Itty-bitty hats

My brother very kindly gave me the Itty-Bitty Hats book as a baby shower gift, and it really sparked the knitting resurgence I have been experiencing.

I started with the upside-down daisy hat, which I gave to the other couple in our childbirth education class. They were scheduled to have their baby Tuesday morning. I haven't heard from them yet, but I'm hoping everything went well! The hat came out really tiny. I meant to make the 0-6 month size but accidentally ended up making the "newborn" size -- silly me, thinking 0-6 months would be the smallest size! I'm hoping it will fit the baby for the first few weeks at least. I knitted the petals and did most of the finishing in the waiting room at my midwives' practice during my 3-hour gestational diabetes test, and it was a great distraction from the fasting and blood drawing. (It really wasn't that bad, and happily I passed the test!)

I used Cleckheaton Country 8-ply for most of the hat. It's a relatively inexpensive superwash wool from Australia. Not the softest yarn I've ever worked with, but it softens up quite a bit after washing. The petals are made of a velvety superwash merino also from Australia, called "Extra." For the stem I used leftover Tess' Designer Yarns Superwash Merino from Courtney's placket sweater. It reminded me how much I loved working with that yarn. It's so soft and shiny and I love the subtle color variations that result from the kettle-dyeing. And it comes in such generous skeins! I haven't seen it anywhere but Brooklyn General, and now that I don't live in Brooklyn anymore, I'm not sure when I'll get back over there. The Tess folks won't be at Rhinebeck either, sadly. I asked the owner of my new LYS if she ever carries Tess yarns...apparently she used to, but "they make it difficult to do business with them." Not sure what that means exactly. They have a web site, but it's not a web store, and it doesn't have pictures of every colorway. At some point I may call them up and try to describe some colors I'm interested in and see what happens.


Upside-down daisy hat
Started: June 23, 2007
Finished: June 25, 2007
Pattern: From Itty-Bitty Hats
Yarn: Cleckheaton Country 8-ply (purple, yellow), Extra 100% Australian Merino (white), Tess' Designer Yarns Superwash Merino (green)
Needles: US 6 dpns


I also made this pumpkin hat, recipient to be determined. This one actually is the 0-6 month size, and it's considerably larger. The leaf really wants to curl, but otherwise it's pretty cute.


Little pumpkin hat
Started: June 25, 2007
Finished: June 28, 2007
Pattern: From Itty-Bitty Hats
Yarn: Cleckheaton Country 8-ply (orange, brown), Tess' Designer Yarns Superwash Merino (green)
Needles: US 6 Denises, US 6 dpns

Self-indulgence

I generally refrain from buying things for myself before the holidays, but immediately afterwards I tend to go on a bit of a shopping spree.


This snail-like contraption is a needle threader. Until now, I've been using the kind of needle threader that has a wire loop. Those work very well with sewing needles and thread, but they are pretty delicate and have a tendency to break when used with thick yarn. I suspected there must be a device better tailored to threading yarn, and the other day when I was in Daytona Trimmings, I happened upon this cute little item. Unfortunately it has some rough edges from when the metal was stamped out, but it works pretty well and I'm not afraid it's going to break.


One of the Christmas gifts we bought for a friend this year was from the Bust Boobtique, and in order to, um, make the shipping cost worthwhile, I ordered a copy of Stitch 'n' Bitch Nation for myself. I had taken it out of the library a while back, copied a few pages, and made the Fairly Easy Fair Isle cardigan from it. The book contains many good patterns and lots of useful information about modifying patterns, adding waist shaping, etc., so I wanted a copy of my own.


The gizmo above is an "ear light." I have to thank Christine from the Pointy Sticks podcast for sharing her three favorite knitting things: her ear light, highlighter tape, and dpn protectors! Shortly after hearing that podcast, I went to the Discovery Store at Grand Central and picked up an ear light. It enabled me to knit Courtney's tassel hat in the car the night we drove to Pittsburgh. I found it to be more comfortable than my head lamp which I have used for the same purpose.

I also ordered a pair of handmade dpn stitch protectors from Three Owls Knitting on Etsy! She has instructions on her blog on how to make them, but I really like the ones she's selling, and they're reasonably priced. This was my first Etsy purchase!

Tracking down highlighter tape was a little tricky. Staples didn't have it, and I thought Christine said it was made by 3M, but I couldn't find it on their web site. Eventually I found highlightertape.com (they also have an eBay store) and ordered the one-line (1/6") tape. This should be very helpful with knitting charts. I'm currently knitting Shedir and wishing I already had my highlighter tape!

Also for Shedir, I picked up a US 3 circular needle (my first bamboo circ) and dpns (by KA, a brand I haven't tried before).

And...I bought more yarn! I ordered a couple skeins from Lisa Souza. One is a skein of superwash sport merino in the "Violet's Pink Ribbon" colorway. The proceeds from that yarn will go towards medical bills for Violet from the Lime and Violet podcast, who recently found a lump in her breast. The yarn is pink, which isn't a favorite color of mine, but I'll probably use it to make something for a baby. It was a great excuse to try out Lisa's handpainted yarn, about which I've heard wonderful things. While I was at it, I also purchased a skein of merino sock yarn in the "Earth Birth" colorway.

