Knitting for Babies

I love to knit for babies - their items are small so they can be quick to knit up - plus they are sooo cute. And I feel all "earth mother"-y when I knit for a baby, like I'm a pioneer woman living in the time when we made everything "from scratch". The baby sweaters were completed with a recipe instead of a pattern - from Elizabeth Zimmerman (or EZ to us knitters) - sometimes thought of as the mother of modern knitting - I like to think of her as a "knitting engineer" - you can have paper engineers, she was definitely a knitting engineer. These little sweaters (called the Baby Surprise Jacket - or BSJ in the knitting world) are knit continuously using a recipe instead of a line by line pattern - all in one piece that resembles origami when complete - you fold the correct way and voila - a sweater. You can change the size by varying the size of your needles and the weight of the yarn but the recipe remains the same. Love it!! It was a challenge for me to change my thinking to knit this way - and the challenge is what keeps me addicted to knitting.

The baby in the picture is the beautiful son of my friend Sheryl - his name is Finn - he is wearing booties also by EZ and knit up very similar to the BSJ. The yarn is Opal self stripping sock yarn which makes you look like you are a color wizard when in fact, the yarn is doing all of the work. The first sweater is done with a different yarn - now I need a baby girl to give it to - we have a new baby arriving in our family in March - my cousing Bekk is expecting - so if she delivers a girl, instant sweater!



This is a diaper bag - for the above mentioned Sheryl and baby Finn - felted, with lots of pockets and enough artistic flare for the artistic mother (Sheryl Tuorila Mosaics). The end pockets are the perfect size for a baby bottle. Now if I can get together with the new mommy to give it to her before the baby no longer wears a diaper, we'll be doing good!! The stripe on the front is a light lime green, hard to see in the photo - and the circles are also felted and appliqued on after felting - I also added some matching seed beads for a little sparkle and bling - I love felted bags - so durable and comfie to carry.



I have so many knitting projects planned - I can't possible get to them all - but I'm hoping to get some current projects completed so I can start something new.

Happy Friday, my friends -

College Boy

My oldest is in college. I have to keep reminding myself of that. It seems a bit unreal to me because I could swear he was only five just yesterday. But those are the thoughts of all parents.

We are having fun getting into college sports. St Cloud State hockey games are a family favorite. So I'm trying to adjust and excited to see him succeed and make his way in the big wide world.

-- Post From My iPhone

Mittens

I love to knit mittens. Quick projects and so useful. This pattern is called Fiddlehead mittens - you can get a copy on www.helloyarn.com - they sell the pattern individually or in a kit.



Working with 2 colors is so fun. I used Frogtree Alpaca in a purple/burgundy color, and Noro Silk Garden in a varigated. BUT the most fantastic thing about these mittens is that they are lined with a merino and angora blend that is so soft and warm - yummy!

I just purchased a copy of the book Selbuvotter - Biography of a Knitting Tradition, by Terri Shea. I've been planning to buy this book for a while. It is the results of research that was done into the history of two color stranded knitting done by nordic women and the traditions associated with them - especially their place as wedding gifts for guests. So interesting - now I'm on a mission to make some in the traditional black and white colors. Wouldn't they be fabulous with a bright pink or green or red lining?

Knit on my friends....

Knittin' News

I'm getting ready to start new projects - and I have so many other projects on the needles still. Lately I've been working on this scarf for Erik - after having finished a pair of felted clog slippers in the SCSU colors - black and red - I've got extra yarn so I'm working on a scarf:

Mom and Dad didn't get their Christmas gifts from me but now I'm done, just needed to get photos and I now I can send them off. Dad's gift is an afghan patterned from a Sudoku puzzle, its made up of 9 colors that correspond to the nine Sudoku numbers - if you replace the colors with their numbers, you have a solved puzzel! Mom's is a circular lace shawl made of 100% alpaca lace in a light blue color - it was a dream to knit with however, this item took me over a year to complete - I had to put it down for periods of time - the outer circles were killers!

Well, more later - if you're on Ravelry, I've updated a LOT of my projects with photos - take a look.