Gifting a WIP?

Have you ever gifted someone a work-in-progress? Meaning, you took something you were knitting and wrapped it up, with it unfinished and still on the needles?

I'm just asking for a friend. Ahem. On a totally unrelated note, my mom's birthday is friday and I'm knitting her a sweater. Ahem.

Man time seems to have flown this past couple months! Ha. To be fair, I put it aside to work on 5 other things, but... oh well. Two cute things I made were dishcloths for my good friend who is moving to Texas. I made her two cloths so she had one to remind her of home and one to celebrate her new home state. Erin if you read this I hope you guys arrived safely!!! :)

Everything Else

I hope you all saw my new pattern for the Ice Pop Sleeve! I'm hoping to make a bunch for Norah's little friends too... gotta keep all those tiny hands from getting too cold! :)

Besides that, I've been making various small things for gifts:

These soft squeezy orbs are great baby gifts! I made a few for various friends. So quick to knit and easy/safe for little babies to play with!

Pattern: Squishies
Yarn: Red Heart Eco-Ways

My friend Shawn joined me in the exclusive club of people who recently turned 30, so I knit her a monster. :-) I was digging around in my yarn and found a bunch of gold... and since Shawn went to Purdue I thought I'd use her alma mater's colors of gold and black. I think he turned out pretty cute!

Pattern: Geet the Garage Monster
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool

I was debating whether or not to add a "tooth" like the original pattern but I like him as is. Did some striping on the arms/legs to add more contrast color. Shawn says his name is "Beezer Twelve Washingbeard" and that "His friends just call him 'The Beez' ". I like it!

For mother's day, since my mom carries around a bottle of water at all times (her throat gets dry easily), I made her this water bottle carrier:

Pattern: Bishi
Yarn: Sugar n Cream cotton 

I did the strap a lot shorter because I thought my mom wouldn't want to wear it like a purse. Really quick and easy pattern!


More soon, I promise I will try! 

Hat & Glove set

Recently I was able to do a commissioned project for my friend Natalie! She was awesome and sent a package containing not only the yarn for the project, but homemade marshmallows, fancy hot chocolate, and some teas! YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The yarn is amazing too.... it's wool, but SO springy and cushy and soft! It's Stonehedge Fiber Mill Shepherd's Wool. I am now a big fan.

I ended up making up my own pattern for some fingerless gloves: (More details on my ravelry page here)

And she had told me she liked this hat pattern, so I was able to sneak in the Regina Hat as a surprise for her too:

I mailed them off this last week and I am happy to say she recieved them well! I love this pic she took of her in her matching set:

I love knitting for people who send pics of them/their kids/etc wearing the items!!!!

More yarn!?

I guess I neglected to mention that 4 days before my little girl turned 2, a certain someone in our house turned 30. Aaaaand that would be me. Yikes! How did I get this old??? ;-)

I was super spoiled by family and friends (flowers, gifts, etc!), and at the end of it I came out with 2 wonderful yarn gifts! First up is this lovely green baby alpaca from my friend Shawn:

It's soooo soft... I might have to make something for my little man out of it??? Or maybe an adult. I don't think baby alpaca is washable??? :)

My 2nd addition to the yarn stash was three balls of the amazing Sublime yarn (merino) from my sweet hubby!

(Complete with PJ-clad toddler foot in the background - she is always "helping me"!)

I love the colors. I think they would look great all striped together in one project, don't you think? Anyway it has been a great october so far! Yay for birthday month!

Tiny Owl

I put Greg's sweater aside for a bit when I heard my good friend's daughter was in the hospital because of croup! Her kiddo is only a month younger than mine so I can't imagine how rough that was. Luckily they are home now and the little one on the mend. This morning we swung by to drop off a little present to cheer her (and her older bro) up! I threw in some toys for both kiddos but I wanted something special for her. I searched ravelry knowing her mom loves owl things and found this!

Went SO fast. Few hours, tops. And not much yarn!

Pattern: Owl Puffs
Yarn: Red Heart EcoWays
Needle: US6 (so it'd be tighter so I could stuff it well)

I love quick projects :-)

Twin blankets

So about those baby blankets! They should have arrived at their destination by now, so here we go.

Aaaaand I just realized I never took good finished object photos. Crap! OK here I guess you can see my not-quite-finished photos. Twin blanket #1:

And twin blanket #2:

Pattern: Jackson Blanket
Yarn: Red Heart Eco-Ways (Yes I know... I used red heart. Hell hath frozen over!!!!)

