Category Archives: Knitting


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thursday’s stuff

Mommy with Jakob at 38 weeks. One more week and he’ll be at the same number of weeks of my pregnancy he was born at (he was delivered at 39 weeks).
The next photo isn’t the most flattering of me, but I have to share it.
Jakob gives kisses. It’s the cutest thing ever- he actually takes your face in his hands and plants one on you. It’s usually open-mouthed, and mostly slobber-covered, and occassionally he bites, but they are kisses just the same. Sometimes he grabs me for a kiss at least 10 times in 3 minutes, and if I don’t get my face up to his fast enough, he grabs me by my hair and pulls me to him. We were at my cousins’ store this afternoon and Amy caught this photo of him kissing me.
He’s so delicious!
She also caught a photo of his other latest thing:


He waves!


I forgot to post this yesterday, but last night Yannick helped me wind these two skeins of Woolly Bully by hand. Um, yeah. Two skeins. This is a case (Maaike) where a yarn purchase ISN’T a yarn purchase. I already HAD one skein, so I only bought a second one so I’d have enough to make something worthy of it. (I asked Yannick, he said it was ok). 🙂 These balls are huge! Each one is the size of a cabbage!

Here’s the latest on the Silk Rumple shawl. Again, everything from the orange pin (on the right) and up is the new stuff from today.
And finally, here’s tonight’s final view of the striped scarf. I’m at 118 stripes, but realized this am that it doesn’t really matter if I beat Maaike in the stripe count unless I beat her by a lot. I have only 41 sts per row, whereas she has 45. So for example, last night she’d knit 92 or so stripes and had finished the first 2 balls, but I’d knit 98 and needed another 10 or so stripes to finish them. I finally finished mine, though, and am about 10 stripes into the new balls. This officially makes me more than halfway through!


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thursday’s stuff

Mommy with Jakob at 38 weeks. One more week and he’ll be at the same number of weeks of my pregnancy he was born at (he was delivered at 39 weeks).
The next photo isn’t the most flattering of me, but I have to share it.
Jakob gives kisses. It’s the cutest thing ever- he actually takes your face in his hands and plants one on you. It’s usually open-mouthed, and mostly slobber-covered, and occassionally he bites, but they are kisses just the same. Sometimes he grabs me for a kiss at least 10 times in 3 minutes, and if I don’t get my face up to his fast enough, he grabs me by my hair and pulls me to him. We were at my cousins’ store this afternoon and Amy caught this photo of him kissing me.
He’s so delicious!
She also caught a photo of his other latest thing:


He waves!


I forgot to post this yesterday, but last night Yannick helped me wind these two skeins of Woolly Bully by hand. Um, yeah. Two skeins. This is a case (Maaike) where a yarn purchase ISN’T a yarn purchase. I already HAD one skein, so I only bought a second one so I’d have enough to make something worthy of it. (I asked Yannick, he said it was ok). 🙂 These balls are huge! Each one is the size of a cabbage!

Here’s the latest on the Silk Rumple shawl. Again, everything from the orange pin (on the right) and up is the new stuff from today.
And finally, here’s tonight’s final view of the striped scarf. I’m at 118 stripes, but realized this am that it doesn’t really matter if I beat Maaike in the stripe count unless I beat her by a lot. I have only 41 sts per row, whereas she has 45. So for example, last night she’d knit 92 or so stripes and had finished the first 2 balls, but I’d knit 98 and needed another 10 or so stripes to finish them. I finally finished mine, though, and am about 10 stripes into the new balls. This officially makes me more than halfway through!


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title goes here

I would have posted this last night but I went to bed too late and was too tired. Just pretend you are reading this last night. If it helps, you can go put your jammies back on, brush your teeth, take out your contact lenses, then come back.

Yesterday we went to my friend Maia’s house for a mini-playgroup. I know you can’t tell by these photos but there were other babies there! I think we were about 7 or 8 moms, plus 1 extra baby (Maia has twin boys).

Jakob had a blast pulling her foam alphabet mat apart. I MUST get him one of these, it entertained him for so long!

He would pull off a square and then separate the letter from the background.

