Where I've Been; Where I'm Going

When you love someone, all your saved-up wishes start coming out.

- Elizabeth Bowen

And I meant to post sometime in July . . . So where have I been?

Working, of course. Loving having my husband home. And doing a little creating here and there.

Knitting

Debbie Bliss' Alphabet Blanket, which was vastly entertaining and far less painful than I had feared.

The Heirloom Baby Aran from an old IK - they weren't kidding about the "heirloom" part - this one took forever.

A little stashbusting in garter stitch.

And I didn't just stop there:
Lots of little sweaters, hats, and even a pair of booties.

Sewing

Blankets, complete with (fairly) straight seams and not-too-bad-for-a-total-beginner machine applique.
Flannel burp clothes (and getting this adorable doctor one from a friend).

Noticing a theme here? Because here's the big project:

Growing a Baby

A baby boy due January 29th! He's already the world's most adorable baby/soccer star, and we couldn't be more excited. And distracted. And terrified. And exhilarated.

So it's probably no surprise that all my crafting energies have turned to wee small things. And the rest of my time is spent researching car seats, cribs, and the like. Blogging is just not in the picture for me anymore, although I'm enjoying keeping up with all your blogs in my feed reader. I've loved sharing our knitting and our lives over the past few years, so thanks for that, and thanks for your good wishes as we move on into this next wonderful phase of our lives.

A baby will make love stronger,

days shorter, nights longer,

bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier,

the past forgotten, and the future worth living for.

- Proverbial

Blue and Pink

Observe the space between your thoughts, then observe your observer.

-Hamilton Boudreaux

Today's a two-fer, to make up for the posting I didn't do last week . . .

I find baby sweaters to be a crucial part of stash busting - perfect for all those 2 and 3 skein lots left over from other projects, or otherwise hanging out in the stash. And then you have the perfect gift ready for any baby-giving occasion.

Ribbed Baby Jacket
Pattern: from Debbie Bliss, available many places
Yarn: Lionbrand Cotton Ease in the old put up, approx 2 skeins
Needles: US 8
Notes: Unusual construction, but not difficult. My gauge was off so I used the numbers from the 2nd smallest size and the measurements from the 2nd largest.
Best Thing About This Project: I just love that ribbing.

Premiere Sweater
Pattern: from a free Classic Elite newsletter bouncing around
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Victorian Pink, approx 1.75 skeins
Needles: US 6
Notes: I accidentally forgot to increase needle sizes after the seed stitch on the sleeves. It looks fine.
Best Thing About This Project: A perfect paring of yarn and pattern.

I'm in for a long night of board review classes tonight. Which means quality knitting time! I'm almost to the good part of a Fair Isle Yoke Cardigan (i.e. the fair isle yoke part) after getting inspired by Jessica's here. Stockinette stitch here I come!

Bondegard

Being born in a duck yard does not matter,
if only you are hatched from a swan's egg.
-Hans Christian Anderson

Apparently, I like complicated things. Systems with a lot of rules, nuances, exceptions, and many, many layers. After twenty-something odd years, I finally learned this about myself from my husband; he noticed it almost immediately. While it probably explains a lot of life, from my chosen profession to my yarn spreadsheet to the long list of sales, coupon match-ups, and recipes I take to the grocery store, it also probably explains why I knit a baby sweater with fifteen colors.

You read that correctly - fifteen, one-five. Granted, many of those colors only required a few ounces of yarn, but it does take up a considerable amount of space in the stash. Regardless, whether it is because it is complicated or because it is just so dang cute, this may be my favorite baby sweater yet.

Bondegard
Pattern: from Dale of Norway's Soft Treasures for Little Ones (apparently OOP, but snatch up a copy if you can)
Yarn: Dale Baby Ull - why mess with their color sense? in the 15 colors as called for in the pattern
Needles: US 0 and 2
Notes: No changes to the pattern. I made the 24 month size - if I'm going to do all that work, I want the baby to get a lot of wear out of it!
Best Thing About This Project: After all that knitting, I'd hate to say the buttons. But look at the buttons!

I'm counting this sweater for NaKniSweMoDo (knit 12 sweaters in 12 months, in a mishmash of Latin and blog-speak). Technically, it's not an adult sweater. It is, however 28 inches around, knit on US2 needles, and contains 15 colors. It took probably two- or three-times as much knitting as my next NaKniSweMoDo sweater, Acer, which is also finished and will appear this week. And it involved steeks. Plus, it's just so cute!

