Right now, I am in the midst of a Postman Pat sweater vest for my dear friend’s little boy. I found the pattern for next to nothing on Etsy, and I know it is the same pattern that my husband’s Nan had back in the 80s. Both my husband and my daughter were big fans of Pat in their younger years, and though they’ve both grown out of it now, I really wanted to make this pattern.
That being said, this is intarsia, and the back of this sweater currently looks like yarn barf. It is so fiddly, cutting tiny strips of yarn for just three stitches here and there, and there are LOTS of ends.
BUT I’m still having fun with this.
I’ve already knit the majority of the back of the sweater, which I did while I was waiting on a couple of colors I needed for the front (and which I ended up ordering from England and waiting quite some time for).
My hope was this would be to my friend by Christmas, but seeing as where I am with it now, I think we can all agree it will either be a New Year’s or Valentine’s sweater. 🙂
ONE WEEK TILL CHRISTMAS! Hope you’re all enjoying the season, and not panicking too much.
This week, my 6-year-old daughter asked very earnestly that I teach her to knit right now. We’re only a couple of rows in to a small garter stitch project, but I am absolutely over the moon that she is interested!
We started a “bookmark” (basically the world’s smallest scarf) a year or two ago when she asked to try. Back then, I was pretty much doing most of the work – I was always wrapping the yarn and helping her manipulate the needles. This time, we’ve started a different project, and she’s doing it almost entirely solo.
It makes this knitting mama’s heart sing! Look at those hands!
I’m joining in with Carole on Three on Thursday, and today I’m sharing three knitting projects in various states of progress.
One – I’m knitting BK a new Wee Wildflower. I made her one a couple of years ago that still fits, and I think it’s the most-worn knit item of her life. It’s still working for her because those 3/4 sleeves are very forgiving (though now it’s about at elbow height), but she does need one in a bigger size very soon. I’ve got the body and sleeves finished, and they’re drying on the blocking board right now (picture above).
Two – I am knitting my third Sproutlette. I made one for BK, one for a very dear friend’s baby, and am now working on another one (though I promise it is not for my own baby). I absolutely adore this pattern, and think it is a must for all special girl babies in my life.
Three – I have the most of the yarn for, but have not yet cast on, a Postman Pat vest. I bought the pattern off Etsy for next to nothing and cannot wait to get stuck into this one! My LYS didn’t have all the colors I need, so I need to order a couple more for the intarsia bits. But this will hopefully be on the needles very soon!
In case you wondered how these three projects are fitting in with my new minimalism kick, two of them are destined for locations other than my house, and the other one will certainly be loved and used a lot. If you want to read more about my journey, check out yesterday’s post on decluttering anxiety!
I’d also love to hear what you’re making – so drop me a line in the comments. 🙂
A couple of months ago, I started looking for a pattern that would work with a large quantity of Cascade Longwood Sport that I won at my LYS during a Cascade event at the shop. It was the perfect neutral color and it was enough for an adult sweater with 3/4 sleeve (a pattern was included). But I didn’t like the pattern. Plus, as much as I probably shouldn’t say this as a knitter, I’m not really a sweater wearer. However, my daughter loves a handknit cardigan to throw on, and she’d outgrown the last one I made. So after a little Ravelry browsing, I settled on the Chain cardigan pattern because it was lovely and classic with just a little detail.
I have to say that I found knitting with the Longwood Sport frustrating. It was fine to knit it, but if you had to tink back at all, the yarn basically would completely untwist and then it would get very splitty and it made it unpleasant to get back on track. Given that I messed up the cable quite a few times (since you’re on cruise control stockinette for a couple hundred stitches it’s easy to forget the twist on the last few stitches of each row), this was an issue for me.
I left this sweater unfinished for several weeks, though I just had to do the bind off, weave in the ends and graft the underarms. On a very unseasonably cool day a few weeks ago, I was bummed I’d put it off. The next day, I finished it all off and gave it a bath so I wouldn’t be caught out again!
