Here's my progress on Soleil so far, just about done the lace repeats:

I love how the lace looks, assuming the designer's promises of the curling blocking out come true......It should move quickly now, just miles of stockingknit with occasional increases and decreases after the lace.

And a photo of the rainbow baby set I made for a couple of gals on my lacrosse team that just had a baby boy:

I made it before I knew if they were having a boy or a girl, so I tried to choose a neutral (but fun!) colourway. It's Patons Look At Me, which is a nice acrylic, since we're heading into summer I didn't think wool would be a good choice. I found I really like a 1x1 rib for baby stuff (sock and hat cuffs) since it's soft and plushy, and looks pretty even while still having lots of stretch.

Someone commented that I was having a BLUE mood with all the photos in the last post. I realize my Sophie Bag I also have on the needles is blue too! I did do one baby project recently that's not blue, it's bright rainbow veregated, actually. I'll try to snap a photo before I gift it tonight.

I'm still working on Soleil. I ripped out what I had done to cast on again, hopefully fixing the curling issue. It didn't help, it's still curling, but it appears others have the same experience so I'm just going to hope it blocks out okay when I'm done. I'm just starting the third lace repeat now. Hopefully I can pick up speed a bit, the weather turned warm here laely so I'd like to get this done to wear it!

I found an old abandoned sweater in my stash that would be great for the warmer weather. About 2 years ago I started making a cap sleeved cotton sweater, knit in the round from the bottom-up. My own design.(I had delusions of submitting it to knitty, even, though it was far to plain and then I lost my pattern notes) It got forgotten for a while, and then I realised it wouldn't fit, as I'd gained a few(cough) pounds, so I just abandoned it. Pulling it out the other day I realized it would almost fit me now! It needs about an inch more in the yoke, then trim around the neck and it will be done. No finishing since it's in the round, either! I'll have to find some time to work on it soon!

And yes, it's blue too ;P

I sent a couple of knit hats up to my cousin, who just had a baby boy. It's still cold where they live, so I sent one wintery hat, and one summery hat:


I REALLY like the design of that cabled hat, but I can't seem to find out where I originally got the pattern. (someone asked for it so I've been searching but I can't seem to find it) I thought it was in one of the minnowknits books from the library but I've checked them all. I've made this hat about 4 times now and love it every time, I can make it from a photo now, so no worries about finding the pattern.

I've gotten a good start on soleil from knitty.com, here's where I was at yesterday:


It's rolling a bit but I'm going to press on and hope blocking takes care of it.

I'm currently swatching for Soleil from the new issue of Knitty.com. I was looking for something sleeveless to make that I could wear to work as the weather warms up, and luckily this showed up at just the right time! I have some Patons Rio (discontinued I think) that should work nicely, in a light blue colour.

I also started Sophie from magknits.com. It's a nice easy knit, and works up fast on 6mm needles!

Finally finished it, within an hour of leaving for the party! Nothing like finishing something at the last minute, eh? I was pleased with how it ended up, blocking (ironing with steam) helped it out a lot, relaxed and softened the fabric up nicely. It ended up quite large, despite making it in the 9-12 month size and being close on gauge it came out like an 18month+. Oh well, it will work for my neice in the fall. Here's the sweater:

I had to snap a photo quick after gifting, I forgot to take it before I wrapped it up.

Next? Felted bags. I'm in the mood for some quick knit projects, and haven't felted in a while. Maybe I'll even dye some yarn.

Still having trouble with the sweater, found ANOTHER error so I didn't get to block last night, I'm still knitting! I might have to skip the pre-assembly blocking I'd planned.

In other news:

Check out my [cough] large assortment of yarn HERE Sorry the photos and layout are so sad, I don't have time for anything nicer.

Back is done, front pieces are done, and I'm about 1/3 of the way done both sleeves. I'm knitting them at once, since I've heard it's the way to go. It's a little more challenging keeping the yarn from tangling, but it is nice to be able to have the sleeves end up the same length without madly counting rows all the time.

I still have the blocking to do and the neckband, but it's looking doable. I think I'm going to have to block twice, once before I seam everything up, and once after, just to make it look nice, but it shouldn't take too long. The birthday event I'm hoping to gift this at is Saturday at 5pm, so I've got some time......

GRRRRRRRR!

I was just thinking "Wow, I might actually get this sweater done in time for the birthday this weekend" when disaster struck. The pattern all of a sudden seemed wrong. I was thinking "if I decrease like that, the neck will be on the wrong side of this panel.....oh crap, the panel is BACKWARDS!" That's right folks, I knit half of the front of the sweater BACKWARDS!!! I have two right sides. Even my husband remarked on how quick it is to rip out a piece, compared to the time it takes to knit it up.

