Tomten-In-Progress

It's coming along nicely, though the hood is going to have to be ripped and re-woven! When I kitchenered the hood together this morning, it didn't look nearly as terrible as it does in this photo! Guess that's what early morning (non)lighting will do, huh? I'm thinking that I maybe did the grafting on the wrong side of the hood, but I'm really not sure. I can kitchener pretty well in stockinette, but I've never done so on garter. Live and learn, right?

Anyway, I've got the rest of this first sleeve, the entire second sleeve and the i-cord contrast to do before I'll consider it done. I do plan on sewing my first ever zipper in this coat, but intentions are just that until they've been completed! Unfortunately, the Tomten will have to rest for a week while we're on Spring Break. I may regret this decision, but I don't want to be working on a woolen item while I'm on the beach!! :-) I only hope I can finish at least the first sleeve before we leave. Time will tell.

More EZ on the way

I couldn't resist casting on for a tomten for my youngest. I've seen so many extremely cute versions at the zimmermaniacs blog that I had to jump on the bandwagon and start one myself.

Here's the tentative plan:


All subject to change, of course! I also cast on for the Everyday Tweed sweater found at The Garter Belt using my Jaeger Trinity. I like how the yarn looks once knit up, though the stitch definition is non-existant in my opinion, I just don't really enjoy working with it. I have to say that it's the lightest feeling yarn I've worked with thus far. I'm anxious to see the finished product and send it to it's recipient.

Back to work... :-)

Spending some time with the frogs

Actually, I've been spending a lot of time in the frog pond lately. This visit I scrapped the Placket-Neck Sweater because I just didn't like how it was turning out. I have no doubt I'll make the sweater, just not using cotton fleece.

Now I'm trying to decide what to work on next... Our spring break trip is coming and I don't want to be in the middle of some big project when we leave for a week, nor do I want to schlep around a huge wintery sweater to a nice warm beach!! :-)

I should get to work on my to-do list for a friend, but I'm having a hard time getting motivated. Spring is almost here, which means summer is right behind and any winter-like garment will not see the light of day for several months. Same thing happened last year about this time--I kinda lost my getupandgo to knit like a madwoman. I'll snap out of it soon.

Since I don't have any knitting pics, here's a shot of my kiddos going UP the slide, cause that's how we do things around here!

Placket-Neck Sweater

I haven't made a lot of progress on this, and as I get farther along I'm wondering if it's such a great choice of yarn for the project. At least I didn't buy the yarn intending to use it on this, so it doesn't feel like a loss. Seems like it could end up being too drapey, but it's not done, so there's still hope.


This is Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in the Nymph color. I do like the stitch definition and the color, so if it's not right for this, I'll rip and use it for something else... like a tank for myself! :-)

February Practically Seamless Baby Sweater

I finished (well, almost finished) the baby sweater that I just HAD to make, even with no intended recipient. It's just so dang cute! I just need to add the buttons--I have 4, but need 8.

I also cast on yesterday for the Child's Placket-Neck Pullover from LMKG for my youngest. I'm making the 2-4 year size for a couple of reasons: my son is a big boy, my gauge is off, and it's for next year when he'll be 2, so rather than make the 1-2 year size and hold my breath for it to fit, I'm going larger in the hopes it will fit for more than one season. Cross your fingers! I'm using some stash yarn that I don't have enough of to make something larger, so it's perfect for this project. I'll post pics soon, when there's a little progress to report.

FINISHED!

The blanket is finally finished! Here it is, in all it's glory:



All told, it's about 60" wide and 50" high. I used Lion Brand Pound of Love in white, purple, light pink, and turquoise and could probably make at least 2-3 of the same blanket from one ball of each color! Definitely a bargain, that's for sure! I got about 4.25 stitches per inch on size 9 knitpicks options needles and knit over 220 sts and 250 rows, bordered by 10sts/rows of garter all around. Used a slip stitch crochet join for the two strips and a single crochet border.

I cast on for this little gem on March 9:



Then it sat in the car for a couple days. I decided I wanted to see what it looks like finished, so I'm working diligently on it. It's the February Practically Seamless Baby Sweater from EZ's Knitter's Almanac using Lion Brand Baby Soft in pastel pink on size 6 knitpicks options. I'm not sure of my gauge because I'm not knitting it for anyone in particular--I just want to see the finished product and be able to say "I did that!"

More coming soon, I hope!

What's that? Off in the distance? Is that...

