The Knitting Pirate

Monday was a terrible day in which nothing went right, so I was determined to make Tuesday a good day in which everything went wonderfully. I started off by wearing my new socks – because really, how can I be in a bad mood if I’m wearing new socks? And on the way home from work, I stopped at With Yarn In Front to show them off… and to pick out some cotton yarn. My swornbrother Michael is going to become an uncle in just a few more weeks, and I thought it might be nice for me to knit a little something for the baby.

I browsed around the store for a little while and eventually decided to get a ball of Plymouth Sweet Caroline, a 100% cotton, worsted-weight yarn. Three strands are solid-coloured, and the fourth is variegated in the standard baby colours. It was a tossup between a colourway that was mostly pink with the one variegated strand, or the white one that I got. I went with white because I don’t know if Michael’s sister is a fan of baby-pink! The yarn came with a free pattern for this lacy Baby Bunny Hat, perfect for a little girl to wear in the springtime.

The pattern is written for the hat to be knit flat and seamed, but I decided to knit it in the round. The WS rows are only purling back with no lace, so I figured it wouldn’t be too difficult.

“Cast on 101 stitches,” the pattern said. I got out my DPNs and measured out a length of yarn for my usual long-tail cast-on, very carefully counted out 100 stitches, and knit a full round before I realized that I’d forgotten to add stitch #26 to the fourth needle. Rip, rip.

I cast on again, 101 stitches this time, and knit a full round before I realized that the first row of the edging is actually the wrong side of the work, and when the pattern said “knit” I should have purled because I’m working in the round instead of flat. Hooray for reading comprehension! …so I cheated. I turned the work inside out. Voila, a purl round! Then I worked back the other way, and I used the tail from the cast-on to fill in the little hole that was left.

This might be the least terrible cotton yarn I’ve ever worked with. I never find cotton to be as nice on the hands as wool, but I knit the edging and a full pattern repeat last night and my hands aren’t complaining. In addition, the yarn is theoretically machine-washable (excellent for baby clothing!), but the label had no care instructions. Cold-cold? Delicate cycle? I want to include a little tag with the gift, but I don’t know what to write on it!

This designing stuff is harder than it appears! I sketched out what I’d like to knit, and then realized how much of it I don’t know how to do. The thing I want to make has raglan-ish sleeves, but because it’s a baby outfit, it also has some extra buttons around the neckline to make it easier to get on and off – and I’d like to put them at an angle to match the sleeve seam, rather than across the top of the shoulder. I’m not quite sure how to make the legs, either. Seamless would be nice, too.

I looked up some patterns on Ravelry and found one that had the sort of neckline I am thinking of. It’s in a book that my library system has, so I put it on reserve. Hopefully that will help me get some idea of how this thing goes together! Fortunately, I have at least a year to come up with something. Baby clothes are so adorable; I’m glad that there will be another little one to knit for! Maybe I will crank out a bunch of small sweaters… but probably not.

Someone suggested to me that I could sell my ‘practice knittings’ to make a little extra money, much like a pen-and-paper artist might sell sketches. I am running out of ways to say that I don’t have any ‘practice knitting’ and that my hourly rate would be prohibitively high or I’d be cheating myself. Selling PDF versions of patterns seems like a much better idea; I only have to do the work once, and Ravelry has a nifty way of handling sales. That, and handspun – I think I could speed up my spinning to the point where I could get a reasonable rate for it on Etsy.

I had a moment of weakness yesterday and bought three braids of fiber from someone who was destashing at super-reasonable prices. She will be mailing them out today. Maybe I will get them before Pennsic!

Last night, I was walking with my sister-in-law in downtown Charlottesville. In one of the shop windows, we saw an adorable knit baby outfit. I snapped some pictures of it with my phone-camera while she told me how much she loved knit babywear, and that by next summer I might have another little niece or nephew! (Unspoken: …to knit for.)

On the way home, I got to thinking. I want to publish more designs. Baby clothing is quick, easy and cute, and doesn’t take much yarn so it’s generally inexpensive to make. Even people who don’t have babies knit baby clothing. I’m going to have a new baby to knit for.

Well, obviously, I should knit something, write down how I did it, and publish the design!

Mom loved the gloves. She says they fit her perfectly. I thought the fingers might be a bit long, but she assures me that she wants a bit of extra room at the fingertips in case she grows her nails out for anything. Unfortunately, because it was a dark day, I wasn’t able to get any pictures that did any more justice to the gloves than the one I took the other day. But yeah, they came out really well. My brother commented, “When you decide to do something, you really take it all the way – that’s great work!”

