seti's epic birthday sweater!

My little man is a whole year old. Well over a year at this point, but this was made specially for his first birthday party. I wanted to make a nice, insane, birthday sweater and I'm pretty sure this meets that criteria.

This is the third sweater I've knit up using Purl Soho's Baby Girl Fair Isle Cardigan pattern because the finished garments are so cute. The first time I knit it I wasn't the biggest fan of the construction but after doing it a few times the pattern really makes a lot of sense. Seti now has one in all three sizes and I'm considering moving up to maybe sport weight or dk to just keep making him more as he outgrows them. I should probably move on to a new pattern for my big boy though :'(

This was definitely a winner. He's worn it to death and it's held up great. Plus it's so fun and silly people always comment on it. Party time!

Baby Girl Fair Isle Cardigan by PurlSoho
Madelinetosh Tosh Sock - Electric Rainbow and Edison Bulb

holiday gifts

This reminds me of the year I relearned how to knit in college because I didn't have money for gifts for people. Oh Freshman year... I thought I was poor then! HA! Student loans were just an abstract threat!

Anyway, it's almost nice to be put in the position to make gifts again. I get to think nice thoughts about whoever I'm knitting for as I do it and it's been a really positive experience. I'm actually looking forward to the holidays more than usual because of the extra excitement of giving people I care about things I made especially for them. SO without any further information (because you never know who's reading *wink*) Here are some pretty things I've knit up so far! More details once the gift getters have gotten their gifts, too many details would be gauche right?

I hope all of your holiday prep has been as pleasant as mine, the season is young!

fingerless gloves aka the gloves I KEEP LOSING

These things are possessed by some weird energy. I'm convinced. I made a grey pair about 6 or 7 years ago and never lost one once. These things? I finished them less than a month ago and have lost one or both, IN THE WILD, FOUR TIMES. Both in Philadelphia and Rhode Island. What is that?! This is ridiculous. Probably only made more ridiculous by the fact that someone somehow always find them. Mixed in with leaves on the street of the same color, five or more houses down from where they were dropped... and by myself, Dillon and two other people. Like what is that? I'd have something other to say about them but the fact that they're on the loose is by far their most interesting attribute. I knit them up with long discontinued Mission Falls 1824 wool which I bought in bulk in Northampton at Webs not a month after it was discontinued and whipped them up in a mere 5 days which is pretty quick. They're warm, they're brownish (what was I thinking?) and they kind of almost don't clash with my now three year's old "new" winter coat.

Happy fall all, I hope your gloves prove to be more boring than mine!
PS. The pattern is a heavily modified version of some pamphlet I bought in like... 2005. I've been meaning to write it up for a while so maybe I'll get around to it soon because there rule and I've knit 8 pairs now!
PPS. Yes I look like a lunatic but I mean... WHY SUGARCOAT THE TRUTH???

knitting spreeee

Ok so this is actually the first of the recent projects I finished so I'm not sure why I forgot to post about it. A few years back I knit myself one of these in a nice light green and I wore it into the ground I liked it so much. So when it occurred to me that 9 of the last 10 projects I'd knit were for other people, I decided that this year as a treat to myself I'd just make a freshy in a different color and I'd bump it to the top of the queue. Amusingly I worked on it mostly while watching the Netflix Slow TV special about Norway's national knitting night. It was ridiculous, but who has time for anything less than ridiculous?

Anyhow, I like it a lot and it just has to cool off a little more so I can wear it. No rush. I like fall as much as the next person but I also like the whole in-between weather that the Earth seems to have skipped this year.

Joan of Arc by Saskia de Feijter

Malabrigo Merino Chunky - Frank Ochre

Also I really need to figure out where to take action shot project pics in this house! I don't even want to tell you all where these are taken. I miss my lovely photographer and the fabulous sparkly stuccoed deck wall of our last place. I'll figure it out, even if it means stuccoing a wall in the yard.

another day, another cowl

I really should stop knitting these and get to some of the more involved projects I have planned to gift people!

