Swatchless

‘Tis the season for babies it seems.  My cousin and his wife just welcomed baby Charlotte, a little early, but all are doing well.  I dove into the stash and found some sweet baby yarn, from back in the day when baby yarn was thinner than sock yarn!

I knit this hat during the super bowl.  The pattern is based on helloyarn’s top down bonnet, but I had to add more stitches and improvise a bit to deal with the super thin yarn.  I based the sizing on the bonnet I knit for Laila earlier this week.  There’s enough yarn left for a matching pair of booties, but I’m still searching for the perfect pattern.

This sweater started out with the bonnet that I made yesterday.  I had lots of stash left over, and thought a matching striped sweater would be cute.

When knitting sweaters for babies it is important to leave a big neck opening.  This sweater was going to be a cardigan….but changed half way through.

I used Astra yarn and a circular needle, size 4.0mm, to cast on 70 sts.  I separated the stitches  12, 10, 26, 10, 12.

Top down raglan construction is great since you can knit it, increasing on both sides of the markers, until the sweater is big enough to fit around the body and then continue on with the rest of the sweater.

This sweater starts with 6 rows of garter stitch, and then switches to stockinette with an 8 stitch garter stitch border/button band on both edges.

Stripes are worked at will, with button holes placed every 4 ridges in the garter stitch button band.  To make a button hole K3, K2tog, YO.  Making button holes on both sides of the garment will allow you to sew a button in the correct spot by sewing it on top of the redundant button hole.

This sweater spoke to me, wishing to become a pull-over rather than a cardigan.  Perhaps it is just since I don’t like to purl all that much.  After working 3 button holes, and at the end of a purl row, place the 8 knit border stitches on a spare needle.  Begin the knit round by combining both 8 stitch sections together by working a K2tog with one stitch from each edge of the sweater.  This will cause the borders to be one directly above the other.

The sleeve stitches are kept on waste yarn while the body of the sweater is completed.  Cast on 3 stitches under each arm pit.  Knit the body until it is 1/2 an inch from the desired finished length, then work 6 rows of garter stitch.  Note: in the round, garter stitch is knit 1 row, purl 1 row.  Cast off loosely knitwise.

The sleeves stitches are knit, armpit stitches are picked up, and joined in the round.  Decrease 2 stitches every 5th row to narrow the sleeve.  Continue until the sleeve is 1/2 inch from the desired length.  Work 6 rows of garter stitch.  Cast off loosely knitwise.

Work in ends and sew on buttons.

If you like this pattern, check out my others!

This weekend, friends of mine became parents, and I started knitting!  The news of the healthy baby and happy family had me digging through some of the stash to find some old fashioned Astra yarn that I had found at a thrift store a while ago.  When knitting for a baby, machine washable yarns are a definite plus!

My new favourite baby bonnet pattern is the Top Down Bonnet with Anime Character {Ravelink} by Adrian Bizilia.  I have made this bonnet with the ears and face before for a Japanese friend of mine.

This time I made the bonnet without the face and ears.  It’s amazing….a totally new and different hat.

I enjoy how the stripes join up with each other along the line of increases.

This bonnet did not use up ALL of my stash, so I have cast on for a top down raglan sleeve sweater to match (blue with yellow stripes), and there might be enough left for booties too!

The wonderful thing about knitting for a new baby is that projects are small and manageable, and they look SO cute!

What’s your favourite thing to knit for a new baby?

I had the best of intentions….I was just going to Wool-Tyme to drop off my sample of illusion knitting for the class I’m teaching in April.  I had no plans to buy ANYTHING.

The store had several customers, and as I waited for the store clerk to be free, I wandered around looking at patting the yarn.

I should have known better than to approach the discount table.  I CAN’T refuse a good discount.  Specially when it is on lovely chunky blue merino alpaca silk…..

This yarn was worth breaking my “knit-from-stash” resolution.  I got 3 skeins….and saved 8 bucks….so that sort of makes me feel better.

Yarn:  Sulka (60% merino wool, 20% Alpaca, 20% Silk) 50g/50m

It is so soft and fluffy.  In these skeins are so many possibilities….so much promise….

What would you make out of it?

Sock Wars V is starting soon, and I’m in.

“What’s Sock Wars?” you may ask.  Don’t feel bad–I didn’t know about it until one of the Knitter’s Anonymous sent me to the website, but I wish I had heard earlier!  It sounds awesome. I feel safe telling everyone about it now, since you can no longer sign up and become my competition.

A dossier will be emailed to me soon.  It will contain the official sock wars pattern, and my target’s information. I will then knit them a pair of socks, and mail it to them to “kill” them.  Someone will also be knitting me a pair of socks to try to “kill” me before I get my “killing” done.

When you are “killed” (by receiving a pair of knit socks in the mail) you are out, and you have to send your socks-in-progress and your dossier to the knitter that “killed” you.  That knitter will then try to finish those socks before getting “killed” themself.  The process continues until there is one knitter still standing!

