Baby Bunny Jacket

My latest baby KIP is the "Baby Bunny Jacket" by Darlene Hayes from Vogue's "Baby Knits Two." So far, it's been a quick and easy knit. I'm at the point where the front left and right neck shaping begins. The only thing I find a bit odd is the fact that the hood is knit separately and sewn on after the fact. 


I hope to finish this before next Saturday for a baby shower. wish me luck!

Baby Surprise Jacket

I've knit three of these and it never gets old. how did EZ figure this out?!

This one was for a work colleague. however, her son was so large at birth that he never got a chance to wear it!

Can you say "heirloom?"


YARN: Koigu KPPPM, 1 skein
PATTERN: Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket
SIZE: Newborn
MODS: iCord ties as a substitute for buttons.

first post in a looooong time

I need apologize to all my knitblog peeps for being so sporadic with maintaining the blog. I've moved urls, I've switched templates and services, I've promised more frequent updates – all in the hopes of a new start. My only explanation revolves around work and the nasty time/brain/soul suck that is advertising.

Now that me and the "corp dot com ad agency" have "mutually parted ways," I've been able to catch up with knit friends and knitblogs and knitting in general. after a couple of years of knitting only socks in the simplest form (not having to think being the main requirement), I'm finally feeling the urge to work on larger, more complex and more fun projects. I finally HAVE time to actually knit. I've rediscovered why I knit and am allowing it to – once again – rescue me from the creative "blank" I've been in the last couple of years at the aforementioned "corp dot com ad agency."

Advertising is exciting and collaborative and requires both right brain and left brain thinking. Advertising is also manipulative and – in some cases – damaging. If i can avoid another job in advertising, I will.

'nuff said.

Point is: I missed my knit circle and i want back in. :)

Crazy From The Heat...Again

What is that, you ask?

It's the beginnings of a swatch.

For yet another project.

But first, let me just say: It was a busy, busy weekend, people. I ran a TON of errands, helped set up and participate in a Baby Shower, went yarn shopping and somehow managed to meet up with a Knit Pal in-between. The knitting meetup was my attempt at not having my ENTIRE WEEKEND overrun with obligatory Baby Shower-related tasks.

And, I have to say, meeting up with this gal is always fun. This time, I was finally able to meet these little guys AND I got to try on the fabulous Tivoli! Why? Well...uh...because I'm planning on making one.

And before anyone says anything...it's HOT, people! I need a tank! I will eventually finish Cool Cagoule and the two other sweaters I have on hold, but it's almost the beginning of July and all I can think about are socks and tanks. So, leave me alone! (hehehe...just kidding, of course).

Anyway, I'm afraid I'm going to have to modify the Tivoli somewhat and make the strap into a cap sleeve. You see, I am not pleased with the state of my upper arms this summer, and until I can whip them into shape, there will be nothing more revealing than a cap sleeve.

In any case, the Tivoli is quite the little number, with it's darts and it's raglan sleeves and the nifty waist shaping (which gives it a nice flare at the hip) -- I love it!

So, Miss J, I have finally found the perfect project for that GGH. You can now breathe a sigh of relief ('cause I know you were just sitting around thinking about it, right? hehehe). :-)

In any case, despite the oppressive heat, I managed to have a great time. I even snuck out early from the shower on Sunday for a little trip to Wickford to pick up...

you guessed it! MORE Ultramerino4!

I also worked the measurements for the Tivoli, reworked the design for the sock I'm making with the Ultramerino4 and started this Feather and Fan sock for Granny:

See, Granny sort of fell in love with this pattern and prefers this over the Padded Footlet. Which is COMPLETELY FINE by me, since I don't think I can bring myself to work on that sock again. I love the Rowan 4-ply Soft and the lace pattern, but all the back-and-forth and the uncomfortable knitting with the double-strands is just too much. It never seems like I make any progress and it isn't even enjoyable. So, I may frog it and start over. Someone suggested just double-stranding along the heel in  a basic double-strand way (not using the fussy method in the pattern) and retaining the rest if the pattern with modificatons to account for the lack of the extended thickness of the sole.

So, that sounds like a good plan.