These work up so fast though...

No promises haha.

Pattern is my own (my sweet, my precious...) Sorry I couldn't help myself.
Berroco Peruvia Quick - Blanco
Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light - Button Jar Blue

cutest hat for the cutest head

Seti is all set for fall! I scored a puffy coat and mittens from Patagonia's 'clearing out last year's line' sale and now I've made him possibly the coolest hat I've ever seen. It fits awesome, was a really easy knit and I finished it in only four days. I'll definitely make this pattern again for baby gifts because it turned out so nice. The pattern itself is laid out really oddly and was a little harder to use than other patterns, but not too bad. Also I suggest swatching if you make this one because I think the designer might knit a bit on the loose side.

Seti may be just shy of 11 months but he has a really big head so I made the 2 year size and it's just right. It'll maybe last the season, but if it doesn't I can always pull out the crown decreases and add a cable repeat which is really easy. Made a crazy pompom, DONE.

As if I thought that kid could be any cuter, the giant colorful pompom bobbling around is just absurd.

Shoots-n-Ladders Hat by Ainur Berkimbayeva
Madelinetosh Chunky - Murakami & the pompom is various, but the white is Berroco Peruvia Quick in Blanco  which is the best pompom yarn I've found.

knitting again, it's not 1000 degrees!

When I say this summer was the hottest summer ever, there is actual scientific proof it was. And it felt like it. And it was INTENSE.

But it's cooling off (barely) and finally there are signs of summer ending in the crickets singing, cooler evenings and late summer flowers and fruits. Day dreamzzz.

So here is a thing I'm knitting for my good friend Jo (as usual) and I'm loving every second of imaging a world where people will be able to wear something for warmth. I hope this finishes up quick because after having a new baby for a while and the whole summer thing, I've got quite the queue!

swamp thang: an ugly sweater love story

Babies grow SO FAST. Or maybe it's just my little beast, not sure. Either way Seti was growing out of his perfect little baby sweater so I decided to just knit him a newer bigger one before he was caught out with nothing to wear. I used yarn leftover from a pair of mini-legwarmers from a few years back and some other leftovers from a hat I knit Db this winter and just realized I never posted about. This is my jam lately, use up all my stash yarn, try not to buy any more. After moving this past November I got to reorganize my stash and it fits beautifully into its new spot, no room for a single new bag. Also, making something using leftovers is kind of like getting free yarn somehow.

Anyways, here's his new sweater. Nice and clashy, same pattern as his first, looks cute as hell. DONE.

Baby Girl Fair Isle Cardigan - Purl Soho
Malabrigo Sock - Turner
Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light - Button Jar Blue

a cowl. for my mom. made out of yarn. that is late for a holiday.

Late gift? From me?

NAH.

Gift punctuality is not my forte, I can't deny it. However, this cowl is pretty rad and in my defense I've been caring for an infant and trying not to fall asleep by accident. Knitting anything worth blogging about and actually getting around to blogging about it? HA. I daydream about knitting but when I finally have a free minute I usually crash and burn.

Anyways, this is my good ol' classic cowl pattern with a second color thrown in there because my current favorite thing is double stranding. It looks like a candy cane and will go nicely with my Mom's red coat. It may be two months after Christmas but it's still cold out right? RIGHT? This time of year is the only time I actively hope the weather doesn't break because I'm like "I can't be giving people knit goods in the spring, MUST BEAT THE CHANGING OF THE SEASONS." I never learn.

Maybe the solution is to just start knitting holiday gifts in like, March. Is that how everyone else does it?

Cowl pattern - my own
Berroco Peruvia Quick in Blanco
Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in Neon Red

socks for the man

Db managed to totally blow out the last socks I knit him and neither of us noticed until they were pretty far gone. He needed a new pair anyways so no big loss (even though I really liked them). Hey, what can you do? I darned them with contrasting yarn for fun thinking it wouldn't work out, they were horribly ruined, but it worked! Still though, time for some new ones.

