Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Knit the yarn

Life has been a little hectic lately, which means I haven’t been posting much… but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been knitting. I’ve been trying to line up appropriate projects so I can just grab and go, and make the best use of the knitting time I have.

Here is some proof! I got most of the main body of this handspun sweater finished on the road trip to Cleveland a few weeks ago:IMG-4604

I got to the last 6 rows, which are short rows, and I wanted to reference some instructions about the technique before trying to do it in the car. So I stopped knitting and there the sweater has sat for the past few weeks. After finishing those 6 short rows, all that is left is to pick up the neck back stitches and work them. Exciting!

I also started knitting Boy 1’s Gramps cardigan out of the blue yarn. It is a simple and familiar construction (top down raglan, stockinette), so I was able to cast on and make good progress during a social knitting event. Last night, I finished the body, and now it is ready to work the sleeves. The color isn’t great in this photo (fall is tough for weekday photos), but here is proof: IMG-4603

And finally, my colleague with the cute baby who was the recipient of the first Gramps sweater about a year ago, approached me tentatively the other day. The conversation went something like this:

Colleague: The nights are getting a little chilly for the baby, and [my wife] was wondering if just maybe…

Me: Yes! What do you need!?!

Turns out they just wanted a little beanie hat. I said to send me some photos of what they had in mind and I would make it happen. I started looking on Ravelry but didn’t want to overwhelm a Muggle. My colleague, who is a librarian after all, said “what is that site?” And before I knew it, he had emailed me a link to the Ravelry page for Regan’s Aviator Hat. I should have known that a librarian would not be intimidated by a database! He wanted to buy yarn, but I wanted to work from stash… so I brought in a bunch of options for him to “shop.” He chose this handsome, heathered, charcoal gray that is left over from the eyeballs on my own boys’ Minion Hats. IMG_0546

This is 6-year-old yarn that I was very happy to use! As a bonus, I was even able to find those two buttons in my button jar. IMG-4601

I modified the pattern slightly – I eliminated the button closure at the chin (babies like to chew on buttons) and subbed in i-cord ties. It is so sweet I could just eat it. It might be too small for baby… since the sweater I knit him last year was too big, I chose the smaller of the two sizes I was considering. He is a petite baby. But baby hats are so small that if this doesn’t fit him, I will just make another one in the next size up. This took me one day to make and was so satisfying.

It is finally cold here – this morning we have temps in the 40s – so sweaters feel right. But as luck would have it, I’m about to fly to a place that is 40 degrees WARMER than here for a conference. Go figure! I’ll be back in this lovely, chilly weather soon enough though…

I hope your sweater knitting is going well!

2 comments:

  1. I love that you got a request for knitting and made the perfect hat! Temps here on Friday finally look really cold, so it's nice to know the baby will be warm in lovely handknits and maybe you can finally wear sweaters when you return.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, mercy that hat is cute! You get so much more knitting done than I do these days!

    ReplyDelete