Of course, eating them was fun too! I also want to get that pig she has- when you turn it on, one ear flicks and the jaw works back and forth grumbling and talking about eating some nice slop. It’s too cute!
So my hubby came home with some yarn yesterday. I asked him what he was trying to get out of. He swears it was just an “I was thinking about you” gift. Cue the “awwww”. 🙂 The yarn is Estelle’s Woolly Bully, and this one skein is freaking HUGE!
Seriously- that coke can is included for scale. This is BIG. I don’t know what I’m going to make with it yet. I love the colors and it is really soft. The thing is, I’m currently in the middle of 2 scarves, plus I have a half-finished Clapotis somewhere. I don’t need 4 scarves (especially since I’ve made it this far in the winter without wearing even one), so I think I’ll swatch it for a bit and maybe try to design something with it.
Here’s yesterday’s progress on the Silk Rumple shawl. Everything from the orange pin and up is new. It’s slow-going, but I only worked on it for an hour yesterday.
Here’s the Noro scarf progress. I took a quick count last night, I think I’m at 78 stripes completed. I’m also thisclose to finishing the first 2 balls which means I’m almost halfway done!

Today we only have some errands to do once Jakob wakes up from his nap, so I hope to have much more progress to show off tonight.


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don’t bother me, i’ll be reading

I have six minutes to sqeeze out a post. (That sounds vaguely dirty…) I promised Yannick I’d meet him in bed at 12:30. No you pervs, not for that. We still haven’t finished reading the last Harry Potter, and I have so far remained remarkably unspoiled in terms of who dies, etc. I did find out one little tidbit by accident (if “by accident” includes reading Stephen King’s column on the last page of my EW magazine where he blurted something out), and that tidbit, for those of you who have read it, implies that…oh how can I put this for the unspoiled? It implies that one of the characters had a lot in common with the original actor who portrays him/her in the movies. Is that vague enough?

I had to share this with you.
Isn’t that cool? A HABS holiday decoration! I kept meaning to blog about it, and when over at Maaike’s on Saturday I snuck a quick photo. If you go over to her blog to comment on it, send some love over to her hubby who made it!

I didn’t post my stripe tally over the weekend because I had none. Yannick’s parents came over Saturday morning and we spend the day putting up new window treatments in the bedrooms and preparing the heated floor for our (eventual) den, then they slept over that night. Sunday I didn’t get any knitting done either, as in the morning we had swimming lessons, then around lunch time Julie and Rich came over with adorable little Kayla, and then we had plans later that night.

Sunday afternoon Jakob was being really kvetchy and his toys weren’t holding his interest. Out of desperation I popped in a Baby Mozart dvd. Think he liked it? He didn’t move from that pose for the entire video, except to laugh out loud every so often and turn to look at me as if to say “did you see that?”. It was too cute. I know I’m going to have to stop keeping the tv on for me soon, as he constantly turns to see the moving shapes and colors, and I don’t want him watching once he’s old enough to understand what he sees. But I approve of the videos and I don’t mind him watching those. He was never able to sit through a whole half hour, so I only played each of the 3 videos we have once or twice each. Now that he pays attention and enjoys it, I think I’m going to sit with him maybe once a week and watch it together.
On Friday I re-started an old project. Remember the Silk Rumple from HandMaiden that Yannick bought for me? I was having a hell of a time trying to knit the shawl on the label, because none of my needles were sharp enough for the k2togs in the boucle-y yarn. I had even bought needles with special “precision points” but they were too blunt. On Saturday I gave Maaike’s Options needles a spin, and they worked perfectly! I am now able to whip through a yo, k2tog row almost as fast as a regular k row.

This is where I am as of this afternoon. I only work on this project during the day when Yannick isn’t around. Last week when Maaike and I started our Noro scarves, I mentioned to Yannick that I was working on a cool scarf. He asked “is that the one with the yarn I bought you?” I felt bad that his yarn was still sitting in the project bin, so I decided to work on it behind his back so I can surprise him one day soon by wearing the finished shawl and praising him on his taste.

This closeup shows off the subtle color variations and the stitch pattern. It isn’t actually supposed to have a wavy bottom, but I was feeling too lazy to weave another needle in the bottom edge to hold it straight, so this is the result of my quick pinning-for-the-photo job.

