Cyber Monday

Are you done with your Christmas shopping?  Maybe you're just starting to think about Christmas knitting.  Maybe you're just a sucker for good deals. :-)

I've decided to gift a little Christmas knitters cheer to you all.  On Cyber Monday (that's November 28, 2011, this year), I'm activating a coupon code that will get you all 30% off the Striped Earflap Hat pattern.

Go to Ravelry and to the pattern page and enter in code "cybermonday30" for your 30% off.

Or go to Etsy and to my shop and enter in code "cybermonday30" for 30% off there as well.

Merry (early) Christmas!

Day 7: Something New

I don't do much for myself, as I really don't need much.  The kids are growing and learning and experiencing; it's much easier and nicer to do things for them.  But, for Miriam's birthday in September, a wonderful yarnie friend from Ravelry gifted me a handspun skein of yarn that she created herself.  I instantly knew what I wanted it to become.  A hat.  For me.  There was only 90 yards, but it is a gorgeous 90 yards.  I found a simple hat pattern, but as I was knitting, I realized that no way was 90 yards enough for a hat on my head.  I started contemplating finding a coordinating yarn to add stripes to the hat, give it a little interest and extend the use of the special yarn.

Then, this past weekend, my mother took me to a small Llama farm/fiber studio that was having a great sale.  I found this amazingly soft, cuddly, and perfect Merino and Mulberry Silk blended top in a perfect white color to go with the pops of white bamboo spun in the special yarn.  I cannot wait to spin this up so I can finish my hat!!

Taken on the Manual setting (F/2.8 and 1/6 shutter speed) and edited in Picasa with Saturation.

Day 4: Favorite Color

This is a closeup of a sweater that I knit.  Not only do I love the color green, but the texture really speaks to me too.

This was SO HARD!  I have a little point and shoot (Samsung L200 10.2 MegaPixel), so truing colors in the original photo was very difficult.

Photo was taken on the Manual Setting (F2.8, Exposure time 1/15 seconds), and edited in Picasa using Saturation.

Striped Earflap Hats

I have a goal to knit my kids their winter hats every year.  This year, they got matching hats!



Benjamin loves the pom-pom.  It's his "favorite."


Miriam likes to play dress-up, so she adores wearing hats because they make her feel pretty!


This is a great hat.  It's so fun to knit, and apparently fun to wear!  I would have knit enough hats for the whole family if I thought my husband would wear a hat. :-)



You can knit one too!  The Striped Earflap Hat pattern fully explains how to do jogless stripes and how to add the crochet edging to the hat.  A garter stitch edging is also included as an alternative option.  Details for how to make the ties and pom-pom are also included.  The pattern includes instructions for knitting sizes from newborn (14" head) all the way to large adult (24" head) using a DK weight yarn.

And finally, some knitting

This is, technically, a knitting blog. Not only do I have very little time to actually compose a thought of my own, sitting at the computer or not, I haven't had much time for actual knitting. And then, I realized, knitting is a very important thing for me. Outside of being a mother (and wife), I'm a crafter. If I could do college all over again, I'd choose to major in Art with a focus on Fiber, since, well, I'm not really doing anything with the degree I have now! (And, for anyone who would ever judge a person for not "using" their college degree, I use everything I learned in college in some aspect or another, and I wouldn't trade the experience of college for anything.)

Now that Miss Miriam is learning to nap and sleep without being held, I have a little bit of baby-hands-free time every day. I've taken advantage of that to focus on me, instead of the huge amount of housework that should probably be attended to at some point. When you're a mother to two high-needs children (make sure you read that right, that's not special-needs, that's "high" needs) and a nanny to three more young children, and you have a husband who typically works from sun up to past sun down, I've determined that it's okay to let housework be pushed aside until the weekend. It's important for mothers to take a break and focus on themselves. As such, I've returned to my knitting needles. And, to help me along in my quest to have actual finished products, I've volunteered to test knit new patterns.

This is the VTT men's sock pattern. Chris likes hand knit socks for the comfort and warmth factor, and I like knitting socks for the convenience factor. This is a very manly patterned sock, but knowing my husband, I still knit it in black so it couldn't possibly be thought that these are "feminine." However, black does not make for good photographing in the grey, rainy (/snowy/sleeting/hailing) Wisconsin spring. One sock is done and the other will be knit (maybe) on my trip to California. The pattern is now published and available for purchase on Ravelry.





