So much calmer...

My Calmer Aura cap is finished, with a photo shoot downtown on a beautiful late summer evening.

Aura Lace Cap
Rowan Calmer Collection
Rowan Calmer, Slosh
Brittany birch dpns, 4 mm (US 6)

So many projects!

I think I've got one too many projects going on right now. In addition to the pooling colors scarf knit along I started Paris Loop and Aura, the lace cap from the Calmer book. Paris Loop isn't photographing well inside and I'm lounging with a sleeping baby, that is I'm too lazy to go out. :) Aura's indoor photograph of the lace pattern turned out decently.

I absolutely love Calmer. It's as wonderful as going to a spa in terms of relaxation value. I'm planning this cardigan from the Calmer book for this fall. I just won't be wearing it with a belly baring shirt like the nice Rowan model. I'm amazed with what the skin on my stomach has managed to accomplish, what with stretching to accomodate a baby and all, but I don't think I need to show it to the rest of the world.

Bucket Two

Here we are in our matching bucket hats.

And since it's a Fluffa knit along, here's a rabbit tribute dance shot.

Unexpected Progress

While my mother in law was here I started knitting a purse while we watched the Olympics and she held John. It's Berga, from Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton's Noro Book One. Mine is made from Cotton Fleece instead of the beautiful Cash Iroha called for in the pattern. The knitting was done in a day and an extended nap for John let me finish it up this morning. It still needs some blocking, a button and a lining, but it's a very pretty little purse.

Give me a button!

Please please block me!

I'm back!

Last week I got sick, my mother-in-law Louise came out to see the baby and my best friend Meriah unexpectedly came in from Mississippi. She'd emailed my old school email address (which I no longer check) in the last few days before it stopped working. So everyone got to hang out with me while I schlepped around the house in nursing pajamas. By Saturday I was feeling slightly better and went to Natterers with Meriah, with everything feeling so normal, just like she'd never moved away. I really miss having my best knitting friend around. Normally there would have been pictures, but I was just glad to be functioning like a semi-normal human. I did finish sewing the ends in on my bucket hat. The tiny one is Sugar 'n Cream Sport, knit in the smallest size with a gauge of 6.5 sts/in. The big one is Cotton Ease, knit to the specified gauge in size medium. Photo shoot coming soon!

Desperate & Pleading

I know I'm not the most widely read person in the knitting blog world, but I figured I'd try. If anyone has Phildar books 363 or 372 (2002's Tricotez Calin in French or Breien voor Baby in Dutch) and is willing to part with them, let me know. I'll give you anything but my firstborn since I need him to wear the sweaters. :) I found one at a webstore in the Netherlands, but I'm not entirely sure how to pay at that site and don't have handy European friends to order things for me and then ship them to the US. Other than that, these books are impossible to find and have become the holy grail of baby knitting for me.

Presents!

Here's John, laying on a blanket from Natterers.



Natterers is a group of women from St. Aidan's Episcopal church who meet once a month to chat and craft. Although Christian and I have been going to St. Thomas Aquinas, we still have a ton of friends at St. Aidan's and I'll keep going to Natterers as long as they'll let me. :) In any case, I'm really touched that they all worked together to make something for me. People love John and made him something and that means so much. What a wonderful blanket!

Secret Pal III

I'm so excited about this! I've read many blogs in the other secret pal exchanges and wished that I'd signed up. So, whoever my secret pal turns out to be, I look forward to sending you knitting surprises!

Time to Confess

Denise Interchangeables are like my own personal accountability system. Since I don't have many other needles in the sizes covered by my Denise set, I can only be working on so many things at a time before I run out of cables. When I went to swatch for Arla, I found I only had the shortest cable and the two straight needle cables remaining. Hmm... Still enough to swatch!



Although it took me a while, I finally found all of the stray parts in various projects around the house.

1. My bucket hat

Started only a little bit ago in a bucket frenzy. I think the week after I cast on was a little hectic. Verdict: I think I'll finish this one before I start on the fall sweaters. The last one knit up quickly and it was made of stiffer yarn on teeny needles.



