A Pinch of Knit and a Dash of Purl

(no) Wildflower Sweater

    Almost 2 months back I went to Gauge look to find some O-Wool. Thanks to this post and also this one, I was looking to get my hands on some squishy-ness.  Unfortunately Karlie had ordered some but it had not come in yet. Fast forward 2 months later it was in.  So last week as I was dropping off yarn (more on that later) I snatched up 3 skeins cause I knew I was gonna make a sweater for my chunky monkey.  As soon as I got home I wound up a cake and swatched. This is what it looks like before washing and blocking.  Doesn't it just look squishy.

As It was drying I decided to pour over the few children's knit books that I own and a some magazines and come up with a game plan.  I only got through one book cause I saw this and wanted to knit it.  (Ravelry link ) But my gauge is totally off. But then I started thinking.  What is it that I like about? I like the shape the bell sleeves, the neckline, the cables and the wildflowers of course but instead of buying yarn for that sweater I decided to modify the pattern to suit me and my yarn. So after consulting my paper and pencil (old school, I know) and a little math later I started knitting in the round.  And at this gauge I gotta tell ya, It goes by fast.  Before I knew it, I was at the part where I had to split the stitches for the front and back cables.  I had to  rip out the cables a few times to get it just right.  Actually it wasn't just the cables that I had to re-think.  I didn't swatch for the cables so I had no idea how much the fabric would gather so I actually had to do a lot fewer armhole bind-offs.  I had no problem ripping and re-knitting this yarn. It held up beautifully.   I also had to re-work the  neck decreases  a couple of times till it was just right. Here is a closeup of the neck with a crochet finish. 

The arms were (surprisingly) a no-brainer.  I tried it on her as I went.  I  decided on a set in sleeve and a double decrease every 2 rows for the arms cause without that they'd be huge.  They billow but not engulf her arm.   I've actually completed the 2nd arm this morning and it's enjoying a nice cool soak as I type. Even with the over-sized arms this little number took less than 2 skeins.  I still have a whole other skein to work with. I can't wait till it's dry and wearable.  Hopefully we'll have sunny weekend so I can get some decent light for some photos. 

I'm actually a little sad that I'm done.  I have house guests coming tomorrow so no time to wallow.  I need to get the guest  room ready and vacuum the dust bunnies since it's the one room in the house we never go into unless someone's coming over to stay.  That also means I can just work on my WIP's instead of starting something new.  But that's okay.  Maybe I'll just wind some yarn and swatch all weekend while my guests are here.  Cause with them coming that means there will be 5 kids under this one roof (and only 1 is mine) so I have breakables to move to locked closets.  Damn, I gotta go.

Thanks for looking.  Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

xoxo,
nana

Swing Coat

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    This FO was started and completely done within the same month. Wow.  I'm quite proud of myself.  I usually procrastinate with all the finishes like the buttons.  C.M. actually picked the buttons out herself which was fine by me since I'm usually so indecisive about things like that.  It just so happened they were perfect for her new coat which was a small miracle as she was more concerned about cuteness and not size and function.  Here she was grumpy cause I was forcing her to stand still for a minute while a get a few good shots of her in the coat. 

Pattern: Girlfriend Swing Coat by Wendy Bernard (ravelry)
Size: 4 years
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpaca Dyed Cotton 3 skeins Honeydew 1 skein Thistle for contrasting I-cord
Needle: size US 6 (4.00 mm) bamboo circulars
Started 1/3/08 Finished 1/16/08  Sewed on buttons 1/30/08

    Here's a close up of the i-cord button holes and flower buttons.

    I love this knit. It's so nice.  I made it one size bigger than my chunky monkey actually is.   And really it's not too big at all.  The main difference in the size 2yrs vs 4yrs is not width but length which is were my concern was.  But honestly when she grows out of this I know I'll be making her a new one.  The knitting was a joy.  And the yarn was so nice.  Soft and easy on the hands.

    C.M. can't get enough of this coat.  What she loves the most about it is that it's a princess coat.  And by that, she means, she can wear the big poofy girly-girl dresses (see pic above) she so loves to wear and not have them squished like her other jacket tends to do.  There is enough flair and room at the bottom of the coat that she can twirl round and round ( her favorite thing to do) and her skirt and jacket twirl with her.  Something I didn't think about as I was making it but it's a nice surprise.

Thanks for reading.

xoxo,
nana

Surprise!

Here it is! It's long overdue. I only have time for a quicky post.  I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

Pattern: Baby Surprise Sweater from Opinionated Knitter by Elizabeth Zimmerman
Needles: US size 6 bamboo 34in circulars (knitted straight)
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden

 

I followed the pattern and it ended up being a good size.  Definitely a cool weather sweater, which is all we've been having here in central TX.  I went with one button at the top so she can move around some.  For the next one ( because how can there not be a next one?) I'll do the i-cord bind-off. At the time I was a little intimidated by it but now that I've done it on my current WIP it's easy-peasy.

xoxo
-nana

Home stretch

For those looking for knitting content, scroll down.

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

But I will tell you the highlights.  First night we were there we saw The Producers starring Tony Danza as Max Bialystock at the Paris. This was my first time seeing it. It was really funny and the tunes are so catchy that at times I find myself singing "Springtime for Hitler".  We liked it so much we Netflix'd the movie starring Nathan Lane and Mathew Brodrick.  The Gag Reel on the DVD had us rolling.  Funny stuff.

The next night we partied at The Venetian.  We (which included Mia) ate at Enoteca San Marco one of Mario Batali's restaurants located at the Grand Canal Shoppes St. Marks Square. Which is so gorgeous.  It feels like your walking through river walk streets instead of a shopping mall. What really makes it seem that way is the ceiling which is painted like a cloudy sky and the lighting is nice and bright. So it's always daylight, which can throw you off at  10pm.

