Still Alive and Knitting a Glove

Holy smokes, I can barely believe it. I bought the book Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitting Tradition by Terri Shea (got it for 40% off at Knitpicks!) and I also got some white and black fingering-weight yarn, and yesterday I actually cast on and started knitting one of the gloves from the book! See? I can still do it! Even with an extremely active baby in the house!

I did it twice, in fact. I cast on and knit the wrist band once on US2 needles, realized it was too small and blocking was still not going to get me to hit the proper gauge, so I considered turning it into a pretty little wristwarmer but then decided it was just a bit too snug and didn't go over the hand very easily, so I ripped it all out and started again on US3s.

(Forgive the quality, this was taken on a cell phone)


I'm 4 rows into the hand and thumb gusset now, and just tickled that it's going so well! I think Jon is slightly disappointed that I'm not working on his still-hibernating sweater, but I just go brain dead working on what feels like miles and miles of K4P2 ribbing, ugh. I needed something small and light and pretty and exciting like this to pick me up, and it really has been a wonderful pick-me-up.

I hope the whole project goes as quickly as the beginning has. I would absolutely love to be able to wear these gloves and show them off for a few weeks/months before winter is completely over this year.

Another couple stashbusters in the works

Yesterday was a good day - Baby is 5 months old now, and since he had a doctor's appointment to follow up on an ear infection we've been treating, I had a short day at work. I decided to just take him with me to the office to meet some of the folks there. He did great! It was a lot of fun for both of us, and I got plenty of work done, too. He's such a good baby :)

Then, after the doctor told us his ear was still infected and we'd have to start a stronger antibiotic (boo), I met up with a gal I met online through Freecycle, and I gave her a big paper grocery bag filled to the top with yarn that I didn't want anymore (yay)! It was almost all acrylic and novelty yarn, in full and partial skeins, plus 10 balls of Lion Brand Landscapes (50% wool / 50% acrylic) that I found intolerable to knit with. It just grossed me out every time I tried to do anything with it. I got it a LONG time ago at a rock-bottom clearance price, so this was no big loss to me, and I made a newer knitter VERY happy (yay!) :)

So that was my first big stashbusting activity of the weekend. The next was to start working on planning an altered version of this baby viking hat so that will fit Baby B. He's 5 months old, but he is the size of a 12-month-old, so the existing pattern is way too small for him. Instead of casting on 80 stitches like the pattern calls for, I think I'm going to have to cast on 104 stitches. (He's a big boy!) This means I'll just have to add a few extra "rivets" and alter the decreases at the crown a bit, so it's nothing too difficult. I'll get started on that hat as soon as I finish the hat I'm making to go with his Baby Surprise Jacket. (I can't do both hats at once because they will use the same set of DPNs.) I've actually finished the cap itself, and Jon thinks I should add some blue earflaps, so I'll probably do that too. Then I can start the Viking Hat!

The other stashbuster I think will be coming up soon is this beautiful hat using the Butterfly Stitch. I've been sitting on three balls of Patons SWS in Natural Blue for a while now, and had considered making another BSJ out of it, but I'm a little tired of that pattern right now. This hat looks neat, and I think it will work great with the long color changes in the SWS.

I still haven't finished that sleeve on Jon's sweater, but now that the weather is starting to cool down, I'll be more willing to work on it. I think I should only work on sweaters knit in one piece during the cooler months, because they get really big and hot, and I don't like knitting them while having them sit in a big bunch on my lap when it's warm out!

I'm alive!

Last weekend I picked up and knit a few inches on Jon's sweater that I STILL haven't finished. This is the first time I've knit anything in almost a year. Pregnancy made it feel weird - I was just... I don't know, hyper-aware of the bones in my hands or something? Plus my brain was so fogged with hormones I couldn't follow a pattern to save my life. Also, I just realized that I have no urge to buy new yarn for once, even though I'm starting to get interested in knitting again. This means I can finish up some existing projects.

If I can find the time, I should really finish the sleeve of that sweater ASAP. Then I just have to add a crew collar and re-do the hem on the bottom of the body and it'll be done before Fall. I should also finish the little brown-and-blue jacket I started knitting for Jeremy before he was born. It's almost done - I could probably finish it next week if I take a few minutes each day to work on it (providing I can find the time to do that.)

After those two sweaters, I should finish the tank top that I got halfway through last year before I found out I was pregnant. I've lost all my pregnancy weight except for the boobs (sweet!) so if I finish it in time, I should be able to wear it next summer, since I doubt I'll get around to finishing it before this summer is over.

What else...? Oh, I was making those blue socks, but at some point I dropped several stitches and couldn't be bothered to pick them up again, and I was just so frustrated and pregnant and I think I might have taken the sock off the needles... and at this point I have no problem with ripping the whole thing out and starting over again. It's a nice pattern and easily memorized, so it's not a huge heartbreak or anything.

Peacock Feathers.... I know I should get back on this project, but I'm hesitating because the first thing I need to do is count the stitches on the needles and make sure I have the right amount. And I know there are over 300 stitches on the needles. And I REALLY dread doing that. Stitch markers spaced every 10 sts help, but I still need to be careful because they are the kind of split markers that can get sneaky and slide themselves around a stitch until they've moved over one space, which can throw everything off. I just fear that a gigantic lace shawl is going to be very difficult to work on with a little baby to take care of right now.

THIS is why I need to get myself out to a Stitch N Bitch! Jon can babysit for a couple hours. I need to get myself out to a gathering where I'll be motivated to focus on the knitting and not the baby!

OK, so that's where I'm at right now.

Oh, and also, I am very hungry.

Non-knitting Drawing

Babywearing rocks - Enter below to win FIVE free baby carriers! Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)

Break for Baby

I gave birth on 4/17/08 and will definitely not be able to knit or blog for a while. Details, as usual, can be found at http://www.JonAndAmber.com

Thank goodness for Ravelry

I am so happy that this is happening so quickly! So far there are 38 patterns originally published in the now-defunct MagKnits that are now available as free Ravelry downloads! If you have a Rav account, you can see them here. I bet there will be more every day as those awesome designers keep converting and uploading their patterns, too. Hooray!

Edited to add: And all the old MagKnits patterns that are available on other sites, blogs, and the like are available here!

Magknits is dead

Wow. I don't even know what to start thinking about this, except that it is going to be VERY inconvenient. There were a few patterns on MagKnits that I wanted to do, had bookmarked in Ravelry, but had not printed yet... and now I'm going to have to track down Google's cached versions of them. Great.

I found a good rollup of what exactly happened to cause all this in this blogger's post right here

Unbelievable.