KnitFreak

His momma loved him in his jacket! Check out the two of them:

Isn't he cute? My sis says that he'll fit in the jacket in fall... I hope she's right! Although, the weather here's so bad right now, it's cold and rainy, so he might get to wear it for a bit until it gets too warm.
The yarn I used was Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, with 55% merino, 33% microfibre and 12% cashmere, and I used 2.75mm and 3.25mm circular needles. That yarn is heaven to knit with, so soft! No matter if the pattern instructions suck or not, you'll love that yarn. Which brings me... to the pattern. It's from Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino Book, the "Cardigan with Fair-Isle Yoke" or so it's called. The jacket knits up nicely, and the pattern in general is okay too, but the instructions... I have my doubts here. The measurements are according to the age, but when I flipped through the book, I noticed that there are different measurements for the same age. I see that that can be possible for sleeves, but for chest measurements? Sure, not every baby has the same size at the same age, but instructions should be continuous throughout a book, shouldn't they? And the other thing that I didn't like about the book was that the patterns are written out only. No drawings, no sketches, no outlines, nothing. And when there's one thing I don't like, then it's "blind" knitting where I don't see where my knitting goes.

Anyways, it was manageable, just a bit uncomfortable. I mean, the book isn't cheap, and neither is the yarn, so one should be able to expect something... more detailed. Whatever.

I have to say... me likey very much! Despite the imperfect instructions, this was an easy and fun knit. Would I knit it again? Definitely. And I'd change the measurements again, just like I did with this one (I made the body and the sleeves longer than the pattern calls for).

Now, up to the next project! Today, I finished the first square for Grace, and my SockapalOOOza socks are totally done! They're drying now and I hope to be able to mail them tomorrow. So, I might get to knitting myself a little something (finally!), a summer top, soon. Yay! Hopefully, when the summer top's done, it will be warm enough to actually wear the thing.

The blog world has me back! There's been lots going on over here during the past week and a half, and not much of it was good. First, I had this bad cold, nothing too serious, I was just not feeling well. You know, when you're in the stage when you're not sick enough to stay in bed the whole time, but you're still not well enough to go on with your regular work. And that annoys the heck out of me, every time I have it! Plus, my right eye was troubling me. A lot. Five years ago, I've been diagnosed with a disease called Uveitis, which appears in batches. The disease is basically an inflammation which appears in the background of the eye; my eye looks perfectly normal though, because only an ophthalmologist can see it with their things. And just before Easter, on my dad's birthday, I had another one. Fortunately, it's not as bad as it could be (it can affect the visual nerve), and so I don't need to take heavy medication (if it gets bad, you'd have to take steroids and cortisone for about 4 weeks, and while doing that, you'd have to get your liver functions tested on a regular basis); in fact, the doctors said I couldn't do anything. So, what's so bad about this, you might wonder... the only way I notice that something is wrong with my eye is that I can't see properly. It is as if there is a grey-ish cloud in my right eye, in the right-hand center of my focus, and this cloud is moving with my eye movements. And it won't go away, at least not for a while. A long while, that is. (5 years ago, when the Uveitis first occurred, I asked the doctor at the University Eye Clinic in Tübingen how long it will take for this cloud to go away. He said it would take about 3 to 4 months. A few years later, I could still see the cloud. Another doctor told me that there is no way anybody could tell me how long it would take until the thing goes away.)
Well, now you know why I wasn't feeling too well lately... this whole affair affected my mood a lot.

But now to something more cheerful! For those of you who live in Munich or Munich-area, a group of knitters is meeting tomorrow (Tuesday, April 25) from 6.30 pm onwards at a restaurant/tavern/cantina place called "Esszimmer" (= Dining Room), to knit together and maybe learn a few things together. If you want to come, either leave a comment on my blog, or contact Amélie. Everybody's welcome! Oh, and we'll probably speak German, but that shouldn't scare English speakers off!

Now, finally, I'll come to the knitting content!
I'm still, or, again, knitting sockapaloooza socks!

The pattern is again from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks, the shell pattern. It might look complicated, but the instructions are soooo easy-peasy! And the yarn is called Singapore, from Ewa's place. (I know, I know, the site's still not in English, but we're working on it! If you want to order some of her yarns without speaking any German, I'm happy to assist. Her yarns are very seasonal, she makes about 10 balls from each color)
The heel on this sock is turned and I'm on my way down towards the toes. I know, I already made a pair of socks for my sockpal, but this is the yarn I originally intended for her. Remember, I wanted to knit the socks as my Olympic project, but then the yarn didn't arrive... The only problem is now, I won't be able to finish the second pair of socks in time to mail them so they arrive on May 1st. I'll ask my pal if she prefers either one pair of socks on time or a pair of socks and a surprise, but a bit later... I'll see what she wants.
Oh, and if my sockpal aka the person who's making socks for me is reading this: in case you need some more time, take it! I don't mind waiting a bit.