This time I decided to make him a pair with SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock so they'd have some nylon mixed in there and hopefully hold up a bit better. He chose such a nice color! And of course it doesn't hurt that it matches one of my yarn bowls perfectly. He wants a plain pair but I like dpns… wish me luck! I have a bad feeling about the ladders on this particular endeavor. I see myself giving it an honest shot and then ripping them out and using magic loop, the bane of my knitting existence.

The things I will do for that man.

stash, be my bitch! baby sweater victory.

This project feels like it barely counts as something I made because of how accidental the whole process of its creation was. Just scrolling through my friends page on ravelry I saw the pattern, looked at the yarn requirements, walked downstairs to my stash and nabbed some leftovers to make it with and then cast it on within 20 minutes. It worked up so fast it was practically done before I even realized it. Four days of barely working on it! Baby clothes are great for that sort of thing. I guess that's what happens when you have a momentarily empty yarn bowl and a fairly extensive stash.

The idea of a short sleeved sweater seemed pretty smart to me because then maybe it will stay out of the way of drool a little longer? I don't know, maybe babies are messier than that… I guess we'll find out. It seems like a good layering piece and it took like five damn seconds to make and zero dollars of new supplies so it's a win win. Something from nothing! My fave. Plus it's not really ugly so there's that, too.

Bug Warmer by Tiaga Hillard Designs
Madelinetosh Tosh Chunky in Holi Festival

blanket: done AF

Just to start, no longer going to title posts "dirty doz" because like 90% of what I post about is things I am making or have made so it's kind of redundant at this point. However I'll still be tagging posts with it so they can be searched by year and craft.

Anyways, finished this dude a few weeks back, although I wasn't really sure how to take pics of it. I'm into it! It was meant to be a bit smaller, but with blankets I'm assuming bigger will be better in the end anyways right? I can't use it for what it was originally intended for but it's a blanket, it will get use either way I'm sure.

Really easy knit, super cushy end product, fun to look at. Win!

Mosaic Blanket by Purl Soho
Malabrigo Chunky Merino in Tiger Lily and Jacinto

dirty doz: one day baby hat

Baby hats.

They're those things that you will get endlessly scolded for not putting on your baby, can be made with little to no material/time and for whatever reason THERE ARE NO PATTERNS FOR PLAIN OLD RIBBED ONES. I'm all about knitting bunny ears onto things and other ridiculously pointless endeavors but how can there possibly be a dearth of plain ribbed fingering weight baby hat patterns when there are literally thousands of baby hat patterns on ravelry? It's like most knitters seem to have a stash of rudely small balls of sock yarn leftovers from tons of projects and knitting something small with them would be the perfect way to accomplish many things knitters tend to value; stash busting, making space for more yarn, saving money to spend on more yarn, the general feeling of industriousness and self satisfaction that comes from making something useful from seemingly nothing. Baby hats seem a natural solution.

So here is my super rad, hi viz, color block baby beanie!

I wrote a pattern for a very cute, very plain, very easy and very leftover fingering weight friendly baby hat. It knit up in one day and will supposedly fit from newborn to about 5 months based on average baby head measurements (thank you google!). The stretchiness of 1x1 ribbing and the fold over brim being able to be adjusted will make it an easy one to grow with babe's rapidly growing head rather than knitting multiple hats. Another fun part? If you're not into using leftovers or don't have any, it's absolutely perfect for using four Madelinetosh Unicorn Tails which are inexpensive, come in really fun colors and are very soft aka baby approved. I used the ones I had leftover from this sweater. Also, double stranding is cool, I'd never done it before! Db likes how it came out so much he asked me to knit him one just like it. :) That's how you know something has turned out good!

