Creepy Naked Santa

Me, crazy old lady, the only non-breeder in Park Slope, knitting things for my friends adorable childrens.

Hopefully I’m not as creepy as him. Actually he’s not even Santa. But watch the movie, it’s adorably creepy and very Spielbergian. In the best way possible.

In any case, I found a great pattern that inspired me to knit for the babies Ryan, Jackson, Barrett and Jacob. Best thing about knitting for babies? It takes about 2 seconds, or one long flight across the country or to another country (except eastern Canada). Actually, I take that back…I might have completed one to and from Toronto.

How cute did this turn out? I got the yarn at Seaport, using hand dyed Malabrigo Silky Merino in Natural and Ravelry Red. I doubled the yarn to get the best effect and it worked great (I used size 7 round and DPNs as well). Cute as pie and fun. Will post some photos of the kids wearing them; the pattern comes in several sizes for several size baby craniums.

First, Miss Ryan, who is the longest, palest string bean this side of Jack and the Beanstalk. She was something like the 130% percentile in height, and if they did the same for white-ness, she would achieve that too. I made her a baby blanket using String Yarns pattern and their yarn as well.

In 2007, I joined String Direct, their pattern program, where they’d send you a pattern of the month and give you a discount on the yarn used in the pattern. Cool idea, right? Except my grandma must have thought these patterns frump-o-matic. The only redeemable patterns were the Origami jacket (more to come on that front) and the baby blanket, which looked so cool and cozy. I also wanted to buy the right yarn, so I trekked up to the upper east side and bought the yarn – holey moley. Beautiful yarn, but my god, will it give me eternal life? Why so esspensive? My husband said I have some essplainin to do.

Heirloom Baby Blanket

I bought it in off white, and it took a few long trips to South America and such to finish, but I did do it in time for her baby shower. Turned out great, and hopefully is something little Ryan Mae will enjoy! Or at least, not vomit directly on it. On purpose.

In the same fashion, my husband often applies those sorts of titles to the knitting projects I’m working on at any given time. This particular project began with a visit to Seaport Yarns in the financial district, where I used to work and would often spend a quick 20 minutes or so during a slightly slow afternoon, whenever that happened. Seaport Yarns is a great store – lots of selection, and the lady who runs it is incredibly knowledgeable about yarn and gauge and all that crap. For example, I was looking for a Tahki Stacey Charles, and she suggested an alternative yarn, which has since become a favorite with me: Plymouth Yarns. The Baby Alpaca Grand, which is, of course, a chunky yarn, is so soft and delightful and much easier and less essspensive than the TSC, it was an easy choice. Plus, she had lots of nice colors at Seaport, and I selected a pretty dark heather gray, color 403, to make my Lacey Throws. The pattern was found easily and for free on Ravelry as the Happy Birthday Throw, by Emily Ivey, using Lion Brands Thick & Quick…to be continued in the next post.

But for now I give you the Happy Birthday, Lacey Throws, you naughty thing, you’re soft and comfy, and while you do tend to leave some lint on the couch, I like you anyway. You were fast and fun.

A new job, with global responsibilities (and thus long plane flights – so far no one has restricted knitting needles, even the Ukraine) has taken a bite out of knitting, but oddly enough, not as much as the last job. If I could find a one-word theme for knitting in 2011, it was “chunky”. Pretty much goes for me too, but mostly on the yarn side.

Why do I like this yarn? It’s intensely satisfying to knit up – so fast, so easy, I actually don’t mind knitting with big needles (all the way up to 19). It’s usually on the softer side, it’s cozy, and I don’t see it as being more expensive per gram or hank or anything (although I don’t do much math when it comes to purchasing). The downside: everything I knit sucks as a finished product, exceptions being scarves, some kinds of hats, and blankets. I would like to graduate beyond that, but if I had a second theme for 2011, it would be the unraveling of finished projects that never went anywhere, that is, projects I either never wore myself or didn’t think worthy to gift to another person. Even now, looking at the posts from 2010 here, I have been in love with super bulky yarn for a long time. First was buying Twinkle‘s books and then her yarn, and I did graduate a bit to bulk/super bulky in Lion Brand Yarn after they opened a cool NYC showroom. I highly recommend shopping there, by the by.

My 2012 knitting resolution: divorce yourself from super bulky! Be not tempted by the quick and easy path! To the dark side! Sorry, it’s Christmastime and my darling husband is out, so I’m watching Star Wars while knitting and drinking.  And, as Jane Austen said, “I am afraid that the pleasantness of an employment does not always evince its propriety.”

In no particular order, the next couple of posts will feature highlights of my Chunky year. And thus, my path to learning finished objects that are *not* chunky begins…you must unlearn what you have learned:

So, in addition to taking stock of current yarn and tossing some crap I can’t remember purchasing, let alone remembering why I purchased it, I took a look at some old finished projects I abhor and never wear. One was a huge sweater from Twinkle’s Weekend Knits, a great book with lovely items made for tiny, skinny women. Every time I don a super bulky sweater made with yarn of the same, the effect is sausage-like. So, I undid an old sweater made from a couple of hanks of Twinkle’s super bulky and figured I’d knit up some accessories right quick. That is a huge benefit of bulky yarn – for people without patience, it’s a godsend.

