On a trip to Fancy Tiger a few months back, the girl saw this pretty pretty sparkly yarn and fell in love and wanted a scarf. Given that it’s not exactly cheap, I tied some vague, “you must be good” clause to me getting the yarn for her.
I thought she’d forgotten about it entirely, but then on the way back from the Thanksgiving wedding in Houston, she looked up at me and said, “I be so, so good at Megna’s wedding? Now you buy me that ‘parkly yarn and knit me a scarf?” How could I say no?
Yarn: Knit Pixie Collage
Needles: 19 to cast on, 15 to knit
Pattern: Cast on 30, join in round, knit in garter, cast off. reaaaal complicated.
You can’t see the sparkly goodness in this picture, but trust me, it shimmers. It’s interwoven with a few strands of what seems like gold tinsel.
It took me a few tries to get this right since there’s no real pattern-I really wanted a longer scarf that she could loop once around her head. The first time I finished it, the cast on edge was so tight that I had to unravel the whole thing and cast on with larger needles. Using size 19 needles for anything makes you feel like you’re knitting with broomsticks. It also means that the entire thing took about an hour to knit, which is such instant gratification that I want to make about a million of them.
Here’s a picture of her wearing it that just screams, “Look, I just discovered photo filters!”
I remember when the kids were babies and we’d get clothes from people that were just HUGE. Didn’t people know how small babies were?
Well, as I’ve learned, you forget fast. I mean, now that my kids are bigger (but still small) I can’t possibly imagine anyone as small as a baby, especially when you’re knitting something.
A cousin of ours recently had a baby and so I knit a little sweater for her:
I’ve started putting these little tags onto my knits-so cute, no? And you can also write in helpful washing instructions. I NEVER give a baby gift that can’t be washed and dried. That’s just mean.
Now, by “recently” I mean the baby was born in April. Those things grow fast and I was worried that the sweater that I’d started sometime shortly after that would now be too big.
I thought I’d try it on the smallest creature I had handy:
It’s a bit snug, buuuut I think it’ll be okay for the *cough* 7 month old *cough* it’s intended for.
We went to San Diego over Labor Day weekend for my cousin Shailu’s wedding! The wedding was a blast and the kids (and I) had a lot of fun getting all dressed up. I tell you, the girl enjoys getting all fancied up a bit too much, if you ask me. Must take after her dad.
In many Indian weddings, the groom arrives on a horse and they bring with them one of the young cousins. Now, the boy was supposed to be the one to ride on in with the groom, but on the day of he was a bit tired and grumpy (and honestly, I think a bit scared of the horse). We turned to the girl, who looked at the horse and said in hushed tones, “It’s just like a princess horse!” and promptly clambered on top and proceeded to have a grand time. The girl was in awe of the bride, who was unbelievably beautiful, and I’m pretty sure she thinks that she saw a true princess.
It was also the first time for me to see many of my relatives from around the country and even India since MY wedding, and obviously the first time for them to meet my kids, which was fun. Now, cousins, all of YOU people need to start having kids so MY kids have someone to play with at the next batch of weddings, k? Also, I’m just looking at this picture now. I’m so glad my daughter is so respectful.
The big highlight for the kids, though, was the beach. Denver is sadly beach and wave deficient, so most moments we weren’t attending the wedding, we were getting sandy
and sandier
I took the kids to see my alma mater, UCSD, and while they were duly unimpressed, it was a shock to me to see my children running around my old undergrad campus. Also, in the 14 (!!) years since I’ve been there, it had changed so much that I hardly recognized it, which was good because it tempered my nostalgia.
Of course, no trip would be complete without a trip to the Zoo, where the kids met face to face with some of their own kind
That is such an incredible place-I love going to see all the animals. Koalas! They have koalas! And pandas too, which really were more like fluffy black and white tree ornaments the day we saw them. And so many monkeys in fun habitats that were swinging all over the place and teasing each other. The hippo exhibit is so cool-you can get so close to them.
Who would think that this vicious creature is responsible for more deaths than lions and leopards combined?
And we of course made it to Legoland, which is a nice little amusement park for kids under about 9 in terms of rides. Mine and the boy’s favorite part, though, was the Star Wars scenes recreations in 1:20 scale.
The thing that was the most amazing was that as far as I could tell, there weren’t any specialty shaped pieces used to make any of the models! They’re all made out of standard bricks! How cool is that! I took a bunch of pictures of these but I’ll spare you the geekiness unless you want to see them. We spent almost an hour just looking at these. Okay, okay, I’ll post one more:
Overall, the trip was so much fun-we’ve got another big family wedding in November and are really looking forward to it. I hope they can manage to bring the beach to Sugarland, Texas, too, because then it would be just perfect.
