Annis, Rag Quilt, Baby ‘Leaf Pattern Set’ Sweater/Hat and Lace Leftovers

Here is the Annis that I wrote about in my last post.
It’s one of the ‘viral’ patterns – seems that nearly everyone on Ravelry has knitted one.
It turned out pretty but very small – more like a scarf than a shawl.

Another baby is on its way in our family.  
My niece asked if I’d make a rag quilt for the baby:

I also made the baby-on-its-way a Leaf Pattern Set cardigan and hat;                

I put a few beads on the stems, a little hard to see in this photo:

Ever Since I saw this stitch pattern:  Double Water Lily -  I’ve been thinking I need to come up with a project to use this pattern. 

I love all the stitch patterns that Olga Jasnovidova has posted on Ravelry and on her blog (http://newlace.blogspot.com/).  How generous to provide these charted patterns!

It occurred to me that I have quite a bit of leftover laceweight yarn in various colors and wouldn’t it be fun to see how it would work out to use this stitch pattern with the leftover yarn in an entrelac design similar to the Dianna shawl and my friend Brooke’s design Nuppopoly.

Then I decided to omit the four center squares which would make this a poncho.  I can wear it with the opening like a v-neck or as a square shaped neck. 
Worked a few rows or garter around the neck opening and a simple ruffle pattern (k1, p3 for first round, then increasing to either side of the knit(s) at every second round) for the edging. I really wanted the ruffle to be longer but after 7 increases there were so many stitches that it was taking about 40 minutes to knit each round; just couldn’t do any more.  At that point there were:  4 sides x 8 motifs per side x 16 ruffle repeats per motif x 18 stitches per repeat = … well never mind – I really don’t want to know exactly how many stitches that is, I had reached my limit.

  

  

Next I'm working on making some socks for Emily; when I was there last month her socks kept falling off which says to me that they are too small so I've looked everywhere and the next size looks too big.  Finally it dawned on me I could make her some socks - duh - and then they'd be just right (kind of sounds like a Three Bears story about socks).

Daughterly News

Last month I travelled to visit with my daughter and son-in-law in North Carolina which was a lot of fun, wish I could have stayed longer.

It was only for a few days so I brought only two projects to work on. A baby blanket and the second Bayerische sock.

On the way there on the plane I put a ball of yarn in the seat back in front of me and naturally walked off the plane without it so I couldn't work any more on that project. When I picked up the Bayerische sock I remember too late that one of the needles had broken, since I forgot about that I hadn't brought any extra needles in that size.

Now I was project-less.

Not to worry - daughter took me to three local yarn shops. At one I bought a skein of Malabrigo sock yarn which the shop owner wound for me and I was back in business. By the time I got home I had almost finished the first Pomotamus sock. I really like the Malabrigo sock yarn - very nice to work with and the colorway is pretty too.

My daughter learned to crochet within the past year and likes to do amigurumi.

She designed and worked this dragon up herself - isn't it adorable?

For Mother's Day she made this sheep for me - it is just too cute.....

A few weeks ago I started a pink baby sweater with this pattern from Garnstudio......just as I was closing in on finishing the sweater my daughter and son-in-law called to let us know that we'd become grandparents next January - yay! Double yay for someone to wear the sweater (ok, I know it could be a boy, I'll just have to make a blue sweater too).

Fall Finished Objects

Beaded Scarf

This was a fun project, nice yarn, pretty colors, easy pattern:

Very Pretty Yarn:

Swiss Mountain (65% Cashmere/35% Silk) by Handmaiden from Loopy Ewe.

Beads:

Size 8 from Ladybug Beads.

Pattern:

Center portion of Waves of Grain by Rosemary Hill available free at Knitty, Fall 2008.

Recipient:

Lovely daughter.

Twisted Candle Flame Cardigan

As I wrote in a previous post My friend Gerta lent me her copy of "Omas Strickgeheimnisse" and I was enchanted with the stitch pattern "Tulpen mit verschrankten Maschen".   Not sure what that translates to but I'm calling this Twisted Candle Flame Sweater:

Yarn:

Adrienne Vittadini Alexa,

100% cotton tape yarn, worsted weight;

16 skeins, 50g and 100 yards per skein,

purchased at Kirkwood Knittery.

Stitch Pattern:

Twisted Candle Flame from Omas Strickgeheimnisse.

Buttons:

From Joann's.

Designer:

Me

Cute Baby Sweater

I saw this cute ball of yarn at The Weaving Dept. at Myers House - tucked inside the ball are darling little buttons and two sweater patterns (cardigan and pullover).  It isn't the greatest yarn (lots of thick and thin) but it turned out cute, it's machine washable and was quick to do - now we just need someone in my family to have a baby who can wear it!

Yarn/Pattern/Buttons:

Cotton Kisses by Plymouth Yarn Companypurchased at

The Weaving Dept at Myers House.

One skein, 200g, 396 yards

Stitch Pattern:

Made it up.

Recipient:

To be determined.

Sock in Progress?

I love the glitter sock yarn from Berroco and bought a skein in pink/green/orange.  

Of course after many swatches I couldn't settle on stitch pattern.

In the meantime I ordered some Gloss sock yarn in Black from Knitpicks.

I thought it would be nice to have some black handknit socks - what was I thinking?

Very hard to see to work on black yarn. Need to try some better lighting.

It occurred to me that I could combine these two yarns and came up with this. Finished the first sock but it is loose at the ankle even though done on 64 stitches with Size 1 U.S. needles; the Gloss sock yarn is a bit on the heavy side.

This may end up in the frog pond.

More to follow soon...............