blanket

When I visited my cousin this summer, she took me to her local yarn store and she loved the colors of this yarn.  So I bought it and asked her what kind of baby blanket she might like.  Turns out she had already gone through Ravelry and noted on one of her 'favorites' - "Mel, can you make this?  :)"

Indeed.  Though she had to pick a pattern with a lot of purl rows :)

Pattern:  Mountain Chickadee
Edging:  found in a book ("Crochet Edging," appropriately enough) I found at a Stitches East book signing
Yarn:  Casbah.  Used every inch!
 rimmed with a sea green sock yarn I found at Stitches Midwest

I'm never getting gauge

Here is the sweater that I was knitting along with my friend Thuy... (Haven't shortened the zipper yet)

Yummy, yummy yarn.  I love the tonal brown.  "Fig" is the shade.

We converted the pattern to be a more seamless pattern.  Not the easiest thing, since the pattern wasn't exactly the easiest written pattern.   I normally knit quite loosely and with going down a couple needle sizes I seemed to roughly get gauge.  But the other tricky thing about sizing was that it was sizing the sweater according to your bust size, and I don't have a bust anymore.  So I tried to hedge it and make the next size up from my chest circumference.

 It was a top down pattern and everything seemed to be going swimmingly .... until I put in the raglan sleeves, and it was too tight right at the seams.  Aaagh!!

Pattern: Ribby cardi
Yarn: madelinetosh merino vintage

These are a few of my favorite buttons

Arielle inspired me to try my hand at felt ornaments... Thought it might make a fun hanging-out-with-baby-in-Montreal-winter sort of craft, so I brought a little supply kit with me and surfed Pinterest for ideas.  A perfect accompaniment to watching Downton Abbey.

The buttons are from my neighbor - she has inherited a store's worth of jewelry, scarves, knickknacks, and buttons that she has been trying to sell. She lets me take all the buttons I want, so I made her a little tree made entirely of buttons.

Great instructions and template from this blog

Finally (in) his shell

Look!  I finally finished him!

5 years ago I started Sheldon, which was a popular pattern on knitty.com.    The thing about knitting toys is that there are a lot of fiddly finishing details. I finished just about everything except his eyes and limbs, and then I got discouraged when it came to putting the pieces together.  The shell and the belly are attached with icord, for example, and that was beyond my knitting skills at the time.  And so he seemed doomed to never be finished.

Then E comes home from school and tells me that their class pet is a turtle.  Named Sheldon.

So I resurrected him and finished him as a Christmas present from his teacher.  

She probably thinks I'm a bit crazy.  

But at least I finished him!!

Pattern:  Sheldon, on knitty.com

Yarn:  Knitpicks simply cotton

Ruffles have ridges

Impulse purchase at 3 Bags Full:  Broadway Yarn.
About 5-6 hours of knit time, and I had a scarf!  Very fun.  Hard to get the colors right - they are a navy blue and purple with silver sparkle edge.

Sampler

I'm in Virginia now, visiting my in-laws ... in honor of my mother-in-law's amazing talent, here is a picture of the sampler she recently finished for our ten year anniversary.  We just hung it in the kitchen, where I love it because I can look at it every time I sit at our table.  I think our red walls frame it nicely.

Ideas for guests

This is a page out of one of my cousin's books.  A great idea for a guest room:  start knitting a sampler scarf, fill a basket with some different yarns, and guests can add on as they wish.  It can be used to teach guests how to knit as well.  Then you have a sort of knitted "guest book" and memories of visits.

Wool felt animals

Seen in the Lenhardt Library at the Chicago Botanic Garden. So cute!

Auntie Mel makes me the silliest hats

Made a quick little hat from Rosemary's stash. Used the whole ball with only scraps to spare! Gotta love bulky weight yarn for a quick satisfying project.

Knitting - c'est bon!

While in Montreal, do what the Montreal knitters do - look at French patterns :). My cousin has a couple of books from the Parisian knitting store la droguerie, and I could not resist a peek. Here are a few highlights.

Little habu hat

Arielle and I fell in love with this cottony slub yarn at the Habu booth at Stitches East, because the sample was the cutest little simple hat. She had a 2 month old and I knew my cousin was about to have a baby, so we both made one.

But then I always seem to knit loosely, and made a hat that was way too big for a newborn. And she made a hat that was too small for her 3 month old.

So we swapped! And they were perfect!