Knitting Fail: Wee Wildflower Cardigan

Sometimes projects just don't work out. See this sweater? It's Wee Wildflower by Alana Dakos which is an adorable cardigan for little girls. My little girl picked it out from my Ravelry queue and said she wanted it in pink (the picture reads red but it's actually a berry pink). We went yarn shopping and she picked out the yarn she wanted which also happened to be the entirely wrong gauge. C'est la vie with kids so I purchased said Cascade 220 Superwash, knit up a big swatch, and did the maths to compensate for the difference in gauge. All set, right? WRONG. The sweater is skin tight and too short! There could be a multitude of things wrong here: 

1) The math is wrong - I double-checked my numbers and they all work out.

2) My gauge lied - I measured the sweater gauge against my swatch gauge and all is well.

3) My kid grew while I was knitting the dang sweater - entirely possible! 

Well then, what's a knitter to do? Frog the whole thing and start over, of course. Little A still wants the sweater so I've frogged the whole thing and will cast on this Thanksgiving weekend to see if I can't plow through the bulk of the body during my four days off work. It has been a really long time since I've had anything come so wonkily off the needles so I'll take it in stride and eat my knitterly humble pie as I cast on....again.

FO: Ribbed Socks for Kids

Last week just flew by and I still feel like it's not quite over. Given the amount of knitting I've gotten done since last Sunday I shouldn't be surprised that tomorrow is Monday. But it's not any Monday, it's the Monday before Stitches West* which means I have a three day work week and then I'm winging my way down to the Bay Area with a couple of friends to meet up with my sister and do some serious yarn and knitting immersion with like-minded fiber enthusiasts. 

In the mean time, I finished a pair of socks for Little A. 

 She chose the colors out of my sock scrap bag. 

Pattern: Ribbed Socks for Kids by Susan B. Anderson (free)

Yarn: Hill Country Yarn something or other that I've had for ages (approx. 120 yards) and some Anzula Cloud for the cuffs, heels, and toes. 

Needles: US #2 (2.75 mm) Hiya Hiya Sharps

Mods: I decided to knit contrasting cuffs, heels, and toes since the yardage of the yellow-orange yarn was very limited. I used every last bit of the yellow-orange yarn and hardly any of the turquoise. They've already been worn multiple times the report back is that they're "warm and toasty".

*If you're going to Stitches West, I'll be at the podcaster meet-up on Saturday between 1 and 4 in the hotel lobby bar with several other podcasters and, hopefully, lots of listeners. If you see me around make sure to say hello!

Happy 5th Birthday!

Today is Little A's 5th birthday! At some point (maybe if she's taller than I am) I'll have to stop calling her Little A but she's still Little A to me. I can't believe that she's been around for five years already and getting ready to enter kindergarten next Fall - time flies! This morning I made apple pancakes with golden syrup and veggie sausages and then Little A opened her gifts.

 There were books and art supplies and a board game to play as a family. She received this giant atlas from her Nana and it's a new favorite already.

I knit her a Bunny Girl with two different dresses and I now have a standing request for a Fox Girl so they can be friends (I did not disillusion A about the "friendship" between real rabbits and foxes). Also, "more clothes in lots of different colors" for the bunny and the fox. 

Little A is going to her Grandma's house to make and decorate sugar cookies later today and we're having the requested dinner of burgers and french fries with cupcakes for dessert. In case you're wondering, we did throw a birthday party for A a couple of weeks ago that involved around 20 of her preschool friends with some parents, lots of food, dinosaurs in party hats, a book exchange, and all the attending noise and mayhem of a room with loads of children free to run and yell. It was exhausting and wonderful. 

Happy birthday, Little A! 

Just in case you want to knit some little bunnies and foxes of your own here are the details: 

Pattern(s): Little Bunny Girl (or Fox), Seasonal Dresses by Julie Williams

Yarn: Rowan Kid Classic in Cream, Millamia Naturally Soft Merino in Fuchsia, Lime, and White

Needles: US #3 (for the body) and US #2 1/2 for the clothes

Mods: I knit the skirt portion of the dresses in the round and the bodice back and forth since I didn't want to knit colorwork flat. You'll also need black yarn for the embroidery on the face. I used DMC perl cotton thread in black since I already had a little ball of it hanging out in my sewing kit and it is nice and smooth to used for the french knot eyes. The dresses are great to knit in leftover balls of sock yarn since they take hardly any yardage and you can add all sorts of details in a contrast color. Little Bunny has already been stripped down multiple times and redressed this morning - I think she's a success!