Madelinetosh Unicorn Tails in Neon Peach, Antler, Button Jar Blue and Edison Bulb
And a progress shot just because I think the pic came out so nice.

dirty doz: almost black legwarmers

Finished these SO FAST. However actually taking pics of them? Not the easiest thing to remember. I love this pattern, love love love. Currently sitting a mere three feet from me under the couch is a skein of Neon Peach waiting to be turned into yet another pair. Whatevs guys, I'm going to have a cozy winter.

Some Cloudy Day by Tiny Owl Knits
Madelinetosh Sport in Duchess

dirty doz: *not quite as ugly as intended* baby sweater

So I learned how to do Fair Isle correctly so that's cool.

I was just scoping baby sweater patterns using fingering weight to try and eat up some stash and stumbled upon this pattern by Purl Soho. It seemed like the perfect way to use some long forgotten leftovers from my Lauren cardigan aka: the single project that got me into knitting for real. Plus I could throw a few Madelinetosh Unicorn Tails in there for added color excitement? YUP. Db and I went online and chose the most garish colors we could and this sweater was born. It only took a little over a week to knit up (hell yeah for babies being small!) and I'm really into how it turned out even though it's not nearly as clashy and hideous as I was anticipating. It's still cute! I'm considering a matching hat or bonnet but so far haven't found the right pattern.

The pattern for the sweater however…

Did not like.

I'm not usually such a hater on patterns but this was just too annoying to work on to not mention it. The way the sleeves are attached? Super strange. It's knit from the bottom up which was surprising to me also. Overall, I like how it turned out but didn't like actually making it all that much. Just being honest. Not many other people mentioned this in their Ravelry notes though so maybe it's just me. However, when I buy a pattern from the place that has the best online technique tutorials out there AND it's costs $8 for a pdf… I expect it to be less nebulous than this pattern is.

Anyways, overall success! Can't wait to put it on an actual human baby, I'm sure it'll be endlessly cuter that way!

Baby Girl Fair Isle Cardigan by Purl Soho
Louet Gems Fingering in Goldenrod
Madelinetosh Unicorn Tails in Neon Peach, Button Jar Blue, Edison Bulb and Antler
This last one is how I felt about knitting the damn thing. What. A. Mess.

BLANKET.

Guys. Is this not the most absurd color/pattern combo ever? I am in LOVE with it! It looks like one of those horrendous, so tacky it's great late 60s crocheted blankets you see on interior decor websites as a passive item of interest in the corner THAT YOU CANNOT BUY. I knew the colors would be ridiculous when I chose them but damn, better than I imagined. That's just me though, I love loud.

This is a "gender neutral" baby blanket I decided to whip up. It was intended to be a little thing for the back of the car or in the stroller but I completely misfired and it's actually kind of huge. Whatever though, blankets are always useful no matter the size. I saw this pattern on Purl Bee and thought shit that's cool but I so dislike colorwork. I read the pattern anyhow and realized this is a different style of colorwork than I'd never heard of and decided what the hell! Why not give it a shot?!

It is SO EASY. Highly highly recommend. The person who invented this technique is Barbara G Walker and apparently she has a whole book of other pattern variations you can use this method for. So far so good, it's already eaten up 4 skeins of Malabrigo Chunky Merino and will be requiring 6 more. Stash busting!

The pattern is Mosaic Blanket and if you're contemplating color work or just want to try a different method just check out the vid in the post. Weirdly easy.

knittannggggg! Jo's new cowl

My friend Jo from back home always has to have a warm cowl situation because "back home" is colder than "a witch's tit" as my Grandpa would say. Stupid winter. It's the least I can do, we ran around year round in tights when we'd go out so we appreciate some good wool wear. She shares her wine knowledge with me, I share my knit skills with her… I think I'm on the better end of this deal but I do what I can! Anyways, new year, new coat, new cowl.