 

This closeup shows the texture of the yarn. Now do you see why I needed sharp needles? I was almost getting nauseous at the “stuttering” effect those yo, k2tog rows were having on me. I’m used to knitting in a rhythm, and those rows were throwing off my groove.

Finally, here’s my Noro Striped Scarf progress as of tonight. I’m laughing at myself because on Friday Maaike told me she had 74 stripes knit, and then she didn’t get a chance to knit at all over the weekend, and she let me know today that she didn’t knit today either. So she’s stalled at 74. I knit my fingers off from 8-11:30pm tonight while watching my tapes and when I finally called it quits I counted up my stripes- I have 73 done! Yet again I could force myself to sit there and do just a few more stripes to be in the lead, but I’m not. I’ll let her think she’s winning…for now. 🙂

p.s. as you can see by the time this post records it was posted at, I didn’t come close to being done by 12:30. We’re going to put the reading off ’til tomorrow. I’m aware that now my post title makes no sense, but I’m too tired to fix it.


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don’t bother me, i’ll be reading

I have six minutes to sqeeze out a post. (That sounds vaguely dirty…) I promised Yannick I’d meet him in bed at 12:30. No you pervs, not for that. We still haven’t finished reading the last Harry Potter, and I have so far remained remarkably unspoiled in terms of who dies, etc. I did find out one little tidbit by accident (if “by accident” includes reading Stephen King’s column on the last page of my EW magazine where he blurted something out), and that tidbit, for those of you who have read it, implies that…oh how can I put this for the unspoiled? It implies that one of the characters had a lot in common with the original actor who portrays him/her in the movies. Is that vague enough?

I had to share this with you.
Isn’t that cool? A HABS holiday decoration! I kept meaning to blog about it, and when over at Maaike’s on Saturday I snuck a quick photo. If you go over to her blog to comment on it, send some love over to her hubby who made it!

I didn’t post my stripe tally over the weekend because I had none. Yannick’s parents came over Saturday morning and we spend the day putting up new window treatments in the bedrooms and preparing the heated floor for our (eventual) den, then they slept over that night. Sunday I didn’t get any knitting done either, as in the morning we had swimming lessons, then around lunch time Julie and Rich came over with adorable little Kayla, and then we had plans later that night.

Sunday afternoon Jakob was being really kvetchy and his toys weren’t holding his interest. Out of desperation I popped in a Baby Mozart dvd. Think he liked it? He didn’t move from that pose for the entire video, except to laugh out loud every so often and turn to look at me as if to say “did you see that?”. It was too cute. I know I’m going to have to stop keeping the tv on for me soon, as he constantly turns to see the moving shapes and colors, and I don’t want him watching once he’s old enough to understand what he sees. But I approve of the videos and I don’t mind him watching those. He was never able to sit through a whole half hour, so I only played each of the 3 videos we have once or twice each. Now that he pays attention and enjoys it, I think I’m going to sit with him maybe once a week and watch it together.
On Friday I re-started an old project. Remember the Silk Rumple from HandMaiden that Yannick bought for me? I was having a hell of a time trying to knit the shawl on the label, because none of my needles were sharp enough for the k2togs in the boucle-y yarn. I had even bought needles with special “precision points” but they were too blunt. On Saturday I gave Maaike’s Options needles a spin, and they worked perfectly! I am now able to whip through a yo, k2tog row almost as fast as a regular k row.

This is where I am as of this afternoon. I only work on this project during the day when Yannick isn’t around. Last week when Maaike and I started our Noro scarves, I mentioned to Yannick that I was working on a cool scarf. He asked “is that the one with the yarn I bought you?” I felt bad that his yarn was still sitting in the project bin, so I decided to work on it behind his back so I can surprise him one day soon by wearing the finished shawl and praising him on his taste.

This closeup shows off the subtle color variations and the stitch pattern. It isn’t actually supposed to have a wavy bottom, but I was feeling too lazy to weave another needle in the bottom edge to hold it straight, so this is the result of my quick pinning-for-the-photo job.

