Sippy Cup

This is the second baby blanket I finished this summer, for another coworker who is expecting in January. It's made from yarn I had left in my stash, another great use of some leftovers. I lucked out with the blue and gray colors; turns out she's having a boy! I think this pretty robin egg blue would be just fine for a little girl, too though. It's certainly one of my favorite colors. 

This pattern is called the Baby Chalice. The lace repeat makes a cup shape that kind of reminds me of the Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. "You chose…. poorly." Thankfully I'm pretty sure I chose wisely, this piece turned out pretty well. 

Since I was using two colors, I went with stripes again. This time though instead of doing random color blocks like the last blanket, I took a more methodical approach. Pairs of stripes are 16 rows wide and the width of the stripe of each color increases or decreases by 4 rows. That is, 12 rows of blue, 4 rows of gray in one section then 8 rows of blue, 8 rows of gray in the next, and so on. It took some concentrating, but in the end I like the way it turned out looking.

This blanket was in the batch of pieces I blocked on Wednesday, and the design definitely benefits from a good blocking. Here is the blanket before I stretched and steamed it:

And here is what it looks like after. Instead of a bunch of squishy cables, the chalice pattern really comes out to play. 

I used approximately 430 yards of yarn on this, about 175 blue and the rest gray (Ravelry link). Believe it or not, I knit the whole thing on size 10 straight bamboo needles. Generally for something this wide I'd switch to circulars, but the grippy bamboo really helped me on this pattern with all the yo's and stitch slipping. I knit 7 repeats of the chalice pattern with 10 rows of garter stitch before and after (counting cast on/off rows). The piece before blocking was 22 x 29" and I blocked it to 30 x 34" using my trusty steamer.

I really like how this turned out, and I would definitely make one of these again. Maybe a larger adult size using a soft and squishy bulky yarn? Could be fun! For now, this one is all ready to be packed up and gifted, and I've got plenty more on on the 'to make' list before coming back to this pattern…. 

Deciduous

When I heard that one of my coworkers was having a baby, I took it as the perfect opportunity to knit up one of the projects I've been eying in my Ravelry favorites list. The Leafy Baby Blanket caught my eye with it's simple and classic design. I won't lie, the feature project being gray also helped. I've got a gray thing going on lately.

Endeavoring to keep to my stash, I threw a few skeins of Nature's Choice Organic Cotton from Lion Brand (not gray...) in my craft bag as I was headed off to Florida for vacation in July. I love the feel and weight of this yarn, and I made a great cowl with some of it (pre-this blog!), but I had never found a suitable project I wanted to use the rest on. The organic cotton is the perfect choice for this particular recipient, and I thought the natural colors would also suit the leaf design both in spirit and simplicity.

Taupe, Espresso, Dusty Sage, Macadamia

This was great airplane knitting and also a nice relaxing activity for the evenings after action-packed days of Disney and Universal Studios. Taking just 2 weeks from cast on to cast off, with only intermittent knitting time, it was satisfying to work with thicker yarn and see the inches fly off the needles.

Since I was working with what I had on hand, stripes seemed like a good solution. Each stripe used up all of the yarn of each color with the exception of the green. I had one full skein and one partial skein, so I went with two stripes instead of one big green section. 

The pattern was simple but turns out looking quite complex. It looks fine as-is, but will definitely benefit from blocking to even out the fabric and straighten up the lacy bits. True to form, this sat around in the closet for a while while I worked on other things. Today I sat down to weave in ends and get it blocked. 

The piece started out at about 22 x 26" and I stretched it out to 27 x 31.5" with blocking wires. Oh how I love my new wires! They make straight lines so much easier. I steam blocked with my handheld steamer and let it dry. After I took it off the wires the blanket relaxed to 25.5" x 31", close to what the pattern states and a nice carrying or carriage size. 