So now I have to reknit that whole piece, AND do both sleeves, AND assemble it, block it, and find buttons. This weekend seems awfully close, I'm going to have to be a knitting fool.

A word about Tea.....

I love Tea. I drink it pretty much every single day. (Black with milk and sugar, please) If you haven't already heard of them you should really check out Adiago Tea. They have some of the most amazing tea flavours you'll find. And the coolest Tea Wares for brewing in. (I've never seen a teapot like their IngenuiTEA one - such a cool idea, I bet it works great!)

Adiago Tea Rocks.

I'm making fast progress on the sweater, here is what it looked like last night:

That's abotu 8 inches up the back, it needs to be about 11inches to get to the shoulder shaping, I'm hoping to get to that point today. Cotton on small needles is rough knitting though!

Lots of new yarn for me:

My mom was heading past a yarn shop out of town and I asked her to peek in and see if they had any more of this 'Topacio' Cotton/Acrylic yarn I liked in the sale bin. Well, they had two balls (top right corner) but they also had all this pink and blue cotton/acrylic she figured I'd like, and the purple acrylic that just looked nice :) The pink is already well on it's way to becoming a toddler sweater for my neice. My sister's birthday is in 10 days, I'm trying despirately to finish it in that time. I wish I weren't working with 3.5mm needles, but I think it can still be done. It's mostly stockingknit, so it will be fast, mindless knitting at least.

I finished the socks and did up a matching hat. I tried a square top hat I saw in another blog(Bagatell) but I wasn't thrilled with the end result so I'm going to do a regular rounded top for future baby hats, I think.

I finished that white hat, haven't decided if I'm going to make mitts or booties to go with it yet. Instead I started something else. (gotta get the active projects list into double digits - YAY) I made this sock from some Lion Brand Magic Stripes a friend gave me:

I like this yarn, it knits up nice, and is thicker than most sock yarn so it works up quickly. I think this colourway will be good for a boy, I might make a matching hat once the mate is done.

When you have yarn you like working with (unlike that pink junk used for the last hat I posted about) it seems to fly on the needles. Here's a short stint of knitting from today:
It's destined to be a baby hat, likely with matching socks/booties. The yarn is Bernat Satin, and it's really soft, quite nice to knit with. I'm just knitting a 3x1 rib, it should be stretchy enough to accomodate a range of baby head sizes.

More hats, though I need to get some good "boy" patterns as all the expectant moms I know seem to be having boys. I DO NOT LIKE this yarn (Innovation by Lewiscraft) but I do like the pattern and how it turned out:


It's the Quaker Ribbed HAt shrunk down to a smaller size. It still came out toddler-sized, I was aiming for baby-sized.

I've got a little bit of 3 different purple shades of Look At Me yarn left, I'm going to try and make a hat out of them. One is veregated, I might stripe it with a solid purple. Not sure what to do with the small amount of dark purple I have left, I may skip it if I can make a whole hat out of the other two. Perhaps I can add earflaps with it at the end?

I finished the PingPong hat. It's not as deep as I'd like, but I used every last bit of the yarn. All that are left are the trimmings from tieing the tassles on, maybe 6 inches total. The yarn was nice to knit with, soft and squishy, but would be a nightmare for seaming, so I'm glad I did a hat in the round!

I REALLY liked the look of these little Ugg Booties everyone seems to be making. I'm trying to knit for a whole lot of babies right now, so I was considering making these, and I called the yarn store in town that carries Berrocco yarns. A mere $16.49 a ball for the Suede yarn. The pattern calls for 2 balls of the yarn PLUS a little of another kind for the trim. Those would be some DAMN pricey booties, I think I'll pass.

The star blanket is getting slower, the rows are longer and longer as the blanket gets bigger. It's also less fun to work on as I can't watch TV or read blogs while I crochet, I have to watch my hands. I'm going to try and do a round every day though, I'd really like to see the end result sometime soon!

I started a hat in PingPong yarn in Pink by Bernat. It looks and feels really neat, but doesn't seem that practical for a sweater. I didn't notice the yardage was so short, I don't know if I will have enough for the hat. I'll just keep knitting and see if I have enough, it goes fast so if I have to rip it out that's not a huge deal. I might use some Satin yarn I have in bright pink along with it if needed. I don't know if stripes or colour blocks would look better though........

Still working on the blanket. It's coming along really nicely, I can't wait to finish and see how it looks done.

I'm working on a little crochetes mouse right now, from a pattern here:
http://www.sarahanns.com/crochetworks/animals.html It's a lot smaller than I expected, but it will be really cute, I think.

The star baby blanket is coming along nicely. I'm really enjoying crochet! I do find it requires more attention than knitting, I have to watch my hands while I do it, but that's ok. Here's the blanket so far:

(moved the photo to another host so it wouldn't take so long to come up)