Archives for May 2016

I am finishing up knitting borders for my afghan and sewing them on.

To make things as simple as possible, I measured my strip of knitted border and figured out how many garter stripes I needed for one afghan square (8”), slightly stretched — for me that was 32 stripes (or 64 rows). Then as I knit, I pinned a coilless pin on one side of the edging after every 32 stripes.

That way I didn’t have to keep stopping and measuring and it made it much easier to sew into place: I pinned the edging strip along the side of the afghan, matching the pin to each seam between blocks.

Then I sew the edging to the afghan.

I have three of the four edgings complete and sewn on:

Here’s a corner:

I am now knitting the edging for the second short side and Loki is helping.

You may have noticed that my blog was down for 5 or 6 days. Well, I’m back, and patting myself on the back for figuring out a way to get it back online without intervention of my completely non-responsive hosting company. It is best to draw a veil over the past few days, so that is what I shall do.

First of all, the winner of my review copy of  Modern Baby Knits: 23 Knitted Baby Garments, Blankets, Toys and More! by Tanis Gray is Pam in Kansas, who has been emailed.

May has been an extremely busy month for me so knitting time have been curtailed. I did, however, finish all my afghan squares for the Martin Storey Afghan KAL, and sewed them together:

I am now working on knitting the edging.

I have edging sewn on one long edge and am working on the second long edge.

And that’s about it.

Except that Loki is still adorable, even when upside-down!

I have another cute book to review:

This is Modern Baby Knits: 23 Knitted Baby Garments, Blankets, Toys and More! by Tanis Gray and it features 23 patterns for clothing, toys and blankets, all using 3 or fewer skeins of yarn. Published by Interweave, it’s available now in paperback or eBook format.

You can see all the patterns here on Ravelry.

And I picked a few favorites:

This is the Elizabeth Tunic, by Taiga Hilliard Designs. It is knit from DK weight yarn (Dream in Color Everlasting DK) and the pattern is available in 7 sizes. Knit from the top down, it looks relatively easy and is very cute!

I love the sweet simplicity of this bunny, designed by Melissa Schaschwary. It is knit from sport weight yarn (Debbie Bliss Baby) Cashmerino and stands up courtesy a beanbag inserted in the body. Very clever!

There are several blanket patterns in the book and my favorite is the modern Filigree Blanket by Tanis Gray. It’s knit from bulky weight yarn (Neighborhood Fiber Co. Studio Chunky) so you can whip it out pretty quickly.

The ZigZag Vest by Helen Rose is knit from worsted weight (Classic Elite Yarns Liberty Wool) and features jogless stripes with some slipped stitches to add interest.

All in all, a lovely collection of knitted goods for a little one!

Who’d like my review copy?

To be entered in a drawing to receive my copy of Modern Baby Knits: 23 Knitted Baby Garments, Blankets, Toys and More! by Tanis Gray, leave a comment on this blog post by next Wednesday (May 18) at noon Eastern Time.

Current WIP

I have finished the back of Kinsale:

Loki is just completely worn out with supervising me:

This past Thursday the last square pattern was released in the Rowan Martin Storey Afghan KAL.

I’m very pleased that I managed to keep up with the squares as they were released, though sometimes to the detriment of my “main” work-in-progress.

There are 6 squares each of 8 designs, for a total of 48 squares and as of right now, I just have 4 more of the last square pattern to kit. Then comes the edging.

A couple of weeks ago we got the diagram of which square goes where, so I’ve started some sewing up.

Loki is gonna supervise.

Happy May Day!

First things first, the winner of my review copy of Wee Garter Stitch: Must-Have Knits for Modern Babies & Toddlers by Vickie Howell is Mary Beth Cavert, who has been emailed. Thanks to everyone who left a comment to be entered in the drawing. I have more review books coming so the book giveaways will continue!

I’ve spent the last few months working on projects that have been all about color. So it’s time for something completely different:

This is the start of Alice Starmore’s Kinsale, a design from her 1992 book Fishermen’s Sweaters. I knit Kinsale once before, a good 10 years ago. This time I am using this yarn:

Purchased from The Loopy Ewe, it’s natural colored organic cotton. I’m using a U.S. size 3 needle. The yarn is lovely and soft and the sweater is going to be very soft and comfy when done. My only issue is that the yarn is rather splitty. It’s comprised of 4 plies and you have to take care to grab all four plies when inserting the needle tip. Other than that, it is lovely to knit.

In Loki news, I bought him his own little kitty sofa:

I follow Beth Stern on Instagram, and noted that she got this for her kitties. I figured what’s good enough for Beth & Howard Stern’s kitties is good enough for Loki! I found it on Amazon, but it is also available from Doctors Foster & Smith.