Thunder Moon Finally Blocked

I'm trying to make blocking more a part of my knitting routine.  Things sit unblocked for far too long around here, and I'm trying to change that.  I test knit Mindy Wilkes' Thunder Moon pattern almost a year ago -- the July full moon is known as the Thunder Moon.  I finally wove in the two tiny ends and blocked it this weekend.

Blocking can be intimidating.  Do I have enough pins? is the bathroom sink clean enough for my precious yarn or do I have to scrub it first? what if I get it lopsided? and can I keep the kid and cats out of the sun porch long enough for it to dry?

Well, I absconded with a bunch of my dad's pins (he's not in the piecing stage of a quilt right now, so he won't miss them for a while), I got a cheap plastic dishpan to be my designated knitting soak basin, finally realized that if it's lopsided all I have to do is throw it back in the water and try again, and also, the kid and the cats can't work doorknobs (yet), and can find other places to amuse themselves.

I'm really happy with it.  I knew I loved this pattern, but blocking really is magic, and it's so wonderful to see it all opened up and beautiful.  The final kick in the pants to make this happen was a visit from my grandparents.  My grandmother is always cold and her favorite color is blue.

This had to go home with her.

Do-Over

I made my dad a sweater vest for Christmas.  This was back in 2009.  It was a perfectly fine vest, but it came out too big.  It wasn't a gauge error, but mis-estimations and too much rounding on my part.  The project has been in time out for two full years now.  Dad has a major birthday coming up next month, and I've been thinking of fixing his vest in time for his birthday.  Now that I've thought about it long enough that I probably don't have enough time, I've gotten started.

I ripped it all out.  This is the first time I have taken a finished project and frogged it.  It may have been possible to cut the vest and sew it together to the correct size, but I've never done that and didn't have enough confidence that it would come out well.  I do know that if I have the yarn back, I can knit a smaller vest.  So I unraveled the ribbing around the neck and armholes, picked out the seams, and frogged the entire back. 

Now I haven't done this before, but I have the impression that it would be a good idea to wash the yarn to help it relax and undo some of the kinks.  So here it is tied into skeins and ready for its bath, and then soaking in the sink.

When I hung it up to dry I tried using clothes hangers to weight down the skeins.  It worked fairly well, but I think I would have needed more weight to take out all the kinks.  It made for a strange set of wind chimes in our bathroom for a few days.

Yesterday the yarn was finally dry and I wound it into center-pull balls.  Here it is with the yet-to-be-frogged front of the vest, and the first two rows of the second attempt.  This time I have a vest of his that fits him well, so I'll be constantly comparing to that, instead of working from a sticky note of measurements.

I'm hopeful.

Yarn Along - Striped BSJ

I'm joining Ginny's Yarn Along again this week, kind of at the last minute.

I've been working on my three colored striped Baby Surprise Jacket.  I really love this pattern, and I'm also liking this method of striping.  I'll really like it at the end when there are only six ends to weave.

I've been reading French Kids Eat Everything:  How our family moved to France, cured picky eating, banned snacking, and discovered 10 simple rules for raising happy, healthy eaters by Karen Le Billon.  My mom recently gave me this book, and it's a good one to read as a follow-up to Bringing Up Bebe.  This one is by a Canadian who married a Frenchman and moved to his small hometown for a year with their two small girls.  I'm already changing some of our habits based on the some of the simple, smart things in this book.

In other news, I have a very strange set of wind chimes hanging in my shower right now.

More on that project soon!