february baby sweater

Despite all appearances to the contrary, I am doing plenty of knitting. I’m not making a lot of progress on any individual project though. I started on Anne Hanson’s Ostrich Plume Scarf/Stole before getting confused as to what row I was on (in a yarn I’ve yet to show you), ripped and reknit a few roes on my Saffron Cables Blanket [ravelry link] from Interweave Knits, done a ton of work my Juno Regina and decided that my next cast-on is either going to be the Cookie A’s Zanzibar [r] Sock pattern that I got with my last Loopy Ewe Sock Club shipment or a plain sock in my own yarn (edited).

On Friday night / Saturday early in the morning I realized that I was due to attend a baby shower the next morning and that I HAD NOT CAST ON. I rummaged around. Do you know, I do not have enough baby appropriate worsted weight yarn just lying around? Um, if sock yarn isn’t stash, than my stash is small enough to fit in a couple of dresser drawers. (Well, no, but I can rattle off the projects pretty easily: 4 sweaters (2 for frogging), 3 blankets for me, 1 blanket for charity, 2 bags a hat and some odds and ends I think). There were 3 skeins of Brown Sheep, 12 skeins in 2 colors of DK weight Debbie Bliss Cathay, 5 skeins of DK weight Cotton Patine and several color inappropriate skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fine as well as a few other odds and ends. I wanted a sort of light worsted. I gave in and used the Dream in Color Classy I had been saving for a hat. It’s that yummy forest green color. I decided on the “Baby Sweater on Two Needles; Practically Seamless” by Elizabeth Zimmerman from her Knitter’s Almanac. I’ve wanted to make this for a while and the fact that a couple of days ago I was listening to Lime N’ Violet talk about the grown-up version aka the February Lady Sweater cinched it.

In progress: Elizabeth Zimmerman's 'Baby Sweater on Two Needles; Practically Seamless', aka the February Baby Sweater from Knitter's Almanac

world wide knit in public day 2008

For the 2008 World Wide Knit in Public Day, a few members of the Salem Area Ravelers (Salem, OR) [r] went down to the seasonal farmers’ market and knit in public. We picked up a new knitter, Eric. And we spoke with four or more. Pretty good for a group of 3 that met at 9 a.m.

We may knit more at the farmers’ market this summer. It’s quite pleasant. Look for us by the food court.

I also put all the buttons on the 2nd Baby Surprise. The word was that the mother was in labor on Monday. The buttons are from the Button Emporium in Portland. It’s a great shop, although I recommend making sure they are open before going because they keep unconventional shop hours. For example, their hours on Saturdays are 11-3.

In the photograph of the Salem Area Ravelers, I am knitting Baby Surprise #3, although apparently its for mommy #2. Ia was born on June 11th at 7:15 p.m. She is a beautiful child and I’m sure both mommies are very proud. I am using the Blue Moon I Heavyweight that I bought over the weekend. It’s actually nearly done and it will mark the sixth completed project in three weeks.

In case you have been on Jupiter, the Black Sheep Gathering is in Eugene this weekend. I’ll be there on Saturday, so say hi! Don’t be shy. I’ll buy the fifth new person I meet who says, “I read your blog” a drink.

I have started on a market bag of sorts. I’m making up the pattern as I go. I used a circular cast-on, although I’m debating the strength of it. I guess I will reinforce the cast-on when I weave in the end. The pattern for the base is a simple open-work pattern. (Knit odd row # of stitches, yo, knit a row.) I am planning to use a piece of cardboard wrapped in cloth in the base. The bottom three inches of the bag will be some sort of lacy pattern and then I will use a very open stitch on larger needles for the remainder of the bag. I decided that this Debbie Bliss Cathay, a silk/cotton blend, has been in my stash for too many years. So to hell with practicality! It’s teal.

a few calculations…justifications that is

Here’s a photo of what I’m busy with in my professional life. The market started last week and went well despite the weather. This Friday ought to be great though (including the weather). I’m planning to buy some more baked goods, strawberries and grass-fed pork. But also, I’m going to get some tomato plants. I bought some seeds earlier this year and lost them. Then I finally planted some others that I bought (from a much less interesting place, a.k.a. Loewe’s) and they are about 2 centimeters tall. So is the basil.

Having finished three projects last week and what with the mid-year sneaking up on us, I shall now tell you how many yards I’ve knit (in terms of completed projects). The idea was to knit in a way that only sustains and shrinks the stash. I’m allowed to buy up to 9,578 yards unless I’ve knit more than that.

I’ve knit 3,461 yards. I’ve bought 15,783 yards. Some of it came from the Earth Day Yarn Swap and I’d bought 300 yards and received 800 yards in return. So we can call it 15,283 yards right? And I gave away two skeins of Regia and a skein of JKnits last week. So that’s minus another 856 yards, bringing me down to 14,427. 360 yards was a gifty for being Earth Day Swap hostess. So that’s 14,067 right?

Then, I sold 137 yards of Craft because some poor sod needed it to finish a project. I know what that’s like! And I sold my Yorkshire Tweed to a collector (360 yards). That leaves me at 8, 153 yards for 2008 or more than twice I knit this spring.

Erp. Of course, it’s also true that the Pearl Buck Cardigan is unfairly stalled by the lack of adequate yarn and worth 1233 yards. And I’m working steadily away on the Katherine Hepburn Cardigan that is 1575 yards. (I can’t really call the right front a swatch anymore because I started on the armhole and neck shaping.

I started a pair of the Child’s French Socks by Nancy Bush (360 yards).

