Preemies and Knit-Ins

So first off - here's a link to rms - who seemed to think that it was a challenge/throwdown. Just cause I post a couple of baby hats she's all like "I'll just write my own pattern"! And by the by from now on all preemie hats will be referred to as "Bitty" since they are modeled by an ancient American Girl Bitty Baby Doll. Her head circumference is 12 inches - and the only preemie head I ever got to measure was 11.5 inches so it will have to do. Besides I used to use an orange to model, but there is something not right about eating your baby's head after you just knitted it a hat!

So here's my Bitty Beaufort - another freebie hat pattern off Ravelry written for an adult that makes the cutest darn preemie hat! I used the medium size (72 stitches) with fingering weight yarn and size 3 needles! I see many more of these in my future - 1/3 of a ball of fingering weight yarn and about 3 hours. I did the majority while attending a KNIT-IN at a local high school called Knit for Needs!

They had over 30 students attend plus teachers and parents. They had all skill levels show up and knit in the dining hall - they need to work a little on the sound level - they were much quieter than the usual guild meetings I attend!! I also need to thank the newbie 7th grade knitter who helped with the boring bits on this hat - I hate to rib. She used a circular needle for the first time and went right to town! I feel so OLD!!! So thank you to Knits for Needs - it was a most enjoyable afternoon outing!

Preemie Hats - not a RMS challenge

Well the old year is packed away, the house has now been put back to it's pre-holiday chaos, the kid is back in school and the husband is back at the office! And in a single week I heard about a KAL of preemie hats for the Kirkwood Knittery. The kid came home with a "Knit for Needs" group at his school that was looking for preemie/baby hats, and of course there's the Guild that takes preemie hats too. So this months I'll be sneaking in the occasional hat while I'm trying to knit on the Lerwick in the chocolate which looks like black! See I'm mellowing!!!!

The Six Sigma Black Belt I live with is happy - old stash, free patterns, and my "playroom" even got cleaned out!!!! Not only that but I think I may have figured out links.....

This is called "Poppy" by Justine Turner. It was actually a grownup pattern - but with little to no modification you can turn it into a preemie hat. I guess I just wanted to prove to myself that any hat pattern can be for a preemie!! It opens up a world of possibilities.

This is a Vine Lace Cap. I found it on Ravelry - which directs you over to the Knitting Daily site. You may have to sign in to this site in order to grab a download. This is by far my favorite!!! It's a simple little lace pattern that gives a gently scalloped edge and some really fun decreases at the top!! Had an issue with rolling so started it with 2 rows of garter stitch.

This is called "Sprite" and it's by Kayla Dyches! Again just by switching to a lighter weight yarn and smaller needles you get a cute as a button preemie hat!!


And finally this is called "Cute preemie/baby Hat" and is written by Selana. This pattern is again available for free as a Ravelry download. It has been translated from German into English - which helped cause my German is way rusty! I did it because it forced me to crochet! It's probably not perfect so try not to look at the large version!!! And just a tip for all of you trying to download patterns off the net in "foreign tongues". Try using a tool called Babelfish - all you do is copy what you need to understand and paste it into a window - tell it the language and boom you are in business!!

I need to mellow!

I look around Ravelry and everyone has all these really great WIP's. Me I have three right now...

Thrummed Mittens - can't finish because they need to be used during a demo at guild on Saturday!

Mystery KAL - finished clue 7 and I'm waiting on the next clue so it's at a stand still

Lerwick - knitting along as fast as I can - but the dark chocolate color is making it slow going

Here's the deal - it's killing me to have the Mystery and the mittens sitting unfinished. I mean killing me! I am a complusive finisher - I need to mellow out!

Can you knit too much?

Okay - so the kid and the husband are no longer around the house and Ivy and I are done with the cleaning (family + holidays = mess) and after paying the bills and a couple of loads (read as mountains) of laundry, I thought I'd catch you up on my Lerwick...

So you can knit the shawl in one of two ways - from the center panel out or from the borders in. After disecting the pattern it cautioned about using the borders in method for anything other than shetland cobweb - and I used the 2/28 cashmere. I'm guessing it's because the cashmere will loose a little of the shaping while being worn - causing the corners to kindda ruffle...so center panel for me!

I only swatched the edging - silly me! So I cast on the center and got thru the wave and the tree and was feeling pretty pleased with myself and then...well I knit the next set of waves and although I didn't like the extra "leg" at the beginning I did it anyways - it's right - it's in the photo and I was going to follow the pattern. Then I knit the reverse tree motif and looked at it and realized there's no way I could continue like this. Frogged back and flipped the rh and lh borders so they flow smoothly and then dropped the reverse tree and added the rosebud pattern from Heirloom Knitting. Now the shawl and I are both happy again.

And in between all the holiday insanity someone reminded me that I had guild on Saturday and I had promised to teach thrums....but why in Missouri are you ever going to need thrummed mittens I can only wonder. So I figured I'd have the beastchild make the thrums - of course being a teen now (barely) he said it was boring and left to play hockey. I must remember this when I start the borders of the Lerwick....

Happy New Year - the Year of Lerwick

Well I've had a rotten year and I vowed that I'd start this one off with something fun and challenging - and it looks like I'm taking Brooke and Robyn down the road called "Lerwick" too! This shawl is by Sharon Miller and has two options - borders in - or borders out, since I have no shetland on hand I'm going to have to go the outwards way! So I swatched today and these are what I've come up with!

This one is called Colour Mart 1/36 55% Cashmere - 45% silk color Meadow. I knitted the swatch up on US size 2 Addi Lace - it's beautiful but needs a smaller needle and a much more refined project. Some day I might get my hands on a copy of "Princess" or "Wedding Ring" at a price I can actually afford!

This one is Colour Mart 2/28 75%wool - 25% angora and it is Crimson - but it's truely a hot neon pink! It's gorgeous with a heavenly halo! Sample knit on US size 2 Addi Lace. I love it - but Robyn loved it more so it's living at her house - but I do retain visitation rights!

This one is Colour Mart 2/30 50%wool and 50% silk. Colour way is called Stone. It's lovely, slight sheen from the silk and has great stitch definition. The color reminds me of oatmeal - which I'm not particularly fond of but it was a close second to...

Dark Chocolate Brown - Colour Mart 2/28 100% cashmere. Sample knit up on a US size 3. After washing and blocking it bloomed and softened and it feels so yummy! I want to hug it and love it and call it George! It doesn't look as delicate as the others and I may swatch one more time on a 2 - but I've got 2 cones and I should be covered no matter how big it gets! Maybe I'll swatch on a 4 too - ooops - can't cause that needle is being used for the Christmas Mystery KAL!

Here's a link to ColourMart http://www.colourmart.com/ happy shopping!