27 posts tagged “knitting”

New Camera

Dec 11, 2009
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Works pretty well on the fly!

Also, I picked up some new yarn that is going to look AMAZING on Hazel! I'm going to make this into a snowflake fair isle sweater sometime in the upcoming year for next Christmas.

cream yarn

blue yarn

The Last Christmas Gift

Nov 30, 2009
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Today I finished blocking the Clapotis I have been working on for my grandmother:

Clapotis

I love it. LOVE IT. I want to wear it! Obviously, I'm going to have to make myself a snuggly wrap/shawl immediately. Bonus, I have about 5 skeins leftover from this project (Knit Picks skeins are only 50 grams - super small, really), which means that I am going to make a Feather and Fan cardigan for Hazel.

Actually, I am finally working on a project for myself, which is called the February Lady Sweater. I have had the yarn and buttons for this sweater since JANUARY. That's almost an entire year ago. This will be the third project I have ever made for myself, following a phone cover and a tampon case. Yeah, I know - both of those things are tiny and they suck. I have really pretty yarn, sort of a slightly heathery hunter green, with dark wooden buttons. Now that I am done with Christmas knitting, I just have this project and a blanket for Hazel on the needles. Wow. I haven't been working on only two things since probably last year! LOL

Anyway, as the school year winds down for me (only 1.5 finals and one more week of homework to go), I hope to get this finished rather quickly. I have never made an adult-sized sweater, so I wonder how it will progress. If the lace pattern (oh yeah - this is also lace!! another new frontier!!!) agrees with me, then I'm going to make Hazel a matching version as well.

Knitting Adventures

Nov 20, 2009
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Murphy's Law states the following:

Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Also, all the sweaters Laura knits for Hazel will be at least 2 sizes too big.

You may think that I added that last bit. Well, it's always been there, but no one cared because it didn't make sense until I started knitting sweaters for Hazel and they all turned out HUGELY HUGE.

Case in point:

Big big sweater

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Knitters, you might be able to tell that this yarn in super bulky weight. I know - not all that practical for a toddler sweater, but I had 2 skeins from the first year I started knitting, and what else could it make? I actually had to hunt down and purchase another skein for the sleeves, but that's another story. Anyway, it's huge. It's a parka. For a three-year-old. A big three-year-old. It's cute, and I do like the big buttons we picked out today (even if they aren't spaced evenly; that's something else I can't seem to do correctly), but I wish it fit her right now. Next year she is going to wear a hand-knit EVERY DAY OF THE WINTER.

Also, as a side note: when I was trying to get pictures of her in this, which is much harder than it used to be when she couldn't walk, I made her wear a plastic cup as a hat. She wore it, which is the funny part!

cup hat

yep, that is a cup.

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hazel <3

Also, she liked to bend her head waaaay down and lick the top button. I mean, it's her sweater, right? Mama's hand-knits are cool to wear in 7 years AND taste great!

Quick like a bunny!

Nov 15, 2009
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I am sick. Hazel is sicker. Amos is not (lucky dude!). So this will be quick fast like lightening!

This week was productive in that I got new yarn and started knitting with it. Oh also the house was clean for one whole day. PRETTY COOL. Friday I got a crazy number of house-stuff done: groceries, dishes, sweeping, mopping, bathroom-sink-cleaning, plus I made a tofu/kale supper pie, which was phenomenal. But then I got sick yesterday, and all I did before Amos got home was feed Hazel and pick up a couple of promised books at the book sale. And today it's been mopey, snotty, headachey, orange-juicy shuffling from room to room.

Thus, the promised quick run-down:

I'm making the shawl on the left with the yarn on the right. This will be a kind of last-minute Christmas gift for my grandma. I'm making one that is a little bigger than the one here, since I want her to use it like a shawl.

my clapotis

Also, because Hazel was sick, Amos bought some Crayons for her. She's a little young, really, but he found these plastic-covered ones and she loved them! She didn't try to eat them once.

Christmas Addendum: Knitting List

Nov 2, 2009
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Oh yeah - this is what I was getting to in that last post. Duh!