The baby isn't due until December, but there is a baby shower this weekend so I suppose I finished with good timing! This will get wrapped up with some ribbon and a little tag with washing instructions for the mom-to-be. 

sotto voce

I really haven't had much of a voice lately. Between the hectic end of session antics at the end of August and waiting all September for bills to be signed (thanks for signing 'em all, Governor Brown!) I have come home from work most nights with no words left. That, however does not mean I haven't been making. I have a nice little pile of knits I've been working on this last month and a half that need ends woven in and blocking to be done.

More on these lovelies and others when the blocking is complete. (At least I admit I have a problem.)

Also, we got a new kitten. His name is Kepler. He has been providing us (and Newton) with endless amusement. He and Newton had an iffy start involving lots of hissing and chasing, but they were fast friends. They are both joys. I can't wait until the end of the month when I get to move back down to Palo Alto and actually live with them all the time not just weekends. 

What I am most excited about today is that I finally got to start my Litchfield shawl! This is a design by Laura Aylor, whose pieces I always seem to pick out of a sea of Ravelry search results, and I've been wanting to make one for quite a long time. It has been in my queue patiently waiting for me to finish project after project that has jumped the line. I was so excited yesterday when I realized I had all my non-sweater projects (well except that crochet unicorn…) finished and could start a new piece with a clear knitterly conscience. 

I sat down immediately that morning before work to get started. I decided to go up a needle size because I couldn't find my size 7, so I swatched just to be sure I'd get gauge and have enough yarn. Then I cast on 401 stitches. On a small circular. Talk about stubborn. I really wanted to get this on the needles!

Fast forward to tonight, and I have since switched to a longer circular needle and made an inch or so of progress. This is my first bottom-up shawl and I'm teaching myself German short rows, so there's all sorts of new stuff going on here. 

This is what my "work area" looks like tonight. It's a beautiful mess. I should really be packing some things up to take down to Palo Alto with me this weekend, but I think I'll just quietly knit instead. 

Maelstrom

As I read back to where this scarf began, I recall that I was doing a lot of cowl knitting and wanted a lightweight lacy project to offset the bulky yarns of winter. I pledged to keep this a piece without a self imposed deadline, to pick up whenever the fancy struck me, and I kept to that.

The lacework section of this design went along quite slowly and required a bit of focus on my part. I could memorize the repeat for a particular row, but trying to work my way through the pattern without frequent references led to unpleasant things. Once I hit the stockinette section, as you'd expect, the yardage flew by. I believe I worked on this through much of the April crunch at work. It required enough attention to put work stress out of mind and was a great way to turn the brain from work to play.

This sat around in a lump for quite a while waiting to be blocked. It's such a lovely design that I wanted to do it justice, and I just hadn't been feeling up to the effort. Enter my new blocking wires! Along with the foam blocking boards I ordered at the same time, these little beauties made blocking a breeze.

I set the wires through the top to make a nice straight line and was able to figure out how to position the bottom edge pretty easily (with Dave's help!). I stuck with steam this time around mostly because I already had the piece pinned out to play with my new gadgets. I steamed it quite a lot though, so hopefully it works. If not, it will now be easy enough to re-do using wet blocking.

The yarn is so lovely to look at and to work with. A close look at the strand reveals a halo of darker blue around a light blue core giving the yarn an interesting almost glow. The stockinette shows off the slight color variations beautifully, and the aforementioned glow really gives depth to the lacework and ribbed sections.

Basic details (more on Ravelry): Unsinkable (pattern by Kirsten Kapur), 1 skein of madelinetosh merino light in 'Well', knit on size 8 circular metal needles, blocked to 77" x 11". The fabric blocked out to be light and airy with a lovely drape. I've got one more skein of this yarn in a flame orange, I can't wait to find a pattern to suit that as well as this pattern suits this pretty blue.

little birdhouse in your soul

As I write this, They Might Be Giants are playing on repeat in my head (you're welcome.): 

Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch

Who watches over you

Make a little birdhouse in your soul

Not to put too fine a point on it

Say I'm the only bee in your bonnet

Make a little birdhouse in your soul

In looking for something to occupy myself this evening, I ended up tilting out the contents of my little storage ottoman where my craft projects hang out here in the studio. Hankering for some hand stitching, I had to pass on the hexagon blocks for Jasmine's quilt because my basting thread and needles snuck away to Palo Alto. Too bad, because I haven't actually wanted to work on that for a while. Go figure. 

