What a Life!

It’s been ages since I took pictures of my knits.

Seriously. My Ravelry Project page was starting to look like my Stash page. Usually I take pictures of my yarn, then projects when they’re in progress and then the finished project. When I start a project, the first picture I put up on Ravelry is the one of the yarn I’m using on the project. Since I hadn’t taken any pictures of in-progress or finished knits, all of the pictures on my Project page were pictures of yarn.

I can’t say I’ve knit much since Caroline has been born.

The bottom left corner is Girasole. I had started that last February, but realized half way through that I didn’t have enough yarn. I started it over during the last few weeks of pregnancy. It was a big, fun yet mindless project I could work on that I was certain would not be finished before baby arrived. I was right. I do enjoy using it as a lap blanket when I knit during the evenings.

The bottom right is a Petal Bib I made. The yarn is a really dark color, but the shape is clear in the picture. I made two, before Caroline was born. Hopefully they will come in handy.

The little girl in the picture is my niece Susie who is modeling the little sweater I made her (top left corner). I love that pattern and will probably make one for Caroline, too. The seaming was a pain, but so worth it.

Next to the sweater in the top row is the bodice to a little dress for Caroline that I have not yet finished. She’s growing fast – already into 6-9 months sized clothes – but she won’t be wearing it any time soon.

Beneath Susie is a scarf I am making myself with handpainted silk-merino yarn. I won a gift certificate at the Nebraska State Fair (2008) and used it to buy the yarn for that scarf at essentially half price. The pattern is Rivolo by Anne Hanson. A much more complicated knit than it appears (hard to memorize and a disaster to knit in public) but fun none the less.

Finally, sock yarn and socks. The sock on the right in the 2nd row is a pair that is finished. Drunken Bees. Took me six months to knit, which is a long time for me. I love how the pattern looks but hated knitting it. The other two socks are being knit as we speak. Usually I have just one sock on the needles, but right now I have two. Glynis (pink sock) and Sunshine (yellow sock) from Cookie A’s Sock Innovation.

I swear, that book is riddled with errors. I got half way through the cuff on the yellow one only to discover the cables were going the wrong direction if you wanted the same result as shown in the book. When I started knitting this sock, the mistake was not noted on Ravelry or the errata page for the book. There are over 400 pairs of socks knit with that pattern on Ravelry, and the ones I looked at were all knit without realizing the pattern was wrong. Way to go, IK! [IK is the publisher]

I am not knitting any sweaters for myself this winter as I am still carrying around the empty baby house. They say nine months up, nine months down for a baby. I have no intentions of knitting anything to fit me as I am now, and I have no desire to knit for an imaginary body. Next winter I will knit sweaters for myself again. Next winter.

So that, my friends, is an update on my knitting life.