done and done

I finished the hooded kaftan from Special Knits by Debbie Bliss! Except for the embroidery. I'll get to that eventually. Maybe. It's cute as is, though, and it's not as huge on Baby as I thought it would be. It's mainly just the hood that's too big. The sweater needs some blocking to stop the edge of the hood from turning in. I didn't have a long enough size 3 circular to pick up all the stitches needed for the edging around the hood (184 stitches) so I used a 28" size 2 instead. That probably contributes some to the excessive curling in.

Knowing that the hood is so big proportionally to the rest of the sweater, I'll make adjustments for the next hoodie I'm making from the same book. So far I've just done the back, but it's so much quicker going since it's on size 7 needles, and I'm doing the 3-6 month size, rather than size 5 needles doing the largest 18-24 month size.

The other project I finished recently was this headband/panta. Big Sister is modeling it, though it's actually adult size. It's so cute on her, especially with her little braids, so I'm definitely going to knit her one as well.

I used this pattern, but it's got some mistakes. Luckily, I had been warned of them before hand, so I was able to make it through unscathed. The main issue is with the length at which changes are made. To the halfway point, it's fine. But then it starts over with the lengths, rather than working backwards to make it symmetrical. So from the halfway point, you actually need to decrease the P5 to P4 at 27 cm, from P4 to P3 at 30 cm, from P3 to P2 at 34 cm, and from P2 to P1 at 40 cm. Then complete at 48 cm. Oh, and in the pattern it says to decrease from P4 to P2, but this is obviously just a typo, and it means P4 to P3.

As for adjustments, rather than knit the 1 stitch garter stitch border, I slipped purlwise the last stitch of each row (and then knit the first stitch on right side rows, and purled the first stitch on wrong side rows). And I did a provisional cast on with a crochet chain, and used kitchener stitch to finish. But next time, I think I'll follow the pattern and just cast on normally and seam from the live stitches at the end because it would be nice to have a little bit of seam to be able to locate the center by feel.

My handy dandy Vogue Knitting reference book describes how to do this in the grafting section. By the by, I love this book. I use it all the time for when I'm learning a new technique, or when I've forgotten how to do one I learned once before. KnittingHelp.com is great for when you're in front of a computer, or when you need to see video of a technique, but when I'm just kicking around at home, I prefer to look in my books first. The other knitting reference book I have, The Knitter's Companion, is great too, but it's much smaller, so doesn't have all the info Vogue Knitting has. Perfect for in your knitting bag, though.

next projects

For my next project I was going to knit the argyle cardigan, again from Special Knits by Debbie Bliss, for my upcoming nephew (due in January). I knit this swatch with the yarn I wanted to use Treliske Organic sportweight merino. Rather than knitting the pattern in using intarsia, I embroidered the diamonds on afterward using duplicate stitch. As you can probably see, the cream is really too light on the silver, so I think I'll use brown tweed instead. The darker color there is dark brown that doesn't seem to be available on Treliske's site anymore.

But now I think I won't do the argyle cardigan after all. I hadn't realized that it calls for baby weight yarn, so I would have to do heaps of altering to make it work with this thicker yarn. Since I'm just going to be embroidering the pattern on afterwards, any stocking stitch sweater should do. So I think I'll do the hooded sweater from the same book. Yes, another hooded sweater. But I like hoodies. And I'll add the argyle pattern onto it to make it super cute.

While I'm working on that I'll do a little side project for myself. Inspired by the Panta! thread on MDC Yarn Crafts, I'm going to make one using this gorgeous Interlacements worsted weight merino called Oregon Worsted II. The colorway is Tapestry. I think I'll do most of the suggestions given. Like doing a provisional cast on and kitchenering (is that a word?) the seam. And also slipping last stitches rather than having a garter stitch border. I'm not really a fan of garter stitch. If it all works out well, I'll probably make several for gifts for friends and family.

finishing before finished

I hate finishing projects. The blocking, seaming, hiding ends. I especially hate that it's the last step, so that to actually finish a project, you have to do all this finishing at the end. So this time, to try to cut back on the amount of finishing there will be, I've decided to work it in during the knitting portion. Still working on the hooded kaftan from Special Knits by Debbie Bliss. Like I mentioned before, I bound off the shoulders together so I wouldn't have to sew them together later. I did the same with the top hood seam, and rather than bind off and cast on again for the bottom of the hood, I left the stitches live and increased stitches across to make up the stitch difference. One less edge to sew. When I finished the first sleeve, I picked up stitches along the body to bind off with the sleeve (using a crochet hook made it easier) so that I wouldn't have to sew that seam. And since the sleeve was mostly attached already then, I used all my long ends I had left to sew up the under arm sleeve seam, and then that whole side of the body as well. So I've got all that finished out of the way now! I'm psyched. So when I finish the next sleeve, it goes in, and I'm pretty much done, with minimal finishing. It's so much more rewarding to me this way. But I didn't block the pieces, obviously, which hopefully won't affect the finished item too much.

