All in a day's work

Not been much time for knitting or much else lately with a heavy load at the day job but this weekend was a different story. Not that I actually did much knitting but I did do quite a bit of finishing. Such as:



and a larger version of the baby seed jacket. I didn't get a picture because, honestly, it's exactly the same as the other one only bigger. That's it.

I did get some spinning done today, almost the whole 8 oz of the fiber I was spinning. No pictures because it's for someone and they don't know yet but it's some gorgeous stuff and has been a dream to spin, as might can tell from the fact that I've spun almost the whole batch! There's only a little more to go and then I can get it plied and ready for the recipient. But it's good stuff, Maynard!


Here's something I wanted to share - the view from my front door. It's quite fun to sit and watch the birds play in the water after it's rained. Like this:

Vintage Rocks Baby Pattern

In case you're interested in trying it, I've posted the pattern for the baby sweater on my website. Click here to download it.

Vintage Rocks Baby

Here in babyland, patterns just keep coming. I was looking for something else the other night when I came across a very cute baby pattern in a 1954 pattern magazine. I took it out, copied it and got the yarn I was going to use. Then I realized it was a crochet pattern. Although I do crochet, I don't like yarn crochet for clothes. Don't like it. Don't do it.

But when I first saw the pattern picture, I immediately had an idea of what I thought it was so instead of being sad, I just got to gettin' and this is what I got (getted):



Cute, no? And fast, like likety split. I'm planning to get the pattern written up and posted as a free download this weekend. I'll let you know when it's done. To make a larger or smaller size, all one would need to do it use larger (or smaller) needles.

Oh, yeah, and I found out someone else at work is pregnant. More babies mean more baby knitting.

Piping the Stocking

I was mulling over ideas for a class I’m hoping to do this fall with Lincoln Land Community College. It’s taking advantage of all the experience I now have making Christmas stockings (7 in a short period of time) and aims at teaching all the principles of sock knitting by knitting a Christmas stocking.

I was thinking about the patterns I want to do for the class and what sort of things I want to incorporate. In the middle of my ponderings, as I was wandering off to sleep, I suddenly realized that you could add an i-cord piping to the stocking to mimic what you see most often in sewn or quilted stockings.

The next morning I cast on and came up with this.

It will work best knitting in the round, I believe, so I cast on 10 green stitches, 3 pink, 10 green and 3 pink and joined up the round. Now normally you can’t knit intarsia in the round. Why? Because once you’ve knit across, the working yarn is at the end of the pattern. If you’re working in the round, once you come back to that point, the yarn is on the other side of the pattern. It’s sort of like taking a boat from the shore to the island. The next person who wants to come to the island is stuck because the boat’s already on the other side.

Now, think for a minute. An i-cord is knit across, then the stitches are moved over and the row is knit across from the beginning again, right? It creates a round, continuous thing of knitting. A knitted cord, as it were. In knitterly circles, we call it an i-cord. There's a story behind the name but I'll leave that to another time and move on.

If you add that to the stitches cast on as above, when you knit across the green and get to the pink, you’re going to pull the working yard back from the other side to knit the 3 pink stitches, right? Right. Therefore, you’re doing exactly what you would do to make an i-cord but it’s incorporated into your knitting! Wha-la! Insta-piping.

You just have to make sure you wrap the green and pink working strands on every row and Bob’s your uncle (or at least a very close relative, as they say).

Have a go and see if it doesn’t work.

Ohhh...ahhh...

I'm done, I'm done! Here it is off the needles (which took about 3 hours, by the way).

And blocked. I really like this $3 piece of material to block with.

And done.

Just to give you an idea of how much thread it took, the skein has 1,200 yards. Here's a picture of what I had left and what a new skein looks like. It measures about 34 inches across.

Now I need to go get some sleep!

Progress

Progress continues on the sun burst doily but at 1400 stitches per round, it's slow. It's also slow because I don't want any trouble at this point - round 141 (out of 148). No new picture because it still just looks like a big ball of wibbly, wobbly stuff but I will get a photo posted the second I have it off the needles and pinned out.

Someone left a comment about lifelines. I do know about lifelines but, to be honest, although they are a wonderful thing and I have used them in certain projects, I don't ever use them for something like this. Dangerous? maybe. Crazy? probably. But I feel like it slows me down which does more harm than good in my eyes. And, to be honest, I've never needed them. That being said, I know the day will come when I will say, "Why, oh why didn't I use a lifeline." But even if I'd made a mistake (as I have done on this very project), I would rather go back stitch by stitch than try to worry with a lifeline. Just personal preference.

I sort of feel I've put myself out on a limb by speaking (writing) these very words so I will continue to take care with the project until I am able to finish, which should be sometime later this week.

Rip Report

Just a quick report. It took all evening but I did get all the rows ripped out and one row knitted to make sure I was on track. I'm not sure how it happened but with all that work, I ended up where I thought I was to begin with - Round 103. Not sure how that happened but it certainly helped with the pain. I must have been further along and just not marked off my rounds. Anyway, I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I'm just going to say, "thank you" and go on!