Eye Candy Anyday

Be like a duck. Calm on the surface,
but always paddling like the dickens underneath.
-Michael CaineJust because I'm not in the ICU all the time doesn't mean I'm not at work. Enjoy another teaser for the Bondegard sweater!

In Like a Lion, or a Lamb

When you realize how perfect everything is
you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.
-Buddha

Sometimes it's great to live in Southern California. I know my mom is happy about her snow day today, but she did just get plane tickets to come see me. Probably for weekends like this. This weekend I had a brief respite from a crazy call schedule and actually got 2 whole days off. In a row. Imagine that! I spent the last day of February roller-blading around Mission Bay Park, which is pretty much straight out of a movie set. Wind in my hair, music in my iPod. Kites. Laughing children. Lots of palm trees.

I then spent the first day of March finishing my husband's cotton anniversary sweater and watching the end of Veronica Mars, Season 1 with my deployment buddy. (Teen girl noir, filmed in San Diego, what's not to love?) That was after a rather distressing attempt to buy cute sundresses for the coming home that's coming up. I know it's a recession and all, but by the time I haven't seen my husband for seven months, I'm really not wearing gray or black. I spend far too much time daydreaming about making the cover of Life magazine!

Regardless, March promises to be a good month. Out of the ICU onto the less-punishing call schedule of the wards, flowers blooming everywhere, and - not least of all - the end of the deployment is in sight. I don't mean soon, exactly, but at least in sight. (It's also classified, so you'll probably hear about it next when you see us looking really cute and happy on the cover of life magazine. Right after the Obamas get a Portugese Water Dog like my parents' dog.)

I did a great deal of knitting this weekend, and I have a whole bunch of stockinette stitch hanging out, courtesy of the ICU. I've also been a bit lax in my blogging habit, so I'm going to get back on an even-day blogging schedule. Consider today a bit of a catch up, and a sneak peak:

Seaming of the anniversary sweater:The beginnings of Laila's Stockings in a delightful blue and gold:
Finally done with Bondegard, featuring the world's most adorable buttons: Stay tuned for a veritable parade of FOs and WIPs.

Full Disclosure

Colors, like features, follow the change of the emotions.
-Pablo Picasso

I'm glad there's so much general support for a year of just casting on whatever. In fact, there's so much support that I really felt free to start a whole month early. It's like those 13 month calendars.

Apparently I was really feeling the lack of stranded colorwork. Meet Bondegard, a ridiculous (and ridiculously cute) Dale baby sweater that involves 14 colors of yarn. (They're labeled as 15, but the pullover doesn't need color 14. If you look closely, you can see that I had to take my sharpie and label each with it's color number and the chart symbol. And we all wonder why my stash is growing . . .
Since Bondegard is a bit of a lengthy project, I went for some more immediate gratification. In fact, it's surprisingly fast - almost instant! Here are the Snowflake Socks from the Fall 2007 Interweave in KnitPicks Telemark. They're so delightful I had to pull them on before even taking the dpns out of the toe!

Good thing I'm moving along here. The yarn for the Tree Bark Pullover has arrived off back order. I'd sort of forgotten that I'd ordered not one but two options for the contrast color. For those of you not following in excruciating detail, see the linked post here. I decided to continue with the Tree Bark Pullover in Mission Falls 1824 cotton. My main color is Indigo (#404), and my options for the contrast color are Chicory (#401) and Sky (#403). Both are light blues. The Chicory is more of a slate and the Sky is more, well, sky-like. Both are pleasing with the Indigo. Any thoughts? I'm withholding judgment (and thus, casting on, since the cast on row is in the contrast color) until I can see and compare them in sunlight.

Wednesday is for Works-in-Progress

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple
in a field somewhere and don't notice it.
-Alice Walker

All this resurrecting old FOs, and posting daily for more than half a month, and shamefully little attention has been paid to what is actually on the needles.

How about a preview of the next FOs?

First up, finishing up the Socktoberfest startitis:

Little Child's French Sock from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks, in a delightful purple Rowan Botany. This is a lovely sproingy yarn deep from the recesses of the stash, and it's looking good. I'm done the first sock, and a few repeats down the cuff of the second.