She also asked me if I knew of any good baby blanket patterns. I sketched out one that I’d knit a few years ago, before I had a camera, that’s fairly basic. It has a seed stitch border, then alternating stripes of seed stitch and stockinette, and one of the stockinette rows has a run of (k1, k2tog, yo, k1) to make little eyelets. My guess is that without a real pattern written out, she won’t want to figure out how to translate my sketch to her blanket, but that’s all right.

And in more about Mom’s knitting, she is 3/10 done with the Upstairs Shawl (link in German) that she’s knitting for herself with KnitPicks’ Alpaca Cloud in Smoke Heather. I am so happy that she’s getting back into knitting more than just baby sweaters and blankets! Even though the shawl was going to be for herself, she’s considering giving it to her closest friend. One of these days, I will convince her that it’s all right to knit for yourself!

“What have you knit this year?” Pirate-Husband asked me last night.

First there was the Jayne hat that I knit from Knitting Ninja’s pattern for friend Otel. This was a quick project. I had to borrow needles for it, which have since been returned. Although I probably have enough yarn for a second hat, I need to get the right size needles before I can knit it up. Not that I know anyone who wants a Jayne hat… I already have one, and Otel is the brownest browncoat of all my friends.

Then a Baby Surprise Jacket for friend Gwen’s second baby, a little girl. I loved the 100purewool yarn I used for this project; it is so soft and easy to work with! The pattern got tricky a few times, but with help from Ravelers I worked through it. I finished knitting only minutes before my deadline, but Gwen loved the sweater. It should fit on her daughter right about now; I’d love to get an ‘action shot’ from her to post.

Something for myself, a pair of Garter Rib socks! The pattern is from Charlene Schurch’s “Sensational Knitted Socks”. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to get the basics of sock knitting. These socks were knit up in Blue Moon Fiber Arts’ Socks that Rock lightweight, and I was short by about ten yards. Fortunately a kind Raveler had some extra in the same colorway that she was able to send me.

Something for the house, a quick and easy Swiffer mop cover from Noelle’s pattern. This project took about six hours, which is about my tolerance for knitting with cotton. I plan to make several more of these, with an additional pattern repeat so that when the cover curls, it goes over the edges of the mop instead of under. Pirate-Husband mopped the floors this past weekend and was disappointed to find that the cover I’d made had been used but not yet washed; he used one of the disposables instead and afterwards said that mine worked a lot better!

I’d promised Pirate-Husband a pair of socks last November, and in July of this year I finally delivered. He has very wide feet and I was concerned that I’d run out of yarn, after my experience with the Socks that Rock, so I didn’t make the socks very tall. I had a few yards left over at the end, so I guess it worked out just right! He wears them often, especially now that it’s cold out, and I know he’d love to have another pair.

After I finished Pirate-Husband’s socks, I cast on for the second baby knit of the year. This one was for friend Asa’s second child, but as she hadn’t chosen to find out the sex of the baby, I had to knit a gender-neutral blanket. Feather and Fan seemed fitting, as did these muted colors. Once again, I finished knitting the night before I needed to give the gift. Once of these days I’ll break that habit.

I sure didn’t break the habit with the Bloo Socks, knit in Trekking XXL for friend Michael. I finished these in the afternoon and gave them to him that very evening. I also didn’t learn the lesson of splitting the yarn in half before beginning; I used more than half of the 100g ball on the first sock and had to frantically call yarn stores all over the country to find another ball in the same dye lot. I’ll be writing this pattern up in the near future, as soon as I work out the heel and toe numbers in other sizes. There is a shortage of fine-gauge sock patterns out there. These were knit up at 45 stitches to 4″ on US size 0 DPNs.

Mom’s gloves will probably be the last completed project of the year. Her birthday present is knit up of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Silkie Socks that Rock in Ravenscroft. She’d requested a colorway that would go well with both her black wool dress coat, and her green winter jacket, so what better than a black yarn with subtle greens that glow in the sunlight? I am using Marnie MacLean’s Hooray for Me pattern, just making full fingers instead of partial. I’m sure she’ll love them; I just hope they fit!

Eight projects in 2008, not a bad tally! In other accomplishments, I read 23 books in the past year, and I learned to spin on a wheel. Pirate-Husband commented that I should knit more for myself, and I want to commit more time to spinning as well. Those will be my goals in 2009!

I spoke to Pirate-Husband, and he said that his cousin is unlikely to want a sweater that’s hand-wash-only, not to mention that I shouldn’t feel obligated to knit for her in the first place. As much as she would love and appreciate the sweater, she’d also throw it in the wash.

