While waiting for a baby to be born (mine), it appears that I need to start new craft projects*. Leftie is always asking to use my oven mitts when she cooks in her kitchen. So I thought it was high time she got a pair of her own.

I'm sort of feeling badly for her that her mommy is a bit out of commission and can't really play or take her to the park. These are sort of guilt-mitts, I guess. I wanted them to be quick and dirty. They fulfill the latter but not the first (I was hoping to avoid using my seam ripper). The sewing is really quite awful. I figured a 20 month old wasn't going to be discerning. And even embarrassingly sewn oven mitts are pretty freaking adorable when they are as diminutive as these.

Leftie couldn't have been more pleased. I slept in this morning, but m reported that she made a bee-line for them when she woke up. Also she's been toting them around in her little bag along with her other precious cargo (sunglasses, necklace, a plastic bag stuffed with diaper covers - don't ask, I have no idea). Always a sign of approval.

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*I'm finishing off a pair of secret mittens and have a few zipper pouches that I'd like to crank out for leftie before I'm off to deliver the new baby. Also last night, while waiting to see if the contractions I was experiencing were the real or practice ones, I thought it might be a good idea to start yet another set of secret mittens and mentally planned out how they would be knit up. It's a sickness, I tell you.

I finished a new pair of mittens for leftie the other day. And I've also been digging around the bags of her old clothes (from when she was born right up until recently) searching out the gender neutral infant pieces in preparation for jr.'s arrival.


I found these pink little bits of mitten-y things. They were the first things I ever knit for leftie. I was a bit wound up and weird in the way that pregnant women get just before giving birth. I'm pretty sure I cast on for these the night before I was to be induced. I remember laying in the bed in the labor and delivery room working on these thinking how they would be done in no time (I was wrong). I didn't much feel like knitting once the major contractions started. And I didn't much feel like knitting after leftie was born. But somehow I managed to finish them before we left the hospital. I remember washing them in the recovery room sink and laying them out near the window to dry and pulling them onto her tiny little hands before we left our room. I have pictures of leftie slurping on these from last spring while in her stroller walking around Cambridge and Somerville. The one on the left shrunk a little because m put them in the wash with the rest of her laundry. I was annoyed at the time but looking at them now, they look okay.


These I knit for leftie to wear last fall/winter. The strings attaching them together helped from losing them, but weren't much success in keeping them on. They sure were cute though.

I just remembered the long stripey pair that I knit as the solution to this problem. (I can't pull them out for this photoshoot because they are in leftie's room and I'm trying to get her to nap.) She never got much wear out of them but they sure were cute.


One day, I'll have a whole parade of hand knit mittens on show for each kid. And they sure will be cute.

NB: leftie's reaction to the Hello Kitty mittens are to greet them every time with an enthusiastic "HI KITTY!"

I finished this back in March but never got around to photographing it. It's a hat. For me! I think that this will be the last project that I'll be knitting for myself for some time. There's a lot of baby knitting in my future. The hat is a basic pattern from some lovely drapey wool. My first time working with tweed? I love the results. I'm considering adding a girly embellishment to it like knitted flowers or maybe a snowflake?

More details here.

Finally finished this blanket I started the first time I was pregnant. It was meant to be for leftie but now jr will get more use out of it. Then again, when I showed it to leftie she immediately snuggled it against her face. And when I draped it around her shoulders she walked around the house hugging herself pleased as could be. When the blanket fell from her shoulders she immediately came to me asking that I drape it over her again. Probably the best reaction I've ever received to my knitting.

Ravelry details here.

(miette sweater: front)


(miette sweater: back, with button detail)

I was lucky enough to get a commission to knit up a special sweater for a special gal whom I've been following online. The commission was a copy of the sweater worn by a character in one of my favorite films. And so the Miette Sweater came to be.

It was a fun challenge trying to copy a sweater from screen shots of a film. The majority of it was easy (lots of stockinette stitch knit up in the round). The tricky part came when I had to copy the neckline which I thought had a pretty edging where the collar meets the body of the sweater. After a few false tries, I had to abandon the standard procedure for knitting up collars and knit the collar separately and sew it into place. I'm pleased with the results. And pleased to report that the recipient was pleased with the sweater.

