Christmas Elephant

Finished in time for Christmas morning!

For the ears and bottoms of the feet, I used some vintage fabric I got years ago from a friend whose mom passed away.  I think she'd like where it ended up.

The pattern is "Eddie the Elephant" from Knitted Toy Tales by Laura Long.  It is so fun and cute that there will definitely be more little things made from her book in the future.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

                                                              ....an elephant.

Now for the blocking and the sewing and the stuffing, and then Eddie will be done.

Eddie the Elephant

I started knitting a stuffed elephant for my daughter.  Here is most of the body done.

(Despite repeated attempts to get a picture of Lucy in her hat, she will not keep the thing on her head.  Hat fail.  Also, after discovering an error in the knitting pattern, I think, for the size I was knitting, and not knowing how to fix said error, I ripped out the sweater I had started and moved on to other things.)

Necessity, and all that jazz

In the wake of our recent nor'easter, complete with five inches of short-lived snow, I realized Lucy doesn't have a hat she will willingly wear.  Most of them cover her eyes, which anyone would find annoying.  So I rummaged through my yarn and found a couple balls of lovely, soft, non-scratchy wool/bamboo blend in a blue-violet shade that fortuitously happens to match her winter coat.  The hat is half-done, but since the light is so poor now there are no photos to show yet.  But , on the positive side of things, this seems to have broken my knitters' block and I'm currently full of ideas.  Yahoo!

Uninspired

I have nothing new to show, even though my daughter is napping for three hours every day, giving me plenty of time to knit (or do other things...), and it's not for lack of trying - I've looked through books, looked through my yarn, started a swatch only to determine that my gauge is off, but I'm not concerned enough even to continue.  I've cut out magazine photos for inspiration, but don't have the funds to buy some luscious alpaca yarn for a slouchy fisherman's sweater like the one I saw in the Peru Collection (besides, it's not washable and I have a smeary, cuddly baby, etc).  Ho hum.  Right now I'm intrigued by the idea of making a teddy bear for my daughter, since she loves pointing out teddy bears in books, but the rows and rows of boring stockinette stitch may drive me away from pursuing that project.  So I've caught up on some reading, instead.  The end.

In the green

After finishing the pumpkin hat, I put it on and took it for a trial run.  Part-way through walking around, fingers firmly held by toddling baby, the hat fell down over my eyes.  Stopped, pushed it back, and the same thing happened again.  So I've decided to give it to a friend who can wear it without 1) looking pumpkin-esque and 2) forehead slope issues.

That aside, I loved the pattern, so I hunted for some slightly finer-gauged yarn.  Enter Rowan Felted Tweed in dark green.

It is knitting up beautifully.  I really like how the pattern stitches appear.  Most importantly, it fits my head without being either too snug or falling off.  I really must thank the ladies of Wild and Wooly in Lexington for their expertise.  This hat is turning out perfectly.

Finished hat

I've been calling this my pumpkin hat.  It is the exact shade of the pumpkin I bought at the store and is slouchy, so it has a certain...roundness.  My husband thinks it looks nice, but to me it seems as though I have a pumpkin head and might also have dreadlocks hidden under the slouchiness.  Either that or I'm wearing an orange old-fashioned chef's hat.  I loved the color until I put it on yesterday night.  Sigh.  But at least it's warm and comfortable.  Who knows, I may grow to love it again.

I also finished with mere feet left.  Yesterday I frantically noticed my yardage shrinking, but I was nowhere close to finished.  The pattern called for two skeins of yarn, but each recommended skein had 144 yards and my skeins only had 109, which left me 80 yards short of the pattern recommendation.  After a morning spent in dismay, calling yarn shop after yarn shop and not finding any more of the yarn, I figured out if I backtracked and started decreasing every row a little earlier, it would be ok, and it was.  My heart is still pounding from those last few rounds.  Knitting is so exciting.  (Sly grin.)

This is right before finishing.  Relief!

And here's what's left, including yarn from the cast-on and finishing bits.  