So I’m nixing the idea of the Baby Surprise Jacket. I’m okay with this decision; I’ve got two more gift knits at the top of my queue – one a quick six-hour project of a Swiffer mop cover, the other a much more complicated colorwork bag – but after that, it’s purely knitting for me, me, me! I hate to sound selfish, but most of my knitting lately has been for other people, and it’s been starting to drag on me. I don’t like working to deadlines and I don’t like feeling as if other people are anxiously awaiting my work.

Tonight I’m putting the thumb onto the first of Mom’s gloves and if there’s time, I’ll cast on for the second. I’ve made a lot of plans to go places and do things in the next few weeks, and so my schedule for these has been pushed up. I need to hurry.

In administrativia, I’ve made a change to the blog feed, by request – now the whole entry should be showing to anyone who reads via RSS. I hope this is a positive change for everyone!

At Thanksgiving, we found out that Pirate-Husband’s cousin Ro is pregnant. Today we found out that she’s expecting a baby boy in May, and now I’m torn! Do I knit another Baby Surprise Jacket, or not?

On the yes side:
1. I already have the yarn in a good boy-color.
2. I made Ro a blanket for her first baby and she loved it. She understood how much time and effort it took. And back when Ro got married, I worked up this Marriage Poem in the best calligraphy I could do at the time, matted and framed it, and gave it to her and her husband as a wedding gift. She absolutely loves it, and it hangs by the front door of her house.
4. Therefore, I know that the work put into a baby sweater would also be appreciated (except maybe if it’s hand-wash-only, see #2 below).
5. Also, it would be a relatively fast project.
6. Not to mention, the timing is right; the sweater will knit up to a 6-9 month size with that yarn, so it will fit the baby just in time for winter.
7. This is yarn purchased specifically for a sweater that must fit a baby boy born in the spring.
8. I had no other babies in mind for it.

On the no side:
1. I don’t feel obligated to knit her anything.
2. I don’t know if she would appreciate a hand-wash-only baby sweater.
3. There are other things I want to knit.
4. Ummmm…

Well, I guess I’m going to knit another Baby Surprise Jacket, then!

I determined today that while I can knit the sock in the carpool, it’s probably not a good idea. The stitches are small enough that I have to watch what I’m doing very closely, and I got a bit of a headache from not looking up often enough. Also, I purled where I should have knit and had to fix my error when I got home.

Anyway, less typing means more knitting, so I’m off to it! Perhaps I’ll wind the yarn for Mom’s gloves into a ball and knit a gauge swatch in the car tomorrow. Since it will just be stockinette and just a swatch, it won’t matter as much if I mess up a little.

My friends’ new baby girl is so tiny and adorable! They absolutely loved the baby blanket. Their expressions and appreciation made it all worthwhile. One joked, “you knit this in a weekend, right?” but when I said that it had taken about four months, they got much more serious about thanking me. Those are the kinds of friends for whom I want to knit more stuff! …if they have another baby, that is.

The baby girl was born Wednesday evening at home, and both she and her mother are doing well. We were invited to go visit and meet her tomorrow, so this afternoon I went into Super Must Finish Mode on the blanket!

I dropped a stitch and lost time picking it back up, because it got lost into a yarnover. But I had the knitting and bind-off done before dinner was ready; everyone agreed that it was long enough although I still had yarn left over. After dessert I took care of weaving in the ends.

I’m pleased with the way this blanket came out, but I swear I will never knit another baby blanket of acrylic yarn again. It’s conveniently washable, yes. The colorway is pretty. But I can’t stand how it feels in my hands, or how it stresses my wrists (rather like cotton, actually). If I ever have the crazy desire to knit another baby blanket, I’ll use superwash wool. I’ve even told Pirate-Husband to make sure that I never stand in the arts & crafts store again saying anything like “but it’s washable! and the colorway is so pretty!”

I am looking forward to giving this gift (and meeting the baby, too!) My friend knows the value of a hand-crafted anything, so I have no doubt that she’ll really appreciate the blanket.

Now, can I finish half a sock in less than a week?

The second Bloo Sock is almost through the gusset decreases. I’d like to have it done before Michael comes to visit, so I have less than two weeks. If I don’t finish by then it’ll be okay, I’m sure; after all it’s still a hand-knit pair of socks for him at some point! As a result of cranking away on the socks, I haven’t made much progress on the baby blanket… and the baby is due this week! If only I had four hands, I could work on both projects at the same time.

One of the local yarn stores, With Yarn In Front, is hosting a “Knit and Flick” night every other Friday. This coming week they’ll be showing Dr. Zhivago, and I’m deciding whether or not to go. I’ve never seen the movie before and I question my ability to knit through it and remember what happened. Maybe in a month or so when I’m no longer knitting to deadlines, I’ll check it out. I think it’s a great idea!