FO with PICTURES!!

God, I feel so *together* right now. Kids are all sleeping, dishes are done (note to self, run the dishwasher or there won't be bowls for breakfast tomorrow) and I FINISHED SOMETHING!!! I'm going to go ahead and blog about it as the person it's for just had a baby (I hope! I haven't heard any details yet...) and I sort of doubt she'll be checking in. If she does, well, surprise, honey! :)

This actually was a fairly quick project, as I obviously didn't make the whole thing. This is a fleece baby blanket with a crocheted edging. The blanket is approximately 30" x 36". I then used my slip stitch blade for my rotary cutter and perforated the edges. The edging is done using a C/2 size Boye Aluminum crochet hook, and Coats and Coats crochet thread (100% mrotary cutterercerized cotton) in size 3, probably about 1.3 balls. I used Pattern #3 from Baby's Choice Crochet Edgings for Fleece. It's sort of hard to see the detail of the edging in the black thread, but here's a picture:
I thought the angles of the edging would look sort of funky with the circles of the pattern. It's not your traditional baby blanket, I suppose, but this friend is not your traditional sort of mom. :) I hope she likes it. And if you're wondering why I'm sending a fleece blanket to a baby in Los Angeles, well, I don't want to hear it. I fell in love with the fleece and immediately thought of this friend and wanted to do something for her! My plan is to make a second blanket for Project Linus.

This was definitely an easier project. The one new skill I learned was crocheting through the back loop. I'm not sure of the point of it, but that's what the pattern called for, so that, gosh darn it, is what I did. The whole edging is only 4 rows (including the foundation row), and I'd say the whole thing took....10 hours maybe? Maybe not even that. The two middle rows took the longest, because I did somewhere on the order of 125 single crochets, and about 1000 double crochets.

I think the heavier crochet thread works really well for this edging. I might try a light yarn for the next one (that baby's not born yet, but coming SOON, I hope!), but I do like the thread. And I very much like that too,it's cotton, so no acrylic frying. I won't, however, use an aluminum hook for the next one. They're fine at a heavier weight, but this is a smaller size and I don't think the aluminum could withstand the vigor with which I wielded it, because the thing actually BENT. It's totally still usable but I don't think it's supposed to do that, you know?

I'm excited about this also as a possibility for service work. I love the idea of making one blanket for a friend (there are a gazillion babies being born among my circle of friends this year) and making the other half as a donation. I do think I like the 30x30 blanket size a bit better than this one, but I'm not sure what to do with the extra fleece I cut off. Sew it together into random scarves? Must ponder. I need to send an email to the local Project Linus coordinator and see if they need donations.

FO: Pinwheel Blanket

It's DONE! It took me a good 2+ hours just to bind off this bad boy, but it's done! Okay, I admit it, I was lazy and didn't do a great job of weaving in ends. When I say "didn't do a good job", what I really mean is "I didn't do it, I just tied knots and snipped them close." Don't tell, okay? I love this blanket! As you can see from the pictures, I haven't blocked it (yet), and I'm not decided if I'm going to, as I think it's going into rotation immediately. I realized that I can't find the other blanket I knit for DD (which is going to make me crazy until I do find it), and we're having weird, cool rainy weather. Besides, when I was taking pictures of her on it, she urped a bit on it, so I *think* that means she wants it. :)

Details

Pattern: Genia Plank's Pinwheel or Round Blanket (ravelry link here, you should check out some of the projects people have done, they're GORGEOUS!).
Needles: KnitPicks Options, size 8 for the blanket. size 10.5 for the bind-off. Various cord lengths.
Yarn: Bernat CottonTots. I really liked this yarn, actually. It wasn't too rough on the hands, and makes a nice, drapey fabric. I'll have to see how it washes and dries before I commit fully to it. I used .7 skein of the light pink, 1.6 skein of the lilac, 1.04 skein of the variegated, and .95 skein of the dark pink.

The pattern is either confusing or has a typo at the very beginning, where it jumps from Round 2 to Round 5. I chose to interpret that as you knit around for Rows 3 & 4, but I don't think it matters *all* that much. For the edging, I switched and did one round of knit with the dark pink. The next round I kfb every stitch to double my number of stitches, then did seed stitch, which makes a non-curling ruffle. I definitely made some mistakes, mainly I have a few spots where I forgot my YOs and then didn't notice on the knit round, but that's okay. I'm not thrilled with how the variegated pooled overall, but that's the fun of working with variegated yarns, right? And now some pictures!!

A FO with a PICTURE!!

Can you believe it? I found the cord for the camera (it was actually already hooked up to my computer, I don' t know when DH did that!). So, here's at least ONE small sample of what I've been up to.


This was made as a donation for my son's preschool silent auction (this was last year's endeavor). These were knit using Tahki Cotton Classic, no pattern, I just sort of winged them. They were knit using my KnitPicks Options (what else) size 5 needles, magic loop. This is actually the second hat - the first I cast on 72 stitches, which gave me a hat circumference of 12" (I was getting 6 sts/inch), which will work on a very new baby, but not for long. So I redid it with a cast on of 80 sts. I can't remember the length I knit to, about 7"? Then I did decreases starting on 8, every round. I thought it was cute as is, so no i-cord. The socks are 32 stitches, 2x2 rib for the cuffs (about 3.5 inches in length), short-row heel, knit the foot to approx. 3 inches, then the decreases every other row (4/decrease row), and a grafted toe. Very simple and easy, and I had to squeal several times at the cuteness. Can you tell I have baby girls on the brain? :) I may have to bid on them myself.