This was my mindless knitting for when I could actually deal with knitting for a few rows. It's easy, I could put it down and never forget my place because the entire thing is the same and it's bulky so it looks like you're getting a lot done in very little time. Perfect project for when you suck at life. I felt so victorious when I finished it. Normally I can bang one of these out in a day or two and this one took me almost 3 months!!! I finally got around to taking pics of it a few weeks ago which was comically hard to remember to do. In my defense, who thinks about wearing wool accessories when it's 90ºF+ out?

Malabrigo Chunky Merino - Marine
Pattern my own

high five for warm hands

Having an overly eventful 2015 so far, but that hasn't stopped the knitting. Well it just now stopped the knitting, so I'll just blog about past knitting instead. Very rarely am I miserable enough to not be driven to make one thing or another, so here I sit watching my movie version sedatives and breaking in a pair of clogs. Breaking in hard leather counts as work… right? Bloody ankles unite. Using the law of attraction for ice cream.

Anyways, I finally finished the gloves I started for my mom two years ago and then promptly churned out a fingerless pair, too. The yarn was so ridiculously MOM I couldn't help myself, plus she has an iPhone now and needs those fingertips. These are made from a men's convertible mitten pamphlet pattern I bought years ago, before I even knew how to use dpns or knit in the round. That's how I tend to learn though, Db wants something I have no idea how to make and then I learn how to make it. Now this pattern has spawned EIGHT pairs of gloves over the years! These look kind of big and inelegant but that's just because my mom's hands are larger than mine, they fit her just fine. Oh the things you can do with a craft store pattern, a little ingenuity and a lot of math.

Madelinetosh Tosh Chunky - Holi Festival
Mission Falls 1824 Wool (discontinued) - Basil

dirty doz: blackberry socks!

I have small feet. Not TINY feet, just small. A nice normal size 6. So why is it that every pattern I find is for feet larger than mine?! I really wanted this book Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson and upon getting it realized that the smallest sizes were all mediums! What gives sock pattern writers? Only baby socks and large socks allowed?

Enter math.

Finally tired of knitting myself socks that turn out too large when using the smallest size pattern and smaller than recommended needles, I wrote my own damn sock pattern. And I like it. I combined my favorite parts of the several sock patterns I've used, then threw some broken linen stitch in there and they're complete! I really like how these turned out, and seeing as I knit them with SweetGeorgia Yarns Tough Love Sock I'm pretty sure they'll last a good long while.

Take that average sized sock pattern writers!

SweetGeorgia Yarns Tough Love Sock - Blackberry

dirty doz: aeris!!!

Does anyone else's crafting go in cycles of feast and famine? Since the first of the year I've finished FOUR projects! I almost don't want to blog about all of them because it's just knitting, knitting, knitting and a little more knitting on here lately. I will though, I just need to take pics first. Kind of making up for lost time when I was traveling for six months I guess.

So totally ignoring those four newly finished projects, I'm currently in love with my newest in progress project, Aeris! It's a really cool worsted weight asymmetrical shawl with texture and a bit of lace. The pattern was for sale only as part of a kit at first, but finally it was released for us plebeians who don't like buying kits (or already have a massive stash and need to use it) a few weeks ago. My cousin Alice gifted me the PDF for my birthday this year and I love it! Waking up and checking the internet to discover a new knitting endeavor? Hell yes. Thanks Alice!

Last summer my mom and I went to Maine to hit up Freeport and Halcyon Yarn. I always LOVE Swans Island yarns but they're so damn expensive retail. Being made in the USA and organically processed definitely makes working with it that much more rewarding, I like treading lightly. I picked one skein up to make a little cowl and my mom matched it so I could make something bigger and more luxurious, thanks mom! I scoured Ravelry for shawl patterns, saw this one and saved the yarn until it was released. It's so funny this should happen, because two years ago when Alice sent me a birthday pattern I used some wicked fancy yarn I'd been given by my mom and had waiting for the perfect project, too.

So far so good! The pattern is pretty easy, I'm loving how the yarn feels and the lilac has the most subtle variegation. Dare I say this might turn out looking classy? SHIT! Time to cast on something gaudy and neon!!!