Happy 1st Birthday Holden!

Dear Holdie,

I can't believe it's been a whole year since you, my second nephew (by marriage), were born. Your birth was the first one I ever experienced, so you are very special to me!



I still CANNOT believe how much hair you had. It was crazy!!!!!

(a couple days old)


The whole family pretty much fell in love with your long dark locks and your huge blue eyes! Its no surprise you are our little owl boy.

(3 months)


7 haircuts in your first year.... that is NUTS! Even your mom can't beat that! :-)

(6 months)


I think we are glad your parents let your hair stay shaggy.... it was so adorable when you had all your little curls (even if strangers occasionally thought you were a girl!)

(9 months)


I am so blessed to be your aunt and I am loving the chance to watch you grow up from the beginning! Here's to another year of fun!


Love,
Auntie Lauren

Holden's Vest!

This last weekend I celebrated my nephew's FIRST birthday! (Technically its not until the 25th) This is what I made for him:


Owl Baby Vest[ravelry link] I changed the pattern to have an open shoulder that closed with a button, so it would fit over his head easily, and I added a couple inches of length to the entire thing!



My SIL loved it and I think Holden did too :-)



What a cutie!!!! Happy Birthday little owl boy!

Spring!

Happy first day of Spring!!!! My goals are to plant some herbs, work on my yard... get outside and go on walks often.. and of course keep on knitting... warm weather means time to break out the cotton yarn! ;-)

The other weekend we had a beautiful day so I got to play in the dirt a little, and organized my gardening supplies:



Also my first Allium plants are growing! woohoo!

Parade of Hats

Woah, I haven't blogged in a MONTH! Eek.... I get so caught up in reading other people's blogs I forget about mine! Sorry again.... jeez... someone needs to get on me about blogging! :)

OK time for another catchup: This time, its a parade of hats! Apparently that is all I can knit!

Pink baby hat? done & gifted to Larissa for her little girl coming this summer!


Green baby "toddler" hat? done and waiting to find out who it will go to.


Mom's sweater? second sleeve is 3/4 way done. (no picture, nothing exciting to see)

I made "newborn" sized baby hats to use in sets with the booties I completed at the beginning of the year (I finally finished the ties to thread through the booties finally).
for a little boy:


for a little girl... yes i know the hat stripes and bootie ties don't match... I ran out of purple :( but they are still cute together!


And I made this super sweet baby bonnet out of my Last Minute Knitted Gifts book:


I love it!!!! I need to make booties to go with it now.

Currently: Hat problems! Apparently even though I have made a million hats this year I am still not able to judge size. Or maybe I just need to pay attention to gauge :-) Hmmm who would have thought that was important???

I had finished a hat for my coworker last week...I knitted the entire thing once and it looked like this:


Kinda big, right? I wasn't too excited with the stripes either.I thought his head was bigger than mine and that it would fit...took it into work and had him try it on.... NOPE! Oops. Sooo... rip rip ripped it out.

Second try:


Muuuuch better! I will give it to him(again) tomorrow so cross your fingers!

Also I started a cute football helmet style hat from Itty Bitty Hats.... but I had to rip that one back too! EESH! Hopefully my mojo will get back on track soon....

One more secret FO but I can't blog about it till after this weekend.... hint: its for my nephew who will be turning ONE already! WHEW!

Yet another "Catch Up"

Sorry loyal blog readers.... I don't know why I am so bad about updating my blog!!!! I really like having this.... I think ravelry has spoiled me too much since it is so easy to update my projects there! (my username = stitchholder)

OK here we go :-)

Mom's cardigan (sitcom chic)... one sleeve and the body knitted up to the yoke! Woot! (doesn't need to be done till June so I am doing great lol)



I am so thankful to CYNTHIA for teaching me how to do Magic Loop!!!! Yes I learned a new knitting technique and it is very easy and solved my problem... see normally I can knit baby hats and other things on double points and not have a problem getting "gaps" between the needles... but normally I don't use cotton yarn!!!! My mom's sweater is using a mostly cotton blend, so when I went to knit the sleeves i was getting MAJOR gapping. Blech!!!! Luckily Cynthia had a 40" cable to lend me (We both have the knitpicks options sets so all she had to lend me was the cable itself - PERFECT) I really enjoyed doing Magic Loop and in fact I am planning on using it on a project I just started (mentioned later in this post)!

Next up - Baby hat! I am about 90% done with this right now, I am going to finish it up tonight before I go to bed! Just adding it to the stockpile of baby knits for all the kids being born this year!



(If you remember the green booties I made at the beginning of the year, this hat matches them!)

And most recently, a baby girl hat:



Its the pattern Miss Dashwood from knitty.com. So far the picot cast on is quite tedious... but I think it is really going to turn out cute!!!! I am planning on trying the magic loop with this hat also... wish me luck :-)

Also I am planning my first ever "Knitting party", where I am inviting my knitting buddies who live in fort wayne over for some food and knitting, of course! I will post how it went after next weekend!

Friday is my coworker's baby shower at work.... I am gifting the B&W striped baby hat and the pink baby chucks booties... I can't wait, hope she likes them!!!!!

Sweater progress....

I will let you see my mom's sweater WIP now since its actually more than 2 inches long...


Pretty color, no? She picked it out... it is Knitpicks Comfy in "pomegranate"!

FOs & Superbowl knitting.....

I finished meg's turtleneck shrug!


Its interesting to try and put it on, but its nice and warm and I like it.



I also got my baby booties done....


They turned out pretty cute!


Superbowl knitting: Cast on and finished this striped hat to match the booties above!


It makes a cute set for my pregnant coworker! I think she will like it :)


New project: cardigan for my mom!


