Happy Mother's Day!

Love you mom!



And you too mother-in-law!



And of course the coolest mom around... my SIL ;-)



Happy mother's day to all you moms out there!!!! Hope you celebrate!

Rip rip rip

Had to rip back my mom's sweater the other day. Cynthia and I were knitting in the conf room at work during lunch... and I realized I started the yoke detailing 8 rows too early! crap! Instead of tinking back 3 rows, I just pulled out the needle and ripped... i went one more row back, which re-separated the sleeves and body. BUT: the upside to this is I decided to rip back the upper sleeve where I had totally messed up a spot that would have been RIGHT on my mom's SHOULDER. Meaning I would have hated that shoulder and been embarrassed when I saw my mom wearing it.

Sooo it's probably for the better. Although, as Cynthia said, I could have put an American flag iron-on patch over it. LOL.

Happy thursday!!!! New Office tonight, right? Woot!

FO timeeee

Babylegs: Done.


Autumn leaves baby sweater: Done, but needs some buttons! (I need to buy some!)


It turned out really cute. I did less increases for the body so it's less flared than the original pattern. I like it!



In other news, I finally sat down and joined my mom's sweater pieces into the yoke and feel like I will be able to get it done soon! Unfortunately there is a lot of rolling, so I am devising various ways to combat it. (It is cotton/acrylic yarn, so I am not holding my breath that a block will do anything). Many people who have knit the sweater sew ribbon on the back of the edge to help keep it flat... I am planning on doing this on the front edges for sure!

Also... today it was rainy, then sunny, then all of a sudden rain poured down and then with crazy HAIL... then back to sunny, then dark? Indiana keeps you on your toes!

(photo of the hail on our deck courtesy my hubby and his nice camera)

Bunnies and babylegs

I whipped up these cute little bunnies over the weekend to gift to my nephews on Easter Sunday!


They turned out pretty cute. The blue one is for Cash and the brown one is for Holden. It was a good Easter!!!! The sun was shining, fairly warm out, and I helped hide hundreds of eggs for all of greg's little cousins and family members to find!


Also last night I cast on for some knitted babylegs (baby legwarmers):


(using leftover balls of Cascade 220)

Have a good wednesday... halfway to the weekend! Woot!

The hat that I forgot

Ooops I forgot to blog about this cute little "football helmet" I finished the other week!


It is a gift to my hubby's coworker's son... he is a little cutie, and his mom (who I taught to knit) saw this pattern in one of my knitting books (Itty Bitty hats) and loved it!


The embroidery on my little football is a little rough, but from farther away it looks like a football.... I think....

I am gifting it to her/them tonight, so I hope it's well recieved :)



(Knit in Bernat CottonTots for the blue,... the brown is some random brown cotton I found at hobby lobby, and the white is leftover dishcloth cotton!)

Finally.... not a hat!

Yes folks, I did not knit any hats lately, I have decided to move on :) I cast on for an adorable baby sweater called Autumn Leaves!



I love the purple and I think this will turn out great. Yarn is Patons classic merino... one of my favs!

Don't know who I am giving it to, but my friend Andrea just had a baby girl, and my friend Larissa is currently pregnant with a girl, so i think I will be OK!

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!