My daughter wears a size 6 or 7 depending on the brand, and I knit a size 8. It turned out to be nearly dress length (only about an inch shorter than her favorite dress).
The sleeves have almost 2 inches extra. Since the sleeves are slim, you can get away with wearing them without folding them back and they don’t look bulky, but you can also fold them back.
I took my daughter with me to my LYS and she picked out these multi-color heart buttons. I asked if she had a preference on the order they went on the cardigan, and she did! I love her little notations on the paper the buttons came on.
We only needed four of them, so only 1-4 made it on the cardigan. I think they add a really sweet finishing touch.
Given that she wore it all afternoon when I finished it, despite it being a very warm summer day, I’m considering it a win! I think it will be perfect when the temperatures cool down. And look at that twirl power!
One The first thing I am working on is a So Faded sweater for my daughter that I actually started in October of 2017. When I picked it back up last month, I realized that the size I was knitting was now too small for her – but not before I knit several more inches on it to try it on her. It’s all been ripped out, the yarn reclaimed (using a similar process that I did for this sweater), and I’m near the bottom of the body and have started a sleeve. This time around I’ve made some mods (one should be obvious)… but I’ll share those when I get done and make sure they’ve worked out the way I wanted. 🙂
Two My daughter asked for a twin-sized Toy Story quilt when she saw all the Toy Story fabrics that were available. I designed a quilt, bought fabric, decided I could do better on the design… and have redesigned it at least 3 times. I recently realized I made a math error on the design I’ve settled on… so we’ll see what happens with that!
Three I’ve been thinking a lot about how to tackle a sportweight sweater for my daughter out of some organic cotton I bought at a fiber festival last year. I’ve been round and round thinking about what pattern I want to use, and whether I’m going to do a design on it, and if I do will it be colorwork or intarsia or stripes. I have still made no decisions on this, but have spent a lot of time on Ravelry looking at patterns and letting my mind chug through options.
What a week it’s been! It’s been full of surprises, and not really in a great way for me. But… we’re chugging along.
Joining with Carole today for Three on Thursday – so here is my list of three things from this week:
One I ordered a beautiful bright green dress for my daughter from Primary this week, with the intention of it being a St. Patrick’s Day dress that will have a longer life than one with shamrocks on it. I ordered short sleeves so it can transition into spring, and I had the somewhat crazy idea that I could finish her Chains cardigan in time for her to wear it over her new dress at a St. Patrick’s themed piano lesson event she is going to on March 15. I initially dismissed this idea immediately – no way would I finish it by then – the rows are so long! And then I thought, if I stopped working on all my other projects, it just might be feasible. But…
Two I already have two active projects in other crafts, the Halloween SAL cross stitch and a Girl Scouts quilt. I’m enjoying both of them, but splitting my time between these and knitting is not leaving much time for me to finish either of them.
Three For my birthday, I asked my mom to buy me the supplies to make the St. Patrick’s Day Countdown and Easter Countdown from The Sugar House Shop. (You may remember I’ve already made an advent calendar and a Valentine’s countdown from her shop. I’ve also made a birthday countdown of hers… but I just realized I never blogged it!) They arrived this week… and I’m also itching to try to start and finish the St. Patrick’s Day countdown before the beginning of March. Which again, I could do, if I quit working on everything else!
Ah… if I was good at being project monogamous, things would get done! I’m willing to give it a go, I just can’t decide which one I should go for. What do you think?
Since it’s Thursday, and Valentine’s Day, here are three things I plan to do today to celebrate (even though Valentine’s Day is not my favorite):
One I went downstairs after everyone was in bed last night, and decorated the kitchen table. My daughter has a little Valentine’s mailbox she made last year, and I put her card, some heart cookies (from IKEA that she asked for), and a couple of pieces of chocolate in the mailbox. I left my husband’s card out with a Hershey’s Kiss. It’s a nice start to Valentine’s morning when they come downstairs! My daughter will also have the last piece of candy out of her Valentine’s Countdown (pictured above), which I made last year.
