My quilt frame arrived today

and I cannot play with it because I still have company here and will for a few more days.  Oh well.  I love my company too.  He cooks dinner for me and man do I enjoy that.

I have been working on that little baby hat I showed  you the other day.  I think it is too big.  It measures out fine and all, but to stay on nicely, there is just too much stretch.  I am really enjoying the knit and it is pretty

but it is just too darn big.  And that is heartbreaking.  I picked the wrong size.  sigh.

So shortly, I will be going back to the drawing board with it.  In the meantime, I am going to start the cute little aviator hat that will match the sweater.  It is a hearty chunky cotton and I will knit the baby size.  Ought to be perfect, right.

We shall see.

A Sophisticated Baby and stuff for the future.

Ta Da!

Isn't that just the nicest little sweater.  I will be making this again.

I didn't start the cute little hat that will match this.  I sort of got waylaid by some other interesting things.  

A fella who is always chilly needs more than one hat, right.  I do have the blue yarn and the soft cream and while they are nice, they are not quite an everything hat.  So I had to go looking for an everything yarn.

I found one in some drops Fabel sock yarn.  Not my beloved Big Fabel, but a regular Fabel sock.  It seems to be one of the more fine sock yarns, but that will be perfect to get my little fella through summer, nice and cosy, without being too warm.  It has a little of the look of good old fashioned jeans, without being just denim.  A little fun and the pattern?  Why an infant sized Slouch Hat.  It will be a nice quick knit and my hands are really looking forward to a finer yarn for a change.

Enough about that.  It will be much more interesting by tomorrow's end.  On to the rest of today's interesting things.

I have been waiting for a large package to come in the mail.  It is quite exciting and I can't wait.  I have ordered a quilt frame.  I wanted one for years and years and with all the wool batts I have deep in the wool room, I decided I deserved one.  I got a card in the mail and I could hardly stand it.

But no.  It was the smaller of the the things I ordered.  I was looking forward to these too but it is just that it isn't the quilt frame.

I get why I got this.

From the moment my Sweet Thing was born, I knew that someday I would clothe her a doll.  I wanted it to be a nice soft body sort of doll and Mary Maxim is the easiest source for nice reasonably priced dolls.  A fully kitted out doll before Christmas.  Deadline knitting and sewing, but it is the fun kind of deadline stuff.

What I don't quite get is these.

These are some little 5 1/2 inch dolls and only heaven knows what is driving my need for these.  But oh my, how I wanted these little dolls.  And they are much cuter than I could have imagined.  5 bucks of pure fun.  Just having them sit there looking goofy is already a huge amount of fun.  And clothing them down the road.  They will be the best dressed babies dolls ever!

As I was cruisin' along...

I was.  I really was.  I finished the collar this morning and I started on the sleeve and just when I felt that the knitting was so good that I might be late for work, I saw this.

After the navy comes...yeah.  Not white.  I caught the error and set it down and had another cup of coffee.  I made it to work in plenty of time.

This evening I sat down and for the first time in a very long time, felt energized enough to knit away the whole evening.  Up until now, after work, I make something to eat and go straight to bed, but today I have all sorts of gumption.  I think I must have been short some vitamins or something, because that is the only things I have been doing different.  And I am knitting more than before.  Knitting does have its own charm and that charm is magical, so you never know.

I sat down and knit this up.

I think I will take along some navy when I take it to him just in case the arms need to be longer, but he is such a wee fellow that I am planning for how to roll the sleeves up easily.  (No garter stitch cuff)

Honestly though, this little sweater is so cute.  Impossibly cute.  And I found the perfect hat for with it.  Also impossibly cute.  Baby Sophisticate sweater and stylish little man hat.  They will be so perfectly right together.  Its going to blow your socks off.

A lovely weekend

I was supposed to be in Saskatoon this weekend to celebrate my dad's 85th birthday.  But said root canal and how it is going have made the trip impossible.  More good drugs will be required to resolve the infection for good.  And having a cold, or whatever it is, isn't helping.  My little boys went though and that was great that they could.  I do know, though, that even if it is summer, my wee babe needs a hat.

