Happy Birthday Kelli

I finally finished a gift for my friend Kelli. Exactly 1 year late. Here are her monkey socks:


When I picked these back up in the middle of October, I had finished the 2nd repeat of the lace pattern. Once I got past the other two, it was a cinch. Not that the lace pattern was tricky, but it's trickier when you have frequent interruptions and/or yarn grabbers. The yarn is Trekking XXL - who knows what number. The color is pretty, but it would have been just fine in a plain sock.

And this year's gift. The theme was "be nice to yourself" (it was a milestone number) and included lovely bath stuff, a handknit washcloth and Godiva chocolate.

Is it too late to show Halloween stuff?

Here are the three monkeys: El is a fairy princess. La is Gabriella from High School Musical and the Monkey is Rorschach from Watchmen. I made El's dress and the Monkey's mask and scarf.



Here's a shot of the dress where you can actually see it. The sparkly stuff was really hard to sew - I probably should have changed to a finer needle. I used bias tape on the hem and then sewed the trim above it. I didn't have enough of the trim to do the whole hem, so I just did the front. Delightfully cheesy. La picked out the trim, buttons, and fabric for the dress. The pattern is Butterick 3772. I made view A. I cut out two of the dress - one in the slinky, one in the shiny. Joined the sides together for each, then when you sew the dress shoulders to the facing, there were three layers - silky, shiny, facing. The hem on the shiny is just pinked with shears. It all came together in an afternoon.

Scarf and hat

Here are the new scarf and hat, in action. The scarf is a basic sideways garter stitch scarf, the hat is similar to the Garter Stripe Beanie by Terhi Montonen (Mustaa Villaa). It could be a little bigger, but it fits for now.


And here's a picture of El wearing the sweater I knit for her this summer. I need to take one of her in the sweater my aunt knit. It's more pastel-y and her blue eyes really pop when she's wearing it.


And finally, the view from my Grandpa's driveway, if you look away from the road and away from the house (it would be down the road, if the road continued.) The familiar sights of my grandparents' town really looked a lot different in fall colors. I don't know that I've ever been (maybe once?) at this time of year - it looks so much different than June or March or January. A picture like this is now my phone wallpaper.

Socks and More Socks!

I finished some socks. First, these "Life's a Beach" colorway from Cherry Tree Hill. Just a basic 60-stitch stockinette sock, but my best-fitting ones ever. I went down a needle size. Fabulous. Have moved from thinking of them as the "tarnish" socks to the "verdigris" socks, as I've come to like them more. The color is truer in the baseball picture.


Next, I've finished these Lucy socks. They must be medium weight STR. They knit up very quickly. Knitting these, I discovered that El has a "merino problem"- she really likes to touch yarn. These are a little bit wonky, but nice.



I've started knitting these for the monkey. It's Trekking color 20. It sort of reminds me of granite.


Finally, not socks, but from sock yarn. I let El pick between the two skeins of Socks that Rock I had left in my stash. She picked Henpecked. I think this must be lightweight - it's much finer than the Lucy. I'm making her somehting that I've been calling, "something nice to touch." It's a lot like a dishcloth - seed stitch border, stockinette interior.

How is it almost October already?

Kindergarten is good. High school looks like it'll be good (this is a nice change). The baby room is starting to be a small pond. Soccer is underway. The Boy Scouts are wrapping up their first camp out of the school year - the council camporee. I'm thinking about making this quiche for lunch. Only with broccoli instead of spinach - I couldn't reach it at the store, and adding in some leftover rotisserie chicken. Won't the boys be glad?

The beach blanket for my sister was a big hit. And bringing El to the soccer games, I felt like I needed something to sit on there. Not a folding chair - because of El. She's mobile, and having to wrestle her to stay in my lap didn't sound like that much fun. But she's not big enough for her own chair.

This is the top. Although it doesn't really matter that much, I guess. This is what I'm calling a "no cut" quilt. I took leftovers and never-used, figured out if any of their dimensions matched up at all (like fat quarters usually had one side that was pretty close, and the whole pieces had about the same width) and sewed together stuff that matched. Then when the proportions were all wrong, I sewed stuff on to the other side. I winged it and I think it worked. Then I sewed it into a loop - the green strip of the plaid onto the left edge of the top. Closed up one of the long sides and most of the other, turned it right side out and closed up the small open part. There you have it. It's sort of got a lot to look at - which is pretty entertaining for the 9 month old.