FO: Cameron Hoodie

Pattern: Cameron Hoodie by Bobbi IntVeld

Yarn: Columbia Minerva Knitting Worsted (vintage)

Needles: US #7, US #8 Addi Turbo 

Mods: I knit wide pink stripes since I didn't have enough of each color to knit the tunic in a solid color. I ran out of the dark pink (the tag states that it is "luscious" pink) at the neck so I finished the hood in light pink. The remaining tiny ball of dark pink was enough to knit the ribbing around the hood but not enough to do ribbing around the armhole. I ended up picking up stitches around each armhole and binding off on the next round to keep the fabric from curling inward. This is a great layering piece - the wool is lightweight and warm and the tunic can be worn over t-shirts or long sleeves this Fall. She loves it!

Red Fish, Blue Fish

I wanted a quick knit and boy did I get one! Cast this on Monday at knitting and finished Tuesday morning. Little A is a fan and declared it "Soft" and "gorgeous" - where the heck does she get that stuff from?

Pattern: Chloe by Alana Dakos
Yarn: Spud & Chloe Sweater (in Barn, Grass, Waterslide)
Needles: US #8 Clover bamboo
Mods: None. However, I think I'll do an applied i-cord edging around the fronts and neck to keep the edges from rolling and do built-in i-cord buttonholes. I'm pretty sure I have enough leftover yarn to knit another one.

Two!

Little A's birthday just happens to be Christmas Eve. I've found Christmas the last couple of years to be a lot less interesting now that I have a little one's birthday to celebrate the day before. This year we had balloons, a taco bar, and a tasty cake with ice cream. It's no small feat to come up with something everyone can eat - vegetarians, the lactose intolerant, and the gluten-free. Tacos just happen to be A's favorite so we had corn tortillas, beans, rice, and a myriad of taco toppings and fillings. Delish.

She got a lot of good presents. Good as in the day after the party she's still playing with them and having a great time.
I knit the sweater, Prudence, from Rowan Miniature Classics for her second birthday and while I'm very proud of it she's a bit reluctant to wear it. I managed to wrangle her into it for about 10 minutes on Christmas so I could snap some photos. Let me tell you, wrangling a toddler for pictures is not the easiest thing to do when there are people and presents and food around. Happy Birthday, Little A!

Prep

Just a little knitting before I launch into my latest debacle. It involves baking.

I knit this slouchy hat for my Mother in Law for Christmas. She's allergic to wool but may possibly be able to wear alpaca so I dug out a skein of Cascade Pure Alpaca in a nice red and cast on. The pattern is Ripple by Wendy Bernard and I loved knitting it! This is the worsted weight version but the pattern also includes a sock weight version which I'm contemplating for myself.

So. Baking. Little A's birthday is tomorrow so I attempted a birthday cake. I am NOT a bad baker, in fact, I have a pretty good track record with the oven. My problem is egg whites. They hate me. I do research and follow tips and treat them as I would a fragile work of art and... they fail. Every. Single. Time. Granted, I was working with a Martha Stewart recipe (usually these work great for me) which I found to be over complicated. You know, extra steps and hard to find ingredients where regular ole grocery store ingredients would do and stuff like that. But really, the cake just did not rise more than 1/4 inch and was far too sweet and and and I should have known when I saw the batter that resulted from following the recipe. No good. In steps google and I found a super easy and fast recipe that turned out as batter-y as a cake batter should be and not too sweet and just came out of the oven deliciously golden and birthday cake smelling.

There you have it. Two cakes in a little under three hours and I need to pick up more vanilla for the strawberry frosting. Phew.

Final

I'm finding it hard to concentrate on studying for my final that is scheduled for this evening. Little One has been in her bed but NOT sleeping for the last couple of hours. She won't sleep but she also doesn't want out and how is a girl to study with all the noise going on in the other room? I counted on this afternoon for a good solid few hours of refresher/studying before I head off to class and it's just not happening. Reflexive verbs what? Conjugate who? It's just not sticking today and that is a bad bad thing.

Today

Today I want to run screaming from my home. Little One refused a nap and is now trying to decimate my last shred of sanity with her random mood swings.

It's probably uncool to dose her with sedatives, right?