There will be one out of the nice cotton to match his sweater but I think I am going to make a couple more.  I got some nice blue Zara and I have a soft white a few weeks back that will be very wearable even in summer.

Hats coming up.  

I am just about finished the sweater.  Just a few rows on the collar to do.  I am just waiting for the battery on my device to be charged before I finish it.  I would use and alternate device but that one is, ahem, plugged in as well.  Sigh.  If my printer was plugged in, I would have gone to paper.

I didn't only knit this weekend.  I did a little work outside too.  I don't really have a garden, and my neighbour does the lawn, what little I have.  I don't have a place to keep a mower and if I got a storage shed, I would change how very nice our communal back yard feels.  There is a nice fire pit and they keep flowers out there.  I like that.  (Finally making up my mind not to get a storage shed is such a load off my mind, I have a 6 foot storage box, that will suffice for rocks and camping things and such.)

But I did do this and I am so pleased with it.

Down the road, I might do a little more in the front yard, some beds and such, but you know, this feels good.  Plenty good for now. 

I did some other fun stuff too, like having a really great time clothing shopping.  That never happens and yet today...happened.  

And I picked up a couple things the house really needed, like an iron, and a ironing board and a thing to hang it up with.  

And this. A tool box.

 I was looking for a longer little red tool box.  Apparently those have gone the way of the dodo.  My one from way long ago, is still around but is too small for my hammer and the little electric screw driver set Mr Needles got me shortly before we found he was ill. A woman on her own needs a place for all her tools.  So I got this, because it was a whole lot prettier than those manly grey ugly tool boxes. 

I also got it because it would have made Mr. Needles laugh. Can't you just see my big grown up boys carrying this tool box as they go around helping me with stuff?  Bahahahaha

Now where were we?

Ah yes, the blue striped sweater.  

When you last saw it, it was just a couple sections below the armpit.

And here we are, looking exactly the same.  Well almost.  And yet, there was a lot of knitting done to get it back here.

I washed the swatch with some bath towels to see how it was going to shrink up.  It did as expected in the length, but it shrank a little more horizontally than I thought it would.  I decided to add a couple stitches under the arms to give it that little bit extra.

It would have been plenty roomy for my wee fellow, but with the shrinkage, the sweaters lifespan would have been short.  The pattern had a lot of comments that it seemed to run narrow on the body and with that little bit more shrinkage, my larger by a little bit gauge just didn't feel like enough to compensate.  

Very early this morning, I ripped back to underarms and added 2 stitches at each armpit (this gives me a full extra inch of width) and away I went.  I love the way the colours look in these 6 row stripes.  It just tickles my fancy.  

And being small and in a chunky cotton?  Fast knitting.  It took almost no time at all to get back to this.

I just want to put in a good word for this lovely cotton, Wendy Supreme Chunky.  After washing, I love it even more.  It grows soft but stays nice and crisp looking after the full bore washer and dryer torture test in a permanent press cycle. No namby pamby front loader either.  My new wee machine is a good old fashioned top loader and the yarn stood the test of its small drum and agitator just fine.

So maybe tomorrow morning for finishing?  We shall see.  

And that is right where we are.

 

I think

And that is about all.  I have a cold and deep cough and I am not getting enough sleep at all.  It wouldn't be so bad except I had a root canal on  Tuesday.  I hurt and I cough and I am not sleeping because of it.  

So not a bit of knitting yesterday and probably not a lot today.

Looking up the weekend isn't far away and by then I am pretty sure I will be feeling a lot better.  

I think.

Oh wow

I have my big computer again.  We have set it up in the big back room.  Well that should be Son2 set it up in the big back room for me.  I will blog in the evening for a bit since I have a funny feeling that he is not going to want to get up at 5:30 so I can blog then.  Ha ha.