2. A cotton baby blanket

I started this when I thought I might be pregnant and was waiting out the time until I could test. I went to my friend Andria's "grandma night" and knit so much on it that my wrist hurt. Seed stitch in cotton isn't the greatest. Verdict: Put it on ribbon to hold it until I'm desperate for something mindless to knit.



3. Pi Shawl

I started this project from Weekend Knitting sometime in May to fill my last trimester with knitting goodness. I'm pretty sure I stopped to start the Union Square Shawl/Poncho. I like it, but knitting lace with that sticky, hairy mohair is sort of annoying. And I can't find a color of Koigu to knit the edging with. Verdict: Transfer to waste yarn and put it away until Pi inspiration strikes.



So it looks like all I need to finish up is my bucket hat. This week will be slow knitting-wise though, since my mother-in-law is coming out to visit us and meet John. I'm so excited that more of his family is coming out to see him!

Olympic Knitting

Remember these socks? Yet another project I started in late pregnancy and I've finally picked up again. I needed something easy to knit while I watched the Olympics opening ceremony. I really liked this year's opening ceremony act. Especially the woman with the glowing pregnant belly! But no progress pictures of these socks. Not when there's been yarn shopping!

I can usually convince my husband to drive all over creation so I can find new yarn stores. It's even easier when one of them is near one of his favorite restaurants from his college days. Lunch at Wild Ginger and a stop at the Tattered Cover (we're practically there anyway) and I can yarn shop to my heart's content. This week I learned of two new shops in the Denver area and decided that visiting them this weekend would be wonderfully edifying for my six-week-old. At the very least it will be indirectly good for him by being good for me.

I stopped in at Barnes and Noble last week to feed John (they have really comfortable chairs even if they are a chain with a Starbucks inside) and browsed through Family Circle Easy Knitting. As usual, nothing I wanted to knit, but what's this -- a yarn store in Centennial featured in one of the articles.

Knitty Cat is now my Rowan store. I'd never been to a Rowan stockist with this much yarn before! I also got my first look at those beautiful giant Rowan magazines. I could happily knit from these for quite a while. I decided to come home with a new project. Since my new baby-feeding figure doesn't really accommodate tiny tank tops I ended up with a cold weather project. It's cute, it's large gauge, it opens in the front for easy nursing. It's Bless, from the Cork collection.



There wasn't enough Cork in any color other than black, so I'm having a bag ordered in. I'm going to knit it in a grey called Turbid, but if that's backordered I'm going to get it in a tan called Snuggle. I get a bag discount, too, so it's like getting two skeins free! What could be better? Not wanting to leave without a little yarn, I got a skein of Calmer. I think I'm going to knit a hat similar to the one in the Calmer book.



I also joined the Knitty Cat Race for the Cure Team. That's another easy one to convince my husband about -- Hey, sweetlet, you want to run a 5k? Don't worry, it's after your half marathon. I just need you to hang around until the family fun walk... And we're good to go. :)

From the mile high knit blogs ring I learned about A Knitted Peace in Littleton. This is now my Noro store. I'd only seen Kuryeon and Silk Garden before. There is so much more Noro! On some sort of insane spree (encouraged by my enabler husband) I bought the Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton Collection - Book One. I know that everyone is knitting Klaralund from Book Two, but I ended up with a design called Arla knit in Iro in a beautiful red color. Again, it's very nursing friendly with its buttons on the front. It's such an over the top project for me and I'm so excited about it. Here's Arla



and a pile of Iro.



I don't think I'll be buying yarn for a while, but this will be a beautiful fall!

Devan is finished!

I finished knitting the pieces for Devan three days before John was born. I blocked it two days before he was born and seamed all but one side seam one day before he was born. Had I had a few more days, Devan would have been done in early July. But Devan's owner was born and Devan was stuck in a bag and put on a shelf. I found this bag yesterday, sewed up that last seam and sewed in a few ends. A quick trip to the store for some little buttons and matching thread, a nice husband who got dinner and did everything around the house for me last night and look -- you've got a sweater! Devan's owner should be up to modeling sometime today.

Click for larger views!

