muumuulibrarian

Baby hats!

2011-10-18T22:19:00.000-07:00

What's faster than knitting a hat? Knitting a hat for an infant!!!

I started off my knitted garment collection for my nephew with a couple of hats.

The first hat is a panda hat:

I made up the pattern, and I've gotten a couple of requests for repeating the pattern for other babies.

The second hat is a sailor hat. The anchor pattern is from a vest pattern in Son of Stitch n Bitch.

Baby blanket

2011-10-18T22:06:00.000-07:00

The first item I knitted for my new nephew was a baby blanket. I bought the yarn on a trip to Germany, from a yarn store in Munich. It's a combination of various delightful colors and was fun to knit. I even completed it before he was born!

You can see the patches of yarn color in the above photo, and the pattern of trees in the alternating patches.

And here he is on his blanket, a day after he was born!

Muttens

2009-03-21T13:54:00.000-07:00

I recently went to a conference in Seattle. Since I live in Hawaii, March in Seattle was a little bit daunting. I don't have any coats in my closet, only one heavy sweater, some light jackets, a windbreaker, scarf, and umbrella. But I didn't have anything to cover my poor little hands and protect them from the cold!

While packing I brought along some yarn and size 6 circular needles (very short ones--about 8 inches long). During the flight I made a couple of fingerless mittens to keep my hands warm. I made them fingerless because it was quick and I wanted to finish during the flight.

I held one strand of each color, green and blue, of the synthetic boucle yarn (I can't remember the brand) together throughout, with a one-by-one rib pattern. I cast on 20 stitches, knit up to the bottom of my thumb in the round, switched to knitting flat for a few rows, then resumed in the round for the hands. Then I bound off.

They were very convenient because I could use my fingers and didn't have to remove them, but they were not nearly as warm as they could have been. And the yarn got snagged in every bit of velcro that got near me, which was a surprisingly frequent event. But they were a lifesaver!

Hats!

2009-02-24T17:55:00.000-08:00

Most of my knitting projects have reached a point when I have to make pattern decisions that I've been putting off for a while, so I wanted something quick, easy and fulfilling. And it's been COLD here lately! Winter in Hawaii really can be cold! Really, I'm not lying! So, my solution was to knit a couple of hats. Quick, easy and oh-so-satisfying.

The first hat is bright pink, in a chunky wool/poly blend (Plymouth Encore Chunky). I used a size 10 circular needle with a cable pattern. I started with a knit 4, purl 2 rib. The cable is one stitch carried across the other three knit stitches, every third row. The cable pattern was easy without a cable needle, and I just let the stitch hang until I was ready for it. I wore this hat ice skating before giving it away as a late birthday present, and it kept me warm!

The second hat is a sentimental replacement for a crocheted orange hat I used to wear constantly about seven years ago. I lost it when I was in London with my sister in the wintertime, and I've missed it ever since. I suppose the mourning period is over now, because I'm finally getting ready to adopt a new hat. I decided to knit a version of it because I don't crochet well, and I wanted to use this yarn that's been sitting around for a while. I guess it's the prototype for the final replacement, which needs to be orange to fulfill my memories. I used a bobble stitch pattern I found from a purse pattern in the book Bag Style, by Pam Allen and Ann Budd. The yarn is Encore Colorspun Worsted, and I used it in double strands with a size 10 circular needle. The bobble is basically a round of purl, and a round of alternating between knitting three stitches together and knitting three stitches into one stitch. This two-round pattern is repeated the whole way. It was fun and easy. It's been keeping me warm at work in the cold library.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-29T16:48:00.001-08:00

Hallelujah! My Santa dress project is finally completed! This is a project three years in the making. I've worked on it during December every year, then put it aside until the next year. This year I finished it the day after Thanksgiving (I started early this year) and wore it for our staff Christmas party, our holiday craft circle meeting, my church's Christmas talent show, and Christmas eve and Christmas at my parent's house. I got a lot of wear out of it, with only a small mishap. The underarm seam on the right arm needs a little more love, but otherwise it's still in good shape.

