Inspiration day

I have to admit that I'm an easy sell for knitting and crochet patterns. I have enough to last two lifetimes even if I made something new every day. And yet, when a new pretty crosses my path I find myself reaching and wanting... It's not the actual belief that I will knit every one... it's more about the way the patterns make me feel in terms of inspiration. There are some patterns and pattern books that just make my creativity soar when I thumb through. They are like my own art board and their pattern pictures people my imagination.

Here is a good example:


Kim Hargreaves' two latest booklets, Amber (on the right) and Breeze, this season's stylebook.

The designs in Breeze are lighthearted and, well...breezy. I can easily see them (on me) as I walk along the ocean sands with bare feet and a brisk wind tossing salt-water spray...





Amber is more moody and suits my style perfectly:

almost vintage...



classic...



comfortable...



I don't know if I'll stop my baby knitting for long enough to actually make any of these, but I'll be inspired all summer.

warm hearts and handspun bums

I am almost done with knitting diaper covers. This week's edition is the Plain Wrap from Warm Heart Woolies.



This style is a more modern and convenient update of the vintage "Pilch" patterns that are knit like a triangle and fasten in the front with buttons. I can only imagine how difficult little buttons would be while trying to diaper a wriggling baby.





These fasten quickly and simply with a very soft Velcro. I had to search around in the Velcro boxes and packages to find one where the hook side was as soft - or almost - as the fuzzy side. It can be found! It just takes some time and searching. It's marked "extra soft". The sales ladies at Joann's Fabric Store thought I was nuts. But I did find it eventually.




This yarn - on both of these - is from a fantastic Etsy seller, Shunklie. The yarn is handspun and dyed in beautiful soft colours. I was in love with these skeins. There is a lot left in each skein so I may make some baby sweaters, too. There's nothing like a handspun natural yarn for some precious baby knits...



So, really, I'm done with this end of the baby - at least for a little while. What should I make next?

Embroidered Baby Diaper Covers

I've had a handful of queries about the embroidered diaper covers in my last post. Although I did use a vintage pattern from my collection, I added the short row back shaping and leg ribbing from a lovely pattern that you can use to use to make something very similar. This is the "Diaper Covers" pattern from The Expectant Knitter by Marie Connolly of StitchDC.





And speaking of Stitch DC, I had a chance to visit both Stitch DC stores when I was in Washington on a work trip last month. They were lovely! I was looking for local "souvenir" yarn, and was able to get some beautiful handspun, hand-dyed lace weight yarn made by one of the women who works there. The Georgetown shop has since closed, but I hear that the Capitol Hill shop is expanding! You can read all about it on Marie's blog, linked above.

The yarn for the Diaper covers was KnitPicks Risata cotton and elastic sock yarn. It comes in bright colours, is machine washable, and extremely soft and comfy for baby clothes.

The embroidery was a unique feature that I added. Everyone who has mentioned it to me says they love the dinosaur. Well.... this green dino was supposed to be a giraffe! At least, that's what I started out with, but by the time I finished the head, I was thinking that it was more like a dinosaur with the green pearl cotton, so I changed the body and legs and tail and...Dino it is! I did the embroidery freehand, but after the fact drew up the chart to share with you:



The elephants were totally random - I wanted to do one elephant but made it too small so I added another beside it and then decided I wanted a bit of colour, so I added a third elephant in the light blue pearl cotton! I'm not sure they're completely successful, but they're cute so I've charted them out for your use too:



The swallows chart is from a 1920's crochet sweater pattern and can also be found on Ravelry as the 1920 Retro Bird Filet Square, though the link leads to the same online sweater pattern with its flying swallow charts.

So there you have it - Cushy covers for cheerful babies! I've just finished some brithday knitting and will show that after it's opened byt he recipient next week. In the meantime, I'm working on some wonderful natural wool soakers (another Vintage concept!) with handspun wool.

bluebirds, and elephants, and dinosaurs - Oh My!

It's

A

BOY!!!

Yes, that's right. A baby boy is coming into our family. We're so excited and happy! Little Jule is going to have a little jewel of her own! That's why all my knitting has been preempted by baby-knitting. Yesterday, at a work meeting I just made a list of all the things I'm going to make while others were talking. I have a list for now and a list for later!

NOW:

1 silk bonnet (done)
3 vintage undershirts
2 sleeping buntings
1 buster brown booties
1 Baby Surprise jacket
3 diaper covers (done)
1 soft cotton blanket

LATER:

2 bear head blankets
1 hooded sweater
1 navy blue Navy coat
1 navy blue sailor pants
1 Dokumon pants
3 pairs socks (1 done)
2 cardigans (1 BSJ done)
2 hats (1 done)


In other news, my local yarn store had a sale last weekend and I had great fun browsing the shelves and chatting with the friendly staff. Here is a picture of the lovely Lori and Kelly showing their new shop aprons!



