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!!! :)

Remember these?

You may remember the sweater I had tried to make for my poor nephew. You know, the kind-hearted 6 year old who had to open up his present of a sweater on the needles at Christmas????? Seriously. Sorry kiddo, your Auntie dropped the ball! Luckily for him, his mom took the poor sweater from me and gave it to her awesome friend Courtney (she's amazing). Courtney did what I should have done in the first place, which was ignore the pattern and make up my own yoke shaping! Doesn't my nephew look handsome???

Thanks again Courtney!

You also may recall that I was knitting a baby blanket for my little man. Or maybe I never blogged about it since I can't find anything! Well, my SIL and I have a tradition of jointly  knitting  blankets for our kids.

From clicking those links you will see I couldn't find a FO pic of the blanket we made for Norah (sheesh). Here it is if I never posted it!

We knew we had to make something for my little guy who showed up in January. I had got this book as a gift and thought the baby blanket would work out well for breaking into parts we could each work on. I made 3 triangles and my SIL made the 4th and then did the tough work of seaming it together and doing the border! Thanks so much Mare!

Pattern: "blanket"
Yarn: Vanna's Choice (had to go washable!)

Christmas recap....

Happy 2013!!! Well.... I did not finish the secret project in time for Christmas. Wop-wop. I can talk about what it is now though! I am making a sweater for my 6 year old nephew: Lancelot Sweater

You can see my curly unraveled yarn. I think I've ripped out the yoke at least 4 times so far..... luckily OR unfortunately its not just a "user error", as other knitters on ravelry have said they've struggled too! Oops. Well my current plans are to make up some basic raglan decreasing and see if that works... OR rip it out a little bit more to separate the sleeves and body again, and then try one more time to follow the pattern. Argh! I'm kind of mad at it right now but I feel bad I might not finish it anytime soon. We will see.

In non-failure related news, when I was procrastinating the sweater in December, I decided I wanted to knit little stockings for random gifts. I searched for an "ornament" sized pattern, and started with this one: Mini Stocking Ornament

It came out a little big, so i ended up sticking a subway giftcard inside and giving it to my brother for christmas :) I think he was actually happy to get the stocking (as well as the card) seeing as he mentioned not having any christmas decor for his house!

In my second test, I went with this pattern: Mini Holiday Stockings (Seen here next to the first stocking I made!)

These came out more to the size that I wanted! On all of the stockings I made I kind of fudged the heel to follow more of a traditional sock flap heel (from some basic instructions that Cynthia gave me once upon a time!). I think they turned out okay. I made an additional green and white one, and then another red and white one. I gave them to various friends/family. I like these and I might have to make a bunch more for next christmas. So if you are my friend or related to me, please forget all about this post by next December so you can be surprised. Ha!

For one of Norah's little friends I whipped out these Sucky Thumb Mitts. You may recognize the pattern, I used it to make Norah's halloween costume mitts!

My husband had asked me if I had time to make something he could give to his secret santa at work for their "end of the week" gift. I thought, sure! Luckily I was able to whip out some Evangeline gloves with plenty of time to spare. I hope his coworker likes them! (Sorry no finished pic... here's one of it in progress!)

OK This post is long enough for now!!!! I have a few more little things to catchup on. My baby boy is going to be making his arrival sooner than later, so my blogging will probably be even more pathetic than usual after that... but I will try and cram in as much as I can in the next few weeks!!!

Growing boy

My post title is not referring to my little unborn baby boy (although man is he getting big in there!!!).... I am talking about my nephew Holden!

Back in August of 2011 I finished this adorable striped sweater (and never blogged about it? what??) for my then three-year-old nephew. It was supposedly sized for a 4 year old, and I thought I was playing it safe. Well it ended up fitting, but it was BARELY long enough to cover his stomach. (boo!)

Pattern: Child's Sweater Size 4
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease
Mods: Stripes inspired by Ravelry user's sweater: DomesticImpostor

I had the bright idea that I could lengthen the sweater (seeing as I had some of the yarn leftover in the stash) so that he could wear it this winter! (I hate to see a sweater grown out of so fast, hehe!) I had my SIL give me the sweater and then I got to work. First issue: the original sweater I knit flat and sewed up the pieces. For the lengthened part I knew I wanted to do it in the round (plus how else would I do it... it'd be really awkward to try and do it in pieces for an addition!). My solution ended up being to just muddle through and see what happened. :)

I put the stitches at the bottom of the lowest (green) stripe on a large circular needle. Next, I cut off the grey ribbed edges and pulled out any leftover bits until I was left with just the green stripe on the needles. For the leftover seams I just tried to tie them off as best I could. If they ever do unravel I will bust out some sewing thread, but for now it seems good to go! (whew).

Next I grabbed my spare yarn and added a blue and brown stripe, and then redid the grey ribbed edging. I think it blended in pretty well - I wish I had done a tiny grey stripe between the blue and brown but I was worried about not having enough for the edging.

I plan on giving it back to my SIL next time I see her... I hope I lengthened it enough!!! Cross your fingers for me!

September Recap

Here we are in the last week of September already! Eeek! I thought we should recap the things that have been on my needles lately (and mostly still on the needles):

First: Sweater for Norah. I'm not entirely happy with this so it has been banished inside a bag under my desk for a week or so.

