Category: Sunday Stitch Count

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Sunday Stitch Count

Sunday Stitch Count 8/13

Today I gave Asher an avocado for the first time, thinking he would like it…

I was wrong.

I remembered after this wildly unsuccessful attempt that I was never able to keep an avocado down once in my entire pregnancy with him, so at least he’s consistent! And Dave doesn’t like avocado either, so unless some opinions start changing around here I guess I’ll have the avocados all to myself!

Over in knitting world, I have to confess to starting not one but TWO new projects this week. I was really trying to be good, but I was growing a bit weary…

Find Your Fade by Andrea Mowry

I blame this shawl for my lack of knitterly fortitude over the last week. I was at least able to capture a bit of the shaping that’s happening over on the right side there, but honestly, this lovely pattern and gorgeous yarn has gotten…boring. Gasp! I’m probably going to have my license to knit taken away for admitting that, but it’s true. At this point in the pattern the shape is changing by one stitch (out of 235) every other row. That is a LOT of knitting with, like, no visible change, so my attention has been wandering a bit to…

Baby Blossom Blanket by Hayfield Company

Okay, for real, HOW cute is this little blanket?!? The yarn is Baby Blossom Chunky by Hayfield, and it’s self-stripping, so all those cute little blossoms and leaves show up of their own accord with a single skein of yarn! No intarsia, no color chart, no bobbins to keep in line, no extra ends to weave in, you just cast on and go! And since it’s chunky yarn, it knits up super fast–I started this project on Thursday evening. It’s so nice to be able to whip up something like this when it feels like I’m just not getting anywhere with the fancier projects (*cough* Find Your Fade *cough*).

Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman

This pattern is the stuff of knitting legend. The “BSJ” is notorious for the fact that when you’ve finished all of the actual knitting, it still looks nothing like a jacket–hence the “surprise” part! The pattern has been updated since the original publication in 1968 to be a bit more helpful (my two favorite lines from the original are “work will start to look very odd indeed, but trust me and press on”, and “hope you are still with me”), but it’s honestly still on the sparse side. But it’s not a shawl, and it’s more complicated and thus more engaging than the baby blanket, so I’ll do as Elizabeth says and press on. Also, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (a.k.a. The Yarn Harlot) wrote a fun post about the BSJ back in May if you’d like to see finished photos!

Falling Waters by Knit-A-Bit staff

Falling Waters is plodding along, neither overwhelmingly dull or thrillingly new, it’s just minding it’s own business and doing it’s thing.

Finally, I thought a close-up of the yarns for these four projects might be fun, so you can see the difference in yarn weights (I know, it’s an astonishing idea, try to contain your excitement!):

The yarn on the left is “chunky” weight, the next yarn over is “worsted”, then we have “DK” (I had to look that up, it apparently stands for “double knit”–who knew?!), and finally “fingering” weight on the right. You can see why the blanket using chunky yarn is going so much faster than the shawl using fingering, the yarn is twice as thick!

And now, it’s time to put my avocado-hating baby to bed! Happy Sunday!

Previous Stitch Counts:

Sunday Stitch Count 8/6

Sunday Stitch Count 7/30

Sunday Stitch Count 7/23

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Sunday Stitch Count

Sunday Stitch Count 8/6

Happy Sunday!

We have a new tradition in our little family of walking into town for ice cream every Sunday afternoon, and the walking part makes the ice cream part feel completely justified. However, the smallest member of our family, who has not yet been introduced to the glories of sugar, tends to feel a bit left out of the festivities.

“I really don’t think my key chain tastes as good as your ice cream does!”

Today was no exception, so if you see Asher and he feels compelled to share his woes with you, just go ahead and assume it’s about the absence of ice cream in his life. He’d probably appreciate a sympathetic sigh or two, while you’re at it.

Over in knitting world, there’s been some modest progress:

Find Your Fade by Andrea Mowry

I’ve finally moved on to my fourth color, Tosh Merino Light by Madeline Tosh in Kimil. I took the second photo to try and show the four different yarns I’ve used so far, since even in person it’s hard to tell the difference between the first two without direct sunlight. It’s harder to photograph knitting than I ever realized, and I now understand why Stephanie Pearl-McPhee always enlists her husband for help! Also, I really can’t show the changing shape of the pattern because the width is now longer than the cord on my circular needle. Sigh. Who will play me in the movie?!?

