Elijah & Sheldon

I am a bit late with these guys but a friend of mine had twin boys a few months back and I am just finishing up their gifts now.  Initially, I scoured ravelry looking at patterns for sweaters, hats, blankets but then I realized I love knitting toys but really don't want to keep them so this was the best of all worlds.  I feel a kinship to the new baby boys since it turns out I was there when my friend started labor, she was completely unphased and was sure it was Braxton Hicks (um, it wasn't)  and we kept chatting away.  Her boys arrived bright and early the next morning - on my birthday. Well, our birthday now.

First there is Sheldon the Turtle. I have wanted to knit this up since that issue of Knitty came out.  I even used the recommended yard and colors. It's actually a bit fiddly for a toy, there's some crochet in there, applied i-cord but it was all worth it. I love that you can take his shell on and off.  There are a whole bunch of examples on ravelry where people have made other outfits for him, lions, cowboy, police, Santa even ick a bat.  He's like his very own Village People.

Then there is Elijah.  This adorable elephant is done with no seaming at all.  Yay, for that! More than once I thought about how her design process must have worked because there are some ingenious parts to it. Since it involved knitting the limbs by picking up stitches I found it easier to use *gasp* DPNs instead of Magic Loop.

The two have become fast friends already and I look forward to hearing of their adventures with my friend's little boys.

Present for Me

I posted previously some handmade gifts that I made but now I have show off the handmade that I got!!! 

While I was knitting away on my sister's radishes she was busy putting the finishing touches on my awesome new apron. 



I had seen some cool vintage styled aprons around at craft shows and on etsy and I thought well hell, I could do that. But then I realized my sister sews far better than I do and she knows how to use them pattern-y things and to cut fabric straight and do all the things that I tend to screw up when I sew.   So I hinted that this would be something I might like.   And by hinting I really mean saying, "Hey, you can make me this for my birthday/Hannukah/other gift giving opportunity!" 

Apparently forcing her to shop for fabric is similar to asking a knitter to shop for yarn not a big hardship for her there; something tells me she probably picked up a little something for herself along the way.

It's got some red to match the KitchenAid mixer (doesn't everyone accessorize to match their appliances?) and I totally never would have thought of florals for me but they are bright and happy and offset with polka dots (sis loves polka dots) and I love it. You can't really tell from the photo but it skirts out so I totally feel like I am channeling my inner Betty Draper from Mad Men when I wear it. Now I just have to get around to doing some cooking....

Holiday Knitting on Parade

We exchanged most of our gifts in the family over New Years this year so I am now able to show you some of my holiday knitting. 

For my brother-in-law I knit him the We Call Them Pirates hat. I was afraid it was going to be a bit snug but it seemed to fit well and even covered his ears which is necessary with the wind chills putting us into single digits around here recently.



A few months back my sister and I are chatting on the phone and she says "you'd knit me radishes, right?" To which I answered "of course I would."   Seems like a normal conversation to me apparently to others it's a bit weird, bah. Turns out she had a copy of Marie Claire Idees with a pattern for french radishes.  So I had to go and translate the pattern from french to english.  Time to put that French Lit degree to good use! Only I wasn't that familiar with french knitting terms but luckily I found this French Knitting dictionary on Chez Plum, a great find that has been bookmarked for future endeavors. I did adapt it to knit it the round, less seaming, but otherwise I stuck pretty much to the pattern, I think.  They came out very cute and my sister loved them.



Also for those keeping track at home I knit the Squirrel and Oak Mittens (same designer Hello Yarn, as the pirate hat) about a year and a half ago (my first stranding project) and they came out a wee bit small. My niece has finally grown into them (go milk!) and is now their proud owner. It's nice to know they are finally being used to their full potential (making a snow woman in the wilds of Maine - no pictures to show you since I was not crazy enough to leave my warm cocoon under a pile of afghans on the sofa to face the cold.

Live from New York It's A Snowy Saturday Night

Happy New Year!! I hope everyone out there ended 2009 in a happy way. 

Not surprisingly I am a bit behind and will have to have some 2009 related posts before I fully surrender to the new decade.

The week before Christmas I headed to NYC to stay with Non-Crafty Meg and to go to Saturday Night Live.  Of course there was a doozy of a winter storm coming up the east coast but I was lucky and made it there before the snow hit and buses and trains were cancelled. 

With a dim sum lunch in Chinatown shortly after I arrived I was fortified to up into the wee hours.  We braved the snow and crowds at Rockefeller Center to see The Tree, well, it was across the street from the studio so really how could we not?

Non-Crafty Meg with The Tree behind her, it's hard to see but it's there

The Tree at Rockefeller Center

Watching SNL was really cool.  I had never seen a tv show filmed before so it was neat to see all the inner workings and how much goes on so during the commercials of a live show.  And for my cousin, Celeste, yeah James Franco was really hot.

For you knitters out there I also managed to make a quick stop at School Products before I left and picked up a cashmere-silk blend and some Karabella yarn of which they have more colors than I have ever seen. 

Luck Be A Lady

Hi! I will have a post on my weekend in New York soon but that requires uploading pictures and more thought than I am currently capable of right now. In other news, my luck seems to be holding out because last week I won another blog contest!

The wonderful folks at Feeling Stitchy gave away copies of Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching's new book Embroidered Effects and I was lucky enough to win one. I have always been a big fan of Jenny's work and own many, many of her patterns so I was really excited to get this book and get re-inspired to get back into doing some embroidery. The book has lots of cool new stitches for me to try so keep an eye out for some fancy embroidery in the new year.

Odd Luck

Hi all. I have been knitting away but since they are gifts for people who may (or should be) reading this blog I can't talk about it just yet.

The fates seem to have a strange sense of humor recently. I am officially unemployed now and had a pretty awful last day of work but then the very next day, whamo! I check my email and it turns out I won tickets to Saturday Night Live! Last summer Non-Crafty Meg send a whole bunch of her friends the link to sign up for tickets and it turns out several of us won! I will be heading to NYC next weekend to see James Franco host and to partake of some dim sum in Chinatown. I am excited for a fun weekend with friends and New York at Christmas time is so pretty. So stay tuned for some pics of Rockefeller Center and the big tree.

Then this week I entered a contest over on shelterrific and won! Soon I will be receiving this Doodle Dog apron designed with a William Wegman doodle from Crypton Fabrics. I love winning stuff. I think I may have to have a giveaway soon to balance my karma or something. I'll have to start thinking about it, it may involve googly eyes.

I hope folks are having a Happy Hanukkah, I am will be enjoying my mom's tasty potato latkes tonight - yum!

Oh, Now I Get It

I always heard people talk about Malabrigo yarn and I've touched it but I never really got it before now. I was shopping at my LYS and I figured it was about time I knit with it. While I was holding the gorgeous Worsted in Indigo, I looked up at a sample knit of Wavy. I knew that it was the perfect meeting of the right yarn and the right pattern.

The yarn is so soft and such a dream to knit up. I suddenly got it, ah, malabrigo. Then there is the color. I would be knitting this scarf up and would just stop to stare at it, the mixtures of colors from the kettle dying that just is such a feast for the eyes. Even at work, people (non-knitters) would comment on it as they walked by me knitting away at lunch. The photo doesn't do it justice but it is just wonderful.

Here it is being modeled by the lovely Glenda at my folks house on Thanksgiving. Yeah, you see the whole mannequin thing runs in the family.