In any case, I'm enjoying the Feather and Fan pattern and am modifying and playing around with it somewhat. I've kept two purl rows on the top of the cuff, but changed the frequency with which it shows up (after two repeats on the first purl row and after one on the second).

I'm also experimenting with just adding a purl section above the feather stitches and excluding them where there are fan stitches because I like the major uninterrupted wave the fans make across several repeats. (It isn't very clear in the pic, but in person you can really see it. Trust me. Hehe).

I haven't forgotten about my PDA posts. It's just that I'm crazy from the heat right now and can't handle another minute in front of the hot laptop. I'll also post images of my stash from the yarn crawl at A Good Yarn with Kathy.

Soon, my people, soon.

P.S. There were so many furry critters out and about this weekend! It was SUCH a treat. I needs to get me one. :-)

The Giddy Glow of New Love

Ahhhh...

Mmmmm...

Yeahhhh...

This is how it feels to knit with the Ultramerino4.

I don't know what it is about this particular blend of merino, but whatever it is, ArtYarns has gotten it oh-so-right.

There is just something silky about it. It's soft, smooth and a bit cool to the touch-- like a silk blend. It manages to be the perfect amount of "stretchy and bouncy," without being overly tight. It seems slightly finer than Koigu (probably because of the difference in ply) and works up well on size 0 needles.**

As far as color goes, these hanks are rich and vibrant and consistent throughout. I make that distinction because I had an issue with dime-sized areas of unpainted yarn every few feet with the Cherry Tree Hill. It looked like the dye missed a spot. At first I thought it was an isloated incident until I knit two more things with Cherry Tree Hill and found it to be the norm.

Not with this treasure, though. The fabulous Ultramerino4 has rich colorways and fine dye work.

It's hard to say whether I like it better than Koigu or not. Koigu has that great beaded ply which feels a bit different on both your feet and hands. So, I'm not sure if it's fair to compare the two. A fairer comparison would be Cherry Tree Hill and Koigu.

And we all know where I sit on that one.

Also, I haven't gotten too far into my sock yet because of a scary lack of time. But, so far, I find myself thinking about it at work and counting the minutes until I can knit up a few more rows during a break or during lunch.

Here is what I have so far:

See what I mean about lack of time?

I'm experimenting with a sock pattern, so I did rip out a few times (and, the Ultramerino4 holds up nicely)...but still!

I'll hopefully be picking up more this weekend for a tank. I'd like to see how this yarn knits up in different scenarios.

In the meantime, I plan to enjoy the giddy glow of new love. Hehehe.

**The reason I'm using 0's is because I lost (LOST!) my #1 turbos. I think I left them at the coffee shop after ripping out a sock attempt and putting them aside. I must've forgotten to pack them when it was time to go. And now, OF COURSE, no one seems to have any 1's in stock. Of COURSE. I only had one pair, so this means I can't start my Socka-pal-2za sock -- or any other sock for that matter. I'm trying not to think about it, but it's really starting to make me tense. Hopefully I can find some this weekend.

And, really, why do yarn stores close so damn early?

I'd Like You To Meet Little Black Olive

This little piece of metal and circuitry is what has kept me in large supply of nutty behavior all weekend.

It looks so harmless doesn't it?

I have to confess, in addition to buying this for work-related tasks and general organization, I also purchased it with all sorts of knitting-related usefulness in mind. But, before I was able to actually DO anything with it, I had to spend a few hours -- who am I kidding, TWO DAYS -- tinkering with it, setting it up to Hot Synch, loading all sorts of nifty software and trying to get the tricky, buggy Acrobat Reader to work properly. I also tried to get a wireless connection, but I'm afraid it won't happen until I update my cell phone.

So, after all of this, the next step is actually inputting content and figuring out how to organize things, and what role this little thing will play in my knitting, design and blogging endeavors.

For the geeks among you, it is a PlamOne Tungsten T5. The screen does both portrait and landscape, the stylus has a nifty ball point pen inside and the screen is tap-sensitive on all areas (not just the input area). It has thousands of colors, a very large drive, removable storage chips and it came with a FREE wireless keyboard.

