up one of my older big projects just yet or start something else big, lest I get distracted and forget to finish the mutssjaals. What to do?? In answer to my question, some beautiful Phildar yarn arrived today from Becky, which I had my eye on for a quick little hat for myself. After the hat for my mom (yes, the Kureyon hat was for my mom) and these hats for the boys, I've been thinking, hey where's MY new hat? One new year's hat, coming up!

And don't forget: new year's fantastic fiber voyage right here in Boston next week! (Go check out Kerrie's tour today.)

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy holiday!

I'll be here blogging as usual and knitting the mutssjaals every chance I get. I'm knitting through what I'm calling 1x1 ribbing finger but I'm determined to get the mutsjaals done for New Year's. Muts #2 is done, so all I want for Christmas is the last sjaal and some elves to weave in the ends!

[PS- Be sure to visit first thing next week when the fantastic fiber voyage bus arrives in Boston!]

Still working fast and furious on the mutssjaals. Check them out! I managed to finish the knitting on the first one at Knitsmiths yesterday and immediately started the second. As you can see, I decided not to make the second mutssjaal exactly the same as the first. I'm using all the same yarns and even the same stripe sequence, but have begun it in a different place. So they should be matching but not identical. That's usually how I like to dress the boys too.

At this point, I'll save the darning in of ends until after Christmas. I'd just like the boys to have something to open on Christmas morning. My mother went out and bought everything on the boys' Christmas wishlist, leaving very little for "Santa"! So it's more shopping and speed knitting for me today! Best of luck to all of you out there who are also still knitting Christmas gifts!

Weaving in ends....

Thanks for the tips folks! I'm just gonna do my best and see how invisible I can make them. I think trimming the ends real close will be the key.

The first mutssjaal is coming along nicely. The left side of the scarf is done, but look at all those yarn ends to weave in. Aaack! I think I'll have to take a little break from the knitting and just weave in those ends on that part right away. Otherwise, I'll never be able to muster up the strength to knit the right side of the scarf and then a-whole-nother mutssjaal!

I love stripes, but man are they a lot of work. How do you all deal with so many ends? Do you do them as you go or wait until each piece is done? Know any secrets for weaving the ends in so they won't be seen on a reversible scarf, like I'm making? Know anyone who's willing to do it for me? Ha, ha!

We're suffering some aftershocks of the stomach flu. But the relapses aren't as strong as the original attack, so we're still on the mend. And in the good hours, I have gotten some knitting done. I finished the muts part of the first mutssjaal. Finally, it looks like a hat and not like a tiny little cape or something. As you can tell from the photo, the front stitches were cast off and the sides are on scrap yarn to continue knitting into scarf ends. It's a cool little pattern actually.

I can't wait to get these finished and put them on the boys. The knitting is going fairly quickly, but there are of course all those ends from the stripes and since the scarf part needs to be reversible, I'll have to darn in the ends carefully. Ugh.

I was able to start the first mutssjaal! The pattern is written so that the hat section is knitted flat from the top down and then seamed up the back. I began with only about 28 stitches (increasing every few rows), so I was able to make an encouraging amount of progress in one sitting. But now I've got 128 stitches, so it's much slower going!

I love the way it's coming out. I picked out the colors all by myself in hopes of making the boys' on-sale black winter coats look like they match their on-sale blue winter mittens. My only complaint so far is that the thing is done completely in 1x1 ribbing, and boy are my arms tired (ba-dum-bum)!

Back from Knitsmiths and learned about a great charity knitting association here in the Boston area: The Knitting Connection. They collect yarn and supplies and provide them to volunteer knitters/crocheters/quilters to be made into hats, mittens, blankets, whatever a child might need. They also collect finished items and distribute them with those made by the volunteers to local hospitals and shelters. We Knitsmiths had some yarn left over from our yarn swap back in November and decided to donate it to them. So the director joined our group today to pick it up and let us all know about the organization. If anyone in the area is interested in donating items or volunteering, their email is: theknittingconnection[at]hotmail.com.

I feel slightly better about my not having made a hat (as planned) for charity this Christmas now that I know that they accept donations all year round and would also happily accept just the yarn, in case I can't pull myself away from my growing mound of projects.

I spent my knitting time this weekend thinking through the mutssjaal project and figuring out just how I want it to look. Recap: Here's the catalog picture again. Following the pattern exactly would have meant fingering weight yarn (again!), so I wanted to find a bulky yarn to make the project quick. I ended up settling on worsted weight after falling in love with the beautiful colors of the Cascade 220. Man those skeins make some wicked huge balls of yarn. Small project. Big project bag! Update: I wanted to work at a gauge of 5 st/in, but while swatching, my fingers and my eyes just could not deal with going that "big", so I settled in at 6.5 st/in. I'm insane, I know. They'll be warm at least! Oh, and to make things more complicated, I decided to change the stripes. Since I'll never have the chance to make this sweater (also in fingering weight!) from another Phildar layette book, I'm going to try to bring those great stripes into this project.

And the best thing about my new project? I'll be knitting it in tandem, so to speak, with Becky! She's been my connection for Phildar fabulousness and always makes such wonderful things that I am just thrilled to be working on the same project with her. What fun!

Stop, stop! No more unbelievably cute dogs in fabulous sweaters. I can't take it!

• Shobanista
  
• Kathy
  
• Knitting Knerd
  
• Teresa
  

As for me, I am continuting to slog my way through the dog days of holiday knit gifties. More tiger yarn, more wee stuff. Cute as can be, but I want to get back to my wips (aka, the dale sweater, native, elizabeth III) and start the boys' new mutssjaal (that's dutch for hat/scarf and the term amuses me, so I'm sticking with it)!

Laura and Melissa asked about my plan to go to the yarn store yesterday. Of course I went. I was pretty much under control though. I bought a few skeins of Cascade 220 (I can't believe that I've never used this yarn!) for a quick hat/scarf project for the boys. I think it's gonna be pretty cute. The pattern is from Phildar's new Layette catalog, which Becky hooked me up with (I like Becky!). It calls for a fingering weight yarn, but after countless baby gifts and with the Dale sweater waiting, my fingers are calling for worsted. So, for their sake I'll be using the Cascade and mathing up the pattern a bit.

I'm also excited to be trying out the Cascade because I'm thinking that it might be a good choice for the joe sweaters. This way, I can feel like I'm working on that project already. And the boys can have a little handmade Christmas giftie from mom. 'Cause those Dale sweaters have birthday written all over them!