 

This closeup shows the texture of the yarn. Now do you see why I needed sharp needles? I was almost getting nauseous at the “stuttering” effect those yo, k2tog rows were having on me. I’m used to knitting in a rhythm, and those rows were throwing off my groove.

Finally, here’s my Noro Striped Scarf progress as of tonight. I’m laughing at myself because on Friday Maaike told me she had 74 stripes knit, and then she didn’t get a chance to knit at all over the weekend, and she let me know today that she didn’t knit today either. So she’s stalled at 74. I knit my fingers off from 8-11:30pm tonight while watching my tapes and when I finally called it quits I counted up my stripes- I have 73 done! Yet again I could force myself to sit there and do just a few more stripes to be in the lead, but I’m not. I’ll let her think she’s winning…for now. 🙂

p.s. as you can see by the time this post records it was posted at, I didn’t come close to being done by 12:30. We’re going to put the reading off ’til tomorrow. I’m aware that now my post title makes no sense, but I’m too tired to fix it.


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fo report: hickory dickory dot sweater (and mouse!)

Mommy with Jakob at 36 weeks.
Ignore the red eye in that photo…I had been cooking and must have touched my eye because it was red for a few hours.
We’re all doing much better here. I think what Jakob passed around to the rest of us was a 24-hr stomach bug. I found out this week that a few kids and moms from our weekly playgroup were sick last week too. I’m just glad that everyone here is feeling better. Except for me, though. I’ve got a really raw throat and can’t seem to shake that “sick” feeling, but I’m sure it’s just a virus so I’m not bothering to go to the doctor. As it is tomorrow I have to go…hehehe…
[excuse me for laughing but I find this hysterical]
Tomorrow I have to go have my head examined. Hehe.
Remember the bump on my head I mentioned a few months ago? The one my doctor thinks is nothing but a normal bump that is supposedly very common to get? Well, Yannick and I have signed up for life and critical illness/disability insurance, and they won’t insure me until I get it checked out again. So I’m going for a head x-ray tomorrow. I’d much rather sleep in before going over to Robyn’s to watch a movie and hang out, but I called the x-ray place and they said that tomorrow was the only day they’d have an extra nurse who could watch Jakob for me while they’re doing the actual x-ray. I can’t exactly leave him in the hall unattended, and I’m sure he’s not allowed in the room with me while the machine is on, so tomorrow morning it is.

I finished some knitting! As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m one of the test knitters for one of Anny’s new Jujube and Lolo designs, the Hickory Dickory Dot sweater. I finished it today, and it’s so cute!

There was an odd glitch or two with the pattern, mostly just a note or something overlooked, and all in all I’m sure this is going to be a pattern that knitters are going to love! The lap-shouldered construction is great for little ones, and I’m only slightly miffed that Anny put her pattern out before I got around to designing something with that shoulder myself, as I do have a bunch of sketches with lap shoulders. But she beat me to it! 🙂

 

I didn’t really enjoy seaming the pocket on, but I really do like how it looks. I’m not an uber-perfectionist, but I’m too much of one to just place the pocket somewhere that “looks good” and just sew, so I had to spend time counting stitches in from each end to make sure it was perfectly centered, then seaming a little here…a little there…to make sure it was lining up straight and even. (Actually…I think I was a little off on the rounded edge but I can live with that).

 

The sweater pattern comes with the pattern for this really cute mouse toy. Earlier I had finished the mouse with only the ears left to attach, when Jakob woke up in his crib and started to cry. When I got back to the couch after calming him down I couldn’t find the mouse anywhere. I finally found it on the floor under the couch! I guess Sam likes it too! Looks like some catnip-filled versions will be getting knit up around here pretty soon…

Details:

I’m going from memory here ‘cus the yarn and needles are downstairs. The yarn is Bernat Soy from Walmart, in pink, white and tan. I forget which needle size I used but I’m pretty sure it was the one called for in the pattern. I got gauge, in any case. I knit the 12 month size which should have used 3 balls of pink Soy but I didn’t even finish the 2nd ball.

