Booties ready to be delivered!

I just finished making 7 pairs of booties (2 of which are not completely finished but knitting wise they are done) and I thought I was done, but then my cousin goes off and has a baby boy yesterday. The Hazel Knits comes back out! I love the Beach Glass/Chocolatier combo, totally perfect! I am also playing with stripes. I need to figure out how to make them with those leaves (from the original pattern) so that I can avoid buying and sewing on buttons. I hate buttons. I never feel like they are secure enough.

And BIG NEWS - I cast on for a … drum roll … SWEATER! Yes, you heard that right, a garment! Not a sock, not a scarf, not a bootie, not children’s clothing, a full grown man’s sweater! Michael actually requested one. I knit him one out of alpaca when we lived in TEXAS so it never got worn and it is still too hot to even wear here. I attempted to knit him one out of cotton, but got about 1/2 way done and put it away (this was 12 or so years ago) and I just frogged it 6 months ago. It was waaaaay too huge. I have also made maybe 3 or 4 other sweaters. One sleeveless one for my mom who actually wore it quite a bit. One for my sister, who I’m guessing never wore it, and a couple for myself - one came out waaaay too bulky and the other I wore a few times. So I haven’t had very much luck when it comes to sweaters. But now that I know a whole lot more about knitting and am more careful about stuff, I thought it was time to try it again. After scouring Ravelry for appropriate patterns, I decided on Jared’s Cobblestone Pullover. I almost didn’t cast on because looking at how much it would cost was very off putting. And then I found Cascade 220 tweed at Die Wollbox for around 7eur/skein. Not bad at all! Wish me luck, I hope I don’t get too bored with the stockinette…

Modified Saartje’s Booties in Hazel Knits

Oh so tiny!

I have been completely obsessed with perfecting Saartje’s Booties (pdf)! So now, I give y’all permission to have more babies! :) I have already knit 3.5 pairs, but only 2 completely finished.

The first one was the one with sublime baby cashmere merino silk dk and while I did a fairly good job with the seaming, it just took a lot of time doing it and going around the heel was kind of weird. I followed the pattern to the “T”. I was slightly confused with the strap parts, but eventually figured it out. The tutorial that I used for the buttonloops are here. The buttonloops are my favorite part but I still need practice with getting them both the same size. I also went over some mattress stitch tutorials here and here. Katariina gave me a good tip about the ends sticking out, and told me to thread the ends through the sts to “hide” it. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before!

I also made another pair with Wollmeise Rittersporn and Sonne, but only completely finished one side but just knitted the other. All that seaming and ends weaving in is a lot of work!

So I decided to try doing it in the round via fleegle’s method. I had to learn to do the Turkish cast on (a lot easier than I thought it would be), but was dissatisfied with the knit sts at the cast on edge. And also, to keep it true to the original pattern, I turned it inside out and did the straps the “normal” way. This also made the strip of knit stitches on the inside so it’s not as noticeable. So it wasn’t completely seamless, but I think it looks better. Also, I like the original button loops and not crochet version.

So, this is leading me to my own variation of the pattern, one that I think keeps true to the form of the original while doing it in the round, except for the last bit. I will write it up in case anyone else is interested in my method.

The booties in this pic are with Hazel Knits Artisan sock in Tulip and Chocolatier. Yummeee! I am making these for boy/girl twins, so I’m thinking of making the other one brown and green or blue, haven’t decided yet.

1 bootie in search of buttons!

So I’ve wanted to make Saartje’s booties (pdf) for awhile, but in my head they were for girls. The cross over strap thingy made me think it was a girl thing. But everyone on Ravelry and even my husband said “no way!” So now I’m going to make 4 pairs for friends. Didn’t I tell you guys to stop having babies??? I guess you didn’t listen. That’s ok, they are waaaay cute! Weaving in the ends is a bitch though. I hate having ends stick out. How do you guys deal with this? In the pictures, I don’t see anyone else have ends, maybe it’s just hidden. I’m getting better at seaming though, so that’s good news!

