Knit this blanket for my cousin's baby, due in November. They have a nautical-themed nursery, and I hope this blanket will fit in nicely. The yarn is a beautiful (and hard to photograph) deep blue shade, appropriately named azul profundo. The photo above is the true color.
I modified the pattern a bit, changing the pattern rows from right side to wrong side, thus minimizing the amount of purling required. I reversed the direction of the boats on each row, and knit 4 rows (the pattern calls for 3).
The yarn, Malabrigo Rios, was fantastic to work with. I used exactly 3.5 skeins for this blanket.
Erin with her favorite landmark--the "Sface" needle!
So rare is it that my crafty visions come to fruition as smoothly as with this project! I had ideas of making Erin a hula dancer costume in time for my mom's performance at Live Aloha this past weekend, and I finished this late Saturday night. I probably spent 4 hours on this costume, including the time spent shopping for the shirt (value village), skirt fabric and felt (Joann).
I wanted the outfit to look a bit cartoonish, and I think it does. Finding the green stripe seersucker was a real "aha!" moment for me at Joanns. I walked up and down all the aisles trying to find something that would make for an easy to make and easy to play in "grass" skirt. I used felt for the coconut bra and lei--all sewn directly onto the shirt with zigzag stitch.
A few details that really made this project seem perfect: I bought 1 yard of the fabric, which was just enough to make a skirt that is about 4x Erin's waist--excellent for twirling. For the flowers, I started by drawing and then cutting 8 flowers out of each of the 5 colors of felt-->40 flowers. And I used all but 1 of them to make the lei and bracelets. How often do I premake almost the perfect amount of something--like never!
Best of all, when Erin saw the finished costume, she exclaimed "I love this one!" And no last minute Halloween preparations! :)
Here's a quick video of Erin dancing along with some hula dancers
I made a hat, and the pattern was so nice, I knit it twice! One in baby size, and one adult large size. The baby size fits Erin, so fits more like toddler, and the adult large size is nice and slouchy even on my large noggin.
The baby size is knit from some yarn that I bought in Boston probably....almost 10 years ago?? Not even sure how long ago--I know it was toward the beginning of my time living in NYC, so probably 2005 or 2006, while visiting Jessica in Boston, I think.
The adult hat is knit from alpaca yarn from a local alpaca farm down in Fife. As one would expect from alpaca, it's delightfully soft, and VERY warm. Too warm for me. Because this yarn is a bit special, I'll probably put this in the gift pile (vs the donate pile), and hopefully it'll find a home with some large headed person in a cooler climate.
Another note on this yarn: the color bled and faded after a soak, which was a bit of a bummer, but the resulting color is still pleasant.
Made two pairs of toddler socks for Erin--closest thing to instant gratification one can get when knitting socks. Both pairs were worked toe-up, starting with 12st cast on to each needle, increased to 24st/needle (48st total); short-row heel.
They fit well now, with a little bit of grow room so hopefully they'll fit through to spring. Great way to use of little bits of sock yarn. I recently organized my craft corner and realized I have TONS of little balls of sock yarn. A 1 cubic foot container crammed full! Time to think about some sort of project to use them up... something like this, or this perhaps? Or just lots more toddler socks!
Participated in the Through the Loops 2015 mystery shawl knit along. I used some souvenir yarn from Whidbey Island for the MC, and bit of bare knit picks for the edging.
The variegation of the MC means that the lace patter is bit lost, unfortunately. Should have opted for a more solid color of yarn. This one is for me to keep. :)
Here are two pics that really demonstrate the difference blocking can make!