So, with hanks of Twinkle’s Soft Chunky (bulky weight) in Icy Blue and Kelly Green (which doesn’t appear available on the Classic Elite yarns website, oddly), I made two hats and a cowl, I guess it’s a cowl?

Broccoli Shroom Hat

The first hat was from a pattern in Knitty called the Shroom hat, ostensibly due to the close comparison to a mushroom. They were careful to men

tion a particular kind of bulky yarn, but I threw caution to the wind and used Twinkle. The result is pretty cute, but the bright green made it seem more broccoli than mushroom. Either way, if you don’t think specifically about broccoli, it’s an okay/wearable hat.

Second up, on Ravelry I saw a cool cowl made with bulky yarn in a nice acid greeny/yellow, called the wham bam thank you ma’am neckwarmer, I believe because it’s made quite quickly. I made it with the icy blue chunky yarn. It’s warm, bodering on hot, when you’re wearing it but hey, it does get cold around here sometimes. I bet it’s probably

Chunky cowl in icy blue

pretty good for skiing. It’s currently being modeled on my cupcake plate! One problem to solve for the future, I didn’t do a great job of hiding the knots where I needed to join pieces of yarn together. Hmm.

Lastly, I just threw together yet another version of the Urchin hat from Twinkle’s Weekend Knits. It’s cute and floppy, but beret-like so it looks fairly polished for work. The green is a nice bold energetic color and I think it works. I wore a version I made in a very light gray for most of this past winter. And now, I’ve gotten rid of all my green and a big portion of the blue. A small victory in stash busting.

Urchin beret in kelly green

O Tannenbaum

I say the 1897 cap because it is reminiscent of this very cool version of Twas the Night Before Christmas that my parents always read me on Christmas Eve. I can’t find the illustration, but the “mama in her kerchief, and I in my cap, had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap…” had this old guy with a long, trippy cap and an actual nightgown.

Unfortunately for me, I was trying to make a beret. On Ravelry, I found this cool All Day Beret pattern, and the left and right diagonal stitches are quite nice. I cast on 54 stitches (you need a multiple of 4 for the pattern), and while that was fine from a gauge perspective, I didn’t use the larger needles once I finished the ribbed brim, and thus it never really ballooned out quite the way a beret should.

All-Day Beret that is actually an 1897 hat

So, next time I’m going to increase the brim to 58, and way increase the beginning of the actual hat, like to maybe 80 or something. By the by, I’m using a lovely Plymouth Yarn called Paca Tweed in color #100. It’s sort of an oatmeal color with flecks of charcoal and caramel. I doubled the yarn to get gauge and it was still pretty soft. Greg is nicely modeling it in this photo here, he liked it even though it was an 1897 hat vs. the expected beret.

I have traditionally treated digital cameras the same way I treat the $14.99 disposable cameras from CVS – like they’re disposable and stuff. Honestly, I’m on camera #4. Or maybe this one is 5. Either way, I’ve got some FO’s to show off. I’m so excited, they’re MF FO’s though. They deserve some profanity. They’ve been waiting in the wings for so long.

Amelia Earhart Head Hugger

This was from head hugger patterns, I made it from some Sublime Angora Merino I got on sale. It’s a really pretty lavendar, but oddly enough the color is called Clover. I knitted this on a couple of plane flights in July, to and from Chicago and Dallas and the like. Because it’s mohair, little tufts of mohair goodness kept fluffing off and landing usually on the pant leg of some person next to me on the plane. I’m sure they loved me. Here’s a solo shot of the hat:

Did you know? Amelia Earhart was kind of a feminist icon. Her wikipedia entry is insane. And she was gorgeous and fashionable and she had a gap tooth like me!

And then I did it again in another cool sale item, Sahara brand’s worsted weight Camelhair (55%) and Merino (45%). It’s soft and nice, and I knit double up to get gauge, same as the Sublime.

Sahara up close

Hooray finished objects!

I’m blaming the yarn on this one. Soft, but wooly, the k2p2 border around the entire sweater (2″, mind you), bunched horribly when finishing, so much so that it brought to mind a child’s sweater…but the bunching made it a child’s sweater for a shar-pei. Hate it. Hate that I spent so much time on it, and now it’s ruined.

Will post pics and update on the new project that I’m double dipping on shortly.

weekend Catskill house.

Here’s a photo of our lovely upstate abode. I met the builder and saw the bones of the house in January, and closed June 1. All in all, a relatively painless process and it’s been incredibly fun since then. It’s small, but with an open floor plan design and tons of windows that really let the outdoors in, it feels huge.

Greg is up there with a bunch of dudes this weekend, which is why I’ve got a free pass here at home, watching Jane Austen movies and drinking sparkling shiraz by myself. Think the dudes are having a good time. No bears just yet, but they’re killing lots of zombies in Left 4 Dead, which is my new favorite Xbox game.

I’ve started the Concetta cardigan, which is an awesomely simple, well-designed shaped cardigan. Two big buttons, slighly belled sleeves and a funnel neck give it a really modern shape, and I re-allocated an ill-devised plan for a wrap sweater’s yarn supply to make it happen; it’s a nice Berroco wool (Peruvia) in a pretty green called Peat Moss. Sounds very Wuthering Heights, which I guess the sweater is too.

I am now watching Emma for the 456th time. Oh, comfort of 19th century Regency. “It sounds as      though he eats a worrisome amount of custard!” Mr. Woodhouse is adorable.