Hi all,

Just a quick note - I finally got my ducks in a row and wrote up my sized-down version of Grumperina’s Jaywalker socks. It’s posted here with Grumperina’s permission. My scaled-down version fits a kid in the US toddler 13 (Euro 31,
UK 12) range.

You can find it at the top of my free stuff page. Have fun, and let me know if you use the pattern and something doesn’t make sense.

Two steps forward and one step back… that still counts as progress, right?

So, I had the back mostly done, but I had that feeling. You know the one… you’re a bit uneasy that the size isn’t quite right, but you soldier on because your next-size-down needles are in a box at home, and frankly, you’re at least a skein in with this size. Surely 2,948 stitches can’t be wrong. I stuck the sweater in a bag to marinate for a few weeks (okay, a month), and then took it out to measure it again. This time, instead of optimistically measuring in the car over my legs whilst zooming down the highway [stitches in project may be larger than they appear], I spread her out on the kitchen table for some in-depth counting. Ah, yes. I’m getting 5.5 rows per inch instead of 6.

I sorta knew I was off before, but I figured I’d just fix the math on the front side so that the cable design would end at the shoulders correctly. But, with the perspective lent to me by time, I got a fantastic idea. Wouldn’t it be great to actually *have* row gauge instead?! I know; I’m visionary. So, out came the arm shaping, and here I go again. Wish me luck!

I’m always happy when knitting pops up in a book I’m reading with the boys; this time, it appeared via a magical grandmother-type in Kiki’s Delivery Service. Don’t look for her in the movie - she’s not there!

At any rate, this grandmother knits bellybands for everyone and everything - her lamps and teapots and other household objects have bellybands, too! She knits healing magic in with every stitch, and keeps people healthy and warm. Her son thinks she’s a bit nutty, but he and the crew on his ship wear the bands to humor her - and, when they take them off due to plot twist, they do get a little ill. It amuses me that granny was right - respect your magical knitting elders! Granny ends up knitting a bellyband for the smokestack on her son’s ship (it sounds like it’s feeling poorly to her) and it’s Kiki’s job to deliver it. In payment, Kiki gets… yup, a bellyband.

The boys giggled and wiggled, and wanted bellybands. Luckily, they asked for bands for their stuffed animals, not themselves. It started with Jane, who happens to look like Kiki’s little black cat, Jiji. Jiji complains bitterly about his bellyband, but soon refuses to take it off. Jane’s owner got to pick from the sock yarn stash, and this is what we ended up with.

Snower’s owner had very specific ideas about what color his bellyband should be. Luckily, I had the colors in stock. May all your knitting be magical and healing.

No, no, I haven’t been holding out on you. There are no more little ones in my future for at least another 17 years, if I’m lucky.

This little set will set sail shortly with the rainbow blankie to Operation Marine Corps Kids.

This cute sweater worked up rather quickly on straight needles. Then, I had to face the facts. Unlike the Baby Surprise Jacket, this sweater has REAL SEAMS, two of which are very visible. See, I’ve been knitting off and on since I was small, but I’ve never gotten the hang of seams. Every time I’d go to do one, I’d just flip it and sew it from the inside as best I could, ripping and re-doing it until it looked presentable. Y’all, why didn’t you tell me I was sewing it from the wrong side? I googled around, and discovered the mattress stitch. It was a revelation to realize that sewing from the front allows you to see what you’re doing while you’re doing it. Holy mackarel! No need to re-sew! For anyone tackling a seam like I used to do, go look at these instructions. You’re welcome.

Here’s the cap I made to go with it. Believe it or not, this is the same yarn. The close-up of the sweater is the true color. The original cap was edged in garter stitch, but I switched to seed stitch to make it match the sweater. Between that change and the guesses I made to change yarn types, I’m hoping the hat and sweater will fit the same baby simultaneously. We can hope.

My son’s pal, Wimpy Chimp, consented to model the hat for you all.

Sweater Details:

Cap Details:

Hey, y’all. What’ve you been up to? I took some time off from blogland, but I’m still crafting away in moments stolen from the rest of my day. This bright baby blanket will soon be on its way to Operation Marine Corps Kids. If you are the charity crafting sort, please go check out their blog. It’s a lesser-known charity with a worthy cause.