It is cast on already, but not much to see yet! I am doing the "Sitcom Chic" pattern from knitty.com! (hopefully in time for her birthday in JUNE lol....)

Hope everyone has a great week!

Sweater done and new project...

I got the baby sweater done. It's not bad for a sweater, just has some elements I am not totally pleased with. One thing is I suck at is sewing up the sides/arms, so I might try and redo that again with thread instead of yarn. Anyone else have sewing tips? I typically turn it inside out, pinch the two sides together and do a whip stitch (I believe) to join. It really isnt the greatest... but it is all I know how to do. Suggestions welcome!

ALSO I am trying to think of something to use to hold the sweater closed! I am thinking a large safety pin? Maybe a plastic one? Something the baby can't eat or hurt themself on....

My penguin likes to model sweaters for me.


I am working on the ribbed turtleneck shrug for my friend Meg.... I am only a few inches away from being done! WOOT!

Finally I cast on for a pair of booties for my coworker... she mentioned how she wants to get pink baby converse shoes for her future baby girl... I thought what would be better than pink BOOTIES that the baby can wear soon!!!!


One is cast off, I need to sew it up and weave in the ends and then add the fake "laces". Hope to get to that at lunch today!

Lots of snow... hope you all are staying warm!

Project catch up....

OK This one is barely making it on the blog, it was knitted & done so fast!


Keyhole Scarf! (scroll down on the linked page)


My mom loves it :-)

Also I am making good progress on a baby sweater....


Ribbed Baby Jacket (ravelry link) from Debbie Bliss book "Special Knits: 22 Gorgeous Handknits for Babies and Toddlers"

I am insane and decided to make a striped one, which is going to result in 2.5 million ends to weave in! poo!

Recycled sweater yarn

So I had this sweater I had bought from Old Navy quite awhile ago... It was kinda frumpy and too boxy on me (not flattering) so I never wore it... but I hung on to it through SEVERAL moves because I liked the color.... and now I finally have gotten around to salvaging the yarn from it to be knit into cooler things!!!!!! How did I do this you ask?

(Side note: the sweater yarn is worth recycling because it is 58% wool... thats enough wool for me!!!!)

1. I spent an evening picking out the seams and winding the yarn into skeins (wound it around my arm) and then tying the skeins with little pieces of red yarn to keep them neat and not tangled. Look how curly the yarn is after being in a "knitted" state for so long!


2. I soaked the skeins in some warm water for awhile, squeezed them in some towels to get the water out and then hung them from doorknobs/hooks with a can of beans or whatever as a "weight"... this helps get all those kinks out of the yarn!

3. Once they were completely dry, I used my awesome ball winder and swift to wind them into these pretty skeins! Look how much yarn I got from this sweater.... SWEET!

Swift swift!

As I mentioned before, my lovely husband said he would build me a yarn swift to go with the ball winder he gave me for xmas. Well he is a man of his word... here is my BEAUTIFUL handmade swift!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (seen here on the dining room table, which is the best place to clamp the ball winder)


I mean, seriously folks... I married the best man a knitter could EVER marry!!!!! Look at these details...


I love that shape of the block in the center! And its fully adjustable to a number of sizes!

And the stain he used... its such a lovely dark color. Sigh :-)


Thanks again hubby... you rock!!!!!

Jesmy handknits

I'd like to take some time out from my regular non-posting to do some shameless promotion for my good friend Jessica!

She has recently been laid off from her job....which SUCKS (thanks economy!) BUT this means she has lots more time to knit more awesome things for her etsy shop:


She has recently added several new projects... I especially love the bright yellowy orange cowl:


Gorgeous!

Right now she has even marked down all her scarves (look in the "sale" section), and is in the process of adding really neat vintage knitting books!

I hope you all go and check out her shop!!! :-)

Also - all of you try and STAY WARM - its been in the negative degrees here lately, blech! I am going to climb under all my wool and hibernate until spring....

First FOs of 2009

9 days into the year and already I am on a roll!!!!!

Due to the large amount of babies I have heard will be born this year, I thought I'd get a jump on my baby knitting.

Booties:


MORE booties:


Yes, they are the same yarn and same pattern... the pattern I have made before. I included the holes so I can put cute I-cord ties in them, but my plan is to wait until I hear the sexes of the babies and then I can make either a pink or blue cord. That way I got some knitting done ahead of time, but at the same time they can be gender-personalized!

On the needles:

A commissioned project.... my first! My best bud Megan (who was my maid of honor at my wedding) found a picture of a really cute turtleneck shrug online and asked if I could make it for her. I was excited to try, so I researched and found the pattern in the book Scarf Style. Megan, being so awesome, not only bought me the book but also bought all the yarn needed for the project! (She and I picked out some Knitpicks Swish Superwash in colors Black & Bok Choy)

Here is my current progress.... one sleeve done!

It looks skinny but its all 3x3 rib and its soooo stretchy and awesome! :-)

Happy New Year!!!!!

2008 was an eventful and fun year... I got hired on as a full time employee at my job (finally), my second nephew was born, I got MARRIED! I can't wait to see what 2009 brings!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's a look back on 2008, knitting wise.....


(click for bigger)

What a knitting year also - I made booties for the first time, I made a complicated lace shawl, I knit a pillow, slippers, baby blankets, a knitted tie, baby sweaters, and cabled things galore!!!!! It was a great "learning" year for me.

Thanks to everyone who read my blog in '08!

Oh yeah

I forgot, I made this cowl in one evening over my xmas break:


I am going to gift it to my cousin-in-law (? lol) as a somewhat thank you for her awesome gifts she mailed us!



I hope she likes it... its made from Bernat alpaca blend yarn, so its super soft (yarn was a xmas gift from mom!)