The new year is old news...

...and I'm finally posting to this blog for the first time this decade. I'm in a wee bit of a knitting lull. Drew's Hubbie Hoodie (Hackie sack hoodie from Son of a Stitch n' Bitch) really could have been done by now. It's easy-peasy, mindless knitting. But even after the holiday knitting came and went along with my excuse for not hurrying the hell up on this project, I still haven't been giving it the time it deserves. Today, Sunday, I didn't knit at all. Not on the ferry to Seattle, not at Drew's poetry reading, not in the car on the way back. Not even while watching Julie & Julia this evening. What's wrong with me? This is the perfect project for me right now too because it uses next to no brain cells and is therefore an anxiety-buster, rather than the headache-inducer a more complex project might be.

That's not to say that I haven't made any progress. I'm almost to the front pocket, and mind you, this is a top-down project so the hood is already completed. There is really no reason not to finish this project post-haste. I will let you know when that occurs, hopefully before another decade draws to a close.

As you can see, a certain toddler is my biggest (and best!) excuse for my knitting lull, though he does occasionally indulge me by letting me get a few rows in during cuddle time :)

Happy Christmas to you all!

Above: the tree on Christmas eve.

Quick icord Candycane:
Reindeer ornament, with gold snowflake in the background:
Happy holidays to you all!

Rivulet Scarf

The Rivulet Scarf (Interweave Knits, Fall 2009).
My mil asked me to make this for my sil Amy to match the Cranberry Cap I made her this summer.

My first consideration when choosing a pattern was that it be reversible. My second is that it would have cables or some sort of pattern to hold my interest. The Rivulet Scarf was a perfect choice! The entire scarf is in k1 pi rib, including the cables, and that means that there is really no wrong side to the resulting fabric.
This was a hard one to part with, but part with it I did indeed! It should be in Wisconsin by now, or nearly there, with several days to spare... :)

Little Rabbit's Hat and Mitts

One of my favorite picture books is "Shall I knit you a hat: a Christmas yarn" by Kate Klise.
To summarize:
When Mother Rabbit knits a warm winter hat for Little Rabbit, he likes it so much that he suggests they make hats for all of their friends as Christmas gifts.
At the end of the book, there's a pattern for making Little Rabbit's hat. I couldn't resist the temptation! You can read more about that book HERE.
I thought Little Rabbit's paws might get a wee bit cold too, so I whipped up a pair of the Angelina Cable Mitts in the same yarn (Cascade 220 Quatro), and stuck them in his boot for St. Nick's Day. We have been getting a lot of use out of them this past week and they stay on his hands way better than the mittens I made for him last year.
The result: One cute and toasty warm Little Rabbit :)

Look who's sportin' his Auntie's handknits!

This is the Zip up the back Hoodie I made for my youngest nephew prior to his arrival on planet Earth. I can't believe it fits him already!

Christmas Forest

All 24 trees...lined up for picture taking time. This project was a lot of fun and a great way to stash burn, though I'm about plum out of green feltable yarn now.
The numbers are painted on buttons, which are actually velcroed to the trees so that they can be taken off, shifted around or what not. During the course of creating these trees, Silas would often run off with them and occasionally, they'd end up as trees on his farmland. It will be nice to have the option of taking the numbers off of the trees in case he wants to use them in this way throughout the year.
I'm looking forward to using this for years to come, and that tradition starts...TODAY! Silas uncovered his first puzzle piece this morning. By Christmas Eve, he'll have all 24 puzzle pieces, and we can put his puzzle together. Won't Santa be impressed :)
The little yellow car, by the way, is not the prize, but is simply being used to navigate through the forest.
While I'm not sure that Silas fully gets what's going on here, I have a feeling it will only take a few days for him to catch on. His puzzle piece this morning showed a starfish and his response was "maybe tomorrow, I'll get an octopus one!"

"They're for Christmas"

I will post pictures of the finished Christmas Forest soon.

Backlogged

Not only am I behind on posting to this blog, but I've also been negligent in keeping Ravelry updated, something I'm usually pretty up on. So, consider this blog my first intent to get back into the swing of things. First up, I've been working on my advent tree project for over a month now and thought I'd post a few pictures of it as a wip. The trees are all felted, but I thought I'd throw in a few pre-felted pictures and then a shot of them pretty much as they will look when all is said and done. I'm actually putting the finishing touches on them this weekend. The trees themselves are done, but I also had to paint numbers on buttons and then figure out how to attach them to the trees. I thought it would be nice if I could take the number buttons off of the trees. Silas likes to play with them and pretend they're trees on his farm so it would be nice if the numbers weren't perminantly attached. The obvious choice was velcro. Ive got about 18 more buttons that need to have velcro glued to them and then this wip will officially cross over into fo-land. Just in time for December 1st.