Two We will eat pizza for dinner. My husband and I have had pizza at home for Valentine’s Day every year that we have been married. Tonight, I am going to make a honey whole wheat pizza dough and basil pesto from Love Real Food. We had it a couple of weeks ago and it was DELICIOUS.
Three A couple of weeks ago, my daughter and I made some hearts. We took some paper from a big roll, painted it randomly with a bunch of different colors (including a little glow-in-the-dark paint), and then cut out hearts. We’ve taped them to our kitchen windows to make it a little festive in there.
Head over to Carole’s blog to see who else is participating this week!
The sun is shining!! I feel like I need to send out a news bulletin about it.
I find, the older I get, the more the weather really affects my energy and mood levels, and we have had SO MANY grey days this winter. Today, though it’s just barely above freezing, the sun is at least shining. I am full of joy!
In other news, my knitting mojo has been coming and going in major swings. There was not one thing I wanted to knit for several weeks, so I went back to my cross stitch and quilting for a while. But my daughter really needs a new cardigan (she is rapidly outgrowing everything in her sweater drawer), and I found this pattern, and I also happened to have the perfect yarn in my stash for it… so I’m back to knitting some. The yarn is Cascade Longwood Sport, which I won at a Cascade event a few years ago at my LYS. Somehow, this is making it more fun, because it feels like I’m knitting for free (though I did have to buy the pattern). And the little heart stitch markers make it feel very seasonal. 🙂
Well, before I decided that, I hatched a plan to knit 4 little dinosaurs. It’s a super cute pattern and I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. Given that I have a little dinosaur lover, it seemed a no brainer.
I decided a little pink and purple dinosaur was exactly what my daughter needed to go with her purple and pink large dinosaurs.
I also thought these would make fantastic gifts, so I decided to make three more for very special kids I know.
I wanted them all to be different because I think that every kid deserves their own unique toy if you’re going to be making it by hand. I worked from the same four colors from all of them (all in 100% cotton), but used them in different combinations.
The first one I made was a blue and green one. I opted for stripes and spikes and no spots on him. Then I used purple and green for his sister’s dinosaur, skipped the stripes and spikes and added spots. I’m not sure why the one with stripes turned out so much smaller than the solid one. Maybe I can’t count? 🙂
After working these two, I decided I preferred the solid dinosaurs with no spikes (maybe because I didn’t enjoy knitting the spikes? :-)), so I proceeded to make the final two that way. The purple and blue one (below) went to my friend who is expecting, and the pink and purple one (pictured at the top of this post) was a Christmas present for my daughter. My daughter was thrilled and immediately named it Dino Jr. (because it looks like a small version of this one I made her, which she would only call Dino despite my best intentions).
All in all, I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. The pattern was very good and clear. I also definitely appreciate that you pick up and knit the feet, tail, spikes, etc, which keeps you from having to sew up a million tiny pieces. However, I’m not sure I’d make it again. I think 4 is my limit. And, you know, because I’ve sworn off toy making.
We spent this weekend getting in the spirit for Christmas.Â
On Saturday, we all went over to my mom and dad’s house for our annual gingerbread house decorating. We only have 3 littles in the family now, but we made 11 houses because the adults like doing it, too! 🙂Â
I have made a gingerbread house for almost every year of my life. I remember bringing Mr. Snips to my  parents’ house to make gingerbread houses when we were first dating. I knew it was a good sign when he took the decorating seriously. He had never made one before then, and he was FOCUSED. And his house turned out better than mine. Some things never change, and his houses still turn out better than mine.Â
On Sunday, we went to a Christmas market, which is something we’d never done locally. It was fun (we had gluehwein!), and there were a lot of activities for kids.Â
I spent some time before we headed out to the market scheming up some new projects. After a stash dive, I came up with this combo for a Cheery Scrap Hat, because BK needs a new hat with ear flaps.Â
I also pulled this gorgeous rainbow yarn to start a pair of fingerless mitts for BK. She is always taking mine out of my pocket even though they are way too large for her. I think it’s time she had some just for her in a yarn she adores.Â
knitsnips 