This side is the bottom. The green plaid is two king sized pillow cases from Big Lots that I unsewed, washed, then sewed together. It's hard to find sheets by themselves (new) anymore. My favorite thrift store closed, and am not that great at getting to my less favorite ones. The chickens were just a fat quarter that I liked, the baseball kids were supposed to be for hooded towels quite a while ago (sorry Andy). Most of the others are leftovers from the watercolor quilt.

Sewing gifts

1. Blankets for new babies. An old coworker (and classmate), another old classmate, and one of my husband's old coworkers. Hunh. 1 boy, 1 girl, 1 TBD. I need to wash them after they've sat out in the house of sick. I hope I can remember who's who.



2. The birthday gift for my sister. I was all set to bring these when we went down for Labor Day weekend, except for the house of sick happened. Now I need to wash them and find a box.

A. Here's the beach blanket top.

B. Here it is put together with the back.

C. Here's a tote to carry it in. Made from the sheet used for the back.

The quilt was made from 8x10 rectangles. The flower print was part of my "heirloom stash" from Grandma Mercier. The tonal greens and blues were just a couple of fat quarter packs from Joann's. The backing fabric is a Lilly Pulitzer queen sized sheet from TJ Maxx. (What says Palm Beach County beach blanket more than Lilly Pulitzer??? ) The finished size is probably equivalent to a lap quilt. Or, about the size of my dad's Mohawk Airlines blanket, which we always took to the beach as kids.

Oh, and I also made a garbage bag for the back seat (of my car) out of some of the leftover sheet. Still have more leftover.

97% more disco

Have I showed this off with the buttons yet? It's the sweater for El. Buttoned, washed, and stashed away in the drawer of clothes that are still too big. Good stuff. La picked out the buttons. The picture doesn't quite convey the disco quality of the buttons.

Sick Day.

Turns out it's my turn for strep. Call me 3 of 5. While I'm home waiting for the antibiotics to do their magic...here's what kind of projects we've been up to. Fair warning - some have had more success than others.

1. This one is good so far. Apparently, according to the resident 5 year old, jewelry boxes are decorated with jewels. Who knew? This revelation required a second trip to the craft store. And the project took a totally different turn that I had expected. Technically this one is still a work in progress - I need to line the inside with fabric. So far, though, it's good.



2. This one, not so good. It's a t-shirt and iron-on from the fabric store. I swear to you that I read the directions. I even followed them, until there was no progress, then I struck out on my own and acheived what I'm calling partial success but my daughter, the recipient and Hannah Montana fan, is calling failure. This turned out a little too....um.... "rock and roll" for her. Will try again soon.


3. Found object crafts. (Again. Who knew?) La and her friend found a not so gently used football at the park this weekend. The bladder was oozing out of a broken seam. They decided that it looked like a baby and named it Isabella. Before lunch was over, she had googly eyes. Not long after, she had hair, then a mouth and nose. She's a cutie. Ended up making a nice bed for her out of a box courtesy of target.com, recieving blankets and a doll quilt. She's wearing a Winnie the Pooh onesie that El outgrew. Definitely a success.



4. A new sun hat for El. I'm not as happy with this, and it's my own fault for the mods I made to the pattern. It's too wide (and I made the main part of the hat on about 30% too many stitches compared to the pattern). The crown decreases are dorky (because I tried to do something cool but couldn't figure it out and didn't follow the pattern's nice swirly decreases.) Sometimes that happens. I would knit the pattern again, though. It's a cutie.

Finished Stuff For Ellie

I made some appliqued onesies during my last set of D & D sewing. I think they turned out pretty well. I used cookie cutters for the shapes, Wonder-Under for the fusible web and a zig-zag stitch in the polka-dot color to make sure it stays put. Martha Stewart's siter has some good general directions and a template for a French Bulldog picture. The top row are 18month sized onesies for later and the bottom two are in El's current size.



We took a road trip last weekend to Charlotte. All three kids are very good travelers. The DVD player and a supply of Green Tea Ginger Ale probably didn't hurt anything either. I managed to get both sleeves and both button bands done on El's sweater on the drive up. Now I need to sew on buttons and weave in the ends.



