Baby Robitaille

Hey Robin!
As promised I have finally published my first for-pay project! It was a difficult decision, but I felt that the amount of work I put into ensuring sizing and coordinating testers was worth a couple of bucks. I don't expect to sell millions but I hope knitters can appreciate the effort that went into writing up the pattern!

I give you the Baby Robitaille:

So far I have no idea how to sell this outside of Ravelry, so unfortunately if you don't have a Ravelry account I am not sure how to sell a copy of this pattern... except perhaps through Paypal? If anyone out there wants to buy this and does not have a Rav account, please feel free to leave a comment!

I'm about to plotz...

Later!

He's a Hermit.

Hey Robin,
Little Guy was constantly insisting this was a lobster, but now understands. He's a HERMIT CRAB! Woohoo!And detail of shell (very cool construction by the way)
This was another all-cotton construction. I am wondering if I should go to wool for the next ones (I have requests for an octopus, a jellyfish and another hermit crab). Anyone have any tips on that?

All that's left of this layette is to sew some fabric to the back of the baby blanket and send it on it's merry way! I hope the new parents like these things and USE them! I wish I could go meet the little fellow when he's born... but at the very least I hope I get to see some in-action pictures with the 'stuff' :)

Hope all is well with you!

Juggling Cats

Hey Robin,
I have many balls-o-yarn in the air as I have definitely bitten off more than I should be chewing right now (I have to tell the Little Man to take "human bites"... stole that one from the wise MiL... perhaps I should be following my own advice!). I have jumped in on a few test-knitting escapades. One is in-progress and I am not sure it's ok to show the IP pictures, but the other is mostly done and I have gotten permission to show a couple of shots:

Project: "Frankie Hat" (title may be changed upon release)
Designer: Nina Machlin-Dayton
Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Rich Chocolate

I need to thank my Father for the pictures. He has ALWAYS been great at taking pictures of me... all through my life. Thanks Dad! Anyway, I love the versatility of this hat. It's sure to be another favorite in my wardrobe!

I have also managed to slip-in a couple of charity knits. These will likely be going to the Warm Woolies charity who send the items off to poor kids living in very chilly parts of the world (including North American Natives... I am sort of hoping mine will go there).

Both are knitted with Cascade 220, a good yarn for these purposes (and many others too!!) with two strands held together. The socks will be sure to warm someone's tootsies quite efficiently, and the sweater, while not as large as I had hoped it would be, will certainly warm up a deserving child. I hope they like the colors...

Since I had asked you folks so long ago to help me pick out the colors for the baby blanket, it seems only fair to show you the completed knitted-portion:

Cute, No? The fabric to the side there will be the backing, there's just too much going on on the back of the blanket, so a nice cotton fabric will protect widdle baby fingers. But wait, there's MORE!

This bib is definitely newborn sized. I hope to use some other blanket-leftovers for some more-practical older-baby sizes.
And then there's the adorable burp-cloth... way more fashionable than the cloth-diaper-over-the-shoulder ;) Shown here in it's infant stages:

And lastly, in the finished-it-fast-to-take-to-L.A.-and-then-forget-to-wear-it department:

My own shrug pattern, which may be too fiddly for anyone else to want to make it, and also I might want to make a few changes before release. It's pretty cute though! Wish I remembered I had it!

The rest of this summer is likely to be a blur, which Little Man's birthday party coming up (Yay Bionicles!) and a few other planned activities. I am a lazy Mom and don't go much for the very-structured-keep-'em-busy type summers. Is that a bad thing? I wonder...

On the kneedles now are the lace shawl test (the one I covertly mentioned above) and a pair of socks for a secret yarn-swap partner who is afraid of knitting socks for herself. Silly _____!

Hope all is well with you and the extraordinary Emme! It was a blast meeting you guys at the zoo.

Later.

A smattering of this and that...

Hey Robin,
I have, once again, been so focused on the fun-in-my-Ravelry-notebook that I have neglected these hallowed pages. So I will try to make up for lost time. First! I must link to big news. I am so proud to have been a part of creating a new sock yarn colorway! I found out a week ago (or so) but didn't have a link to a picture until now. So please to be going to the Hazelknits shop in Etsy and check out Alki Reflections! I even have a mention in the description! Yay! I have to point out that the product you see is nowhere NEAR what I had in mind when I suggested an Alki Beach colorway, but I can see what she did there and I love it. Beautiful bright colors that I just want to knit in a sockinette so i don't have any silly stitches in the way of my enjoyment. I can't wait...

