Souvenir of Newfoundland

When preparing to leave Newfoundland several months ago, I thought about what I'd like to have for a souvenir.  I had a few good ones:

My mummer ornament.

My extensive photo collection.

1. Lighthouse, 2. Urchin, 3. Near Port Aux Basques, 4. Cape Bonavista Lighthouse, 5. Dungeons Provincial Park, 6. Kilmory Resort, 7. St. John's fence 3, 8. Ferryland lighthouse, 9. Cliffs, 10. Rasta-sheep, 11. Megan and Laura at the Sea Stack, 12. Blue at the Spout, 13. Untitled, 14. ECTA sign, 15. Rocky seas, 16. Durrell

And of course, my degree.

 

I felt that I needed something else, something that, like the mummer, represented the traditions of Newfoundland.  And then it came to me.  There was a little yarn shop two blocks away.  The owner designed her own patterns.  Among them, there was a pattern for a traditional fisherman's sweater (but toddler-size and therefore do-able).

It's been a slow process, but the project is coming along.  The pattern is one you have to focus on - not exactly mindless knitting.  But it's a fun one!  Check out this nubbliness:

And the cables (love a cable):

A close up of the back panel:

Progress so far:

By the way, in case you were wondering, there is no current intended recipient of this baby sweater.  It's something I'll keep on hand, just in case I need it down the road...

Want to see more knitting projects?  Check out this blanket and this blanket, this hat, this scarf, these mittens, oh, and these mittens too.

Michael's blanket

It's been quite a year for babies amongst our friends!  Shortly after finishing Gretta's blanket, I picked the needles up and started right into another blanket for another great pair of friends.  The little bundle of joy, Michael, was born on the last day of January to some pretty happy parents!

And I got to visit him just last week!  Such a happy little sweetie.  I think he'll look great wrapped up in this little basketweave blanket.  Knitters can find my pattern modifications at the bottom of this post.

I made the tag with supplies from my craft box:

Isn't the stamp great?  I thought a giraffe was suitable for a little baby boy.  It came from a stamp set I got a few years ago.  The images are woodcuts taken from an old edition of Webster's Dictionary.

And the gift wouldn't be complete without a handmade card:

I tried to emulate the "basketweave" pattern of the blanket on the card by weaving strips of cardstock together:

Now, on to the knitting details!

• Find my Ravelry project here
• I wanted to make this blanket suitable for a car seat/carrier, so it measures 30" x 31.5"
• According to my initial swatch and desired size, I loosely cast on 144 st
• Needle:  29" 4mm circular
• I went for a seed st border (k1, p1 and repeat for one row, then knit the purls and purl the knits for subsequent rows) of 14 rows deep
• For the 15th row (the first row of basketweave squares) I began a 12 st side border in seed st, then k10, p10 and repeat until 12 st from the edge (seed st last 12 st)
• [In retrospect I would have cast on 140 and made the side borders 10 st wide instead of 12]
• Each basketweave square is 14 rows x 10 st
• After 14 rows, simply switch knit sections to purl and vice versa
• When 2" from desired length, revert back to seed st for 14 rows and loosely bind off
• Yarn is Lion Brand Cotton Ease - machine washable and dryable!  Essential for a little babe.

And that's all I have to say about that.  Michael, I hope the blanket keeps you toasty this winter and I just can't wait to see you next time!

More of my knitting posts can be found here.

Gretta's blanket

When we found out our close friends were expecting a baby, I knew an epic knitting project would be required.  Attempting my first baby blanket seemed appropriate.  This was a project many months in the making. Thanks to the healthy arrival of beautiful little Gretta (I met her yesterday and I'm totally in love), it is finally time to unveil on runty mouse!

I spent a lot of time on Ravelry, searching for the perfect pattern.  We didn't know if the bun-in-the-oven would be a boy or a girl, so I was looking for something gender-neutral - but nonetheless awesome - for this little kid.  I thought about the Log Cabin Blanket as well as the Moderne Baby Blanket - longtime faves from Mason Dixon Knitting.  But it was a pattern I had never seen before that really caught my eye:  Pickets by Jennifer Crawford (find it on Ravelry or KnitPicks).

A full rainbow!  All the way across the baby!

It was a pleasure to knit.  I LOVE garter stitch.  So soothing.  So uniform.  I chose a very practical acrylic yarn that would be fully machine washable, making the blanket actually useful to our friends.  The colours available were perfect.  *A full rainbow*.  My personal favorites are the bright blue, the yellow, and the purple.  Here are some photos of the blanket in-progress:

Even after finally finishing the blanket, I still felt crafty.  So I made this little card as well:

Finally, some modification notes and tips for interested knitters:

• You'll notice I dropped one of the "points" of each "picket" so that only one end of the blanket had "points".  I knew that my "increasing end" would not be symmetrical with my "decreasing end", so I just cast off the full width of the "picket".  I think it looks more like a picket fence this way, or maybe a set of crayons?  
• Regarding gauge, I knit 24 stitches across at the maximum width, and knit about 149 rows per panel (after the "point" was completed).  
• All through the project, I was dreading the final seaming of all ten pickets.  However, I was directed to a knitty tutorial by a fellow Raveler which turned out to be so easy and effective, I actually looked forward to seaming!  In retrospect, I would have left a "tail" at the end of each picket that would equal the entire length of the picket (plus about six inches) - it could then be used as the seaming yarn.
• Link to my project page on Ravelry

Winter is here!