Pattern Notes: I think it's sort of a regular old top-down raglan cardigan. A good baseline is at CosmicPlutoKnits. The ribbing is 3x3. The cuff and hem ribbing is kind of deep. I slipped the first stich on each row and picked them up to make the button band. I may need to stabilize the neck, where the ribbing ends and the stockinette starts.

Yarn and Needles: Size 5 needles, Heavyweight Socks that Rock in Mustang Sally.

Upshot: I am very happy with this sweater and hope that it is cold enough to use at the same time as it fits Ellie.

While in Charlotte, I started a sweater for me out of some Classic Elite Skye Tweed, but frogged it. I'm not sure if it is the yarn-needle combination (earthy, slubby yarn, plastic needles) but it was just uphill all the way. So I cast on for the sweater for DH with Cascade 128 and it's really fun so far. However, just as the other sweater was too small for him, this one may be too big. Hopefully pictures soon.

Hey Look! Knitting!

I finished this sweater for La today. Ends woven in and everything. Well, it needs buttons. But except for that. Now, I think it needs a sundress. And then she'll have a fabulous ensemble for Pre-K graduation.

Here are the deets:

Yarn - Plymouth Encore Worsted (colorspun)
Needle - size 8 circular needle.
Pattern - Elizabeth Zimmermann's February Baby Sweater on Two Needles.
Notes -
1. The numbers/gauge worked out so that the numbers in the book worked for my 5 year old (Babies come in all sizes?).
2. Inspired by this one (Ravelry), and La trying it on when I had just split for the sleeves and her saying she wanted it "just like that". She approved of the one on Ravelry.
3. I went back and read notes from Ashley of Dogged. and Jared of BrooklynTweed for making it more seamless.
4. Once I thought I was finished with the yoke, I ran a lifeline through it, just in case. Then I started the first pattern row: Garter border, First pattern row for 15% of the sts. CO 7, skip the allocated sleeve stitches (20% of the sts), first pattern row for 30% of the sts, CO 7, skip the stitches for the next sleeve, then first pattern row for the other half of the front, garter for the border. wash rinse repeat until it's long enough. Garter stitch bottom edge.
5. For the ruffley sleeves, I ran my needle back through those lifelined sleeve stitches, k1 row, purl one row, k1f&b for all stitches, purl back, k1F&B for all stitches, bind off in purl. Repeat for 2nd sleeve. Purling and binding off those 112 stitches just about killed me. definitely killed any desire to make a "Potato Chip Scarf".
6. I'm not sure that I did the increases in the yoke "right".

Knitting! Woo-Hoo!

I have really been knitting lately.

1. I finished up Ellie's socks. I used the same yarn as for my sister's Jaywalkers, back in the day. I used the Baby To Toddler socks pattern, which I've used once before.



2. I made a tribble. A one-day knit. Peaches and Creme dishcloth cotton. I'll probably be making more of these.



3. I cast on a February Baby Sweater (ravelry link) for the 5 year old. I think it'll be quite lovely in this yarn, the yarn La picked out for a sweater for El. I think I'll make El a Febuary sweater too, but out of different yarn. I'm about 2/3 done with the yoke. I was worried that I'd have to do a lot of scaling to get the pattern to work in her size, but the yarn is kind of a heavy worsted (size 8 needle), and so far the numbers in the pattern seem to be working out. We'll see, though, if the yoke ends up being wide enough.

Table Scraps

I totally meant to blog this sooner, but you know....

One evening, when I should probably have been doing something else, I made this:


I had read about crumb piecing and really wanted to try it. I think it's probably about 18x18" and will become a doll quilt for La. It literally was made of "table scraps" - the blue fish and blue circles were leftover from shorts for La, the fruit salad from the cloth shoes for El, and the blue calico and the blue-blue bubbles were from the Wee Bunnies that I made for the girls' Easter baskets, and they were all sitting on the dining room table next to my sewing machine. I think I'll add a border in the wiggly stripes that were the outside of the cloth shoes.

Here are the bunnies for the girls:
The pattern was simple, concpetually. However, more precise sewing skills would have made them a little less eccentric.

Let's see....what else have we been up to?

