Knitting for little girls

I'm not going to lie. Knitting for little girls is so much fun and I especially like knitting for this little girl in particular. This was supposed to be the Sydney Lace Dress, but when I realized that I had almost ten inches left to knit in a 4 row repeat pattern, I decided to shorten it and make it tunic-length. She can wear this with skirts and jeans. I'm actually pleased with the way it turned out. I don't usually get lazy on a pattern, but the more I knit, the more I realized that I'd like this better shorter. I used Cascade Sunseeker yarn. This is a cotton/acrylic blend with subtle sparkles as well.

I haven't been knitting very much lately since I transferred a lot of my energy to finishing those quilts in my previous post. Honestly, I think I had gotten a little burned out on knitting. I know. That doesn't sound like me at all, but I realized it's time for some Summer knitting and I have a handful of things I want to knit for Tess for this Summer. She's looking pretty grown-up these days especially since I swept her long bangs to the side for these pictures. She's 4  1/2 now. She's growing too fast for me to put these cute little girls items off.

Anyway, this is the Sydney Lace Dress from the book Just Like Me Knits.  You can even knit this dress for a doll, but I don't knit for her dolls. At least, Tess has never asked me to knit for one of her dolls and I can admit that I'm relieved that she hasn't.

Yarn Along

I've knit several hats over the past few weeks and I've noticed something. I'm getting ridiculously quick at knitting all kinds of hats (cables, eyelets, color work, etc). If someone asks me to knit them a hat, I always oblige. I'm always happy to knit for other people. I haven't added many of these projects to my Ravelry page because my project list would be overflowing with all kinds of hats. Actually, my Ravelry page is already overflowing with hat projects. I like small projects like hats because a hat can pack a lot of challenge into something manageable.

Anyway, I organized my knitting bag again this week. I do that a lot. I am determined to stay focused, but already in the back of my mind, I know that I will lose that new year's resolve and cast on many projects at the same time. I knit like I read. I get a new book and I'm all excited about that book, but then I set it down and start reading something else. As much as I have tried to change this behavior, I realize that it works for me and why I am I fighting it? Will I really feel more disciplined? It also works for me to have many knitting projects going at once just as it works for me to be juggling several different books at once.

I did narrow down my projects list and I have plans for two sweaters for Tess. The Bulle sweater and this cute sweater I stumbled onto last week. I am currently working on the Mini Mochi Fair Isle hat for a friend, of course (which I blogged about in my previous Yarn Along post). The Mini Mochi Fair Isle hat is taking me more time than most hats, but I did set it down so that I could knit six other hats. I also cast on Declan's hat for Sammy. It's full of fun twisty cables and it will look delightful in orange yarn. Sam looks really good in orange.

As for reading: I am reading Pippi Longstocking to Sammy. I really enjoyed Pippi as a child and I think I have finally found a good read aloud for Sam. He's usually a little tougher to please in the read alouds department than Luke was. For book club, I am reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-Time. My book club leader recently watched the movie about Temple Grandin and decided she wanted to read more about the autistic experience. So far, it's an interesting account of how the autistic mind functions. I also finished reading Jesus Land last night. It's a harrowing memoir of growing up in staunch Calvinist home. I just reviewed it on Goodreads. I've got a lot to say about it there. I am currently waiting for my new bible to arrive from Amazon. I ordered the C. S. Lewis Bible and I am excited about reading the bible along with commentary and quotes by C. S. Lewis.

That's it for this week. Hopefully, I will reach the decrease section of the fair isle hat for next week, but who knows? Some other project my get me distracted from this one. For more yarn adventures, please go visit Ginny.

Yarn Along

I haven't updated my blog in almost a month! It's not because I haven't been thinking about it, I have. Summer has gotten me and the entire family off all of my routines. It's actually been nice to have long days stretch out before us. We've been relaxed about bed times with the older kids. We've been relaxed about a lot of things. I suppose that we have immersed ourselves in Summer.