Hat in progress

It got cool here, and I lost my hat.  Fortunately, I can knit another one!  So I started the Flemish Block Hat from Wearwithall, a lovely collection of patterns by the owners (I think) of The Yarnery, up in Minnesota.  I'm using Classic Elite Inca Alpaca in a nice rusty shade of orange.  (Think autumn maple leaves.)  This should keep my head toasty during afternoons at the playground with my little girl.

Some finished projects and a new one

I made some fingerless gloves for a present, using the cover pattern from the most recent issue of Jane Austen Knits.  The yarn's true color has a little more yellow in it.

My mom and sister visited and we all made our own versions of an embroidery pattern that my mom brought along.  Mine is a little...rough...but I like it.

Today I started a knitted blanket, just simple garter stitch with bulky yarn and size 10.5 needles.  I like the color, a warm fuchsia.  When my sister visited, I convinced her to buy some shoes in the same color.  It's a great color.

Soon, I hope to start some baby knitting for my sister-in-law, who is expecting early next year.  And that's about it, other than eating my weight in peaches and tomatoes!  Gotta love August for that.

the birthday dress

It's done!  Happy birthday to my sweet baby.  

the little blue dress

Lucy turns one year old next Tuesday and I've gotten this far on her dress.   What's left is sewing the sides together and knitting the arm bands and neck band.  I'm hoping to get this finished by then, but it's hard (as everyone knows....) when you have a curious little girl who wants to get into everything!

I've also finished a couple small projects for friends that need to be blocked, and I haven't been able to take pictures.  Soon!

Birthday Dress Progress

I've been working on the dress from the "pretty pink baby set" in "Knitting Year Round" by Better Homes and Gardens.  I bought the book when I started knitting, back about ten years, and this pattern was my holy grail - a lacy little baby dress marked "advanced".  I thought it was so far out of reach, but I decided to try to make it for Lucy's first birthday and, what do you know, it's actually quite easy compared to some other things I've done.  A happy surprise.  Here are some (sideways..) photos that I took on a bad day for photos - the color is a bit off - it looks gray when it is really a light blue.  (Yes, I'm making it in blue.  Brings out her incredibly big blue eyes.)


This is a little half of the front part of the skirt.  The bobbles are quite tedious!

Close-up of the lace and bobbles.

Almost finished

(Sorry for the sideways photos.  Blogging with a baby means lots of important and no-so-important details get left by the wayside.)

Here is the cardigan with buttons and flower positioned.  Perfect for cool summer mornings, evenings, and air-conditioned grocery stores.

After spending several months without doing much (read: baby problems), I've discovered what, no doubt, many people have discovered; that small bits of handiwork are the way to go when you have a baby.  Thus the steady flow of small knitting projects.  I have also managed to complete the sock project I started one year ago (hooray!) and made steady progress on the purple magic circle blanket (from A Gathering of Lace).  I attempted to sew a few things, got as far as cutting the patterns out, but stopped short of actual sewing.  Part of the reason is that we're moving across town in a couple weeks; part of the reason is that setting up the sewing machine and coordinating thread, etc. is as far as I got before the little miss needed me.  

Currently on my needles, little miss's birthday dress.  I've ripped out and re-started twice, so here's hoping the third time's the charm!

little red sweater

This is the "Little Audrey Cardi" from Sublime's pattern book no. 648.  (The light green sweater in the previous post was the "vintage Alice coat" from the same book.)  I made it up in red sublime yarn, so soft and pretty!  It just needs the right buttons.

In action:

Sideways shot with view of scallops on neckline and button bands:

 Button Bands closed:

And in pieces before seaming and knitting the neckband:

Lucy's first sweater

I knit this wrap-around sweater for my little girl while she slept under the bili lights in the NICU nursery. She was a tiny girl, only four pounds ten ounces at birth. She was swimming in the hospital sweaters and needed something preemie-sized for her week-and-a-half stay in the nursery.

Here is the preemie sweater compared to the one I worked on next (that she has long since outgrown.) I also knit her a hat to keep the chills at bay in the hospital.

Purple Magic Circle Blanket

I started this yesterday during nap time. Who cares that it's on needles other than the pattern calls for - I'm knitting again! Eventually this will be about 7 feet across, as long as my cat doesn't decide it's her new toy, like she does with everything else.