Falling Waters by Knit-A-Bit staff

I’m making some headway on the second panel, but it’s really just a bunch of cables with a small median between each, so it’s not terribly exciting at this stage. But believe it or not, when the stitches get dropped at the end it will look like that first panel on top! I photographed it vertically, just to show the effect, but the two pieces are actually aligned horizontally for the finished product. The pattern is definitely a leap of faith (the instructions don’t really seem like they should work but so far they have, and dropping stitches on purpose feels more than a bit bizarre), but the nice thing about knitting is that worst case scenario, you rip the yarn back and start something new!

And now, if you’ll excuse me, Asher would like his turn with the computer, so it’s going to disappear for a while!

Sunday Stitch Count 7/30

Sunday Stitch Count 7/23

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Sunday Stitch Count

Sunday Stitch Count 7/30

It’s Sunday again! When I was pregnant, I was so hyper-aware of the passage of time–I absolutely said things like, “I’m 32 and a half weeks along!”–but without that looming due date by which to measure, days can easily sneak up on me. That’s why it’s fun to see what I have to show for a week, knitting-wise…one ENORMOUS difference between knitting and motherhood is concrete, tangible progress!

Find Your Fade by Andrea Mowry

I’m a little surprised by how not-different this project looks from last week, even though it’s a couple inches longer. Ms. Mowry tends to write patterns that are fairly straightforward but really let the yarn shine, so I’m hoping my next color change will really make a difference…otherwise I may end up in a dreaded shawl black hole!

Falling Waters by Knit-A-Bit staff

Now that’s progress! The irony of this pattern is that all of the panels between the cables are intentionally dropped at the bind-off, so a lot of work gets done to then be purposefully undone. It’s like a cha-cha with yarn! (How’s that for knitterly optimism?)

Fair Isle Coaster by Helen Ardley

The yarn is Cascade 220 Sport in gray, teal and cream, because once again no one over there at Cascade Yarns could be bothered to give these poor little colors a real name! It’s a bit of a travesty, really. As you can see, this little coaster is actually finished already, but there’s supposed to be 4 of them and I can’t find the one I already made (I blame the move, I can’t find my good blocking pins either!), so it’s really only 25% of the project.

And, of course, the obligatory Asher picture! He’s really starting to enjoy solid foods more and more–in this picture he had just polished off macaroni and cheese AND green beans!

Previous Stitch Counts:

Sunday Stitch Count 7/23

Categories
Sunday Stitch Count

Sunday Stitch Count 7/23

I’ve decided it might be fun to do a Sunday Stitch Count post each week to keep track of my progress with various knitting projects–and hopefully keep me honest about starting too many without finishing the ones that came before! Ravelry has such features, of course, but much to the astonishment of every knitter who’s ever asked, I am either unable or unwilling to learn them. Full disclosure, the only reason this blog is evenly remotely usable is because I’m married to a very patient and helpful IT guy (thanks, Love!).

So anyway, here’s a look at what I’m currently knitting!

Find Your Fade by Andrea Mowry

The yarn is Tosh Merino Light by Madeline Tosh in Mandala, Odyssey and Stephen Loves Tosh (so far, I have a few color melts to go!).

Falling Waters, pattern from Knit-A-Bit staff for the 2017 NJ Wool Walk

The yarn is Avalon by Cascade Yarns in Sandshell. And yes, I am currently on Row 1 and have been on Row 1 since Tuesday, but in my defense this is the second of two panels, so it’s not quite as pitiful a start as it looks!

Slip Stitch Cowl, pattern from The Blue Purl staff

The yarn is Sarasota by Cascade Yarns again, in blue, green and gray (thank you Captain Obvious!). But I seriously can’t find color names anywhere on the label, so I’m assuming there aren’t names…in which case I really think I should offer up my color naming services, don’t you? And since this little number is being knit in the round, it is absolutely refusing to photograph properly…but it really does look promising!

And a completely unrelated but totally adorable picture of Asher to round things out:

Look how long those legs are! He’s already 9 inches taller than when he was born!

Happy Sunday!