FO backlog

Believe it or not, I've got a lot to show you. I made a scarf on vacation earlier this month, I started a pair of socks, I finished a sweater for Afghans for Afghans (more on that in a minute) that had been hibernating since earlier this winter, and started a vest for same. I have been doing some semi-serious spring cleaning/reorganizing/decluttering, and I think some kind of contest or giveaway will be happening here very soon, so look out for that. I also got a lovely package in the mail today from Jessi containing beautiful crafty goodies, but I'm going to let her post about those first, since she made them and all. (Assuming her toothache gets better, that is! I hope that gets better soon, Jess!)

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you probably know that I like to donate hand knit items to Afghans for Afghans. I try and send something for every campaign (there are 2-4 every year, depending on how often they can get stuff shipped to Afghanistan, which is no easy thing.) Sometimes they need blankets, sometimes they need baby stuff, but lately they have been asking for youth-sized wearables, like sweaters, vests, hats, socks and mittens. I feel strongly about this organization because I really think that there is no substitute for warm, hand-made (they take both knitted and crocheted items), wool sweaters and such in cold weather. Most people who receive items from A4A don't have central heat. Or washing machines, for that matter. That's why A4A is so specific about what is acceptable; fiber content must be all wool or animal (like alpaca), colors should be dark or bright, no cropped or short-sleeved sweaters. I hate being cold (remind me why I live in Wisconsin?), and even with central heat, I understand that there is no substitute for a good, warm wool sweater.

Plus, it breaks my heart that there are so many people in Afghanistan who are cold, and if I make a few sweaters for them every year, I hope that makes a real difference in a few lives. (They are also hungry and oppressed, but there's not much I can do about that.) For that matter, it breaks my heart to read and hear about devastation and violence around the globe. But 9/11 and the subsequent U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 opened my eyes to global awareness in new ways. I was just a year out of college, a tender 22 years old, and it was really the end of innocence for me, at least on a global level. So every time there is another catastrophe, I give a little money to Doctors Without Borders, and I knit for Afghanistan. It's the least I can do.

Goodness, I didn't mean to get on a self-righeous do-gooder soapbox there. Forgive me, it's been a long day. Now where was I? Oh yes. The Knitting. Those of you who made it this far in the post deserve to see my latest FO.

I finished a sweater for A4A:



The pattern is from Knitting Pure and Simple, a tried and true top-down raglan design. Well, "tried and true" doesn't quite cover it, as this is the first time I've knit this exact pattern, but they're all pretty similar. This one is a jacket in chunky weight yarn.



One reason I put this down for a while was - well, okay I admit I sort of forgot about it - but also, there seemed to be a problem with the fronts of the cardigan. They didn't seem wide enough. Was this my mistake, or the pattern's?



I wasn't as interested in finding the source of the problem as I was in finishing the damn thing in time for the May 14 deadline, so I improvised a solution. I picked up stitches along each front and did a wide garter stitch band. The collar is also garter stitch, so it looks intentional - I think.



In any case, it worked out and now I have a sweater that will keep some child age 7-8 (I'm guessing at size here) warm halfway across the world. ("It worked out"...how often do I say that about what I knit??)

Pattern: Children's Neckdown Jacket #249 (scroll about halfway down) by Diane Soucy from Knitting Pure and Simple.
Mods: I didn't bother with pockets, which are in the original design, and I added garter bands as described above to compensate for what was probably my mistake reading the pattern. Proportionally, everything else looks fine, so it worked out.
Yarn: Mauch Chunky by Kraemer Yarns. I bought this locally intending to make myself a sweater, but decided shortly thereafter it was better used for A4A. I love the heathery blue color and softness of this yarn. I didn't check gauge (one distinct advantage of knitting top-down designs for a non-specific receipient) but I think it was something like 15st = 4" on #10 needles, so it should be nice and warm.

sparrow

I finally took some pictures of the little sweater I made for Anya. I finished all the knitting before our trip to VA/NC, and when we got back I sewed it up and blocked it. The whole thing only took about a week of work, though that was spread out over about a month because of stopping and starting and travelus interruptus and all.



(Looky there. I just found a chopped off tree branch in the back yard perfect for hanging handknits on for purposes of photo-taking. In lieu of live modeling, I mean.)

I really like this design. It's simple and cute and lightning fast to knit. The sleeves are cast on as part of the main body pieces, so the only seams are sides and shoulders. My seaming could be better, certainly, but even so I'm pretty happy with how this turned out.



I made size 4, and even so, the sweater took less than 2 skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, which is one of my favorite yarns for kids' stuff. It's soft and durable and holds up incredibly well through machine washing (and even machine drying) without pilling or fraying - all this without a speck of acrylic content, too. This bizarre shade of green ("Mint Condition" says the label) is something I got in a bag full of Cotton Fleece on clearance way back when Coyote Yarns was going out of business...I think Daniel was still small enough to be carried around in his car seat, so that must have been four years ago.



Do you love the sheep button as much as I do? It's a rather precious ceramic button, but it's on a sweater for my girl, so I will take good care of it. Knowing Anya, she'll refuse to wear the sweater, so it might not get that much wear anyway. (Sigh. Someone remind me why I keep knitting for this child?)

