Tiny Hats

We recently got a new nephew! Little Nephew HH was born on my husband's (30th) birthday, and he is very excited to have a birthday buddy. This little guy surprised everyone because (1) best guess had been that he was going to be a she and more significantly (2) he got here three full months ahead of schedule. Weighing in at just over one pound, Little HH is really tiny. He's more than two weeks old now, and he and his mama are in a great hospital. We haven't gotten to see him yet except through Facebook pictures.

So what does a knitter do when she worries? Knit something, of course. In this case, I knit a couple of tiny hats.

I started with the Care Wear Preemie Jester Hat by Cathy Gilroy from the book Knitting for Peace, and worked that as written in some yellow Dalegarn Baby Ull that I had in my stash. It actually ended up a little smaller than the pattern called for -- just a few rows shorter and it used every scrap of the color I had left.

It fit one of my old baby dolls very well, and my Lil One has since been having lots of fun with the doll. Mr. HH's nursery is decorated in a Snoopy theme, and this hat in this color makes me think of the little bird Woodstock.

However, the "Preemie" size as written in this pattern is much too big for the little guy. So I used some blue of the same yarn and made one about 2/3 size -- cast on 40 instead of 60 stitches, and made 14 rows in each part of the pattern instead of 20. Then, because pom-poms would have been overwhelming on this smaller hat, I improvised some tassels instead.

His Grammy believes this one will fit him.

2011 Washcloths - March Edition

The blog update is late, but the washcloth was finished on schedule. Just barely.

After finishing the toys that had to be done in March there were only four days left, so I cast on my stand-by washcloth pattern, the Ballband Dishcloth from the first Mason-Dixon Knitting book. For some reason this pattern seems to take no mental energy at all, and I cranked out a cloth in about two days. I modified the pattern slightly just to make the washcloth a bit smaller. Used the green yarn left over from January's washcloth along with a green-white-bluish variegated. I must have bought a half-pound of this variegated at some point, because I've had to re-roll it into a smaller ball and I still have quite a lot left. One quarter done, and I'm quite pleased with my washcloth project so far!

Rabbit Wrap-up

Well, I worked hard and finished the next toy just in time for the baby shower. Rather, just in time to decide that I was feeling too sick to go to the baby shower :( So I took some pictures and had him delivered later that day.

He's a little floppier than I had intended, but I can always stuff him some more if the parents want. Once again I have used Plymouth Encore Worsted Weight, my go-to yarn for toys. A wide range of colors and machine washable is a hard-to-beat combination for this purpose. It's also nice to knit with this yarn, and it's smooth enough to make a good surface for the toys. Worsted weight on a size 5 needle holds in the stuffing well. The vest here was knit on size 7 needles. Here's a side view so you can (kind of) see the pom-pom tail.

The pattern is Ricky Rabbit from Toys to Knit by Tracy Chapman. I've made several things out of this book, and I think the projects are all really cute. I don't think I'd recommend them to a beginner knitter, though. It's not that the knitting is extra difficult or tricky; although knitting shaped pieces for toys does require the use of many techniques, and that's one reason I enjoy it so much. In each of the patterns I've made from this book, there's been at least one point in the instructions where I've said, "Wait, what?" A point where I had to stop and decipher the intent of the instructions and couldn't simply follow the words step-by-step. It makes it a little more difficult, and a little more frustrating, but none of the challenges have been enough to make me stop knitting any particular toy, or to keep me from going back to this book.

I'm pretty pleased with Mr. Rabbit's bow tie. I have a pretty good ribbon stash. Mostly scraps and remnants, but not all, and so far I always seem to come up with the right ribbon for what I need.

Next up: Washcloth update, followed by more baby knitting.

Time out for toys

This month I have found that suddenly I am knitting only toys. I enjoy making toys, but they don't seem to inspire me to blog very much. People are always impressed with the finished objects, but while in process, they don't tend to look like much. Additionally, I've been dividing my attentions among three projects. This makes them all go more slowly, but helps keep me moving on them by having a small range of choices -- I can stuff or knit or sew up depending on available time and/or brainpower. But there doesn't seem to be many good picture opportunities throughout this process. For example, here is a picture of my current focus:

Not much to see yet. This project is due this weekend, so I'll tell more about after then.

I have finally finished one of the toys, and gifted it last weekend. Nephew R turned three, and is (of course) interested in dinosaurs.

So I made him a stegosaurus. The pattern is by Jacob Haller and can be found here on his blog, What Cheer, Netop? It's a straightforward and easy-to-use pattern, and there are more than 150 Ravelry projects using it. Ravelry is such a fantastic tool. I can think "Hey, I'll knit my nephew a dinosaur toy," and right away have more than 50 options at my fingertips.

I made this using Plymouth Encore Worsted Weight, in blue and red colors that I had in my stash. Using size 5 needles makes it tight enough to hold the stuffing well. Hopefully I can use the energy boost from finishing this project to help me finish the next two quickly.

First Shawl

With part of my Christmas gifts of Lambikin's Hideaway gift cards I recently took a class to make a lace shawl.

The class was taught by Mindy and used her first pattern, the Holden Shawlette (available for free on Ravelry). The class was very popular and the store is offering another session in March, as well as another class featuring a beaded shawl (details at the Lambikin's site linked above).

I used a skein of Juliana Fingering yarn (70% alpaca, 20% silk, 10% cashmere), which was dyed by Mindy -- her yarns are at Ewe3 over on Etsy. I think the popularity of the shawl classes and of Lambikin's Saturday Sock Club has greatly depleted her available stock, but I know more will be on the way. I used the Violet Vale colorway, which is three different shades of one color of purple. I love everything about this yarn, and one skein was more than enough -- I probably could have done another repeat of the lace pattern.

This pattern is a great introduction to lace knitting and to triangle top-down shawls. The stockinette portion isn't so big that you get discouraged or bored, and the lace is simple but beautiful. There are really only two rows per repeat where you really need to concentrate closely. I could handle baby-interruptions on all other rows. The picot bind-off takes a really long time, but is totally worth it.
Here's a shot of the shawl pre-blocking:

During its soak in the tub:

And while it was pinned out:

It's another new FO that I seem to wear every time I leave the house. I think I may have caught the Shawl Bug.

2011 Washcloths - February Edition

February's washcloth was finished on the 11th of the month. So far, so good with my washcloth-a-month plan. I used one of the patterns found on the back of the ball band from the yarn for January's washcloth.

Again I used my usual Lily Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn with size 8 needles. This color is called "Mistletoe" and I rather like the way the colors pooled on this corner-to-corner pattern.
When I went to put away this washcloth, I looked through my cotton stash to get ideas for next month, and found quite a nice surprise:

I have three already completed washcloths hidden away. Bonus.

Little Legs

Several of my recent FOs have left me with half skeins that I'll need to use up later, but the first finished object of February actually used some scraps.

Little legwarmers for my little one. I simply improvised a 2x2 ribbed tube and used up every last little bit of the Baby Boutique yarn used in the baby blanket. I used Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-off again and am still quite pleased with it. I had to rip back the start of the bind-off several times until I found just the right spot to start it so I could use exactly all the yarn.

They don't stay on as well as I'd like, but at least they take longer to come off than socks. I'm also hoping they'll fit for quite some time. So far they're very handy for those days when pants would just interfere too much with the eating of her own toes.