When I got this far, I actually almost decided to put the project away for a bit to work on something else. Despite being just 11 months old Baby wears all size 18 to 24 months in store bought clothes. She's not huge or anything, that's just the way baby clothes are sized. So for this sweater I did the biggest size - 18 to 24 months. It's HUGE. So I figured, I might as well put it aside and work on some Christmas present projects since I'm running out of time on those, and I can finish the sweater for Baby later when it'll actually fit her. I decided to finish it now. At least the knitting and seaming part, if not the embroidery. The last sleeve will just take me one week (yes, it takes me that long to knit one baby sleeve, because with Baby and Big Sister around during the day wanting to "help" I can only knit at night after they're in bed). I just couldn't leave a one armed sweater around till after Christmas. I'd see it sitting sadly in my knitting bag, and I'd feel guilty. So it's almost done, and I'll share a picture of Baby swimming in it when it finally is.

hoodie half done

I'm knitting the hooded kaftan from Debbie Bliss' Special Knits : 22 Gorgeous Handknits for Babies and Toddlers for baby. Since I took this photo a few days ago I've actually finished the hood so all I have left is the sleeves, and then the embroidery. I haven't knit a sweater in a long time. It's slow work, especially on such small needles (size 5). Oh, and as you can see, I actually knit a whole gauge swatch for once. I'm impressed with myself. I usually have no patience to do the swatch, but I figured it's worth it this time.

I'm using JaggerSpun Zephyr DK which is 50% merino wool and 50% silk. It's really soft and lovely to knit. The silk gives it a shiney sheen which I like. I'll be doing the embroidery with the same yarn in laceweight. Since I've done virtually no embroidery before (see the daisy on the bag below) I'll be practicing on the handy gauge swatch. See, I knew there was a good reason I knit it! :)

I usually Google patterns I'm planning on knitting before I start to see if there's any errata, or just general problems others have had with the pattern. This one seems to have caused some confusion surrounding the hood. I can see how it might have been confusing if I hadn't read it was going to be confusing, but knowing in advance actually made it quite clear to me. The pattern calls for the back to be completely bound off, and then the base of the hood is cast on separately, and then stitched to the bound off back. I figured that's kind of unnecessary, so I kept the back stitches live and just knit the hood from there. There are more stiches called for in the hood than the back, so I just increased evenly across the back on the next row. It seems to have worked out fine. I also did double bind offs along the shoulders and for the top of the hood, so that I wouldn't have to sew them together later which would cause a bulkier seam. Being able to do things like that is one of the reasons I like knitting with the Denise Interchangeable Needles so much. It's so easy to move stitches around from needle to needle to holder and back to needle.

too hot for longies

I finished the longies for Baby last night. And then of course today it's 85 and humid. Where'd that come from? But I dressed her in them anyways. And then went down to the Boston Knit-Out! That was fun. But hot. Since I was one of the first 25 to add their logo to my blog, I got a free bag of yarn, and who can argue with free yarn? It was neat to see so many knitters on the Common, but unfortunately the girls were too uncomfortable to stay long. Did I mention it was hot?

The longies are wicked cute, but she JUST fits in them, which means in 2 weeks she won't. Ooops. The problem came from the fact that I changed patterns halfway through, so didn't make the rise high enough. An extra 2 inches would have been good.

I'm cheating on my knitting

I have a confession to make. I'm working on multiple knitting projects at the same time. Until recently, I've always only worked on one project at a time. I thought it would be "cheating" if, in the middle of a project, I got bored and started a new one. Plus, I also thought I would never get around to going back to the original project and finishing it. So I forced myself to finish a project before starting a new one. In the instances that I got incredibly bored with a project, I'd just stop knitting for weeks at a time.

But now I've finally gotten over it. I don't know what did it. Probably the fact that I have SO many projects I want to do, I couldn't settle on just one.

So I've got that little green clutch that I'm still got going on. I've decided to add some little white beads on either side of the daisy, so once I'm done with the beading I'll just have to sew the bag together and add the lining and zipper. Then I've also started a lace poncho for Marya. I've only done four rows of that. And there's this pair of longies I've almost finished for Baby. It started out as another curly purly soaker but then the weather started getting colder, and I realized having longies is so much better than trying to get regular baby pants over a cloth diapered baby butt. So after doing the waistband, I just changed to the Wooly Wonder Wonderpants pattern. I've also just barely started the Peace Fleece Child's Shepard Jacket.

