Wow! I’m amazed at all the people coming on over to see me thanks to Stephanie (the Yarn Harlot) putting a photo of me with Yannick’s bowling sock on her blog from the tour stop she made here in Montreal. I really appreciate everyone stopping by, and know why you’re all here…you want the pattern!

Well, the pattern is from an old Beehive knitting pattern booklet called Beehive Knits for Men, and it’s so old that there is no date on it. Just the price ($0.35!). There is no date anywhere, but I’m guessing it’s from or pre- the 50s because it used to belong to my Bubbie who made everything in it for my grandfather “back in the day”.

Unfortunately the pattern booklet isn’t sold anywhere anymore. I even looked around online and couldn’t find it on eBay or anywhere for sale. There are other Beehive Knits booklets, but not the same “Knits for Men – with special gift section” that I have.

So guess how nice I am to you? I could have just started making photocopies or scans of the book and sending them out to everyone who inquired. But that could be in a copyright gray area and there are a lot of you asking. So I took a deep breath and called Patons themselves. What’s the worst they could have done, said “no”? At the very least I could have taken the time to send each of you the magazine in turn, and if you choose to make a photocopy of the pattern for your personal use (while you have the mag in your possession) and then forget to destroy it when you send the booklet back to me…well, I’m hardly to blame for that, am I?

Don’t worry. We don’t need to start any vintage pattern scandals over here. Patons gave me permission to make the pattern available to all who ask, as long as I let you know which of their current yarns is the substitute for the discontinued yarn called for in the pattern. (It’s Kroy Sock Yarn, by the way).

Yay! Now…before you all start writing to me with your addresses, just itching to get your needles into the pattern…I’m taking this one step further. I’ve already scanned the pattern, and tomorrow I will be attempting to put it together (with the yarn update) into PDF format. As soon as I can cobble it together I will put it up in my sidebar, available for anyone to download.

So be patient my pretties…in a matter of days (a few tops, I promise) you will each be able to download your own copies of the pattern to save and/or print, and I will be able to keep a clear conscience and sleep well at night. See how we all win? ;]

Of course, those of you who found me through the pattern are more than welcome to stick around for a while too! If any of you have blogs please email me to let me know so I can come visit you too!

Also, Bobbie wrote to tell me:
No, “baumwolle” isn’t wool; it’s cotton. “Baum” is tree and “wolle” is fiber = “tree fiber” = cotton. So, since it’s mixed with acrylic (you were right on that one ;), the tot’s sweater is probably washable. Yeah!

Very cool! Thanks for letting me know! It probably is washable…on the yarn label there is a pic of a tub with 30 in it, which I believe is the washing temperature. It can also be ironed, although the dryer pic with a big X on it leads me to believe I’m better off drying it flat. 🙂

Last night’s knit-together was so much fun! I was in a corner with Deawn, Mona, Karine and Yannick…it’s a good thing I didn’t drink too much ‘cus I think I would have peed, I was laughing so hard. There were a lot of people there, let’s see if I can remember…there was Robyn, Peggy, Olga (new), Angela, Jennie, Veronik, Molly Ann…(anyone else get a Romper Room flashback?).

Mona was a lovely little yarn fairy and brought a couple of bags of left overs and odds and ends for us to devour like vultures peruse and choose from at our leisure. I scored some nice little odd balls:

These 4 balls are Schewe Baumwoll-Mix, 50% Baumwolle (wool?) and 50% Polyacryl (acrylic?). I plan to use them for a cute little cabled sweater for the baby. Boy or girl, I think it would be adorable with a mini pair of jeans on a Fall day.

This bit is some unknown fiber, probably wool, assumed to be feltable. I’ll try a spit-splice when I feel in the mood. It will probably end up marinating in the stash for a while, eventually ending up as an accent color in a pair of felted clogs or something.

This is a yarn made up of 4 strands of thinner yarn. I was told it is 50% cotton and 50% acrylic. It will be another sweater for the baby (or probably the “kid” at that point). What, me knit for myself? It will probably be in stockinette as I’m not sure if anything more patterned would show up, and I really don’t think the yarn(s?) would hold up well to a cable unless I knit it at a really tight gauge. I’ll wait and see once I swatch some of it up.

This is some more of the same stuff as above in a different color. I don’t think I’d use the two together…are the colors too similar? I can’t decide. Maybe I’ll use it for kiddie socks.

These are supposed to be 2 little left overs of merino. I think. If I can trust my pregnancy fog to remember what Mona said so many hours ago.

Lastly, these are…I don’t know. What you get when you spin the 70s? In any case, I thought they were cute, and if I have a girl I KNOW I will end up with plenty of opportunities to knit something sparkly.

So see, you should have been there. You would have laughed, and you could have scored free yarn.

I’ve been blogged! No really, go on over and check it out. I’ll wait right here.

This is so cool! Now if only I could show Yannick, but, alas, the socks are a surprise.

I’ve been trying to decide what to do about them, because they appear to be a tad narrow for his feet. I think I will try them on him one night while he sleeps, and if it seems to fit then I’ll make the 2nd one and give him the pair for Christmas/Hanukah. If it doesn’t fit then I’ll finish the first one and give it to him to keep in his bowling bag for good luck.

