Swatchless

Today I finished up the second baby sweater made from cotton–the cotton that I love!  It is called Cotton Supreme Batik and it is 100% cotton, soft and silky like bamboo, with a nice drape.  This colourway is called “Watermelon Patch”, and outside in the bright sunshine it looks just like a little bit of summer.

This is the bench under which the pigeons are growing steadily bigger.  They now seem to be left alone more, perhaps their mom is off looking for food for them or maybe they are big enough to keep warm on their own for a longer time.

Eyes are open, and they now seem to startle with noise.  They almost seemed to stand up a bit when I got close to the flower pot (which is getting a great fertilizer treatment!)  I know I am going to get a scare one of these days when they start to learn how to flap.

This past weekend the Cantabile Men and Women’s choirs went on tour to Burlington Vermont and Eastman Quebec, which meant a LOT of time spent singing, and a LOT of time on a bus.  Its funny, when packing for this trip the first thing I thought of was what knitting to bring.

I decided that a new knitting project would be needed to keep my fingers and brain busy during the long bus ride.

Some Assembly Required

This is a fiddly project.  I made it more fiddly by attempting it with sock yarn (Sisu) and size 2.5mm needles.  I was not sure how this would work as bus knitting–it could have been a disaster.  I recommend bringing a baggie to put the finished parts in, and using 5 needles rather than 4.  I remembered at the last minute to bring a darning needle, and stuffing.

It was great fun watching the parts take shape.  The pattern is very well written, and the pictures are extremely helpful to the construction of the many tiny pieces.

Once completed, this little guy started having fun on the trip….he specially liked breakfast time…  (this next picture is dedicated to the W.A.F.F.L.E.S. First Lego League Team.  I was thinking of you this weekend as you were watching the World Festival!)

LEGO WAFFLES

The original pattern results in a guy that is 10 inches tall.  My lego guy, knit in finer yarn, is about 5 inches tall.  And, with a significant amount of balancing, he’ll stand up!

with a 1 litre juice box

I arrived back home to notice that some other things had grown in my absence.

My radishes: growing tall, reaching for the sunshine

Before

After

My pigeons: now they are getting grey feathers and their eyes are open.

Before

After

Today I knit a Lego man!  He is awesome.  Pictures to come

I’m enjoying watching these little birds as they grow.  Not much difference from yesterday, but they were left all alone and quivering to keep warm.  I hope their mom doesn’t leave them for too long–it’s going to be a cold weekend.

As for the seeds I planted inside….they are growing too!

I think those are the radishes that are growing so quickly.

As far as knitting goes, I’m starting on “Some Assembly Required“.

image source: ravelry.com

I have the head completed, and have started deciphering the leg instructions.  It is fiddly work, but turning out well so far.  I’m knitting it in sock yarn on small needles (the pattern calls for worsted weight on 4mm needles) so perhaps I’m making it extra fiddly–I tend to do that!

Look forward to progress pictures after the weekend.

I am not a big fan of knitting with cotton.  Most people who know me understand this fact.  I don’t like how it feels on my hands, it is not very elastic, and doesn’t feel soft…and the finished piece doesn’t drape nicely…

I’m going to stop myself mid rant, because I now am starting to sing a different tune.  I have found a cotton that I like to knit with!  I was introduced to Cotton Supreme Batik when I was out at Wool Tyme last month.  I looked at it, and felt it, and pondered whether it really could be cotton, then I saw the price tag (almost $9.00) remembered that I do have a rather large stash of yarn at home, and left the store.

The colourful stuff is the cotton

I then found out that a friend has had twin girls….and after a rather difficult Friday last week, I went to Wool-Tyme to get something soothing to knit with.  To my great surprise, I walked right over to that cotton and bought two balls (in different colourways)

This sweater is knit in “Beach Umbrella”.  The next will be knit in “Watermelon Patch”

This cotton feels very similar to baby bamboo that I’ve used in the past.  It is silky, and soft to knit with, and the resulting garment is stretchy too!  Look at that shine!

One more photoshoot….with spring flowers!

I have been checking on the pigeons….here’s my super spy shot of the mother sitting on the “nest”.

She left once she realized that I was watching her….and revealed that there are now TWO babies in the nest.

It’s hard to believe that they are pigeons!

Today I received a large box that was held shut with duct tape.  The card said that it was from members of the robotics team and their family.  I have never gotten a package that large before from ANYONE!

To my great surprise and amusement I opened it to find it full of yarn–in all K-Botics team colours.  What a treat!

I see team knitting lessons in the future!

Today I planted some seeds indoors to start my balcony garden for the summer.  I then went onto the balcony for the first time in ages, to bring in some of my planters.  I was surprised by a flutter of wings, and the rapid departure of a pigeon.

In a pot, under a bench I found this little guy!  I snapped this picture quickly so the mom could come back and keep him warm.

Today was a bad news kind of a day.  Thank goodness it was also a Friday.

Bad days for me usually have me reaching for my knitting….it has been so long since I knit things other than robot hats I had totally forgotten what was on my needles!  It turns out that I needed to go to the yarn store to get the needed yardage to finish a cute baby sweater that I have been working on.  Of course, while I was there I picked up some new goodies!

I knit into the wee hours of the morning and here is the finished sweater–or almost finished–I still need to find the perfect buttons, and maybe embroider something onto the sweater to make the lace detail stand out a bit.

The sweater is my own invention.  I’d change things like button hole placement, and edging details for next time.  I’d probably also make the sensible choice to knit it top down rather than trying to make a one piece bottom up raglan short sleeved sweater.

I am pleased with the heart shaped lacy bits though!  They appear on the right and left front panels and the center of the back.  I’ve never knit much lace–the charts confuse me.  Maybe simple lace experiments will be in my future.

Here’s hoping tomorrow will be more fun!

I help out with the K-Botics FIRST robotics team (blog), and this past weekend was our robotics competition in Toronto.  I have been knitting robot hats for the last few weeks in preparation.

This hat uses a honeycomb texture that I learned when knitting Newfoundland Mittens.  The robot and team numbers are embroidered on afterwards.

This hat, is for our chief robotics scout.  The hat has a crown that stands up when the hat is worn.  The crown was made in segments, by knitting 10 stitches, then casting on an extra group of 10 stitches, then knitting in the round for 3 rounds, then decreasing 4 stitches every alternate row.  After the crown, the top group of stitches were picked up and the hat continued and decreased as usual

This hat, has a reverse stockinette rolled edge, and alternating panels of stockinette and reverse stockinette stitch to create an interesting texture.  The robot was added on afterwards with chain stitch embroidery.

And…for our driver, who lost his earlier hat while skiing, here is the replacement (knit in stages)  The first of which is a pink tentacle moustache that he wore on April Fools day.  What a good sport!

Ordering at Tim Hortons

By the end of the day the hat was ready, and being worn for practice matches at the Greater Toronto Regional Competition.

In the pit at GTR

While at the competition I knit a hat for a rookie on our team, and added a tassel on top by continuing the hat with I-cord, and then attaching a tassel to that.  His smile was priceless when he put it on.

The next hat I made was a bit smaller, for one of our younger fans.  She’s six, and has very long pigtails that fit through holes on either side of the that.

The M.C. of the competition wore his hat proudly too.

The hats certainly caused a stir at the competition.  We may see other teams knitting some up in the future.

In the mean time, I’m going to take a break from robot hats, and knit something else for a change.

Happy Easter everyone!