Because 2 days is never enough.

I modified a baby hat pattern to make a sort of starry night hat for my sister-in-law’s baby (due in 4 weeks!).  I am currently working on a second hat for Felix that is identical so the cousins (who will be only 3 months apart) can have matching hats.

Felix was kind enough to be the hat model for the first hat.

It’s official - I have finished knitting the baby blanket (and successfully completed birthing class), so the baby can now arrive!

Erik picked out the colors for the blanket, which is knitted in Blue Sky Alpaca organic cotton.  The great thing about this pattern is that it forced me to learn how to pick up stitches on a completed work since the ruffled edge is knitted after the rest of the blanket is complete.

Now I have to get used to the idea of my beautiful blanket covered in baby spit-up.

I have been extremely remiss in posting blog updates, but I have a good excuse - I’m pregnant!  Or as my friend Alyssa says - I am working on the ultimate craft project.  One that spawns many other craft projects along the way.

The first completed baby project is a stuffed duck that I knitted.  I am embarrassed to say that I started knitting this duck for a friend’s baby (who is hardly a baby anymore) and by the time I picked up the project again it only made sense to make it for my baby.  (How convenient!)

My brother, Stephen, was visiting last week.  When he saw the duck he got excited that I had knitted a Ferdinand replica.  As soon as he said “Ferdinand” I immediately remembered that I had a stuffed animal duck when I was a kid named Ferdinand.  I totally forgot about him until Stephen mentioned it.  Unfortunately neither of us remember how Ferdinand got his name, but it really is the perfect name for a duck.

Meet Ferdinand (#2)…

As my friend Hardy said, it’s beginning to feel like the baby-of-the-month club in our parts and consequently, I’ve been hard at work making baby related crafts.

I made a very soft and very cozy baby blanket for my friends Seth and Vanessa. Of course, I worked in a leisurely fashion until about a week before Vanessa’s shower and then I had to kick into over-drive, sweatshop mode. I was focused, knitting on the train, at lunch during work, staying up late, even once working on it at a restaurant while we waited for the food.

I was blocking it just hours before the shower and probably it was a bit damp as she pulled it out of the bag.

It looks 100x cuter wrapped around precious little Aidan.

Once upon a time, a girl bought some beautiful steel grey alpaca yarn at The Yarn Tree on Bedford. And from it, she made a fantastic cable-knit hat. Which she lost on an airplane. Then, to console herself, she made a matching shorty cable knit scarf with a cloth covered turquoise button that her boyfriend bought for her. This scarf was the best thing she ever knitted. People complimented her on it constantly, expressed amazement when they discovered she made it herself. She was in love. She tried to get more of the grey alpaca wool to make another matching hat, but found out it was discontinued. This only intensified her bond to the scarf.

Then, one terrible day, it was gone. It was torn brutally from her life at a high school where the girl was visiting for work. (okay, not that brutally, since she just left it in the office, but still)
This weekend, the girl tried to recreate another shorty scarf. It was so ugly that it’s picture won’t grace this blog and it will promptly be unraveled. This only served to remind her how much she loved the first scarf.

The scarf is greatly missed. Not a chilly New York day goes by that she doesn’t think fondly of the scarf and bitterly of her loss. These photos are the only evidence of the scarf that exist in her new, empty world.

Farewell fond scarf! May the high school student who found you in the Principal’s office appreciate your loveliness.

Jess and I managed to be productive on the train to and from Connecticut for cheesemaking weekend by turning the ride into a knitting circle. I used the time to finish a matching hat and scarf that I started many months ago - just in time for the cold weather. Alas, I have developed a mild allergy to wool (the worst news you could receive as a knitter), so I have been experimenting with other blends of yarn. This hat and scarf is knitted using 6 skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas from Peru (color 009; lot 3412), which is extremely warm and soft to the touch. I used the following patterns that I made up (both use seed stitch):

Hat
#10 circular + #10 douple pointed needles

CO 65 stitches - doublestrand

seed stitch in the round (k1, *p1, k1 - repeat from * to end; knit the purls and purl the knits)

once the hat measures the length you want, reduce by knit 7, knit 2tog and try to alternate knits and purl to retain the seed stitch (do this for one round)

then knit 6, knit 2tog for one round
then knit 5, knit 2tog for one round … reduce by one each round until knit 2, knit 2tog
bind off!

Scarf
#10 straight needles

CO 21 stitches

seed stitch (k1, *p1, k1 - repeat from * to end; knit the purls and purl the knits)
repeat until the scarf is the length you want…
bind off!

Can’t afford an iPhone? Just knit one.

Have an iPhone? Access recipes on it.

I had to travel to Raleigh for work last week on the same day that a badass snowstorm was stomping around New York. My flight was delayed, delayed, and then canceled. The airport was a wild animal park full of enraged, anguished passengers. But me? I was a fountain of inner peace thanks to my ipod full of This American Life episodes and my bag full of yarn.

I finished this cute hat before the plane even left the runway and I resorted to sawing off the end of the yarn with my dull keys to finish it.

Good thing I liked the hat so much because when the airline lost my luggage and didn’t return it to me until the morning I was returning to New York, it was about the only clean thing I had to wear.

Pattern (bear with, I’m not that good at writing patterns):

Cast on 42 stitched onto five double pointed size 13 needles (or a round needle set, but I hate those for hats).

row 1: k4, p3 (repeat 6 times)
row 2: k4, p3 (repeat 6 times)
row 3: k4, p3 (repeat 6 times)
row 4: k4, p3 (repeat 6 times)
row 5: k4, p3 (repeat 6 times)
row 6: cable 2 over, k4, p3
Repeat rows 1-6 until ready to decrease

To decrease:
note: it looks best to continue the cable as you decrease, the easiest way to do this is to begin decreasing on the 6th row after your last cabled row. You can also just add the cable into the decrease row in which it would fall.

Row 1: cable 2 over, k4, p1, p2tog
Row 2: k4, p2tog
Row 3: k2, k2tog, p1
Row 4: k2tog, k1, p1
Row 5: k2tog, p1

Finish by threading the end of the yarn back through the remaining loops and pulling it closed inside the hat.

Enjoy.

I stumbled on these ceramic coasters with knitted patterns (from an artist in Brooklyn) when I was googling around for ideas on how to knit my own coasters out of twine. The knit and cable stitches are pressed into the clay before it is glazed.

There is something extra cool about melding two types of crafts together. Can we do this in pottery studio? Now I’m trying to think of all the other cool designs I could press into my pottery… Alas, I wish I was more advanced in my skill level.

Karl and I recently drove from Chicago to La Crosse, WI to visit his grandpa. We spent a total of about 10 hours in the car, 6 hours in a plane, and maybe another 5 in airports. Once we go there, there was a lot of family stuff going on and it was nice to have a little project to focus on when it seemed like a good time to get out of people’s hair. All this time added up to the coziest, cutest hat I’ve ever made. I got the pattern on a free pattern site and it knit together beautifully. I even got a professional model to display it (a first for our little blog).

Of course, said professional model ended up stealing said hat, but luckily it’s a pretty quick pattern. I already bought another skein of Misty Alpaca, chunky to replace it.