There's more, but I'll do another post on that another day. :-)

Miriam's new hat

I had some leftover yarn (well, actually nearly half the skein!) from my Tympany hat. Miriam also has outgrown all of her newborn hats. Those two facts meant that it was time to knit Miriam a new hat, and why not a hat that matches Mommy's?



This is Miriam's Modified Jewel Hat
Pattern: Jewel Baby Hat with my own twist
Yarn: Dream in Color Starry, colorway Pansy Go Lightly
Needles were a US 3
More details on Ravelry here.

New hat

I have a new hat!


Please forgive the no make-up and the indoor picture. It's very cold outside, hence the need for a hat.

I'm in love with the pom-pom. :-)

The pattern is Tympany
Yarn is Dream in Color Starry, colorway Pansy Go Lightly (see the sparkles? That's actual silver)
Needles were a US size 2.
More details on Ravelry here.

I have just enough yarn left to make Miriam a matching hat!

Ideas, Ideas, Ideas

I have loads of ideas. I have no time to implement them. This makes me sad. :-(

Sewing:
BabyLegs
a dupioni silk ring sling
several bloomers for Miriam
make a Duck Tape Dress Form for myself

Knitting
finish my Central Park Hoodie
make Chris a reinforced pair of socks since he already wore a hole in the pair of socks I gave him for Christmas last year. :-)
both the kids need new hats. Wish their heads would take a break on growing so fast!
I need 3 or 4 more pairs of socks for myself in order to be able to wear handknit socks everyday. :-)
Miriam needs her own Christmas stocking!

Other Crafting
I want to create a trio of modern paintings to hang over our couch in the living room.
I need some form of keepsakes for Benjamin's and Miriam's current sizes. Ideas?
I want to create a mirror window in our dining room to help bring more light in.
need to hang the picture wall...as soon as I decide which wall that will be!

And of course, the house
the wallpaper needs to finish coming off.
the kitchen ceiling needs to be redone...as soon as the lighting can be rearranged (take down the chandelier, turn the fan into one that contains a light, take down the flourescent lights and turn them into recessed lighting)
then the kitchen cabinets need to be repainted and the walls too
the carpet needs to be taken up and new flooring laid down.

That seems like it should be enough work, doesn't it? Now, where to find the time?!

Sweet Dreams Baby Hat

This hat pattern is a very special one for me. When Benjamin was born, the hospital staff gave him a handknit hat. It fit him so perfectly, not nearly as tight as all the hats I had knit him, plus the ribbing was long enough to cover his ears. That's an extremely important feature to have in Wisconsin when you're born in February!!

So when I joined a Hat Swap for other babies due to be born in October, right around the time I'm due, I knew right away that I wanted to share this wonderful hat. I searched high and low for a pattern that would create a similar hat, but I could not find one. Finally, I reverse-engineered Benjamin's hat to create a hat for my swap partner's baby. Although Benjamin's hat had a pom-pom on top, I opted not to put one on this hat. I'm always a little wary of removeable items on baby clothes, and a pom-pom on top makes it a bit difficult to use a head support when in a carseat because of the added height to the hat, so no pom-pom for us! (It is a really cute feature though, so go ahead and make one if you'd like!)



Materials
Yarn A: Variagated sport weight yarn
Yarn B: Matching solid color sport weight yarn
Size US 4 (3.5mm) double pointed needles

Guage: 6sts/9rows = 1" in stockinette stitch

Directions
In yarn A, cast on 72 sts using the long-tail cast-on.
Join to work in the round.
Work K2,P2 rib for 3".
Purl next round.
Switch to yarn B, knit in stockinette stitch for 2 inches.
Switch back to yarn A, knit one round.
Purl one round.
K one round
*K6, K2tog, repeat from * 9 times.
K one round
*K5, K2tog, repeat from * 9 times
K one round
*K4, K2tog, repeat from * 9 times
K one round
*K3, K2tog, repeat from * 9 times
K one round
*K2, K2tog, repeat from * 9 times
K one round
*K1, K2tog, repeat from * 9 times
K one round
*K2tog, repeat from * 9 times
Cut yarn and thread through remaining 9 stitches. Weave in ends.

Cleaning Up

There is something so luxurious about using handknit items while doing household chores. There's also nothing quite so satisfying as actually completing a project!

I have about one hour of dedicated time to myself everyday while the boys take their afternoon naps. It doesn't leave me much time to get everything accomplished that I used to get done pre-baby, but it does help me to feel as if I can breathe on my own again. I pulled out my knitting bag, and emptied it of all complicated projects: my sweater will have to wait until I have the time to count cables and rows and stitches; my socks will have to wait until the pregnancy short-term memory loss is cured (when does that go away?!) and I can remember what kind of heel I was turning; and my shawl will remain in the design stages. Instead, I stuffed it with cotton yarn and the intention of making several 8" squares to use as dishcloths.