I tried to stay as faithful to the pattern as I could since I was doing it as a test knit. I did make 2 minor alterations though – sorry Anny! After working a marathon seaming session, sewing down the white icord that lines the neck, then the sleeve and side seams, then finagling the pocket into place, I couldn’t bear the thought of any more seaming. Thus, even though the mouse pattern is supposed to be done flat, I did the mouse in the round. Because I did it magic-looped I was able to follow the pattern exactly as written working one mouse chart on each needle. My only other modification was to sew the two mouse ears onto the flat side of the mouse (as in the photos above). The pattern and provided photo have the mouse ears sewn on either side of the seam (making a taller, skinnier mouse instead of a wider, flatter one).

As soon as it is dry I will be sending it off to the intended recipient. 🙂

Now that (one set) of my needles were empty I was free to cast on for something else! Maaike and I decided to work a little Noro into our lives (who doesn’t need a little Noro in their lives?) and cast on for a little striped scarf knitalong. I have to admit that our scarves were completely inspired by the fun scarf and breathtaking photography on Jared’s blog. (I’m name-dropping like I know him. I don’t know him from a hole in the wall. An amazing knitter/designer/photographer hole in the wall). You can see the scarf that got us drooling here.

I’m using Noro Silk Garden, 1 ball each of 4 colors- 8, 251, 258 and 264. The scarf is a simple 1×1 rib done working 2 rows from one ball, 2 rows from a second ball, repeat until the first two balls are done then move on to the next two. I made my color choice easily- I bought one of each of the Silk Garden colors that Robyn carried (excluding the white one).

I’m copying Jared’s slip stitch edging too. At first I thought I could just work a regular “slip the first stitch of every row” edging and didn’t know why he decided to slip the first and last stitches of the 2nd row of each color change. I told Maaike I’d swatch it up and see, when it hit me. If you slip the first stitch of every row you DO get the same chained edging, with one big difference- you will be pulling the contrasting color up into the next row which will be of a different color. Not sure if I typed that properly but it’s late and there’s a hot NeoCitran calling my name. Long story short- he’s right and I’m copying.


I started it but ripped back right away. I did a tubular set up for 1×1 rib cast on, and had planned to do the cast on with a 4.5mm then switch to a 5mm for the body of the scarf. What you see here is 29 sts wide using a 4.5mm needle. It looked wide enough originally but the stitches were way too loose, even on the 4.5mm. Also, when I took it off the needles to unravel, the ribbing sprang together and I saw it really was too narrow. I’ve since cast on again with 41 sts and a 4mm needle, and will try to work a few inches tomorrow and see what kind of a fabric I get.


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random stuff

Here’s Mommy with Jakob at 27 weeks. (2 weeks ago).
I know I still haven’t posted the one from this past Thursday (28 wks) and…well…you’re not getting one. I managed to get Yannick to take 3 photos for me and all 3 suck. 🙂
On Friday Jakob and I had music class, then we went into town to go visit my grandmother. On the way in I saw this Plymouth Voyager in front of me. Nothing against the car…but dude…”pimp”? You’re driving a Voyager!
I forgot to post this photo from Wednesday. Robyn, Sean, Jakob and I went to the movies and saw Enchanted, which was very cute. I love how Jakob looks irritated (“leave me alone Ma, I’m here with a friend!”) and Sean looks guilty (“I told my mom I was at the library!”.
Yesterday was Dec 1st so we introduced Jakob to his first Advent Calendar. I think it is hysterical that I (Jewish) bought this for Jakob, and had to explain to Yannick (Catholic) what it is for. Of course, we’re not letting Jakob eat the chocolates, but it makes for a cute photo op!
Finally, in this collection of random photos, here’s a skein (actually 2 smaller skeins together) of Hand Maiden’s Rumple, 100% silk yarn. I made a joke to Yannick the other day about how he’d gone to our LYS 2 weeks ago to buy me yarn as a way of making up for something but left empty-handed, and never went back. Friday he left after supper telling me he had an errand to do, and he came home with this! I had been raving about my mom’s gift, which was knit with that pale, almost banana-green Hand Maiden Sea Silk (70% silk, 30% seacell) and Yannick wanted me to have something for ME that was out of a yarn as nice. Isn’t it pretty? The colors are actually much deeper in real life but the lighting sucked when I took the photo.

