boogaj

I Need This!

I *really* want Phildar's Irlandais. How do I get it?!? Anyone know?

Very Satisfying

My Mom came by for coffee this morning (it's out regular Friday thing -- having my Mom close is one of the reasons that I like living in Joliet) and I had her take a couple of pictures of me modeling Charlotte. The pose above caused Maddie to say, "Oh Mommy! You look like a beautiful butterfly!" Isn't that the sweetest thing ever? She calls it my butterfly shawl now.

And here I am all wrapped up. It's what A.A. Milne would call a "rather blustery day" here in the Chicago suburbs and I have been snuggling with Charlotte all day. I just want to tell you how much I enjoyed this project. I really don't think that I have ever made anything that made me this happy. I enjoyed knitting it and I enjoy wearing it. I'm even contemplating my next shawl -- now this is a shocker because I never thought that I would wear a shawl and I didn't think that I would enjoy knitting lace.

In other news, my Chamonix yarn remains a mystery. I tried making Nettle but decided that since losing the weight, it was just going to be too big. Then I tried casting on Tide which is from Rowan's Cotton Tape booklet, gauge was fine, but the Chamonix yarn didn't have enough drape and after about 15 rows, I knew it wasn't going to work. Now what?

So, I put that away for the time being and started working on my felted bag pattern. I'm knitting up the bag in a second size and them I'm going to write up the pattern. Felting is a great love of mine and after the Chamonix failure, this feels very good. Don't ya just love the feel of wool on a chilly rainy day?

Feelin' Better!

Maddie slept through the night and she's feeling so much better. Thanks for all the "get well soon" wishes that you sent her way!

In celebration, I finished her boa. This was knit from Sirdar's Gigi. A super gaudy yarn that is just perfect for an (almost) 3 yr. old girl. It's super soft too! Really a fun little project.

Whew!

Excuse my language, but Charlotte was a bitch to block. If I knew how much work it would be I would have skipped my workout this morning. After several attempts, I got her pinned down and I think she looks pretty good. I couldn't quite stretch her out to the dimensions that were called for, and I think Theresa had the same problem. The crochet edge needs to be done VERY loosely to get enough elasticity in the edge. If I were ever to do this again, I would use a bigger crochet hook than they recommend for that part.

I had a lot of time to work on Charlotte this weekend because my sweet little angel has croup. She's still pretty wiped out and (I'm getting worn out from taking care of her). Doesn't she look exhausted?

Theresa and I were supposed to go visit the guys at ThreadBear last weekend, but needless to say we didn't go. I was really looking forward to getting away, meeting them and adding to the stash. Hopefully we'll make it out there soon!

Trying on Blue Cardie

Here I am in blue cardie. I tried to turn so you could see the cable that runs up the arm. What do you think?

My next project is a felted bag pattern. I've made up the first model and I need to make a small adjustment. Then I'm going to knit it up again and have a friend knit it up. After that I'll show it to all of you. More on that another day!

Who is Blue Cardie?

Blue Cardie is a raglan cardigan made from Tahki's New Tweed. She has 3/4 length sleeves with a cable detail. She is stockinette stitch with a seed stitch border. But perhaps the most amazing thing about her is that she was made and *designed* by me! I can hardly believe it!

This is the first sweater that I have ever completed and I'm on a serious high. Sure there were a couple of tank tops and even a little sweater for Maddie, but this is an honest to goodness sweater! I'll have Pete take some pictures of me wearing it this weekend.

Since I designed this sweater too, I want to say a little about that process. I had never knit a raglan sweater before, so frankly I was totally discombobulated when I started. I knew that I wanted that cable to go up to the neck though, so I persisted. That's my favorite detail in the completed sweater. I also like the side shaping and I'm surprised to find that the neckband I finally chose (simple seed stitch like the rest of the trim) worked out well. Now for things that didn't work. I think it may be a little large in the body. I designed this to be a sweater to throw on when I'm chilly, so it may work out after all in the bulkier clothes months. But I made it 20 inches across and I'm only about 35 in. around the bust. I also think the sleeves might be a little long. I wanted 3/4 length and wasn't sure how to go about getting that with a raglan. I'll have a better idea next time.

One book that was a great help in this learning process was Sweater Design in Plain English by Maggie Righetti. I also used Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book extensively. If you don't have this book, I highly recommend it. My mom got it for me one Christmas many years ago and I find myself using it to look up things during many knitting projects.

Charlotte is waiting for some attention, so I think I'll work on her before I start another sweater. Isn't knitting great?

What took me so long?

Well, I finally finished knitting Blue Cardie and I'm not sure why it took so long. After an initial flurry of activity, I set it aside with only one front piece left. Yesterday I started and finished that piece. So, why did something that took so little time to knit get shoved aside for so long? Hmmmm. . .

I don't have any fancy blocking board, so I had to improvise. This is the first sweater that I have knit (although I have completed two tank tops this past summer), and I wasn't sure how to start the blocking process. Basically I set down a towel and started pinning. I ran out of pins before I could get the last two pieces done, so they will have to wait until this afternoon. Then I got a hand towel fairly damp, set it down on top of each piece piece and gently ran a very hot iron over the wet towel. It sounded very steamy, so I'm assuming that the steam penetrated the knitted piece below. We'll see when I take out the pins this afternoon. The pieces aren't really wet because the steam was so hot, so I assume that I don't need to keep them pinned down very long. Wish me luck.

Tonight I hope to start the seaming, yipee!

Wizards and Witches

I haven't gotten much knitting done because I have been feverishly reading Harry Potter books! I read the first one years ago and I liked it a lot but I didn't have the others at home, so I never got around to continuing. Then Theresa started reading them on her lovely trip to France. I decided to re-read the first book and now I can't stop. I just picked up number 4 from the library this morning.

Oh yeah, and I'm working on a new felted bag design. More info later!

New Rebecca

The new Rebecca is online, or at least a preview. Looks like some very cute wearable designs. They even have a new free pattern.

New Knitting Blogs Homepage

The Knitting Blogs Homepage has moved! You can find it here:

http://boogaj.typepad.com/knitting_blogs/

Whew! Glad I got that imported and switched over. It really wasn't that difficult with TypePad, but I still had to configure everything and that takes time. I'm happy that it's finally done.

German Booga Bags!

Susanne at Stricknadel & Co. has been kind enough to translate my Booga Bag pattern into German. Thanks Susanne! Can't wait to see the bags made by the German Knitting Bloggers!