Destash is going well, thanks to all who participated. I have to take photos of more yarn and put them up.

And now, a quote from my hilarious husband. I asked him to get a 10 lb. bag of rice, but instead he got a 10 KILO bag. And then I found that he wrote this in his blog: “Today I walked across town with a 10 kilogram (20 pounds?) bag of rice on my head. It was so much easier to carry that way! I don’t think there is anything else to say.” No wonder the kids have been saying “daddy rice head”. I just thought they meant he likes rice.

First handspun hat

Yesterday I had a serious hankering to knit a new hat. Last year, I did a swap with Chawne (cauchy09) and she sent me some really gorgeous handspun. I didn’t knit it up right away, but I thought about it a LOT. I wanted to have the perfect pattern! It was also only around 100 yards, so it had to be small too. Back when we swapped, I didn’t make a whole lot of hats, so that didn’t even cross my mind. But yesterday, I was really really driven to make a hat and that was the first yarn to pop into my head.

I originally wanted to use the red skein, but it had less than the other color, so I thought I should be safe and use the one with more yarn. It didn’t take long to make - maybe 3 or so hours? It’s a simple “square” hat, knitted in the round on 72 sts. Then I kitchenered the top except the 4 sts on each end. Then I made some icord and voila!

I love handspun now and want to get more. Anyone up for a trade? I have LOTS of Wollmeise! :)

Pattern: my own
Yarn: Handspun from cauchy09 - Hello Yarn 100% corriedale top “trodden” - 3ply, dk/aran weight
Needles: Knit Picks options US9 circ needles
Started: February 22, 2007
Completed: February 22, 2007

Done with the hat!

In the afternoon, I really wanted to go yarn shopping. So we went out to Marienplatz to Ludwig Beck. On our way there, we ran into Steve and De Knipple. It’s so cool that the city is small enough that you actually run into people you know. And it’s not like we know a lot either! Michael at this point decided to turn around and head home so that I could take my time shopping. I was a little disappointed. I expected a lot more. They pretty much had the cheapie yarns, no imports, just German and Italian yarns (or at least that’s what it seemed like). They only had a handful of stuff in a billion different colors. I bought some trial balls to see if they will work for the project that I’m starting.

After that store, I decided to check out Galleria Kaufhof and Hertie for their selections. Kaufhof sucked and really didn’t have much. Hertie I thought was the best selection, even though it still was the cheapie yarns. I bought even more trial stuff to play with.

I’m working on a pattern for my cousin, Lynn. I would tell you what is is but she reads this blog so I can’t until she gets it. It’s kind of funky and it might be a little bit too “out there” for her. We’ll see. She has to at least take a picture of herself with it and then she can throw it away. I’m sure she is dying to know what it is now. It’s not that big of a deal…

Their first clothes

A few weeks ago, I got really excited about knitting some baby clothes by a designer named Mags Kandis. She is the exclusive designer for Mission Falls Yarns. It is so amazing because Mission Falls has only *2* yarns. She makes really amazing stuff just from working with those two. I immediately ordered several kits from a yarn store in Canada and it was painful waiting for the package to arrive. I could’ve ordered from a store here, but I’m not sure if they would have the buttons. Anyway, I got the kits last week and immediately started knitting away. I chose the easiest one out of the bunch, a one color design. But it wasn’t easy remembering how to knit. I mean, I know knit and purl, but I forgot how to read a chart pattern. I think I had to pull out the first 5 rows about 6 times due to mistakes. Once I got the hang of it, I couldn’t stop. I learned a lot from this patter too. I never made a buttonhole band/buttons before. I also have never blocked my pieces either (shhh, don’t tell). I never made a hat before, and now I love it! It took me about a week to make both the sweater and hat. The great thing about baby clothes is that they are so small, it takes no time to finish! This is the first set of baby clothes that I made for our babies and it is a shame they won’t be able to wear it until they are almost a year old! :(