I was quite taken with the aprons and mentioned that they would be great for knitting - a place to put all the little tools you need for your project, as well as your center-pull ball of yarn. When I got home and opened by bag I found one nestled slyly under my sale yarn!! How nice is that!?!? I love my LYS - the Elegant Ewe.

Boundary Issues?

I just found out that someone (or perhaps more than one person) has entered all the patterns that they found here on my blog onto Ravelry. Many of these are not patterns that I have finished perfecting or test knitting. All of the write-ups they entered are incomplete and poorly done or inaccurate. On some of them, this person even Changed The Name of the pattern!!!

I am a designer. I do this professionally and have sold my designs for some years now. I take care and pride in what I put out there and am careful of what venue I use to post my patterns when they are "in process" and when they are complete.

Co-opting someone else's patterns as though they were your own and uploading them to Ravelry - especially when the designer is an active contributing member - is really offensive to me. Attributing the pattern to me is not enough to absolve you of this offensive action.

Designers have the right to be self-determining in where and in what manner their own designs are made public. Others do not have the right to take this upon themselves. Uploading or entering a pattern that the designer considers "not ready for Ravelry" is not your call.

Just because it is on someone's blog doesn't give you the right to make it available on another site, especially a site like Ravelry, which for many designers is considered a professional showcase of their art - it certainly was for me.

If you've done this to me or to other designers, I ask that you delete your entries unless and until you have the permission of the designer.

Oh, and... Thanks for the sleepless night.

we definitely believe in a joyful future

I had a birthday on the 16th and I managed to extend the fun for a week and a half. My celebration included good food, good friends, and good yarn. Usually birthdays are cues for serious thinking and pondering of the future, but I was not so serious. The closest I came to that was when I pulled out some non- digital photos and contemplated life, the universe and all that...



Don't I look very 80's!?

The yarn was good - from Webs in Northampton, Mass, where my bf and I made a lunch of eclairs and fruit tarts, to Patternworks in Center Harbour, NH, where we went grocery shopping and found homemade jams and local chocolates and watched a small airplane land on the iced-over lake...



Right in front is a wonderful sock yarn Zauberball that my friend Nad sent me from Germany. And there's Mini Mouchi and Malabrigio and a Namaste sock needle case, and my friend Melanie gave me a really beautiful green and blue "Knit Kit" from SlipStitch Studios.

I have been knitting several things at once: diaper covers from bright colours of Knitpicks Riasta, Shur'tagal in STR Oma Desala (shhhh! don't tell anyone - it's a KAL that doesn't start until next Wednesday!), a drapey shawl-sweater in Malabrigo Baby Lace, the Stone Chat colourway; a hooded baby towel in Knitpicks Crayon 100% loopy cotton. So rumours of slacking are totally unfounded. Knitting has been happening! But no designing. Last year I was so full of creative designs that I made something new almost every month. This year, 3 months has already passed (almost) and I've spent my time making other people's patterns...

I suppose it's because I've been knitting for comfort since January. There have been some hard parts to recent life, and stomach-constricting thrift that sucked the joy out of each breath... for a while, just a little while. Things are on a more even keel just now. We definitely believe in a joyful future.

A final interesting note - One of my local yarn stores, The Elegant Ewe, just told me that they've ordered 12 copies of the book I did sample knitting for, A Stitch In Time. As far as I know, it's the first store in the US to carry it! More and more projects from this beautiful book are popping up on Ravelry and each one is so lovely. I want so much to keep my copy new that I've been reluctant to take it around to show it off. So if you're one of my friends who has been trying to get me to share by prying it out of my clutching fingers - neener neener! Get yer own book!

Surprise Baby Surprise

I've been making little things these last few weeks...like the Baby Surprise jacket:



Here it is in all its glory, made of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock yarn lightweight, in Goody Goody... The buttons are so cute - peeping baby chicks! I have ahuge collection of buttons, including baby buttons I've saved for years for just these types of projects, but could I find any that matched this sweater? no...noooooooo. Of course not! I was happy to find these at the yarn store though...



and socks that match the rest of the Petroglyphs family:



These are also made of BMFA STR lightweight. The colour is Petroglyphs, of course. Very tiny. The pattern is found on Ravelry and is called Little Eyelet socks.

and finally, I've made a little silk hat similar to the one my friend Ziarah made for her niece. I used some generic silk from China that I got at the weaving store. It was very inexpensive for pure silk, about $5.60 per skein - it must be the base fiber that yarn companies buy to dye and then charge a million dollars for. This pattern is the Feather and Fan baby bonnet, also free on Ravelry.



They sort of match:



Now, I'm in the midst of making 3 newborn diaper covers that I think I'll embroider on: an elephant, a giraffe (if I can find a graph), and a turtle (ditto). After that I want to knit some baby wash cloths and towels...

Sometimes life crowds so much into such a short period of time. Its almost like being swept under by a large powerful and particularly beautiful ocean wave.