Last night was a very informative meeting of the Montreal Knitting Guild. We had speakers in from 10 Milles Villages, a Fair Trade store. It was really cool learning about Peru and the alpacas, and especially touching many of the knitted items they brought in for show-and-tell. Definately a place I plan to check out at the next gift-giving holiday!

Tonight I’ll be at the Montreal Knits to-do on Monkland. The dinosaur is getting a bit unweildly to carry around (one arm left then just seaming and stuffing) so I brought with some yarn and the needles to make a pair of Froggy Socks and Hat that are similar to the Just Ducky ones I posted two days ago. They work up fast so I’m predicting I’ll have at least one completed sock by the end of the meeting.

I’m good at keeping a secret, aren’t I? :] We have told people we know “in real life” but I waited to post the news here because I wanted to wait until after the ultrasound, just to make sure everything was ok with the baby.

So, yes, Yannick and I are having a honeymoon baby. Say “hi”!

I am officially 12 wks and 6 days pregnant. I’ve known since September 13th, as we took a few (three!) pregnancy tests during our honeymoon. On the 13th (early) it was “unclear”. On the 17th (period due) it was “yes” and on the 20th (once I was officially late) it was practically blinking and flashing. After yesterday’s ultrasound the due date has been raised from May 25th to the 19th. We don’t know if it is a boy or girl yet, as it is still too small to tell. We will be able to see at our next ultrasound (at the end of December) and we probably will be finding out, but not necessarily telling anyone.

We’d been really nervous, because at my last appointment the baby was too small for the doctor to find the heartbeat for us to hear, so we have had no confirmation that the baby was doing ok. Finally yesterday we got to not only hear the fast thudding, but actually see the baby jumping and squirming and moving pretty much non-stop. It was the freakiest thing in the world to see, especially since I can’t feel it yet.

Isn’t it cute?
It’s the Just Ducky Hat and Socks set found as a free pattern here.

This photo accurately shows the color of the yellow yarn. I love the little webbed ducky feet! This is the matching hat. Ignore the lousy color…all the hat-only photos I took with the flash were completely washed out. I am happy with the bill and the floppy loops on the top of the head. I’m not happy with the eyes. I used little blue buttons because they were all I had. When I remember I plan to buy bigger black buttons, probably around 1″ in diameter. I think they will be much cuter (more like the eyes on the original pattern).

Still, it came out pretty cute, no?
I think so.

Wanna see what else I made?

(I’ll admit…I had help with this one).

I didn’t do much over the week but get some knitting done. I didn’t get much done Friday night either but knitting…the kicker is where I did it and who I got to see. I’ll give you a hint. I had a great time but my cousin has the photos so I’m just waiting to get them from her and then I’ll post all about it. After that Yannick and I went back to La Louisianne for dinner. We shared some yummy alligator (that felt strange to type) and sweet potato fries, then he had the crawfish again and I went for the crab cakes. (Highly recommended).

Saturday I worked and was so tired by the end of the day that I literally came home with Yannick, made some Kraft dinner, watched a movie (Thank You For Smoking, also highly recommended) and was in bed, asleep, by 11:30pm. I’ve been zonked lately!

Today we had brunch with my parents, siblings, my grandmother and my sister’s boyfriend. It was nice going out all of us together. Usually we go out for dinner to celebrate (belated) birthdays, but this time it was easier to get us together during daylight hours, so we brunched at Bocaccino’s in the West Island. I kinda feel like my family forgot my birthday this year, since it happened while I was away on my honeymoon. I know they usually bunch all the gifts up together at Hanukah time, but usually there are at least phone calls. This year it kinda went unnoticed except by Yannick who remembered to get me a card in advance so he could give it to me on the cruise. My gift from him had to wait until we got home, but I know what it is and it’s been ordered and trust me it’s a good one!

Tonight we went bowling with one of my brothers and my cousin. I bowled the first game with them (and sucked majorly, I’m not even telling my score…let’s just say it only had 2 digits) then sat out the next two and knit so they could practice for Tuesday night. (My dad, brother Mike, cousin Jon and Yannick are a team in a local bowling league). I’ve been working on the dinosaur for my cousin whose wife gave birth at the end of the summer. (I don’t remember if I’d blogged about this). I’d wanted to have it done for his bris but he was born early because his mom was induced. Then I had the wedding and honeymoon, and I’d returned the library book that the pattern was from because I knew I was leaving for 3 weeks. I figured I’d rent it when I got back, but I couldn’t find the book at the library. I finally clued in to reserve the book, and finally got to pick it up on the 5th of Nov, so I’ve been working on him ever since. I think he’s going to be so cute!

Now I’m off to bed because tomorrow is a big day.

The elephant that I knit for my cousin’s baby is from the book Easy Knitted Toys by Joy Gammon. I actually took the book out from the library in French before realizing it also came in English, so this is my first pattern knit from French instructions. It was knit with Sirdar Country DK in gray (about a ball and a half) with minimal amounts of the same yarn in baby blue for the pads and scraps of white and black for the tusks and eyes.

