The Lazy Days of Summer

Once again the heat and my children have prevailed upon my time thus enticing me to procrastinate my latest project. But alas, my deadline has prevailed. The lazy days of summer are coming to a close and I am excited! Who knew.
It has been a long time coming but I have just finished sewing on buttons to my most recent FO. I haven't done this toggle button thingy before and I think it shows. I patterned this baby hoodie after one from the Drops website but I made some changes. Firstly, I knit this in the round from the bottom up instead of in pieces. Why sew the pieces together when it is a raglan top? Useless. Secondly, I dropped the garter stitch trim and used a ribbed bottom and trim for the sleeves. I also dropped the single row of purl st on both the body and the sleeves and got lazy about the pockets. Who knows, maybe I'll add them later if I get a wild hair. It is knit in Bernat cotton which I got for a smokin' deal at Joann's. The colorway is kind of a celery. I used US 10's even though the yarn label called for 7's. I thought that might be too dense and the 10's made the FO a bit softer. Knit for a baby boy due next weekend. I hope mom likes it. That, however, remains to be seen.

Babies, babies, and more babies!

It is that time of year again when people are trying to be skinny to no avail. Some of them have excuses...I, for one, do not. I am in the process of making another baby gift for a friend. She is due at the end of August and so I have put it off too long. This will be her first child and it will be a boy. Boy gifts are a lot harder for me than girl gifts because there is so much to choose from in the way of patterns for girls and even some of the patterns for boys look too girlish to make for a boy. Perhaps that is my own view. My dear husband has deemed himself very much a "manly man" and cannot be bothered with things that would threaten his man card. His answer to all my questions is "fine." What does that mean?!!! Fine is his way of saying "I'm not really paying attention but I'm sure you won't leave me alone unless I give you some kind of answer so I'll give you the most noncommital answer that won't evoke any further conversation." Who knew so much could be in one word. So I knit on...I am making "Tom" from Rowan's archives. It's a little vest and so far I'm a little confused as to how it will turn out. I guess we'll see. I have two more gifts to get started on and finish by December. I suppose that doesn't sound like a lot but at the rate I knit or find the time to knit, it might just take me that long. My biggest problem is in picking out the pattern for the gift. Every time I look at patterns I find something that I'm sure would look so cute on me. I guess I'll have to stop that.

AUSTIN

This is my first pattern so it may be a little sketchy. My wonderful test knitters at Ravelry Chra and SLOrnamentals have been a great help in this process. This pattern is for personal use and not for resale. Please do not copy this pattern or its pictures in any way.

This hat is an oversized hat not meant to be fitted to the head as a proper hat would be. The sizing can easily be adjusted by adding or subtracting 5 sts from the band. It is knit in the round and on DPN's in US size 7 needles with the exception of the brim which was knit with US size 5 needles. It is a very tight knit except for the band so as to give it form and not be too floppy. Should you find any errata please let me know. Thanks

AUSTIN

An oversized newsboy cap. (21 ¾”)

Materials: Worsted weight yarn. Size US 5 straights, size US 7 DPNs, and 16 “ US 7 circs. Yarn needle. 5 markers one different. One safety pin

Gauge: The only gauge I measured was sts per inch because as the type of hat it is, row count should not really matter. 17 sts per 4” single strand st st with size US 7

Band
CO 95(105) one strand with size US 7 16” circ.
PM Join being careful not to twist sts. Knit st st 1 ¾ “. Purl one row then knit st st 1 ¾” and BO leaving 24” tail. Fold, purl side (WS) in tucking loose end in and sew purl sts from RS together. Folded edge or purl row is top.

Hat
Yarn doubled. Pick up 95(105) sts on folded edge and knit 1 row. PM at beg of round. PM every 19(21) or evenly distribute sts between markers..
Row 2: *K2, P to marker . RPT from * 4 more times. Continue for 2”
P2tog on each side of k sts every other row until one or no sts remain between k sts switching to DPNs when necessary. K2tog each set of two knit sts. Cut yarn for finishing. With yarn needle pull yarn end through all sts tightly and finish.