Pattern: Sparrow, by Marie Grace Designs, size 4
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (80% pima cotton, 20% merino wool), less than 2 skeins in the color "Mint Condition", which is a rather ghastly shade of green, but somehow it works for Anya.

Now I just hope she wears it!

vacation knitting

I was on vacation, of sorts, for about a week. Did you miss me? Stu and I took the kids on a long overdue visit to see their uncles out east/south. It's a big trip for us - too far to drive, so we flew - but fortunately our brothers live within a couple hours' drive of each other, so we were able to combine all visits into one trip. First we were in Blacksburg, VA where my little bro Joe is finishing up a PhD in some form of engineering, and then we went to Winston-Salem, where my BIL Mitch works and lives with his wife and two kids. (If you're interested in reading more about that, click here and here.) Good times were had by all, and it was over much too soon.

While in Blacksburg, we stayed in a hotel not far from Joe's bachelor pad, which just happened to be about a 10-minute walk from a lovely little yarn shop called Mosaic. Serendipitous, no? Honestly, I'd had no real intentions of yarn shopping while on this trip. We were already packing light (they charge by the suitcase, yo) and we were there to visit family, not buy stuff, and I've got so much yarn already I'd like to pare it down anyway...but...the shop was next to a Starbucks and I could walk there and really, it couldn't hurt just to have a look, right?

Ahem.

Well, I didn't walk out of there empty-handed, but I didn't buy a whole lot, either. There was an awful lot to tempt me, but I had to be pragmatic about what I actually have time to knit and how much room I'd have in the suitcase, so I told myself I wouldn't buy anything that I can find somewhere else in Madison or online. In other words, it had to be local and available ONLY in Blacksburg. And irresistible. There were 3 skeins that had all those qualities. Some sock yarn:



The red on the left is from Unplanned Peacock Studio, in the colorway "Cardinal." The green/blue on the right (which is a bit washed out in the picture, unfortunately) is dyed by David Simpson of Green Dragon Yarns, and the colorway is called "Forest." I'm not even that much of a sock knitter, but sometimes I just can't resist beautiful sock yarn like this.

Skein #3 has already been knit:



Another David Simpson find, this one in a heavier weight, more like DK. Normally I would not choose a skein with these colors, but Blacksburg is home of the Virginia Tech Hokies, after all, and my brother Joe is an avid fan. He once made the cover of the Roanoke Times in a crowd shot from a basketball game. So this hat is for him. The colors are a little loud, but I hope he likes it anyway.

I did more knitting on vacation, even on the plane, but I'll save that for another day.

easter raglan

Happy Easter, everyone! Daniel is totally enthralled with egg-dyeing. I picked up one of those $2 Paas kits at the grocery store, and he got a big kick out of watching the tablets dissolve, then adding water, putting the eggs in the dye with a little wire hook, and folding up the cardboard holders. Occasionally we dye yarn together with food dyes, and he's fascinated by that process, too, especially the parts involving stirring and mixing and dumping.

Otherwise, we aren't doing much celebrating of Easter here, mainly because I will be spending the entire afternoon in a recording studio. It's a beautiful day and I really want to bike there to take advantage of the nice weather while I can, but it's a good seven miles one way, and I'm not sure biking is a good idea. This is mostly because my road bike is a little hard on my wrists until I'm used to riding it (which I am not yet this season), and the music we are recording today is already pretty taxing. I've never had serious problems with performance injury or repetitive stress injuries, thank goodness, but I don't want to start.

Not to mention how sore my bum will be after riding 7 miles when I haven't been on a bike in six months.

My Equinox is done and blocked and I'm wearing it right now. See?



I absolutely love this sweater. I love the colors, the simplicity of the design, it fits wonderfully (totally worth the re-knit), and the yarn softens and blooms beautifully after a good soak.



Stuart took pictures this morning. He's the one who suggested I try a Zoolander pose. We're goofy like that.



Pattern: Equinox Raglan from Knitscene magazine
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden, 7 skeins exactly for the second size
Mods; Only that I added a few extra rounds in the top section so it would fit. Maybe this was a design flaw, or maybe I have thick armpits. I dunno. But it was a pretty easy fix and worked out fine.

spring knitting

Wouldn't you know I finished the Equinox Raglan two nights ago, and then the weather promptly got all warm and summery? So while I could have worn my new sweater yesterday, it would have been most hot and bothersome. Stuart leaves for work at 7:45 every morning, so there will be no time for photos until the weekend. Hopefully I can do a proper FO post then.

In the meantime, I started something new:



This is a Sparrow for Anya, and it's going lightning fast. I started it at the park yesterday afternoon - and may I interject here to say just how excited I am that I CAN SIT ON THE BENCH AND KNIT WHILE THE KIDS ARE ON THE PLAYGROUND!!! That is indescribable luxury, folks, and I thought that was never going to happen.

I don't know why I keep feeling compelled to knit for Anya. She's so picky about what she wears, resists all my suggestions for what to wear in the morning (never mind what is actually weather-appropriate, of course), and so the chances that she will agree to wear this little top are pretty slim. Ah, the terrible twos. I'm making it anyway, and I'm going with the size 4 in the hopes that by the time it fits her, she won't mind wearing what mama knits for her. I'm naive, I know. Besides, the bizarre minty green color of this yarn (Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece- one of my all time favorites for kids' stuff) looks really good on my little Coppertop with big brown eyes.