Knitting Club

I feel like I've been saying goodbye to people for weeks now - customers, coworkers, friends, etc. But I knew tonight would probably be the hardest because Tuesday nights are for Teen Knitting Club at the Library. We've been meeting for about three years and many of the girls who came during the first few weeks still attend on a fairly regular basis. Some I taught to knit and others came already knowing the basics. But I think I can definitely say that we all learned something from each other one way or another.

Here is a picture of our group that was taken in the summer of 2010. Notice some of the square knitting pieces around the table?

Here we are in 2013 - the squares finally became an afghan! Isn't it huge?! The blanket is great because everyone knit at least a square or two (which explains why the gauge is a little different in some of the squares). But that's what makes it unique.

I will forever treasure the time I got to spend with this unique group of girls. I feel honored that they let me be a part of their lives every Tuesday night for the past three years. Definitely going to miss them!

Special News

I've been waiting to share some news with you. We are moving! I got a wonderful job opportunity and we decided to make the leap and move to a new town. Last weekend we found the perfect apartment (well, really it's a duplex) and we signed the lease today. It's super cute, with a fireplace and hardwood floors!

So things have been a bit crazy around here lately. There are boxes EVERYwhere and we've been working hard to pack up our things and get organized before the move, so unfortunately there hasn't been much knitting time in the past few weeks. (I didn't realize I owned so many books! I have two full boxes to donate to the library and there are still several boxes that will be coming with us. One entire box is full of knitting books - no surprise there!) Plus, our current apartment is being shown to potential renters, so I've been running around trying to make sure things are nice and clean so that someone will want to rent our place!

I'm almost done with the bobble sheep pillow. Just one more leg to go! Although I enjoy the idea of the sheep pillow, I will say that picking up the stitches for the head and the ears was extremely fiddly and time consuming. If you ever decide to try it, do your fingers a favor and use a crochet hook to make picking up the stitches a little easier. 

I'm trying to finish all of my WIPs that have been languishing on the needles while I was distracted by prettier, more interesting projects. The less things I have to move (especially things with tiny, unattached pieces), the better. This also means no more yarn purchases until we're settled in our new place - even though I'm dying to knit the Regatta Tee by Olga Casey that's featured on the cover of the current issue of Interweave Knits. It's the perfect summery knit - nice and light but also something that I could pair with a cute jacket or cardigan for work. 

Anyway, I'll be back soon (hopefully) with a FO to share. I need to start crossing some things off my list!

Ever So Slowly

Despite my best intentions, I only managed to finish one sock this week. Although it is a lovely color, isn't it? (As is my custom, after finishing the first sock I immediately cast on for the second in order to avoid the dreaded second sock syndrome. I just got past the ribbing and now have the stockinette portion to knit during my travels.)

Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Tonal, colorway: blue violet
Pattern: "How I Knit My Socks" by Susan B. Anderson

I just love this pattern for socks - makes for great travel knitting, which is where I accomplished most of my knitting this week. I had a meeting to attend in the evening and got in a couple of hours of knitting time while I was listening to the local police chief speak. It was actually very interesting but it was nice to have something to do with my hands while I was sitting there.

There were also great plans to add a head to my sheep pillow this week but I ran into a problem with the alpaca yarn. It was turning out to have quite a bit more drape than I'd like so I had to rip it out. I'm starting to think that it's actually more of a sock weight than a dk. I'll have to find another project for the alpaca. Instead, I'm going to try to use some leftover Cascade worsted yarn for the sheep parts. Hopefully I'll have enough to finish!

WIP: Bobble Sheep Pillow

I have a work in progress to share with you today. It's the Bobble Sheep Pillow - a free pattern from Purl Soho. So far, I have completed the body of the sheep, which consisted of rows and rows of bobbles. Although bobbles are not particularly difficult, I find them to be fairly time consuming to create.

This project is also my first attempt at a provisional cast on (it's the pink yarn at the bottom of the body). A provisional cast on is used when you want to have the access to live stitches at the beginning of the work. In this case, when you're ready to use those stitches you would carefully undo the crochet row (the pink), which will leave you with a row of live stitches that could then be picked up in order to graft the opening closed after stuffing.

The sheep's body is knit in Berroco Vintage Chunky, purchased from Yarn Love in Hummelstown. It's the same yarn I used for my Aidez Cardigan. I had almost two hanks left over from that project so I decided to use it for the sheep pillow.