The blankets were quick and easy and I really like how they turned out. I modified the pattern to make it smaller, only casting on 92 sts. This made them more of a carseat/stroller size. I originally did it because I was worried I wouldn't be able to finish them quickly, but each one only took about a week to knit! Wow. I am happy though, I think the smaller size is nice for little ones when they start dragging their blankies around. Anyway Dana if you are reading I hope you got them and I hope when your little girls come out they like them!

Baby owls to match

Remember how I made my friend Erin the owls sweater? Well as soon as I finished her sweater I started thinking about what to do with the leftover yarn I had. (Remember I accidentally bought way too much yarn? Oops :)

My lovely SIL Mare had made a baby owl sweater for Norah, and it got me thinking about Erin's daughter (who is almost the same age as Norah!). It just seemed too perfect, so I had to do it - I had to make a MATCHING owls sweater for Erin's daughter!!!!

I used the same buttons and everything. I tried to make a 2T size so that her daughter can wear it this fall!

I am so excited to eventually see a photo of them wearing their sweaters together! I will definitely share it here when that happens! Yay :-)

In other news, I started the Casu Cowl for myself using some beautiful yarn my husband got me for my birthday ages ago...

...but it's going slow. I was knitting it lever style for awhile, but I really think the whole Yarn Harlot class broke me. LOL. I've been in a knitting funk and haven't been doing much at all. By the end of next week I should know the gender of my cousin's baby so I can start some knitting for her! In the meantime, does anyone else get into a bit of a mood? Where you don't feel like knitting much? What do you do to get out of it... should I go upstairs and roll around in my stash? Haha!

Owls - FO update

I just realized that the last picture of the Owls sweater I knit for my friend Erin shows it still on the needles! Oops! I finished the sweater after having her try it on and confirming that it fit (whew).

Then I had to sew on all the little tiny owl eyes. Wasn't too bad, I put on some TV shows on Hulu, and also I carried the thread across the back from eye to eye on each individual owl. I didn't want to carry it from owl to owl in case it messed with the stretchability of the yoke. I can't remember if I mentioned it but the buttons were cheapo plastic ones that came in a mixed pack of brown, grey, white, and tan. I like em!

Erin was kind enough to have her hubby snap a photo of her modeling the sweater. Isn't she pretty??? I'm so glad I made this for her!

Now... I had a decent amount of yarn leftover after knitting the sweater. This is happening to me a LOT it seems! Either the yarn store people are trying to weasel more money out of me, or I am just reallllly bad at estimating yardage for sweaters :-) Oh well, I am not complaining about extra yarn! In fact, I used it to do something extra for my friend Erin.... something that I will blog about once I get some photos!!! (I'm such a tease!) Anyway hope you all have a fabulous weekend. My hubby is out of town on a trip but I've been keeping busy knitting and playdating and such!

Yarrrrrrrn!

I got N's tank top done and I love it! I think it should fit great this summer. Speaking of summer, what is with the weather lately? 70 and sunny, amazing. We have spent a lot of time outside lately which is a delight. She gets more and more confident walking around on the grass, etc. Anyway here is the tank! I used some solid green leftover Swish Superwash for the top part. I think it almost matches the green in the other yarn perfectly! :-)

 Aaaaand I got my March Yarn of the Month!!!! For the second time I got 2 SKEINS! Whew. I repeat again: I am the luckiest DIL ever, seriously.

  Love the colors! It's Berroco Peruvia (100% wool). I immediately thought it might be perfect for husband, but we will see. It might have to marinate in the stash for awhile. Speaking of the stash... I need to do some serious stashdiving. Things are just languishing in there and probably getting lonely. Yarn can be lonely, right? Just kidding. :) I would like to try and use more of it to make things off my list of projects I want to knit this year. I really am enjoying having a list - usually I just knit things as they come up (babies, christmas, gifts, etc)... the one problem is as I cross things off and feel accomplished, I keep adding MORE! Haha! Currently I am working on a hat for my friend Shawn. We went to high school together and she is just a great person. She is really sweet in that she always gets everyone a christmas gift every year. AND it's usually yarn for me!!! I mean awesome, right? I made her some fingerless gloves once but after getting like 5 skeins from her this past christmas I was feeling the itch to reward her for all her generosity. Shawn and her husband have 2 cats so I thought she would get a kick out of this: Pattern: Kittyville Hat Yarn: I Love This Wool! Ombres Shawn gave me the yarn so I think it's fitting I make her something with it. Cross your fingers she likes it!

