martelvonc

I'm into the next section, sleeves! ( cut because it's the right thing to do )

As well as the clearing of the project basket has been going, I must stop to work on a gift.

A lady at work will be a grandmother soon. I used to work with her daughter who is having the baby. My stoppage on the OP basket is to knit a couple of baby things for her baby.

First will be a little garter stitch kimono style sweater on page 61 from the book "Simple Knits For Cherished Babies" by Erika Knight, Collins & Brown, 2008. It is knit in one piece and then sewn up the side seams.



I'm knitting the sweater in Spud & Chloe, Fine Sock, superwash 80% wool/20%silk, color #7807, which is a very pale pink. There were many yarn choices and then I thought...hmmmm...superwash. I know I'd appreciate being able to machine wash a sweater rather than hand wash AND have a new baby.

The sweater is supposed to close with ribbons tied in the back. WTF? Dressing a wiggly baby, flipping them over to manipulate ties in the back to close the sweater? Ummmm, no. So I will do as the ladies at the "Knitting Addiction" shop did and close the one side of the sweater with a small button on the inside and pretty button on the outside. With the outside button being big enough to not be a choking hazard and still be stylish.

I was also assured by the ladies at "Knitting Addiction" that I would have enough yarn left over from the two skeins to also knit a pair of matching socks.

When I had babies and others in my family had babies I did not know how to knit. Now I do and I can make these things and die from the cute!

Today sees our heroine moving on to the next orphan project.

WHAT? You say? There's more? Ummm, yes, I am ashamed to say. I start all sorts of things and then get side tracked but I am determined to rectify this situation. One project at a time.

This project is from last winter. I was knitting fingerless mittens for myself and The Knight says "Hey, could you knit a pair for me?" and I says "Sure Sweetie. I can knit a pair for you!". I even have on hand this loverly tan, baby alpaca yarn I bought at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. It is so soft! It is so cuddly! The Knight says, "Um ok, whatever you want to make them from is fine with me".

(He secretly thinks I am nuts but loves me anyway.)

Here is where they are today-( here be a half finished project )

The shopping bag is on the down hill stretch. Four more rows then bind off and sew in the end!

Yesterday I visited a yarn shop in Manteo, on Roanoke Island, "Fine Yarns at Kimbeeba". The trip was actually to purchase knitting needles for the baby sweater I want to knit next. As you knitters/crafts people know, we cannot just go in an buy what we came for and leave (are you non-craftspeople/knitters NUTS?!). In my perusing of the shop's many goodies I found the button display. My daughter and I found a tube of these chunky beauties made of that nut that is used as an ivory substitute for carving (the name escapes me). It works perfectly for the bottom of the bag that makes up the pouch to fold the bag into when it's not in use.

( Nut Job )

Now I'm down to the last few rows and really, really love this bag. Some things I make just to have the challenge of making the item. Some items, like this one, I actually want to make and own it too.

( Look Ma! Almost done! )

After all the clearing I have been doing the past weeks I decided to work on all the orphan projects I have accumulated. You know the ones, those poor projects that, by no fault of their own, lost the bloom of the initial thrill, were started, then orphaned to the project basket of shame.

This one was rescued from oblivion because I really do like it. The pattern is "Summer Cotton Bag" by Jeanne Shrader of the "Knitting Addiction" shop in Southern Shores, NC. (but according to the website have now moved down the road.)

http://www.knittingaddiction.com/


The yarn is...well, I've had it started for over a year and cannot remember what the yarn is. *face*palm* but it's knitted with two strands together of 100% cotton, one is cream the other is a pastel yarn with little fuzzy dots along the yarn.

( Here be the orphan no more! )

but I'm not. So there! Pffffft!

I decided to knit a new bag for KASF to put in the display by the Atlantian Knitters Guild, "Keepers of the Clewe".

It is knit in two colors of natural wool, cream and dark brown. This wool came from the sheep of a friend of mine, Sara Ani, who lives in Baltimore and raises sheep on a property in the Greenspring Valley area of Baltimore County. Her producer name is "Blackberry Fields Farm"

I am using a pattern designed by caemfind from a kit of hers. The kit originally came with green and white cotton thread but I decided to try the two color knitting in wool. The purse will be larger as the yarn is larger. I also reversed the dark/light colors in the pattern. I'm knitting on Clover size 3, bamboo, double pointed needles.

This project is coming along much quicker than the first now that I understand how two color knitting works.

Photos will come in a few days when I have enough knitting completed that the darn thing does not curl so much.

when you can knit a pair of socks and then are able to repair a hole in the heel so they can continue to be worn. (this morning saw me darning a hole in the heel of the very first pair of socks I knit)( and the band played on )

Hey, I wondered. Maybe you do too...

I'm well past the half way point with only 22 rows left to knit. ( here be peektures )

Here are the first photos of my teeny tiny knitting project. ( cause' maybe you don't want a peep )