Rebecca’s baby presents

I think it’s safe to assume that Rebecca received the baby presents I sent her last week, so I’ll post photos of them now. Rebecca is a crocheter/knitter who had a baby girl just a few weeks ago. Right after she told me she was pregnant, I scoured Ravelry for baby shower gift ideas. Someone in a forum suggested making washcloths to give with some baby shampoo. Brilliant! Unfortunately I didn’t get them finished in time for her actual shower because of the IK project I was working on, but now they’re finished and gifted.

Three of the four washcloths were my own designs. The green and yellow use stitches I adapted from Barbara Walker, and the stitch I used for the pink washcloth was reverse engineered from a sweater I saw on the bus on my commute home.

And the final washcloth used this pattern:
Pattern: Little Miss Happy Flower Dishcloth by Rachel van Schie
Yarn: Fibranatura Cottonwood (used for all 4 washcloths)
Needles: US 5 / 3.75 mm

After I knit them, I took some measurements, popped them in the washer and dryer, then measured them again. They shrank 1″ in length and 1/2″ in width, so if you plan to use this yarn for washcloths, just be aware they’ll shrink and plan accordingly.

The second gift is a dress of my own design. It’s made with Cotton-Ease yarn in 4 discontinued colors. I bought the yellow and green from someone on Ravelry, and I had leftover light blue from Liam’s aran sweater. The orange color has been discontinued for many many years, but I was lucky enough to find one lone skein of it at Tuesday Morning. Go figure! You can’t see from these photos, but there is a yellow button on top of each strap.

I’ve never been great at embellishments on knits but this sun turned out cute!

And yes, the orange really is that bright! Too bad all the new Cotton-Ease colors look so utterly crappy. What’s wrong with bright orange, yellow and green??

ETA: Good idea, Lisa! So if you’d like to purchase the pattern for the Sadie dress, it’s currently available through my Ravelry store or Etsy. The Sadie dress looks a little different than the dress above, with stripes on the bodice, not on the skirt. But it does have the same shape and uses Cotton-Ease.

red light go!

What is it about drivers here in Pittsburgh? I have synesthesia, but that doesn’t prevent me from distinguishing between red and green lights. Or from noticing the bright fluorescent yellow PEDESTRIAN CROSSING signs placed in the middle of the street. That’s all this disgruntled pedestrian will say on the subject. Moving on to knitting…

huh?? My camera works again!

I’ve stalled a bit on a wrap I’m designing. It’s a unique design in which I need to know exactly how the final edge border will be worked before I can continue knitting the bulk of the item. I have about 1/3 of the wrap done so far and it’s looking lovely all pinned out on my blocking board, waiting for some magical border inspiration to hit. In the meantime, I picked up my aunt’s “pico” socks again and I’m making good progress. I started them earlier this summer using size 0 bamboo dpns which just about did me in, literally. I had a pesky pain in my left arm for days because of these stupid dpns and had to stop knitting completely for what seemed like years (even if it was only for a week). Then came urgent projects and some magazine submissions, etc… so the socks were placed on the back burner until last week. I’m now using some heavenly knit picks nickel plated circulars (for magic loop) instead of those wretched dpns and I’m making so much progress! The leg on the right sock is totally done, and I have another 5 lace repeats to go on the left to catch up. Maybe these socks will actually get finished and gifted before winter starts??

I think I’ve decided to sell my knitting patterns on Patternfish, an online store where people can buy or sell knitting or crochet patterns as customized PDF downloads. As I’m super lazy, and I make no effort to hide that fact (which in itself is lazy), I just never got around to it. I do sell a few patterns through Etsy and Ravelry, but I have a few newer designs and I could definitely stand some more exposure. I need to reformat some of my patterns to fit the Patternfish template but I think in the end it will be worth it. Some of my old patterns need spruced up anyway.

I love my jeans, I love my jeans…

My jeans are so comfortably lovely!

Today I have the day off from work (because my boss is awesome), so I decided to hem my free Gap jeans from Betsy’s party and they look terrific!

Here’s before and after. (Again, please excuse the poor photo quality. I need a new camera, and then I need to learn how to use it properly).