So, technically, Winter isn't here until December 21st, but today was the first real snowfall here in St. John's.  So I'm christening Winter today.

Today was also the first day I had to break out a hat.  My personal favorite hat.

It was knit long before this blog started.  Super quick and fun.  Love the spiral pattern of the top decreases!

And the big wooden button, of course.

If you know me on Ravelry, the project has been posted there for awhile.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but could the best part of winter be the knitted accessories?

New mittens

It has been quite a while since I knit my last pair of mittens - way too long in fact!  So I was due for a new pair:

A trip to Toronto last month brought me into a fancy yarn store... so tempting that I couldn't leave without some amazingly soft alpaca yarn.  A pair of garter-stitch mittens in the store caught my eye and the ladies included the pattern in the purchase:  the Greyden Mitts (link to pattern page on Ravelry).

The photoshoot was at Kilmory Resort, Swift Current, NL (post on that trip still to come!).

For more of my knitting posts, click here.

Gear for the yarn-addicted

Although I've been neglecting my knitting this year (with the exception of two sad and lonely projects, here and here), some friends have been diving into needlecraft with a passion (you know who you are).

In their honour, here are a few cool knitting accessories I've stumbled across lately.

Yarn catcher on Supermarket:

[found here]

Stitch markers on Etsy:

[found here]

Needle holder on Etsy:

 [found here]

Earrings on Etsy!  (Placed here for irony - I would never actually wear them.)

[found here]

Knitter's t-shirt on Cafe Press.  (Get it?  A knit stitch is the mirror image of a purl stitch!)

[found here]

Okay, not gonna lie, I might own the t-shirt.  My inner geek made me do it.  Don't worry,  I only wear it around the house...  (...with pride!)

Emergency scarf

Well, the one thing I forgot to bring with me on my trip to Twillingate was a scarf.  Not a good move, considering how cold it was at the beginning of February.  So I managed to find some yarn in the town (Briggs and Little - nice wool, too!) and did some very motivated knitting my first week to produce this:

It is a very basic design; any knitters out there will be able to tell.  I wanted to make it 'unisex' as I planned to give it to Mike once I got back to my abundant scarf collection in St. John's.  He likes it!

Mittens

Remember, way back, I said I was currently knitting the Give A Hoot mittens?  Well, I finally got to finish them last week.  And not a moment too soon, it seems, as the temperatures took a dip this weekend.

I took them along on my walk in the park.  There turned out to be some excellent backdrops for my photo shoot!

Knitter's Anatomy

For those of you who are not familiar with the online world of knitters, you may be interested to know that a subset of these strange creatures are quite nerdy (in a scientific kinda way).

Allow me to present to you "Knitter's Anatomy":  a smattering of knitted human organs that can be found around the Interwebs.  I don't think I need to expound their awesomeness.  Just know that I am reveling in it as well.

Exhibit 1:  The uterus.  (found here)

Exhibit 2:  The vulva.  (found here)

Exhibit 3:  The gastrointestinal tract.  (found here)

Exhibit 4:  The brain.  (found here)

Exhibit 5:  The heart.  (found here)

Exhibit 6:  The lungs?  (found here)

Well, there you have it, folks.  Maybe I'll try for an anatomically correct version of the lungs, in a boucle yarn to simulate the alveoli (Karli's idea).  Or perhaps a pair of kidneys, in a nice burgundy mercerized cotton, ureters in a goldenrod yellow and the bladder in a pastel pink.  Oh, the possibilities....

Currently knitting...

The project that I'm currently working on is actually a repeat performance. I knit the "Give a Hoot" mitten pattern for my sister, a.k.a. tidyowl. Ravelers can find the pattern here. Here are my sister's mittens:



I hope she takes it as a compliment that I loved the mittens so much I had to make my own! So there is another pair currently on the needles.

The reasons I love this pattern so much:

• It holds my attention
• It lets me do cables without committing to a suicide sweater
• It knits up quick. I finished an entire mitten on the morning of my sail from NL to PEI in July. This attracted a lot of attention from fellow knitters on board.
  
• This one relates to #1. I just love knitting mittens. Just when you are getting sick of the cuff, bam, it's done. Then onto the thumb gusset. Before you know it, you're sliding those stitches onto a holder. Then, and this is the part I really like about this pattern, you are into the cabling. Where every stitch and row count. Really makes the body of the mitten fly by (normally, this would just be one long sleeve of knit stitches). Then decrease. Then you have a really cool, attractive, cozy mitten *with an owl on it*.