Domestically Challenged

Baby Girls

One of my dear friends just had a baby girl and she has been such a source of knitting inspiration. The first sweater I knit her was the Norwegian Fir Top Down Cardigan. I had two skeins of light pink Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino yarn in my stash and as soon as I found out I would be going to California for work, I cast on looking forward to 5 hours of uninterrupted knitting time on the plane. I am still shocked by what a fast knit it was and how smooshy the yarn felt knit up in garter stitch. 2 skeins was not quite enough to knit the sleeves per the pattern but I figured this Cali girl would not mind so much.

I was so in love with the pattern that I dove into my stash and came up with 2 skeins of Rowan Kid Classic in Smudge (grey). I didn't think anything would top the Debbie Bliss but there is no denying how gorgeous the cardi is with the halo.  This one went to a new member of my team at work who welcomed his baby girl a few weeks early. I thought the sweater would be out of my systems after two iterations but I am still thinking of making another in Debbie Bliss. The smoosh factor was so soothing.

In the meantime, I was trying to make space in my stash and targeted a skein of Manos del Uruguay Algeria in oxygen for use it or lose it. Baby girls to the rescue again. Our Cali girl will have outgrown her Norwegian firs by the time she gets back from visiting her dad in Europe so she will need something light to wear for walks along the beach with Mommy. Enter the Ellen's Playset. I only knitting the cardigan and I am in love. The pattern is well written and easy to memorize. When I showed it to my mom while on our annual family ski trip in March she commented that it is a very old style pattern. I agree and love the whimsy of it.

The sweater is a cardigan but when I took this photo of the back, my breath caught in my throat and I could see this as a small t-shirt style sweater with a ribbon tie at the back. If I end up knitting one, you will be the first to know.

 

Elwood Revisited

It has been years since I pulled out the WIPs in my UFO box, but over the last few days something snapped and I am compelled to finish them. Elwood, or what I think is Elwood, is still unfinished and hasn't progressed since I blogged about it in 2015. I am currently more optimistic that I have enough yarn and am throwing caution to the wind.

I did some reverse engineering and I think I am knitting the second size, the one for 1 year-olds. I am also guessing I was using US 7 needles for the body. I still cannot believe that I did not write down any notes about this project or noted that it even existed on Ravelry - that's baby brain for you!

Last night I finished one of the sleeves. Let's see how much further the left-over yarn will take me.

 

Just Add Needles

Yesterday I was routing around in my deep stash for some yarn to knit on my business trip next week and found a pair of half-finished socks. Well, more than half finished, but the cuff is not much higher than the hem of my jeans, so there is still some work left to do. 

I remember these…I originally started knitting them as Arrrgyle socks for Sue a long time ago.  Ten years ago, according to Ravelry.  In 2008, I turned them into arm warmers when it became apparent that the argyle piece was too tight to go around Sue’s calf. The sock remnants of the original project have been in the stash ever since.  These will be perfect to knit while watching a trashy movie and drinking airplane wine.

Now, what to knit on the way back? Can I get my act together to cast on Starshower? 

(Let's not discuss the overflowing WIP basket or my plans to knit gifts for my son's teachers or the baby sweater I should cast on for a friend.)

Vintage Car Coat

"I finally mustered up the courage to pick up the Vintage Car Coat. I don't know why this project seems so complicated (it really is just a lot of stockinette) but the directions always seemed to be written in a foreign language.  Until last night.  Last night the directions were in plain English and I am happily finishing the second sleeve. I guess taking some time off the gym and catching up on sleep has its merits."

I wrote that a few days ago, before I noticed that even though I had knit the same number of rows for the sleeves, they were different lengths. How did that happen?  I looked closer. One sleeve had a garter stitch cuff for 4 rows and the other was plain stockinette as per the instructions.  WTF! I ripped back and cast-on again.  Last night, I finished sleeve 2 again and noticed while doing the final shoulder shaping that I was missing 2 stitches and had been for 15 rows. I ripped back. I am pretty sure this project is cursed. 

One day, it will be done. Either that or I will cut the thing into teeny tiny pieces and light them on fire. 

 

Progress

It was probably too ambitious to try to finish 7 projects in 2 months (even without small children, full time job, dog, etc).  The only things on the list that actually got finished were the monkey socks. They just need to be washed and mailed to Sue. I miss her. 

The monsters are closer to being finished. Now they just need to be sewn up and mouths glued on. This is a little fiddly, so I haven't been working on them.  I would really like to give them to the boys for Valentine's Day, so I hope that it being February and all will be the incentive I need to finally finish them. 