They were at least 4.5″ too long. So long I couldn’t see my feet under all that denim! I’m not particularly short, either. The thread I used is almost the same color as the original, so one would have to look pretty closely at my ankles to see they were hemmed. My sewing machine was in good form today, and I used a brand new denim needle (because I bought one by mistake once and never returned it- sometimes being lazy is a good thing!) I didn’t have much trouble at all sewing over the side seams. I think they look pretty professional. Not bad for my first attempt at hemming!

Now they’re just the right length and they fit so nicely!

Knitting updates in my next post.

Highland Alpaca

Yesterday my knitting group and I visited the Highland Alpaca farm in Grove City, PA. Karen from the crochet group owns a handful of alpaca at the farm and arranged for our visit. The owners of the farm, Fay and Jenny, were very welcoming and gave us the grand tour.

Alpacas are super soft and very friendly. (Don’t mind the pink tinge in all of the pictures. It’s the best my broken camera would do…)

They have such cute faces!

This room contains bags and bags of fleece from the last sheering. The animals are shorn once a year, and the fleece can be turned into yarn or even used as bedding.

This little girl, Georgette is her name (I think), decided my jeans and t-shirt looked good enough to eat. Alpacas only have bottom teeth in the front so I wasn’t worried that she’d bite a hole in my shirt.

After the tour, we headed back inside to make some yarny purchases in their store. They sell sweaters, blankets, gloves, etc. They also sell 100% alpaca yarn, all spun from their animals. I believe they’re working with Karen to expand the yarn portion of their store, and they’ll be selling an alpaca/nylon blend sock yarn in the fall. Many of the store samples were designed and knit by Karen, and if you buy some yarn you get a free pattern.

I bought 2 skeins of some beautifully soft natural chocolate brown sport weight yarn. The ball band shows a picture of an alpaca named Boudicea wearing a blue ribbon. So it appears I bought some award-winning yarn! Alpaca yarn is lovely to work with and it’s incredibly warm.

We had a few minutes to sit on the deck and knit before heading home.

If you’re in the Pittsburgh area, I highly recommend visiting this farm!

Another great podcast

As you know, I’m a fan of Jenny and Nicole’s podcast Stash and Burn. I started listening at episode #1 and worked my way through all 80 episodes. Well, I seem to be caught up now and have since found another knitting podcast I’d like to recommend to everyone. This one is called Sticks & String by David Reidy, aka, the “Australian bloke who knits”. This is a terrific podcast, and I’m just sorry I didn’t find it sooner. So far in each episode, and I’m only up to episode #15, he talks about what fiber related activities he’s participated in over the week and what project he’s currently working on. He also reads a very personal and well written essay, reviews knitting related materials, books or magazines, and sometimes interviews knitters, LYS owners or alpaca breeders. It would be so awesome to have him in my knitting group. (If you’re reading this, David Reidy, please hop on a plane and fly to the Coffee Tree Roasters on Walnut Street in Pittsburgh, PA on Wednesday evening at 6:30 for the Shadyside SnB group). I would highly recommend a listen!

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So what’s on my needles, you ask? For the record, I am for the most part a monogamous knitter. But somehow I now have, hmmmm… 5 projects going at once, and it’s making me just a little batty. Here’s what’s on my to-do list:

1) Secret baby gift set for my friend Rebecca who had a baby girl on Friday
2) Secret project that I hope to submit to Knitty in less than 2 weeks barring any setbacks (I already have one- see below)
3) Ishbel shawl that looks like a manta ray
4) My aunt’s lacy “pico” socks
5) That verdammt Kate’s Cardigan

I have a Simplicity summer top to sew and jeans to hem, and bookkeeping to learn and a pattern to finish writing up to submit to Knitcircus. Lots going on and very little time to do it all in. If only I had that ring that stops time…

So here’s the not so minor setback:

My camera is wigging out on me! And it’s not just occasionally anymore. The actual color of this item is not really fuchsia, but a lovely light pink. I totally gimped the color/hue/brightness/contrast which didn’t help one bit and cropped out the lovely lines that appeared across the top and bottom of the picture. So I may need to borrow a camera in the not so distant future to photograph my submission to Knitty, assuming I get it knitted up in time!

(FYI, the yarn in the photo is cottonwood knit in a totally sweet stitch pattern I reverse engineered from a girl’s sweater I saw on the bus.)