I couldn't wait!!


We went to see Christopher over the weekend. I couldn't wait until Easter to give him his Wallaby sweater. I'm not very good at keeping surprises; I want to share them right away. So I did, and I am glad. It fits him great and isn't he the best Wallaby model ever?! I'll have to figure out something else for Easter.

A Wallaby for Easter

I finished knitting the Wonderful Wallaby for Christopher. I like the way the colors took on a pattern of their own. The sweater required 2 skeins and about a yard more from the third skein. Had I ripped out and reused my gauge swatch I would not have had to open the third skein. I enjoyed knitting with the yarn and for less than $5, I think it made a very nice hoodie. I found a couple cute finger puppets for the pockets. I imagine, though, that the pockets will have cars in them most of the time Christopher wears the sweater. I look forward to Easter when I will give him the sweater.

Fingerless Keeshond gloves

I am working on another pair of gloves from my handspun Keeshond/wool variegated yarn. I decided to make these gloves fingerless. I bought a scrap of leather from a local shoe repair shop to sew to the palm of the completed glove.

A Vest Begins

Getting started on a knitted vest for Teresa. She was home this weekend for her birthday and is excited about the vest. It is knit on size 2 needles and will not be a quick knit, so she will need to be patient.

Let the Wallaby Begin





I have been wanting to knit a pullover hoodie for Christopher. He likes to put his toy cars and trains in his pockets and I think he'd like having a big pocket on the front of his sweater. I have knit a few pullover hooded sweaters in past years from "The Wonderful Wallaby" by Cottage Creations, and like the pattern. I'm not a big fan of doing a lot of stockinette stitch, but I do like knitting in the round and not dealing with seams. So I remind myself sometimes it IS nice to knit and not count or even think if I don't want to.


With Christopher's allergy to wool, I needed to find a suitable yarn for this sweater. I spent a lot of time looking on line at yarn trying to decide what I wanted to use. Cotton is my usual choice for Christopher. For this project I needed a fiber with some memory so it wouldn't sag and grow over time. Machine wash and dry is a plus too, for anything a two year old wears. And I wanted fun bright colors that match the exciting lifestyle of a small and active toddler. Plus I have a budget that I do need to be mindful of. So, yes, I bought cheap acrylic yarn from a dime store....horrors. Guess what? It's great!! All four skeins cost less than $10 total. I do love fine yarn, and even spin my own a lot of the time because I am so fussy about yarn quality. However, I am not a yarn snob, (hopefully) and I'm happy today to be knitting with my new purchase of Caron Simply Soft 100% acrylic yarn.

The crazy pink background fabric in the photo is another story that will have to wait a while. But here is a small hint:

One More Glove Thing





















Remember the Houdini Gloves? Posted November 13, 2006

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They make great liners for my leather work gloves! They keep my hands warm when I am working in the yard, not that I am doing a lot of that lately.....

Knitted Hood

I finished knitting the Beaded Smoke Ring (HeartStrings Pattern A39 copyright 1997 Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer). I will be teaching a class at Yarns Down Under in Deep River, CT during March using this pattern and wanted to get a prototype made to leave in the shop for customers to see, and hopefully to entice them to sign up for the class. It is knit from Blue Sky Alpaca yarn. This is one of my favorite knitted gifts. It is both elegant and very practical. It can be worn over your head as a hood, or it can be worn all the way down around your neck, collar style. It is great at keeping the snow or rain from getting inside your coat collar and keeping your neck and head warm. A fun alternative to the basic hat and scarf. Teresa will be home this weekend for her birthday and maybe I can get her to model this for the camera, it looks much prettier when it is worn than when it is laying flat.

Christopher in his Magic Sweater

Katherine posted a picture of Christopher in his sweater. She said it fits him well. Notice the nice new hair cut, too! He is definitely the cutest kid on the planet!!

Magic Sweater

I finished knitting Christopher's sweater.....
















and figured out how to fold it....

then sewed up the shoulders and added the buttons. Presto! One sweater ready for Valentine's Day.

I didn't know where the stripes would end up and just changed yarn between the blue and green while I was knitting whenever I felt like it. So it was a complete surprise to find out what the sweater looked like.

I went to the fabric store looking for buttons in the shape of cars or trains or trucks. But none of the buttons I saw would work with the buttonholes in the sweater. So I bought ordinary green buttons and made a note to myself to go on line and find some cute buttons and create Christopher's next sweater around them. Plan ahead, or something like that....

Golden Mittens are Taking Shape

I abandoned the paw print design for now. I tried, but I have tension issues I must correct first. I will keep my charted paw print pattern for now and plan to try again later when my 2 color skills improve a bit. So I ended up with a simple geometric design that I hope references a garden theme. The owner of the Golden Retriever liked the first mitten, so I will attempt a second. First I am fixing the thumb on this one. The magic loop is great to use instead of dpn for some things, and this thumb qualified as one such thing.

I am also working on a sweater for Christopher. It is E. Zimmerman's magic surprise baby sweater (lots of magic at my house these days). I've never tried this pattern, but have seen knitted samples and am very intrigued by how this works. The sweater is knit all in one piece and after some minor origami and stitching up the shoulder seams, presto, you have a sweater. I am just getting started and can't tell yet which end goes up. But I will knit in faith, and see what happens. I am using a 100% cotton yarn from Knit Picks called Crayon. It is a nice soft cotton, though I sometimes split a stitch if I am not paying attention to what I am doing. My mind does wonder some, I am missing Christopher today, he is such a great little guy!

Warm Birthday Wishes

Today is Art's birthday, so I knit him a chullo style hat with ear flaps to keep his head warm in the winter. He is working late tonight, so Shasta gets to model the hat for the camera. If Art doesn't come home soon, Shasta just might get his dinner, too.