And now something for me

From Vogue Knitting

Young Gadabout Baby Set

I finally took some better pictures of the Young Gadabout Baby Set. 

I made the hat as well, which I didn't see in other people's project photos.  It's hilarious, pointy, and the baby doesn't try to take it off (she normally hates hats, but this one doesn't bother her).

Doesn't keep her from exploring, though.

Or posing.

On Ravelry here.

Sweater

I made this baby sweater years ago, but messed up the edge - rolled hem one side, garter stitch the other - so kept it, and now I have a baby who can wear it!




(Eh, giving up on rotating the photos, time to get this out of my drafts folder! Turn your head and it looks fine!)

Young Gadabout Baby Coatdress

This was originally my Ravellennic Games project, but I did the back first, the needles were too small, and I had to tear it out, so I lost steam.  I finally finished it a week or two ago.  It's remarkably hard to get good shots of a baby with a cell phone camera... and I have to find time to get the pictures off of the good camera if I want to show you those! 
Ravelry link here.

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!

It's Giveaway Day!

Today I'm giving away two knitting books: Stitch and Bitch Nation and Knit Two Together. 

They're both very good books, with many good patterns, and a few silly patterns each, but just not right for me right now (when nearly all I make is baby stuff).

Giveaway open through Friday, I'll do a random drawing Saturday morning, and I'll ship anywhere (shipping time may take longer overseas, as I can't use the automated machine).

Let me know what you want for Christmas (or if you don't do Christmas, your birthday), and you're in.  I'm reverting to childhood and hoping for a bicycle, a basic cruiser with a big comfy seat, to hitch the trailer up to and haul the baby around town. Preferably in purple with a bell and maybe streamers.

Why am I not using these knitting books now?  Well, I've been busy... I make monkey hats:

Sweet baby dresses (and a sweet baby):

Traditional quilts:

Historical costumes (worn at Dickens on the Strand last week):

And all sorts of other things - I have a making compulsion :)

Happy giveaway week :)

To save time, take time to check the gauge

And I actually did, but not well enough. After seeing someone who went up a needle size complain on Ravelry that it was too large, when my gauge came between two needles, I went for the one called for in the pattern... This is the result. The back, done in the size described, tight and narrow, the same width as a front panel done properly in a larger needle. Back frogging to come...

Ravellennic Games!

Two days' progress...

Two-ball simple baby blanket

Simple baby blanket pattern:

Cast on 5.
Purl one row.

Increase section:
Odd rows:
P2, yo, K to last 2 sts, yo, P2.
Even rows:
P across.

Work until one ball of yarn is complete (I like to leave a few yards in case of uneven skein sizes).  Attach second ball.

Decrease section:
Odd rows:
P1, P2tog, yo, K2tog, K to last 5 sts, K2tog, yo, P2tog, P1
Even rows:
P across.
Work until 9 sts remain.
Next row: P1, P2tog, yo, K3tog, yo, P2tog, P1 (7 sts).
Next row: P across.
Next row: P1, P2tog, K3tog, P2tog, P1
Next row: P across
Bind off.

(Works with any yarn, any needle, any gauge, as long as you have two balls of the same size.  Have done this with bulky fluffy yarn and size 15s a few times.  Currently working with Bernat baby jacquards - florals, from Wal-Mart, as I was stuck with no yarn recently.  And size... 10? circulars.  Enjoy the way it works up, actually.  If I remember, I'll post a picture once it's finished - I'm halfway through.)

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Longhorn Socks

So, everyone who says that the husbands never notice when you're making something for them right in front of their eyes? True! All the way up to Corsicana and back was working on these:

Otherwise known as Paraphernalia (Ravelry link). He wanted UT-colored socks, and manly ones. The cable pattern is much more subtle on striped socks, no? But I like it.

Hope he does too!

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Giveaway!

Welcome to the Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway day!  (And my mother's 60th birthday!)

Today there are three options.

I'm giving away a headband, like I'm making all the (girl) cousins for Christmas.  (Knitted with a crocheted flower.)

And I'm giving away this little (4x5 ish) coptic-bound book, handy for writing things in.