Pattern: Elliot Sweater
Yarn: Red heart Eco-Ways (leftover from those baby blankets I made)

I mean, I like the color, but it seems like it's going to be a little big for this winter (which was my intention), and also I just don't think I am a fan of a garter stitch yoke. It's so stretchy it feels like it pulls down to much when worn. I think that also bothers me a bit on the February Lady sweater I made for myself. Hmmm. I am going to let this one hibernate a bit more and think about things.

Second: I started a sweater for my hubby!!!! This will be the first sweater I've ever made him (and we are only approaching our 4th anniversary, that isn't too bad right???). He helped pick out the yarn and agreed on the pattern.

Pattern: Basic Cardigan (doing the button version) from Knits Men Want
Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes
Mods: Not doing reverse stockinette panels, instead doing all stockinette. Adding ribbing to the bottom & cuffs of sweater.

Also helping me GREATLY is my friend Shateen! She is making the same sweater for HER husband! Yay for KALs! I forgot how much fun and how inspiring it is to knit something along with someone else. If it wasn't for her I probably wouldn't even have the yarn yet!!!! I also just did a guest post on her blog about an activity I did with Norah. Check it out if that sounds interesting to you :)

Hope everyone is having a great fall! (Everyone being the three people that read my blog lol)

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!

Owls and rainbows

So, remember this owls sweater that I am making for my friend Erin? Well I'm 99% done! I had the chance to take it over to her house yesterday and make her try it on. I was worried the sleeves were too short but she says it is perfect. I hope she wasn't lying to spare my feelings! :) I guess I will take her at her word and I hope to get the neck bound off and the ends woven in tonight or this weekend! Yeah!!!!


In more colorful news, I've already cast on with my Adriafil yarn (my Feb yarn-of-the-month!), and it's looking great. I hope I have enough to make the body of this adorable halter tank top for Norah. Pattern is Haltermelon, but I am not going with the watermelon color scheme (obviously). I just need to find a solid color yarn to use for the top part. I think it's going to be so cute!!! Perfect for this summer, I hope... (I am knitting the 2T size).


TGIF everyone!!!!

Mossy out!

Finished the Mossy baby sweater, sewed on buttons and mailed it off. I forgot to get pics with the buttons but here it is drying on a towel:


I like it! I'm glad I didn't do the sleeve stripes. Hope it fits its little boy recipient sometime after he is born this year :)

In other news, I've finished the body on the Owls sweater and have started a sleeve. I have a playdate next week with the recipient so I hope she will humor me and try it on so I can make sure it is the right fit. Otherwise I will be ripping and ripping.... so cross your fingers!!!!!! :)

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!!!

New yarn!

I got a wonderful gift from my MIL for christmas... a gift certificate to the yarn store, AND some super soft amazing yarn!!!! Cascade Eco Duo - I've never owned any before and it feels like butter!


On top of that, she said she is going to buy me another skein of yarn EVERY MONTH of 2012!!!! WHAT? It's like being in the yarn of the month club!!!!!! I mean how crazy is that. I think I won the Mother In Law Lottery!!!! (Well, and husband lottery... hehe)

Anyway today N and I hit the yarn store and I bought a sweater's worth of Encore worsted to make the owl sweater for one of my good friends. I am excited and I love the bluish grey color!


Getting excited about my 2012 projects!!!

What?!?

UMMM Did I totally forget to blog about my completed "Hey Teach" sweater?!? I was just going back through my posts and I believe I did!!! WHOOPS.

Soooo let's backtrack to the end of April when I finished it.... got all the pieces blocked and sewed it up.


And voila!


I think it turned out very well and I like my buttons that I found. Only problem is I should have knitted one size larger (it was gifted to my mom for her bday in June), but I chose my size based on the fact that I had limited yarn - I was trying to use up the excess yarn from my FLS. Oops. Mom said that she would try and block it out since it was "close". I think it looks cute with only the top 2 buttons done up anyway! Oh well, live and learn... don't try and stretch your leftover yarn to make a too small sweater!!!

Summer?

Just checking in! I am still chugging along on my Hey Teach sweater. I have the back and both fronts done, and have cast on a sleeve! It is going pretty fast. It is funny how much faster I can knit a sweater for someone else but take a YEAR to make one for myself! Anyone else have that problem???

Today was sunny and like 80 degrees... it was LOVELY. Kind of weird jumping right into summer weather like that though! I know it won't last long, but it was fun to wear flip flops and open the windows for at least today. I think Norah enjoyed hanging around the house pantsless too (in a onesie). We took her on a walk which was great! I can't believe she will be 6 months on tuesday.

Anyway hope everyone else is getting some warm weather too!

Another sweater

I guess I must have secretly LOVED knitting my February Lady Sweater, because I recently found myself casting on another sweater with the SAME yarn! LOL! I guess it is because I had so much leftover and wanted to find a good use for it, but it is still kind of amusing. Can't go very long without this stuff on the needles!

Pattern is Hey Teach!  Just chugging along on the back for now! This is going to be a gift. I really hope I am knitting the right size, AND that I don't run out of yarn!!!! Wish me luck !