Brim
Size US 5 needles yarn doubled.
Fold hat in half and mark center with pin. Pick up and knit 43(48) sts
Row 1: P 26(29) w&t
Row 2: K 9(10) w&t
Row 3: P 12(13) w&t
Row 4: K 15(16) w&t
Row 5: P 18(20) w&t
Row 6: K 21(24) w&t
Row 7: P 24(28) w&t
Row 8: K 27(32) w&t
Row 9: P 31(36) w&t
Row 10:K 35(40) w&t
Row 11: P 39(44)
Row 12: K 43(48)
Pick up st next to band onto R ndl. P first st from left ndl and pass picked up st over. (first BO st)
Continue BO to end purlwise. Sew end into next st on band

-For personal use only. Not for resale. Do not reproduce.-

Almost there

Yesterday I checked my pm's on Ravelry to find a great surprise...one of my testers had finished! Yay!!! I know for those of you who write patterns all the time this is probably nothing but I was excited nonetheless. It is a pretty basic pattern but I was worried that what I thought was basic would end up being wonky. I'm glad to know that I'm not as entirely demented as I had previously thought. The testing process has been an interesting first. I have learned a few things. First and foremost, put everything up front for your testers. For example, I gave them the list of techniques they would need to know, I also discussed that I couldn't pay them for their help as this would be a free pattern. One thing I forgot to mention, however was a time frame. I wished that I had done that but since I didn't I thought it better that I not add that in all of a sudden and so I wait. Patience is another thing that I have learned. I think it a great thing that my testers have different abilities because then I get the whole spectrum of problems that may arise. I consider myself a moderately advanced beginner so seeing what other people think and how they interpret my explanations was very helpful. Gauge is another thing I didn't consider too much but now I see that it does make a difference even with an oversized hat. My gauge was apparently really tight because some of the problems with sizing or holes etc. didn't seem to affect my finished project as much as it did to my testers. They have been a great help in my own learning process and I thank them. Kudos to Chra and SLOrnamentals on Ravelry.

Austin unraveled

I have finally figured out what I did for seaming on my project Austin. I know that sounds stupid but I liked the fact that the seaming didn't look like seaming but it wasn't all one piece either. Since figuring this out I can now finish up a pattern and send it off to my lovely testers at Ravelry. And when the testing is complete I can post my first pattern. Yea!

Quick Baby Gift

It is nearing the end of May and I realized that I have a baby gift due in June. So I ran off to Ravelry to find a quick gift for a girl. I thought about trying Blossom which is a wrap dress by Melissa Wastney but for some reason the sizing wasn't coming out right. It seemed very small even though I used bigger yarn and a bigger needle and used the largest size the pattern had. Though I didn't go through the whole pattern, it said it was knit in one piece and I only CO 72 sts for the bottom. I will probably try that pattern again when I have more time to think about the pattern and make the necessary adjustments. As for now, I just wanted to do a mindless project that I could complete easily with the hopes that it would be useful. I decided on a seamless kimono by Jacki Kelly which I got off Ravelry and it turned out to be very simple. I added ruffled sleeves and a ruffled edge on the bottom only because I didn't feel like doing a garter stitch edging. I really need to expand my horizons and get a book on edgings. I had eyed a book at my LCS but I didn't buy it. I hadn't figured on needing it. But now I am changing my tune. The Kimono was easy enough that I just wrote down some notes from the pattern and went to work. I am not so sure about the ruffles, I have never done ruffles before so they might have turned out more "ruffley" than I had intended but overall I guess it is okay. The only problem I had with the pattern was I had one too many eyelet holes for the I cord. I used Bernat Soy Naturals in Celery and Rice. I did two toned because I ran out of yarn and I got them on clearance.

Another FO

FO seems almost vulgar to use but I have completed my Starsky Jr finally. It sat on the back burner for quite some time. This took less than 4 skeins of Bernat softee chunky which was a thicker yarn than the project called for. I didn't do any adjustments to the pattern to compensate. Overall it worked. If I were to do it again I would make the neckline deeper in the back because the collar comes up too close and I have to situate the sweater just right to make it look right. I think my seaming skills could use some help but that's only because the shoulders weren't quite right. I made one mod and that was to not make the sleeves folded up. I made them a bit long so DD would have room to grow. The length was fine. The actual color of the sweater, though you wouldn't know from the pictures, is navy blue...or dark blue as the yarn label says. I have only buttons left to find and sew on to it but other than that it is complete. Hooray! I have a pattern to write up for Austin and then start on my design project for a jacket. I'm really excited about the jacket. I have in mind what I am going to do and I just need to find yarn and then do it. I have not written my own patterns before so this will be interesting. But thanks to the wonderful peeps at Ravelry I will have willing volunteers to test it out to see if my mind is completely wonky. As far a the Starsky Jr project went, it was fairly simple considering the fact that it was only my second sweater to date. It was also my first attempt at blocking and I think it went horribly. I don't think I took the time to really understand the concept of blocking because we were on our way out of town. I think I'll need more practice. But at the very least...it's done.