In other news from this week:
-Jakob can roll over both ways (left or right), from his tummy to back and vice versa. Gonna have to start baby-proofing the house!
-Yannick’s dad came over yesterday and today to help work on the den. Still a few more weeks’ worth of renos to do, but at least it’s finally gotten started
-I hand wound the Rumple with Yannick’s help and started the scarf/shawl but needed to pick up some pointier needles (to get into those k2togs in the boucle-esque yarn) so I only have an inch or so completed and no photos yet.
-I knit up to the first repeat in the Chain Melody but forgot to take a photo
-I don’t know if Jakob is teething or growing, but for 2 nights now I’ve had to feed him at 4am to get him to stop crying, plus he cries for 2 hrs before finally taking any of his daily naps. This can NOT continue…
-I started a pair of Pocket Book Slippers for myself (I’ll post the link in my next post with some photos). I went stash-diving for yarn and found a soft mauve in the proper gauge in the stash I inherited from my grandmother. I got halfway through the first slipper last night when it hit me- I only had 1 50g ball of yarn…and 2 feet. Further exploration of my stash got me to find out that the Patons Shetland Chunky I’d used to knit Jakob’s vest was the exact same weight and yarn content (75% acrylic/25% wool) as my Bubbie’s vintage stuff. I had most of a 100g ball of the gray left, so I completely undid my slipper and started over, working the new pair in 2 row stripes. The pale gray and pale purple actually go well together, in an almost old-fashioned way, which makes me happy that I could find a use for my Bubbie’s yarn and transform it into something I would use and have to remember her with. I think I explained this really backwards and I’m too tired to go back and rewrite this paragraph…but I’m glad I was able to mix the two yarns and come up with new socks that look old-fashioned and thus will remind me of my grandmother.
-I just used the word “thus”. I need a nap.


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fo report: baby cabled cardigan

Amazing thing, how time works. It hit me yesterday that Jakob is growing up. He’ll be 6 months old on Saturday. Already! And while he is getting bigger…knitting doesn’t. Especially knitting that remains unfinished in a Ziploc bag hidden away in the basement. And if I wanted Jakob to wear said knitting, I’d have to get a wee bit of a move on in finishing it.

So while Jakob did this
I turned this
into this.
The sweater had been sitting in a bag just waiting for the ends to be woven in and the zipper sewn in. To be honest, I rushed it. I realized AFTER sewing in all the ends that I think I’d left them unwoven last time because I wasn’t happy with how I’d seamed the sleeves on, but I hadn’t time to fix it then. Now it is too late, and I can only hope it doesn’t look as strange or boxy on Jakob. Not my best work, but at this point it will fit him for a few weeks and then get washed and packed away, so I’ll forgive myself.
I’m really happy with the zipper! It took a long time because I wanted it to be done properly (this was BEFORE I realized the problem with the wonky sleeves). First I pinned it then basted it in place. I sewed the selvage stitch down to the edge of the zipper, then used a small backstitch to sew down the other inside edge of the zipper so it wouldn’t catch on anything.

I’ll try to get some photos of Jakob in the sweater for my next post.


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just a typical saturday night

Any major knitterly repairs had to wait until tonight, since we had a birthday party this afternoon. One of my best friends’ son turns 2 this week, and our little family was invited to his party. I’m not going to post photos of them since I forgot to ask permission, but I am going to post a different photo (hi Debbie!) to my friend Debbie who is one of the very few non-knitters who reads my blog.

Jakob’s friend Taylor was at the party too, since we’ve known her father since high school, and her mom for the last few years. Taylor is exactly one day older than Jakob.
Hey baby…come here often?
After supper tonight I decided to brave the Superman repairs. I took photos and will break down what I did, step-by-step. It turns out that while I’ve councelled others to do this same repair, I don’t think I’ve actually done it myself before. It was much easier than I’d thought!
First I took a circular needle and wove it through the stitches, making sure to pick up the left bar of every stitch, and verifying that I had the correct number of stitches on the needle. You can also pick up the right bar, it doesn’t matter as long as you consistently pick up the same side of each stitch.
Next, I grabbed a dpn and “picked up” stitches 2 rows below the one on the needles. I only picked up 6 sts at a time so the fabric wouldn’t pull too tightly. Once I had the first 6 sts on the needle, I CUT one stitch on the middle row…the one in between the two rows on needles. I used a spare needle to unpick the yarn from those 6 sts, then took another needle and picked up the next 6 sts, unpicked the middle row, etc… (Yes, I left the scissors in the photo on purpose. Looks ominous, huh? LOL).