This first photo is the book’s image showing what the completed toy will look like. As the book is considered “Easy” toys, the entire thing is knit flat, and seamed. Now…everything could have been knit in the round. For example, the legs, which are basically cast on xx stitches, work for xx rows and cast off. Repeat 3 more times. But I decided to follow the spirit of the pattern and work as written. I enjoy seaming. What I did not enjoy was how misleading this photo is.
See how cute he is, sitting there like that? Too bad the instructions tell you to sew all 4 legs on as open tubes, as if the elephant were standing (like a real elephant, not like a toy on 2 legs). Except that if you sew them on that way, you can only acheive this cute “seated” pose by forcefully squashing the elephant into a seated position and pinning him there with some kind of brute force. I didn’t feel like handing over a deformed elephant. So I followed the knitting instructions, but changed the finishing.

Here’s my version. I kept the seated position of the photograph, but attached the limbs after folding them flat so they would flop up and down, allowing him to sit or be held standing.
Had I realized I would be attaching his limbs this way BEFORE stuffing and seaming the body, I would have stuffed it a bit firmer and forced more of a pear shape to reinforce the seated pose. (Oh, and there is no wire in the trunk, I just kept rolling it up and eventually it stayed…kinda).
This is the back (duh). I wasn’t too happy with the pattern for the ears. In the photo they look softly rounded and real. The actual pattern is basically a rectangle folded on a purl turning row. I tried very hard to put in a crease that would make them appear more rounded, but don’t think I succeeded too well. Next time I will try to remember that I’m not limited to following a pattern directly as written…although since I was translating it as I knit I kept thinking it would work out in the end. There were no real directions for the tail and I wanted to make it safe for a baby, so I took a few lengths of the gray and pulled them through the back with a crochet hook. I repeated this so I had 3 sets of double strands in a triangle shape, then braided them. This way if they become a hazard they can be cut off and removed easily without damaging the body of the elephant. If you want a visual reference as to how large this guy is, that TV is 13″ and I took the photo at an angle, so they’re about the same height.

Finally, here’s a photo with his legs down. Please ignore the fact that he looks 8 months pregnant. You can also ignore the trashy magazine and hideously messy dinner table. (Don’t ignore the game Apples to Apples on the floor…it’s an excellent game for groups and I highly recommend it).

So there’s the latest FO. Now let’s see if I can get my Clapotis done before snow.

It’s after midnight. I’m exhausted. I worked an 11 hour day, then came home and knit and sewed for the last few hours. And what do I have to show for it???

I have a finished stuffed elephant toy!

Photos after the mommy-to-be gets it…let’s hope I have enough willpower to give it away ‘cus it’s so cute I want to keep it for myself!

:]

I’m so annoyed with Blogger.

I tried posting photos. I really did. But I’ve just sat here at the computer for 15 minutes while Firefox or Mozilla or whatever it’s called sat there “uploading” my photos. I’m sorry, but after 15 minutes with no little “done” blue box, I’ve had enough.

A few years ago Blogger was great. Then they updated their Upload Photo page and ever since I’ve had such a hard time uploading photos. With Internet Explorer the photos would only upload about 10% of the time. Of course, you’d still have to sit there for 10 minutes while they “loaded” to know if it would work or not. I bugged them for a long time through email and finally they said they had a better success rate with Mozilla. Most of the time it works. But at least 20% of the time I sit here fuming at the computer waiting for that little blue button.

Tonight I’ve had enough. So no photos for you. Feel free to complain to Blogger about it. Maybe they’ll finally fix the problem.

(Funny…I search in their archives and find hundreds of people saying they have problems uploading…yet they don’t think they have a problem…)

Photos! Ok, not the most interesting photos, but photos none-the-less. Yannick isn’t home, and neither are his feet, so I will wait to post Birthday Sock photos once I have one or the other around.This is some yarn I bought in Florida while on our honeymoon. Isn’t it pretty?

In Hallandale, right near my grandmother’s condo where we stayed the first week, is a yarn shop:I had to go in there. No really, HAD to. See, my mom had sent me down with some embroidery floss to exchange for the proper colors for her, so I can’t be helped if I spent some time browsing the yarn selection while I was in there, could I? I was primarily interested in finding some Tessin yarn by Muench, as this was supposed to be one of their distributors, but they didn’t have any in stock. So I was about to leave when I spotted this colorful hank hanging on the wall. It’s called Anne and it’s by Schaefer and I love the color combination. The above photo shows how bright the colors are in real life, but doesn’t show the subtle variation of orange/ochre/mustard/forest/earth that the non-red or black parts are. This photo (without flash) is much too dark, but shows that little section a bit better. Of course, you’re still missing the crimson/burgundy/wine/cherry variation that the red section goes through, but I’m not spending an hour with the camera so this is the best you’ll get until I knit with it.
I have no idea what it will be. I don’t want to waste it on socks that won’t often get seen. It’s fingering weight, and one hank has a whopping 540 yards. And it’s superwash. Any ideas?