I missed my knitting group

After nearly 2 months, I finally made it to my Monday night knitting group this week. I was so happy! Since April it seemed something came up each week; birthdays, house guests, illnesses, bad traffic, business trips, and so on. It was great to get out of the house, talk to other adults, and get some knitting done.

Let's see, what have I been working on. I knit a Nottingham hat for E out of some very old blue Brown Sheep worsted. It came out ok, but the yarn doesn't really show off the cables very well. And I'm worried it's a bit feminine for a 3 year old (but I won't deal with that until the fall when he starts wearing it). I really should have used this opportunity to learn to do cables without a cable needle, because there were a lot of little cables in this hat. I love the pattern, though, and plan to make another one.

I also started a tank top for myself, the Lacey Vee Shell by Deb Gemmell, in off-white Cabin Fever Cotton Tweed. It's knit in the round from the bottom up, which I like because it means no seams to sew! It also means a lot of stitches to cast on, and unfortunately I wasn't paying attention when I started, and cast on to the wrong needle size! I did my swatch on size 5 needles (correctly), but was supposed to start the ribbing on size 3. I spent the entire Monday evening out casting on and knitting the first row (which always takes me forever) with size 5 needles, only to discover yesterday that I would have to redo it all.

little projects

I knit a super quick project for E recently: fruit cuffs. These are just 2x2 ribbed tubes, about 3" long, knit in kitchen cotton. They are for him to wear when he eats messy fruit, like watermelon. My hope is that all the juice that would normally run down his arms onto his shirt will get on the fruit cuffs, which I can then throw in the wash. So far he likes wearing them, but he's also been extraordinarily careful when it comes to eating fruit lately, too.

I just have one active project on the needles right now, a hat for either E or L. The pattern is Nottingham, by Melissa Mall, and I'm using an old skein of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Superwash Worsted that I got from my grandmother's stash (not am I only busting my own stash, but my grandmother's, too!) I am knitting the smallest size; E's head measured 19", and the pattern says it's a stretchy hat. But if it's too small for him, L can wear it. The pattern is easy but tedious. Lots (and lots and lots) of tiny cables, and I haven't figured out how to do them without a cable needle. Fie on me for sure! I am halfway through the cable pattern, though, so it's doable with a cable needle, just, well, tedious.

Two FOs this week!

I finished J's Odessa hat and E's sweater this week! Yay!

The hat was knit, by accident, on size 9 needles instead of size 6. I realized yesterday why this was. It was in the same knitting bag as E's sweater, which I did on size 9 circulars. I *did* put size 6 circulars in the bag, but when I went to fetch them out I grabbed the larger ones by mistake. Oops! I like the way it turned out, though, and I'm hoping J will like it, too.

E's sweater I finished last night and he wore it to daycare today. I am so proud! He was really happy I finally finished it, although it took some coaxing to get it on him. I am not thrilled with the way the neck turned out; next time I knit a top-down raglan I want to do something more finished looking then just a stockinette stitch CO border (like a real collar or something). But for a little kid it works, since I know it'll be stretchy enough to go over his big head. And I love the color, it looks great with blue denim.

frog or finish

There's nothing like making a big mistake for putting me off knitting. I am working on an Odessa hat for my step-mother, now a very late Christmas gift. For some unknown reason, instead of switching to size 6 needles after the ribbing, I started using size 9. And I didn't realize it until yesterday, when I pulled out the size 6 DPNs to use when the diameter got too small for circulars. Gee, I thought, these DPNs seem a lot thinner than the circular needle I'm using right now. And indeed, they were. Hmph.

So, do I finish the hat as is, or rip it out? It's a little big and floppy, but not unusually so. I do have one more skein of the same yarn, so I can re-knit the hat with the correct needles, but it will take me another week. I am completely down on this hat, though, and even finishing what I've got (another 6 rows) seems to be a challenge right now. It wouldn't be so bad except it's a gift that was due a month ago, so I don't feel that I have the luxury of sitting on it for a couple of months.