Fits and spurts

An amazing thing happened this morning. I got up, showered, made breakfast, cleaned up breakfast, made a cup of tea, and got to start drinking the tea all before a certain someone woke up. I almost didn't know what to do with myself. And then I remembered - blog! So I checked in on the sleeping tadpole and fished out my camera to snap some WIP shots. Of course, once she woke up she stayed awake for over two and a half hours (a very long time in Tadpole-land) so I'm just now sitting down to type.

Can you tell this one is a sweater? Would it help if I said it was a cardigan? And you'll never guess what stitch pattern I decided to use.

One of these days I may actually be able to get an accurate photo of the color of this yarn. It's a lovely deep purple that just doesn't play well with my camera. The first pic is closer to the real thing.

But what about the clever bits of this design? No, it's not just that I'm using the stitch pattern from my favorite socks. My plan is to make a one-size-fits-most baby sweater. Or a fits-for-longer-than-three-weeks baby sweater. When I was pregnant, I had the toughest time figuring out what to knit for Tadpole because I had no idea what size to make. Or how quickly she would grow (very!).

This particular stitch pattern is great because it is incredibly elastic and looks interesting and attractive no matter how it is stretched. I pulled out my gauge swatch (aka that sock I finished a little while ago) and crunched the numbers so that the un-stretched fabric would fit Tadpole now-ish and the stretched fabric would fit her once she's in 6-12 month sized clothing with a bit of room to spare. My plan is to make the body and sleeves on the longer side to really allow for growth and a range of body shapes and sizes.

And that's not all I've done this week.

Not that you can tell from the picture, but I am two rows into the lace section on Rock Island. How did I manage to get this much knitting done?

Well, this helped.

My assistant wasn't too interested in the knitting.

On and off the needles

Oh, you wanted knitting? I can do that, too.

I've had an idea for another sweater for Tadpole bouncing around in my head for a while and last night I actually got around to crunching some of the numbers and casting on.

It doesn't look like much yet but I hope it turns out as cute and clever as it is in my head. And if I'm really good I'll put together a pattern, too.

I was shocked when I counted this morning because I'm more than half-way through the edging on Rock Island.

It's always interesting to follow the progression of memorizing a pattern repeat. I start out staring at the chart for every stitch, then I check every row. A few more repeats along I only look when I think I'm doing something wrong but I keep the chart out the whole time. Several more repeats later, I realize that I'm not looking at the chart at all. And finally, I don't pull out the chart when I grab the project from the knitting basket. 

It would probably be a good idea to throw in a lifeline at this point but I like knitting on the edge.

Forty-two repeats down, twenty-nine more to go. Shoot, I was much happier before I thought of that second figure.

I even have an almost FO to share. After the tornados that hit Alabama a few weeks ago, Elizabeth announced that she was starting Blankets for Birmingham and asked knitters to contribute knitted squares that she would put together into blankets for those who had lost their homes. I'm having fun playing with a new-to-me cotton (Cascade Ultra Pima) and contributing to the cause.

I still need to weave in the ends and block the square (and knit a few more) but this is still good progress.

One more almost FO. I finished the first of my green socks a little while ago but it wasn't until today that I found my favorite sock model ever.

She doesn't always manage to stay upright by herself but she's working on it. Corners help.

So do fists.

Bits of green

The field across the street has this haze of spring green that is absolutely lovely (what is this "field" in the middle of a big metropolitan city? "Giant tract of undeveloped land probably owned by a railroad otherwise it would be full of condos by now" doesn't have quite the same ring to it). And my knitting basket is showing similar signs of the season.

This little lovely that is growing slowly but surely (I'm perhaps 5 rows farther along than what you can see in the photo) is Fernfrost by Anne Hanson. It's a fun textural lace pattern that I'm knitting up in one of the nicest yarns I have ever worked with: qiviuk. That's right, qiviuk. My local yarn shop started carrying these a couple of months ago and Mr. Tinks and Frogs snagged one just before Tadpole was born and gave it to me as a hobbit-style birthday present. It's just lovely. The fiber is incredibly soft and has a beautiful halo. Ok, now I want to put the computer down and pick up that project.

Moving along, I finally started Rock Island! My mother's day present included a bit of time to start this project, something that I've been looking forward to for a while now.

I think I've done 7 or so repeats of the edging chart at this point. Only 60-something more to go.

This green trend extends outside the apartment, too. Last weekend I finally did something that I've been looking forward to since we moved into this place last spring.

I finally got my container garden going. There are asiatic lilies,

cherry tomatoes (do you need to stake cherry tomato plants?),

basil,

and mint.

I have a feeling we'll be having a lot of tomato/basil pasta dishes and mojitos this summer. Yum!

FO: not Rock Island

But I'm close! The yarn is even wound up into a ball (thanks, Mr. Tinks and Frogs, for taking care of that one) and is resting in the knitting basket just waiting for me to have a chunk of time to sit down and dive into the pattern.