Flying helmet

Last winter my friend had a baby boy, and also had a plan to make him a hat. Well she never got it finished (something about being a WORKING mom, I can't imagine the lack of knitting time!!!) Anyway I told her as a late christmas gift this year that I would knit that hat pattern.


Pattern: Flying Helmet, with mods
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool

The pattern only went up to the size "6-12 months" and the recipient is currently 13 months old, so I knew I would have to modify the size a little. I chose that size and then used regular worsted yarn on size 7's. I also modified the pattern to knit in the round... basically once I had the front flap and ear flaps knit, I winged it. Turned out okay, although the decreases at the top are a bit more lumpy than I wanted (should I have skipped using any knit rounds between decreases?) Anyway I am sending the hat to my friend tomorrow so I hope that it fits her little boy!!!!

Also in the works: I have cast on for the Owls sweater, but I think I might need to go up one more size (using worsted yarn instead of bulky that the pattern calls for). Waiting to get some more measurements of my friend (the recipient)

Aaaaand Mare and I divvied up the yarn for our blanket and we both cast on. The yarn is sooooooooo soft (see last post for pics, it's Knitpicks Biggo). I even did a provisional cast on (first time?) so we can join our blanket halves together seamlessly (I hope!).

OH! Also I got a wonderful picture of my friend and her little girl that I knit the Cheery Scrap Cap for! It is big on her but looks adorable.... look at her little face!!!

Slightly bigger hats and more

I had originally written my Basic Toddler Hat pattern while making some hats for a friend's 2 young boys. Ultimately I decided the hats were a bit too small for the recipients, because the hats seemed to fit Norah and her friends pretty well (and the recipients were older).

Anyway I decided to try them again with an extra inch of width. I am going to go ahead and send them off and see if they fit... if not I will report back and try AGAIN! Good thing I know lots of little boys being born this year I can send them too!


Modification: CO 72 sts

Right now I'm working on a hat for my friend's little boy... she had started working on it last year but never got it done, so I told her as a christmas gift THIS year I'd knit it for her!

Coming eventually: a blanket project that I am co-knitting with my SIL! Wound up the yarn today:


Yarn: Biggo from Knitpicks

It's super soft and squishy and I am very excited to knit with it! Anyway hope you all are having a great week! I had fun going out to lunch today with Cynthia for her 28th birthday! ;-)

Yarn of the Month: January

The other day I got a package in the mail.... it was from my MIL and guess what it was? My yarn of the month!!! YAHOO! To officially kick off the year of yarn, I received:


Rowan Felted Tweed. YUMMY. How gorgeous is that green? I am such a lucky knitter!!!!

My SIL rocks!

Just got some amazing photos of the projects I had neglected to document in the last post!!!

Here are the "mario mushrooms" I knit for my nephews (who are obsessed with all things mario):


Pattern: Super Mario Mushroom Knitted Toy
Yarn: Misc acrylic/wool blends

Next we have the hat/glove set I made for my SIL:


Pattern: To Norway With Love (hat)
Yarn: Ella Rae classic heathers (worsted)

I had some trouble with this hat. The first time I knitted it, my floats were too tight (even with trying to keep them loose) and I couldn't even get it over my head. *sigh* I cast it on again, only this time adding an extra couple hearts to the pattern repeat (some other Rav knitter had posted about doing this in their project page too - I'd recommend browsing people's notes if you want to knit this hat). I think it would have been fine just adding one heart, but it makes for a comfortable fit on your head (not too tight). As far as the length I also skipped knitting the last row of hearts because I thought it looked odd with all that length. It's still a little "slouchy" (not formed to the head like a beanie).


Pattern: Mobile Mittens (using color pattern from the To Norway With Love mittens)
Yarn: Ella Rae classic heathers (worsted)

I didn't knit the glove pattern that matched the hat because I wanted something where you could still use your fingers. I know I hardly ever wear gloves because I want to be able to answer my phone, or in my SIL's case, use her camera on a photoshoot! I hope she enjoys them.

Wild kingdom

I made a bear :-)


Pattern: Baby bear from Itty Bitty Toys
Yarn: Knitivity Merino Fingering, a gift from Cynthia (awhile ago!)