Next, My So-Called Scarf.
This was October's Yarn of the Month, but I've only just started paying attention to it. This exact yarn for this exact project has been stash marinating since December 2005 when I was visiting a friend in Seattle. We took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island, and there it was. About time, and isn't it lovely?Unfortunately, lace work-in-progress photos are less lovely. This is the North Sea Shawl from Folk Shawls, which has been in my mental queue since I first started knitting. That was one of the few knitting books the local library had when I started knitting, and I used to dream about the projects. No time like the present, using some lovely fingering weight alpaca in navy blue that my brother brought me from Peru. It's an easy repetitive pattern for now, and I'm enjoying it. I had been holding steady with those projects and the Dale, until this weekend. A one (or two, or three, or . . .) project knitter I am not. So I started Debbie Bliss' Seed Stitch and Cables baby sweater out of some blue Cotton Ease.
Is it just me, or does Debbie Bliss have the largest children? This is the 18 month size, and it looks like it would easily fit my 10 yo niece.

And, while it didn't make the photo shoot, I also cast on for the Aran Watch Cap from Charlene Schurch's Hat's On! book in a burdgundy Paton's Classic Merino. I need to be prepared for the annual family Christmas pollyanna, and picking names on Thanksgiving doesn't leave a lot of time for knitters.

The good news is that I expect to finish all of these except the shawl (but I will finish the Dale!) by the end of the month. . . which should help offset the stash aquisition for the Second Anniversary Sweater. Is it wrong to be happy that my yarn is backordered and hopefully won't come until December? Or is that just the kind of fuzzy accounting that got the whole economy in trouble?

Baby Hat Trick, Plus One

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
-George Bernard Shaw

Yesterday we saw the lovely results of stash put to good use warming heads. Well, apparently good things come in threes, and then some.

The Most Adorable Baby Cap Ever
Pattern: Sweet Baby Cap (free pattern here)
Yarn: cotton sock yarn scraps
Needles: US 2
Notes: Great easy pattern, although an awful lot of stitches for a baby hat.
Best Thing About This Project: I liked it so much, I made another one in self-striping sock scraps!

In other exciting news, it's incredible how much I like my job sometimes. And I'm not just saying that because one of my patients brought me homemade Rocky Road fudge today. (Although that was a bonus.) Clinic is just fun. Not to mention that life is just so much better when you get to sleep on a regular basis. Expect some great progress shots of my Dale coming soon.

Good Things Come in Pairs

Pair off in threes.

-Yogi Berra

I'm at a conference this weekend, which means a good amount of knitting time and a lot of mandatory fun. So we'll continue the review of summer fun and expect some well-along WIPs next week. I went through a baby knitting phase over the summer, completely sparked by this sweater. My college roommate's very adorable baby is a happy model of handknits (including at my wedding - I knew teaching her how to knit was a good idea!), and they're a cotton-only kind of family who also happen to like bright colors. Add in this cheerful sweater, and it was the perfect first birthday present.

But then I had a moral crisis. How could I give this sweater to the very deserving recipient of adorable handknit baby sweaters? I liked it too much. So I made another one, just by alternating the two blues.

Colorful Baby Set
Pattern: a kit from Lionbrand that I bought on clearance when the old put-up of Cotton-Ease was being discontinued
Yarn: the Cotton Ease in the kit - 5 colors (yes, I bought a lot of it when it went on clearance)
Needles: US 7
Notes: I knit it in the round up to the armholes, and knit the sleeves in the round for ease of finishing. Still a lot of ends to weave in.
Best Thing About This Project: I'm waiting for the true finished object photo - modeled. It won't be long.

We haven't even scratched the surface of my blogging backlog . . . And the knitting continues.

Building Barns

It will not always be summer; build barns.

-Hesiod

Sometimes, the amount of yarn I have is terrifying. Sometimes, it's delightful. Lately I've been doing a bit of stash-diving, including knitting great projects with odd balls so odd (and small and partial) they weren't even on the stash spreadsheet. (They were, however, taking up space.) Before we get into all those "somethings for nothing," here are two adorable sweaters from sometime back in the summer.
Stripey Baby Sweaters
Pattern: Super-Natural Stripes by fPea (available free here)
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, conveniently found in the stash in complementary colors
Needles: US 6
Notes: Easy, fun, and super cute.
Best Thing About This Project: It'd be hard to separate these sweaters. Any twin boys out there?