And, in case you want to do it yourself, some boucle yarn, in three colors.  I tried (ignoring the label) to crochet with it (about 2 feet of the yellow), threw a fit, and decided not even to try knitting with it.  Maybe you'll have more luck!

To enter, tell me what you'd like - that's all.  Open until the 17th.  Yes, I do ship internationally (but it may take past the deadline for me to ship to you, as I can't use the automated postal unit for international shipping, and the post office is only open when I'm at work).

Baby hat

So many pregnant friends... one's due in October and wants hats, so here's a sweet one with laceweight mohair blend from Yarnorama in Paige, TX, my favorite store (if only it were closer!).(Ravelry link.)

Top-down short-row socks

(Pictures forthcoming!)

Back from New York (with the bride cross-stitch not yet finished...), and we went to a yarn shop in Tarrytown:  Flying Fingers

Got some nifty sock yarn and a teensy 8" Addi Turbo needle (I've been converted... there's a real reason they're more expensive; unlike Lantern Moon where I feel you're just paying for pretty, Addi's quality is worth it), and, as I have what I've recently seen described as "startitis," I just had to start my socks right away. 

Problem is, I didn't have a pattern.  I looked in one of the books they had for sale to get a concept of gauge (I don't know off-hand the circumference of your average sock), and I cast on 64 sts on my little size 1 needles, ribbed 1x1 for a while, then realized I didn't want to do any of the patterns I had in my own sock book (using to make something fancy for the kid brother) when I got back to the hotel.  I'm not a huge fan of heel-flap socks, and I agree with Himself that short-row socks "look like real socks," so I had to use my memory for a short-row pattern.  I really do prefer toe-up (use 2 balls, stop when you're finished, and you don't have to worry about running out of yarn -- if you've got too little yarn, you've got short socks!  Rather than having to have a different-colored toe...), but I'd already started, so had to go on from there (hate frogging unless something's become unusable).

So, here is a very generic short-row sock pattern, designed for the experienced knitter who understands the concepts of sock knitting:

co 64, join.

Ribbing: rib 1x1 for as long as you like ribbing.

Top of sock: stocking stitch for as long as you want the top of the sock. 

Short-row heel: k 1/2 a round (32 sts), turn; sl 1, p to 1 stitch short of the beginning of the round, turn; sl 1, k to 1 stitch short of the previous last knit stitch, turn; sl 1, p to 1 stitch short of the previous last purl stitch, turn; continue until there's 16 sts left on what you're working through.  Now do it in reverse: k to the first slipped stitch, k it, sl 1, turn, p through what you just did to the next slipped stitch, p it, sl 1, turn; repeat until you've worked across all 32 sts.

Body of sock: k around until your foot starts to taper.  (I never do the "2 inches before desired end of sock" thing -- it never works for me.)

Toe:  k until 3 sts before halfway around (29 sts at first), k2 tog, k 2, ssk, k until 3 sts before you reach the beginning of round, k2 tog, k1 (end of round), k1, ssk; continue, either alternating with k-all rounds or just repeating this decrease-four round (depending on how quickly your foot tapers!) until 6 sts remain.

Cast off with kitchener stitch. 

Wear your sock!

(Or, if you're not me, weave in ends and make the sock look pretty first, then wear it!)

One nice thing about top-down socks: they're easier to try on mid-sock than toe-up socks!

Brief notes

Oddly unable to find time to post lately, although I can find time for other things...

But just wanted to say:

This skull hat is awesome, totally making one for my teenage cousin.

And, See Mommy Sew is giving away fun scrappy bits -- and Between the Lines has cards! and beautiful things!

That's all -- the husband's on the night shift for a week, so I should be able to get stuff done, photograph it, and publish it!  (Now my 15 mins are up, so back to work!)

New Yarn

Look what I won from a Pfat Fiber giveaway!

It is such a lovely blend, so soft, and the colors are just gorgeous (see the dress below -- I like those colors!)... I'm a convert. The marketing plan worked -- when next I buy yarn like this, I'm highly inclined to make My8KidsMom my first stop!