The head and feet of the sheep will be knit with the handspun alpaca that I purchased at the Gathering of the Guilds in February. Originally this yarn was going to be a cowl, but I didn't have enough yardage for it to work.

I'm hoping to be able to start on the sheep's head later today. I got distracted by a stealth project so the poor sheep has been headless for a little while! I love knitting things for gifts - the only downside is that I often can't share them with you until much later. I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise by posting pictures too early (just in case the recipient is actually reading this blog)!

Love for Color Affection

Remember this post? After my little moment of silence I cast on again and earlier this week I finished the Color Affection shawl.

I'm glad I took the time to rip back and knit the colors in the correct order. It's lovely and smooshy and warm. I'm in love.

The yarn is Miss Babs Yummy Superwash Baby Yarn in "Wind Surfing," "Indigo Bunting," and "Forever." It has a wonderful texture and drape. I would definitely love to use this yarn again. 

Check out my project page here. 

Critters for Little People

Now that Easter has passed, I am happy to be able to share some finished object photos with you! Last year I made bunnies for my little niece and my cousin's little girls.

Easter 2012

This year, I decided to do a different animal for each child. Lydia received a lion. I had actually finished knitting the lion last summer, but had gotten caught up with other things and never managed to seam it together until a month or so ago. She's crazy about cats so I thought this time I would knit her a big kitty.

Pattern: Lion by Sarah Keen, found in her book "Knitted Wild Animals"

Anna received a reversible toy - an egg in a nest that can turn into a bluebird.

Pattern: Egg to Bluebird and a Little Nest, Too by Susan B. Anderson, found in her book "Itty Bitty Toys"

Amiah received a frog that could also turn into a turtle. She was so cute - the basket with her new animal didn't come off her arm until dinner. :)

Pattern: Frog and Turtle by Susan B. Anderson, also in "Itty Bitty Toys"

And finally, Alanna received a yellow duck. Although it is not reversible like her sisters' toys, I thought it turned out to be rather cute.

Pattern: Mama Duck and Ducklings by Susan B. Anderson, in "Itty Bitty Toys"

All in all, I think it was a success! And the best part is, aside from the lion, I knit every animal with yarn from my stash. I have a fairly large collection of partially used balls of yarn. Most were left over from other projects and I felt like I should keep them. Yarn is yarn, after all. But I'm starting to have a little space issue. So I dove into the stash to create the animals. Knitting stuffed animals is a great way to use up some extra bits of yarn!

Does anyone else have a growing collection of partially used skeins of yarn? What do you do with them? Leave a comment and share your tips and tricks.

Easter Adventures

Today was the Easter gathering for my mom's side of the family. We had an Easter egg hunt for the little people and then a dinner afterward. I volunteered to bring a dessert and decided on cupcakes. We received the book, "Hello, Cupcake" as a wedding gift almost three years ago and I had yet to make anything from it so I decided to make the "Rabbit Holes" cupcakes.

It was quite an adventure. I decided to use the recipe from the back of the book for the vanilla cupcakes. It was the first time I'd ever made cupcakes from scratch. I'd always just used the mixes and they were fine, but this time I thought I'd try something new.

I think they turned out ok. They weren't very moist, but still passable. Anyway, the whole point of these cupcakes was the frosting design. I just loved the frosted grass and the little bunny feet sticking up out of the bunny holes. The feet were made out of white circus peanuts - and let me tell you, they are a rare item! We went to at least five stores trying to find the elusive white circus peanut. There are multitudes of orange ones, but no one seemed to carry the ones I needed. We even drove out to Cracker Barrel because they occasionally stock more unique candies but they also only had the orange ones.

I had heard about a specialty candy shop in Lancaster that said they had the white ones in a variety bag so I decided to drive there on Friday. But right before I was ready to go, I talked to our library director. She suggested I try the Country Store in Mount Joy before driving all the way to Lancaster. Lo and behold, they had white circus peanuts! I can't even begin to describe how ridiculously happy I was to find them, even if they were in a variety bag. (Just a note - if anyone fancies some circus peanuts, I have an practically full bag that I'd be more than happy to share. Just don't expect to find many white ones!)

So last night I baked the cupcakes so they would have enough time to cool.

I got up early this morning to do the icing. I wasn't entirely sure how long it would take me to get all the cupcakes done, especially since each little blade of grass had to be piped on individually. But once I got the hang of it, it went fairly quickly and I was able to get the whole batch done by noon.

I think they turned out pretty cute!

Don't worry - we'll be back to knitting in my next post. I just had to share my circus peanut adventure!