A joking and not so joking matter

I’ve been working on some resurrected WIPS, namely these socks I started, um, over two years ago.

I call them my Jester Socks, because of their crazy colors. They actually go with those crazy knee highs from Vogue that I made a few years ago.

I wanted detachable socks, so I could have the option of knee highs or socks. So I made some Jester Socks.

The not so joking matter? I live near Buffalo, and a commercial plane crashed last night into a neighborhood on the flight path. Everyone on board died.

I don’t know of anyone personally that was on the flight, but I do know a few people who’s husbands are emergency responders or work for some of the agencies on the scene.

The only place for comfort is Jesus. This morning I read from Psalm 46, 62, and 121. If you have a bible, check those out. If not, I linked to biblegateway. Truly, God’s Word is amazing and He is the only source for true joy, comfort, peace, and healing in troubling times. (Thus my knitting and bible in the first pic).

Hold tight to your loved ones and hold tight to the Lord.

Blocking Chaos

I was just wondering…

Does anyone else’s dining table look like this when they are blocking a sweater?

Pure chaos? Pieces pinned to ugly old towels, the nearest books holding them in place?

I think I want a blocking board. Or a friend who has one.

Keeping Warm

I took a short break this past weekend from my sweater to knit Sweet Pea a new hat. All of her old ones didn’t fit and I was feeling mildly guilty stuffing her cranium into size 6-12 month hats or throwing a blanket over her head when we went out in the tundra winter-wonderland. So I scrounged up some Lamb’s Pride and went to my trusty Last Minute Knitted Gifts to create yet another one of Kim’s Hats.

It’s taken me several days to capture my child wearing her new hat. Most of the pictures I took look like this:

I ran out of pink yarn, so I found some unidentified purple chunky yarn in my stash to complete the earflaps, ties, etc. I thought the flower was a fun and whimsical addition to tie in the purple. Lamb’s Pride is amazing yarn to work with and it is extremely functional in cold-weather wear. The thickness of the wool keeps moisture from snowflakes away and my baby’s head is always toasty warm.

One of the things I love about Kim’s Hat pattern is that there are several different types of patterns and you are encouraged to experiment with colors and styles to create something all your own. I hope Sweet Pea grows to love this hat as much as I do!

Street Progress

Street Smart Hoodie, that is.

I have 2/3s of the first sleeve done…. and I wish I had this sweater finished because it is a balmy 5 degrees today!

Christmas In January

Whew! It’s been a crazy couple of weeks. Christmas was fun, but then our entire household got sick, with me getting the worst of it. It’s no fun when Mama is ill! Thankfully I was well on the mend before my in-laws arrived for our first annual “Christmas In January.”

As I mentioned a few posts back, this year was a handmade Christmas. We were really moved by the Advent Conspiracy and wanted to participate in helping build water wells for the people of Sierra Leon. By careful budgeting and some craftiness, we were able to do so. I’d encourage everybody to check out the Advent Conspiracy for next Christmas- it was a breath of fresh air!

I think that many people have felt like the meaning of Christmas has been lost, taken over by commercialism. It was estimated that Americans would spend $450 BILLION on Christmas in 2008, and yet solving the worldwide humanitarian crisis of lack of clean drinking water would cost $10 BILLION.

Quite the drop in the bucket, eh?

So, what did we make???

This is one of five aprons I made. This particular one was for my sister-in-law, who is an amazing cook and wore this last week while she and her husband prepared the greatest roasted chicken dinner I’ve ever had.

A cable knit purse for my aunt, gizzly bear pajama pants for my husband, brother, cousin, and uncle (yes, they all match and no, I have not been able to get them to wear them at the same time for a photo-op), and brown and blue paisely lounge pants from Amy Butler’s In Stitches for my mom. My female cousins and my brother’s girlfriend received pajama pants that matched Sweet Pea’s lounge pants. No photo there either

House Slippers from Knit Two Together for my sister-in-law and Keith.

We made Habanero Jelly with peppers from a friend’s garden. We also made grape jelly with grapes we picked!

I made my mother-in-law the Kimono from In Stitches and forgot to take a picture. They haven’t left yet, so maybe I can get a photo before they leave!