I went to go pick up a new something and the store did not quite have what I wanted.  I would like that perfect blend between laptop and computer, where you can take the screen off to act as your tablet when you travel.  Not in that store.  I will look at another and see what they have. 

So far, no knitting this evening.  That is mornings work.  sitting around brain dead seems to be evenings work. That will sort itself out soon enough I suppose.  

So, in lieu of smart knitting, I will give you babies and sweet princes.

Wee Carter

 Wee Isaac

And wee Cassie

It's not really fair for Grandma to post pictures from when they were small, since they have grown so much, but hey, we all have to start somewhere and if you want cute, these guys are it.

Being a Grandma is wonderful.

It wasn't The Gameboy, it was the laptop.  Sigh.  The wireless card on my laptop died.  Everything else works fine, but as certain people visiting my house feel, it was time to put it out of its misery.  It was old and slow.  My question is how is old and slow bad?  So the search is on for the next thing.  

Thankfully for the layers of technology, I can still blog.  So long as I go with pictures taken with this unit.  Onward I say.

There was a lot of knitting this weekend.  The black sweater remodel might be done.  I am still debating on long sleeves.  Photos when I make up my mind.  It is now a slightly longer average very neck cardigan with short sleeves.  

And then I started baby things.  My wee fella is still pretty wee but I do want this sweater to make it through summer.  It's also cotton so I want to allow for some shrinking.   Combined,  this means I am playing fast and loose with pattern gauge.  Yes there is a pattern.  Baby Sophisticate by Linden Down. , a really great little shawl collar baby sweater.  Cute!  

The yarn is that lovely chunky cotton, Wendy Supreme Chunky.  

Cute is as cute does and it will not knit itself.  So off I go.  Time to knit.  The world is slowly righting itself and putting itself in order.  It is unfolding as it should.

And modern Grandma.

Yes,   I am here.   I could not post yesterday due to conflicting technologies.  Apparently a Gameboy will sucker the life out of every other signal.  Even now,  I am blogging from my Playbook.  

It's kind of appealing at how deep the layers of technology are in this house.  

There was very little knitting here yesterday.  I had opportunity and time.  I also had a toothache.  That seemed to occupy all my energy.  

This weekend I am going to do at least one day of just sitting and knitting and movie watching.  I really want to get this little sweater going.  I can't wait to see it!  It's already complete in my head.  And it is cute.   A sweet little hood with a little tube knit double knit with a tubular cast off or a long graft for a tie to run through.  And wee tiny chunky cotton jeans.  Or maybe some real denim jeans.  Grandma has a TON of nice denim yarn.  

Grandma feels like going full Grandma this weekend.  She is going to knit for her sweet wee ones and hug each of then and kiss them and snuggle.  A grandma weekend.  Yeah.  That's what it will be.  Only Grandma is going to geek out with the movies.  A little space science fiction.  A little Disney.  A thoroughly modern grandma weekend.  Even if I do that old fashioned knitting thing.

Baby Things

When my Sweet Thing was born I knit a couple of things before she was born.  This years miasma meant that I did not do anything for my little prince before he was born.  I did knit that blanket for him for his baby shower, but it was a wool blanket and it is going into the hot season. 

Its time grandma knits a little something else.  I bought some lovely yarn to knit another blanket.  

Wendy Supreme, a nice chunky cotton that I worked with a little before. The plan was for a nice striped blanket.  One colour, one stripe, till the 9 balls were used up.  It would have been great.  I even started it.

And then, overnight, it came to me that I really did not want to knit another blanket for him.  What my sweet prince needs is a nice sweater.  Maybe some pants.  

I mean every little fella needs a pair of baby Blu, right?  And a little sweater to go with it?  A nice wee manly hoodie.  

You know, little boys things are few and far between on Ravelry, and They don't usually give you quite the range as girls things do for experimenting and cutsie-ness, but that doesn't mean they have to be boring.  I 

Wendy Supreme will make some great pants and a hoodie to match.  Dark blue pants, and a 3 colour striped jacket.  Cool and just as sweet as he is.