 I've been knitting a lot without completing anything until yesterday. I've actually started to have some pain when I knit. Oddly enough, the pain is in my left shoulder and elbow. Most of my yarn movement is in my right hand.  After many years of knitting without pain, I suppose that I may be developing some repetitive motion injury. I know it's something I can't ignore forever, but I have been  kind of knitting through the pain.  I finished a Color Me Pretty hat in what should have been a toddler size, but came out sized more for a 6 month old baby. I really wanted to learn how to knit Fair Isle properly. Up until this hat project, I always picked up and dropped the yarns when doing color changes. This time, however, I held one working yarn in my right hand and the other yarn in my left. I had two happy results by changing the way I held the yarns. The yarns did not become twisted and the actual Fair Isle sections were less tight. I deleted the photo from my computer yesterday. So, go here and you can see my baby hat. About half way through this project, I realized that the two colors that I had chosen didn't have enough contrast. It's pretty difficult to see the flower     on the hat. I definitely want to make this hat again, but bigger and with better contrasting colors!

I read Phoebe's Birthday to Tess last night. In full disclosure, I kind of ordered this book for myself. This is a delightful little picture book, but the exciting thing about Phoebe's Birthday is the knitting patterns in the back of the book. Actually, this book also includes both a quilt pattern and stuffed "Mermouse"  pattern as well. The simple story includes some nice artwork and the patterns are featured in the book. Okay, so, I'm going to make this for Tess. So, I guess, in the end, this book is really for her after all. She gets the book and the Phoebe's Sun Tunic that I will knit for her!

Happy Independence Day! don't forget to visit Ginny for more Yarn Along adventures! Happy Summer friends!

Yarn Along- Something pink in the month of love

So, yes, I abandoned last week's projects in favor of something pink. I hatched up a plan to knit a hat for my hubby and all the kids for Valentine's Day. Of course, it's already February 1st and well, I've got one hat down, five hats go. Can I do it? Possibly, but why I often burden myself by adding non-necessary items to my to-do list, I can only say that I do love a challenge. I finished this hat a couple of hours ago and it only took me a couple of days. A stitch here and a stitch there in between everything else I do and somehow, I managed to complete it. Hopefully, I will have more Valentine's hats to showcase next week. The rest of the hats are for boys so they will be without pink. I'm thinking about a dragon hat for Sammy. Yup, a dragon hat. It will be perfect for Valentine's Day, right?

As for reading, I'm very near the end of the The Wolves of Mercy Falls Trilogy and I've begun the novel, The Language of Flowers.  I'm only a couple of chapters in, but I'm interested so far. I'm actually feeling the need to read something non-fiction right now, but I think I will stick with this novel. I'm always trying to be more disciplined by reading only book at a time, but it never happens. I'm trying to finish up the last two books on my Currently Reading status on Goodreads before adding any other books to my Currently Reading.

Head on over to Ginny's for more book and yarn adventures!




 

Yarn Along: Holiday Knitting

I've started to think about the holidays and yes, it's early, but not really especially when knitting is involved.  Last year, I wanted to knit stockings for the twins, but adjusting to life with twins was and is difficult. So, although I continued to knit (a lot) last year, I didn't get to the stockings. Paul solved the problem and bought two matching plaid stockings that were just fine, but I wanted handmade stockings. So, I've started stocking number #1 and I'm just starting to turn the heel and of course, true to my nature, I set that project down and cast on  the Child's Fake Isle Tam (which I am more than half-way) and well, then I remembered I wanted to make Candy Corn Hats for the twins. So, I set down the Fair Isle hat and cast on Candy Corn Hat #1.  I think that if the twins will tolerate wearing the Candy Corn Hats then they will have simple, but cute costumes for Halloween. I spend too much time on Ravelry! Haven't I mentioned that I have issues with only reading one book at a time or knitting one project at a time? Is this curable?

Here are the links to the patterns I'm using:
Easy Christmas Stocking
Fake Isle Hat (This hat uses only two yarns, but one is Noro Silk Garden and it's variegated with long color changes and it makes this hat look way more difficult than it really is.)
Candy Corn Hat (I'm using Spud and Chloe Sweater in Ice Cream, Firefly and Pollen. The orange isn't dark enough, but it'll do.)

I just started reading Sally Clarkson's The Ministry of Motherhood with a study group.

Here's the fair isle hat up close. I used some leftover Cascade 220 for the contrasting color and it  probably wasn't a good choice since it makes the pattern difficult to see, but the Noro color changes are fun as they emerge row by row.

That's it for today. Please go visit Ginny's for more knitting inspiration.

