Finally some knitting for my children. It may seem strange, I knit mostly child and baby items, yet my kids get the short end of the knitting stick. The large number of my knit things end up as gifts. There are a few reasons for this.....
Baby knit sizing is forgiving. I almost never knit "newborn" sized items. My babies were never really newborn sized, so I go for 3month size as a minimum, often much larger, since I know they will grow into the stuff eventually. This frees me from heavy thoughts on gauge and all that. It also means I can knit ahead for babies, or if I'm knitting something and it doesn't get finished, gift them something else and finish up that project for a future baby.

Knitting for a growing child (and goodness do they grow fast when they want to) is far less forgiving. If you measure a child and calculate the dimensions, you'd better sit down and knit that sucker up ASAP. If you let them eat a few meals, or have a nap or two, suddenly they are 2 inches taller and the things don't fit right! Ask me how I know this!!?!

I do occasionally treat my little ones to knit items, and they are most appreciative when I do, which makes me think I should work to do so, just a little more often. My latest knits for my kids.....a cabled skirt for Teagan, and two brimmed warm hats for Argen:

Knitting With My Daughter.....

Teagan knitting on the hat
Originally uploaded by wendymc

Teagan learned to knit about a year ago, and has shown a little interest here and there, but not really stuck with it. I think it's just so slow to progress into something, and still requires a lot of focus and effort for her. Recently she told me the bus driver for her afterschool care program was expecting, and I saw they had bonded well. I suggested she and I knit a baby hat together to give her, and she was pretty excited.

I did more of the knitting, but Teagan did quite a lot as well. I would knit a couple rounds, then give it to her for upwards of a round. She even learned to purl on this project! The end result was great, and the woman was thrilled to receive it. (probably almost as thrilled as my daughter was to give it!)

No new photos to share, sorry. I have been knitting. I'm nearly done a purple baby dress in lovely Babyboo bamboo yarn. I love that yarn, too bad I can't get it locally anymore.

I also started a pair of fingerless mitts from the Mitt Envy pattern, in Mini Mochi yarn. Pretty, soft washable yarn, with slow noro-like colour changes. Should work up very nicely. I'm optimistically thinking about fingerless mitts as teacher gifts next Christmas. Figured I had better get started now if I need to knit a whole mess of them!

Can I Finish in Time?

Hat Progress
Originally uploaded by wendymc

Nearing the end of the Olympics, and I still have a ways to go on my Ravelympic project! I'm about an inch farther than the photo shows, but since the ribbed cuff portion of the hat is to be 8 inches, I have a ways to go yet! I need to find some more knitting time! I've been really busy, so even though I carry this project with me everywhere, and the mindless ribbing section lets me pick up and go, I'm just not getting enough time to work on it. That and fingering weight yarn is slow going. I've seen others knit this project in DK weight and I think that would have been better. I like how floppy the drape is on this one, but I'm worried it will be a bit small.

Still, I'm going to try and finish, but it will be close!

Ravelympics!

Our Bitchybees knitting group is participating in the Ravelympics, and of course I joined in, too. I'm a pretty busy gal so despite the urge to sign up for a ton of events, I started with just one, with a special personal challenge. I'm knitting myself a lacey hat, the Eyelet Hat from Vogue Knitting. The hat itself won't be a challenging knit, the challenge is in knitting something FOR MYSELF and knitting ONLY THAT PROJECT until it is done. I am not a monogamous knitter at all. I'm distractable, easily enticed to start new things, and bad for not finishing projects. So my challenge to myself is to knit on only this hat until it is 100% complete. Every end woven in, blocked if needed, and ready to wear. Even in the first few days, I've struggled with wanting to try other things, or bring a second project along with me.

Argen's Rainbow Hat

Argen's Rainbow Hat
Originally uploaded by wendymc

I don't often knit for my kids. I just can't bear to watch them outgrow items in less time than it took me to knit them! So instead I focus most of my knitting efforts on gifts. Gifts for babies, especially, since they are so small and fast.

But when Argen kept wearing a hat I had knit him, despite it being much too small, and requested I knit him a Rainbow Hat to replace it, I couldn't say no. He wanted it to cover his ears, so I finally had a reason to try out the Cameron's Cap (pdf) Pattern. I wanted it to be superwash wool to be warm but stand up to some washing and abuse, of course. I found that Mochi Plus had a great rainbow colourway, and BOY is it ever soft. It's a loosely spun single-ply that worked up great for a warm winter hat.

He loves it.

Completed Multnomah

Completed Multnomah
Originally uploaded by wendymc

Finally finished this shawl, a donation for the local tea festival silent auction. The Tea Festival is an event that supports the Camosun College daycare centre, where my son attends, and at the college I work at.

This was a great pattern, very simple to knit, just straight stockinknit with increases, and then feather and fan with increases at set points. Almost mindless. And a great showcase for beautiful Noro yarn. I started the shawl with 3/4 of a skein of Noro Kureyon Sock that someone gifted to me, and promptly ran out, just into the feather and fan section. Of course it was a discontinued colour. I arranged to buy a skein off someone on Ravelry, which then got lost in the mail! So I gave up on that and sought out a similar colourway, saved a section of the teal from the first skein to tie it in, and I think it worked out fine. I'm happy with the size, it's a nice large shawl. Hopefully it fetches a good price at the auction!