This was a great project. So great, I almost contemplated making more (yup, I still have some Cotton Fleece out there), but two just about held my interest.

Dishcloths Galore

There is something wrong when honesty wears a rag, and rascality a robe;

when the loving, the tender, eat a crust, while the infamous sit at banquets.

-Robert Ingersall

The Second Annual Dish Rag Tag is about to begin. Remember last year? The pain, the heartbreak, the troubles with the US Postal Service? Well, it's a whole new year. And I am ready.
Never fear, these aren't early entries for the Dish Rag Tag, these are just my two new favorite patterns, both free patterns from Abigail. Aren't they lovely in the varigated yarn?

There's no such thing as working ahead in this Dish Rag Tag - that would be cheating - but I have been refreshing my dish rag knitting skills. Last year I won the enviable title of Dish Rag Queen for admitting that I had some 30+ dishrags in their bin under the sink. As a prize, I got the world's most enormous ball of dishcloth cotton. Well, way back in June when my posting was sparse and my working was the stressful and time consuming Night Float, I took that ball to work, set it next to my computer, and knit the occasional row between phone calls, notes, and waiting for lab results.

So, just how many dish rags can you knit with a pound of dishcloth cotton?

Eight. Plus two Mason-Dixon baby bibs not pictured here, for variety in all that garter stitching.

Then, I turned my eyes to the rest of my cotton stash, and, feeling all Mason-Dixon-y, I made a log cabin out Mission Falls 1824 cotton scraps (last seen here as Christmas gifts).
I love using every last bit of leftovers, don't you? So I took the leftovers from the contrast color on my basketweave dishcloths, and made the cutest wash cloth ever.

Jen's already gotten this is the mail - hopefully it'll be a nice compliment to all that pink she's been knitting!

There were more, but perhaps we'll keep them a surprise until later in the exciting August dish rag races?

Fun On the Side

If it's not fun, you're not doing it right.
-Proverbial

I've been knitting and knitting and knitting. All the big projects like we talked about. But everyone needs to have a little fun on the side, right? Conveniently enough, the May Loose Knit Group project is baby knits. And I was jonesing for some baby knits. And some stash busting. And I had a couple skeins each of a couple coordinating colors of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. A great baby yarn. And then I found this pattern. And then I cast on.But that's not all the fun around here. I got my May Day sock swap! Check out the gorgeous socks and great package I got! Coffee and a mug, two kinds of sock yarn, nice lotions and creams, jelly beans, and Nikki Epstein's Knitted Flowers book - which is super creative and cool. Go check out my swap partner's blog, too!

Sensing A Theme Here

Tomorrow never comes.
-Proverbial

For most of the last week I was planning on blogging "tomorrow," but somehow each and every day is a today. It's been a busy week working, getting back into cooking (it's so much more fun to cook for two of us!), and actually doing some knitting.

In fact, it was during a nice post-work relaxing night of knitting that I noticed there was a bit of a theme in my knitting. Don't we all love Interweave? These are the magazines for the Bed and Breakfast Pullover, the Lacy Kerchief Scarf, and my new project. Yes, I finally decided what to do with my alpaca. Thank to all the suggestions and reassurance, I went with the teddy bear. How cute is this? It's going to be so adorable, so fuzzy, and, well, just so classic. I am realizing however, that I will have quite a lot of yarn leftover. I'm leaning towards mittens. We shall see.

I also figured out what my May project was going to be. It's a good stash project from some Reynolds Saucy that I bought at the Webs tent sale with Rachel right before I moved to California. Now, I realize that the wisdom of buying lots of yarn right before moving cross-country can be questioned, and two years later I'm still trying to work my through most or all of it, but the stash does become it's own justification when I can just decide to cast on and I have a good yarn handy. That I got on supersale. But I digress. I'm making the oh-so-romantically-named "Long-Sleeved Cotton Jacket" from Sarah Dallas' Vintage Knits. I've had my eye on this for quite some time, and now is the time.