Yarn Along- Knitting in the car

We returned late last Sunday night from an epic driving vacation. We drove to California and spent hours and hours in the car. I know it was ambitious with our minivan filled to capacity and knowing the older three kids didn't have much room in the back row of our Sienna. However, I still looked forward to the time to knit in the car. I eagerly packed several projects' worth of yarn in my knitting bag. On that first incredibly long day in the car, we arrived in Vegas around 10 at night after spending something like twelve hours driving  and I did spend a good chunk of that day knitting. I manged to knit the body of a sweater for Liam, but I didn't feel like digging out the DPNs to work on the sleeves so I started another Eyelet Brim Cotton hat and despite all that time in the car, it's the only project I finished. Here's Tess at the Tamarisk restaurant in Green River, Utah. Of course, she's very serious about those sugar packets! Anyway, this is an easy hat, but picking up the stitches for the brim is tedious. As for reading, I didn't have much time last week. Mostly, I'd sneak in a few pages of Generation Me when I was nursing at night. It's an interesting read.  I'll be reviewing it on Goodreads soon.

Don't forget to head on over to Ginny's for more yarn tales!

Yarn Along

This week, I am reading The Reading Promise by Alice Ozma and yes, her name is Alice Ozma (named after Alice in Wonderland and a character from the Oz books). Her literary name matches her memoir of reading with her father. Alice and her father made a reading promise that lasted from when she was nine until she left for college. Her father read to her every day (no exceptions) for at least ten minutes a day.  This was the perfect book to read right now as I contemplate how Luke and I seem to have less and less time for reading aloud. When I read that they set a minimum of ten minutes daily, I though that I could do that easily. Since the twins arrived, reading aloud with Luke had diminished to about once a week which is hardly enough time to keep the flow of a book going. He's growing up so quickly and I want to hold onto our reading tradition. So, I decided that Luke and I would read again every night, but I wouldn't put so much pressure on myself to read for thirty or forty minutes in one sitting anymore. The important thing is the consistency. We recently started reading the latest Penderwick novel and it's just the thing for summer reading!
On the needles?  Too much stuff, but this week, I'm working on the Cat Cay Cowl featured at Quince and Co. and boy, is it ever tedious. I like the small cables, but every round is different and I can't really look away from the pattern very much. I'm also making another self-striping hat for Tess, but this time in something a little more feminine. I'm actually not sure what yarn this is.  I know it's some sock yarn from Hobby Lobby. I always need some project that doesn't require a lot of brain power and something that I can throw in my bag without also having to grab my entire knitting bag of tools. I'm also organizing my yarn again. I can't help it. When I'm knitting something, I can't completely focus on it as I am always planning for or thinking about  the next project. I am literally forcing myself to stay focused on this cowl until it's done. Knitting may calm me down, but it hasn't cured my ADD tendencies.

Don't forget to head over to Ginny's for more yarn and books! 

Yarn Along- knitting, sewing and lots of color inspiration

A wonderful friend brought this bright happy fun dress from Hawaii for Little T.  It's a lovely orange which I think is a
great color on my little girl.  Of course, I thought that I should knit up a little shrug to match. So,  I went digging in my yarn stash and pulled out three hanks of Spud&Chloe in Sweater weight.  I'm thinking about another  Chloe because this pattern is already written for Spud&Chloe yarn. 



Should I knit it in stripes or solid yellow?  If I decide on a solid, I will have to buy more.  I'm definitely on a de-stash mission right now.  The minimalist in me won't let me have too much yarn around.  That hank of yellow above is Firefly.  Isn't that a perfectly delightful name?  The dark red is Firecracker and the light orange is Pollen. 

Here's the little sundress up close.  Doesn't it look lovely with that hank of Firefly?  Maybe I should just knit another shrug in one color! 



Here's another project that's kind of related to knitting.  With the help of my best friend's Auntie Arlene, I learned to sew this little dress over the past week.  So, I've devoted more time to my sewing machine than my knitting needles in the past few days.  I've always wanted to sew a dress, but sewing clothes just seemed daunting and challenging.  I have to laugh at the notion that this is a difficult sewing project though.  It's probably one of the easiest dress patterns out there! As a quilter, I'm no stranger to my sewing machine, but this is a very different type of sewing.  So, how is this dress project related to knitting you might ask?  Well, of course, Little T will need a lightweight sweater to wear with this, right? 



Aren't those apples sweet? 

I started this hat this week.  It's an easy pattern to memorize, but beware of getting off by even one stitch.  I've already had to pull it out once after knitting three inches or so.  It's a free pattern on Ravelry. 

As for reading, I'm perusing my latest library haul.  I'm still working on The Forgotten Garden for book club as well.  Please join Ginny for more knitting and reading adventures!