I think that going to the mail box will become a lot more exciting!  I don’t remember getting hand knit socks that I didn’t make myself.  Even if/when I “die” I’ll at least get a pair of new socks out of the deal!  If I live until the end, I get a LOT of sock yarn….hmmm….stash enhancement….my resolution is that I’m not going to buy more yarn–I didn’t say ANYTHING about not winning it…

The “killing” begins on January 15th.  Stay tuned for more updates.

In the mean time, I’ll be heading to the stash to find a suitable sock yarn.  There’s gotta be something good in there somewhere!!

What New Years resolutions did I make last year?  Well….I don’t generally make resolutions, I make plans (sometimes they work, sometimes they get changed, sometimes they get postponed)

This year, after organizing my stash, I have made a decision…I’m going on a yarn fast.  I’m going to knit from my stash as much as possible for the new year.  We’ll see how long that lasts!

Note:  this plan involves me spinning up lots of fleece!

here's just some of my fleece

Wish me luck!

Happy 2010 everyone.

As the New Year approaches I start to think about decluttering my shelves to get more organized.  This includes airing out the stash, and getting rid of all that yarn that I will most likely never use. (I’m not even going to mention the bags of fleece…3 bags full…gotta start spinning!)

I feel bad throwing things away that could be useful to someone else.  I try to donate my leftover stash yarn to groups that will put it to good use.

Whether you are moving, downsizing, or just cleaning up your house here are some places that might be happy to adopt your extra yarn.  Ask around…

1. Local high schools or elementary schools might have a knitting club like the Knitter’s Anonymous that meet at my neighbourhood school.  Kids can learn with just about any of your stash yarn.
2. Check the Project Linus site for a coordinator near you.  Maybe your local yarn store might be interested in becoming a coordinator!  Knitters could take your donated yarn, and make patchwork blankets for sick children.
3. Thrift stores like Value Village or The Salvation Army Store survive on donations of all sorts of household items.  They will sell your donated yarn, and raise money and donate some of their earnings to local non-profit organizations.
4. Some prisons accept yarn donations for their “Knitting Behind Bars” programs
5. Some nursing homes accept yarn donations as well.
6. Some keen knitters have put a call out for yarn to knit for charity purposes.  100 Hats is one that has caught my eye.  She’s done 26 now!

comfort dolls

If you have the time to use up your stash, but haven’t thought of a good quick project, take a look at the following lists of links.  Find a charity near you!  You might be inspired to knit a teddy bear, comfort doll, or a hat or a blanket for the variety of people who are in need of warmth or comfort.

I knit about 20 hats in 2008 and donated them to the clients of a local soup kitchen in the fall.  It was such a worthwhile exercise.  I do hope you feel more comfortable parting with your clutter of stash yarn knowing that somehow, somewhere it will provide warmth and comfort for others.

Charity Knitting Lists (feel free to add more suggestions in the comments)

Halcyon Yarns

Interweave Press

How have I changed the place that I live… not much actually.  Since it’s an apartment I’m not at liberty to do all that much, nor do I have the time or energy to do so.

I did make an attempt to organize myself my stash last March.  My mom and I drove up to Ottawa for passport related stuff, and headed to IKEA on the way back.  We managed to somehow jam boxes for 3 sets of tall shelves into the car (with seats folded and pulled forward as much as possible).  It was also quite a job (involving the creative use of abandoned grocery carts) to wrestle the boxes out of the car and up to my apartment.

I spent several afternoons with the screw driver assembling the shelves, and then with a bit of help got them anchored to the walls.  For a while, I was more organized.  But then it appears that the number of books I own has multiplied to fill these shelves.

Now….I’m about do to something brave.  Most knitters have a stash of yarn, a hidden supply that is going to be used for something at some time but is currently waiting for that perfect project.  Some of it is yarn bought at a certain place, like the silk I bought in Japan when I learned to dye with indigo (lesson translated thanks to my very patient friends who had no interest whatsoever in silk or dyeing), or the super soft alpaca that I bought from the Weavers and Spinner’s Guild sale….I know it will be a scarf sometime, but I need to have the time to enjoy knitting with such lovely fiber.  Some of it is yarn bought on sale, or because I love the colour, or because I forgot I already had something similar….I know…I know…I have a bit of a problem.

So, here’s to bravery.  This is my stash, or at least most of it.  Doesn’t it look pretty?  Without this shelf, it was all piled in boxes in various corners of my apartment.  I have certainly gained more floor space with this stash storage shelf.  Looking at all that wool makes me think I need to knit more….so there will be more room on those shelves to store other important things.

This perhaps leads into my new years resolution post on being more organized, or perhaps just knitting faster than I acquire new yarn.

All you knitters out there….tell the truth….you have a yarn stash too, right?