yes i have become that knitter who would do this to a baby

That is all.

ps details on my Ravelry page.

the zoe blanket

*Fiber College, later this week. Still time to join in. Here's why*

Can I have a youGogirl or a yeeHA or something? I have knits to show.  First up: the Zoe blanket.
Good old straight ahead stockinette knitting, after spending much of the summer getting all snagged in the loopy extra fine mohair of this shawl .
It was a pleasure to fly through these stitches.  I practiced different ways of holding the needles to go fastest with the least amount of movement. (can you say knitting nerd?) BTW? The day after I completed it, I found the phonecam photo of the color progression I had in mind when I bought the yarn last year. I'd laid the skeins out and snapped it, so I'd have it for reference. Joke on me! It wasn't this order at all.

 
But it seems to work just fine, anyway.  
My inspiration was this blanket on Pinterest. I assumed it was narrow stripes without any repeating colors. In the interest of economy,  I just chose eight skeins and went with wide stripes, and imitated the color change textures with 2 rows of K1P1 at each change. 

Not long ago I realized the blanket I admired is also on Ravelry--and I learned the narrow stripes repeated, so it wasn't like I'd have had to purchase 25 different colored skeins after all. Even so, I have enough left over to make Zoe a sweater in the same color stripes. 

 

She seems pleased with it, too.

a knit with no subtitles

* Fiber College in Maine is soon: Sept 6-9! Go sign up before it's too late.  I'm teaching.  So is Kirsten Kapur, Mary Lou Egan, Alice Seeger, MaryJane Mucklestone....and a slew of people you've been wanting to meet . More in my next post .*   

It's an odd summer, and I'm not just referencing the weather. I've been working & traveling a lot, on brain challenging photo shoots. When I get a chance to knit , it's on older languishing projects. I somehow slipped down the slope into being an unfinished-projects-in-every-nook-and-cranny type. Moi? Love the process but revel in the gratification of finishing a piece.

whoa. I am on an old laptop and can't get the colors right. yikes.
 I'd kind of forgotten this. About a year ago, I learned a baby would be joining the family,so I cast on for a blanket, inspired by this one. I decided on eight skeins of colors, and wider stripes, to be economical.

Here's a  join, with 2 rows of K1P1 ribbing in the new color. A little texture pop. The yarn is Cleckheaton Country.  Soft, wooly, super easy to work with and superwash DK . . and seems to be discontinued.  (sorry).  You know what'd work well in its place? Kristin Nicholas' Julia yarn  if you don't mind handwashing it, or for superwash,  the slightly thicker MinnowMerino would be great.

I cast on, fighting my superstition against knitting for a not-yet-here babe. The supersititon won.  And to be honest, it is kind of a boring knit.  I put it aside in the second color. And forgot about it totally till last month.

I also forgot what order I intended for the colors. I think this is it, above. Can I just say, I am loving this project now? Perfect for the baby, now that she's here and has a personality.

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Option 2 for color order. Any opinions? And don't say lose the yellow. I love the yellow in there. I think it's rather Noro-esque of me.

 It is just what I want in knitting now: relaxing on the brain, rewarding to see it grow quickly. Good old stockinette! Part of the reason my brain's getting such a workout is a big project I'm on in Vermont, at  a language institute.
I've been shooting here off & on all summer.

Speaking English is forbidden, including for me. It is harder than you'd think to interact with several hundred people in 8 different languages, most of which I don't speak at all, and none of which I speak well. . Chinese, Russian, Italian German & Portugese? Fuhgeddabout it.  My  Hebrew is rusty but sort of functional, Spanish --ugh , how humbling to realize  my Spanish is really SPANGLISH. And French? My leftover high school vocab centers around excuses for not having homework done (my head hurts my stomach hurts, I forgot my notebook, I am tired, I am hungry. Pitiful, non?)

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FYI: The Thimble Islands knitting cruise leaves the dock at Stony Creek promptly on Tuesday evening at 7:15, if you've paid for a ticket, be there at 7. If you don't have a ticket, there are only 2 left. So email me, or you're staying ashore. Matey.

I do frou-frou, do you do frou-frou too?

About time I blabbed about some actual knits, doncha think? I intended to start blogging daily this month but..wow. It feels like time is an out of control ball of yarn, unwinding so fast you can barely grab it as it unspools.

 

Months ago, on a wet winter day, I ducked into my LYS with Zoe and her mama along. I offered to knit something of their choosing, and pointed Giuliana at patterns using worsted weight yarn. Lazy? Perhaps. I like knitting worsted yarns, what can I say?  We both fell in love with the book 60 Quick Baby Knits,* designed to use Cascade 220 in all kinds of sweet & speedy ways.

  

See what I mean by sweet? Knit applique & ruffles. I am such a freakin' granny. 

We chose a tunic & pants ensemble, and Spud & Chloe Sweater for the yarn, because it felt so awesome to touch, and is machine washable, too. (50/50 cotton wool). It's a little heavier than the Cascade 220. I followed the basic instructions for proportion & structure but changed the numbers, so it didn't come out huge and way too bulky. It took up almost every inch of the yellow skein (Firefly), plus 1.5 skeins of the pink (Watermelon).

