Swatchless

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!

So, I knit this pair of pogies (rower’s mitts) without really knowing much about rowing.   I don’t know how big oars are, or how big hands are when they are holding oars.  I do know that it is a really neat idea to have mittens that have oar holes in them.  These are for a rower that sculls, so I didn’t need to make a third…but if you know a rower who rows on a team, they’ll need one pogie like these, and one with two holes in it.

These pogies are knit from 100% wool so they will be warm even if they do get wet while rowing.

This particular rower has ties to both France and Canada, so I embroidered flags on both pogies.

I still don’t know if they are the right size for oars…

Ever since my friend showed me the pattern for a knitted pigeon, I had to make one….

Today was the day that Percy meets Bernice and Bernie.  I’m not sure what they think of each other, but I think my Percy pigeon looks pretty good.

If you want to make your own Percy, here’s the pattern [Ravelink]

Let me introduce you to my newest buddy!

The lego man that I knit earlier this month (Some Assembly Required), is now decked out in WAFFLES and K-Botics gear!  I had such fun making the teensy tiny clothes….that once I made a hat, I couldn’t stop!  The WAFFLES shirt was knit from yellow baby weight yarn (very light fingering yarn) from the top down with raglan sleeve shaping.  The shirt needed a row of ribbing at the bottom to keep it from rolling.  The WAFFLES motif was stitched on later in chain stitch.

I used acrylic yarn (bits and pieces left over from knitting robot hats) to make the purple and blue clothing, but I needed to split the yarn up, and use a single ply, and sock needles (2.0mm DPNs).  The hat was knit from the crown to the brim in stripes incorporating the K-BOTICS and 2809 colourwork section before a row of ribbing and casting off.

The sweater is knit from the collar down, raglan style ending with a row of ribbing.  Sleeve stitches were picked up and knit to the cuff, then I picked up the neck stitches and improvised a hood that would fit over a lego head–significantly different proportions than a human head!  I embroidered K-BOTICS and our logo on the sweater using light blue, to match our team hoodies.

This little guy is looking for a new friend.  I may have to make one or two more when I get a bit of free time!

What should his name be?

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

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!

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!

Today the latest robot hat got modelled.  They are starting to be an interesting fashion trend–kids wear their unique hats to our team meetings!

It is wonderful to have knitting appreciated this much!  I look forward to making a few more before our next team competition, but I’m not sure what other “creative” things I can add to these hats.

Any ideas?