There's another project I've been making without posting about it. See, my nephew's christening is coming up in May, and my sister asked me if I could make a cardigan that he could wear then. Although the christening is in late May, the weather might be chilly; or it might be so warm that he doesn't need a cardigan at all. Anyways, I agreed to knit the cardigan (what did you think I'd do?), and we chose the cardigan with fair-isle yoke from the Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino book. My sister and I said we'd make a different pattern for the yoke though (well, she says, and I make) because we didn't like the colors of the pattern as in the instructions.

All I need to finish now is the button bands and the sleeves. Although I'm not sure how long I should make the sleeves... my nephew doesn't live nearby, so I can't just go over to my sister's house and try the cardigan on. I might make the sleeves and try them on the day before the christening, and then seam them, or... I'm coming up with a different idea. I don't really like the thought of making everything in the last minute, but what can I do?
Here's a close-up of the yoke:

Isn't it pretty? I hope the little one will look just gorgeous!

Wasn't there another project, still unfinished? Yep, Josephine. She's still unfinished, because I didn't touch her since the last time. I basically told her to bugger off until I feel like finishing her. Which most likely won't be until I'm done with the sockapaloooza socks and the christening cardigan. Josephine will have to wait. And then there's still Starsky to think about... and I want to reduce my stash a bit over summer.

Oh, and before I forget it: I'd like to thank everybody who commented on this post. I decided to leave Josephine as she is, I won't frog her or anything. You cheered me up a lot, so eventually I'll just set in the sleeves and weave in all the ends. Thanks you guys, YOU ROCK!!!

My nephew in a few of my creations - top, pants and cat on the side. I don't know who made the booties, but they match the rest just perfectly, don't they?

Actually, it doesn't bother me too much that I've been detected. Ok, that I told people about my blog (people is actually my parents, but they didn't see the blog yet, and my brother-in-law M and my sis.) M said he would keep reading my blog from now on (until eternity??), but I guess it will get boring for him soon. After all, this is a knitblog (at least it's supposed to be one), and I doubt knitting is interesting for a non-knitter.
What do you think? Can knitting be exciting for non-knitters? Or is it just plain and dull?

I finished the baby hat just in time! It's still a bit big, but that's quite perfect actually, so L can grow into it. He's only two weeks old as of today.

Here he is, sporting his new hat, on the arm of his mama. The pattern for the hat was the Mock Cable Baby Hat, a fun knit, and a very quick one too! Baby knits are very instant-gratification-y anyway.
Yes, he does wear knit socks in the picture, but I wasn't responsible for these! Although I like them very much, and they look good on L, don't they? I think he can still grow into them a bit.

Last night, I finished my Socktoberfest Socks! All that's left to do now is to wash, block and dry, and then they can either be wrapped in gift wrap paper and go into my knitting box until it's about Christmas time or they can go into my knitting box straight away. Hm. What a choice! Pictures will follow in the next post.

But first, some news... I'm not only going to be an aunt soon, but I'm also going to be godmother! ...you can call me Donna Dorothee, and I'm gonna make you offers you can't refuse... you better not mess with me ;-)

So, what did I finish lately for the baby? Check it out:

I couldn't get the colors quite right, the red is actually a bit darker, and the blue is icier than in the photo. These booties are so tiny, it didn't take long to knit them at all! But with the different colors and you have to seam them together (they're not knit in the round), seaming actually takes almost as long as knitting. I'd like to figure out how to make them bigger, because I really like this pattern and I'd like the baby to be able to wear them when he's a bit older, too. Also, I'm going to make a beanie with this very same yarn (Lana Grossa's Merino 2000, or something like that... sorry, I don't have the name in my head right now. This yarn is soooo soft, it's like heaven to knit with it!), but this time with a little red border and the rest in blue. I've found a pattern I like, but I have to wait with this one until I get back to my parents' place because my mom has a set of dpn's in the size I need.

I also finished the wrap top!