I decided not to embroider a nose or mouth on him since the coloring of the yarn made it look like he already has a blue nose. Plus my embroidery leaves a LOT to be desired (see: his weird eyes). The scarf is just 1x1 ribbing with some random green worsted yarn I had lying about!

I also am making a monkey!



Pattern: A New Sock Monkey from Itty Bitty Toys
Yarn: Unwind Yarn Company Superwash Merino Sock - this is the only yarn I've ever bought from etsy, I'm pretty sure! It's really nice to knit with.

He does have one leg right now, but needs another. And a face!

These will be going to 2 little boys that are friends with Norah. I hope they like them!!!!

Jewelry and Vikings

What do those things have in common? I knitted them!

1. Jewelry:
I was trying to think of something to make my mom for Christmas... something I haven't knitted her yet (see: 2 sweaters, scarves, gloves, slippers, dishcloths, felted bowl, etc etc). Mom always wears really nice jewelry that matches her outfit. I thought... maybe I could knit a necklace???


Pattern: Knit Your Pearls
Yarn: Wilkinson Fancy Yarn Lustre (gifted from a UK friend)


I still need to find a button or clasp to close it up, but I like it! I think having the shiny metallic yarn helps it feel more like jewelry.

2. Vikings
A friend and coworker of my husband is expecting his first child. He is a fan of Lord of the Rings and dwarves and such. I was trying to come up with a cute geeky baby gift to knit for them, and this is what I ended up with:


It's technically a viking hat, but I think its close enough to something dwarvish. The horns are kind of huge compared to the hat/baby head size, but I think it's going to be extra adorable that way!

Pattern: Viking hat, followed some mods for a newborn size and horn mods (see rav page)
Yarn: Various basic wools, I think mostly patons!

Coming soon: a bear!

P.S. Check out Courtney's blog... she did her "Ravelry links" post and included some of my favorites :)

Norah's sweater

Norah is a lucky girl... she has a very talented Auntie who knit her this AMAZING sweater!


And it fits like a dream. Thanks so much Auntie Mare!!!!!!!! xoxo


(yes she tried to eat everything on the ground lol)

Knitting: a strenuous sport at times

Not this weekend but NEXT weekend I am attending a baby shower for THREE of Greg's cousins who are expecting. THREE! Yikes... let's just say it is full on baby knitting time!!!! Luckily Norah took a really long nap this afternoon and that combined with time in the evenings I whipped these out this week:


Baby legwarmers and a hat, my own design. 2x2 ribbing and then 2 rows of each color. Quick and hopefully cute! The hat came out a tad bigger than I planned, so I will call it a 6 month sized set.

Now... what's next!!!!

Finished photo

I realized I haven't gotten a nice "finished" photo of the green newborn sweater!


I really love it. I need to mail it off to its recipient!

In other news, that pretty teal yarn that I ripped out? Well let's just say I ripped it out, AGAIN. I finished the yoke of this sweater dress and it was huge, like 2T or so! Oopsies. Poor Norah, I am going to knit you a sweater for this winter if it kills me! :-)

Done but not done

Well that newborn sweater flew off the needles! I've even washed/blocked it twice, because the first time I didn't use wool wash and the yarn had a bit of a smell to it. The second time I used some lavender SOAK that I got from Cynthia. :-)


I still need to add the buttons, which is why this isn't "DONE" done.... and the reason that hasn't happened is because they sell buttons in packs of 5 (which I had one), and this sweater needs 7! Sheesh! I hope I can get to the store this weekend for some button shopping!

In other news, remember the cabled baby sweater I had started a couple weeks before Norah was born? (crazy me) Well I finally decided it wasn't worth the yarn to finish it (considering it would be too small for Norah) and also I just wasn't "feeling it" anymore. Soooo rip rip rip, and a soak:


And now I've cast on for a big girl sweater/dress for my big girl!

Pattern: Little sister's dress (rav link)

I'm knitting the 12 month size but using slightly larger yarn/needles... so we will see how this turns out!

Don't you love....

...baby knitting??? There was a wave of people having babies last year. I enjoyed knitting lots of little tiny things, especially for my OWN wee one! Luckily the wave seems to keep on going, because we recently found out some friends of ours are expecting their first little one next year. Even though they JUST told us, I couldn't help but cast something on.....


Pattern: Puerperium Cardigan (rav link)

I am already casting off the body! I love how quick newborn knits are! Plus this yarn is gorgeous. I think Jessica sent it to me for a gift (if my brain serves me correctly). Thanks Jess!