Knitterly details here.

This was meant to be a sweater for the past spring but I got sidetracked by other projects and so the lovely bundle of pink yarn lay waiting. Luckily I'd thought to size it up generously so leftie should be able to wear it this fall and winter as well. Lucky too that she's a skinny kid - I wonder if I might be able to get an extra year of wear out of it? I intend to cuff the sleeves until she grows into them.

Such a sweet and clever sweater pattern. I love the use of buttons for the eyes. More details+photos here.

A little catching up.

Above are the elbow-length mittens I finished some time ago (back in April?) when elbow-length mittens were still (sometimes) a necessity. Leftie always managed to pull off her other mittens and so I figured that if these were long, she might be able to pull them loose but not successfully pull them off.

A friend of mine suggested extending these mittens to include an attachment to a hat. But thankfully leftie's always been good about keeping her hat on.

Knitting details on ravelry. Just realizing that I never posted about the original mittens. Those details (and photos) are here.


More catching up:



Wool pants for those cold New England nights. I've been calling 'em "yarn pants." Leftie was snuggled up in these well through April - we have some heating issues in our home. I was so pleased to be able to use up scraps to make these. The yarn held up better than these photos show. After a wash in the delicate cycle all that pilling disappeared. Next winter I'll plan ahead and knit up a few pair for her and her brother. Details here.

I loved this color (it's called Azul Profundo. Profundo indeed!) and bought the yarn to make a cardi for leftie. Then decided that the color was too grown up for such a wee thing. Whoops. New circular scarf for me. It's wonderfully soft and warm and I love wrapping it around my neck. And how handy that I never had to worry about it slipping off of my neck? Knitterly details here.

Why yes, I have had a little free time lately.

Seamless raglan sweater based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's method.
I'd like to add a pocket maybe and patches at the elbows.

More knitting.
Details here.

I've been busy at the needles lately.

Sweater details here.
Hat details here.

New socks. So cushy squooshy I wear them nearly every day. My other socks must be jealous. More info here.

I'm making diapers... on my soapbox

Isn't this the cutest little diaper you ever did see?

I've been pricing cloth diapers and boy are they expensive! I know that the up-front costs are higher than going the disposable diaper route, and that overall disposables cost more than cloth diapers, but sheesh!

Disposable diapers really aren't an option as far as I'm concerned anyways. I do have a few on hand just in case (thanks, jenn!). And it's not just the cost that I'm concerned with, but the impact they have on the environment and I get creeped out thinking about how all that plastic and chemically treated petroleum product is so close to the tenderest parts of my baby. Just not gonna happen.

So cloth diapers it is.

The cloth diapering world has come a long way since when I was a baby. Not that I remember much about my cloth diapers, but you know, I've seen them on tv. There are so many options too! You can get folded diapers, pre-folded diapers, fitted diapers, all-in-ones (AIOs), etc. It's a little dizzying to get through all that information. I did a lot of research and finally decided on fitted diapers with wool covers. This option covers all of my parameters (I'm going to use bullet points, and I'm going to use them incorrectly):

• There are no polyester parts (I know that Polyurethane Laminate (PUL) is supposed to be BPA-free, but I still try to keep the petroleum products to a minimum in my life). I need the area around baby's bum to be able to breathe. Less chance of diaper rash that way. An all-in-one diaper would have been so much easier because it works like a disposable diaper but instead of throwing it out once it's soiled, you throw it in the wash. But that means I'd have to use some sort of PUL material in the diaper and I really didn't want that.
• So I decided to go with a fitted diaper and thought about making them with a layer of wool for soak-control.
• Incidentally, did you know that wool is an awesome material for this? Most people think wool and they think scratchy sweaters, but as a knitter I know that there are Lots of different kinds of wool - some can be scratchy, yes - but there are also some that are dreamy soft and some in-between. 
• Wool is a great material to work with because it's environmentally sustainable and no sheep get harmed in the production of wool, 
• Wool can be thrown in with the wash (yes! it's true! You CAN machine-wash wool!), 
• it has naturally low flame-retardant properties unlike petroleum based products - I'm talking about YOU polyester!, 
• it's self-extinguishing, 
• it's hypoallergenic, 
• it will keep you warm even when it gets wet, 
• and it's a great material for things like mattress pads and diaper covers because it can absorb almost one-third of its own weight. No wonder it was the fibre of choice for celtic fisherman who knit their own sweaters. No wonder it's used in fire-fighters' and soldiers' garments.

