Ooo Baby Knits

The Three Bears of Christmas

Hubby’s sweater is a bust. One of Little B’s sweaters is too big, and I lost the pattern for the other I’m knitting her. DD#2 changes her mind daily about what she likes, so I’m beginning to think this may not be a good Christmas to knit for her. And then there’s this, my Mom’s Christmas sweater.

I finished the sleeve last night. Today I will reknit it for the 4^th time. My first time in, I realized the gauge was too loose. Frog. Re-knit. Now it’s too tight. Frog. Re-knit. (That’s what happens when you put a project down for a year or two.) Now it’s juuuuuust right. Kind of like the Three Bears, only not. Frog. Re-knit. Why, you ask? I followed the pattern exactly. My gauge is perfect. But the daggone sleeve is so tight I can’t bend my elbow. And no I don’t have fat arms! (Well, maybe a little pudgy, but not fat. Can one have voluptuous arms?) This sleeve and I are going to come to blows if it doesn’t come out right this time.

My Sister’s Big, Fat, Christmas Sweater I finished Shannon’s last year’s Christmas present. (Except for the buttons, the bane of my knitting existence. Notice the temporary closure?) It’s actually more coatish, but it will definitely keep her warm on frigid bus duty days. That’s one thing I do not miss about teaching. Hmm. Looks like I forgot to sew up one side of the collar.

Knitting Story I had to have an x-ray this morning, so I stuck a hat in my purse to work on while I waited. An elderly gentleman and his wife sat down near me, and the man commented to his wife, "Look at her crocheting! She's not even looking at what she’s doing. Why don’t you learn to do that? Is that knitting or crocheting?" "It’s knitting," I responded, happy to be noticed for the amazing knitter that I am. "What are you knitting?" "A hat." "That must be for your grandson." What!?!? And I thought I looked like spring chicken today.

25 knitting days until Christmas!

Day #4

DD#1 took one look at the Truly Drew sweater and said, "You've got to be kidding." He never wears anything but jeans and t-shirts. Well, almost never, so how was I supposed to know? Actually, I just have no sense of style. You can tell by the way I dress. I have to get my daughter's opinion about everything new I get. So I'm starting over. We found this sweater at JC Penny:

Nice, basic, shaker rib sweater. Now this is Truly Drew. I found a pattern here, but I'm thinking about waiting until after Christmas to start it- maybe a Valentine's Day present.

I did order yarn to knit Hubby another pair of socks. Seems he's not crazy about the color of the birthday socks. I won't tell you exactly what he said as not to offend, but suffice it to say that I didn't realize that there was a hint of pink in the colorway. I mistakenly thought it was more of a burgandy. Silly me. I told him he could give them back or wear them with boots where no one can see. He said he'd keep them. Wise man. (Yes, those are my glaringly white legs.)

Smitten with mittens! These will make warm hands for Little B, the child we sponsor. The red Sideways Mittens are knit with unlabled worsted- nice and thick. The other pair are knit with Kool-Aid dyed wool. The pattern is from a member of Knitting4Children- sorry, can't share. (I apologize for the quality of my photos. I'm disappointed with this camera. The flash works, but the picts are always so dark.)

And my completed Knit Unto Others project has been hats for the homeless shelter. This I thought was a cool pattern. Very quick knit (2 strands worsted on #11 needles), thick and warm, but again a K4C pattern. The other hats I've finished are just your basic ski caps. I'm very behind on my goal this year, so I've been working on a hat at least a little each day.

Yes, we are a disfunctional family. Who else would need to claim their bananas to be sure no one else eats them?

Truly Drew

I had the hardest time deciding on yarn and a pattern for Hubby’s Christmas sweater that would be truly Drew. We’ve been married 21 years. I think we’re finally safe from the Boyfriend Sweater Curse (or my favorite version), so this year he must have a sweater. After finishing the birthday socks a month late, this is #1 priority knitting. I chose Elann’s Highland Wool because it isn’t too heavy, it’s affordable, and they have the best color selection of the affordable wools I found. The pattern I chose because I was afraid cables would be too heavy (he’s very hot natured) and plain stockinette even with a stripe would bore me to tears in a sweater so large. So a simple pattern it is. So far we have:

Day 1: I swatched, started the rib, and lost the picture I took.

Day 2:

Day 3:

His socks are almost finished- I’m down to the toe which is where I discovered my boo boo and frogged the whole thing, hence missing the birthday deadline. Nancy asked for the pattern. I'll post it soon. I joined the Who Wouldn’t Love a Hand Knit Gift? KAL to encourage me to finish the other 8 birthday and Christmas presents I want to knit over the next 37 days. I may be cutting it close. The MIL scarf can wait until her birthday in February. That leaves just 7.

I did finish Haiku. This yarn was a bear to knit with- very rough- but it’s much softer after washing. It’s also bigger. Little B can wear that much longer.

Below freezing temperatures are knocking the last of the leaves off the trees, but I still have a glorious view from my bedroom window.

Leaves loose strength, let go

The binds that tie them to life

In a last hurrah.

Technical Difficulties

We switched to DSL and I thought all our problems were solved. I was oh so wrong. I don't know how much is this dratted computer and how much is Verizon. Verizon tells me my password in incorrect and my father's middle name isn't Wayne. They are oh so wrong. I cannot send or receive emails. Apparently all the emails I thought I'd sent since the big switch are floating around somewhere in cyber space. My apologies to everyone who has left a message or emailed. I answered even though you didn't hear. The computer also frequently freezes while on the internet, hence my less frequent posting. I am now going to turn off this bane of my existence and go watch Guns of Naverone and knit. And then knit some more. And maybe eat chocolate.

Baby Boom

Babies, babies, babies, and I love it! This sweater was knit for a friend’s granddaughter, but now needs to be put in the mail tomorrow for a baby shower Saturday in Utah.

I have one week to knit another sweater when I see grandma at our brunch. It’s doable. Along with the blue and red baby sweater I still need to finish. I did get buttons sewn on the bright BSJ and finished the green one- both off to charities.

I’m pretty sure I learned to count in kindergarten, but somewhere along the way I’ve lost the skill. I was so excited when I got to the toe of Hubby’s second sock, but the stitch count wasn’t working out. Two needles had more than the others did. Interesting, I thought, until I counted the total stitches and compared with the first sock. Wrong, I thought. Wrong, wrong, wrong. 64 does not = 68. And so I frogged and started over. Second socks are hard enough, but third socks are approaching impossible.

So I started another sweater for our sponsor child using ebay wool and Haiku from Knitty.

And I whipped up a couple of hats watching soccer games.

If you haven’t found these already, Free Patterns! Who doesn’t love free patterns? Knit Net has a free issue. Down load a sample issue of Australia's new knitting magazine, Yarn. Knitscene, from Interweave Press, is making most of the patterns in the issue free. Why buy the cow....

Book Quote: The presence of God is the finest of rewards. (From "Life of Pi" by Yan Martel.) If you haven't read Life of Pi, please read Life of Pi. Usually as soon as I finish reading a book, I'm ready to grab up another and dig in. Occasionally a book digs it's way into me so that I have to wait a few days for it to let me go before I can start another. This was one such book.