1. Garterlac Dishcloth in Sugar 'n Cream (Rosewood)
2. Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth in Sugar 'n Cream (cream)
3. Pawprint Dishcloth in Sugar 'n Cream (yellow)
4. 4 Corners Dishcloth in Peaches 'n Cream (shades of green) in progress

My husband says we don't need anymore dishcloths. I beg to differ.

High as a Cat

This weekend we stopped by the pet store because we had to replace Loki's CatDancer. He pretty much destroyed the old one. I also wanted to find something catnip related since I know the other two will go crazy for it, and it sure is fun to watch! But what they offered in toys just didn't seem worth the money spent on them. Some were hard wooden toys that you stuffed with the catnip, and others were far too flimsy to stand up to my cats. Miss Tea prefers to sleep on her nip toys to get high threw osmosis, Carmina prefers to chew on it until it's sopping wet, and Loki will try to rip it to shreds. So we decided to just pick up some loose catnip, and I'd figure out some cat-proof way to give it to them.

Enter the simple Felted Catnip Bag. It combines the two things my cats love the most: my yarn and catnip. The only thing to make this the coolest thing ever in their little kitty worlds would be my lap, but it's hard to stuff that into this little bag!

Materials:
-- US 8 straight needles
-- small amount of worsted weight 100% pure wool (I used Cascade 220)

Gauge: 5 sts/7 rows per inch

Pattern:
Cast on 30 sts using the long tail cast-on.
Knit in stockinette until piece reaches 5 inches, ending with a WS row.
Loosely bind off.

Finished flat knit piece: 5 inches tall, 6.25 inches wide

Fold piece lengthwise. Seam edge together, and seam bottom together. Weave in ends.


Felt and let dry completely.

Stuff lightly with cotton balls or batting and sprinkle in catnip. Seam top together. Give to cats to enjoy!

See others' Felted Catnip Bags on Ravelry:

Bangle Wristlet Purse

So as I get ready to head off to Germany, I realized I will be there for the 2nd half of Fasching (or Karneval, depending on where you live). With all the crazies welcomed out into the streets, I decided it might not be the best choice to carry my purse around. Since I will need to carry my passport around with me, I need something that will stay close to my body and not be so easy to rip off. Plus, it needs to be cute enough for the clubs. (Go back to Germany and be there for Fasching, and not go to the clubs? I am no hypocrite!!) I think this cute wristlet will do just fine.

Materials
~ Knit Picks Andean Silk [55% superfine Alpaca, 23% silk, 22% Merino wool; 96yd per 50g skein]; color: #23778 Cornflower; 1 skein
~ US 8 straight needles
~ cable needle
~ US G crochet hook
~ 2 bangle bracelets (or 4 depending on quality of bracelets)
~ tapestry needle
~ (optional) fabric for lining

Gauge
5 sts = 1"

Bag Body
With kniting needles, CO 40 sts loosely.
Rows 1, 3, 7, & 9: K3, P4, K8, P4, K2, P4, K8, P4, K3
Rows 2, 4, 6, 8, & 10: P3, K4, P8, K4, P2, K4, P8, K4, P3
Row 5: K3, P4, C8F, P4, K2, P4, C8B, P4, K3
Repeat these 10 rows 6 times more, then Repeat Rows 1-8 once (a total of 8 cables have been created)
BO loosely in pattern.
Block knitted rectangle.
(optional): If you would like to add a lining to your bag, make your measurements now. It will be much easier than after it has been seamed up.
Fold the rectangle in half width-wise, and seam up sides of bag.
(optional): Sew in lining of bag.

Handle Flaps
With crochet hook, attach yarn & sc2tog 38 times around top of bag.
* sc1, sc2tog, sc13, sc2tog, sc1, turn (17 sts total)
ch2, skip first st in row, dc 16, turn
ch2, skip first st in row, dc 16, fasten off *
Join yarn for other side of bag and rep from * to * for second handle flap.
Attach bangles as the handes.
Weave in ends.
(note: I do crochet, and as such used crochet handle flaps. However, not every knitter is also a crocheter. You can pick up the middle 34 stitches on each side of the bag and knit in seed stitch for 5-6 rows depending on thickness of bangles.)

See others' Bangle Wristlet Purses at Ravelry: