Baby Sweater on Board

As a rule, I don’t post many works in progress, partly because I have so many, partly because I imagine they are of little interest to anyone but me. I’ve been working intermittently on my Sea Wool Socks, and I do think I’ll have enough yarn.

So, that worry is out of the way and although I love the yarn, I’m ready for something else, and I have just the item. I am going to make a design-in-progress shot exception, because of the Yarni sweater.

I received a skein of Yarni from Virginia, the creator of this lovely yarn. The colorway was so sweet I thought it would make a great, soft, machine-washable baby sweater.

Before you dismiss the idea of a baby sweater knit on size 2 (US) needles, let me reassure you. A baby sweater in sock yarn is not really any more work than a pair of socks. Maybe less. No grafting/kitchenering. (No seams, if I have anything to say about it.) And best of all, when you are finished, you don’t have a make a second one. Unless you are working with twins. If that is the case, you are on your own.

For several months I have been swatching on and off with this yarn. I kept trying to make a ‘gender neutral’ kind of pattern. I wanted something fairly simple to knit, not too boring, and one that had some lateral spread, since I am trying to convince people that knitting a baby sweater on tiny needles is not a huge undertaking.

Nothing captured my fancy. Then I realized that I was not letting this sweet yarn speak. It didn’t want to be gender neutral, thank you. It wanted to be a girly sweater. What opened my mind was a chat with my neighbor. She and her husband prepared for their little baby x with all kinds of colors, but not pink and blue. Baby Celia was born, and now the sage green sweater that mom started has fallen by the wayside. Instead, she showed me a cute lacy Debbie Bliss pattern and asked if I would help her pick out some pink yarn. That little epiphany was all it took. I swatched in one of my favorite patterns, an Aran openwork stitch.

It’s simple, easy to memorize, and fun to work. Experiences like this bring to mind a quote I love. If anyone knows where it comes from, let me know, please.

“I have often wondered if a good problem solver simply hangs her many experiences, like chimes, in the breeze of the problem at hand and then listens ever so carefully for a sound…what causes a particular set of chimes to ring remains a mystery to me.”

No matter how hard I tried, it was when I set the yarn aside and waited that the answer came. Now I can’t knit it fast enough. Never mind the Sea Wool socks. I have a sweet little girl around the corner who can model this, so why wait? Away we go!

~ MLE

NJ and You, Perfect Together

That was an old state tourism slogan. So NJ and the Big Fat Sicilian Engagement Party were perfect together, the rain passed right before everyone arrived, and it was a total blast — it was fun to see family. The best part was getting a bunch of time the day after the party to just hang out with my two sisters. We laugh together. A lot. That kind of laughing where your stomach hurts and you think that you might never breathe again. At one point I actually had to stop driving up the driveway because I was afraid I would hit the stone wall, I was that out of control. Forget drugs and alcohol. Sisters, man. My drug of choice. Once, many years ago, we were in a little cafe, laughing in our usual restrained ladylike way and a man came over and said, “Whatever you ladies are on, can I get some?” Nice to see that we haven’t lost our touch. My mother used to quote her mother, saying “The loud laugh bespeaks the vacant mind.” Don’t bogart that sister, baby, pass it around. Make my mind vacant.

NJ knitting content.The All Seasons Toddler Cardigan is done, and almost written up. I threw it in the suitcase, hoping there would be a child to model.

Nina, my niece, loved the sweater and wouldn’t take it off for hours, in spite of the rather sticky day. It even matched her dress and the flowers.

The twins were fascinated by a real new baby. Especially the toes.

More NJ connection. Annie Modesitt moved to Minnesota from NJ a few months ago. She and her family were resettling here. Her husband was starting to look for job but his back was bothering him. Not a back problem. Cancer. They have now been told that he has 2 years to live. Imagine just moving away from your family and support system, not to mention job, and getting that kind of news. Annie is now the sole earner in the family, and needs to travel to teaching engagements to keep the income coming. There’s a fundraising move afoot. Annie is giving away a pattern and asking those who download it to consider donating the cost of the pattern. Or more. You know about my Blanche Dubois thang — please think about helping Annie and her family depend on the kindness of strangers.

Here’s the link to the pattern, and and photo.

I’ll never knit this, I’m sure, but I’m glad to be the one who can help a teeny bit, and not the one driving my husband to the Mayo Clinic for treatment. Let’s all us knitters be perfect together.

Travel Knitting and Toddler Sizing

I am off in a few hours to NJ for my neice/goddaughter’s combo graduation/engagement party. (She was on the 7 year plan for a degree as near as I can calculate.) So I spend about 10 minutes packing clothes and hours figuring out what knitting and reading to bring. I have a real horror of being stuck in a plane or an airport with nothing to do. My favorite travel knitting is socks. They are small, lightweight, and since I don’t normally make complex socks, pretty simple to keep track of where I am when I have to put it aside and pick it up again frequently. This morning I cast on with this:

It is Sea Wool from Fleece Artist, a combination of merino and sea cell. There was no color number or name on the tag, but it sure is pretty.

I’m adapting an older pattern lace/rib pattern of mine, since I’m not really confident that there is enough yardage in this to do a pair of socks. I’m thinking that the lace will use less yarn than solid stockinette, but this may be pure wishful thinking on my part. One of these days I’ll have to knit equivalent swatches and measure. Unless anyone out there has the facts at her fingertips on this issue, in which case please share!

On the subject of Toddler Sizes, Theresa and I have been discussing the wide range of actual measurement in Toddler sizes. One 2T or 2 is vastly different than another. Here’s a sweater of mine and the finished chest measurements:

Children’s Sizes: 2, 4, 6, 8
Finished chest size: 25”, 27”, 28”, 30”

What do you parents of little ones think? I measured sweatshirts at Target when I did the sizing on this, but some have told me they thought it was on the small side. Do you have a brand or a pattern line that the sizes seem right to you?

And, since it is June, here are a few gratuitous Rose and Strawberries photos. It was my first bowl of berries without bunny and bird nibbles.

- MLE

My First Yarn Market

OK, since it looks like Theresa is not planning to tell her tales of TNNA, I’ll give a brief recap of the trip to Columbus, Ohio for the Yarn Market.

I packed so carefully that the only thing I forgot was my phone charger. I called around and couldn’t find one within walking distance of the hotel, so I stopped at the front desk. The clerk asked before I could finish my sentence, “Oh, did you check ours?” and clerk pulled out a plastic milk crate full of chargers of every variety. I’m sorry I didn’t take a picture. (Annie Modesitt did) There wasn’t one for my phone, but I figured if our hotel did this, so did others, and pawed through equally full boxes of lost chargers at three other convention area hotels. I could not find one that fit. WHY? Why can’t there be a limit to the number of these types of things? Do engineers really need to make a completely new type of charger end every time they design a new gadget?

However, since I have always relied on the kindness of strangers (Oh yeah, I’m totally a Blanche Dubois type….) I posted a note on the message board near the registration desk at TNNA. Three people responded, and one of them actually had the charger I needed. Sheila from One World Buttons was kind enough to let my phone hang out in her booth which it refreshed itself.

There was so much yarn, so many people, and so much fluorescent lighting that I was in overwhelm much of the time. Cameras are prohibited on the floor of the show, so no pictures. A few highlights to me- the yarns from the Fibre Company, whose mission is “to create sustainable natural fiber luxury yarns paying special attention to environmentally friendly production methods such as the use of low-impact dyes and organic cotton and wool where possible” – all well and good but they don’t mention the stunning color palette and beautiful feel. The colors in the Khroma line just kept drawing me back. I’ll have to figure out how to get my hands on some, since the shop didn’t get any. Yet.