In other news, because what I really need to be doing is starting a new project, I, um, started something new. DS2 has requested a "green blankie" so we went to Joann's and picked out some Lion Big Fat Chenille (that's not what it's called but I am too lazy at the moment to look it up). He picked the color "basil," which is really pretty. I'm not certain about the yarn, in terms of quality, and how well it will wash, but it was easily available and it's VERY soft and cuddly. At first I was going to crochet something, but I'm not a great crocheter and this yarn is so not a good yarn for a novice crocheter (too fluffy to see what you're doing). Then I just cast on a bunch of stitches and did a random pattern but I didn't like it. So I'm doing YET ANOTHER diagonal eyelet-edged blanket. I've only done a few rows, but I think I'm going to frog it and start over with a slip-stitch edge as I just like that better than the straight garter-stitch edge. I bought two skeins of the yarn, so we'll see how big the thing ends up. It's a snuggly blankie, not an actual "cover you you up and keep you warm while you sleep" blankie, so I don't think it truly matters. But yeah, another garter-stitch blanket. Ah well, they're good zoning out projects.

I also started the second Falling Leaves lace sock. I've not even got the toe done, so I don't feel like I'm in a groove with it. But, I'm in desperate need of socks.

I read somewhere of one knitter's plan to end 2008 without a stash. I so could not do this (my knitting time is so limited) but I think it's a cool idea to try! I can't afford anything right now ayway, and in about 3 months, my knitting time is going to be severely curtailed.

OH! I forgot to mention, I found out that there's an actual real-life yarn store in my new town! AND there's a knitting group at the library, twice a month! If this town had a coffee shop, I think it would be perfect.

Increases are DONE!

I have a baby blanket that's been languishing for, oh, a long time now. It's a simple, diagonal, garter stitch thing, in Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille in Painted Iris (and oh, how I love it, it's soooo pretty!). Garter stitch is about all I am capable of right now, just remembering to do the YO at the beginning of the row is almost more than I can handle right now. But, in our new house (!!), the boys' bedroom/playroom is upstairs. We put the love seat in there too (this room is HUGE), so I can hang out in there and supervise, since most playing turns to tears right now. So, I'm getting some knitting done (instead of random internet surfing). I finished the increases on the blanket today! I've got plenty of time to finish this, but I'd really like it off needles soon, so I can move on to something else. I've got a couple of second socks to finish. Well, to start and THEN finish, but who's counting. Oh yeah, I am. Plus some other things that I can't even remember right now. Scarf. Hat for BIL for his ginormous head. Other stuff too, maybe.

Can you tell that I am feeling a bit strung out from this whole move thing? We had 1 weekend to get settled and then life kicked back in, so I'm sort of reeling a bit.

I am wearing my felted clogs every single day because it's damn cold in this new house, and because I am wearing hand knit socks often (my sock collection is pathetic, I tell you) and I read somewhere that socks wear out because you wear them without shoes or slippers and I want to prevent that because the clogs are cheaper and quicker to knit, so I figure wear out the clogs to protect the socks, right? I think the next pair I do, I'll do in a neutral grey entirely. The purple are awesome, and I do wear a ton of purple but not everything is, like my pj's, so they sort of clash. It does seem a tad odd to me that a woman who lives in jeans and casual clothes, and wears absolutely no makeup, actually cares about whether her slippers match her pajamas, but there you have it. I care.

Can't blog, knitting.

Well, not just knitting. It turns out that if one wants to make a holiday festive, and one does not go visit one's Mommy who will do this for one, then one must do all festivity-creation oneself. We were totally low-key and it still was a LOT of work.

But, presents were wrapped, cookies and a pie were baked, the Christmas meatloaf was delicious, the fancy breakfast with homemade cinnamon rolls was also delicious, and fun was had by all.

On the knitting front - booga bag is knit and I've got about 18" of icord done. One pair of mini-fetchings are done, another is started. The third pair is just a gleam in my eye. The hat for BIL is done. It looks sort of funny off the head, but it fits my DH just fine (who has a huge head), so it should be okay. Turns out I knit it on size 9s, not 8s, and I took out 1 12-stitch cable repeat, but it looks just fine to me. DH has decided he wants one too, so if I have enough of the Swish Superwash left-over after I finished the braided cable scarf, I'll do a hat for him in that.

Once everything is done, I'll post a ton of pictures. I've been sadly delinquent on the photo-front, which makes for a none-too-interesting blog, I am sure.

And I pulled out the baby blanket that I'm almost half way through. Remember how I thought it was girly looking and wasn't sure whose daughter I was knitting it for? Turns out it was for mine*. :)


* At least, they give us an 85% chance of the Frog being a girl...which apparently is as good odds as they'll give.