  

A Sewing lesson

I don't know about anybody else, but sewing pieces of wool together is easy once you get over the idea that you should do it the same way you sew fabric.  

When you sew wool, you need a table.

And then that wool needle you like.

And your project.

Then you match your sides needing sewing up and place your project wrong side down.

You put your needle in from the top and go down under 2 of the strands that go between your chosen stitches.  

 Then to the other side 3 and from the top, go under 2 strands between stitches of the row you areusing for your sewing line.  And then is the part that I used to get messed up on.  

You go back to the first side and back into the same stitch you worked in previously and under the next two strands.  And so on.  Back and forth, leaving your stitching loose so that there is no stress on the yarn.  You can leave it much looser than I have and it will still work.  

And then, when you have worked a couple inches, you take both ends of the yarn you are sewing with and pull till the yarn is firm and your seam is completely gone and it looks like one fabric.

Your backside is going to look like this.

And that is as hard as sewing a seam is in knitting.  

Well sewing mattress stitch anyway.  Which is the only way I would sew it together now.

And then to a baby shower for my wee sweet prince.

Newsies

If this was a newscast, this would be the leading story.

There was knitting this weekend.  There was sitting around with nothing earthbreaking to do, but knit.  There was refined sitting around drinking coffee and knitting!  There was also a baby shower, visitors and a lunch, furniture putting together, and box emptying and moving.  

I did only the fun stuff on that list.  Somebody else to did the box moving and furniture building and that is why the weekend was stunningly knitterly.  It gave me time to contemplate my knitting and that is something I have not done in a very long time.

The knitting is moving along splendidly.  

The baby blanket was completed.  There will be pictures as soon as I dig out my camera.  It is lost to the dark bottom of my bag somewhere.  Can I just say, I am starting to like sewing pieces together?  A lot.  More about that later.

I have been working on the black sweater renovation, and it is going very well.  I have just finished working the length.  I added two full inches and am just moving to the ribbing.  I am going to make the sleeves longer by a ball of yarn each, which should, I think, get me 3/4 length sleeves and there will be a ball of yarn left for the button band.  I am looking forward to the finishing.    

But enough for today.  I woke up a little late and I want, no, need to make some time to knit before I zip out to work.

A baby shower

The day is here.  The baby shower is tomorrow.  I have company coming for tea in the morning so the blanket has to be done early, early, early.  And all I want to do is sleep.  There are people at work who have been sick with a miserable cold/flu like thing and boy, I had better not be getting it.  So I have been sleeping extra and I still feel so tired.  It is doing nothing for the completion of the blanket.

So, I will show you baby pictures instead.

He has the most wonderful grin!

He is getting to that sweet stage where he is awake a little longer and he enjoys watching peoples faces and responds so sweetly. I can't wait to see him.  It has been a couple of weeks and last time he was having a good snuggly sleep when it was my turn to hold him.

Anyway, tonight I have some house cleaning to do, and then a very busy day with company, finishing a blanket and playing with babies.  

Sewing a fine seam.

List of things needed when you sew knitting together:

Needle with large eye.  My preference is these

I just wish they would come in sets of 3 of the small needles.  It is the one I use the most and the reason I have purchased a ton of these over the years.  

Project needing sewing.

And a table.

I watched my yarn store boss sew numerous things together over the years.  I watched her show people how to do it and talk them through it.  I watched and listened and somehow, learned it and one of the things she always said was to work on a table.  She emphasized that almost as much as the slow and deliberate way she walked people through learning which stitch legs to work around.  If you were learning from her, you always came out of the lesson, just knowing how to do it.  Many, many times, I saw knitter's who were sure they couldn't sew a fine knitted seam, call back or stop by, utterly pleased and brimming over with confidence.  

So, I do.  So I am off now, to work in the kitchen, which is the only place where I have a nice table sitting waiting for me.  And I am going to sew a fine seam.

Or something like that.

Night skies.