Fitted diapers are a lot like disposable diapers but without the plastic covering. I made mine out of 100% birdseye cotton. I needed the diaper to be as easy as possible for M and grandparents and other babysitter types. So nothing with diaper pins or snappi's or any other type of fastening accessories. They fasten with velcro tabs (I just learned that the generic word for this is "hook and loop." You know, like "bandages" instead of band-aids or "cotton swabs" instead of Q-tips, etc.) which makes it easy.

So fitted diapers it is. But without the plastic cover, pee will just leak out (not to mention what happens when there's a #2 going on). That's where the wool covers come in. I originally thought to make an all-in-one diaper with a wool cover, but let's face it. I'm going to want to wash dirty diapers in hot water. And as miraculous and wonderful as wool can be, it does have a few small drawbacks (it shrinks in hot water - sometimes not a bad thing if you're a crafter, and it's not moth-repellent). So I decided to sew fitted cloth diapers and knit wool covers out of my surplus of yarn.

I sewed a test diaper last night from a pattern I bought on-line. (I'm too much of a wimp to link to the source. Because to be honest, I don't think the pattern is very good so I can't recommend it. Email me if you want to know. I'm a little annoyed at how poorly the pattern is written (so confusing!) and there's errata that hasn't been corrected (the pattern is dated from 2004). The website is confusing to navigate and after lots of searching I finally found the errata page and was annoyed again to find commenters noting the errata from back in 2007 and the pattern is still being printed without any indication of the errors.) It wasn't too hard to sew and not too time consuming either. Now that I've got one made, I'm going to make the rest assembly-line style and crank these puppies out.

And now enough of my blah, blah, blah. Here's a photo of the newborn size diaper with the Och for scale. Hee hee. Newborn stuff is so teeny!

also in knitting news

I made this for my niece. (Again, I'm going to assume that I am safe posting this here because none of the concerned parties will read this.) For Christmas.

Why is it that when you slap a Hello Kitty image on anything you get instant cute? I think kitty is powerful in that way. You just can't resist her.

This was pretty quick and easy to make. I especially enjoyed making the pom-poms. More on my ravelry page.

And I lined the inside with some pink fabric. Maybe a bit of pink overkill? Well, I was really trying to work with what I already had in my fabric stash instead of going out and buying a bunch of new materials.

Actually I think my niece will love it. I'm probably over-thinking the pink thing.

the cosiest

I think I am safe in revealing this on my blog because none of the concerned parties will see this. I wanted to share the Christmas gift I made for my mum-in-law. When m and I were visiting this summer, we were having dessert after dinner one night and she pulled out her big metal teapot that she got from Ireland (M has a smaller version of it. When we were dating I discovered it in his cupboards one day because I wanted a pot of tea and I'd never seen the guy drink so much as a teacup of tea. And I thought to myself: man, if we ever split up I am so going to make off with this teapot. I know, I'm shameless.).

She pulled a tea cosy over her teapot and someone asked about it and she lamented how she could never find any cute tea cosies. (Auntie) Bonnie has tons of cute tea cosies, but my mum-in-law could never find any. So of course that got me thinking.

A quick search on ravelry revealed a plethora of tea cosy patterns. So I made this striped one:


And this silly one with tu-tu ruffles:


They're sort of ill-fitting on the teapots here. I made sure to measure my mum-in-law's teapots and hers are much taller than the ones at my office. But the lighting at my office is so much better for photography than what I get at home so I had to make do with what I had.

And while I was working on the green tea cosy of course I had to have a little try-on with the kitties. Doesn't the Och look lovely? Really goes with her eyes, right?

I can't imagine any practical purpose for a kitty to wear a capelet (heh heh) but for my amusement. I can't wait to get a shot of Pekoe wearing the cosy. HAHAHAHA!!!

chonie gets ziggy

The ziggy-est. Isn't he the cutest? And look how great he looks in the sweater I made for him.