  

This right here is just about my  frou-frou-enough level. I crocheted the neck and armhole edges all around instead of picking up & knitting garter rows, and left off the pants hem ruffles. I would love to show it to you modeled, but my model is still a bit too small. I adore the tunic and suspect she'll wear it like crazy, with a shirt under it. The pants are a little bulky--sort of like baby sweats- but we'll see. It's got a short row tush. I loved that part of the design, to make room for diapers.And the picot waist,with elastic inside. I think she'll rock the style. Don't you?

So, about that daily blogging. I may still give it a try.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

* there are at least 4 other knits I may make from that book soon--but now that Wear With All is out , I am dying to knit the baby tunic dress. It is too adorable!

in the pink

I used to love the color pink. Powder pink, dusty pink, rose. I stopped wearing it when I was a newspaper photojournalist stringing for the NY Times & news mags. I  found I was patronized when I wore the girly colors. Sad, but true. I simply got out of the pink habit.

 

when oh when will I stop this silly addiction to gimmicky photo apps? when??? 

project: Bunny Blanket Buddy

pattern: a mash up of several but mostly this one from Lion Brand

yarn: less than one skein of MinnowMerino

needles: us7 for the "body" and ears, us4 for the head

notes: as usual, I didn't read through the pattern until I was working on that head. I wondered about the choice of stitch pattern....and then realized what the what? I am DOUBLE KNITTING! I do not know why I have avoided it all my life, I thought it sounded confusing and super tedious. It is neither. It is a fabulous way to create a head to be stuffed.
Also, love this yarn. Super lofty, superwash. 

 

(no shortage of sweet pink around here now)

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I'm setting up a pretty brisk schedule of talks and teaching. Can't wait!
Listing of those so far confirmed are all at the Photo for Knitters page .

First up, not too far from home:

• Sunday Feb 19th 2 pm a slide talk & booksigning about Craft Activism :  Celebrating Handmade at the Scranton Library in Madison CT. I'll have books for sale. Bring your knitting or crafting. You know about idle hands and the devil, right?

• Friday March 2 , Photography Bootcamp for Bloggers & Etsians (and those who aspire to be) , a hands on digital photography workshop at the  fabulous Pretty Funny Vintage in Tarrytown NY. Turn us loose in restored victorian house full of vintage, handcrafted and collectible treasures, cameras in our paws? No prob! Register now, space limited. Going to be big fun.

a psa or three

 It's just about the 1st Saturday in February again. 

Hello!  International Ice Cream for Breakfast Day

  

which as you know has 3 simple rules: 1) eat ice cream 2) for breakfast 3) before noon on the 1st Saturday in Feb. We'll have a spread simliar past years, like this or this. You? 

And, as long as I am being helpful, can I warn you against googling "cute booties"? I had something like these not those in mind, thankyouverymuch.

 

Pattern: The Better Baby Booties

Needles: US 3 

Yarn: Cascade 220, a little Plymouth Worsted Merino in white and some deliscious white angora for the trim

Notes: A quickie knit if you aren't having a lot of distractions going on like...a super cute newborn baby in the house.  Which, I think, explains why the stripes are placed differently and the variance wasn't noticed till they were blocking. Whatev! You think a 10 day old will care? Or her sleepy parents will notice?

These are V.2. Thanks to bad row gauge, the first pair came out too long. I modified the pattern: the bottoms are only 20 rows long, and the cuffs only 28 stitches. I picked up 10 instead of 15 stitches along the sides when switching from flat to circular. (it'll make sensewhen you're in the pattern).

 

So we're set for 1 year old foot coverage, too.

oh, one more warning: definitely don't google "BigAss Granny " . Because I didn't get my own blog with my very large granny square in progress. Nuh uh, I got an eyeful.

(You're welcome.)

oh baby what a week

If you're the kind of person who procrastinates by perusing Friends' Activity on Ravelry (um, not I can be found doing that, like daily, or anything) , you might also be the person who makes up little stories based on what's faved & queued.  And if you are that person, and you're my Friend, you might be thinking "what's up with the  spike in  queuing baby knits?!"

 

An Aviatrix Hat for a neighbor last week. I LOVE this pattern. It's a 3 hour knit.

Baby sweaters&baby booties &little hats & blankets ? Me with the 18 and 21 yr old sons? What's the deal?

 

Meet Zoe Valentina, born last Saturday 1-21-12, my....wait for it...granddaughter ! To answer the questions possibly crossing your mind: yes, she is amazing. yes, I am very young to be a granny. The older one.  With us.  Nope, they get up, not us.  Have I knit a mountain of adorable tiny things for her? um..wellll.... 

Not exactly. I finished this hat. The adorable coordinating booties came out  sized for a 1 year old. While they (the parents, not the too-big-booties) were in labor, I knit a newborn size booty but not yet its mate. There are 2 partially finished blankets, and plans for much much more. I don't know what happened-partly too many other knitting commitments, partly not as much knitting time as usual, partly superstition.

 

Fortunately her great grandma, my mom, came through with beautiful knits: sweaters and hats and this fabulous and already much used cocoon. It is going to become my go-to baby gift knit, it's just so useful and sweet.

. 

Pretty sure this is the pattern she used, and though I was with her when she bought the yarn, I can't remember anything except we were at Kitschy Stiches and it's superwash.  The matching hat is too big....but she'll get there.

 

 Late night with uncle and slightly sulking American Bulldog.