Any ideas what to make with it? It's more than I'd need for a regular pair of socks... could make super-long socks, or something non-sock-ish... suggestions?

Spinning

A few weeks ago, I was in Austin for a conference, and I was taken to Hill Country Weavers. The store's an amazing experience -- very hard to limit yourself. I bought some excellent yarn for a sweater for myself, and then I saw this. Fool that I am, I was too impatient to play with it to take a picture when it was nicely braided up, so this is all you get. It just looked like candy...

I got a drop spindle once, from a woman in Bolivia -- I bought a woven guitar strap from her, then some yarn, then was so interested in the spindle she was using that she sold that to me as well. I couldn't find it just now, though, so I watched some videos on youtube and then made my own temporary one out of a hook, a pencil, and a circle of cardboard, and spun away! It wasn't that hard.

First, after spinning it all, relatively evenly, I decided to ply it. Ended up a bit bulkier than I would have liked, so it went back to singles. More pictures to come.

Right now, I've done something to my wrist, so I can't knit, crochet, or even type much. Machine sewing seems ok, though...

New Fiber Arts Shops on Hwy 290

Hello all!

We went to Austin earlier this weekend, stopping by my grandparents' place in the little town of Carmine halfway there (claim to fame: the bank was robbed by Bonnie and Clyde -- they even have a plaque commemorating it). Along with gingerbread pancakes at the Magnolia Cafe, I wanted to try out a new weaving shop in Brenham I'd heard about at Winedale a while back.

Driving up to Austin, passing through Paige, I as always looked left and saw the little sign for the Paige Historical Museum and thought it might be nice to look in... and then I looked right and for the first time ever saw a sign for a business! On the way back I had to stop, and I easily found what may be the only business in Paige:Yarnorama! I wish I had an interior picture, but had no camera this weekend (the above is from their website). It's a lovely and exciting store, with roving, weaving materials, spinning wheels, masses of sock yarn and handpainted yarn and silk yarn and anything fancy you could ever want. Friendly people, too.

Having spent all my extra money at Half Price Books in Austin, I couldn't buy anything, so I went on down to Brenham.

There, into Fibers (sorry, no picture at all). My 6th grade art teacher, Mrs. Fowler (who it turns out is nationally known as an inkle weaver and has written articles on the subject), had us all use inkle looms to make belts. I bought the loom afterwards and loved it. When I saw someone at one of the Winedale historical events with an inkle loom, I told them about Mrs. Fowler, and the weaver knew of her and told me to come to the new shop in Brenham. It's a lovely shop, very big and open. It's certainly central Texas -- there were people in there with the same accent as my grandparents' German (actually Wendish, but who's telling?) farmhand, who's been in this country for generations, so the German modified itself beyond easy recognition but left its traces in the accent. It has tons of weaving, spinning, knitting, crochet, and probably other stuff as well. (I think I saw some scrapbook supplies.) The help desk/check-out counter is made from display cases showing lovely antique tatted and other fiber arts items.

Both certainly worth a repeat visit; both like nothing we have in Houston (If we do, Houston people, please tell me -- I've heard that the nearest weaving shop is in La Porte, and I never go that direction).

Backlog!

I still exist, I really do. Things have been a bit hectic at work (I'm on a break at the moment), as we're moving everything to a new wing. So I come home and cook dinner and fall asleep. But I've taken a few pictures of fun things, so I'm going to queue up a few posts (so there's not a glut all at once) about:
- The Beard Hat I made for my kid brother
- The sweet little sundress I made for myself
- The scarf the knitting group at work made for me
- The team of rogue road repairmen (when called, the City says they're not doing work in the area) that make it difficult to get out in the morning and think my yard's a tip
- The cable-heavy sweater I'm making Himself with scratchy yarn, and the Aran-style sweater I'm making myself with excellent yarn (not that I don't like him, I just don't trust him to actually wear it, and don't want to waste excellent yarn on something that's not getting worn!)
- The placemats I wove on the rigid heddle loom (yay!)
- The flash-drive cover for my boss
- The baby-girl-camo sweater that's nearly on its way to my hunter friend's new daughter

See you soon!