UFOs Share

Yeah, yeah, long time, no blog. I know. I have had a good excuse, though. The little nursling doesn't leave a lot of time for blogging.

Fortunately, I still have time for knitting in the evenings. Why don't I blog in the evenings? Well, I use natural light for my pictures. I find that using a flash on my knitting makes the colors go screwy, washes out the lights, and is just generally icky. So I only photograph during the day. And not just during the day, but also when I have lots of good light. Couple that with not having a baby attached to my front, or a toddler that needs lunch, or an older that needs me to get her off the bus, and I've got quite a few obstacles to overcome. As it stands now, I've been typing up this post for 3 hours.

Don't laugh. I'm serious.

So anyway, back to the knitting.

Guess what happened this summer? You know, besides me giving birth to a toddler nearly 2 weeks late at the end of July. (You know I'm going to milk that for all it's worth) This nifty little thing called Ravelry was launched and thousands of little knitters like myself had a tiny little orgasm. If you haven't signed up yet, go. Go now. If you're a knitter like me, or even unlike me, (an incredibly organized knitter) you'll love this resource! Go sign up and put me in your friends. I'm Keyswalee.

Last year I came up with the idea of using all my scrap balls of yarn to make a blanket, but I never started it. Since this is likely going to take me 300 years, I thought I better get started.



I have to say that so far, I love this blanket. I know it's miles and miles of Stockinette stitch, but I don't think I'll ever tire of it. Every few rows it's a new yarn and colorway, and each yarn brings with it memories of a past project. It's also perfect tv knitting.

I have visions of my children fighting over this blanket and for some reason, this makes me happy.

Here's a yoke sweater I started for Peyton. This is in the most divine yarn. It's hand-spun from an artisan I met while at Maryland Sheep and Wool festival. It's a blend of angora and merino and it's like knitting with clouds. I also have to mention the unique way this is plied. She takes 2 separate colors and plies them together and then one of those colors continues and the other color stops and a new color is picked up. After a while, that new color continues and the old color stops. Am I making any sense? I may not be. That's okay. You can probably see what I mean from the picture.



So why am I stuck on the first sleeve? Well, it's because I discovered that because of the uniqueness of the yarn, the sleeves will be different. As in, each sleeve will have different blocks of color in different spots. The anal retentive control freak in me hates that. Yes, I love this yarn, but I think it might be too much for me to handle. However, the thought of figuring out exactly half of each color repeat and then "striping" the yarns to make 2 sleeves exactly identical doesn't exactly thrill me either.

So there it sits.

Here I have some ankle socks. Just plain vanilla ankle socks with an eye of partridge heel flap. These will be for some lucky family member for Christmas. They are knit with Knitpicks sock yarn that was gifted to me. I think it's a discontinued Sock Garden yarn.



Next we have a design I came up with a few months ago after diapering my wee little one in the middle of the night. I was using those awesome cotton newborn gowns and a fitted diaper with a soaker over it, and the kid was peeing through the soaker. I thought to myself, how awesome would it be to have a wool gown? I'll be that super peer couldn't pee through both a wool soaker and a gown!

So here's what I've got so far, but I'm stumped as to what to do for the collar. Until I figure it out, it sits.



Next is a gnome hat; another pattern that I put together. It's knit with Three Irish Girls Lindon merino in "Reilly." It's sized 2-4 and will go up in the store for CBK opening. It's 95% finished. I've just got to grow the cojones to sew a lining into it and block it.



And lastly, just to show that I actually do finish some projects, is a pair of plain socks for another lucky family member for Christmas. They were knit with a patterning sock yarn. I'd tell you what it was, but (gasp) I threw away the label! Had I started them before I got into Ravelry, I would have put that info into the project page before the label got thrown away.