The food at Enoteca San Marco was so yummy we tried to eat as much as we could since no doggie bags would be possible since we had a show to catch afterwards.  We started off with a cheese plate and some wine for us adults.  My fav! The entrees were huge! But we managed.  Even Mia who's a light eater ended up eating 90% of her meal it was so good. We skipped dessert, we were kinda in a hurry by then.

A quick walk to the other side of the Venetian and we were at the Phantom of The Opera theater. Wow! The play was great the special theatrical effects were a really nice touch.  It was really fun to see Mia's reaction to all the theater magic since this was her first time to a big production like this.  One downer was there was this really annoying girl next to us.  She was so wasted and loud. One good thing though about 1/2 hour in to the show she fell asleep and slumped forward so much she hit the chair in front of her which was unoccupied.  She woke up and left and didn't come back to her seat which was nice for us.

After the show we had an hour to kill so we went back to the Grand Canal Square were we got a gelato and watched the "street" performers and talked about the show. Soon it was time to head to the Blue Man Group theater.  The show was awesome.  This was my 2nd time seeing them in Vegas.  Again Mia was in awe.  She loved it.  All and all a lovely evening.

The next day we went to the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton.  Since Dragon spoiled Mia and I the previous night, I decided to spoil him.  I got him and all inclusive tickets which included taking pictures on different sets and a backstage tour.  He liked it. I even enjoyed myself on the backstage tour.  We of course went on the rides offered. We even had lunch at Quark's.  I bought my chunky monkey some t-shirts and a Tribble. Sorry about the craptastic photo.  They've been in the shopping bag this whole time so they're really wrinkly.  I also got my niece and nephew a t-shirt each.

    I'll be mailing these out after I iron them a bit, just so they're not so wrinkly looking. The caption on the one on the left says ' Captain! This diaper can't take anymore'.  LOL. That evening was a friend of ours wedding at Caesar's Palace. It was a gorgeous ceremony. The dinner was at the Paris at ( I think) Le Artist's Steakhouse.  Great dinner. Lots of fun.

    Now on to knitting. I don't know what exactly I did to this picture to fuck up the color levels but let me just say while editing this photo I had to stop and chase down a kid (not mine) with a marker who is notorious on writing on any surface so I was a bit distracted.  And I'm too lazy now to fix it.  The next one is better.

    This is the Girlfriend Swing Coat by Wendy Bernard.  Her's was the first knitting blog I encountered and I've been reading it ever since.  Funny how I've been reading fer blog for 2+ years now and this is the first pattern of hers I've knitted.  But I know it won't be the one and only.  I love this knit.  I'm on the home stretch now.  I just need, oh lets see, about a million inches of attached i-cord to do.  It's actually going quite fast. As you may have noticed I'm doing the buttonholes with the i-cord, I should be able to do 3 buttonholes.  We'll see how it comes out.  I'm thinking of experimenting with bobbles for buttons.
I'll let you know how it turns out. 

    This is actually the 2nd time I try to knit this.  The first time I had a mix up with my needles and ended up using 2 needle sizes too big. And since it was over the Christmas holidays and I was out of town it had to wait until my Vegas trip.  This is what I knitted at the airports and in the air.  It was going so fast that I only took 1 skein of Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton in Honeydew with me and ended up having nothing to knit on the 2nd half of my flight home.  That's even with no knitting once we landed in Vegas. I used less than 3 skeins.  I had plenty of yarn left over in the honeydew for the attached I-cord but I had already decided to do it in a contrasting color. So I may even knit a hat for my chunky monkey using the leftovers.

Thanks for reading. 

xoxo
nana

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

I'm back from my chunky-monkey-free Vegas trip. Dragon's parents and my mother took turns watching her while we were away. I realize this is the first time I mentioned Vegas.  A friend of ours got married on Saturday at Caesar's Palace. Beautiful wedding.  Got back into town on Sunday.  Been a zombie the last 2 days.  This morning I couldn't wake up.  Poor chunky monkey had to entertain herself for a few hours in my room with only the toys that were in there ( just a few hundred or so ;) while mommy tried to sleep.  No pictures of the trip. We forgot the camera but this afternoon I'll set up a post-Vegas review with some pictures.  Right now I'm waiting for 2:30 to roll around.  I love nap time :)

xoxo
nana

Happy New Year

Buñuelos

A New Year's tradition in our family.  I didn't realize there were so many ways to make bunuelos until I read the wiki page.  The ones we make are small like a tiny tortilla, lightly fried and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.  It's somewhat of a staple for New Year's Day so we usually make them on New Year's Eve.  This year chunky monkey was old enough to help make them (not just eat them all). 

Here she is rolling out the little balls of dough she and my husband made earlier.  Since I was mainly washing dishes as they were coming and taking pictures I didn't partake in the making of the bunuelos.  It fell to my mother to supervise Carmen while my husband fried them up.

She just kept rolling and rolling the little  dough balls  till there were none left.   

Her job was over before they were all cooked so she just sat back and enjoyed one till daddy was finished cooking them up.

And since I've already posted so many pictures of her. Here's one more. 

 

The Lyra Hat from The Golden Compass (pattern found here)
Yarn: Bought on ebay forgot the name of the seller. Hand spun, 6 strands of yarn 1 mohair, 1 silk, 2 wool, 2 alpaca colors are gold, black, white, gray, purple, and tan.
size US 13 straights.

I knocked this thing out in 2 hours .  The pattern is written for an adult size hat so I only cast  on 30 stitches.  I covers her ears and neck which I like. Also the attached I-cord was easier than I thought.

Well, I wish everyone a blessed New Year 2008.

xoxo
nana