Knitting-related gifts!

I was very lucky this holiday season to receive 5 gifts overflowing with knitting wisdom!

• Amy and Derek gave me the fabulous 'Knitting to go' patterns, by Kris Percival, which come on individual cards for extra portability. There are some great patterns in there, lots of classic designs plus ideas on improvising. I especially love the men's V-neck sweater and the soft baby blocks.


• Mom and Dad gave me the 'Stitch 'n' Bitch Knitter's Calendar,' by Debbie Stoller. I'm very strict with myself about page-a-day calendars (no peeking ahead!), so this morning I woke up eager to open it up and look at the first page. Mondays are "Fave Fiber" writeups, and I learned about a yarn I hadn't heard of before. I'm looking forward to Tuesday tips, Wednesday Web Sightings, Knitting History on Thursdays, and Grab-and-Go Patterns on Fridays!


• Elizabeth Zimmerman's 'Knitting Workshop' is also from Mom and Dad. I'm about halfway through it, and I'm learning a lot about sweater construction. I can't wait to try out some of the techniques! EDITED TO ADD: In this book, Elizabeth Zimmerman describes how to add short row shaping to the neck of a sweater in the back to make it fit better. This would have been a big improvement to John's zip raglan cardigan! His main complaint about that sweater is that the collar is too short in the back and won't turn down. Now I'll know for the next sweater!
  


• Andrew gave me Barbara Walker's 'Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns,' which is even thicker than the First! It contains pages and pages of cable, lace, and color patterns that I'm itching to try out.


• Rounding out my library of knitting essentials is 'Knitting From the Top,' also by Barbara Walker (another gift from Mom and Dad). I've started flipping through and it looks amazing. This book, along with the EZ books, should help me go farther in deviating from patterns.

Thanks Amy, Derek, Mom, Dad, and Andrew, for these fantastic additions to my knitting library!

Celebratory knitting purchases!

My wonderful husband got a new job, and to celebrate, he gave me a gift certificate to Brooklyn General! We walked over there on Saturday and he waited patiently, reading about Japanese textiles, while I looked at every item in the store at least 3 times. I ended up buying the Mason-Dixon Knitting book, a skein of Morehouse Farms Merino worsted with which I'm planning to knit a lining for my Gimli hat, a couple balls of Rowan Calmer which were on sale, and a crochet hook in a size I didn't have. I spent just over half the gift certificate, and I'm looking forward to going back and buying more stuff in the future. Note the awesome tattoo lettering on the envelope -- John is not only generous and thoughtful but talented as well. Okay, enough bragging!

Monday was another beautiful day and I had off from work so I walked over to Knitaway and bought The Knitter's Companion. I love that it shows how to fix a dropped stitch when it's at the end of a row. Every time I've been in that situation it's taken me way too long to figure it out and I'm never sure I've done it right.

Also I went a little nuts on Amazon and bought Barbara Walker's Treasury of Knitting Patterns, Knit Fix, and two Elizabeth Zimmerman books (Knitting Without Tears and Knitter's Almanac). My knitting reference library is starting to take shape!

Knitting inheritance

In the process of going through Grandma's apartment, we found needles and crochet hooks of every size, all sorts of notions, patterns, books and magazines, and a carton full of yarn! As the sole active knitter in my family, I have inherited all these treasures. The patterns are especially exciting because they're covered in Grandma's notes. Judging by the sheer volume of knitting stuff, it would seem that Grandma was much more of a knitter than she made herself out to be. Mom recognized a short wooden needle with a red ball on the end (sadly, without a mate) as what she learned to knit on when she was a child. (Apparently my family is full of closet former knitters!) Most of the yarn is acrylic, but there are a couple of skeins that say 100% Pure Virgin Wool, as well as some unlabelled mystery yarn. Everything is at least 20 years old, some of it dating back to the '50s and '60s. There are also bags full of small crocheted squares. I'd like to learn how to crochet so I can finish the afghan project that was probably started 25 years ago. I hope to post pictures of some of these items in the near future.

For now, no new pictures, but I have been knitting! Branching Out is probably close to halfway done, and the lace pattern is showing up better now that it's weighing itself down a bit. I'm also about a foot into the Men's Zip Raglan Cardigan. I was originally going to use Happy Wool but due to a fire in a Jerusalem post office storage room, that fell through. Instead I went with Cascade Ecological Wool, color #9010, and I love it! It comes in such enormous skeins (478 yds.) and it's so soft!

The Fairly Easy Fair Isle stares at me from its hanger, taunting me with its dangling ends and its unseemly proportions. I still think blocking could turn it into something I'd actually wear, but the sweater is too big to fit in the bathroom sink and I'm reluctant to use the bathtub and waste all that extra water. Excuses, excuses!