Month: May 2009

Just Monkeying Around

I have been unlucky in my knitting adventures lately. I jumped into lace and cable projects that require way too much attention than is allowed for any mother with children under the age of 5. More on that later when it’s finished and given to the birthday girl.
In the meantime, Chris and I found a bag of felt that I had purchased a few months ago when I got the wild idea to make us some puppets to play with. The Land of Nod has the cutest kid stuff at outrageous prices, so I decided to try to make the puppets that I saw in their catalogue. Mine turned out not nearly as cute, but what can I say? It’s my first sewing project… ever, and Chris seems to like it just fine!
I had to break out the sewing machine manual and figure out how to wind the thread onto a bobbin and that I actually need to lower the foot plate (is that what it’s even called?) completely otherwise I will create quite a mess of knotted thread. It was definitely a learning experience. I don’t think I’ll be venturing down the sewing path on a regular basis, but I have to admit, it was fun and I have enough felt left to make the puppy.
This three day weekend is over (sigh) – back to the real world too soon. Thanks so much Paul, for the awesome picture 🙂

Baby Booties Coming Right Up!

These booties are coming along very quickly. The pattern is available for free from Howstuffworks.com. They are relatively simple, but I learned a few new stitches:
  1. Make: Basically you add a backwards loop and “make” a new stitch. This helped shape the toe to give that rounded appearance. Thank you knittinghelp.com for the excellent video!
  2. Cable Cast On: This allowed me to make the strap by casting on using only one piece of yarn. It was tricky to figure out. I kept trying to do it on the wrong side of the needle, after I figured that out, it went pretty smoothly. I ended up using a crochet hook as noted on the side of the knittinghelp.com website which made the cast on much easier.
  3. Joining Yarn: I haven’t had a lot of practice joining yarn, but again, knittinghelp.com came to the rescue.

Now to find some really cute little buttons…. any suggestions?

Toddler Socks Complete!


Tada! My toddler socks are complete… well, I guess I should rename them to baby socks since I made them so short. Hopefully little Daxy-poo will get some good use out of them. Although I have to warn his mommy that they are super slippery when on hardwood.

I’m psyched at how well the stripes match up. I took a mental note of where I started with the first sock, and tried to start in the same place. I never expected them to be an exact match right down to the toe! Oh yeah – I’m a pro 😉 (except for the holes near the gusset, and the extra ribbing, and the list could go on…)

I used Picnik to edit the photo which turned out pretty cool. Check it out if you want an easy online photo editing tool.

What’s next? Well, I’m trying to plug away on the super secret project for my sister-in-law, however it requires my full concentration. That kind of time is severly limited these days, so it’s slow going. I’m gonna fill in the rest of my knitting time with the baby booties to match the baby hat for my BFFs sisters little one who is due at the end of June.

Toddler Sock 50%done

The first sock is done! Unfortunately it is too short 😦 I tried it on him and the heel kept slipping down. I measured, but I must have pulled too much. I may go ahead and just make two more or see if I can stretch it out a bit with blocking. It still turned out beautiful and looks great on him. I can’t wait to do the hat!

For the next sock I’m going to change the cast on to 50 sts rather than 52 so that I have an even number of ribbing… I ended up just decreasing by two in the first sock and make sure I have enough length in the instep!!

I’m most excited about a new project that I’m starting. It’s a birthday gift, so I’m resisting posting a picture or anything. The yarn is a fabulous blend of baby alpaca, silk and bamboo in a deep mulberry red. It’s a lace pattern too which has been challenging, but so far so good.

Toddler Socks

I finally started some socks for Chris. The yarn is turning out to be really beautiful. I love the combo of gold, dark teal and gray. I would never have put those colors together, but they are pleasing to work with. That’s what I love so much about knitting really, it’s the yarn colors and the surprising way they blend together to bring the fabric to life. I can’t wait to make a hat out of it! The socks are coming together quick, so a hat is not far off.

I’m not working from a pattern this time. I’m just using my gauge to figure out how many to cast on based on the circumference of his ankle. I plan to go with these guidelines from the 2-at-a-time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes:

– If cast on = 100%, then the instep and heel stitches are each generally 50%
– When you add the gussets and then decrease them, return to the number of cast on

I’ll also reference Silver’s Sock Class to remind me how to do the reinforced heel and gussets and toe decreases. I’m keeping it very simple since this is my first time knitting w/out a pattern. Not to mention they are for a boy, so no frilly cable knits or anything like that. However, maybe I will get a little creative with the hat 🙂

I still have to make the flowers for the baby ruffle hat 😦 I tried once, half distracted, and didn’t quite get it. Plus I don’t have the yarn that I really want yet… so I’m not sure what to do about that. I may see if anyone on Ravelry has any scraps they want to donate. Oh! And I found the cutest little mary janes that I want to try to knit with the left over cashmere.