OK I know... I'm not allowed so much text without pictures so here are some FO's. Truly, i finished so many since my last post that it was silly to come here and add them to the "on the kneedles" sidebar because i would just have to change it again in a day! And me, i'm just too lazy for that fiddly-stuff.

Fibonacci Kitty Pi:

A 'thank you' to Miss Libby for helping me model the bed for scale purposes. You may remember last year I made a kitty pi for my Dad's Blossom. But in a huge miscalculation of scale (Thank you Douglas Adams) it was entirely the wrong size. However it might have made a nice hat... this time I used the right weight of yarn and voila!

For fun I used the Fibonacci sequence in the striping. I thought it was fun and ironic (the sequence being somewhat related to pi... don't ask me how... I'm not sure i entirely understand it myself). The Yarn is Elann Peruvian Highland Chunky, the fuzzy stuff was a clearance yarn at Jo Ann... I think it was called "mink" and it has created a rather delightful ruffle on the edges. I hope Blossom likes it. When I get a picture of her languishing inside I will post one :)

Easter Basket:
In other felting news. I decided to use the last of my Bijou Blue malabrigo to make a basket for Little Guy. I just sort of winged-it for pattern: cast on 30 or so sts, garter st until i had a squarish shape, picked up sts around the edge and started the basketweave pattern that I found in my stitch a day calendar (given my by my great-good friend Robin) and went on and on until I was afraid I wouldn't have enough for a handle.

I had some leftover malabrigo-like yarn and did an applied i-cord edge to give it a little bit of structure then made a garter stitch handle. In retrospect I should have made a smaller basket and doubled-up the yarn to make a thicker fabric. Live and Learn. Oh and also I would have forgotten the basket weave stitch. It's lovely pre-felting but you can't see it at ALL afterwards. Oh yeah and i would have made a thicker handle, wider at the bases etc... for structure. It's a pretty color though!



Next up: BABY SOCKS!
I tell you, if you ever want almost-instant gratification in a knitting project, these will do it for you. Seriously. I was done in a day and a half and I am slow...

Its just a simple rib and a heel-flap style sock. So simple, yet with a sock yarn like Lorna's Laces, it becomes this heirloom-like item that you just want to keep forever. These are another pair for Hub's boss who just had twins (well they are for the twins... I don't think they would fit the boss-man).

For the same little tykes I have started another set of footwear that just have me in a dither. They are so WONDERFUL and so easy. So easy... that it makes NO SENSE that they come out looking so great.

This is the Baby moc-a-soc from Bekah Knits. She has created a whole set of patterns for baby feet that are so cute you want them all (I bought the patterns for two different 'shoes' and i think i will be making a pair for every new baby that enters my life from here on out). I was desperate to get started on a pair, so i ended up spending way too much on a hank of alpaca for the tan color on these but oh my. Blue Sky Alpaca Sport. 100% Baby alpaca. This yarn is so. yummy.

Yum.

The green turtleneck on the top is... you guessed it! Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock. Again. This makes three projects I have dome from two hanks of this glorious socky goodness. As soon as this yarn famine is over I might get more... a note about the 'turtleneck' comment. I am calling it that because as I was knitting this portion of the pattern (k1,p1 repeat) i was reminded of the instructions from EZ on how to make a turtleneck. I will paraphrase here: "Pick up enough stitches around the neck and knit a rib until you are sick of it". For me, 20 rows of that madness was enough. The pattern calls for 24. Sue me.

I am also still plugging-away on the rogue hoodie. The pattern is still kicking my butt but I am enjoying it, and the Swish Superwash from Knit Picks really is a joy to knit with. Really really. Sorry I don't have a picture to show you, there's just not much to look at right now (and be able to comprehend the image). Hopefully I will have something soon though!

Later!
Kate

Widdle Footwets!

