Knitting Update

I admit it, I haven't done much knitting in the 3 weeks since Brendan joined us. I didn't think that having a baby would make that much difference on my knitting time, after all, I knit all the time with a 2 yr old in my lap! Knitting with a baby in your lap is a very different experience than knitting with a 2 yr old. Your hands are in very different holding positions, and this different position naturally puts those pointy sticks you are holding MUCH closer to those sensitive baby eyes. Because of this, I've done a lot more reading lately, and much less knitting. I have managed to do a few things, however, so I figure I should update.

Baby socks:
These are socks for Brendan from leftover STR. Now we have matching socks. The color is REALLY off in this picture. I actually knit about 3 or 4 pairs of baby socks, you just can't tell because I frogged previous attempts at these socks to make new ones. If I had learned to knit toe up before making these, I wouldn't have had so much trouble. The problem is that I kept running out of yarn before I finished the second sock. So, rip out, take out some of the ribbing, got rid of the ribbing down the instep, etc until I had JUST enough yarn for 2 socks.

Lace Wrap:Lace wrap is progressing, even though I haven't touched it in a week or so. I am now about 3/4 done and it is longer than my coffee table (which you can see here). I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to weave in the ends on my ball join with slinky silky yarn in an open lace pattern. I guess I'll figure that out when I run out of yarn and decide to bind off.

Maple leaf socks:I admit it, I have an over powering addiction with socks. I NEEDED to knit more socks, but guess what? The only suitable sock yarn I had on hand was the same eBay yarn I had used before. I now know that it is completely machine washable, but DO NOT put it in the dryer. I felted my conwy socks. They are still wearable, although a bit tight. This is the maple leaf pattern by Jeanie Townsend. Luckily I belong to the Townsend knitting group and could ask for help. Like "How the heck am I supposed to k7tog?! My needle doesn't want to fit through that many stitches!" Apparently it's very simple. Knit 1, then slip the next 6 stitches over the top of it. Why didn't I think of that?! Here's a close up of my maple leaves. Unfortunately it doesn't show up nearly as well in my eBay yarn as it did in the pattern picture.

Recycling project #2: Blue cottonThis is 100% Cotton. If you notice, I got a ball winder mid way through winding up all the recycled hanks. On top are my hand wound center pull balls, on the bottom are the nice cakes made by my ball winder. My kids really like the ball winder. They keep wanting to play with it while I have yarn I am winding. I'm afraid that this will naturally lead to snarled masses of my yarn and therefore forbid any playing with the ball winder while I'm winding. I think that would like to make Grumperina's Picovoli with this, but have yet to swatch to see whether it would be appropriate yet.

Recycling project #3: Blue, and white lambswool:
I pulled this sweater out of my bin the other day and it reeked. I washed it in baby shampoo, and it is mostly better. I don't know if the residual smell is just wool, or if the previous owner got into something truly funky. It will definitely get another bath once it is knit up into something beautiful.
Here is an up close shot of the fabric. As you can see, the yarn is 3 ply, with each thread being a different color. This makes for a nice mottled fabric with dark blue, light blue, and white.Today, while I listened to General Conference on the internet (isn't technology awesome?!) I ripped it apart. Yes, I was lazy this time and didn't go through the process of winding it into skeins and then soaking them and waiting for them to dry. Part of my justification is that I don't have a swift, and no matter how carefully I wind the skeins, or hold them on my lap, I always seem to get some degree of tangling. This was SO much easier. In fact, I picked apart the seams, found the end to one of the pieces, attached it to my ball winder and wound away! Don't worry, I wound it again MUCH looser the second time, but it was so easy to unravel the sweater by cranking the handle, and I didn't get any tangling issues :D I did get A LOT of fuzz flying all over everywhere, though. I have tenative plans to turn this very large cowl neck sweater into a Somewhat Cowl neck sweater by Knit and Tonic. The original pattern calls for Alpaca silk, and Alpaca is warmer than wool... I'm still not sure if it would be cool enough to be a spring type sweater. The Sexy Knitter's Club is doing a Knit a long for this and I would like to join in. I did a test swatch today, and in order to get 24 stitches to 4 inches, I'll have to use size 3 needles! Yikes, that's gonna be a lot of knitting.

That brings us to my final entry. This is not really a WIP yet, but with how I am with socks, it will be soon. I won this wonderful sock yarn in a stash reducing raffle on my Knitting Parent's yahoo group. It was wonderful timing, as I had just bought my ball winder, and was lamenting the fact that I had spent all my knitting budget on that instead of sock yarn. Since DH isn't really a "Camo" kind of guy, this will become 2 pairs of socks for Alex. He's still young and would love to wear something that I have knitted. After all, he's the only member of my immediate family that I haven't made anything for yet!