My First Baby Surprise

The baby surprise jacket has been finished and passed on to the mom-to-be. Mom has already 'tried it on' the baby and it turned out to be a little big. Next time I should probably swatch, but I figure gauge doesn't matter as the kid will always grow into it!


The lack of swatching also led me to run out of yellow cotton yarn halfway through. So the result wasn't exactly what I planned, but sometimes you need to let the knitting dictate and enjoy the beautiful results! Overall, I am very happy with the jacket and hopefully it will get worn and loved.

Now that the BSJ is done, I can finish up the shrug and post pictures here soon!

Shrug, Jacket, Cardigan

So the shrug is off the needles and all that remains it to tuck all of the ends into the fabric. Oh, and fix that tiny little mistake I made while knitting on an evening car ride:


So maybe there is not enough light on the highway to see that you've dropped a stitch. Oops. I of course caught my mistake after casting off the sleeve, so I am going to have to do some creative darning rather than unbinding and forcing the stitch back into the fold. I'm rolling my eyes at this one.

I might have to put the shrug on the back-burner while I work on my first Baby Surprise Jacket. I started it on a camping trip this weekend and I have two weeks to finish it before my friend has her baby shower. I trust Mrs. Zimmermann completely, but I have no idea how this thing is going to turn into a baby jacket. In the meantime, I am following the pattern to a T.


Once the BSJ is done, I have this strange urge to work on a large scale project. I must be hankering for a cardigan because I seem to be bookmarking a lot of cardigan patterns these days. I am also digging the Feminine Puffed Sleeved Cardigan from Fitted Knits, which I already have yarn for, so that one might win out in the end. Though have you seen the very cool (non-cardigan) design of Cochella in the summer issue Knitty? Genius! As always, so many patterns, so little time.

Fitted Knits Shrug

Since starting to spin, I have been trying to find projects that require only 4 or 8 oz of wool. Not enough to make a sweater, but nice enough yarn that I want to do something interesting with it. I picked up a copy of Stephanie Japel's new book, Fitted Knits, the other day and immediately fell in love with her designs. I was all ready to cast on the Feminine Puffed-Sleeved Cardigan when I remembered my handspun. Instead, I started the Two-Toned Ribbed Shrug from the same book:


I have about 8 oz of this handspun and the body of the shrug has used about 6 oz. I ran out to my LYS on Sunday to find the perfect shade of Cascade 220 for the ribbed border and am loving how everything is coming together!

Next up on the needles: a baby suprise jacket!

And For My Next Trick...

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An Updated Current Projects List

Things have been moving slowly here in craft-land. I'm all caught up in the end-of-the-semester rush and have been enjoying a few too many novels to have lots of knitting time. I did, however, find time to finish and start a few projects:

The Ripple Afghan is finished. Actually, it's more of a lap-ghan due to the fact that I ran out of yarn. It is still quite useful and I really enjoyed falling into the rhythm of crochet. I have some pregnant friends who might be getting rippled baby blankets this summer.

The Greensleeves Wrap from Wrap Style has been frogged. I really liked the design on this, but I don't know if I will wear it as much as a regular sweater made out of the same yarn. Plus, reading a number of EZ books has me inspired to try an EPS sweater.

I did have time to start a new project, some Snicket-inspired Socks. I am using the main cable motif from the pattern, and working them toe-up instead of cuff-down. For yarn, I am using hand-spun Merino, in the Mardi Gras colorway from Lisa Souza. My thickness is still a little uneven, but the socks are knitting up nicely.


Eventually, I hope to finish up my T-Shirt quilt, though that is bound to take a lot of time this summer. And my mind is already racing will all sorts of great summer knitting projects!

A Little Progress

First, I must show off the wool mentioned in the last post. It is still sitting in the corner waiting to be picked through, then I should be able to whisk it off to a local mill for spinning and carding.

Raw wool, in all of its glory
















The wool is not the only thing that has been neglected this week, in between long hours at work and a really good novel. My ripple blanket has made some significant progress since last pictured here, but has stalled in the last week as I have come to the end of my spare yarn. I think that I have enough oddballs left to make it into a square, so maybe its destiny is to be a baby blanket?

Currently measuring 3.3'x2.5'





















The ripples are not only hypnotic to the eye, but very soothing to crochet





















If you like what you see above, click on the Ripple Along link in the sidebar to see even more beautiful afghans made by crocheters more talented than myself. They are very inspiring!

It Smells Like Sheep In Here!

So, I attend school with this really nice guy from northern Wisconsin. About the time he decided to attend graduate school, his parents decided that they needed to find a way to combat an empty nest. So they got a sheep; mind you, they are not farmers. Soon one sheep become two, and so on and so forth until they arrived at the current fifteen.

Well, somehow word got around that I knit and spin, and my friend conveyed to me his parent's new found love for sheep. It must have been the gleam in my eyes that sparked the idea that his parents needed to donate wool. That idea came to fruition this week when I received two bags of freshly-shorn wool.

If it weren't totally smelly and dirty, I would totally stick my face in it. Ah wool! Anyway, I need to find time to pick through it before sending it to a local mill to be cleaned and carded. And then I will stick my face in it.