Saddle Shoulder Mania

I have been knitting like a maniac on Bran's seamless saddle shoulder sweater. The sleeves went very quickly, and now that I am on the yoke, I am having trouble putting it down.

This is one of those circumstances where knitting becomes a dangerous habit in my world. I have three loads of laundry waiting to be folded and put away, a gigantic pile of mail that needs to be sorted, texts that need translating, updates to a website that need to be added, various tasks and messes around the house that need attention, not to mention my two sons, who thankfully are self-entertainers with their own addictive behavior when it comes to building with Legos. My current plan to foil this madness is to finish the top of the sweater tonight. Then hopefully I'll be able to cram everything else in tomorrow. Thank goodness for three-day weekends.

Closure For Tomten

This Tomten, modeled by Abe, is for a dear friend of mine who had a baby boy back in April. Since she waited until birth to find out the baby's gender, I didn't start on this until after he was born. My friend has always wanted to have a family. She tried to have a baby for a long time, and although she was able to conceive, for some reason she couldn't carry the baby to term. After a few miscarriages, she and her husband decided to try and adopt a child. Right as they were beginning the adoption process, she became pregnant again, and this time everything went smoothly, and she delivered a beautiful, healthy baby boy!

As usual, I decided to make a large garment that would be wearable for a long time, instead of something that would only fit for a few weeks. If the sleeves are rolled up, this jacket could potentially fit a child anywhere from 1 1/2-4 years old, depending on build. I used Falk and size 4 needles. Even though Falk is listed as a sport weight yarn, I get 5 sts to an inch when using a size 4. I learned this the hard way during the train hat incident. I did the pattern as written, except for adding about 10 more ridges to the hood to make it even roomier.

I was finished knitting, sewing and blocking the jacket 2 weeks ago, but I put it aside for a bit because of the closure issue. I thought all along that a zipper would be best, both aesthetically and practically, but I wasn't sure I was ready to brave the sewing machine again. Last time I inserted a zipper into a knit, I had a very sewing savvy friend sitting right next to me and telling me exactly what to do. I wasn't sure if I could make the magic happen all by myself.

I took some of the gray yarn and made an i-cord with the thought of using it as a loop for a toggle button. I also considered adding snaps somehow. But the zipper idea kept coming up as the winner. So, I got a zipper and matching thread, and during Abe's naptime today I went for it.

To my surprise, I remembered more than I thought I would from my zipper session 2 years ago. It certainly isn't perfect, but hopefully it will stay attached, and help make the jacket a useful addition to my friend's son's wardrobe.

New Shrug and Yarn Bargain

I finally finished my Retro Redux Shrug over the weekend and my DH took pics last night. This was a fast, fun project, and I can definitely foresee making more of them.









The brioche lace kept things interesting, but it was still simple enough to do in the car or while watching a movie.









The short rows on the collar were fun to work, but the ribbing did start to get old by the end, perhaps only because I was anxious to finish and see how the shrug turned out.








This is the first knitted project I made for myself since January of 2007.
Although I enjoy making gifts for friends, family and teachers, and want to continue, I hope to change my self-gifting track record. Possibly very helpful in my endeavor is the impromptu yarn purchase I made yesterday at Hancock Fabrics. While purchasing a zipper for the still unfinished Tomten for my friend's son, I saw that certain colors of Wool-Ease Thick and Quick were on a clearance shelf. The Thick and Quick is actually the yarn suggested for the very cool Green Gable pattern in the most recent Vogue.

I have to admit that I have been a Wool-Ease yarn snob ever since my Grandmother-in-Law made me a gorgeous cabled cardigan out of worsted Wool-Ease and I literally wore it to pieces in a much shorter period of time than it should take for a handmade sweater to be worn down. I still wear it, and still get compliments on it, but I was less than impressed by the sturdiness of the yarn.

I saw that the yarn was marked with a green sticker, which according to the chart, meant that it was 30% off. And I thought, okay, about $2.10 off - and I need 6 skeins - so the sweater will cost about $30. Then I thought about the Louet Riverstone Bulky I saw on sale at WEBS, which would probably be better quality, but the available colors were not compelling, and I liked the grass green and pumpkin orange in the Wool-Ease. After a bit more waffling, both about which color to get, and whether I should give this yarn a chance or hold out for something else, I decided to buy 6 skeins of the green. When the cashier scanned the first skein, I was pleasantly shocked to learn that the sale price was $.50! Long story shorter, I now have 12 skeins of Wool-Ease Thick and Quick - 6 green and 6 orange. This means I could potentially make 2 sweaters for $6.30! Of course, if I do, I'll probably end up giving one to my sister.

New Projects

My Vogue Knitting finally arrived, and I have to say that this is one of the best issues in a long time in terms of having numerous sweater patterns that look fun to knit and wear. I have already added Veronik Avery's "Forestry", Tikru's "Green Gable", Norah Gaughan's "Drop Stitch Cable Cardi", Deborah Newton's "Cable Yoke Cardi" and Elsebeth Lavold "Pretzel Cable Cardi" to my Ravelry queue.

I had a great time making EZ's Tomten and February Baby, so I decided to use her percentage system and knit Bran a seamless raglan. I asked him to choose the color, and since his current favorite is purple, I bought some purple Patons Classic Merino and got started. My gauge is 4.5 sts per inch on 7's, and his chest circumference is 23". I decided to cast on 140 sts, so the sweater will have about 8 inches of ease if all works out. Here is what I have so far.

I also wanted a small project to bring on the short beach trip we took this week. I could have started a raglan sleeve, but instead I decided to break out the 2 skeins of Cinnabar Malabrigo I bought at Threaded Bliss Yarns in Nashville, and start a Retro Redux Shrug. It was a great project for car travel, and the Malabrigo is a dream. I am curious to see how it fits once it is finished.

Happy Returns

Somehow the past four months have gone by without any blogging, but here is what I have to show from the time away.

End-of-year teacher gifts

and


group gift for Kim


gift for neighbor's new baby boy


gift for Kim's new baby girl


and a gift still in need of closure for a friend's new baby boy.


Funny that they are all gifts. I also just started working on an EZ seamless pullover for my older son. I still haven't decided if it is going to be a raglan, hybrid or saddle. It is my third EZ sweater in a row, after February Baby and Tomten.