Leaving aside what I haven't done yet, let's turn to the much more satisfying subject of what I have accomplished. This:

Pattern: Maile Sweater by Nikki Van De Car
Yarn: Dream in Color Rustic Sock, about 3/4 of a skein, in colorway Rusty Lilac
Needles: size 5 addi lace circulars
Mods: This is a basic bottom-up raglan sweater with a lace panel inserted between the raglan decreases, so I made a few changes in keeping with how I like to make a bottom-up raglan (and to fit the recipient). First, I made the body and sleeves a bit longer than the pattern called for. Tadpole is long and I'm hoping this mod, which was entirely unscientific - I just knit until it looked right, will help the sweater last a bit longer.

Second, I worked the sleeves in the round. It's quick and easy to knit a tiny tube with magic loop and this saved me the trouble of sewing up sleeve seams at the end of the project.

Third, and this is the biggest one, I disregarded the designer's instructions for joining the arms to the body at the start of the yoke. The pattern doesn't reserve any stitches for the underarm and instead has you knit all of the body and sleeve stitches together into a giant row. Why? The designer notes that she doesn't like the feel of an underarm with bound-off stitches and wanted to avoid that. After reading several pattern notes on ravelry, I was pretty sure I didn't want to follow the pattern as written since it puts a fair amount of tension on the stitches where the sleeves and body come together. Instead, I put 10 sleeve stitches and 10 body stitches on holders at the underarm and then grafted these together at the end using kitchner stitch. It's a nice, seamless join and seems to fit the body nicely.

Because I was working on fewer yoke stitches than the pattern called for, I worked four rounds straight after joining the sleeves to the body before I began the raglan decreases. I added the first buttonhole as soon as I started the decreases/lace pattern and ended up with three buttonholes compared with the pattern's five. I also ignored the instructions on when to stop decreasing and knit until I had used up all of the sleeve stitches.

It's a cute pattern and has a lot of personal significance for the designer but I don't think I'll knit it again. The leaf lace pattern at the yoke is a bit droopy for my taste so I may use this design as a template and substitute in lace patterns that I like better. All that said, it was a great pattern for this yarn.

What about the yarn? I'd never heard of Rustic Sock before - it was an experiment by Dream in Color yarns that will never be put into production - but the colors in the skein grabbed me when I went to the Dream in Color seconds sale last fall. It's a 3-ply fingering weight yarn and the plies have varying thicknesses and degrees of twist. This makes for a lovely, light fabric. It's great for a baby sweater but I don't think it would wear well for socks.

Ok, enough chatter and onto the important question: does the recipient like it? She's still working on her modeling skills (her "awake" modeling skills, to be fair) but she was pretty content while I took a quick photo shoot yesterday.

Of course, I don't think I got a single shot where she was holding still and I was able to get both her sweater and her face in focus. But she's cute enough that it doesn't matter a bit.

Pants! (not a problem anymore)

The third time's the charm. Ok, so I was frantically weaving in the ends while my breakfast was cooking this morning but they are done and Tadpole was all decked out for our errands.

Pattern: what pattern? These were made up on the fly.

One day when Tadpole was pretty relaxed and in a good mood after being changed, I measured her hip circumference. I added another inch and a half or so for ease (and room to grow). Then I started crunching some numbers for the yarn I had chosen: Dream in Color Classy on size 8 needles. Knowing, rather than merely guessing, my gauge would have been helpful and saved a bit of heartache. Let's just call version one a giant gauge swatch and move along.

I multiplied my gauge by the desired hip measurement to get the circumference of the body section of the pants. Then I reduced this figure by 10% for the ribbing and cast on. I wanted a nice long waistband that could either fold down or be left up so I worked about 3 inches in twisted stitch 1x1 rib. After the ribbing, I increased evenly around the piece, adding in my missing 10% of the final stitch count. I worked a couple of rows plain and then added short rows along the back side. When the piece measured about 5 inches, not including the ribbing, I worked a couple more short rows along the back.  I worked another round or two and then it was time to divide for the legs.

I decided to throw in a gusset and that was definitely the way to go - the fit is great. To do this, I knit across one quarter of the stitches (the front of the first leg) and placed the stitches for the second leg (50% of the total number of stitches). Then I provisionally cast on two and a half inches worth of stitches and knit across the remaining leg stitches. Every other round I knit until one stitch before the newly cast on stitches, worked a ssk, knit to one stitch before the end of the cast on stitches, and worked a k2tog. Repeat this until all of the stitches you cast on have been decreased away and you have a gusset.

The rest of the leg is a piece of cake. Knit until the leg is long enough and then bind off. I added an inch of garter stitch at the bottom for decoration.

For the second leg, join a new strand of yarn and start working the stitches you had put on a holder earlier, decreasing away the cast on stitches as before. Then knit the second leg so it matches the first and bind off.

Throw a baby in it and you're done. Tadpole was delighted to model her new pants after we got home.

I've got one more baby handknit to share: the aviatrix baby hat. It's the only hat that actually stays on her head! And it stays on even better now that I managed to sew buttons on yesterday.

Pattern: Aviatrix baby hat by Justine Turner

Yarn: Anzula Cricket MCN (really lovely stuff but no decent website where you can see it). I used less than a quarter of the skein. I think.

