under them skies of blue

First things first: I arrived at work this morning to see that the fence surrounding my office's parking lot had been yarn bombed! It's hard to see in my photo, but someone has tied scarves to all of the posts of the fence along one city block. Needless to say, I was absolutely delighted. Perhaps it's the work of the knitty gritty committee, or of the person who works in my building and has a license plate cover that says "I'd rather be knitting." Either way, I'm hoping it lasts for a little while because it will make me happy whenever I pull into the parking lot.

Holiday knitting was a dreadful fail this year, even though I wildly scaled back my plans for it. The only thing I finished (sewed in the ends and steam blocked it mere hours before boarding a plane to return from vacation) was this sweater for a little girl who loves "hop hops". I'm hoping her love will continue until she grows into it since it is quite ample now.

Getting a picture of her was very difficult, so most of my pictures look like this.

(Since she is actually quite cute even when she is not in handknits, those of you who know my family may want to check out these pictures of her birthday celebration.) My fair isle still has a ways to go, but at least the bunnies are recognizable as bunnies. Thanks to Wamps for suggesting this pattern!

I used Spud & Chloe sweater, which knit at a much larger gauge than the pattern required. So I knit the stitch counts for the 6 month size, but used the lengths for the 2-to-4 year old size, which worked out well proportionately. I only had time to steam block before gifting, but plan to wet block it when I'm next at home. Since it's unlikely that she'll grow into it before then, I think that it's a safe plan.

Hope you've all had good starts to 2012 and that your holiday knitting was more successful than mine!

used to be much harder

Recently, the project that has been the most compelling is also the project that has been the most frustrating. I'm designing the pattern and it's still in the swatching stage. Unfortunately, for the life of me, I can't figure out how to translate what's in my mind into yarn. Below, you can see the backside of one of many attempts to do so.
I didn't want to recreate the wheel, so I've trolled Ravelry and scoured pattern books to find a stitch that works, but no luck yet. I took a break from being absurdly frustrated to work on an absurdly simple one.
Suddenly, I have a new most compelling knit.

Warm Feet!

That was my basic goal of knitting these three projects.


I knit these Malabrigo Loafers in a class that Julie Weisenberger taught at Article Pract--where the yarn also originates. I remain verrry grateful to our lovely instructor, who (when I had forgotten that I am a loose knitter and found myself with a much-too-large-sole) helped me figure out the pattern in my gauge. I really want to make a pair of these for myself, and while they do knit up fairly quickly, they are not the bus/TV knitting that I need in these graduate school times.


Also designed by Julie, these ballet flats made me immediately think of heb. And, of course, they had to be in silver and blue! A combo of a Rowan blend and Plucky yarn also made perfect sense.


KZ was lucky enough to serve as a my first small needle sock experiment. This design was a great choice. Interesting enough to hold my attention and teach me about sock knitting, but not so complicated that picking them up was a chore. I do think my next pair of socks will be with thicker yarn and on larger needles. 0s produce a lovely sock, but the TIME, my goodness!

Thanks for sending me pictures so I could brag girls!!