Swatchless

After the harrowing canoeing adventure on Wednesday, I decided to stay on land for most of the day on Thursday.  I spent part of rest hour watching over the children as they relaxed under the trees and I finished up some i-cord ties.  I am thankful that my camera revived itself enough to take several photos.  I think the water has ruined some of the electrical workings on the insides.  I can’t turn the flash on or off anymore.

Pattern:  Top Down Bonnet (Ravelink) by A. Bizilia (blog).
Yarn: Cotton Supreme Batik (which I now adore!)

I noticed that the colourway “summer camp” seems to match the paint at Camp Hyanto perfectly.  I love the combination of these natural colours, the colours of the beach on a sunny day.

Camp is certainly a peaceful place to be when the sun shines.

At 8 AM I was at the car place…..knitting the last of the cabled baby vest, and getting my car checked out before I take it on a bit of an adventure this August.  The car guys noticed that the chip in my windshield was no longer a chip, and starting to crack and spread a little…..

Long story short, I headed off to Speedy Glass to have the chip filled in with resin–I’d had this done before, and it worked really well, and cost a whole lot less than a new windshield.  Of course, on the way there I happen to leave a few extra minutes for a quick trip to Wool-Tyme…(it’s on the way if you plan your route correctly)  I bought some more Cotton Supreme Batik in the colourways “summer camp” and “waffle cone”–it’s SO soft and silky, you’d hardly know it is cotton!

knitting while waiting for the windshield outcome

So I sit and wait (knitting a top down bonnet for yet another friend who has just had a baby) while my windshield is being operated on.  And after half an hour I get notified that the chip wouldn’t seal, and in fact, the pressure that was used to try to seal it has now cracked the windshield even more!

Great….

So, I am the proud owner of a new windshield.  Luckily they had the right kind in stock, and it was early enough in the day that they could install it before closing time.

In the mean time, I knit while the Speedy Glass man drove me downtown to meet some friends (blog)  visiting from out west, and their two darling boys.  We took a fun ride on the Wolfe Island Ferry and saw boats and windmills and enjoyed the sun.

I went on the roof WAY up there.

My next adventure for the day was to find Maggie, another crafty girl who makes pottery for a living, but she knits and spins and sews too.  She has recently been in search of vast quantities of denim.  Since I had worn through the knees of my jeans and made them into shorts, I donated the bottoms to her.  She’s turning all of the pieces she is collecting into a denim ball gown!  Pretty cool idea.

I got invited up to her roof and enjoyed the view and the breeze from up there.  I don’t know that I have ever been on a roof like that before!

Since I was already downtown, and it was hot and sticky and I was ready to have a rest and knit a bit, I headed to the screening room to watch The Secret In Their Eyes, a mystery that is entirely in Spanish.  It’s a challenge to knit, follow a pattern in your head, and read the subtitles.  After the movie, the woman sitting behind me started talking with me.  It turns out that I was a camp counselor for her kids, she wasn’t sure that she recognized me until I pulled out my knitting–I guess it’s my trademark!

What did you do today??

There’s nothing like eating watermelon with feet dangling off the dock, toes dipping in the water, listening to the loons call from a distant corner of the lake.

I’ve taken a few days away from the computer to sit in the woods, by the water, and enjoy the company of family.

My knitting came with me.  I picked up a ball of brown Life DK from Wool-Tyme.  This yarn is such a joy to work with. It feels like wool, it has a nice shine and softness to it, the brown colour has glints of green, blue, pink, orange in it–it will coordinate with many outfits, and it is completely machine washable–something VERY important for baby clothes. It is the same brand of yarn that I made the Eilidh sweater from.

I’m working on a little sweater for a friend who has just had a baby girl.  Making up the pattern as you go is such fun, but you have to be sure to either keep notes, or finish it fast so you remember what you did in previous rows.  I’m trying the “finish it fast” approach.  The ends got sewn by Monday morning!

front view

back view

I really like how the neck turned out, the cables continue from the front and back, framing the neck, and meeting up along the shoulder.  I think I might incorporate these ideas into other projects.  What is best (in my opinion) is that I did not have to sew ANYTHING!  There are no stitches picked up either!

front of neck

The body is knit from the bottom up, in the round.  The front and back are knit flat, but the shoulders are joined by a three needle bind off.  I like the look of the neck as it is, so I will not add any ribbed border.  The sleeve openings are also nicely defined by the seed stitch.

back of neck

I look forward to seeing this sweater in action.  I hope it could be a dress this fall, and a sweater next year.