I am basically done with all the knitting I had planned for Christmas, which naturally means that I have tacked more on already. Here's what I have left (if I don't write this down somewhere it will never get done!):

Pumpkin hat for Lindsay Done! 11.06.09
Purple scarf for Olivia Done! 11.03.09
Red dress for Hazel
Clapotis for Granny -- YARN BOUGHT!!
The extra somethingsomething for Emma -- YARN BOUGHT! DONE!! 11.06.09
Extra thing for Hazel 11.07.09
Finish the huge baby bedspread for Hazel (or take that on the trip - yeah do this option)
Maybe some baby pants with the gold/orange leftover yarns?
2 Christmas dishcloths

Ummm...I should get started. LOL

PS - That red dress for Hazel??!?!?!?!!! Yeah, it's crossed off because I was looking at it and I realized that it would totally fit her perfectly in about 8 years. Why can't I knit anything that will fit a 14-month-old?! It's like a curse!!! So, I ripped all that out last night, and that soft, beautiful Malabrigo (Bergamota is the name of the colorway) is going to sit there until I can stand to touch it again, which won't be too long, because it really is gorgeous.

PPS - I have finished up all these tiny little projects, which feels pretty awesome, but I really should be working on the proposal I have to write. So it's down with the needles & forward with the highlighter!

It's a Baby Shower!

Oct 18, 2009
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Not for me, but for our friends Amy and Chris, who own the CSA farm of which we are members. Today we attended their sweet baby shower and had a great time. This is the sweater I worked like a madwoman to finish:

BSJ Gift

They are going to wait and find out the sex when the baby is born, so I thought orange and gold would be perfect and more appealing than pastel colors. I used Knit Picks machine washable sport yarn, which is super squishy soft and great for a baby. They loved it, which made me happy :)

In that the spirit of new parents, I made a video today of what we like to call "Please Take a Nap."

13 months - stair climbing clip

New Pictures

Oct 12, 2009
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I took these two following pictures today with my iphone - that little camera really does a decent job!

Yes, that's a new pumpkin hat. I have been dying to make one for a couple of weeks now, and since I finished that baby gift I was making and was sick this weekend, I got it done very quickly!

playing outside

mama is embarrassing!

I love this one - her face says "I am so embarrassed right now." Love it!!

pumpkin hat

Hazel's Sweater

Aug 20, 2009
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I love this sweater. I love the yarn, I love the colors, I love the pattern, and I love that I got the pattern all the way correct. This will keep her warm for probably the next 4 years, because it did turn out kind of big (I've since noticed that other people had this same outcome, so I'm still counting it as being correct).

Oh, and the yarn was spun & dyed locally in New Hartford. Pretty cool!

Little Coffee Bean Cardigan

But I don't want to!

Jun 19, 2009
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I'm in the midst of Christmas knitting, with about half done already. No, probably more than half, but it's all the good half. I don't know why, but I bought the yarn to make like 4 scarves for gifts, and now I'm dragging my feet, bored out of my mind with them. I have 3 already on the dang needles, with a measly 4 inches or something scraggling along, and I just don't want to finish a one of them.

What I want is to make more baby cardigans. LOTS of baby cardigans. I love that pattern, and I want to only make those for the next 12 projects.

But, since I'm an adult, I'm going to finish the scarves. They are lovely patterns, with lovely yarn, after all.

Baby Surprise Jacket

Jun 15, 2009
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On the road trip I ran out of things to knit. I know, I was as shocked as you! Fortunately there are a few awesome yarn shops in St. Louis, so I took this opportunity to knit something I've been wanting to for a while - the baby surprise jacket. It's a pattern by Elizabeth Zimmerman, who wrote all these amazingly awesome patterns back in the 50s and 60s that are so cool everyone still wants to make them. I also bought the Knitter's Almanac, but that's another story. Anyway, I started this, ripped it out, started, ripped, then finally got it together and finished it up last Saturday. It was like magic! Anyone who's knitted this pattern knows what I mean; you basically knit this weirdly shaped rectangle, then fold it a certain way and there it is! This will be a gift for Hazel this Christmas from me. It should fit her right around then, a little over a year old. I love it, and I'm going to definitely make another one soon!