This one gave me a bit of a headache. The pattern said garter stitch, but with this variegated yarn I preferred plain stockinette stitch. But this resulted in the sides, edges, just everything, rolling up; so I steam-ironed it before I knit on the sleeves. That went very well, as the top was then pretty flat and didn't curl any more. Then, after seaming the sleeves when I was about to seam the sides of the top, I noticed that the wrap front parts weren't as wide as the back part. Doh! I thought, I can't frog the fronts and re-knit them, because the measurements will be different, as the back had been ironed. What should I do now? Julia advised me to seam it anyway (I wasn't keen on undoing the seams of the sleeves either), and then block it. And that's what I did, and it worked quite well (thanks Julia!! go visit her blog). I had to undo the right seam though, because I had messed it up a little so that it wasn't flat. At first I thought, oh well, what the heck, but then it kept on bugging me. My nephew and godchild would wear this top after all(at least I hope his mum will put it on him), and I want him to look decent, don't I? So I undid and redid the seam, and then I was proud of myself because I don't like seaming, and I dislike undoing and redoing seams even more. Then, finally, I crocheted (crochet? what's past tense for 'to crochet'? Does anybody know?) around the sleeves, the bottom of the top, and the collar in the blue yarn I used for the pants I'm going to tell you in a sec (the pants and top are meant to be a set), plus, then there won't be any curling any more. I quite like the top now, I might have to block it again or steam-iron the crochet edges because they fold in a bit.

What you can see in the above picture (well, at least a little part) are the pants that belong to the wrap top. I don't think I showed you a picture, and if I did, it got lost anyway because of blogspirit's attack. The pants are done in garter stitch; I made them a bit longer than they were meant to be (in the instructions, they go till the knee, and I made them full leg-length).

(The picture was taken when blocking.) I still need to insert a rubber band somehow, otherwise the little one will lose his pants all the time. The instruction really sucked here, it only said something like "insert a rubber band through the stitches". Hello? How am I supposed to do that? I haven't seen any rubber bands that were so thin they would go through stitches. After all, this was knit on 3.25mm needles; the stitches don't form big holes. I might get some help from my mom, I thought I could fold about an inch of the top, sew it either by hand or with a sewing machine, and then insert a rubber band through that... I'm not sure, I might do that. I'm just afraid that when I sew with regular sewing yarn, it's not as elastic as if I use the yarn I knitted with. Well, I'll see, maybe one of you has an idea. I also crochetet the leg edges with the yarn I used for the wrap top. Both colorways are from the same brand, Wolle Rödel's own Baby Supermering yarn (Wolle Rödel is a chain of yarn shops in Germany). The pattern actually called for a different yarn, but this one had the same weight, colors and length, and it was cheaper, so I got this one.

I'm just about to seam my grey cardigan (pictures soon!), and then I might start Josephine from knitty... I'm still thinking about it. But until then, I joined Lolly's Socktoberfest, so I should cast on for some socks soon. I only need to decide on the yarn, and on the person I want to knit socks for. More on sock thoughts soon.
I also cast on for a new project, a very instant-gratification-scarf for my sister. I use 7mm needles and a nice yarn from Wolle Rödel, it has 10% Alpaka (and some other stuff).

It was really hard to get a photo that shows the pattern well. I tried the flash - only then the camera would focus - but then the pattern was blurry. I tried without flash - then the camera wouldn't focus - and the pictures looked blurry. So, for this pic, I used the flash but covered it with my finger (hehe), that's why the photo is so dark and has a red shimmer. And it's still a bit blurry, but pattern-wise, this is the best shot I could get. The actual color of the yarn is eggshell, or cream, or whatever you'd like to call it, and I made the pattern up myself. The scarf is about 16cm wide, and I'd like to make it quite long, and then add some tassels so it seems even longer. I'm now in the middle of the third ball of yarn, and it's quite long already. I might not need more than 5 balls for the scarf itself, and another one for the tassels; the good thing about this scarf is that I can knit up almost a whole ball per night, so I guess it will be finished real soon. And then I'm (almost) out of projects. I need to decide whether I'm going to knit Josephine, then I need to decide on sock yarn+pattern+person who to knit for, I need to wait to start with the baby beanie until I get the right needles. I had actually wanted to knit another pair of pants for the baby, but now I'm not sure if I still want to do that as the pattern is for very short dungarees. It will be a winter baby, so either I alter the pattern or I don't do it at all. And, I had wanted to make a blanket as well, but I don't think I can to that in time (the due date of the baby is November, 14), and actually I'd like to have everything done in advance. Apparently, I'm free for new projects... but I think I can find something to occupy myself. There was a sweater vest for myself for example, I need to frog what I knit of that so far because I have to figure out how to knit two colors at the same time with the thing I'm knitting being flat... that would be something.

I'll better get to work now... my group got an extension for our papers, and I still need to finish mine. The next posts will be about more swap yarn (thanks Carola!! You rock! check out her blog), hopefully about a finished scarf, and about the question if blocking can do wonders or not.