I mostly blame the lack of progress on the new projects that jumped the queue and distracted me from the Smack-Down goals.  First, I knit two sets of Super-Bulky Fingerless Mitts using one-of-a-kind handspun from Ozknits - one in Avocado and Spice (see pic) and one in ICE (no pic).  These were Christmas gifts for my grandmothers. 

I also found what I think was a Be Loving, Remixed Hat half finished in the knitting box (it's at least half a Be Loving, Remixed now). I have already forgotten which needles I used, probably US 10, but I definitely used Americo Highland Simple Twist in grey. I had originally intended on making two matching hats last year - one for my oldest and one for the baby - using this grey striped with Malabrigo chunky in Ravelry Red. After swatching (a.k.a. knitting the baby hat), I could see that the yarns didn't really go together. The Americo was much more dense and the Malabrigo more smooshy.  They looked funny side by side. Anyway, after a year, the plain grey Be Loving, Remixed is out and in rotation, even if it's a bit scratchy.  I may need to sew in a fleece head band around the ribbing to make it more comfortable...I'll do that in my clearly abundant spare time.

 

 

Focus

Yesterday at work I listened to a workshop on focus, which was very timely because I couldn't figure out what to knit while listening. I had lost my focus on the smack-down goals and had been thinking up a long knitting list for Christmas that is in no way grounded in reality: Christmas ornaments for my husband's grad students (I think there are 14 of them), gifts for my son's teachers (5), cowls for all of my nieces (4), and that is only the tip of the iceberg.

I have finished the arms for the Daphne and Delilah dolls and even managed to sew the one set on Delilah.

This was made much easier when my notions bag resurfaced last weekend. I was beginning to suspect foul play but on Sunday, my husband found it in the seat of the portable highchair. I told you it would be in a weird place. I still need to sew the arms on the mommy monster but for some reason this little bit of finishing seems far too difficult. I am itching to cast on something new (hence the crazy Xmas list).  Luckily, I can't seem to muster up the energy to do more than a few rows.  I will consider it a victory if I can resist casting on Starshower (I already found the perfect yarn in my stash).

Not A Loser

I rarely lose things - I am not a loser. So when I do misplace something, it makes me crazy.

Last night, I went to grab my notions bag and it was not where I thought it was.  I checked all of my knitting boxes. Nope. I checked all of the likely spots: couch, dining room table, purse, bedroom. Nope. Then I rechecked all of those places, emptying the knitting boxes.  I really am going out of my mind.  I even went so far as to check in the car seat we recently relocated from the living room to the garage. 

With 2 kids, a dog and a husband, things move around in the house a lot.  Add that to the fact that the house is already in disarray and you can begin to appreciate that it’s a wonder I know where anything is at all at any given time.  But miraculously I do usually know where things are.  Kid's toothbrush? I think I saw it under the couch in the play room. House keys?  Check behind the organics bin.  But my notions bag…my mind’s eye cannot place it.  There is a possibility one of the agents of chaos moved it and put it somewhere bizarre (which is why checking the garage was not so crazy).  I really hope that it did not end up in the garbage.  It has to still be in the house...right?!?

Needless to say, a missing notions bag is very inconvenient when you want to finish up your WIPs.  Last night, instead of continuing to drive myself crazy by searching through everything, I remembered I had a Chibi from Japan that I had never opened. This is crazy because I went to Japan in August 2007!!! After 8 years, this cute pink Chibi had never seen the light of day.  I found it in knitting basket upstairs in a clear sandwich bag with a Lantern Moon sheep tape measure (why am I not using that?!?) and a small sample of Soak.  I guess this little sandwich bag has been promoted from storage to main notions bag. 

The Chibi’s first task was to bind off the Daphne pocket and then sew up the sides.  Sewing always stresses me out but this seemed (ha!) to go OK.  I did have the marks from the old seams to use as a guide, so it wasn’t too bad.  Now all I need are two sets of arms, mommy and baby. 

 

This is all very fiddly knitting, so it’s no wonder I cast on and cast off a new Swirling Cowl since I last posted.  It was knit in a dark slate (maybe fig?) Twinkle Soft Chunky and is actually going to be for me.  My main cowl went missing after a coffee date at Starbucks two winters ago.  I miss that cowl. The red buttons were so awesome.  I can only hope that whoever stole found it loves it just as much as I did.  I really want to weave in the ends, but my big yarn needle is in my missing notions bag... Argh! Where is it?????  