The problem I'm having though, is that I usually always use my Denise Interchangables, and all these patterns require pretty much the same needles. It takes some manipulation whenever I switch between projects. Oh well. It's worth it to be able to knit different projects depending on my mood.

been working on some bags

Actually, I finished working on this bag about a month ago, but yesterday I just finally gave it to Narie, for whom it was a Christmas present. That's right, a Christmas present, 8 months late. But it wasn't really that bad! I had the knitting and felting done by Christmas, I just wanted to put a zipper in it to make it a functional bag. I don't feel like little hand bags are all that useful if stuff keeps falling out of them. So I stalled for months and months. I'm so not good at sewing. But I finally got the zipper in. I messed it up royally of course. I didn't pin it first, so it doesn't line up correctly, but it zips, and stuff will stay in, and it just lies a little crooked now. It makes it more charming of course. And now after telling the story, I realize that the fact that it was almost ready for when it was supposed to be a present and then took so long to finish the last little bit is much worse than have the whole thing not nearly ready in time. Oh well.

A little about the bag... It's my own design, knit of Peace Fleece in Moscow Magic Pink and Antarctica White. Knit in the round on size 13. The snowflake was a complete pain to do. I made the mistake of thinking it would be easy to knit it using intarsia. It wasn't easy. In retrospect I came up with the idea of embroidering it on, so that body of the bag would have been much quicker to knit. I assume that that would felt up reasonably well. I'll have to try that next time.

This cute little clutch was knitted much more recently. I finished with the knitting just last week. It's a pattern from 25 bags to knit by Emma King. This is the very first time I've ever embellished anything I've knit. Isn't the little daisy cute? The white cotton yarn (Henry's Attic Inca organic cotton in Ecru) isn't the best choice for doing it, but I don't have much else in stock that would go well. The pattern calls for 5 daisys per side, but the 2 I've done so far (front and back) took so long I might just leave it like this. But with practice it'll probably go quicker. The body of the bag is knit again with Peace Fleece in Kamchatka Seamoss. Because the weight of Pleace Fleece worsted is heavy than the Rowan Kid Classic called for, I didn't double the yarn throughout as the pattern calls for. The dimensions still worked out pretty similar using number 9 needles. I'm going to sew in a zipper again, but this time pin it so it goes on straight, plus I'm going to line the bag. I just feel like it will be more practical to have it lined, since it's not a felted bag, and stuff put in the bag might poke through. Here's a close up of the daisy.

can't show what i finished

I just finished my coolest, most gorgeous project yet, and I can't tell you what it is because it's a Christmas gift for someone who may see it here on this site. And since I'm going to try to knit as many Christmas gifts as possible this year, this blog is going to be pretty boring for awhile. Oh, well. Come January, I'll be showing everything off.

In the meantime I'll show you my new toys, a swift and jumbo ball winder. The yarn on there is the Fleece Artist Kasula in Pale Pink. I'm not normally a pink person, but I LOVE this yarn. Even though it sheds ridiculously.

So this post won't be entirely knitting project free, I thought I'd share a tiny little felted case I made for my new digital camera. This was actually my second attempt, as the first ended up way big. I had expected it to shrink much more in the felting process, having never felted this particular yarn before. This second one ended up better, but the length shrunk more, and the width less then I thought it would, so the camera fits in the other way round than I planned. Which works out well, though.

cashmere rocks

So I decided not to do the Bird's Nest Shawl after all. I had ordered 5 hanks of Makalu 100% DK Cashmere in polamino, knowing I wouldn't have quite enough yardage (because of the weight of the yarn, I was planning on knitting it single strand, instead of double as the pattern states). But then the 5th hank was back ordered, so, forgetting that I was already shorting myself, I thought I'd make do with just the 4 hanks, and I canceled the 5th. Then when I was ready to knit, looked at the pattern, recalculated the yardage, and realized I would be really really short.

I still wanted to knit my mom a shawl for her birthday, though. And I found the perfect one on the first site I looked at. The Interweave Knits summer issue focuses on lace, and the Staff Projects: Sweet Somethings includes a shawlette (yes, it's actually called a 'shawlette'), in a yarn that's almost an exact match for the Makalu DK Cashmere I got. Yippee! Now I actually had twice as much yarn as needed! Since I wanted something slightly bigger than a shawlette, something closer to an actual shawl, I extended the pattern a bit. At row 60, I kept going to add an extra 6 stitches to each side (6 being the number of stitches in the horizontal lace pattern repeat). And in the lower lace border, I did an extra 4 rows (1 repeat of the vertical lace pattern). And ta daa! It's finished. About 2 weeks late, but that's okay.

home again

We're back from visiting the west coast rellies. Grandma's shawl was a big success, though she thought it was a scarf. I've always thought of shawls as grandmotherly apparel, but I guess my grandmother was too hip for shawls. She didn't even know what one was when I told her that's what I had knit her. So she wears it as a scarf, and it looks really good. It also actually provides some warmth worn that way, because spread out as a shawl it's just too thin.


