You Have to Love Tina Fay

I just have to add this clip of Tina Fay as Sarah Palin from SNL, she nails her head on! Watching it makes me laugh and cry all at once.

Berry Tart Baby Hat

This charming baby hat pattern comes from Knitty. When my friend Alison found out she was pregnant I was elated. At last a baby to knit for! I immediately began looking patterns and fell in love with this one. Then we found out she was having a boy! I decided that he could hate me later and made it anyway. I then found out that my friends Nicki and Rob were expecting a girl, and knew that I was meant to be making this hat for them.

I substituted Bernat Satin in Camel (04010) and Raisin (04307). Bernat Satin has the advantage of being machine washable, which I think is highly desirable in anything meant for a baby. The only complaint I have is that the yarn seemed to stick to it's self which might be why I found the bobble pattern a pain to work. Or maybe it was all those knit three together! I used bamboo needles, but I think I would look for a needle with a really sharp hard point if I were to do bobbles again.

Knit 1 Copped Cardigan Finished!

I finished this over the summer. It is my first sweater that involved blocking and seeming together the pieces, and I am moderatly pleased with it. I have worn it once, which I guess by my standards is good. However, my sister liked it so much that I knitted her one in red for Christmas. I did a much better job blocking the second time around, so I think she will be able to get a lot of wear out of it. While it was exciting making the sweater the first time around, I was really ready be done with it the second time around. I started it in September and still did not have it finished in time for Christmas! I just could not bring myself to work on it for the longest time. I think it actually started a knitting slump, where everything else I was working on began to go wrong as well! I think I ripped out and reknit a pair of socks a dozen times. It was horrible, horrible! ; ) But now the sweater is finished and I am happy and have moved on to other things.

On the tecnical side of things, I made mine out of Lion's Brand Wool-Ease in avacado and made the smallest size. I made Maya's out of Pattons Classic Murano, and made the next size larger. Both used a skein less yarn then the pattern called for. From the pattern it seems like the side panels are not meant to be blocked, they don't give any dimensions. On the first one I knit I had to block them after the sweater was sewn to make it not bunch, but it did not work to well. I blocked them to length of the side seems before hand on the red one and it worked much better. So, if you are interested in making this sweater, block the side panels!

A New Year And A Good Time For Resolutions

I'll admit it right up front, I am horrible about keeping new years resolutions, but I am going to make some this year anyway, and a couple of them concern knitting. The first, which I really do intend to keep is to knit my way through my yarn stash before it gets out of control. This is actually something I began this summer so I have a good start on it already! The other is to be better about posting to this my horribly neglected knitting blog. This one is a little shaky. I hate to post without pictures and my computer issues have made me bad about uploading my photos to it. But I plan to get things straightened out, so fingers crossed here, I will be better.

What to expect from the year to come? Well, I know that this year will hold lots of pet projects. Just before Christmas we got a new addition to our family, a little corgi puppy! His name is Rhys, Welsh for ardent, and he is a foxy little fellow. He keeps me on my toes and needs a never ending supply of new toys to keep him amused. So expect dog toys and (much to his dismay) darling dog clothes.

Darling Little Hats!

My friends Alison and Tom seem to like having their baby's in October. Their daughter Anna was born in October and they are expecting their second baby (a boy) then as well. So seeing as I wanted to knit some cute stuff for new baby Sam I knew I had to make something for little Anna's birthday too. The result was the charming little Tea Cosey Elf Hat from Charmed Knits for Sam, and the adorable Luggy Bonnet from Weekend Knits for Anna. A verson of the Luggy Bonnet was knit up for baby Harry to wear in the first Harry Potter movie but was never used...so you can see there is a sort of a Harry Potter theme going on. Which is fitting considering Alison and Tom just moved to Canterbury, England. I think warm little hats will be perfect there this time of year. Best of all I was able to make the Luggy Bonnet using yarn from my stash! Harah. Now I just have to find something to do with all the rest of it : P

Knitted Wig

Stayed up way to LATE last night to knit the Hallowig from knitty.com for my friend Helen's birthday. I think she will look darling and very retro in it. I used bright blue wool yarn I scavenged from an old Gap sweater and I think it turned out good. I have very found memories of this sweater. Lauren and I bought identical sweaters at the old Gap on University Ave. the one day it snowed during college. So it makes me happy that it will live on a something new.

I had trouble with the pattern though. The cast off method it calls for just does not look good, I can't believe that is really how the wig in the picture was done. Instead I did a circular cast off, like for a hat just sort of decreasing each round. It looks much better!

Knit1 Cropped Cardigan

It may still be 100 degrees out here in lovely Tucson, but as I always still associate back to school with the start of autumn I am gearing up for cool weather knitting. I just got the yarn to make the Summer '06 cropped cardi from Knit1. I am using Lion's Brand Wool-Ease, not the best yarn by any means, but I like their avocado and best of all I like the price ; ) After my last sweater, the Monet Water Lilly Top from Interweave, which cost over $100 to make, I like the less than $20 I spent on the Wool-Ease.

I plan to knit my gauge swatches tonight while watching the BBC adaptation of The Murder Room by PD James. It stars the very sexy Martin Shaw so it should keep my mind off of how much I hate having to check the gauge. I never seem to be able to get it with the needles the pattern calls for! More often than not I find my self running up to purls to get a new pair of Addi Turbos. I think soon I might just end up with one of every possible needle-I have already taken to keeping them in a gardening bucket!