Becky’s Knitting

I met Jenny one day after she found out she was pregnant. Due to family history, they didn’t want to tell anyone until the pregnancy was far along enough for certain tests to be run. So Jenny and I quickly became friends, but she couldn’t tell me her big news. The day she finally called to tell me, I was so excited, and everything suddenly made so much sense (I don’t drink at all at recruiting events, I have this horrible rash but can’t use certain meds, my food isn’t sitting well, etc.) I was even more excited when I found out she was having a girl, and I immediately knew what I wanted to make.

This pattern was designed by one of my fellow LSSKers, Anne in San Antonio, for our annual design contest. I loved it the moment I saw it. You can download the pattern from our friend Birdy’s site here.

Project Specs:

Pattern: May Daisy Blanket
Yarn: Berroco Comfort DK and Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille
Needle: US 9s
For: baby Emma
Started: October 10, 2008
Finished: February 26, 2009

Ravelry Details

Mods: used different yarn and a different gauge, and I didn’t do seed stitch every other petal - just kept them all garter stitch since I had the color changes going on.

Thoughts: This is such a cute gift! It was fun to knit a friend’s pattern, and Jenny reports that this size and shape blanket was awesome and unique. She likes throwing it over the stroller or laying it on the ground for Emma to lay on. She also likes to fold it in half and uses it to cover Emma when she’s napping. Very versatile! The yarn became even softer after a wash, and I like that it’s machine wash and dry. I used needles much larger than called for, but I liked this light, loose fabric for a baby blanket. The chenille yarn in the middle is a nice touch (thanks to Suzanne at HCW for that idea!).

This picture shows off the texture of the blanket better (click on it to see better):

Landon was the recipient of the Longhorn Better than Booties that I made 2 summers ago. After trying to link to them, I realized I never posted, so here they are:

I never got a picture of them finished, because I literally finished them on the plane ride up to Chicago.

They were kind of a last minute present, and since then two other ladies in our group of friends have had babies. I’ll be showing their presents in upcoming posts, but suffice it to say that they got bigger items. I felt bad that Landon kind of missed out and felt that I should remedy the situation. Landon will be turning 2 next month, and like me, his mom is a big Harry Potter fan. So I thought it would be fun to whip up a Weasley sweater for him.

Project Specs:

Pattern: Weasley Sweater from Charmed Knits
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-ease - 3 skeins green, less than 1 skein of gold
Needle: US 8’s
For: Landon
Size: Knit child’s small aiming for somewhere between the toddle and child small size with my slightly tighter than called for gauge
Started: May 17, 2009
Finished: June 22, 2009

Ravelry Details

Mods: Knit in the round, including intarsia in the round, until the armholes. Also knit the sleeves in the round. I took out one set of decreases so that the sleeves decreased down to 32 stitches so that the 2×2 ribbing would work in the round. Started the ribbing at around 11.5” (after decreasing to 32 stitches, 5 rounds and then begin cuff) and did about 2.25” of ribbing. I think the cuffs look really cute folded over, and there’s plenty of extra there as he grows for them to be unfolded.

Thoughts: What a cute sweater! The bottom is rolling a lot - like almost 2 inches of fabric. I’m going to leave it as is now, but tell Landon’s mom that when it becomes too short, to give it back and I will tack the roll down so it will roll just a little (or else put ribbing on the bottom). Since I made the sleeves fairly long, this should allow it to fit for several years. This was an easy knit, most mindless, and intarsia in the round is actually really cool and not hard at all (when doing a simple shape like a letter). I had the sweater knit all the way to the top of the L and then realized it was too high AND I had forgotten to divide for the sleeves, so I had to rip out all the way down to well below the L. Even with that, it was a quick knit, easy to work on while studying for the bar, and I think it’s cute!

My blog is a pretty purple now! So far, I really like Wordpress. Easy to use. HOWEVER, I had to deactivate and reactivate at one point to get the import to work, and in the process I lost all my blog pictures I am not happy. I’m undecided whether I’ll go back and add them all in. I do like using my blog as a reference, but since everything is up on Ravelry now, it’s probably less critical. I also lost all the files from my original blog that I made without blogging software. I think those are backed up somewhere on my computer, but I’m still not happy about it. I guess that will give me stuff to do to avoid studying over the next 6 weeks. Before I go back and fix old things, though, I want to work on this new blog and get it going. Hopefully I’ll be able to post from time to time. I’ve finished a lot of new projects I want to tell you about. I also want to try posting from my phone. That would be really awesome. If you notice anything not working with the blog, or have requests for things you’d like to see, please let me know.

I am moving my blog from movable type to wordpress. Why? 1) b/c yahoo STILL hasn’t upgraded to MT 4.0, so I can’t use the iphone friendly movable type software. Wordpress has a free iphone app. 2) I never was able to get my MT template to look how I wanted it and the comments all seem to suggest that wordpress will be easier.

Hopefully I’ll be able to move all my old posts over, so please bear with me until then. AND, if I can blog on my phone, then you can expect much more regular blogging.

Another tradition around these parts has been reviewing Christmas from a Knitter’s Perspective. In my last post, I mentioned the Lost FIL socks that were gifted. I’m a little disappointed because I’m not sure they fit as well as last year’s socks - perhaps because the ribbing stretched so much that it took away from the length. I don’t have confirmation of this - just a quick glance as they were being placed on the feet, and I haven’t been able to get any sort of in information beyond that.

I was also the recipient of many knitting related gifts. Particularly exciting was the Jordana Paige knitting bag given to me by my in-laws (in purple, of course!!). I love it, and it will be great for traveling to have a large purse that will hold plenty of knitting, plus regular purse stuff and some papers as well.  It’s definitely too big for an everyday purse, but it’s a great professional bags for days when I need something bigger.

From my sister-in-law, I received Nancy Bush’s Knitted Lace of Estonia. Wow! What gorgeous things in this book! Not sure I will make anything from it anytime soon, but it’s so wonderful just to look at.

My mom and I also tracked down the book Angels: A Knitter’s Dozen. My mom has a collection of small angels that ever since I was little I loved to place all around the nativity set. When we saw an ad for this book in a magazine, we both agreed we had to get it so that I can make some angels to go around my nativity set. No idea when I’ll ever get to those, but I’m excited to make some.

Finally, the annual LSSK secret santa swap was awesome to me this year. My secret santa was a fellow Longhorn fan, Linda, and she spoiled me!

A Longhorn alarm clock (that plays the fight song), spirit of the southwest shawl pattern, and most importantly, this beautiful burnt orange yarn!

I love it!