I think it might be the finish line! WOOHOO!!

(kindly disregard the errant toys and numbers... they have no significance except to prove that I get lots of help from little ones!)

I've finished knitting the blanket for my daughter so all that's left to do is seam it together and border it with the contrast color. I had thought that would be an easy but time-consuming task, but now I'm not so sure.

I started seaming the two pieces together and everything was going well, but then it wasn't. Apparently I'm not joining the two pieces right or something because it doesn't look all nice and pretty like the ones I've seen elsewhere.

I plan on hassling my LYS to ask for help sometime tomorrow so I can finish this project and move on to others without the guilt that comes with leaving a task unfinished! :-)

Is it Spring yet?

I'm into the second strip of color for the second half of the blankie:



It's actually not taking too terribly long to knit, but it sure feels like it's been forever!

I gave up on adjusting the EZ Practically Seamless Baby Sweater so that it might fit E. I may try again at a later date, but for now it's off the drawing board. In the larger size, that is. I still intend to make at least one in the called-for size. I might make two for the twin girls of a friend in Iowa. Maybe.

I thought I'd try to 'write' a pattern for a decorative little sweater from scratch for my E. I'm not sure whether it'll actually be my pattern if it works out--I am loosely following the Handy Book of Sweater Patterns instructions, but adjusting them because the smallest size the book has is a 26" chest. My little girl would be swimming in that! So I am adjusting the smallest size and also adding a couple of elements--a stitch design from the Big Book of Knitting Stitches, a minor adjustment to the neckline, etc. At what point does something become your own? I may never know! :-)

And now, I'm headed back to the blankie.

Almost halfway there!

This is the first strip of the blanket for E. I cast on last night for the other half, which will be striped -- two colors, 5 stripes. I'm so anxious to finish the second part because I'm scarily excited to seam the pieces using the turquoise color!!

I realized that my knitting has involved a fair amount of pink in the past few months. Lots of pink. I'm not a huge fan of pink, so I'm not exactly sure how this happened, though I suppose it has something to do with a certain 3 year old girl...

On to the second strip!!

Minimal Log Cabin Progress

I like knitting the log cabin blanket much more than I thought I would! It's strange... It feels like I'm making a lot of progress each time I switch colors, but the blanket is still so very small. I enjoy the feeling of something being accomplished, even if it's a false feeling!!


As for my daughter's blanket, it's definitely growing. I can't wait to finish the first strip--the pink--so I can at least knit a different color for a while. She's very excited about her new blankie and I want to give it to her asap! I'm not posting pics of it because it's boring. Boring boring boring. Cute, but boring.

I also cast on (again) for the EZ Practically Seamless Baby Sweater from the Knitter's Almanac. I worked feverishly to calculate how many stitches I should cast on, how many to increase, how many for sleeves, fronts, back, etc etc etc so that it will hopefully fit E. She's just over 3 years old, but she's skinny as all get out. Skinny and tall. Couldn't we all be so lucky?! :-) So I cast on again last night and I'm knitting a row here and there. I hope my math was correct because I think E would look so adorable in it! It's a beautiful little lacy sweater.

In non-knitting news, we flipped the trampoline over after removing the posts that hold the safety net up. What a pain that was! It's still cold here and that wind sure does have a vicious bite! We couldn't stand the white trash appearance anymore, though. It still looks kinda icky, what with the posts and netting underneath the trampoline, but at least the thing's in an upright position. And of course, we learned a valuable lesson: If you live in Chicago and wish to keep a trampoline as a toy in your yard, you will require at least a few bags of sand to hold said trampoline in it's place during gale force winds and unheard of gusts.

Bye for now!

Chicago winter sucks.

That would be our 13' trampoline that actually made it into our back neighbor's yard on top of a couple of his evergreens. This photo is the 'after' view. I admit that it had to be funny as hell to watch us struggle to get the thing rolled back into our yard. That sucker is heavy and awkward!! The problem was, the wind (40mph and more) was working against us. Literally. We're sure the tramp is completely dead, not just the outer rails that hold the netting up. They're trashed. But it looks like the frame of the bouncy portion is all bent up, too.

Bummer.

As for knitting, there hasn't been a whole lot of worthy progress. I'm chugging away at the really large blanket for my daughter, but not quite half done with the solid pink strip. I'm bored to tears knitting it, but at the same time I'm excited to get it done and crochet that neato contrast color in!! Hope to post progress photos soon!