Here is the breakdown for the image above:

1. 320x480 Color Display

2. Expansion Slot

3. Stereo Headphone Jack

4. Infrared Port

5. Stylus

6. 5-way Navigator

7. Home/Favorites

8. Calendar

9. Contacts

10. Files

11. Multi-Connector

Hidden Features

12. Rechargeable Battery

13. Bluetooth® Wireless

14. Speaker (on back)

15. 160MB Flash Drive

I LOVE the wireless keyboard!

Because I am able to view PDFs, edit MS Office files (including my fabulous Excel spreadsheets which record my yarn stash totals) and input data using the keyboard, it feels like a mini-laptop. The organizational part is but a fraction of what it can do.

At this point, I am using it for so many things that it's saving me large amounts of space and sanity.

I'm sure many of you have already discovered the wonders of the PDA for knitting purposes, but I don't care! I plan to dissect my use of the PDA for various tasks in the next coming weeks. I figure I can share my info and get feedback from you guys on better ways of doing the same thing.

Also, I have a need to obsessively document everything. :-)

In actual knitting progress news, I cast on with the Ultramerino4 last night and all I can say is I think I might love this more than Koigu. It isn't just soft people, it's SMOOTH. SO SMOOTH...

Needless to say, I'll be heading back to that store this weekend to clean out her stash. 

More pics to come once I get my design sorted out.

Stash "Enhancement" (or, More Obsessive Purchases of The Fiber Kind)

Update: I received a comment about the ArtYarns Ultramerino which reads:

"I saw your post on Artyarns Ultramerino4 and wanted to let you know that it is brand new fall yarn and just started shipping!  It will be available widely in the next few months.  We are a little behind on updating our web site, but should be there shortly.

Take care,

Iris"

So, yay!

----

Saturday started out cloudy and dreary and I began to get that icky feeling I get when I've just about had it with crappy weather -- that feeling that alerts me to the fact that my Inner Cranky Pants is about to make an appearance. Thankfully, as I got closer to Wickford Village (a cute little coastal town in Southern Rhode Island), the clouds started to disburse and the Golden Orb made it's way out to save the day. Literally.

Oh yeah...

It was gorgeous. Perfect weather for some walking, shopping and yarn shopping -- which is, OF COURSE, different from plain 'old shopping,

I must admit, though, as soon as I parked my car and headed toward the Wickford Gourmet to meet my friends, I started feeling twitchy and could think of nothing else but the yarn shop just MERE FEET AWAY!

Is this bad?

Should I be worried?

Anyway, after popping in and out of a few stores, we finally made it to And The Beadz Go On. I Know, it's an odd name for a yarn shop, but none of that matters once you walk in. Once inside it's just "ahhhhh" all the way.

The first thing I noticed was a couple of bins of Koigu containing at least four colorways I haven't run across. Can you believe how bright and Summer-y, orange-y and pink-y this yarn is?

There is NO way I could've left without it.

I was then confronted with some luscious ArtYarns Ultramerino4 which, for some reason, isn't listed on their site (PLEASE tell me this isn't discontinued!) I own some Supermerino -- which is fabulous -- but have never actually seen or fondled the Ultramerino4. The colorways were beautiful and rich and it's strikingly similar in feel and weight to the Rowan 4-ply Soft I'm currently using for Granny's socks.

So, of course, I had to have some of that as well.

By this point, I could tell my friends were glazing over, so I decided to make another trip this weekend to inspect the inventory more thoroughly and to pick up a hank of this gorgeous yarn whose brand, price, make-up -- or anything, for that matter -- I don't remember. I was trying to be considerate and yank myself away from the store before I had a mutiny on my hands, hehehe.

All I can say is that it was thick and silky soft. It really feels like there's a touch of silk in there. It's handpainted and I think it was from a local company.

Oh, and did I mention that I loved it so much I can't stop thinking about it and obsessing over whether or not it'll still be there when I go this weekend?

I think my lust for this hank is fueled by the vision of the sock the owner was making from the same yarn. I never knew a thick sock could be so luscious!

Pray for me, people, and for the successful acquisition of the nameless hank.

(Oh, and for World Peace).

In other news, for those who care -- and there seem to be quite a few of you -- Granny and Grandpa have resumed their regularly scheduled programming. I visited this evening and walked in on them cuddling under the blanket while watching the WWF. Granny LOVES the WWF -- but that's a WHOLE other story!

There you go.