The Best Of Quick Knitting: Baby Edition

I don’t know about you but it seems like a lot of people are pregnant around me these days. I’m not complaining; it’s plenty of opportunity to whip up some quick knitting for the sprogs.

Of course I’m a certified aunty so I don’t have any of my own but as I’m sure a lot of you do, here are some of my favourite ridiculously adorable instant gratification baby knits I’ve found.

Owlie Hat

by Teresa Cole

copyright Teresa Cole

The owl knit trend is huge. It’s been around nearly as long as I’ve been knitting and with hats like this I can see why. Just imagine how cute this would be with little embroidered eyes! No buttons of course – that’s a choking hazard.

See, I know some baby stuff. Honest.

Magic Slippers

by Caroline Hegwar

copyright jiltedballerina

I don’t know what makes these slippers magic but don’t you want to find out?

These only take under 200 yards of fingering weight yarn so they would be a perfect way to use up scraps of leftover socks. And they’re magic. Gotta love magic slippers.

Showsy Toes Baby Sandles

by Stephanie Lotven

copyright Stephanie Lotven

I don’t even know what these are but I still want to make fifty of them.

Max Baby Cardigan

by Marianna Mel

copyright Marianna Mel

If you’re feeling a little more ambitious, try out this pattern. It’s adorable and yet it still only uses less than 200 yards of DK yarn. It will knit up in no time and you’ll be left with a very snuggly baby if you use plush yarn.

Okay. That’s the babies decked out in the best of hand knitted items. Feel free to share your own, I’d love to see other ideas for quick baby knits!

Beauty in Chaos: Free-form Crochet

When I look into my drawer at work I see a little nest of leftover sock yarn from my many finished projects, especially with my sock obsession lately. I have loads of half-skeins and piddly little bits that aren’t much good for anything.

Looking at these clashing and interesting yarns that I love as socks but don’t care much about for smaller projects, I began to consider ideas for it.

A while ago – I’m speaking at least two years – someone mentioned free-form crochet to me. I looked into it and was fascinated. The idea of just picking up a hook and yarn and making something disordered and random was very appealing to me.

Click image for source.

A lot of what I see when I look at freeform crochet projects on Pinterest and Ravelry is actually Irish crochet which is a style all of its own – however the techniques learned through Irish crochet can be used for free-form crochet as it’s full of all sorts of unusual and interesting motifs.

The difference is that Irish crochet in its traditional form is quite regular and standard in its use, even though it is unusual in appearance for those used to regular crochet.

Click picture for source

The idea is to pick up yarn and a hook and see where it takes you. This is a daunting idea for many people, including myself. I like order even if sometimes I choose to ignore it.

Still, I thought that maybe I should try something like this. I have loads of scraps and I could make a free-form crochet blanket for my lap at work. It could be something to work on in fits and starts whenever I’m bored of whatever else I’m making.

I’ll be sure to post any updates to see whether I can let go of conventions and rules and make something completely random.

So far… it’s looking worryingly rectangular!

Let’s Discuss Our 2015 Knitting Plans!

I don’t do New Years Resolutions. Or rather I make resolutions all the time and it’s not limited to the New Year, mostly because those are the ones that fail the fastest.

Still the beginning of a year is a good time to step back and take a look at your goals and whether they’re still going where you want them to and whether you need to make any other adjustments.

Knitting and crochet combined take up a large chunk of my time and passion so the smaller craft-related goals are what drive me forward to become better at what I do. The only non-living thing in my life more important to me than knitting/crochet is writing and I’m working at improving my skills in both those areas.

So here are the yarn-based skills I want to learn in 2015.

1. Beading

I have never beaded my knitting. Honestly, it sounds skin to torture. I’ve looked into both the threading version and the crochet hook version of applying the beads and both make me want to roast my own head but I love the look of it.

© Jane Heller

Given the choice I would love to make a Celestarium, a beautiful shawl with the constellations beaded into it because that appeals to both the knitter and the nerd in me. However that’s a bit much for a first time beader so I’m looking at something less intense.

2. A sweater for myself

Though I’ve knitting garments for myself before, I’m being quite specific with this goal. The only thing holding me back is the fact I cannot afford the yarn needed for a project I’ve had my eye on since I spotted it in a magazine.

© Knitscene/Harper Point

The East Neuk Hoody is everything I love in a piece of clothing. It is simple and yet filled with interesting texture that does not overwhelm. It is cosy, it has a hood, and a kangaroo-pouch pocket. The moment I saw it I knew I wanted to make it.

I’m going to make it out of the suggested yarn in the suggested colourway too (purple Cascade 220), which is not how I usually roll.

Feel free to point and laugh at me when I realise how much I hate miles and miles of stockinette.