Other than my advent forest, over the past several weeks, I've made Silas a pair of slippers and knit him a hat. I feel like I'm forgetting to mention a project, but, those were the big ones at least. I will try to keep the blog posts coming.

In costume

e
For those of you who don't read my other, more frequently updated blog, here are a few pictures of Silas in his Halloween costume, featuring the digger sweater I knit and the bulldozer his dad made. Both the sweater and the bulldozer will get plenty of post-Halloween use :)

Other than the whole Halloween thing, I've been knitting and felting little trees like mad. I need to have 24 completed by December 1st and I'm well on my way. I'll try to include a post with pictures of that project soon.

Big Digger for a Little Boy

With just over a month to spare, I've finished the knitted portion of Silas' Halloween costume. He really could not wait for this to be finished. I completed it last Wednesday night after he'd gone to sleep, then slipped it into my bag so that I could show it to my friends at work the next day. In the morning, Silas got up, found my bag, took it out and said, "I want to wear it!" And so, he wore it that day and also on Saturday and Sunday, when dh and I took him out and about for a couple of photoshoots. We went to the farmers market and then down to the waterfront to see the boats. I also could not resist taking pictures of him wearing a front-end loader while he sat on a front-end loader (he's got permission from the owner to "drive" it whenever he wants).

This was a very rewarding project. I used Knit Picks Cotlin yarn and liked it very much. It makes the perfect sweater for our cool but certainly not cold fall days. Lucinda Guy did a wonderful job on the digger motif. What machine-obsessed little boy wouldn't want this sweater? Can't you feel the joy?:

Sheep Yoke Cardigan

I mailed this sweater off to its recipient last week and it has hopefully arrived, or will shortly. I won't say it wasn't hard to part with, but it is going to a very good home, and a very pretty little baby. I thought it was time to post a couple pictures. It's only been completed for, um, a month :)

This is a lovely little project and I recommend it to anyone looking for a fun interesting baby knit. You do have to do a bit of math to get the increases in the yoke just right. I had intended to write out how I did my increases, but I'll be damned if I can find my notes on it. Anyways, don't let that scare you off. It's worth the bit of effort, even for those of us who are mathematically challenged. The pattern is free!

The sheep are intarsia rather than stranded. Either way would probably work out fine, but I felt they were spaced a little too far apart to carry the yarn. Perhaps the end result wouldn't be that noticeable one way or the other.

That's about all I can remember about this. It's only been a month, but my mind has spent that month occupied by Si's digger sweater, and the surprise project/pattern pictured in my last post. And speaking of that...Several people guessed they were mittens. Lovely mittens they might make, but nope, that's not it! Keep guessing!

Something new is brewing...

I'm working on a new pattern, which I'll be posting as soon as I can write it up. This might take a bit, given how many details I need to work out, so this picture will serve as a teaser. Can you guess what it is?

Big Digger, or Halloween, here we come!

Like many toddlers, Silas thinks that big construction vehicles like diggers and bulldozers are the coolest things ever. He is pretty excited for the costume I've got planned for Halloween 09. This sweater, from the fabulous Lucinda Guy's Handknits for Kids, is perfect for what Silas and I are envisioning! Silas can't wait for this sweater to be completed. He keeps opening the book and asking for the bulldozer page. He’ll then spend a good deal of time staring at the picture. He has asked me several times if he could help me make it because he wanted it to be done right away, and one day he even grabbed the needles while I was working on it and said "I want to help."

I started making this at the end of August. I wanted to give myself a big cushion of time in order to avoid scrambling to finish in time. Not necessary. It's knitting up so quickly, and now that I'm past the digger motif, it will be easy breezy from here on out. Not looking forward to the seaming, but I'll live.

What could this be?

I am hesitant to post too many pictures of this fo, since it is a gift for the new baby of a friend who sometimes follows this blog. I want it to be at least somewhat of a surprise. Here at least, is a preview.

I'll have some WIP photos to post in a day or two, and soon after, some more shots of this item as well.

Little Bubbles for Lilah

I am really behind in my blogging. It's an understatement to say that I have next to no personal time on the computer right now. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean this blog has yet again suffered a period of neglect.

Well, anyways, I have just enough time to write a few brief lines about this project:

This lovely pattern from Knit Picks was a joy to make. The bubbles were super easy to do and the result is so very pleasing. I am very much looking forward to making more of these in the future. Top down, seamless sweater, gotta love it! The hat was made with no decreases. The top is seamed and then the "ears" are made by pinching the corners and wrapping yarn around them. Hopefully, the moon booties will be the kind that don't fly off of baby's feet every 30 seconds. They seem to have the potential of being the useful variety but one can never tell until they are tried on for the first time. Hopefully, the mommy will check in with me and let me know :)