This may be the most beautiful thing I have ever knit.
I started this project in March of 2010, and it’s finally done. I didn’t work on it for months at a time, but it’s been my go to travel project and with all the plane time I’ve spent this year, I think I got through it. This scarf has been with me to San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Vail, Colorado Springs-sometimes I feel like when you knit something that takes this long, some of that history is woven into it.
It’s knit with two yarns, a silk-wrapped stainless steel (yes, steel) and a fine wool in a subtly variegated purple, both are about as thin as your average sewing thread. The steel gives the finished piece a texture, and if you crumple it a bit it will stay that way. They’re both Habu yarns which are some of the most beautiful and unique yarns I’ve ever seen-last year I visited their New York store and it was stunning.
The scarf version of this is pretty, too, but I really wanted a wider shawl, which is why it took a bit longer. It’s so lightweight though that it’s easily wearable as a scarf, too.(Forgive the pictures-real knitting bloggers have photo shoots and photoshop to help them, whereas I have a 6 year old.)
The final instructions call for a light felting, but I’m too scared that it won’t look nice that way and I love it so much as it is I want to leave it. So there, knitting instructions.
Next up is finishing a baby sweater (just needs buttons) and then onto another piece with more of the Habu yarn, this time with a black cotton/linen tape.
For the last few weeks here the weather has been over 80 degrees, but for the last two days it’s been gray, cool and rainy with those sudden flash thunderstorms that characterize April and May in Denver.
I’m grateful that the weather changed just as I finished my latest projects, otherwise I felt sweaty just looking at them.
First of all, can I just say how gorgeous my daughter is? I try not to go on and on about it and make sure that I tell her that she’s smart and capable and all that, since so often all girls get are comments on their physical appearance, but I just can’t help myself here.
This is a great, simple and fast pattern to knit up and I love it for its versatility. You can wear it looped once, as above. (Note: my sister is just a bit taller than my daughter, so the scarf should come up to her knees at least.)
Or twice:
Or for those really chilly times, even thrice. You could even wrap it over your head and still have plenty of scarf left over.
The yarn is supersoft and feels good on the neck but is a bit foofy and if it gets too close to your nose, it tickles. Be forewarned, Sapana. Not much else for details-I used slightly smaller needles than called for in the pattern as the yarn is a bit smaller, otherwise just kept knitting until yarn ran out.
This was tough for a few reasons-first, I was making a fitted object for someone who was not here and was over the age of 3, when that stuff starts to matter. I hope it fits! Second, the recipient asked for thumb holes and that took me a few tries to figure out, but I liked the challenge of it. (tip: put sweater on and note where thumbs actually are before creating, unless knitting for an alien species.) Third, when I made this sweater before, I wanted a deeper collar so I changed that here, and that I just sort of figured it out as I went along. Was still a fun knit and I like how it looks.
I particularly like the buttons I found:
I’m not sure what’s going to be next–people keep doing all sorts of things like getting married or having babies, so there seems to be an endless stream of people to knit for!
I have been slowly working on a few pieces, even though nothing’s been blogged. It’s sort of an old joke now–if you do something and don’t broadcast it online, did it really happen?
Here’s a sweater for my friend Judy that I told her I would knit…oh…18 months ago. It’s just about done–I only need to add buttons. This is a picture from a mid stage where I put it on scrap yarn to see if the collar was big enough. If it looks familiar, it’s because it’s the same sweater I knit for myself near 2 years ago.
And I’m working on a cowl for my sister, which is a fast knit and should be done soon. These are famous last words in the knitting world, and now that garden season is starting up I’m sure it’ll be ready for her in time for December. Of 2013.
Made the girl little mitts like her brother. These were even simpler–just knit a garter stitch rectangle and then sew it up into a tube, leaving a hole for the thumb.
Here she is, wearing her new mitts and sucking down vanilla extract like a pro. Awesome.
The boy came home from a friend’s house wearing, on his hands, a pair of old socks that had the toe cut off and a hole made for the thumb, a sort of poor man’s mitts.
Now, what kind of a knitter mom would I be if I let him walk around with those?
We’re deep into Harry Potter these days, reading it aloud at bedtime. We’re on the 4th book which is getting a bit dark and scary. He still loves it and, truth be told, I’m probably enjoying the reread more than he is. Maybe when we get to the end with the dripping blood and all that I’ll have to censor it a bit… Anyway, I asked what house he would be in and he promptly replied: “Gryffindor! Gryffindor!” “You sure?” I asked. “Not Ravenclaw?” Mostly thinking of the perfect Ravenclaw colors I still have left over from the scarves from 2 years ago. (At least he didn’t say Hufflepuff. I’d be a bit worried. Ugh. What reasonable person would want to be in Hufflepuff? But I digress.)
