Just in the nick of time!

Finished! And what perfect timing. I leave on Thursday and the mother is being induced tonight. So huzzah, all ready to go. One of the guys on my team, Kegan, is having a baby boy and now that baby will be loved with a knitted blanket. Probably the smallest blanket I've ever made, but that means its probably the right size instead of being super big like the others. This blanket was both easy to make and frustrating. Each of the little squares are done seperately which made them easy to complete. Maybe an hour per square, so I could knock them out fast, but even with the slip edge there was a lot of picking up bindoff stiches which was kinda hard. And the multicolor edge was alway un-even. Could never make an actual square! So that was a problem, the overall orange edge (which I couldn't decide to go with the orange light colors or the dark green/purples until the very last minutes) helped to conceal this fact but you can still see it. I'm giving it to him today, I hope he likes it!

This blog seems to have become a knitting for babies blog. But I promise that with my trip to peru coming up super soon, there will be other knitting stories. I have some 8 hour flights and I even have a 10 hour layover, so lots of knitting will get done. I am kinda torn on what to take. There's my sweater which needs the body done...but also it will be finished soon...there's starting my sweater jacket but I would need to select yarn and then there is knitting a lace shawl which takes time and concentratation but the yarn is super light... decisions, decisions.

Oh yeah baby, work it!

Here's what you get when you ask a mom who is a photographer to take a picture of something you knit for them... you get a ton of pictures both showing off the jacket as well as cute baby pictures. It was an awesome photo shoot with the little guy. Like most models he was fussy to, refusing to wear the hats I made for him. Maybe he knew they would clash with the jacket, who knows. Regardless I've selected a few that make me smile. The jacket still looks alittle big, but that will keep him pleanty warm in May with the snow (yes I did say snow) falling outside. Hopefully it warms up so that my plants will survive the two weeks I'm gone without worrying about bring them inside. Stupid Colorado. But on with the fashion show!

Isn't he a cutie? After a month or so of harassing I finally got the picture I was asking for! It's Curtis's little boy, staying warm in a nice knitted jacket. Yay!

(On Another note, my binary blanket has made it to China and back, sadly no pictures got taken by the parents during the trip of the blanket next to something noticable Chinese, but that's okay, we all know it happened)

Colors

So I owe an update on some more yarn dying (Cotton this time, and failiure) and my current set of projects. Also the various thoughts I have on what to bring to Peru. But alas that will have to wait just a little long, however I ran across this yesterday and just had to make mention of it...

Several years ago a guy friend of mine wanted a scarf, him not being a boyfriend there was no hesitation in making the scarf (there is a curse for those of you who don't know) I asked him what colors he wanted and he responded with "green". After going to the store I had found a yarn that I liked and was ready to buy it....so I went back to him and asked "what kind of green?" He of course had no idea what I was talking about...what do you mean there are different greens? I ended up finding a website for a computer RGB key card that had some 20 different greens to show him how wrong he was about there being just one green. Well this little comic reminded me of it yesterday so I thought I'd share:

There are several cool other little charts and whatnot about guys versus girls, actual colors, and the spelling of Fuschia, or fucha, or fuchia...you get the picture at: http://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/

Multiple Projects

I've had several people laugh at me and ask me why I feel the need to knit something for every couple I know who's having a baby. To be honest there are lots of reasons, first every baby should have something hand made and something that has a lot of love and caring built in. Second it gives me a break from whatever project I'm currently working on. My sweater that I've been working on is now in the long dull phase, just trying to get length, so its nice to have a break from now and then working on other things. Lastly, gives me a chance to go through my stash and dwindle it down. Especially the smaller scraps of yarn that aren't big enough for other projects. 

As you may have guessed...I'm knitting another baby project. A baby blanket...I tried this pattern once before and failed at it, but I've learned more now (and it seems to be paying off) I started the blanket this weekend, its knit in a series of squares...when I was laying out the yarn I thought it would look alright...but it turns out that I hate the color combination...not sure what I was thinking. I didn't even finish the red portion before I gave up and decided to look for more yarn. (You can even see that my pick up and knit was off too, because its not really a rectangle) Anyway I grabbed the yarn that my sweater is made of but in different colors and started a new set. The squares are smaller but the knitting is faster, so I think it will work out. I can always make more squares until I get the size I am looking for. Interestingly, the pattern calls for a slip edge, which makes it easier to pick up and knit...but you also have to pick up edges that have been bound off...so I don't know how that's all supposed to work. But I'm managing. I've got three squares done now.