Ever since I saw the Top Down Bonnet pattern on Ravelry by Adrian Bizilia (helloyarn) I was smitten!  I made the original bonnet with the anime face on it, and sent it to a friend in Japan.  The ears aren’t sticking up, but they are there!

I’ve also made it without ears, and with stripes, for another friend’s baby.

Today I worked up another little variation.  I added some lace…

This is the lace pattern that I used.  Since I worked it in the round, row 2 and 4 are knit.  If this were worked flat, row 2 and 4 would be purl rows.

Row 1: (K1, K2tog, YO, K1, YO, SSK) repeat

Row 2: knit

Row 3: K2tog (YO, K3, YO, Slip 1, K2tog, pas the slip stitch over *this decreases 2 stitches*) repeat

Row 4: knit

After working 12 rows of lace, I cast off knitwise.  The edge kept rolling, so I added another border.  I will not admit to crocheting, because I didn’t actually use a hook.  This is my process:

Pick up a stitch through the cast off edge.  Work a chain of single crochet 2 times then crochet through the border again 2 stitches away from the first stitch.  Continue this (or something like it) around the edge of the bonnet.  It helped the border stay flat, and I think it makes it extra cute.

What do you do to spice up your regular patterns?

Yesterday I met with Eilidh and her mom to take some pictures in the park to illustrate the “Eilidh” cabled vest pattern.  It was a lovely day, sunny and warm.  We found a spot in the shade, and got the wee one all dressed up, and sitting up.  Now, sitting up is new for her, and maybe she rolled a bit too far forward, squishing her stomach….or maybe she’d just been fed….but before any pictures could even be taken, she spit up down the front of the vest.

Thank goodness mommies always carry a bag full of wipey things.  We cleaned her up (you’d never know the vest was dirty in that picture!)….but she was really not into the whole modeling thing.  There were lots of pictures that look like this one!

Cuddles with mommy made it all better.

Funny thing is, when you take pictures of grown ups, you never have to worry about if they will spit up, or spontaneously cry when you get out the camera!  Thanks for being such a good sport Eilidh, and thanks to her mommy for letting her be a model!

What’s your craziest photo taking situation?

Download the .pdf for $5.00 CAD

Eilidh (Ay’-lee) is a Gaelic name that means LIGHT.

When my friend told me that she was choosing a Gaelic name for her little girl, I knew I needed to knit her something with lots of cables.

This celtic cabled vest will look charming on any little one, and could even be worn, over tights, as a dress by a very young girl.  Knit almost entirely in the round in double knitting weight yarn, this vest is quick to finish.  The cables are predictable, which is great for beginners, but each row is different enough to keep the expert entertained.

Here's Eilidh, who is just learning how to sit up!

The pattern is explained in row by row instructions, and also in chart form.

Download the .pdf pattern for $5.00 CAD

Thanks to Eilidh and her mom who met me in the park today for the pattern photo shoot, and thanks to Jean for test knitting this pattern and providing excellent feedback.

If you like this pattern, check out my others!

It’s always good to know that knitting has arrived at its proper destination–the postal system here is pretty good, but I always cross my fingers until I hear back from the recipient….and it is always lovely to get pictures of the knitting in action.

This picture is of my friend Meghan’s twin girls wearing their almost matching sweaters.  I’m not sure what’s up with their scared faces.

These sweaters are the first cotton knitting that I have done and enjoyed.  The yarn is Cotton Supreme Batik that I got at Wool-Tyme.  I usually stay away from cotton, but once you touch this stuff you’ll understand how it became a little bit of an obsession.  The colours are stunning (I used “Beach Umbrella” and “Watermelon Patch”), and I hope that it will wash well.

Go on and give cotton a try….it’s perfect for cute summer knits!

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.

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!

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!