Once I’d done that all the way around the row I had the two parts of the leg separate. I was then able to add another 12 rows (1.5″) in length to the foot part of the leg.
With the knitting done, I “tidied” up the two parts by arranging them on 2 dpns each, making sure that I had the front and back aligned properly (wouldn’t want to sew the foot on crooked!). I left a really long tail for grafting, then cut the yarn.
Finally, I Kitchenered (grafted) the foot part to the leg. You can kinda see here how much length was added. I’m breastfeeding (and don’t drink anyways) so I had a cup of Earl Gray as my fortification instead of the typical glass of wine. 😉 I was about to do the second leg when Yannick suggested that I wait until after Jakob wakes up tomorrow so that I can try it on him first and be sure that I didn’t add too much…or need to add more.
So there you have it. One leg lengthened by an inch and a half, with my first not-too-sucky graft. One more leg to go.

You can use this type of repair for any knitting that’s too short and you want to add length, OR you can use it for knitting that is too long.  Follow the same steps to separate the work into two pieces and then unravel the side that goes in the opposite direction of your knitting for the required length, plus one row.  If using my costume leg as an example, I wouldn’t be able to unravel the top piece without picking out each stitch one by one, as I’d be unravelling in the same direction as I’d knit and it would be very time consuming.  I would unravel down the lower (leg) piece as that would be going opposite the knitting and would frog easily.

So if I had a leg that was 10 rows too long, I would separate the work onto two sets of needles and then unravel until I’d removed 11 rows.  The grafting row will account for the difference, “putting back” one row as it joins the two halves together.


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$%*&

I’m so mad. I’m SO mad. I have no one to be mad at but myself, but I am really, really so f*ing mad.

On Friday I ran a load of laundry before leaving the house for the day. I wanted to wash all the blankets and such that all the babies had touched/used during the playgroup, plus Jakob had spit up a few times and I didn’t want to leave his clothes in the hamper with milk on them. I also had the finished Montego Bay Scarf that I wanted to wash then let air dry before I gave it away. I ran the load, left for music class, then went to my parents’ house, and completely forgot about the laundry until I got home around 10pm.

Luckily (?) my mom had bought us some long-sleeved onesies in Plattsburg and Jakob had spit up again, so on Saturday morning I threw the new stuff into the washer with the old, damp load, refilled the machine and ran it again. I never looked at the clothes until I pulled them out of the washer on Saturday afternoon, ready to toss them into the dryer. I was eagerly waiting to pull out the Montego Bay Scarf to see how the Online sock yarn had held up to the washing… when I saw this:
And this:
&%**. I had accidentally left a velcro-closing bib in the laundry. I NEVER wash the bibs mixed in any more, I only do loads of ALL bibs, because I’ve had enough of the velcro getting caught and making a mess of our stuff. And now, the one time I forget to double-check it ruins not only a hand-knit, but something that isn’t even for me! It’s for charity! I’m SO mad. I will do my best to pull out the slack and weave in the end that got caught in the first photo, but there is nothing I can do for the run in the second photo. The yarn is actually torn. I will have to cut it just below, pick it out slowly and bind off, losing the extra foot or so in length. As a small miracle, the scarf grew in length after being washed, so losing the extra foot won’t really matter. What does matter to me is how fuzzy the scarf looks now after having velcro run along it. It doesn’t look “new” any more and I’m afraid they will think I’m donating a used scarf. I’m so mad.

In other knitting news, here is a project that is going well:
Yup, this is Jakob’s Hallowe’en costume progress.
C’mon, by now you should know what it is!
I couldn’t resist this shot of him modeling the work so far…you can see all the best parts- baby feet and that adorable grin. 🙂