Being out in sunshiney California also provided the perfect opportunity to break out Baby's Miss Dashwood Hat. This is the first thing I knit for her when I found out I was pregnant with her. Of course, at that time I didn't know she was a 'she'. Lucky she ended up being a girl, or else I would have had to give this adorable hat away. As you can see, I need to block it a bit so the edge doesn't curl up like that so much. I knit it out of handpaintedyarn.com bulky merino 6 ply. Who ever heard of a wool sun hat? Hee. When I first knit it, I knit up the ties and ear flaps as well, but didn't want to sew them in until I had a baby to test it on, so I'd know where the earflaps belonged. But in the end, since it's only now fitting her (summertime), I decided to leave the earflaps off entirely.


I just finished knitting up a soaker (just like the curly purly one shown below but in newborn size) for Erika who's having a baby soon. And now I'm working on another one for my little one, since I'm sending along the soakers she's just about outgrown with this gift soaker in a trade for some of Erika's awesome soap.

Next project is a cashmere shawl for my mom for her birthday. I'm making the Bird's Nest Shawl from the book Folk Shawls. I don't have quite enough yardage of the cashmere, so I'll have to shorten the shawl a bit, I think. Hopefully it will turn out okay.

just in time

Finished knitting it last night. Now it's drying on my blocking board (a large piece of cardboard covered with a beach towel). Perfect timing, since we're leaving tomorrow. I did the full knit border along the rounded edge, but just the single crochet border on the straight edge, instead of the applied i-cord.


Now it's all done. Here's my mom modeling it.

now the web is almost done

Yay! My ridiculous course has finally ended, so I actually have time to knit again! I had fallen really behind on my shawl for my grandmother, but now I'm almost done. I decided to only do six and a half of the main repeats on the max number of stitches, instead of seven and a half, because I need to make sure I get this done before we fly out to see her next week! So here's a photo of it before I started the edging. I'm having a really hard time determining how big it's going to be finished, because the circular I've got it on is much shorter than the full length of the edge would be fully stretched out. I think it might end up a bit small? But maybe blocking will make it normal shawl size? Who knows.

Here's a close up. It really is cobwebby. I like how light and airy it is. I'm not personally a fan of the sea foam greenish color, but I think Grandma will like it. Lace is so much fun to knit. But next up after this I've got a few soakers I need to do. Thankfully I've decided not to take any courses at all this summer, so I'll get to spend lots of hot summer nights knitting. Oh, I've also decided to try my hand at sewing. I've always sucked at sewing, but I think that's because I've never spent time to learn it. I've always just thought, "Oh, how hard can it be to make a shirt?" But I've realized now that it's probably a learned skill, so I've reserved a sewing 101 book from the library, and we'll see how it goes. After I get this shawl done, of course. And a few soakers. Oh, and the shawl I'm knitting my mom for her birthday in May. :P

what's done is done

I thought I'd share a picture of the last project I finished before the lacy scarf. This is a soaker knit from the curly purly free soaker pattern. It was knit from the same 100% merino wool as the green soaker below (color: Otono Fantasia). My lovely 4 month old daughter is modeling. And even though it practically comes up to her nipples, I love this soaker, it's my favourite of hers so far. And it should fit her for a good long while. I knit a pair of booties out of the same yarn, and I'm not quite so pleased with them, just because they pill SO much. The no-ply yarn works well for the soaker, because the soaker doesn't rub up against anything ever. But with the baby feet always kicking, the booties are always rubbing against stuff, hence the pilling. At least they keep her feet warm.

Grandma's shawl is coming along. Slowly. I'd post another picture, but it would look pretty much exactly like the one below, just with slightly more shawl. I've got the max number of stitches now, so each row takes a looooooong time. Well, half an hour, which feels really long. That means each night I get about half a repeat of the main pattern done. I've got 5 repeats left. You do the math.

web spinning

To start my next project, grandma's shawl, first I had to ball the yarn. 2200 meters of it. That's like, over a mile of yarn I wound BY HAND. Yes, I'm insane. It took over 2 and a half hours. My arm was SO sore the next day. I totally need a ball winder.