I managed to find a reasonable combination of colors and whipped up some new mitts for him.
They’re not the most perfect, technique-wise but I’m pretty sure he’ll lose them in a few days so I wasn’t too keen on spending a lot of time. Besides, they worked just fine to keep his hands toasty while eating froyo.
Of course, now someone else wants a pair–in purple, naturally.
In other knitting news, I’m finally getting some work done on this sweater (the one promised over a year ago):
and most excitingly (for me, anyway. I’m sure you don’t care nearly as much) I finally, finally have a nice place to store all my pretty yarn! What was once a dreary little corner with a crappy plastic drawer unit overflowing with art supplies is now a clean, well lighted place to store yarn (and all the art supplies and puzzles and games).
Now if I can only somehow convince Eric that we need to get rid of the piano and convert the entire room into a craft space for me…
I was late to the iPhone. I have coveted one ever since they first came out, but held off on getting one because I didn’t want to be one of THOSE people who was constantly checking their phone in all situations.
Then I got a non-iphone smartphone, and it sucked. It froze constantly. This meant that I was one of those people who was always staring at my phone but just watching it do NOTHING. I was able to get out of my contract (without a penalty, ask me how if you need advice) and switch to the new iPhone, which I love.
As much as I love technology, I obviously love the handmade as well, so when I saw a diy cross-stitch phone case I knew I needed to have it. The next question was what to put on it? Well, I like birds, dammit. I don’t care if they’re cliche in the design world by now. And I have a son who’s name will forever be attached to a finch, so birds it was. (If a single one of you links to the Portlandia sketch, you will be immediately defriended.)
For the girl, I picked a little bluebird, which is a very, very loose association based on her nickname. If we were going for a bird related to her personality, it would be…I don’t know. Perhaps a mockingbird? Loud, full of personality, bright, devoted to their own families yet unconcerned with other people? Hmmm… that would be keeping within a theme, bookwise.
I finished the birds first but it looked so plain and white and, well, there was no orange, but I was able to fix that with this cool variegated embroidery floss that I found at Fancy Tiger, and voilà!
I’m not entirely sure that it’s exactly what I was hoping for, but it’ll do for now and I’ll see about changing it in the future. The girl has already insisted that the beak of her bird be changed to purple, naturally.
A quick roundup of another high tech/low tech mix–my Kindle. Again, I like the idea of the faux wood instead of the plastic that it actually is, and it also makes it easier to read in my opinion. I also don’t like the hard cases–I find them heavy, so to protect it I knitted a little sock out of scrap yarn, which does a serviceable job of keeping it unscratched. I tried a few fancy knitting motifs before I realized that I was spending far too much time and just went for some simple stripes.
The wood also serves as a form of camouflage, and can make the Kindle a bit tough to find sometimes.
As far as next projects, it’s time for me to get started on a sweater that I promised to a friend about, oh, a year ago. Will have updates on that soon!
See how, at the top of this page, it says that this is partly a knitting blog? I mean, that’s even what the title refers to. Not that you’d know it since I haven’t had a knitting post for, oh, MONTHS.
Here’s why:
Way back in January, I thought, oh, I’ll knit a blanket for my friend Irene for her wedding. She’s getting married in July. That’ll give me PLENTY of time to finish.
*snort*
I’ve learned that it takes a long time to knit a blanket out of worsted weight wool. A looong time. I suppose if I was one of those people that was able to devote 2-3 hours daily to knitting then I could finish one in less time than it takes for Congress to accomplish anything. (What, you say that still hasn’t happened? Nice to know that I’m finishing something faster than someone out there. )
I first started this blanket with these colors because Irene mentioned that the walls in her family room had recently been painted a copper color. I wasn’t sure if it looked that pretty, so I took a picture and sent it to my sister, who promptly replied that it looked like a 70s bathmat. I think that was her way of trying to be diplomatic instead of just screaming in horror. Sadly, she was right and I had to start over, this time substituting ivory for the dark brown and rearranging the colors.
The technique is adapted from quilting, and is the log cabin technique and specifically the courthouse steps or bricklayer. Many of the famous Gee’s Bend Quilts use this technique. A few years ago the exhibition came to the Denver Art Museum–if you ever have a chance to see them in person, they are so beautiful as is the history around the quilts.
You start by knitting a center block, then picking up and adding on a strip to each side, then picking up along the newly created long sides, and so on and so forth until you have a big cushy blanket, just perfect for wrapping up in. I finished with a two rows of single crochet around the entire blanket, which gives it a more finished look.
The blanket is gifted and onto a new home–all the happiness to the newlyweds, and many warm and cozy nights.
fretzes on the loose 