Cascade had lots of new yarns, and some not so new yarns that I hadn’t seen before. One new one, Di Ve Zenith, is apparently the late lamented Maratona. It is a beautiful machine washable merino. I got a ball to swatch, but so far have just petted and squeezed it quite happily. It feels wonderful.

But, I have to say, my favorite booth was the father and son team from Briggs and Little. After all the gorgeous handpainted and luxury yarns, it was like the lure of a bit of steak and salad after too many desserts. The yarn is solid, basic, and hardwearing. I made a Norwegian Sweater for Mr. Guy that he has worn to death for about fifteen years, and just now I need to mend the cuffs. Briggs and Little never discontinue colors. It’s a yarn company you can count on. Plus, they may have been the only vendors to confess that they spent their Saturday night at the stock car races. (In the interest of full disclosure, they did not pay me for this. They did give me a nice little needle gauge, however.)

Best candy at a booth? Frog Tree Alpaca. Oh, the yarn was nice, too.

I finally, at the Potter Craft booth, got to see a copy of Just Socks, which has a sock pattern of mine in it, and to meet Shannon Okey, who compiled the book.

It’s a cute book and had some nice photos. Unfortunately, the photo of my socks wasn’t one of them. UGLY. I was given colors to work with, and they were fine, but whatever the background was, well, let’s just say it didn’t enhance an already rather funky colorway. Oh well. That’s publishing for you.

There was great food at the North Market. I am willing to sign up if there are any studies to see if it is possible to survive on salted caramel ice cream from Jeni’s. But just to provide a little protein, we had a nice dinner at the Flatiron a former bar/grocery store with good food at really reasonable prices, in case any one ever goes to Columbus.

I came back to hellish deadlines at work and deadlines not so hellish for some knitting. I hope to get some actual knitting posting done soon.

MLE

Zippy Does Knitting – The Liberace Code

Zippy the Pinhead is a quirky comic strip — Mr. Guy emailed me this while I am at TNNA.

I am having a blast with the Yarnery people. Theresa is not only a good blog mate but an excellent roomate. Doesn’t hog the bathroom and likes to watch re-runs of Law and Order on the All-Law-And-Order-All-the-Time Channel. (I don’t have cable, so I don’t have the opportunity to do this at home! ) Winding yarn and watching tv. Such glamour.

yarn velleity

Mary Lou’s been bugging me to catch up with the blog, while I’ve been trying to catch up with work after being in the hospital for 3 days, flat on my back. So I’ll tell you about an epiphany I had–actually several.

I wasn’t expecting to stay in the hospital, so I didn’t bring anything with me. The next day my husband brought in the necessities–two pairs of undies, three books, and four knitting projects.

Unfortunately the underwear had holes. (I’m from the Midwest; you’ve got to use things up.) As my husband was frantically packing a bag, I’m sure he wasn’t thinking, “I need to pack the ‘good’ underwear.” So my first revelation: In the future, I’m just going to throw the holey underwear away.

The second is not so much a resolution as a velleity (a mere wish, unaccompanied by an effort to obtain it.) I love that word! I want to organize my knitting projects so that I (or my husband) can grab a bag of knitting and it’ll have everything I need in it–the yarn, the pattern, the needles. Not pieces scattered all over the house, drug off by the cat, in my car…

Because although he’d brought in four bags of knitting, only one bag had yarn that actually matched the needles. So I began a project with Fleece Artist sock yarn and ripped out as much as I knit. (Not the yarn’s fault, but mine.) No net knitting gain, but I did watch Misery three times.

I’m back in the swing of things now, and as we speak, Mary Lou and I are at the yarn market. The show starts tomorrow, and we’re already drooling over the yarn displayed on the Wall of Yarn outside the exhibit hall. We’ll keep you posted on what we find.

P.S. If you haven’t checked it out already, check out Susan’s blog. She’s knitting my modular felted bag.

Theresa