3. Socks. All the socks.

See, the problem is not that I am unskilled at knitting socks. I’m not. I knit them all the time and I love it. HOWEVER, I absolutely suck and knitting socks to a pattern. I deviate, I give up, I decide I know better.

Ninety percent of the time I end up with ordinary stockinette socks knitted to my usual top-of-my-head recipe with very little variation.

While this is fun, there are hundreds – nay, thousands! – of awesome complex sock patterns out there just waiting for me to have an attention span. Since I’m sincerely working on that problem (I am of the ooh-shiny brain consistency), promising to knit myself and others socks out of interesting patterns will help. And I won’t deviate.

Much.

What are your knitting goals for the new year? Or do you disagree with the concept of resolutions?

For the Love of a Yarn

When I went to The Little Green House for the Thursday knitting group, I had just finished a commission and didn’t have anything else with me to knit – I’d been flustered after my bus home from work had been late and didn’t have time to grab something new.

Martina suggested I knit something out of a new yarn for her to show in the store. That yarn is Cascade Duo Colour, a 70% baby alpaca/30% Merino blend and oh my goodness, this yarn. It is lovely. Just lovely.

First of all the colours are beautiful. I started a hat for Martina out of the middle colour, a gorgeous burnt orange with black in it. I knitted a Barley hat from it which I’ll take pictures of once I get around to sewing in the ends – which usually takes me longer to bother with than the entire knitting process.

I also bought the red one since the rich blood red mixed with the black is striking. Knit up, it’s even better. The black and red fade between one another, speckled in places and plain in the other, and it’s subtle and lovely.

As for the texture?

Well.

I already love baby alpaca. One of my first fancy projects was some fingerless mitts in a baby alpaca blend. It’s soft with none of the itchiness of the mature alpaca and I have had many people at work wandering over to give it a pet. It’s a pleasure to knit.

The only downside to this yarn is that it splits quite a bit but if you’re careful it’s worth it.

So readers, get out and try this yarn if you’re in the mood to spoil yourself. It’s lovely and you won’t regret it.

(P.S.: believe it or not, Cascade isn’t paying me for this post. Honest.)

What Should I Knit Next?

The new year will be here in no time and Christmas knitting will be over. Though I got most of mine done early, I’ve also been working on commission stuff (which is mostly done) so I’m going to take some time in January to knit something indulgent and just for me.

Since I give anything away that I knit except for shawls, I think the choice is obvious. But which shawl?

I bought a skein of Wollmeise from Loop in London just before I left the UK as a goodbye England gift to myself. It’s still sitting and waiting for me. It’s a nice rich terracotta colour, though I’ve also been told it’s the colour of baby poop, because my friends are awesome. In either case I love it and it’s a solid colour which means I can pick something nice and complicated.

The Options

Maple Leaf Knit Shawl

by Natalia @ Elfmoda

This choice is kind of obvious. I do, after all, have a vested interest in maple leaves since I moved to Canada so recently. It would be appropriate in the colour I have. I don’t think this pattern would be too difficult but at the same time that could make it quite boring.

Damask

by Kitman Figueroa

Look at this thing. I’ve had it in my queue since 2012 and I’ve had the pattern nearly as long. It’s intimidating with lots of lace and cables and bobbles, but I’m so tempted. This is the most likely option if I can convince myself that I am capable of making it.

Tiong Bahru

by Åsa Tricosa

This is a nice balance between complicated and easy. It doesn’t look too difficult and it does have large swaths of stockinette so it’s not as intense as the Damask, but though I love this pattern it hasn’t been in my queue nearly as long. I still want to make it, I’m just not sure whether it’s the time.

So what do you think? What would you choose for some nice indulgent knitting?

Secrecy

Lately I’ve been asked to do a lot of knitting for other people. That’s not unusual (as any knitter will know) but this time I’ve been paid for it.

As a result, I’m lacking any photos of projects lately. Though I’m the one that’s knitting these items, they’re not mine. I don’t feel comfortable posting pictures of them. They’re a lot of fun to do and it’s always good to get paid to do something you love but it’s creating a bit of a blank spot on my blog.

I have thought about showing partial pictures just as something to fill in the blank spots here – what do you think? Would that be appropriate?

This won’t go on forever. I have some old projects I need to photograph and get up on here, plus I’m about to finish a pair of socks (I forgot to bring the commission project I’m working on with me out of the house today). There will be some photos of my knitting coming soon.

I Love Winter (Most Of The Time)

It’s getting cold here.

No, I’m not particularly surprised. I’m in Ontario, what did I expect? However despite having lived through one winter in 2011/12, it’s been a while. The bitter wind is a shock to the system.

For a few days we had lovely powdery snow that melted just enough to freeze into trecherous ice and disgusting grey sludge. For a couple of days I got to run through it with my dog, laughing as he barreled through the field with his muzzle in the snow and his mouth open, chomp-chomp-chomping. Then the ice made the journey far less fun.