Twisted

I finally got up the courage to rip out the pocket on the Daphne doll.  It was hard to find the seam and I actually ended up snipping a stitch from the fabric of the pocket itself. Frack. My only consolation was that I hadn’t cut the body of the doll. 

Looking at the outline of where the pocket had been, I could see it was wildly off centre. Was I drunk when I knit this? I looked at Ravelry and found that I started the project page on Feb. 3, 2014. Hmmm, I wasn't pregnant so, it wasn't completely out of the realm of possibility.

Then I re-read the pattern which recommends that you centre the pocket based on the placement of the legs. Alright. I looked at the legs, found the centre, counted out from either side and discovered that the pocket had been centred. The pocket wasn’t the problem. Frack.

So why did it look off-centred? I looked at the placement of the eyes.  Those looked wonky, too. I found the centre of the doll based on the legs and counted outwards. The eyes were centred. Then I looked up at the head decreases.  They looked wonky, too.

I decided to do something radical – I undid the cast-off edge at the top and ripped back to the start of the decreases. Yup, these were definitely in the wrong place and as a result, the whole doll was twisted. If only I had figured this out before ripping (and cutting) the pocket! 

Sorry about the picture quality. It gets dark early now and I can only sneak in knitting after the kids are sleeping. 

And suddenly it's the end of 2015

Where does the time go?

There are two little ones now and the time to knit or write (or even think) is in short supply. But still, there are a few FOs and even more WIPs. I am have completely lost all perseverance when it comes to knitting so whenever I run into even the smallest problem, I cast on something new. This has worked out well because I get to spend my time knitting and not troubleshooting. However, now the knitting box is exploding and I don’t really have anything to show for it.

I was inspired by TangledThread on the Stash and Burn Ravelry board who started a WIP smack down. That’s what I need – motivation and accountability. Also, "smack down" is pretty bad-ass.  There is something very appealing about having a knitting goal and about starting 2016 fresh with a clean slate. Every other aspect of my life seems a bit like Groundhog Day, especially the laundry, so it would be nice to feel like I’m making some sort of progress. 

I was sick last week and spend some time taking stock of my knitting boxes. Yup, boxes.  There were 7 projects that qualified for the smack down: 

1. Braided Cable

(Keep in mind I am sick in this picture and still wearing make-up from the day before)

This pattern was really quick and worked extraordinarily well with the Rowan Big Wool I had in my stash. I actually knit two of these ear warmers with one ball of Rowan, but the dog got one while they were blocking. It was the first time she actually destroyed knitting and though I was so mad, I guess I was grateful she didn’t destroy a blanket or a sweater. She once took a project from my knitting basket when she was a puppy but I managed to get it from her before she could shred it. Not so lucky this time! I think the painful memory of the loss of the twin headband prevented me from actually sewing it shut. Luckily I’m over it now. 

2. Swirling Cowl

This cowl is so smooshy. I can’t wait to give it to my niece. All I had left to do was weave in ends and block it. Done and done.

  3. Rebecca Danger Inspired Softy

This little monster only needs arms and maybe a scarf to match his little shorts. Maybe. I think he got put into a time out because I wasn’t sure about his head shape. Today, I am not so picky, especially since today I think it looks fine. Now to figure out what I want the arms to look like. This is what happens when you don’t actually buy the pattern…

4. Daphne and Deliah

This was almost done, until I realized that there was a big problem with it. Do you see it? If only I didn’t care the pocket wasn’t centered. I was so angry (even though I was my own fault) that this project has been in time out for a very long time. I'm still not sure how to save it.  I am hoping I can just remove the seams on either side of the pocket and see if some creative sewing will fix it. I really don’t want to reknit the pocket.

5. Vintage Car Coat

I have no idea where I am in this pattern. I have a bunch of pieces on a holder but it’s unclear what they are or how far I am along in the piece on the needles. At least I have a note about what needle size I was using. I never used to understand people who needed to write notes about their knitting so they would remember where they left-off…Now, I wish I had done it.

6. Elwood (I think)

I’m not even really actually sure this is Elwood, but since I have the pattern downloaded on my phone, it’s a promising lead. I think this went into timeout because I thought I did not have enough yarn. Looking at it now, I am sure that I do not have enough yarn.