My NaKnitSweMo

Aren’t you glad it’s National Knit a Sweater Month?

This is the back of my street smart hoodie, knit with my birthday yarn*. I’m at the first set of sleeve decreases and am hopeful to get a good chunk of this sweater done this month!

It’s so nice to be cabling again!

*If you want yarn for your birthday, don’t order it for yourself and then tell your husband it’s *from* him.
He probably won’t wrap 8 skeins of wool and then you *might* feel a little slighted on your actual birthday and he will be scratching his head wondering why you are crying. Then you may feel slightly silly when he reminds you that *he* bought you a sweater’s worth of yarn for your birthday. Not like I know from experience or anything….

To fluff or not to fluff?

That is the question.

Here is the finished baby cape with fluff:

And here it is without:

I can’t decide which way I prefer.  The loopy stitch took many tries to figure out so I would hate to waste such a herculean effort. I also sewed the loop section NEXT to the finished cape edge, so the hood seems a bit bigger and blocks a little wind for Sweet Pea BUT it does have a baby-bonnet type loom to it. And I’m not sure about that.

Off to finish her Socktober Socks before NaKnitSweMo (National Knit a Sweater Month) begins tomorrow. I’ve got my yarn, I’ve got my project, don’t have my swatch yet… where are you at?

In the Hood

I’ve made some hood progress:

I’ve got 30 more rows to go, then a few more rows with a smaller needle size. The fluffy part is actually done separately by casting on 7 stitches or so and then making loops and garter stitch until the length is equal to the front of the hood.

Sounded confusing to me. We’ll see what happens. I am still committed to attempting the fluff but may weave in ends & add buttons before adding the fluff so Sweet Pea can wear the cape while the weather is just right.

By the way, did you know that I have commandeered the third bedroom in our house as a craft room?

It’s a small bedroom with slanted ceilings and a wierd 70’s laminate floor. BUT. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? I threw a piece of left-over carpeting from when we had carpets put in at the condo for SP to play on and so far I just have some books, my swift & winder, yarn & fabric up there. Oh, and a futon. Hopefully this weekend Keith and I will be able to bring up my sewing desk & machine.

Do you have a crafty area all to yourself?

Knitting and Life

As I was working on the baby cape, I realized that I made a mistake. I was one stitch off in my counting- somewhere along the decreases and button holes I made a mistake.

The horror!

I was exhausted after a long day and just wanted to enjoy and evening of chilling on the couch with my husband while knitting. Of course, finding a mistake made me ever so slightly uptight and grumpy. Actually, I was RATHER uptight and grumpy about the whole thing.

I couldn’t go on without fixing the problem and yet I had no idea where in the sea of garter stitch I had goofed. Unable to go forward, yet not sure where to go back to.

My dear husband asked me in my distress if there were any life lessons in knitting, trying to get my mind off the missing stitch.

Why, yes, there are life lessons I have learned in knitting! What in particular did I learn from this?

Sometimes you can make a mistake and not realize it until much, much later. You can’t go on in good conscience unless that mistake is taken care of, that wrong made right. The end product would not be all it was meant to be unless the mistake was fixed! It can be difficult to go back and fix it (like over 600 stitches painstakingly undone one by one) but once it’s fixed, the road ahead is much smoother.

What have you learned from knitting?

One down, one to go

I knew in theory that I’d knit these socks quickly, but one sock in 4 days? That, my friends, is so exhilarating! I hardly could keep up with the greats and their amazing knitting feats before Sweet Pea was born, but now? Starting and finishing a task, any task, even drying my hair, is hard to do nowadays! Thus the exuberant rejoicing.

One sock down, one to go. I am fairly confident that these will be finished by the end of Socktoberfest. I think they will make a perfect gift for my daughter’s FIRST BIRTHDAY, which is one month from today!

Hopefully I won’t get too distracted by the yarn I just got in the mail.

Mmmm Cascade 220. I now have enough yarn to finish Sweet Pea’s cape & the lighter pink is for a project for me. Maybe she’ll get a cape AND socks from Mommy for her birthday. Do you think she’ll care about things that I knit her someday? Maybe when she’s older?