Needles: size 4 addi lace circs for the ribbing and size 5 addi lace circs for everything else

Size: I made the newborn size and it fits Tadpole really well at 6 weeks old but there is still room for her to grow.

A problem with pants

Nope, this isn't a rant about how I'm still a long way off from fitting into my favorite pre-pregnancy jeans (very true but a bit off-topic for this blog). Instead it's a story of knitted pants. Or rather, not-yet-knitted pants.

This all started when Tadpole received several pairs of adorable little socks and booties as gifts from various family and friends. I put them on her and snapped pictures of cute little baby feet, remembering to take them off before the next diaper change since someone who shall remain unnamed is very good at getting her feet dirty while on the changing table. Then I realized there was a little problem: all of her pants have feet on them. Footed pants are very convenient in terms of getting her dressed quickly. But they're not very good at all at showcasing handknits.

The solution hit me immediately. I knit. And I should knit her some pants.

I spend a fair amount of time on ravelry while nursing so I researched various patterns for longies. None of the patterns was quite what I was looking for so I decided to take the various bits and pieces that I liked and come up with my own design. I'd been swooning over various brooklyntweed patterns at this time, especially the Guernsey Wrap, and I decided to make a pair of Guernsey pants.

I pulled out Beth Brown-Reinsel's fabulous book and picked out some stitch patterns I liked. Then I cast on and knit happily away for several inches. (Note how I didn't say anything about swatching. There wasn't any.) I made it about half-way down the butt when I started thinking the piece was looking a bit big. I dutifully pulled out the tape measure and discovered that I was getting 4 stitches to the inch when I had worked the numbers for 4.5. About that whole swatching thing . . .

So I frogged and started over with numbers crunched for 4 stitches per inch. I also took out the guernsey elements since I thought the combination of stitch patterns looked too busy in the yarn I was using (Dream in Color Classy from the stash). This has been my main project for the last week and a half or so. And every day for the last few days I've said to myself, "tonight I think I'm going to finish it." Inevitably I'd knit 2 rows after each time I said that before life got in the way.

It doesn't help that I've fallen in love with the latest shawl design from Jared Flood. Or that I told myself I couldn't start that project until I'd finished the pants.

But last night I was really making progress. I finished the first leg and was picking up stitches to start the second. And then it hit me: I had split for the legs using the original pattern numbers. The current version was 8 stitches smaller and that meant that the leg I had just finished was too big. Not only that, but my short row shaping along the backside was not centered at all.

So I frogged all the way back to the ribbing and knit a couple of rows before calling it a night (aka sitting up with a certain someone who didn't want to go to sleep until 12:30).

This is what the pants look like now:

I'd really like to start Rock Island soon. Wish me luck!

FO: Laminaria

This was a really fun knit. Even more so because it was my "keep myself sane since I'm past my due date" project. I cast on the day Tadpole was due and got through all but one of the flower chart repeats by the time we headed to the hospital. Once we got home, I'd knit a row (or half a row) here and there while Tadpole slept and eventually the piece was finished.

(I look reasonably well rested there, don't I?)

Before I forget (or get stuck away from the little piece of paper with my notes on it), here are the project specs:

Pattern: Laminaria by Elizabeth Freeman 

Yarn: one skein of Fleece Artist Suri Blue (a 50/50 mix of Suri alpaca and Blue Face Leicester). Colorway? I have absolutely no idea. It's a collection of lovely greens that nearly jumped into my hand at the yarn store.

Needles: size 4 addi lace circulars

Size: the pattern gives directions for two sizes, a small scarf and a large shawl. I wanted something in between so I made up a hybrid of the two. I worked 5 repeats of the star chart and 5 repeats of the flower chart. 

Mods: other than hybridizing the size, I went with a 3-stitch border rather than a 2-stitch one. Why? I just liked the look of the extra stitch - it felt more sturdy. That's all.

So how big is the thing?

The shawl is 26" deep from bottom point to the cast on bit, 38.5" wide measuring straight across from curved point to curved point, and 52.5" wide if you actually measure that curved line. All in all a great size for wrapping around your neck.

I really liked the various stitch patterns used in this design. I especially like the star chart in the first section, a stitch that Nancy Bush used in her Miralda's Triangular Shawl (which I knit last year). And the flower chart produces a fabulous textured design.

(What's with the color changes? The sun was out for the top three pics.)

I wasn't a huge fan of the edging - it looked pretty droopy in the pattern shots. But it's actually really fun to knit (there's just something special about working double and triple yarn overs), and it doesn't have to be that droopy if you don't block the points out quite as aggressively as the designer did. 

That said, I'm definitely looking forward to knitting the echo flower shawl, which uses the flower motif from Laminaria for the body of the shawl and finishes with an edging design filled with nupps. I just might have a skein of malabrigo lace in the stash already slated for that project.

Moving along, I had a helper for this photo shoot.

Apparently knitting photo shoots aren't that exciting since she slept right through it.

I honestly don't know if I have much more to say about this project. Fun knit, great yarn, wearable finished piece. That about sums it up. But I do have some more Tadpole pictures so how about we just end with that?