Swallowtail

I've been knitting JuJu, a pair of baby pants to go with the Debbie Bliss cable and moss stitch baby sweater I knit for my coworker whose baby is due in September.

When I chose the sweater I substituted the yarn, using Cascade 220. I didn't pay much attention to gauge because I was knitting the largest size for a baby. Babies grow so quickly - I knew he would grow into and out of it at some point in his young life so it didn't matter exactly how big the sweater was.

It's a different matter for the pants. Same scenario, of course, for the baby growing into and out of it, but I did want the two to fit him at the same time. So, once I had knit the sweater and gotten most of the waist of the pants done, I had a likely child at church try them on. The sweater was too small for him - but the pants were going to be WAY TOO BIG. Sigh. To the frog pond they went.

I started again at a much smaller size. I got past the waist and down one leg. I thought I'd better try it on another child. On this child the sweater was too big but the pants were almost too tight! Dang! Luckily baby clothes knit up quickly. This child's mother tried to convince me that knitting has a lot of stretch to it, that I could keep going with this size, but I couldn't. I frogged and started again in a mid size.

There's no way I'm frogging them this time. But, I did find another child. He would try on the sweater but balked at the pants so I held them up against him to see how long to make the legs. A couple more inches until the edging and then cast off and start the second leg.

Then I just have to sew a zipper into the sweater and get some elastic for the pants waistband and I'm done. But, you know, I've always wanted to make a Zimmerman Baby Surprise Jacket. Maybe this baby will get another sweater as well, unless someone else comes up pregnant.

But, in the meantime... I've been to Victoria, and with my knitting friend Heidi, too. She's another fibreholic like me. Our families traveled together to a wedding and we just happened to plan a couple of visits to yarn stores:

Beehive in Victoria...oh, my, gawd! It was almost overwhelming. So much yarn. I went from one rack to another, squishing and stroking the yarn. By the time I had seen all of what was in there I had seen so many yarns that I wanted that, at the end, I couldn't pick anything out. I did buy some sock yarn and a pattern book (for a baby pattern, I guess for some future baby).

Then we went to Button and Needlework Boutique (I cleverly requested a trip to Trounce Alley without letting on that I knew there was a yarn store there). Now this store had much less in the way of knitting supplies. It was mostly crewel, cross-stitch, etc. But here I wasn't overwhelmed. I found some lovely Indigo Moon laceweight silk in a lavender colourway. $40 for the skein. But it has approx 800 - 905 metres, enough for a lace shawl.

I should be getting back to the Susie Hoodie, really I should. But the lace is calling to me. I visited Beadworks in Port Moody today...I found beads that will go nicely with it. I'm going to finish the baby pants and start something else. It really should be the Susie Hoodie, really it should. But we'll see. we'll see.

What's on the Needles?

I started the Susie Hoodie from the More Big Girl Knits book. Of course I didn't want to use the more expensive yarn so I fell back on my old standby Cascade 220. It has a different gauge, especially when I knit it because I never get the right gauge right away. I think I did 8-10 swatches on different needles. I ended up buying a metal circular needle (HiyaHiya) because the same size of needle from my Denise Interchangeable kit didn't give the same gauge-the wool slides across metal differently than it does across plastic.


So I merrily began to knit. That pattern has the body knit as one piece: the fronts and back together. It has a lovely cable that goes all the way up edges, meeting at the top of the hood. I found it very difficult doing just one row of cable and then the rest of the row of stockinette stitch and then the same row of cable to end, purl all the way back and then start the second row of the cable. I just couldn't make sense of the cable pattern.


So, I decided to do the sleeves first. There, I knit the cuff first, which was only the cable pattern. I became very familiar with it and its twists and turns. I pretty well memorized it.


Then I picked up stitches along its edge and began knitting in the round up the sleeve. I'd done quite a few inches and decided to check my gauge. Not even close! It was way tighter than what I'd been getting before when I swatched. You see, I'd swatched knitting back and forth and now I was knitting in the round. The difference between the two turns out to be quite a lot. The size of the purl stitches while knitting back and forth make the difference.


I put the hoodie on time out. I definitely will pick it back up again but I have another project to do in the meantime:


At work, Meggin is pregnant. Baby knitting!


I had thought I'd knit the Tulip Jacket by Dream in Color. It is knit with many wide stripes of different coloured wool. I do love it. I even got Francesca, the owner of Three Bags Full to change the kit for me (I didn't think the obligatory pink colours in the 'girl kit' went well with the others. I had to wait while they got more stock in; then I waited because Meggin was going to have an ultrasound to find the gender of her baby.


It's going to be a boy. So, the pink issue doesn't matter. I don't much like the colourway for the 'boy kit'. And, it's pretty expensive - $50 for the kit for one tiny sweater. (But, I noticed that the girl kits without the pinks sold better than the ones with them)


Hmmm.. what else could I knit?


I found a pattern by Debbie Bliss -the Cable and Moss Stitch Cardigan. Francesca even loaned me the pattern book, she's so nice! Of course I didn't want to use the more expensive yarn it called for so I fell back on my old standby Cascade 220 (sounds familiar?). I chose to make a the 18 month size so that baby wouldn't be in and out of it in such a short time. Gauge problems? Nope. Just knit away even it the gauge doesn't come out perfectly. That cardigan will fit the baby at some point as he grows.

(picture borrowed from twowoodensticks on Ravelry)

I used a colourway called Yakima Heather. It's a solid dark green, almost brown really. It has some yellow in it as well.


I also bought a tweedy yellow to make baby pants with. I chose Juju from Knitty, though I'll substitute the cable from the Bliss pattern for the cable it uses. So I got a sweater and a pair of pants for the same cost as the one Tulip Jacket. I should have enough to make a hat as well, but that would have happened with the Tulip Jacket too.


But do you know, I'm starting to really look forward to picking up the Susie Hoodie again.