Thankfully it has melted again for now. I am not bothered by the rain, being a native Brit; I’m used to it. It’s in my genes. Still the recent weather is only a prelude into what’s coming.

I don’t mind. I chose to come here to this gorgeous country. I’m happy here and, most importantly, I have a really warm coat.

That said, I’m noticing a problem: I’m a process knitter. I don’t care much about the result beyond being pleased with myself and admiring the prettiness. Thanks to that, along with a tendency to express my affection with knitwear, most of what I make is given away.

You know what? I don’t even own any handknit socks. My girlfriend, however, owns quite a few pairs by now and I’m most of the way through another pair for her.

I need to work on that but due to a bunch of projects that are way more important, it won’t be happening any time soon.

In the meantime I’ll just have to snuggle up to these guys instead.

Learning to Read Your Knitting

When I started this blog it was with the intention of tracking my progress in becoming a better knitter – or, back at that time, a knitter at all. I found the biggest hurdle in the early stages is learning to read your knitting.

What do I mean by that?

Back when I started knitting and crocheting I had real problems if I made a mistake. I would stare down at the scrap of fabric and have no idea what I’d done or why there weren’t the right amount of stitches in place.

It was infuriating. For a long time I didn’t like knitting at all, preferring instead to stick to my hooks. A big part of that is the fact it was much easier to see the difference in the stitches with crochet, at least for me.

Now when I make a mistake in my knitting I can see where I went wrong by reading the stitches along the row. I don’t think there’s a trick to it – it’s something that comes with making a whole bunch of mistakes! I have seen plenty of images on Pinterest showing different types of stitches and what they look like but unless you’re checking them throughout the process, they’re not as useful as experience. I don’t know about you but I struggle to remember what I saw in an image some time a few months ago!

I guess what I’m saying here is that it’s heartening after all this time to realise how far I’ve come. I don’t look at my lace knitting and burst into tears (most days). I don’t want to throw my crochet out of the moving bus (usually). It’s satisfying to realise that I can read the stitches on my needle or hook.

Can you read your knitting? How did you get to that point? Sheer luck like me or did you study hard to get all that knowledge together?

More Good Knitting Ideas From Pinterest

Though I really shouldn’t be browsing Pinterest while I’m in the middle of NaNoWriMo
, I can’t help it. Thankfully I’m learning a lot of neat tricks in the meantime.

Securing DPN Projects

Personally I lose the sock needles in the bottom of my bag all the damn time. I could just use project bags but I’m rarely that organised when I’m shoving my latest project into my bag for work. I have some fiddly contraptions that work great for sock knitting but most of the time all of those are occupied – I’m a woman of many WIPs.

So this idea from WEBS is really up my street.

It doesn’t involve thinking for more than thirty seconds ahead (good for people like me) and it might mean I lose slightly fewer needles.

Preventing Those Runs on Your DPN Knitting

The Purl Bee comes up with some great stuff constantly. It’s great.

I found this idea on how to prevent the little ladder in your socks/mittens/etc when you’re knitting with DPNs. I don’t suffer from this quite so much any more but occasionally I notice I’m still seeing runs up the side and it makes me do a sadface.

Though I haven’t tried this yet (my current main project is knitting on circulars), I can see the sense in the idea and will be trying it out next time I pick up one of the many pairs of socks I have on the go.

Okay, Pinterest can be a total time-suck… but it’s also really useful.

Potential in Yarn Form

The best bit about buying a new skein of yarn is the potential.

Some knitters and crocheters buy all of their yarn with a certain project in mind. They go out and find a pattern, then purchase the yarn that fits. I admire the people who do this consistently. Though sometimes I can do it (as with my Brandywine shawl), it is not my natural state of affairs.

The other knitters – like myself – bumble into a yarn store and grab whatever shiny thing they see with only vague ideas of what it might turn out to be. I did that recently.

This is Cascade Heritage Silk. I’ve used it before and enjoyed it thoroughly so could not resist trying it again. I purchased two skeins from Kniterary with the vague intentions in using them for socks. Stripey socks, in fact. The blue in the bottom variegated one matches the solid one perfectly.

Then I lost my favourite pashmina.

That is the pashmina in question (bonus Grand Canyon). It has been with me for at least five years and three countries. It is big and warm and goes with my winter tendency to wear a lot of red. I dropped it in the mall and didn’t notice until much later.

Now I’m considering making a big stole with it instead that I can snuggle up in at work. Usually I don’t wear knitted scarves since I like being contrary (and much prefer woven fabric around my neck), but this silk is luscious and could make something lovely.

Excuse me while I spend the next forever browsing square stoles on Ravelry to figure out how to turn this yarn’s potential into something beautiful.