Persistent Knitter

I have to say I am one proud Mommy.  My daughter expressed interest in my knitting a few times. Enough so that I bought her a ball of her favorite color yarn, and pulled out some needles and we cast on for a scarf for her dolly. 

To start with, she would sit on my lap and watch until she got bored.  Then I had her start holding the needles with me.  Then she started holding the needles on her own - and I would loop the yarn around and tension it for her.  (Knitting is really quite boring when you’re just holding the yarn). Months would go by between those events.  We leave her knitting on the counter, and when she’s interested, she’ll ask.  A few times I’ve asked her if she wants to knit, but the answer was "no".  No biggie - I’m not going to force her.

The past week or so, she’s been asking to knit a LOT.  Maybe it has something to do with the frantic pace I’m knitting Ribby Cardi.

So the other night I told her, "Ok, but mommy wants to knit on her own stuff, why don’t we show you how to loop the yarn yourself".  After thinking about it and showing her how you can use your left or right hand to hold the yarn, I decided it would be easiest if she didn’t need to rely on always holding the yarn under some sort of tension like you do in continental knitting.   Voila - we have a knitter:

And for the record, she turns 5 years old in 15 more days.

Please note how I am NOT touching her needles with my hands.  I am very carefully holding my OWN knitting and encouraging her.  She still asks for help with the first stitch of a row; and sometimes the last stitch.  I’m really trying to let her do her own thing as much as possible and matter of factly deal with things like dropped stitches or if she accidentally splits the yarn or knits in the stitch below.

For now it’s great because she’s got a long way to go to finish that one ball of pink yarn; but I think my stash might be in trouble once she learns how to purl.

Do the math, and you’ll see I’m 1 full step ahead. My first attempt at the back came out a bit on the smallish side, so I decided to knit the next size up and move up a needle size too. Normally I knit pretty loose compared to a pattern’s gauge, but this time I’m a bit more spot on with the recommended needles (which are 4.5mm - I’m using my Knitpicks interchangable needles)

I know, I could knit a gauge swatch, but I’ve never found them to be accurate when I knit only 4-5″ across and then move into a full sweater width. I’d rather just knit the sweater, hope for the best, and then curse a little when I decide it’s not quite right. It’s more frustrating, but also more accurate. 2nd time was the charm - You can see the ‘real’ sweater on the bottom and the first attempt in the back.

Rather than ripping out the first attempt, I just knit from the other end of the ball and pulled out as I went. The yarn (which is Elann’s Peruvian Highland Wool) seems super thick after all the fingering weight projects I’ve been doing lately. This is going to be a super quick knit! It’s not the softest yarn on the planet, but I think it’ll be Ok anyway.

I have two new sock patterns in the works. They will be available for sale end of this year on The Knit Foundry. This is one I’ve really enjoyed and I love how it came out. It looks very attractive both on and off the foot. I took a quick picture (I haven’t grafted the toe yet) so you’d have a sneak peak:

I’ve had the yarn and the pattern for a while - so thought I’d get started on it. The yarn is Aran weight so it should knit pretty fast. I chose grey for the body and a navy blue for the sleeves:

(click for a larger version)

I’m using my new Knit Picks Options needles for it. 32" cable, and the 3.75mm and 4.0mm needle tips. One small problem this morning that left me cursing on the bus ride in to work - the cable popped right out of the join!! GRRRRR.  I stopped and purchased some super glue and did a little surgery, and it’s as good as new. Has anyone else had this problem with the needles? I hope it was a fluke (although I know my friend Marta had the same exact problem with one of hers)

There have been a LOT of things happening lately, but I have neglected to post here. This one will be sans pictures; my apologies.  Here’s a quick list of what I’ve been doing lately:

1) Knitting on p’cock (Di finished hers, and I’m totally jealous. Go see her shawl here)

2) Designing a sock. This one is coming out SO SO well. The design is fabulous (if I do say so myself) I’m almost done with the first sock and will take a picture of it for you soon.  The yarn is Regia Silk, and I really like knitting with this yarn.  It will be Novembers SOTM at theknitter.com; and then available for sale at The Foundry as a pattern-only download shortly after that.

2a) Designing another sock. The december sock for SOTM initially gave me lots of trouble, but I finally came up with a great design that shows off the yarn well and has the added benefit of being a fun pattern to knit.   Waiting on the ‘real’ yarn to get it test knit and possibly have to knit it again myself. :)  (Think anyone would notice if I wore two socks that were in different yarn, but the same pattern?)

3) Getting new stuff in for The Knit Foundry - Bags!!! I’m really excited about the new bags I’ll have for sale. They are available in a bunch of sizes & colors, really attractive and perfect to store all your knitting accessories in.   Small, Medium and full project size.  I’m almost done with the web page where you can buy them - look for it hopefully early this week to be up.

4) Working on yarns to use for sweater designs. I got some color cards in the mail a few weeks ago; I just need to order some stuff, plus I’m also waiting on a sample pack from another source.

5) I also bought some yarn this weekend (more Regia Silk) to design some fair isle mittens.  Marta suggested something with skulls or snakes since the two yarns are a navy blue and a denim blue -  but I’m thinking maybe a butterfly? Still searching for motifs that strike me.

I finished this today:

The buttons are adorable little bears that are just the perfect color.  The sweater isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty darn cute anyway. I still need to wash and block it and then give it away! I hope to someday show you a picture of the intended recipient in it.

I’ve got some ideas in my head for some kid’s sweaters. I got this yarn to start playing with ideas.  Some stripes, some fair isle, and some other ideas (no, not all in the same sweater).

The colors are dark green, cream, dark blue (not black), light blue in two different shades, yellow and a medium blue. The wierd green onthe bottom I’m not sure what I’ll do with, but it’s always good to have a nice range of shades to work with.

This picture is actually old. And a bad one, but I taunt you with the lumpiness of un-blocked lace!

(I had to alter the picture a bit and reduct the amount of red. it was really really red in the pic. I think this is closer to reality, but still a bad picture)

I have been doing quite a bit of knitting; but not a lot of posting lately.  I’ll try to fix that with a few posts for the next few days.  First, I got the sleeves sewn in on the baby sweater:

(click for bigger version)
I still have to sew down the facings inside the sleeve holes, finish putting on the button bands (I have 1.67 button bands on now, but not shown in the picture) and do the collar. Then weaving in all the ends.  I tend to leave all the ends for last; because I’m paranoid that I’ll have to rip back and if I weave in the ends, it will make ripping out/back even harder.

One small thing I need to deal with - where I cut the steek on the front I’ve managed to not fasten a strand or two. I need to redo some machine stitching after fixing a few spots with a crochet hook. *sigh*.  Next time I’ll use a super super super short stitch length on my machine instead of just ’short’.

I wrote a post here: 

http://peacockshawlalong.blogspot.com/2006/09/reversing-shaping-technique-for-lazy.html

And am too lazy to cut and paste the whole thing here. :)

Feel free to comment here and let me know if you’ve tried this trick before. More pictures of p’cock soon - I just took some last night.