The blanket pattern calls for 12 of these squares to be made, then they are all attached together (and all those pesky ends are woven in) Lastly the entire blanket gets a solid edge attached to it. I'll have to see what yarn I have left to see if its possible to put one of the lighter colors around the edge, otherwise it might be one of the darker colors. (Purple and green). Overall I'm much much happier with the color combination this time, and the yarn feels more baby friendly to me. Like I said its a fast knit, made those 3 squares in about a day.


One final note. The color work on my sweater is done, now it's just a matter of time to get it all finished. I figured when I had a few hours to sit down and knit I would work on finishing the baby blanket (I have till mid May) but when it comes to doing little knits here and there and during lunch or whatever I would work on my sweater. Hopefully it will be done soon!

A days work for color

So I got bit with the artistic bug. I had to do something different, new, and creative. I decided to try my hand at dying yarn, Easter egg style. Here's the account of my weekend's adventures.

I started with several kinds of wool  yarn. From what I have gathered reading on the Internet, wool yarn is easily dyed with things like Easter egg dye and kool aid, but natural fibers like cotton needs something a bit stronger. I followed a tutorial I found online (Kathryn Ivy) until my book arrived, I suggest reading it if you're going to dye yarn, this is just quick notes of my adventures.

First I took my 2 different kinds of Peruvian wool (100% wool) and unwound them into hanks. I started trying to use my yarn swift, but that wasn't the easiest thing, so I switched to a two wine bottle method. Worked much faster and much much easier.

Since I moved my yarn to the floor with the bottle method, I got lots of kitty help from Lilu. Mostly she just wanted to sit next to me and get petted every now and then, but of course, cats and yarn, especially moving yarn....well she had to grab it from time to time. Was really amusing, and of course there is always time for kitty yoga while knitting too.

After all of that work, I hung up my white yarn on the drying rack (even though it wasn't wet yet) just to get a picture of what I had, plus it was a good time to get things cleaned up and organized before the next big stage...actual dying.

This stage involved cutting up a trash bag and putting it on my counter, mixing up some Easter egg dyes, and filling my sink with vinegar and cold water. The first step is to prepare the yarn, so it was soaked in vinegar water for an hour, then its ready to accept some new colors! I was amazed at how clean everything ended up being, there wasn't much in the way of "shoot I got that everywhere" which made me really happy. Plus it will give me confidence when I go to the chemical cotton dyes which WILL stain everything, unlike the Easter egg dye that's designed for children to mess around with.


After the color is added to the yarn, it gets thrown on the stove to get stemmed. I have a collider resting on top of the pot and the yarn goes in there. It gets steamed for 30 min. I thought I was going to be behind on my coloring, but no. I managed to color almost everything while waiting for the first few to get steamed. It gave me time to do some actual knitting and cleaning while I was dying yarn. The hot yarn then gets taken out and put in a sink to cool, once its cool, you put it in warmer than the yarn itself water and makesure the color doesn't run. Add some wool wash to keep everything nice and soft (and get rid of that vinegar smell) and the drying process starts!

After all was said and done I refilled my rack with beautifully colored yarn. The one thing I didn't care for, and I'm not sure how easy it is to correct, is that the yarn seemed to always be a bit pastel. You couldn't get a really vibrant big bold color, it will be muted a bit. (And the colors in the water are much brighter than when they are dried) But I'm happy with the colors I got and I'm excited to see what other adventures I might have. I went back to Target to get some more Easter egg dye, got lots of different color options. Neon, some actual greens, a brown, lots of variation. So I'm looking forward to it next time. I have some more ideas on getting really creative. I don't have much more white wool left in my possession, but maybe next weekend or the following there will be some more snow (like today!) and I'll get back to dying. In the mean time, it took a full day to get this all done. Would have been faster if I had made my hanks the day before, but still enjoyable, creative and a fun way to spend the afternoon!

Froggy

So I ripped out the body of my sweater again. The rib stitch was too loose and looked bad. If it stretched at all there would be lines down me, if it didn't stretch then there wasn't too much point. So I undid it. Started fresh again (the pick up and knit is much easier after 6 times) Thankfully, this is a faster stitch. I'm already back to the length I ripped out yesterday! Now on to the adventure of doing the rest of the body