I've started knitting this Cobweb shawl and so far I'm enjoying it. The yarn is a very very fine boucle type mohair/wool/nylon blend. I'm using my Denise Interchangable Needles, which work well because the tips are really pointy.

first lace

Yay! I finished my first ever lace piece. Isn't it purdy? It's the Branching out scarf on knitty. I used Fleece Artist Kasula (special purchase through a yarn co-op) colorway Mahogany. It's a DK weight 100% mohair, and I really liked knitting with it. And I LOVE the color, shiny rust and gold. It's scratchier than I thought it would be, and knitting with it left me covered in mohair, but it was softer and less fuzzy after I washed it. I used size US 9 wooden needles. Those worked well because I didn't have to worry so much about stitches slipping off the needles, but the ends were pretty blunt, so made some of the decreases challenging.

I knit this as a birthday present for Stacey, and since she turned 31, I did 31 repeats of the pattern. It took about a week for me to finish, knitting just a few hours each night. The key step of course was blocking it at the end. My dirty little secret is that I've never blocked anything ever before. Shhh. Don't tell anyone. I've mostly only made felted bags, soakers, longies, hats and booties before, so nothing really seemed to need it. This scarf definitely did, and it made such a difference.

Check out this "before blocking" photo. I knew I needed to cast on loosely, and originally I had planned on knitting with size 8 needles, so used a size 10.5 needle to cast on. But then I changed my mind and used the 9s, so you can see how the cast on edge pulled in. The blocking fixed that. You also just couldn't see the lacy pattern clearly until it was blocked. So now I'm a blocking convert, and I surely will do it more often. I wonder what happens to blocked items next time the item is washed. Does it go back to being all yucky?

My next project I've got going is a shawl for my grandmother. Started it a few days ago, it's looking okay, but it may end up being way too small because the yarn I'm using is a very very fine laceweight yarn. We'll see.

header pieces

I thought I'd start with the creations I've got up in the header right now.


This is a little felted bag I made in November 2005 as a Christmas gift for one of my many nieces. Knit in the round, with attached i-cord handles, I made it up as I went along. I used Peace Fleece Worsted Weight in Glastnost Gold, Moldova Burgundy, and Lena's Meadow, on 24" Ebony 8mm circular needles. I got the needles from Kalaidoscope Yarns and I love the current one I have, but the first one they sent me had a split in one of the needle points. KYarns was great, though, and sent me a new one as soon as they received the defective one back. The Peace Fleece felts well, but the mohair content (30%) leaves it really, really fuzzy. So I always have to spend a long time grooming the items once they're fully felted.


I recently knit this soaker for a friend who needed a heavy, overnight diaper cover for her toddler. It's the undersoaker from the Little Turtle Knits Flirty Skirty pattern. It turned out a bit big, probably because the yarn I used, a 100% merino wool (color: Lugano), is on the thicker side of worsted, rather than the light worsted the pattern calls for. This is the first time I used elastic for the waistband, instead of a drawstring. I liked the way it turned out, but I'll probaby just stick with drawstings in the future, because of the extra effort involved. I'm lazy like that.


Speaking of being lazy, this felted bag took way too much effort. I knew I wanted a lopsided purple star on it, since it was to be a gift for a friend who loves lopsided purple stars. Little did I know how much of a pain knitting a star would be because of all the color changes necessary. I've since learned that it would probably be a better idea to just knit the bag in the background color, and then embroider the star on it, but I've never embroidered before, so I could be wrong. The structure of the bag I based on this pattern, and I used Lamb's Pride Worsted leftover from knitting a My Little Companion felted bag. The Lamb's Pride also has mohair (15%) in it, so this bag neede a haircut after felting as well.

reason for being

I first learned to knit about 10 years ago. My then future mother-in-law taught me when I asked her as a way of breaking the ice at our first meeting. I started a sweater, but that was definitely too ambitious a first project, and I forgot about it half way through the back. I only really started again summer 2004 when we went to visit my MIL, this time with our 1 year old daughter. MIL refreshed my memory of knitting, and now I had someone cute and little to knit cute, little projects for.

Back home, as I started working on various knitting projects, I had no one here to help me when I had questions. So I went online, and found everything I ever needed to know. I've been able to review and purchase yarn, patterns and accessories. Lately, I've most enjoyed reading knitting blogs. I love seeing pictures of what people are knitting, seeing what yarn goes good with what patterns, reading what people think of specific fibers, yarns, needles and patterns, and getting helpful tips on all things knitting. So as a way to give back and hopefully help other knitters in the same way, I thought I'd start a blog, too.

first entry

I guess this is my first post. Hiya!