Devan Cardigan
Pattern: Spring 2004 Knitty (size 6-12 months)
Addi Turbo circs, 2 & 2.5 mm (US 0 & 1)
MC Regia 4 fadig Norweger Ringel Color (5156)
CC Fortissima Socka (1057)

Update!

Here's John modeling his sweater. It's just so big on him!

Click for a larger view!

We had joy, we had fun...

...we had photos in the sun!

Finally, something with the true colors of my pooling colors scarf.

Now with friendlier commenting!

Although the emailed comments feature was nice, I didn't like that non-blogger people had to sign up or else post anonymously. Hopefully the new Haloscan commenting will work out better.

Anne revisited

Here's Anne, with a much more reasonable 41 stitches on size 4 needles. I do like the way it's striped, although the darker colors aren't showing much contrast in this photo. I may have to (gasp!) take it outside and take a picture in real light. When you do all your blogging and photography when your baby's napping, you tend to take what you can get. :)

Baptism!

John was baptized today! More to come on the corrected pooling colors scarf soon...




The blurry picture is due to the low lighting in the church and the no flash during the service rule.

Adventures in Sleep Deprivation

I've been wondering what exactly I was doing wrong on my pooling colors scarf. Not only did I go up to a size 8 needle, I had to use 65 stitches. I was seriously trying to figure out how my skein of Anne could be that different than the one the pattern called for. And why did my scarf have so many more stripes than the one in the pattern?



Today it dawned on me that 65 stitches is getting pretty close to double the number of stitches called for. And, huh, if I were on smaller needles it would take double the number called for in the pattern. Aha! Despite my lack of sleep due to night feedings and diaper changes, I finally figured out that I'd marked every other turning point. I need to mark both ends to get the smaller number of stiches on the smaller needles with fewer stripes. Back into a ball you go, Anne.

Baby Bucket Photo!

I finally started taking pictures of John in his little baby seat, which makes for much easier hat modeling. Here is little mister fashion plate, in his oh-so-trendy Wry Baby onesie and bucket hat.

In his first pose, John shows the versatility of the bucket hat by hiding behind the brim.



For his second pose, John prefers the laid back look.



Which should be the contest entry for the bucket hat knit along?

If for some reason you want to see more baby pictures, you can always check out my baby blog, Johnlet. The primary audience is John's extended family scattered across the country, but every so often someone surprises me by reading it.

Lace Along II -- Finished!

My second Lace Along project is complete. The neatest part about it is that I knit about a quarter of it while I was in early labor. If I were to redo this project, I would knit a wider border on the edge to give the piece straighter edges and more stability against rolling. I was trying to match the exact size of the plain fabric baptism stole provided by the church, so that dictated the width and correspondingly narrow border. Still, I like the end result.



Here's the yarn I'm thinking about using for the Pooling Colors scarf.



It's Schaefer Anne in color #12. The dye pattern lines up as it should at the beginning of the skein, but it sort of drifts on a diagonal viewing the skein from the side. I'm hoping it will still work with some minor adjusting along the way.

John Ancis?

Monday I realized that with baptism in a week, I'd better finish the baptism stole. Well, Monday's knitting didn't go so well. First, I didn't center the S, then the yarn broke (!) on a k3tog decrease in the C, so there'll be an extra end to sew in. Then when I looked at the pieces side by side, I realized that I'd knit a garter stitch border instead of a seed stitch border on the mistake-filled piece. Three strikes and you're out!

I started again yesterday and made much error free progress. Two letters and some finishing to go!



I also ordered my Anne for the Pooling Colors knitalong. I ordered two different colorways and I'm still not sure which I'll use to knit the scarf. I'm waiting until I see the colors in real life. Once I finish the side seams on Devan, I'll be free to start the scarf.

Bucket Update

The baby bucket is done, but a good photo opportunity has yet to present itself. One month old babies are very fun to photograph, but hard to direct as bucket hat models. :)

The bottoms up bucket was so fun though that I had to start one for myself.



I'm using Cotton Ease that I found on clearance at Michael's. There's one right next to the Babies R Us where I find myself shopping on a frighteningly frequent basis. It's as good as yarn shopping gets for me right now.