the third time's the charm

I cast on for this baby hat on Sunday while I was at Knitsmiths and got to halfway through the crown decreases on Monday night before I put it on my head and realized it was large enough to fit me and thus far too big for a ten and a half month old child. So, it was frogged, I rewrote the pattern to fit the gauge I was getting, and then cast on again. That time I got halfway through the crown before I realized I had screwed up and made the brim far too long, so I ripped back halfway again. The third time, it seems to have worked, and here is the result.



The pattern as originally written is Miss Dashwood from Knitty. When I recalculated it to fit the gauge I was getting I eliminated the bobble row and changed the brim decreases. So I've nicknamed it Miss Marianne. The yarn is Bernat Cottontots in Jelly Belly, and it was knit on size 6 bamboo needles. The only thing I didn't like about the pattern was the need to do k4tog tbl (which was really hard on my hands during the first go round) but when I modified the pattern for my gauge I changed the decrease row to get rid of that. Otherwise, I think it's an adorable pattern and can't wait to see it on its recipient.

everybody's got something to hide except me and my monkey

We went over to Catherine's place on Friday night for a little craft evening. Though our night was not without adventure since we went out for dinner and realized our host had forgotten her keys. Luckily, her SuperBoyfriend (or Sporkman!) came to the rescue. But here is the result of our crafty endeavors.

Meet my very first sock monkey!



He's a little starry eyed from all of the attention he's been receiving, but he seems to be very happy.

Baby, baby

This post is actually about an older FO. I made this baby sweater early last year, when a friend of mine was pregnant.



It is Nona's Baby Jacket from the 2006 edition of the Knitting Pattern-A-Day Calendar and is made from Schaefer Lola.

The intended recipient decided to show up a little early, so it's only been recently that she's been wearing her sweater. Yesterday, we took her to the park, and here are a couple of picture of baby cuteness. She's now ten and a half months old and adorable.



And here she is in the swing, where you can see the hood a little better.



It's still big on her, and I need to add some closures, but hopefully she'll be able to wear it for a while yet.

yarn balls and baseballs

I decided to break through my knitting funk by working on a project where mistakes wouldn't matter or at least wouldn't show, so I embarked on something felted and made a pair of Fuzzy Feet. I forgot to take a picture of them before they were felted (sorry, Catherine), but they were very large and garnered inappropriate comments from random young men at Starbucks in their pre-felted shape.

Here is the finished product:



They are made from one skein of Paton's Classic merino in the Harvest colorway. I was worried about running out of yarn, as my feet are large, but I had about two yards to spare at the end.

The Knitsmiths had a yarn swap yesterday. I made an effort to destash some of my leftovers from older projects but somehow came home with more than I arrived with.

The loot:



In the top row are ten skeins of Patons DK Country Garden, which I'm hoping will be enough for the Green Tea Raglan from the current Interweave Knits, and a skein of Vally Yarns merino wool, which is probably destined to be a hat. In the bottom row is a skein of Sunshine Yarns sock yarn in Starry Night, a skein of Manos (which I've never used before), some Koigu PPPM (which I've also never used), another skein of Sunshine Yarns in Fern, and a skein of Danette Taylor handpainted. Such goodies!

And for those of you doubting that spring is coming, I am recently returned from Florida and seeing the boys of summer. A couple of shots for you. . .



Ryan Howard, NL MVP last year (I love how the baseball ended up in the corner of this shot):



I love how this photo turned out, especially considering I took it from the window of a moving car:



So, there's a little sunshine for you!