Hey Robin!
OMG i had no idea when i started just how cute these things would be. I gotta say: first baby socks and it may be addicting. I might follow-up every pair of adult socks with a pair of plan ol' baby socks. I will then have a stash of baby socks for everyone we know who has a baby. Like Mason-Dixon Kay, i may shed baby socks as I walk down the street.

Did you have any idea that a 10 sided die was the almost the same size as a newborn baby leg?? And no comments about the fact that I have percentile dice on my desk thank you.

They are so simple to do, and these were my first short-row heel! I didn't like them at first. You know that. But having to do two on each sock i started to get the hang of it. Now I know why knitters are always asking how to close up the holes in their heels. I never had holes when I did the heel-flaps! I just didn't get it! Now I get it... and now I have to go find those helpful tips on exactly how to do that. How DO you close up a gap created by a k3tog?? The word wants to know!

The pattern i used for these plain stockinette ones is called Hunca Munca. Free pattern, with three variations that are really great (I'm going to do the little cabled one with some plainer yarn that i have laying about). Mostly-easy to understand, though I really think there might be a better way to write the short row heel instructions... but she did better than I would have! I mean no criticisms! Anyway, soon i will cast on the second pair since these are for new twin boys!

Don't you just wanna choke they are so cute?

Cuteness aside, I have a new obsession. I am going to need socks to knit on my vacation (Disneyworld! w00t!) and i decided on these in my Lorna's Laces Douglas Fir color way. This is the shepherd sock yarn she makes and o. my. gawd. Um... yeah nice yarn there. Trouble is I am knitting them on my rosewood sock kneedles from latern moon. I heart rosewood. The mere act of swatching is making me all aquiver. The greeny-blue and the rosewood together, these two were a match made in heaven. I only hope the gauge comes out right because I had my heart set on this pattern... i mean, she uses a reference to the Green Man! How could i not make these??!! It's like FATE!

Yarn Fate!

Laters.

Finished!

Hey Robin!
I have a couple of FO's to report! Yay!


Here are the finished mittens. Yay! I can tell you, these are SO warm and toasty and the fact that they don't clamp-down around my wrist isn't nearly as much of a problem (yet) as I thought it might be. I don't think i'll be doing many snowball fights with them, but for tooting-around-town they are just what the Mommy ordered! I had no idea the thumbs would be so well camoflaged in that picture. There are thumbs! I promise!
Also I reversed the colors in mitten #2... just 'cause. If I were really smart (and had the energy) I probably would have reversed the pattern too so they would look better side-by side. Ah well, live and learn! I'm calling these mittens:

Sunshine and Blue Skies:
Yarn: Malabrigo worsted in pollen and bijou blue.
Pattern: Generic norwegian mitten graph and celtic spiral pattern from Celtic Charted Designs (pattern 225), Dover books

Next up in the FO gallery:
A friend/co-worker of Hub just recently had a wee bairn. They are nerds like us, so when i saw this pattern for a Baby Yoda Sweater... I had to make it. I mean it's really not much for a yoda-lookalike but it IS a little reminiscent of the smock type things the jedi wear... if you squint a bit ;)


I'm truly sorry the pictures suck so bad....

Anyway, the designer made it with MissionFalls 1824 cotton with this reasoning: "Young Jedis prefer natural fibers, you know. Acrylic interferes with The Force". I love it. Well all i had to-hand was some sugar n cream and so i made-do. It's the "ecru" color... yes the sleeves are a different dye-lot. Don't tell! I made a couple small changes to the pattern: knit it in the round, kitchenered the shoulders, picked up stitches around the arm-hole and knitted down rather than up (can anyone tell i hate seaming?) and made crochet-chains for the ties instead of i-cord only because I think they are easier to tie... i could be wrong. If the Mommy tells me that the crochet cords aren't strong enough I will made the appropriate changes :) It's an adorable little sweater! I'm so glad I found it on Ravelry!

The hat is "Simple hat" which I also found on Ravelry. In retrospect I probably should not have made it from cotton... it won't be fitting the young gentleman's head for long. But it fashionably matches the sweater.... perhaps I will follow up with a wool hat later on. ;)

Next up on the agenda: More Kid Kaper (a bit of a slog, sorry it's taking so long) and Skirtsicle! Wheeeee!

Later!