Instead what I found was this little guy hanging out at the bottom of the ottoman. I haven't picked up any cross stitching in quite some time, but I've been finding all sorts of needlepoint and cross stitch that I like popping up around the great wide internet. (Coincidentally, Amanda just recently posted some on Everyday Fray…) This is kind of a cross between the two, as it's cross stitch on flexible plastic canvas. LOVE. It's much faster than traditional aida cloth because there's no question about poking a needle through where it doesn't belong. I had some of the birdhouse started, but got through quite a lot more tonight as I relaxed on the floor with my strawberry smoothie. 

I think I'm actually near the home stretch with this, and should make short work of it over the next week or so. Exciting! A finish on the horizon! It's long overdue here… I'm pretty sure I've had this kit since high school. Yikes. 

blocking block

I've had a little lace shawl off the needles since the end of May, and it's just been hanging out waiting to be blocked. I've also got a baby blanket I just cast off that's been added to the pile. This step always stymies me. It's my least favorite part of knitting besides the first row post-cast on but really does make a HUGE difference in the finished piece. Especially with a lacy project, blocking is essential.

Part of my issue is that I don't have a great place I'm willing to lay out a big project. The kitty would tear at anything on the bed or on the floor (or more likely, sit on it). As a result I end up blocking in stages on my ironing board. Second issue, I hate pinning. Seriously hate it. I get really caught up in trying to stretch a piece to the max but also not have those annoying little points from where the pins are anchoring the edge. Add to that the staged blocking and trying to pin to match up sizes and shapes along a whole piece and it's enough to drive anyone batty.

So I splurged on myself a little and bought a set of blocking mats and blocking wires! I've been thinking about buying these for quite some time, so at least it isn't an impulse splurge. The mats can be rearranged to suit whatever size/shape project I may have in line to give me plenty of room to lay everything out just so. And the wires should take care of at least some of my pinning problems (I'm looking at you, straight lines and smooth curves!).

(mats from Knitpicks)

I have lots of projects in the queue, and I'm excited for these new gadgets to come so I can try them out and hopefully wave my blocking woes a fond farewell.

As an aside: After researching blocking mats and wires, I have come to have a suspicion that my wool-based projects might benefit much more from wet blocking than steam blocking. A couple shawls of mine ended up disappointingly small and it has only just occurred to me that perhaps it was the blocking. I have a great handheld steamer so usually steam block everything. It works wonders with acrylics, but I wonder if I could get my woolies to stretch a bit more if they were soaked. I always see the fiber relax as I steam and it will hold shape after drying, but it appears soaked wool will stretch more than dry so a piece may start out already larger at the pinning stage. Hm… I may have just created a problem where none exists, but it's worth a shot on my Pacific shawl(ette) at least, as the fiber seems to have relaxed and shrunk back down over time. Thoughts?

chugging along

Sat down tonight to work on this 'little project' for a bit. I finished the hand quilting in the entire pieced section! All that I have left to do is quilt the border o' blue, which requires my marking pen and more hard flat space than I have here in the Sac studio to mark out. Before I do that, though I want to trim and bind the whole thing so I don't end up with weird puckers at the back if my edges flap around a bit. I'll have to cut strips for binding down in Palo Alto since all my fabric from this resides down there in the office. I should also take the quilt down to trim it. Sounds like I have plans for the 4th!

I'll need to bring it back up to sew on the binding since my machine is up here - the traveling quilt! It's worth it for this one, it's been a while coming. Logistics aside, this is sooo close to being done. I hope the dogwood quilting in the borders goes quickly.