I used a size 11 circular needle, Red Heart chenille yarn for the body and sleeves, and some fun fur-type white yarn for the trim. I don't remember the number of skeins since it's been such a drawn-out project. I made up the pattern and fitted it to my body three years ago, which was smaller than my current body. Luckily knitted garments are stretchy, so it fits after all!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Knit Nite

2008-11-25T20:13:00.000-08:00

I hosted Knit Nite in November, so I thought I'd post some photos from our previous knit nights in a few separate posts. These photos are from Knit Nite at Whitney's house on August 18th. Annie was working on a hat that she has since finished. But, it turned out a bit too small, so the next one will be better. It was her first hat, made with Plymouth Encore (a wool/acrylic blend) with a variegated color pattern of green, tan and rust.

I was starting a completely impractical white mohair blanket, which I have also since completed. It didn't turn out like my vision, so I will probably rip it out and start again. I was trying to maximize the yarn I had, but I used ribbing and cabling, which are notorious yarn-eaters. It was with five strands of yarn held together. One mohair, one cotton boucle, one mohair boucle, one chenille, and one metallic gold, almost as thin as thread.

Whitney was creating some composite t-shirt designs. She picked up some colorful striped shirts from the Goodwill down the street, and combined them for maximum excitement! The picture shows the pink and black striped heart she sewed onto the purple and turquoise striped shirt. As it turned out, Whitney wasn't satisfied with her finished product either, so the main delight of the night was the lovely company and getting in touch with our inner housewife.

Wedding Blanket

2008-11-01T17:06:00.000-07:00

This is a project I finished this summer. It's a wedding gift blanket I knitted for my sister and my new brother. I finally completed and delivered it seven months after they got married, so I made it under the one-year bar.

I made it by cutting up strips of fabric, sewing them end-to-end (with the help of my mom and my auntie's sewing machine), and rolling them into balls for knitting. I started with fabric remnants we had left over from childhood sewing projects, and when those ran out I found remnants in fabric stores. I hit a gold mine when I was at a thrift store in The Dalles, Oregon and found several balls of pre-cut, pre-sewed, and pre-balled strips of fabric. Most of the fabric is cotton, but some is metallic, some is silk (leftovers from the maid of honor dress my mom made for my sister's wedding), some is rayon. It's very heavy and shed like crazy because of all the ragged edges, but I'm pleased with the overall effect.

I used a long size 19 circular needle and followed the basic idea of a log cabin quilt. I started in the middle with a small swatch, bound off and picked up stitches along the long edge, knit off the side of the first swatch, bound off, turned, picked up stitches and repeated over and over and over again.

This project was very labor-intensive, but I really love it, and I think my sister and her husband like it too. She's my only sibling, so she deserving a never-ending project as a wedding gift. ;0)

I posted it to Ravelry here.

Babies! Babies! Everywhere!

2007-03-14T02:08:00.000-07:00

I just attended my very first Baptism and First Birthday party here in Hawaii. Happy Birthday, Trent Jericho Campos Gamiao! It was off the hook. I'm talking fancy wedding-reception level preparations. There was a bouncing castle, which we had to crawl into through a small opening in the front, and which didn't allow any kind of graceful dismount. You basically just had to either crawl or roll out down the slide. It was much easier for small children, but we adults had a little bit of awkwardness around this toy. I don't think it was created with us in mind, especially those of us with bad backs.

There was also a couple of balloon artists who could make almost any cartoon character you could imagine. They couldn't do any of the Animaniacs, which disappointed me. I did, however, score an Alladin and they let me draw my own face onto it. I made it into a very angry little Alladin. I got this special treatment because I work with one of the guys in the library. It definitely pays to have connections in the balloon animals world.

They also had a DJ, a slide show featuring embarrassing images of the baby who will be scarred by them for life, enough food to feed the Kingdom of Tonga for a day, a show for the kiddies by a couple of "Mad Scientists," and cotton candy to get the kids hopped up on sugar and send them home with their parents. The amount of work that went into this party boggles my mind. My friend Mark told me he was there the night before until 2 AM, and then got five hours of sleep before going back to help set up some more. What grueling work.

Well, we had ourselves some good family fun, and I managed to curse loudly a minimal number of times. I knitted Trent a little beanie with wrestling-mask eyes, because his papa is a wrestler. Perhaps you've heard of him: Bobby "The Lightning Bolt," formerly the Filipino Crippler. I'm hoping his baby will follow in his footsteps.