Jofrog is Knitfrog!
November 30 2008
So, Thea was right... I did find some knitting time over Thanksgiving! Mike drove the entire way to our Thanksgiving meal and I got to knit.
Add in some train knitting when my mom and I went into NYC to see Martha Clarke's Garden of Earthly Delights and I knit 3.5" of seed stitch over 355 stitches, using just over 200y of DK weight yarn!
This is going to be a pretty little Sirdar sweater for Kaya with a big ruffle at the bottom! If you are on Ravelry you can see it here. If you aren't, you'll have to wait until I get a bit farther to see more of it!
Today's Knitsmiths time is going to sewing though because I have three shows coming up in the next two weekends, and after two wholesale orders this week I have to stock back up again!
12/6 Needham, MAThea Was Right
12/7 Worcester, MA
12/13 Peabody, MA
For more info on them look here.
November 26 2008
355 stitches on a 6... when do I actually think I'm going to knit this?My Newest Project
November 23 2008
I've done a little more knitting around here lately. Right after I finished Kaya's hat and mittens I started in on BF Miranda's baby's set. I'm not going yarn shopping these days, and my stash has dwindled, but I still make due!
I had a skein of "Sheep's Gift" from Joslyn's Fiber Farm that has been sitting around here for ages. I actually brought it to a swap or two, but never put it out on the table because I wanted to knit with it some day. Someday, for this yarn, finally came! It was just right for a little girl's hat and mittens.
I doubled the yarn, knit it on US 6s, winged an earflap hat and mittens and this baby is ready for the cold weather... which is good, because winter temps have hit Boston! Bundle up baby Natalie!
Nat's Hat
November 19 2008
Last week I had this odd feeling... it took me a bit to place it, and then there it was... I felt like knitting! Simple knitting, rewarding knitting, sock knitting!
As tempted as I was to go into the sock yarn stash, wind a new skein and get started, I dipped into the UFO pile and pulled out my Spring Forward socks. I'm ashamed to admit that I'd stopped about two rounds before the toe shaping on the first sock!
I'm happy to say that the first sock is now done, the ribbing on the second sock is done, and I'm half a repeat (out of 2.5) into the cuff.
I'm certainly not making any promises here to finish it in the near future, but I did pick it up and knit almost an entire four rounds today. Whew, I'd better slow down here or I'll end up with carpel tunnel! ;-)I Feel Like Knitting
November 17 2008
Yesterday was my birthday! What fun to have a birthday on a Sunday. I spent the day with my best friend Miranda and her family. When the babies were napping, Miranda and I snuck off to the Franklin Mill Store. Don't let the name put you off (like it had me in the past), this place is amazing! It's full of designer fabrics (and yarn) and it just goes on and on and on. I found so many fabrics there I'd never seen before online or in person, and I (ahem) do a lot of fabric shopping!
An hour later I had a large pile of fabric bolts on the cutting table and I came home with these:
As if fabric shopping with my best friend wasn't good enough, we went back to her house for a wonderful organic, peanut free, trans-fat free cake with amazing chocolate frosting... yum!
Really though, when your birthday falls on a Sunday, there is no missing out on Knitsmiths. I got home from Miranda's house in enough time to drop off Mike and Kaya and scoot right over there. It was great to spend the day with all of my friends.
Thanks guys!Happy Birthday to Me!
November 12 2008
I have a pile of sweaters from last winter that I wanted to wash... gross, I know. The problem is:
When I have numbers 1 and 2 covered, I'm still left with number 3 as my limiting factor. The result is that I can only wash one or two sweaters at a time. Yesterday I washed my two favorites. They aren't the most beautiful, but they are the ones I wear the most often.
Here is my most comfortable sweater drying. Does it look huge? ...because it is! It was a shop sample at the yarn store I used to work at. When it would get cold there I would throw this sweater on. When the sample ran its course and was put up for sale, I snatched it! I always feel like I'm lying when I wear it... it's obviously hand knit, I'm a knitter, people think I knit it. I correct them if they ask, but I also know the details about it if they ask! (Two colorways of Manos, alternated every two rows, pattern is in an early Design Source book).
This is my other favorite sweater:
I "designed" this one, and posted about it here in March 2006. I love this sweater. It's thick, it's wooly, I bought the yarn right from the farm, it's definitely in the range of my favorite colors. It gets a lot of use and was definitely dirty.
Now both are clean, and I need to find the time to wash some others! How do you clean your sweaters? One at a time? A bunch at once and you drape them all over the house for a day or two? Any suggestions on how to make this a quicker process?Washing Sweaters
November 6 2008
Kaya has recently sprouted hair... actually, she sprouted hair the week after I shared a fair booth with Gals With Girls and her fabulous hair ribbons, bows, clips, hats, tutus... the list goes on. The point is, I didn't get any clips for Kaya's hair then, and since have been on a quest to find reasonably priced good looking clips to keep Kaya's mop out of her face.
We've found a few that we like, and we were given some when Kaya was born, but nothing that will match this dress that Kaya will be wearing at a wedding this weekend.
After searching a ton on Etsy, and always deciding that there wasn't enough time to order a clip and have it sent to us, I went to the craft store and took matters into my own hands.
This is my favorite clip of Kaya's:
I just went to check to see the name of the company that makes it, and it seems that the paper was thrown away... how sad! I'd love to find some more of them. We have a lovely little yellow flower too. They have the clip mostly concealed within the felt. I tried to copy that on my version.
So, I made two clips last night, the red one above and another super simple one. A friend of ours used to make hair clips, and had the alligator clip one at home... now we have three options. Which will Kaya wear with her dress?
Just because the felt flower looks so lame in this picture with the other two clips, I got Kaya to almost stay still long enough for me to take a picture of her wearing it. It's kind of cute on a little baby head!
I'll be back on Monday to show you another accessory that I made to go with her wedding outfit. She's going to be so super cute!Not Another Craft!!!
November 4 2008
Kaya's hands seem to be extremely sensitive to the cold. We live in Boston where, at this time of year, it can go from lovely to frigid in a day. (For example, when I took the Halloween costume photos there was a hard frost on the ground, still at 10AM... that night it was so warm I was worried they were going to overheat while Trick or Treating!)
...back to Kaya's hands. When Kaya's hands get cold she becomes an irrational baby. Really, like an infant that can't be consoled or reasoned with. She won't put her hands under a blanket in the stroller, she won't put them into my jacket, she won't let me hold them to warm them up, she just
Horrible knitter that I am, I never finished knitting her mittens after I finished her hat. I knit one (minus the thumb) and never even cast on for #2. After the second howling experience we left the park (early) and went home so I could finish the knitting. (I mean really, how long does a pair of baby mittens take? ~2h?)
Best ending to this story... she likes them! She's happy to wear them, I think that she understands that they are keeping her warm and happy. Yeah!
Of course, as soon as her mittens were in her jacket it was too warm again for mittens, but she loves swinging the dangling mittens, so it's still a success!
Cold Hands
cries howls.
