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FOs, sort of
I say "sort of" because I haven't actually blocked anything, yet.
I had too many almost-but-not-quite-finished things. So, I finished some things. Now all I've got, I think, are the two stuffed toys, which I need to finish stuffing and embroider faces on (and, in the case of the crocheted broccoli, after I stuff the stalk I need to actually crochet the curly stuff at the top). One thing I learned: Sewing on bear arms is annoying. Next bear, I'm finding a pattern in which the arms are knit up along with the body, maybe?
But the finally-finished-but-for-the-blocking things!
1. My very first socks, knit up in "Regia silk color" self-striping yarn on size 2 dpns. I chose the yarn because it was sooooooooo soft; none of the colors they had available at the time appealed to me much. What's perhaps unclear from this picture is not only is there dark blue, light blue, white, and yellow, but there's also peach. From Sensational Knitted Socks.
2. Booties, sort of, except instead of stopping at the ankle, they keep going. I started with the pattern from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies and added a tube. And I made it in stripes. Stripes in the round are a pain; the "slip the first stitch of the second round in each color" trick from one of my books did help some, though. The black is Sirdar Country Style DK; the multicolor is Mountain Colors hand-painted Bearfoot superwash, in "Wildflower." The tube-parts I knit in the round on two circular needles, and the foot part on straight needles, all size 7. In the closeup you can kind of see how the garter stitch black soles kinda look like tread. They are cute, but: I should have used a smaller-sized needle on the ribbed-patches at the ankle, and, well, the long tubes, even though they're nice and stretchy, are narrower than I'd hoped, so the things are going to be limited to a smaller size than I'd expected. On the upside, they're not going to fall off constantly like the previous pair of booties I knit. But I'm feeling less motivated to make Z & I matching socks from the same yarns, as I'll likely not finish them before the baby grows out of the booties...
3. Sweater, also from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies. Also in Sirdar Country Style DK, and also on size 7s. :) I almost didn't buy this yarn in the first place -- why are so many yarn stores poorly lit? In the shadowy back of Weave Works, poorly illuminated by strangely-colored flourescents, this yarn looked drab. In reality, it's this gorgeous purple with flecks of pink and bare hints of dark grey. Really pretty. Not thrilled with the sleeves -- the pattern called for slipping the edge stitches at the cuffs so that when they were turned back and then allowed to roll as stockinette rolls, they wouldn't look dumb. However, since I was still struggling with figuring out the topology of the sweater when I got to the sleeves (so, um, what part am I working on now? This is, um, the neckline? The sleeve? What?) I didn't figure out which end I was supposed to be doing that on until it was too late. And, my edges are usually messy enough that slipping the edge stitch is insufficient for a neat edge anyway. Next time, if there is a next time, I will just make the sleeves shorter and put a garter band there to match the band at the bottom. Speaking of the band at the bottom, it's not big enough to counteract the curl of the stockinette. I knit rather tightly, particuarly when working with wool, so my stockinette is *very* curly.
4 and 5. Two of the three hats I made while teaching myself to crochet. The black and purple one uses up bits of the Sidar from the booties and sweater -- my estimates for how much I'd need for the sweater were all off. I figured I'd need a skein-and-then-some, and instead I used less than a skein. So, there was some left for the hats (the third, unpictured hat, is also purple). The white beehive-y hat is a cotton yarn that I've got a big cone of. It's bulky, a little textured, nonshiny, and has a rayon(?) thread twisted with it that has little boucles of various pastels, so the effect is kind of tiny pastel poka-dots (baby blue, mint green, pale pink, yellow...I call it "baby colored yarn"). I don't crochet tightly enough to be satisfied with how I crochet this yarn, so if I do another project with it, it'll likely be knit.
And now...I get to start new projects. :) I found myself not-knitting for several weeks, and I realized it was because I had all these unfinished projects hanging over my head, all of which I was bored with. Fixed!
I had too many almost-but-not-quite-finished things. So, I finished some things. Now all I've got, I think, are the two stuffed toys, which I need to finish stuffing and embroider faces on (and, in the case of the crocheted broccoli, after I stuff the stalk I need to actually crochet the curly stuff at the top). One thing I learned: Sewing on bear arms is annoying. Next bear, I'm finding a pattern in which the arms are knit up along with the body, maybe?
But the finally-finished-but-for-the-blocking things!
1. My very first socks, knit up in "Regia silk color" self-striping yarn on size 2 dpns. I chose the yarn because it was sooooooooo soft; none of the colors they had available at the time appealed to me much. What's perhaps unclear from this picture is not only is there dark blue, light blue, white, and yellow, but there's also peach. From Sensational Knitted Socks.
2. Booties, sort of, except instead of stopping at the ankle, they keep going. I started with the pattern from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies and added a tube. And I made it in stripes. Stripes in the round are a pain; the "slip the first stitch of the second round in each color" trick from one of my books did help some, though. The black is Sirdar Country Style DK; the multicolor is Mountain Colors hand-painted Bearfoot superwash, in "Wildflower." The tube-parts I knit in the round on two circular needles, and the foot part on straight needles, all size 7. In the closeup you can kind of see how the garter stitch black soles kinda look like tread. They are cute, but: I should have used a smaller-sized needle on the ribbed-patches at the ankle, and, well, the long tubes, even though they're nice and stretchy, are narrower than I'd hoped, so the things are going to be limited to a smaller size than I'd expected. On the upside, they're not going to fall off constantly like the previous pair of booties I knit. But I'm feeling less motivated to make Z & I matching socks from the same yarns, as I'll likely not finish them before the baby grows out of the booties...
3. Sweater, also from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies. Also in Sirdar Country Style DK, and also on size 7s. :) I almost didn't buy this yarn in the first place -- why are so many yarn stores poorly lit? In the shadowy back of Weave Works, poorly illuminated by strangely-colored flourescents, this yarn looked drab. In reality, it's this gorgeous purple with flecks of pink and bare hints of dark grey. Really pretty. Not thrilled with the sleeves -- the pattern called for slipping the edge stitches at the cuffs so that when they were turned back and then allowed to roll as stockinette rolls, they wouldn't look dumb. However, since I was still struggling with figuring out the topology of the sweater when I got to the sleeves (so, um, what part am I working on now? This is, um, the neckline? The sleeve? What?) I didn't figure out which end I was supposed to be doing that on until it was too late. And, my edges are usually messy enough that slipping the edge stitch is insufficient for a neat edge anyway. Next time, if there is a next time, I will just make the sleeves shorter and put a garter band there to match the band at the bottom. Speaking of the band at the bottom, it's not big enough to counteract the curl of the stockinette. I knit rather tightly, particuarly when working with wool, so my stockinette is *very* curly.
4 and 5. Two of the three hats I made while teaching myself to crochet. The black and purple one uses up bits of the Sidar from the booties and sweater -- my estimates for how much I'd need for the sweater were all off. I figured I'd need a skein-and-then-some, and instead I used less than a skein. So, there was some left for the hats (the third, unpictured hat, is also purple). The white beehive-y hat is a cotton yarn that I've got a big cone of. It's bulky, a little textured, nonshiny, and has a rayon(?) thread twisted with it that has little boucles of various pastels, so the effect is kind of tiny pastel poka-dots (baby blue, mint green, pale pink, yellow...I call it "baby colored yarn"). I don't crochet tightly enough to be satisfied with how I crochet this yarn, so if I do another project with it, it'll likely be knit.
And now...I get to start new projects. :) I found myself not-knitting for several weeks, and I realized it was because I had all these unfinished projects hanging over my head, all of which I was bored with. Fixed!
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