I should finish the mitered mittens. That’s 218 yards of credit for another 3hrs of work. Whee! This photo is a little out of date. I’ve finished the body of the mitten (and they are close enough in size for me to consider that part done). But now I have to cut into the mitten and put in the after thought thumb. I’m a little frightened that I won’t do it right, so I’m going to have my knitting group witness my efforts tomorrow night at knitting.

I’ve also bought more yarn, but I should save that for another day. I will point out though that it is for two more baby surprises. No more pregnant mathematicians or their spouses! I can’t believe I’m knitting four of these in one year. Everyone else gets something different.

baby surprise

I hate that I’m so busy these days. I never even got to post about this project while it was a work-in-progress. I suppose we could pretend though. Nah. Who am I to hold out like that?

I bought some Noro Silk Garden from the Yarn Shop on May 5th.

By the 12th, I had something that looked like this.

And by the 19th, I had something that looked like this. Now I just need to find some buttons.

haystacks

P1010018

Originally uploaded by moiraeknitting.

Pacific City, Oregon.

We went to the coast last weekend. (We had guests; this is what they want, go figure.) We had lunch again at the Otis Cafe, which was wonderful as always. It was beautiful just long enough to stand outside for ten or fifteen minutes and look at Haystack Rock and then it began to rain again when we got back in the car.

It did this all day. Of course, I had to stop by Nestucca Bay Yarns and have a look around at their stuff. I resisted quite hard as I was planning a trip to Knit Purl on Sunday.

On Sunday morning, I took Josh to the airport. He went to Florida for a conference and will be back Thursday night.

This is a photo of the yarn I used for my Zombie socks in Sock Madness 2. I thought it was a very little like Monet’s Haystacks. Maybe not.

you know you want to

You know you want to watch me do this. No matter how many times it’s been done before, it’s a trip to watch. (For the video, jump to the last page.)

The first thing I did when I finished knitting the baby surprise was to fold it up and then determine which side the button placket went on. Before doing anything else, I sewed on the button. This established a ‘right’ and a ‘wrong side’. THEN, I wove in the ends. I only used one skein of yarn, but those of you who read my blog regularly know about the wool chewer in the house. You know, the one that specializes in variegated yarns.

must knit faster

It is 11:09 PM on Friday, February 08, 2008. The baby is due on February 10^th. Assuming the baby is on time, which will probably happen because I’m knitting under a deadline, I have just over 25 hours to finish the Baby Surprise. What’s left? ~680 stitches, weaving in an end, sewing it together, finding and adding a button, washing and letting it dry, wrapping it and delivering it so that it will be at her house before she gets home with her new one.

I was doing really really well on Monday, until I realized I’d forgotten to increase across the back for fullness. Ten stitches is not the sort of thing you can flub on a little sweater. While it’s true that if I don’t make it, there is a back-up plan (a baby baseball tee in blue and brown), this particular project is a good one to give a mathematics professors. For some reason, perhaps because a high percentage of our pregnant friends are mathematics professor, I’m going to have to knit a lot of them. I must impress the topologists.

The sad thing is that I was granted an entire day off from work yesterday. Unfortunately, this was not for a fun reason. Someone came along and smashed the passenger window of my car. They did not steal anything (and now there is nothing in there to steal, trust me), but it took quite a lot of my time yesterday to deal with. And because I work quite a ways off and I live in a rainy state, it was better to leave the car in the garage and then take it to the glass shop. (Normally they come out to you, but this was the only way to get fit in on such short notice.)

I’m sorry that you do not get a photograph. Honestly, you are lucky to get a blog post. I must finish this sweater on time. It’s newborn sized! And he’ll probably be a big child.

mitten mitten who has got the mitten

Raise your right hand if you became infatuated with Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Mitered Mittens (May in the Knitter’s Almanac) after seeing the pair made by Brooklyn Tweed. These will involve installing an after-thought thumb. Should be fun.

Why these mittens were a good idea.

• They are gorgeous in Silk Garden.
• Any excuse to knit Noro is a good excuse.
• Everyone runs out of mittens.
• I always wanted to try a new technique and an after-thought thumb sounds good. I’ve never even done an after-thought pocket.

I didn’t realize that I would need two skeins when I went to Knit Purl over the weekend, so I will have to go back and get another one. Oh dear. Another trip to Knit Purl. I already used up my Christmas gift-certificate. (Gift from husband.)

My other comment is that Jared has recently proved what a bargain the Knitter’s Almanac actually is. Where else can you get a dozen great patterns for $7.95? I only like two patterns (so far) and that’s a still a steal.  It’s a good read on a cold day too.

baby week

What I did this week was buy a new computer, set up a knitting group in Salem, OR, get past the halfway point on Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Baby Surprise from my copy of the all invaluable Knitter’s Workshop, and sew up the side-seams on the Baby Baseball Tee from Knit 2 Together that I finished knitting this past summer. I went to a spinning group where I repeatedly spun counter-clockwise (oops). I also wrote an oral and a written presentation about Veneta, OR, distributed flyers, attended a community gathering, showed my husband my second home and set off the alarm at work. What I did not do is finish a pair of socks. Good thing I have a couple of extra days to finish my monkey swap socks.

The EZ sweater isn’t due until March, but do you have any idea how hard this is to stop? Actually, it’s my knitting group project. I figure it’s the one thing I can work on and talk at the same time! Unfortunately, I think it will be done in a week or two (in two more meetings).

I’ve also wanted to be more disiplined about finishing projects I started, so I’m trying very hard to polish off anything that just needs a little help. Thus the side-seams on the Baby Baseball Tee. This project does not have a home as of yet, but I’m sure someone will turn up for it sometime. I just have to put on the baby bird buttons. You can see them here. The main thing I don’t like is that it’s not perfect. That’s the thing about knitting with cotton. Anything you do wrong, especially with color work shows!