I have bought so much Malabrigo worsted in these colours that I have to have some more somewhere in the stash, right? It would really irk me to have to buy yarn for a stash busting project. I could try to come up with a creative solution – different colour arms and button band? I do have some blue… ugh. I also have no idea which size I was making or which needles I was using. Usually with Malabrigo worsted I use US6 and 8… I really want to stick my tongue out at those small little balls of yarn and throw this WIP back in time out.

7. Monkey Socks

This yellow is so bright it makes me happy despite the gloomy, grey fall days we’ve had so far. I had originally cast these on for Sue but they are coming out too wide. Should I rip them and knit them on smaller needles? The other option is to finish them and give them to Brianne. She tried them on a few weekends ago and it was truly a Cinderella moment – a perfect fit. I will mull it over while I finish the Vintage Car Coat.

 

There are a few more WIPs, but I wasn’t really sure what those were so I didn’t add them to the list. I wanted a (semi-) realistic goal. Only 5 projects and 57 days to go. Can I do it?

Father’s Day Felt Like Mother’s Day

I had an incredible Father's Day.  I woke up early to drive my husband to the downtown airport and, because my son was spending time with my in-laws, I was free to do whatever I wanted.  This never, ever happens.  The knowledge that I may only ever get a few of these days in my life put incredible pressure on me to do something really cool.  I thought of going to the art gallery or the aquarium, but those are things I'd really rather do on a date night.  Instead, I decided not to go too big and visit with some dear friends and their new baby. 

I drove to my old neighbourhood, The Annex, and parked very close to my new favourite yarn store, Ewe Knit, on Markham.  I had plans to go back there later in the day when it was open.  The visit with Eden, Justin and their six week old little one was amazing.  It was so good to catch up with them and snuggle such a new baby.  He is so adorable.  I didn’t stay too long though so that they could have some time to themselves after he fell asleep and went for a walk down Bloor to see what was open.  It was still early so really only the brunch places were open.  Luckily, so was DavidsTea and I bought a bag of Sangria tea.  Being pregnant, this tea on ice has made patio season much more enjoyable.

Presse International was open, too, and I checked to see if they had an issue of Sunset magazine.  I haven’t seen a copy in the wild since moving back to Canada and think I may have to just bite the bullet and get a subscription.  Presse International claimed to have it but I couldn’t find it anywhere.  It was still fun to browse unencumbered and peruse BUST magazine. I used to love reading that when I was in my twenties but none of it really spoke to me now.

Next stop was sushi for lunch.  Even though I am supposed to avoid raw fish, I figured it would be fine to have some creamy avocado rolls.  It was so nice not to have to wrangle a toddler and to actually finish my meal that I stayed a while and wrote a letter to Sue who is living at the Abby in Connecticut.  I really miss her and being in our old neighbourhood reminded me of our grad school years when we always lived a few blocks from each other, even when we moved.

After sushi, I went to Secrets From Your Sister to find a good bra.  Right now I only have bras from before baby, when I was 6 mo pregnant the last time, or nursing bras.  My bra collection is just like the Goldie Locks of lingerie without the “and this one is just right”.  Nothing actually fits me now.  SFYS knew what I needed.  I indulged in a bra fitting and tried on a ton of different maternity styles.  I couldn’t imagine doing this with a toddler lying on the floor of the fitting room kicking and screaming.  It was so civilized and they even had spa water.

The grand finale was the yarn store.  I really have too much yarn in my stash to justify any significant purchases, but the yarn store is so pretty, I figured I could visit, pet the yarn and then maybe get some sock yarn. I settled on Raventwist in an electric blue color.  I had never seen this yarn before and am really excited to try it. I think it may become Hermoine Socks, but am still looking at Ravelry.

When I drove back to the suburbs, I knew I had chores I should get done before my son got home but instead I curled up in bed, listed to the Slate Audio Book Club podcast and worked on the sleeves of the Gramps Cardigan I started a few days ago.  It is going so quickly I think it will be off the needles next week.

 

Then an even stranger thing happened - when my in-laws dropped off my son, he was already fast asleep.  I had no idea what to do with myself.  My chores were done and I still had energy having skipped the bedtime routine wrangling.  Suddenly, I had all of this free time.   I wrestled with what to do.  I should be unpacking seeing as we had just moved into the new house, but what I wanted to do was cast on Hermoine and start watching Season 2 of Orange is the New Black (the Gramps Cardigan has too many cables to watch the show effectively).  I shirked the laundry, the unassembled Ikea furniture and cast-on.  Perfect Day.