I had this blanket with me at our last local knit night, and was taught the ‘crab stitch’ edging for it (thanks, Barbara!) After I returned home, I realized that the way I was doing the crab stitch was the same thing as turning the work over and working a row of sc, so that’s what I did.
Sure enough, I did it wrong (sorry, Barbara!) I’m sure it was the student, and not the teacher. At any rate, the blanket still lays very nicely; the bobbling in the photo above has everything to do with the condition of my front lawn. For anyone wanting to know what crab stitch really looks like, read about it here instead of looking at my blankie!

Edited to add: I’m sorry, guys! I totally forgot to add my pattern and yarn information. Here it is.

Sometimes ripping is an easy decision. I hate a pattern, despise a yarn, or just generally feel repulsion for my knitting, and out it goes. Rippity-rip-rip; it even feels g-o-o-d.

This time, this time is different. It seems like I’ve been ripping *all* my good projects lately. I can’t count how many times Rogue has been ripped for gauge issues. Now, it’s my little snow-beauty. Here’s what it looks like right now…

The heel has been reworked several times, until I could get a feel for intarsia. Here are the last two:

Yes, the sock fits on my foot, but it doesn’t fit right. It’s the first one, which mean that if I should bull-headedly press on - you could at least pretend to be shocked at the thought - I’d have to do another one wrong, too, just so they match. And so, it will go into the frog-pond. I’m not sure how far back I’m going to rip, but the longer I dither, the more I lean toward frogging the whole thing. Right now I’m knitting the medium size but at a tighter gauge than specified. I’ll probably go up a needle size and see where I land then. Maybe I’ll rip it all out and give it a few months to marinate before I start in again; I’m feeling the urge to work on something different.

Right now, the socks are sitting on the edge of the pond, and I’m working up the gumption to take out all that work. Someday soon, but not today.

(2) Doing (1) is not such a good idea if your family still expects you to homeschool, do laundry, and cook.

(3) Thumbs don’t really live right on the sides of your hands. Moving the thumbs over a rib or so would be a good idea.

(4) EZ’s sewn bind-off is crazy stretchy. Although fabulous on the top of socks, it’s a little too stretchy for the tops of these fingerless mitts. I bound off the thumb-tops normally. See the difference? I left it anyway (see #1) and decided that it was a selling point, as you can fold your fingers down to be protected inside the mitt this way. Did I mention crazy stretchy?

(5) The backs of fingerless mitts are a fun place to play with cables.

Details:

Death arrived last Wednesday, 13 February, 2008. My cat looks really concerned.

This was a quick competition for many of the knitters, but the last time I looked there were at least 80 people still in play (that’s as of last Friday.) So, it was fun. This lovely blue hat is a smidge small for me, but the kidlets have both presented cogent arguments as to why *they* should be the one to claim the hat. What’s a mom to do? I’ll probably knit another and let them duke it out.

Here’s a close-up of the new beauty. Thanks, Tanyalezibeth!

This weekend saw the first strike wave of Hat Attack - a knit to the death (by hat) competition that’s an homage to Sock Wars. It started up on Ravelry, but was moved over to a Yahoo Group to allow open competition.

I’m not as nervous with this competition as I was with Sock Wars, but I think that’s because a hat has such a shorter time commitment. There wasn’t a week of knitting away on socks, sure that every day I’d receive my death in the mail. I know how fast I knit, so I knew that since the pattern came out on a Saturday morning, I’d almost assuredly miss the post on Saturday but have my hat in the mail on Monday. Sure enough, I finished the hat my weapon early Saturday evening.

The pattern was a quick, fun knit, and the binary cables amused my inner geek to no end. The unblocked hat doesn’t cover my ears, but my gauge was spot-on so I imagine a good blocking or someone with a human-sized head will make all the difference.

A few people got their hats in the mail on Saturday, but the massive strike will be tomorrow. Picture scores of hats sent all over the globe; the speed of the mail service, and how quickly your ‘target’ gets their unfinished weapon in the mail has a huge impact on competition. It’s going to be a hoot - assuming I survive the first wave. From the enthusiasm of my assassin, it’s not likely. That’s okay - I’m still having fun.

Details:

* Check it out! I used non-superwash wool! I didn’t break out. I think maybe my allergy shots are affecting more than just my cat, grass, tree, and weed allergies. Cool!