Thursday 29 October 2015

Goals

At the start of this year I'd set out to publish 4-6 patterns this year.  As of right now I have published exactly one.  That's not to say I haven't worked on the others.  There are two that only need the photographs inserted before they're ready, and there was a tech problem with getting the photos transferred from the photographer's camera to me which looks like it's been solved, so those two should be coming along quite soon, but when I look at that goal and see the short two months left in the year, it just seems like I haven't been very productive.

Now, I know that's not true.  I've produced all sorts of things this year, including a small human being that really, really likes being cuddled.  I like her, and I keep telling myself there will be years and years to spend making patterns.  Years when children don't need me as they do right now.

I still am looking forward to getting those three other patterns published.

Monday 26 October 2015

A really big swatch

I am starting a sweater for Caleb.  It is from the yarn he picked out when we were at the yarn store.  I was walking by and he pointed at the bag and exclaimed "my yarn!  MY yarn!"  He then got really sad when I said it wasn't what I came for.  Not complainy, just sad.

I totally ended up buying it to make him a sweater, how can you say no to that?

Anyways, I swatched, measured, and cast on, only to discover that it was way too big.  I measured the very large "swatch" that was the back and cast on again, it ended up being too small.  Anyways, I've now cast on for the third time and think I've found that goldilocks number of stitches because the thing is finally the right size.

It's going to have an airplane and clouds on the front. Right now I'm on the back which is just ages of stockinette, but I'm okay with that.

Thursday 22 October 2015

What was lost has been found

My husband suddenly remembered that the needles we'd been looking for were ones he'd helpfully put away in a book of mine.  He thought they went together.  They don't, but he's wonderful, and helpful, and most of the time finds the things I loose, and it's not a big deal.

A very cute hat is underway.  It is going to be knit straight up, then I'm going to kitchener stitch the top closed without decreasing and sew pompoms to the corners.

Because six month olds can totally pull off looks that adults can't.

Monday 19 October 2015

MIA

Today during nap time I sat down to make a hat for Ada.  I'd already swatched, so it was a matter of doing the math and casting on.  I'd gotten the yarn and needles out and sat down to make it.

The problem is that Caleb's been using my knitting needles as drumsticks, and somewhere on the main floor of our house are three of my DPNs.  I've looked everywhere.  Joshua helped me look.  When he woke up I asked Caleb if he knew where they were but we still haven't found them.

Instead of knitting I wove in the ends of the airplane mittens, which are mercifully done but it was way less fun than casting on a new project.

Saturday 17 October 2015

Got it

I've ripped the mitts out two more times since I last blogged and after the second time in this round of rip-outs the cause of my problem finally came to me.

The reason I keep ending up with the airplanes racing the same direction instead of opposite ones is, spectacularly, that I knit the first mitt's chart from left to right.  The last seven attempts have been completely correct, the issue is that having knit the first mitten in reverse I must make the same mistake with the second mitten to have them match.

I feel like pounding my head against a wall.

Thursday 15 October 2015

The worst

Apparently I knit the plane on the second mitt upside down again.  I would quite but the first mitt is so darn cute that I really want to finish the pair.  I think I've got it right this time, which is good because if I have to rip the thing back one more time I'll explode.

Today I was supposed to go somewhere where I was going to have a cup of tea and work on this stupid mitten for 20 minutes before something else was to start.  I was so looking forward to it.  Then my little guy fell down the stairs, got a huge gooseegg on his little head so we ended up at the hospital instead.  He is fine, but I feel so bad.  He hasn't slipped on the stairs in ages so a little while ago I started letting him walk behind or beside me when we were going up the stairs.  He's happy (he was mostly upset that he dropped his snack cup) and relaxing now.  Ada is sleeping and my mother brought me nougat so hopefully the next hour will be relaxing because my heart is still racing.  I love that little guy.

Tuesday 13 October 2015

The mitts are against me

Sometimes it's the easy projects that I struggle with, they lull me into a false sense of security.  I decided to make Caleb mittens.  I have made dozens of pairs of mittens in my life, this isn't hard.  After ine false start that I mentioned last week I got going, the first mitten was turning out well when I noticed I was about half way through my ball of yarn.  They're tip-down so that's not a huge problem, I wanted a stripe at the edge anyways, it just might be a bigger stripe.  I cast on the second mitten using the other end of the ball of yarn and got to work, figuring this way I can use up all of the yarn without worrying that I've used too much or too little in the first mitten.

The mittens have an airplane on them, but as I was knitting the second airplane looked funny.  I finally realized why; it was upside down.  (When knitting from the tip down the entire mitten is upside down so you need to turn the chart you've drawn upside down too, I missed that step on the second mitten).  I ripped back, slightly annoyed but figured I'd carry on.  I turn the chart and started again, but things still looked funny.  The plane looked off-centre.  Apparently I had done two extra increase rounds.  I've started again and am sure I have the right number of stitches.

They're going to be so cute when they're done.

Thursday 8 October 2015

So much cuteness

There's a little nook on our second floor where all my knitting things are.  I was cleaning it out yesterday and had dumped a bunch of things on the floor so I could sort the little cabinet that's there.  I'd gotten most of the yarn dealt with when my kids woke up from naptime yesterday so I just left it and figured I'd get back to it.  This morning my son came out of his room, saw it and said "oh mom!" (I was downstairs).  "Mom, mess, help.  M'knitting, m'help."  And then he grabbed a bag, looped it over his arm, and started to pick up the knitting needles and put them in the bag, all the while repeating "knitting, mess, m'help, mom."

He melts my heart.

Tuesday 6 October 2015

So much better

It is definitely fall and so it is time to do some fall knitting.  Caleb needs mitts and a sweater and Ada needs a hat.   I decided to start with the mitts, they are going to be grey with red airplanes on them.  I did the math and sat down to start, I don't know why but I decided to knit them the "normal" way, you know, from the cuff up.  I started casting on, and remembered that I'm not a fan of knitting from the long tail cast on (which I used because it was going to be stretchy), nor am I a fan of actually starting with the ribbing because then sometimes I flub at the math and things are way too big or way too small and you don't find out until later because it's hard to tell with ribbing.

I was telling my husband how much I was hating it when I decided to rip the whole thing out and start from the finger-tips how I like it.  It's a bit unorthodox but hands down my favourite way to knit mittens and honest to goodness it feels so much better now.

Saturday 3 October 2015

Time Flies

How the heck is it already October?  I suppose that means I should get a move on and actually design/knit Caleb his sweater because we've hit sweater weather, and I've just been getting a move on the blanket.  Speaking of the blanket, I still love it, I'm not bored with it, I have developed an absolutely irrational attachment to knitting the thing and I'm sad that it will soon be too cold to knit as much in the car.

I'll be working on that sweater now...

Thursday 1 October 2015

A contest

I love contests, and I really really enjoy seeing what other people are interested in knitting, so I decided to have a Pinterest contest.

To enter do three things.

  1. Follow me on Pinterest, by clicking here and clicking the red follow button in the upper right hand corner.
  2. Pin at least one of my patterns (they're on the right hand side of the blog, and they all have "pin it" buttons beside them to make things really easy).
  3. Comment on this blog post with a link to the board you've pinned my pattern to.
On November 1, 2015 I'll randomly choose a winner, which I'll announce both on the blog and by sending the winner a Pinterest message.  The winner will receive a coupon that will allow them to choose any of my patterns they've pinned for free.