I do think that the blue in the sweater does great things for his eyes. Or do his sparkly eyes bring out the color in the sweater?


knitting details at my ravelry account.

I sold a shirt

And it tickles me no end...

So I earlier this year I wanted to make a shirt for m or someone as a gift. It was too complicated to try and figure out how to do a diy version at home so I went with the promotional sites to see what they had to offer. Then I got sucked into hours of setting up an account and designing shirts and picking models to model the shirts and on and on. And when I was done I thought: Hey, I have a bunch of other shirts that I designed a while back. How cool would it be to finally have a product shot of those shirts?? So I loaded them up to my account and picked models and so forth. And then I left them up on the site and sort of forgot about them.

And then on Sunday I got an email from the site saying that I sold a t-shirt. Shazam! Really?

It was one of the shirts I designed for my dad's business. Dad's an 8th degree blackbelt in tae kwon do with his own business and I redesigned his logo and business materials a few years ago.

I'm not sure why this pleases me so much but it does. I do have a few issues with the promo site and their limitations (of course I do) but oh well. I guess sometimes you have to let it go. And now someone out there is wearing one of my dad's shirts. Designed by me. Coolness!

I only wish this site would let me thank my purchaser like the way etsy does. Feels like a kinder and gentler way to run a business that way. Don't you think?

If you're interested in checking out the shirts, you can look here.

And I don't normally promote my business much (much? ever?) on this ole blog, but hey man, what the heck? If anyone from my small number of readers is interested in hiring a graphic designer, I am always interested in putting together a bid for you. T-shirts aren't the only thing I design. My portfolio (designed by me, coded by my talented brother James) is here.

oh. my. god.

I can't tell you how long I have been waiting for something like this!!


(saw this on Poppytalk)

Here's some more info regarding customized plates (scroll down the comments to read what Michelle the LifestyleCrafts creator has to say).

I checked out the website to get more info. And at $149.99 it's pretty affordable. Although I'm hesitant to shell  out the bucks until I can get my paws on some customizeable plates. Between this and gocco (or the other offshoots of home screenprinting that have sprung up in the last few months) I could open up my own printing+design studio! Or dream about it at least for now.

out the door

Finally got these out the door!

My aesthetic with sock bands favors handwritten/drawn ones over ones I could design on my computer. It feels right being that the band is encircling handknit goods.

I try to make the cover personal.


I always include care instructions and fibre content.


And with these socks I decided to include some Fun Facts.


Unrelated: I just discovered that blogger has a new post editing template. Fancy-schmancy! I'm still trying to get the hang of it. So far, it is annoying me. Which is strange for a google product. Aren't they supposed to be like Jedi mind readers or something? Doesn't "google" really mean "intuitive?"

Also I want my images to be as big as possible (without getting really obnoxious) and my classic blog template is messing with that. Sigh. The images are getting cut off on the right. Probably has to do with the width constraints of this template. For now you'll have to click on the image to get taken to the full image. Guess I'll have to sit and monkey around with the code for awhile to figure this all out. Stay tuned.

plain-janes

(Trying something new: blogging via flickr. Let's see how this goes... I can't figure out how to make the photo bigger so I gave up. Grrrr...)

Did I mention that I knit a pair of gloves?

I started these last Friday while waiting for dinner to be done. A pleasant way to spend a quiet Friday night on the couch with m, watching reruns of The Office (the American version), a kitty or two tucked in between us.

I was done with one glove by the time we went to bed. How awesome is that?? I love you worsted weight yarn.

For now they are functional and pretty in a plain-jane sort of way. I have some thoughts to embroider the backs with a yellow snowflake inspired by something I saw in an old issue of Martha Stewart Living.

The best thing about knitting your own gloves is that you can get them to fit just so. Seems I have kinda big hands and long fingers. Most gloves do okay on the hand-fit but the fingers are always pathetic. Kind of like when you wear tights and the crotch hangs down between your thighs? The finger-crotches of my gloves always hung out lower than they ought to have. But with handknit gloves, no more!

I'll leave you with that thought.

(Ravelry deets here.)