Speaking of stash, I finally updated my sidebar to reflect the progress I've been making on stash reduction. While it does come in handy to have yarn around, I'd like to have a little less yarn around so I'd feel a little freer buying yarn for specific projects. At any rate, in spite of some recent yarn gifts (May Day Swap photos coming soon!), I'm still far in the negative from my starting stash. By the end of May, I should be under 110,000 yards!

Wedding Knitting

Hear the mellow wedding bells Golden bells!
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight!
-Edgar Allen Poe

Gosh, it sure is nice to have this husband of mine home. We're still basking in the wedding glow (mostly by organizing our new matching dishes!), so I'll continue the theme with the wedding knitting we I did.

The Manos Four Seasons ThrowBecause my mom was always worried that I'd elope and not have a "real" wedding. And then we did (sort of) elope, and my parents still threw us a big wedding. Because nothing beats walking down the aisle with your dad. Especially when he's wearing your handknit socks.Manos Four Seasons Throw
Pattern: shamelessly borrowed from Disentangled (her version here)
Yarn: Manos in 12 colors
Needles: US 9 Brittany Birch straights
Notes: I did 10 of the 12 offered patterns because 2 others were just too annoying. Otherwise I love it.
Best Thing About This Pattern: Keeping my mom warm while my dad turns down the thermostat.

I knit a few other things for the wedding, many of which you've seen before. These Selbuvotter mittens were for one of our readers, a good friend who has been asking me for mittens for years and years.

For my lovely bridesmaids, I made various cotton facecloths as part of a tote bag of goodies. This is, of course, part of the deep, dark plan to turn them all into knitters with their now-perfect knitting bags. (My sister giving her toast. ETA: She ended with a part of Pablo Neruda's Ode to My Socks, my favorite poem. How appropriate!)

Of course, I took photos of none of them, so you can just imagine. If you have plans of doing the same, I heartily recommend Yvonne's Double Flower Cloth for maximum effect.

Don't they look happy with their gifts? And, tired of the 3-inch heels my sister picked out!
I'll close with some gratuitous shots. First, the baby did wear my sweater vest. And, just a lovely gratuitous shot. When else can I wear a veil? It was fun.

Eye Candy Friday, Time Machine Tuesday, Er, Something

For the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.

- William Ross Wallace

Thank you for all your wonderful comments on the wedding photos. There will be more to come as I get them. In the meantime, here's my Time Machine Tuesday/Eye Candy Friday post for the week.

You all surely remember the rash of baby knits last year in preparation for this little one. Well, his parents are the kind of people with good taste and good sense who believe in putting their child in handknits as often as possible, even if they're still a little big. Recall, the bear used to be as big as the baby!

Now he's growing into many of his gifts (great reason to make all kind of different sizes). And here's where I'll make a plug for this Debbie Bliss pattern Baby Hooded Jacket from Simply Baby. (Original post here.) According to the parents, it's a great go-anywhere throw-on-top-of-anything kind of sweater, it looks adorable too big, and will likely fit for a while because of its cape-like structure. They apparently get lots of compliments. From the knitter's perspective, it's a stockinette raglan cape with self-rolling edgings and a single button hole, and a big hood. Win-win.

I also have a photo of this self-same delightful baby wearing this handknit sweater vest to my wedding reception. Could have sworn I uploaded it . . . but you'll just have to wait. Life is busy. As my college roommate (the mother of this baby) said, "When I show up at your wedding with my baby, I guess that makes us grown-ups."

Cutest Baby Photos Ever

When the first baby laughed for the first time,
the laugh broke into a thousand pieces
and they all went skipping about,
and that was the beginning of fairies.
-James Matthew Barrie

Welcome back to Time Machine Tuesday, on Tuesday this week, for a change of pace.

This week, I give you the two cutest baby photos ever, courtesy of my college roommate and her adorable boy. You last saw him at the ripe old age of 14 days, when his bear was larger than he was. Now, check out how he's growing into his knitwear! Since these knits are circa 2007, I'll just link to their original posts. Interestingly enough, both are from the same Debbie Bliss book. Find out all about the vest pre-baby drool here. And, for the winning cute picture of the day, see below. The details about the hooded sweater are here. Who knew that the dad's favorite color is orange?

Verdict on these knits? They seem to be holding up to baby laughter, foot grabbing, and drool just great. And as far as cute-ness? That's the winner.