Yeah, baby!

Of course, the cat has to help. Or is she claiming this for her own?

Details:





This is for the two-year-old daughter of a friend. I'm pretty pleased with it, even though either I or the pattern made a mistake and there was an even (rather than odd) # of eyelets, so I had to skip one. I also am hopelessly unable to make pompoms, so I crocheted these bobbles instead. But I like the bobbles.

I finished another thing this weekend — my "Hey, Teach!" cardi. All that was needed was for me to redo the buttonhole band, which had a little too much slack in it. I need to take some new photos of it to show you — the ones on Ravelry are pre-reknit.

Old dog...

…new trick!

I learned a new seaming method this week. A pattern I was knitting called for "flat seams" and I wasn't sure what to do. I knew mattress stitch produces a bulky back seam, and this garment is for a little girl who would not appreciate such abrasion. A little googling produced several links to what is variously called 'flat seaming', 'invisible seaming', 'woven flat seam' and 'Bickford seaming'. Clicking the links here will take you to the three pages I found most useful in learning to do this kind of seaming. It creates a very small ridge on the back side of the garment:



and a near-invisible seam on the right side:



This helped me to put together a Hooded Capelet [Ravelry link] for my friend Fiona's two-year-old. It's not done blocking (pic below is pre-soak), cord isn't done and buttons aren't sewn on, but it is otherwise done:

Little Red Riding Hood here we come!

Not-fitty-ness

As expected, I finished the lovely V-neck vest and blocked it, and it is a color I like, and it is much softer once washed, and drat it, it does not fit me. It doesn't even sort of fit. It just plain doesn't.

I measure myself before I knit things, and I knit with the right size and right ease, and yet often, when I'm done, things don't fit. I might need to rethink the amount of ease I want with my garments. Or maybe bust size isn't the best way to measure, for me. I'm just not sure.

In any event, if you have somewhere in the vicinity of a 45" bust (this measures 45"), like greenish-brown tweed, and would like a nice simple Australian wool vest, please let me know! I'd love to give this to someone who reads my blog. I'm very very sad I can't keep it, but there's no point.



We all know what to do when we experience a disappointment of this type, right?



Catkin Stole from the Baltic Lace kit from KnitPicks.

Samey

I've been feeling slightly bored with my knitting lately and it's easy to see why:





Okay, I admit the baby socks are cute, but you have no idea what a misery they've been. I started them in MAY, and I have had to rip them back about 20 times for stupid errors, dropped stitches, pretty much any stupidity you can make. For such simple dratted socks they have been a pain in the rump.

But really, what stands out about all this stuff?

Stockinette, baby. Stockinette.

Well, you know I like to have a lot of things on the needles at one time. But a lot of different things. Right now, most of the active projects are stockinette. Now, it's good to have a couple of easy-peasy projects that you can work on while watching a complex movie, talking with friends, or just stressed out. But that can't be the only thing I have going.

I think I need to get something going in colorwork, or I'll forget what I learned with my first project. And I've never knitted lace with actual laceweight — only with fingering weight. I picked up the KnitPicks Baltic Lace Kit for myself a couple of weeks ago. And I should always have a pair of socks going — not baby socks.

And not dratted stockinette.