Working on the switcheroo still. We've (and by WE, I mean DH) got the floor done in the monkey's room. His dresser is moved in and it's already kind of a mess. In the girls' room, we have the unassembled crib. Yesterday I put together the pack and play and El spent her first night "away from home". Her bassinet is still in our room and it's weird to walk by it when we know she's sleeping and not see her there. DH got home from a quick trip to the office yesterday, told him that El was sleeping. He walked into our room and called out, "Where's the baby?" It's sort of making me sad in a last baby milestone sort of way. Since the photos were taken, I've sewn a string of pennant for La and El's room and the curtains for the boy's. The still need to be hung up. Oh, and La and El have a Flor area rug. And the boy has some samples from Flor to consider for his. Next Sunday? A trip to Ikea to pick up a loft bed for him.

(L to R: Hers, His)

Oh, and did you come here for Knitting? pshaw. Well, I did finish a baby hat for our old neighbor who is having a little girl this summer.

It's based on a pattern from Itty Bitty Hats, made from that Elann yarn that is cotton with elastic. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's sort of wonky, but I like the old-fashionedness about it.

Also, hopefully soon I'll be done with El's knit blankie.

It's the little things

that I've been working on. I only have a little time too - I still need to wash bottles before bed.

We had a little bit of a cold snap and it turns out El is getting big. Her newborn hats that seemed giant were just fitting and her sweater? The one that she swam in on the way home from the hospital? Well, it didn't reach her waist anymore.

I finished off the skein of Socks That Rock heavyweight and made a new little hat. I had to stretch the yarn with some stripes of yellow.



And for La's soccer games, I decided she needed a "Florida Hat" (my grandpa is bald. we would send him these cotton fedoras from Kmart and he called them Florida Hats and would wear them when he was out in the sun). Similarly El's hair is very thin (I hesitate to call her bald, but some might say that she is) This is El's new Florida Hat. It's Bernat Cottontots that I've had for a while. Was very easy to make - very similar in concept to Lilly I cast on 2x the stitches that the hat required. Joined in the round and knit 5 rounds. Then K2Tog for a whole round. Then continued to knit as though I were making a baby hat (eg. knit for a good number of inches then begin decreases). I used N, S, E, W raglan decreases, I think, but sprial or spokes would have worked fine too.



Also in the small department, small shoes. These are from the stardustshoes cloth shoe pattern. They were pretty straightforward but I don't think I did the toe right (but it's good enough for a first draft).

I used an impulse buy fat quarter that I had lying around and leftover flannel from my flannel pants problem that I had this summer.





Next up? I'm working on a baby hat for a friend due in May - modeled after the Cotton Stria Stripes hat in Itty Bitty Hats. I cut out some wee bunnies for the girls' Easter baskets.


I'm having an Easter Dress moment - I found out that we're planning to go to church on Easter. When my sister and I were kids, my mom would sew us Easter dresses - it was a big production where we picked out patterns and fabric and my mom would sew her heart out. And we would have fabuous Easter dresses. Sometimes long ones. Sometimes with a pinafore. It's really hard not to start rummaging through my patterns and try to whip something up for one or both girls for Sunday. I bought material to make a spring dress for La. I might just take a look to see if I have a straightforward looking patten with a twirly skirt in her size. No pressure or anything.

Got the sewing machine out last weekend ....

Finished a set of bags that were meant to be Christmas presents. Hope to get them in the mail today.




Also whipped up a batch of coasters for a friend's housewarming:



For knitting, I've been working on my Eleanor sock:

(This one just needs to have the toe kitchnered now.)



I really have a hankering to start making baby hats. Oodles and oodles of them. I ordered yarn from Elann - that cotton with elastic stuff in a whole slew of colors. It's being sent parcel post, so I figure I can finish up a few things while I'm waiting -here's a roundup (sans photos)

1. garter stitch blanket for El. I think it's on the downhill side. But too big to be portable.
2. square blanket. This needs a lot of work, and also, it's too big to be portable already.
3. DH's sweater - the second sleeve is almost done, and from there it's the home stretch.
4. monkey sock - I think it's just through the ribbing.

One day, I'll be back to working on my shetland triangle.

Hopefully I'll zip through the second thistle sock. Then I'll tackle the monkey sock and DH sweater next - hopefully they complement each other - the sleeve is good portable knitting, then to do at home once it's joined. The monkey sock is for at home knitting until I get the heel turned, then it's portable.

Oh, and I started cutting out a Linus quilt - Once the monkey goes back to school next week, I'll venture out to the quilt shop for a few more fat quarters for it.

On the switcheroo front, La is enjoying the top bunk in her "new" room. We have paint for the monkey's room. DH has cut in the corners, but the walls need paint.