I cooked a proper dinner last night, roast chicken breast, baby potatoes and peas, and this morning I made a decent breakfast.  I must be feeling more settled.  Oh don't get me wrong, it is still a zoo around here, but daily routine is starting to win out over feeling overwhelmed.

I ought o have finished the blanket last night, but I took a break from it.  I needed to focus and I was not in a focusing mood.

I was a dreaming mood, and so I dreamed. 

It started with this, Celestarium .  I was reminded of it by one of my non knitterly but sciency friends who appreciated it.  It reminded me of this one, Southern Skies, which is exactly what it says, a star map of the Southern Skies.  

I would love to knit these.  I have some really lovely silk from Handmaiden that would be perfect for it.  

So that is what I am doing today.  Just dreaming and thinking of lovely sweet things to come.

Almost

I am almost done the wee blankie.  I figure if I finish up this wool blankie for my wee babe, the weather is going to smarten up and get warm.  

The knitting is done, but it needs to be sewn together and an edging applied.  Almost done.  I might even make the baby shower. 

Then there will be something new for me.  New or one of those many things that I am in the middle of working on.  Like that black sweater re-do.  Or the red sweater, which I think I am going to restart from the top down.  I am just so much more comfortable knitting from the top down and right now, I need comfortable knitting.  And shawls and scarves.  There are some shawls and scarves that I really would like to work on.  And finish.

I could use a little lace.  Surely there is lace in there somewhere?

I have a lot of yarn and it speaks to me, and even though I would really like to knit with a bunch of it right now, I still have to settle in.  Its going to be just a little more, just a little longer.  Almost.

Why I had 3 spinning wheels

I had 3 spinning wheels till yesterday and yet, I do relatively little spinning.  Yesterday, my first wheel, my Babe, got a new home, one that will love it and care for it well and I am glad of it.  Preparing the wheel for sale, reminded me of why I had three wheels in the first place.

I had 3 wheels because fairly early on, I had results I was very pleased with.  There are all kinds of flaws in each roll and skein, but overall, it is pretty good for early spinning.  There was much less thick and thin than I remembered.  

These early Babe hanks, show why I went ahead with the purchase of the Julia.  I wanted finer yarn than this single, and I wanted just a little more control of the out put than I could get on Babe.  I came pretty far before Julia and Victoria came into my life. 

I have an untested lace flyer for Julie and Vicky and I know that there is are a hundred thousand things I could learn on this journey of spinning and I can't wait. 

The scream heard round the world.

Just sayin'

I have a lovely Namaste bag  I love it so well, that I will get another one but in yellow.  That bright sunny happy colour that I love so well.  But it has zippers and it occasionally catches on to shawls and yarns.

The yarn never rips but I find I am getting really good at working those looooong loops back in.

An urge for other knitting

When I woke this morning, I had an urge to knit something else.  Anything else.  It seems I might have overdosed with having just two projects for most of the month.  I am so over them.

I still have a deadline on one, but it is about 3/4 done the knitting, and only needs seaming  and an outer edging till it is done.  Lots of time.  But still.  Done with it for now.

I went to the wool room, which is as big as the small bathroom - I measured - and therefore deserving of the name, and stood there.  And smiled.  I have a wool room.  It is well lit and cozy warm in there and just has an ambiance that, well tickles my fancy.

I looked through the big box of WIPS and chose one.  I debated about starting something new, but it was nearer 4 a.m. and even I know that the middle of the night is not when to choose a new project.  

This is a sweater I decided to renovate.  I had initially finished it with a shawl collar, that while nice and cozy warm, swamped me.  It was too short as well and with 3 balls of yarn left from the project, I am taking the opportunity to make it longer as well as putting on a simple plain ribbed button band.  I'm thinking of making the sleeves a little longer too, but the length of the sweater is more important than longer sleeves.  This is what I am working on today.

The offices I work in are chilly and I am really looking forward to wearing all my sweaters.  And knitting new ones.

Fancy fully tickled.  Knitting underway.