Cobblestone…done

I just finished this for Sam this morning, just in time for our 6/7 anniversary. There were some issues. The yarn I used, Swish Superwash, shrinks in the wash (it’s not supposed to do that). So I had to make adjustments to the pattern to account for a 15% shrinkage lengthwise only. Eek. However, it seems to have worked out alright. Sam’s off to Boston in a few weeks, so now he’ll have something warm to wear.
:)k

The Box

The Yarn

The Start of the Cobblestone Sweater

Okay, so all of that yarn isn’t for one sweater. I’m actually doing matching (similar) sweaters for all four of us. And I’m going to do it before Yule. Waahahaha…. Yeppers. I’m nuts.

Father & Son Socks

I finally finished the Father & Son socks for Sam. I think I started these in January, finished one and refused to cast on the other. The pattern bugged me for many reasons. I finally cast on the second just before summer, with predictable results. Trying to knit anything with a chart when both children are at home is doomed. So the first few inches of the second sock are a testament to my madness. And no, I didn’t frog it and start over. I couldn’t bear it. Sam says they’re great. I did note that the first sock was done on bamboo dpns and the second on metal magic loop. The second sock was a significantly tighter weave. Looks the same with them both on though. I’m just happy it’s over. No more chevrons…ever.

Thanks to brooklyn tweed, I found this lovely pattern (pdf) for baby booties. Quick and simple to make, I used up some human growth hormone hgh of my left-over Cascade Fixation to make a couple of pair. Now I have to find some tiny feet to fit them on.

So, a while ago (like March) I signed up for ISE4 – International Scarf Exchange 4. It goes like this….you fill out a questionaire about your preferences in color, style and fiber and send it in to the hostess. Then you are matched with two different people. One who you knit a scarf for and one who will knit a scarf for you. I ended up with a scarfee who lives in Kent. Her name is Elvira. I got to work with lovely yarn (Tilli Tomas) that I wouldn’t normally buy for myself. And I got to try lace. I say this as if that was a bonus, but the lace part nearly drove me mad. I quickly discovered that if I wanted to work on the scarf, it had to be in a quiet room with no distractions. No tv, no conversation, certainly no children or I would mess up the row. In the end, I got it done and sent out by the deadline. Elvira seems to have liked it and she and I are maintaining a loose email correspondence, which I think is the best thing about this experience. But it is pretty….isn’t it?

:)k

I have so many things to blog about…so many pictures waiting, but this was the one that made it up today.  Look carefully, yep, that’s the start of two socks on one circular needle.  I’m so excited it’s appalling.  No more SSS for me.  Thank you Valerie for showing me.  Once I got through the cast on (which was a little harrowing) the rest is breezy.  And it’s such fun to watch both happen at once.  Wheee.

The children have developed an addiction to hand-knit socks. The crazy colored pairs are for the two of them. The peachy pair were my Mom’s Mother’s Day gift. I had bought the little blue shoes for Cass a while ago but the laces disintegrated. As I hadn’t had time to go hunting child appropriate shoe-laces, I made these out of some of the leftover yarn from my Mom’s socks. Cute! Cassidy loves them.

I got my lovely etsy yarn two weeks ago. It was totally poorly dyed. I sent the yarn back and she “re-dyed” my batch and sent it back to me. It still really wasn’t what I was expecting but I had been waiting and waiting and waiting for it so I went ahead and started knitting. I wanted to do Cleaves but since I can’t normally wear 100% wool, I bought this hand-painted silk/wool blend. I did a test swatch (yes, I did), corrected my needles, cast on and was away. Here’s how the sleeve looked:

I finished just in time to wear it Saturday night to go out with my extended family in San Antonio. It looked super cute over a black cami…

And by the time I took it off two hours later…it looked like this:

Yarn substitution is a wonderful thing, or it can be…In this case, it didn’t work. The yarn I was working with had a thick/thin thing going on in a big way. The stockinette was fine, but the ribbing stretched, a lot! Can you hear the sound of ripping yarn? I’m going to try this in the yarn called for in the pattern and see what happens. I’d like to know if it was the yarn or just me. In the meantime, I’m going to go mourn the 12 hours I spent and all the joy undeservedly lavished on the finished project. Waaaa…

:(k

Okay…I’ve been a big bum about posting. However, here’s what I’ve been up to.

I’ve been knitting ‘Weasley’ sweaters for both kids. I started these about 10 days ago. I know, I know, I’m nuts. But I’m trying to finish (sortof) before we leave for England tomorrow to visit Sam’s family. And they’re supposed to be a surprise, so I’ve only been able to work on them when the kids weren’t around (mostly). Aidan is suspicious because he’s seen the pattern lying about and the big charted ‘A’.

My goal is to have the back and front done, sewn together and the neck finished before we get on the plane. I’ll do the sleeves when we get there. To that end…here’s Aidan’s so far…

I’ve had a little trouble with charts and letter placement. The ‘c’ on Cassidy’s is a twee bit to high, but I even started it a bit lower than the pattern suggested. There’s no mention of how high your letter should be, etc, so I had to guess. The ‘A’ is wide and low because I had the chart turned the wrong way…as it turns out, a happy error.

I should be able to stitch up tonight and finish the neck on Cassidy’s and then we’re off tomorrow. I do hope it doesn’t take too long to do the sleeves (picked up and knit down in the round) as I’ve only packed the kids one other sweater. 🙂 Reckless optimism. And for my first sweater efforts, I’m pretty darned happy.

:)k