Spring Cleaning: Finished Project #2 Plus Bonus Project

I really loved the Gift Wrap Romper I knit for Butterbean. The pattern is so well-written and yields great results, so when I found out my dear friend from graduate school was expecting a boy, I knew I wanted to knit it again. This friend is not a knitter, so I figured with a newborn, a three year old, and a tenure track portfolio to deal with, she would need an easy care garment. I dug deep, and I do mean deep into the stash and came up with some Berocco Comfort I'd originally intended for a throw for Henry in the colors of Thomas the Tank Engine. I think the colors worked wonderfully together here.



































I also made a little hat to go with.



I couldn't let his big sister go without, so I dug deep into the stash again and made this shrug from a Knitting Pure and Simple pattern out of some Rowan All-Seasons Cotton.

Tomorrow is World AIDS Day

And my friend Steven is having a fundraiser for the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force with amazing prizes, starting at midnight tonight. Check it out here.

Happy Halloween!

My sister joined us for Halloween this year! Henry's costume is a wonderful hand-me-down from Yvonne, and Chrissy crocheted Michael's Mike Wazowski hat.

Campaign of Intimidation

So it's Summer of Socks and Lace again over at the store. Last year I got kind of....competitive and ended up wiping the floor with my co-workers, one of whom got pregnant and the movement of her knitting needles made her sick, so that wasn't exactly fair. This year, I said I wasn't going to be that way. But I am. I persuaded Martha and Kelli to make a new category called "Doublethreat" so I wouldn't have to choose between socks and working on my 10 Shawls in 2010. In my defense, this has proven to be a really popular category, and I think everyone is really enjoying it. Then I vowed that I was going to WIN, and in a really twisted move, my two main competitors, Steven and Yvonne, and I started making things for each other. Steven made me a new February Lady Sweater. I made my new go-to pattern, a Traveling Woman, for Yvonne, out of Pagewood Farm Alyeska:

What else have I finished that I haven't shown?

A slightly modified Helena for a dear grad school friend's new baby:

After many, many, many false starts and a nasty tangle, my March 2010 Rockin' Sock Club Slip Jigs:

In the Land of Oz shawl, out of Malabrigo Sock in Rayon Vert. I'm calling it my "Wine and Thunderstorms" Shawl because I made it mostly during a spate of bad thunderstorms around here recently. It's also so simple that you can drink a lot of wine and watch chick flicks while you knit it.

And finally, these baby booties out of leftover STR Garden Daze from last year's sock club. I keep telling myself I made them to test out the Signature Needles DPNs that I got at Maryland Sheep and Wool, but really, I have to confess, I am building up a little hope chest. It's been over two years since my miscarriage, and I'm hoping for something good soon.

 

Singing My Leg Song

Last fall I cast on for my first ever toe-up sock, the Discovery Sock from Cat Bordhi's Personal Footprints for Insouciant Sock Knitters. The method is intriguing: in a nutshell, to make a sock for yourself, you make a cardboard tracing of your foot. The measurements and stitch counts you record on that foot serve as your pattern after after for that particular yarn and needle size. Essentially, you knit a tube for your foot and cut into the ankle line to create an "afterthought leg."

I cast on my toe stitches and increased to the number that fit over my toenails comfortably.

Then I tried on the sock as I knit and increased sole stitches whenever the sock felt tight. When I got to the ankle bone -- or the leg line as Cat Bordhi calls it -- I threaded two lifelines in and started on the heel decreases.

Then OMG, with moral support from Yvonne, we put the lifeline stitches back on the circular needles and cut and unraveled the stitches in between, leaving an opening for the leg.

It fits!

In praise of Yvonne

Today is Yvonne's birthday, and I just want to send birthday greetings her way. Not only has Yvonne done all my finishing work lately (see here and here and then here to see how she can do it for you too!), she fixes my knitting mistakes when things go terribly awry. Just so you know, I would not advise knitting during Mad Men, particularly when Joanie smashes a vase over her worthless husband's head, because you are sure to make a terrible mistake and drop many stitches. Furthermore, I would not advise trying to fix said mistake during the Mad Men finale because all kinds of inexplicable things happen to the project.