Category: Knitting

Sore Hands

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On Saturday, I knit so much that my hands became sore. It was wonderful!

Lately, all my knitting is accomplished during car rides. On Saturday, not only did I get to knit during the drive to Granny’s house but I got to knit throughout the entire visit. Elly is quite independent now. Outside of the diaper changes and a New York minute  nursing session, she didn’t need me at all. She was happy to play with her cousins and to drag her doting Aunt all around.

I was so darn proud of her. I was also a bit sad. My little girl is growing up.

Elly and I Hate Being Idle

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We thought it was a phase that she would grow out of. More accurately, we were hoping it was a phase that would only last a month or two. Elly is almost a year and a half old and she still hates riding in the car for longer than 20 minutes.

On Saturday, we drove to a friend’s house to celebrate their daughter’s 2nd birthday. Elly fussed on the way there after quickly growingbored of her musical frogger and other toys I had packed. Once there, she had a great time running around and playing with the other children. Most children would sleep after such an outing, but not Elly. I can count on one hand how many times she has fallen asleep in the car. Rather than sleep, she strained against the straps to her car seat desperately trying to get out.

I know how she feels.

I hate sitting still with nothing to keep my hands busy. Thankfully, I can knit, which is exactly what I did. I cast on for the hexagon afghan.

Once Elly is old enough, I’ll teach her to knit. With a little luck, it will make her enjoy car rides more.

Orange and Yellow are just as Nice

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The wonderful thing about indie yarn can be summed up in two words: gorgeous colors. It is rare to find the color combinations and unique dyes that the inde dyers use in commercial yarns. On the other, each skein is different which can be a positive or a negative. In this case, it’s a negative. The gauge of the blue yarn does not match the gauge of the orange yarn. Luckily, I found yarn in my stash that does match the gauge of the orange yarn: yellow Malabrigo.

The Malabrigo doesn’t jump out like the blue yarn did, but finding this yarn in my stash saves me from buying more Claudia hand painted yarn site-unseen and hoping that it will be the same thickness as the orange yarn.

The Hexagon Swatch Changes Everything

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The plan before I knit the swatch was to make an afghan out of 12-inch hexagons knit out of Manos del Uruguay and my handspun.

With the first hexagon finished, I’ve changed my mind on just about everything.

I love the demo colors so much that I no longer want to use my handspun yarn. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough Taos yarn for the entire afghan, so I’ll have to dig through my stash for a complementary yarn.

Knitting the hexagon and picking up the stitches after completing each section made me want to come up with a way to cut down on the need to knit so many sections and in turn pick up so many stitches. The easiest way to reduce the amount of hexagons needed to make an afghan would be to increase the size of each hexagon. Therefore, I plan to approximately double the size of each hexagon.

Knitting the hexagon also made me realize that the gauge didn’t match my estimate of 4 stitches per inch. Rather than a 12-inch hexagon, I ended up with a 9-inch hexagon.

I’m still unsure how I want to piece all the hexagons together. Should I make a circular afghan or a traditional rectangular afghan?

This exercise has made me hesitant about casting on for Elly’s blue and orange skirt. I really ought to knit a swatch first to make sure my gauge is accurate and to make sure the yarn is a good fit for the pattern. Sigh. And I was looking forward to starting it this weekend.

Knitting a Hexagon

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In Barbara Walkers’ 4th Treasury book, she gives instructions on how to knit a hexagon with 2 different yarns. Loving the look of it, I thought it would be an excellent way to showcase my handspun wool.

This isn’t my handspun wool. Before committing the wool I took so long to spin on my drop spindle, I wanted to try the pattern out with some commercial yarn. I’m using Manos del Uruguay and Crystal Palace Yarns Taos wool.

Now I just need to relearn how to pick up stitches. I’ve forgotten how.

Call for a Test Knitter

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While knitting the baseball blanket, I made an error in counting the number of rows knit. The center piece ended up being 4 rows too short.

During the finishing phase, I was able to manipulate the pieces so that even an experienced knitter would be hard pressed to notice. Heck, I’m not sure that I could point out the error now.

Before publishing the knitting pattern for the baseball blanket, I would like to test knit it again just to make sure that it was a personal counting error and not a mathematical error in the pattern. Unfortunately, I simply don’t have the time to knit it myself what with juggling Elly, knitting swatches for the new designs I’m working on and dabbling in my other hobbies. Besides, I hate knitting the same thing twice.

Though I plan to post my call for a test knitter in Ravery’s Testing Pool group, I wanted to post it on my blog first. I would love to work with a Loyal Reader rather than a complete stranger.

Details:

  • Test knit the 3 sections only. I will handle all the finishing work. Sample to be kept by me upon completion unless negotiated otherwise.
  • The blanket uses garter stitch throughout. The shape of each piece is created by the following increases and decreases: k2tog, ssk, yo, and kfb. The test knitter should be comfortable with these stitches.
  • Yarn to be provided.
  • My gratitude along with a small tip sent via Paypal to be given as compensation. Additionally, the test knitter will be acknowledged in my pattern.

If interested, please contact me directly at knittedgems@gmail.com for more details.

Thank you!

Delayed by Short Rows

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I finished the main body of Elly’s wool soakers while on vacation in Mexico.

Or so I thought.

A few days ago, I realized that I had failed to incorporate 6 short rows into the body. It’s not like I had missed the part of the instructions that stated I would need to work 6 short rows. In my mind, I had envisioned working all 6 rows in Round 35, the final round in the body of the soaker. I can’t explain why I thought that. It doesn’t make any sense. Typically, only 2 short rows are worked into 1 round. I knew that. Besides, the short rows are needed to allow room for Elly’s caboose/fanny/call-it-what-cute-name-you-want. Jamming them in at the bottom of the body won’t help.

Maybe I lost a crap load of brain cells since Elly’s birth; I heard children have that influence on you. It could also be because I was so excited to be knitting again that I completely ignored common sense.

Either way, I’ll be ripping back – about halfway as I don’t have the time or patience to rip back further – and knitting the body again. I hope to have better luck the 2nd time around.

Knitting at Elly’s Pace

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On a swatch that will probably only measure 8 inches wide when blocked, I have knit a whopping 6 rows in 3 days. At this rate, I might finish it in 2 months.

I could increase my knitting time, but that would just decrease my time with Elly. If given the choice, I’ll pick Elly almost every time. (A mom needs a break every once in a while).

Soon she’ll grow up and I’ll have oodles of knitting time. Until then, I’m happy with my 2 rows of knitting per day.