I know. Nothing to be excited about for most of you. But for me… apart from two simple headbands (just 2″ k1p1 ribbing in the round) I haven’t been knitting (or crocheting or sewing for that matter) at all this year.
This weekend, I set myself the goal to finish the mittens. I’m still not fully back into my knitting mojo, but I succeeded. At least they’re ready to take with me to The Netherlands when we go (only 10 days from now)
I know, these are very, very basic. But that’s what I wanted them to be in the first place. I like exploring how to shape something and then, when I feel comfortable with it, add (some) more details to the pattern. I think I got these down, so who knows what’s next?*
Also, they make a good set with the balaclava. Rustic, but warm.
*Ha, who am I kidding? More basic stuff, probably. That’s all my mind can handle these days…
After finishing the hat balaclava for my grandson, I thought it would be fun to make it into a set. So I decided to knit him some mittens.
Even though these are my first mittens, I thought I’d wing it. You know… how hard can it be?
Well, actually, not that hard. I’ve always been scared of the thumb, but it’s just making a few stitches and putting them on hold when there are enough. I am having some doubts about the sizing again, but I’m going to roll with the sizes on this really helpful chart.
I finished it yesterday, after redoing the ribbing around the face. The first try was way too tight, I picked up too little stitches. The instructions were a bit vague and warned about not making it to wide, but the second time I ended up picking up one stitch for every row at the sides, and all ten stitches that I had to cast off under the chin and that looks perfect.
After folding the ribbing inwards and sewing it down, I was done!
It looks (too?) small to me, but I don’t really have a clue about baby heads anymore. Normal hats are much more flexible than this, so it worries me a bit. But then again, I did the math.
Well, I sort of did. For the height I followed what the pattern adviced for two year olds. They don’t really give measurements other than stitches for the width and I used thinner yarn, so I had to do a bit of guesswork*, but I think it will be okay. Unstretched the hat covers 32 cm (12″) and I guestimated that the face is about 1/3 of the total head circumference, so that would make 48 (18″) cm, which is what they state as the right size for a two year old.
R. is only one year old, but Dutch babys tend to be a little bit bigger than American babys. Oh wait, this is a British pattern… Gosh, so confusing.
But Dutch people are among the tallest people of the world, so I think our 1 year old Dutch boy should fit perfectly in this size. And if it’s too big, they can always save it for next year.
I will be demanding a try-on the moment I gifted this though. I usually don’t, but the suspense is killing me! (only one month before we go)
p.s. I will also try to take pictures of him wearing it and post some on the blog.
*Yes, I know: gauge! But somehow guessing works better for me. I’ve never gotten things right with gauging.
Over the weekend I cast on for that balaclava and slowly made my way through the neck piece. Slowly, because I was doubting the size with every stitch I made. I had to tweak the pattern a bit because my yarn is thinner than the yarn they worked with (I cast on stitches for a bigger size and use measurements for the smaller size). I’ve done that before and it usually works out, but I found myself wondering how big our grandson actually is right now. I don’t have a clue… So weird. We’ve seen him two months ago, but that’s a long time for a baby.
Anyway, I kept going. The shaping was interesting and even kind of fun once I worked out what they meant (the pattern is not written row by row). I messed up a little bit (I was two stitches short), but fixed it without unraveling the whole thing. Now I need to knit a few more centimeters straight up and then there’s another lengthy explanation on how to work the top, but I think I understand what they want me to do, so it should go smoothly from here (famous last words?).
As always other knitters posting about what they’re making their family for Christmas inspire me to pick up the needles and make some gifts too. I didn’t want to overwhelm myself though, so I thought I’d start by making a hat for my grandson. But then I remembered keeping hats on one year olds (and older toddlers) is quite hard. My girls all had those hats that are attached to neckwarmers. Do you know what I mean? Google didn’t. But I persevered and eventually found out (on Ravelry) that these hats are called balaclava’s. Who knew? (we don’t have a word for it in Dutch as far as I know)
Of course Ravelry has an overwhelming amount of patterns with very beautiful and intricate designs, but my knitting has been so off this year* that I chose this simple one. I have just the right yarn for it. Really soft and in a color that will go with whatever color coat he’ll have.
It’s still a big pattern to work through and patterns intimidate me even when I feel perfectly fine. I prefer winging it, but I can’t figure out how to construct a hat like this. But I have made things that are far more intricate than this, so I should be able to do it. I’ll keep you posted!
(*I deleted a long rant about my not-knitting-much this year. I think I’ve mentioned it before; it’s all connected. Depression, no knitting, no blogging. But I’m fighting my way back.)
Yes, that’s actually a lot of progress since last week (for my currently not-so-great knitting mojo, that is) and I was finally getting into the zone. I love when that happens. I was happily knitting along and thinking about how to finish this top, even playing around (in my mind) with some creative options. I felt like I was almost at the spot where I could part for the sleeves and I thought I had enough yarn to even be thinking about making a real tanktop (that I would actually wear) instead of just a tube with shoulderbands.
But…
That blue tanktop underneath my knitting fits me perfectly. I could do a slightly shorter version (this one is quite long), but I would loose length when the knitting stretches sideways. And it will have to do that to fit. Ahem. So I really have to make it longer.
Also:
That’s all that’s left of the blue. I was convinced I had two skeins of this, but I can’t find the second one anywhere. I’m not even sure if I can get a full stripe out of this, let alone do at least one more repeat.
I’m still going… well, semi-strong. I try to pick it up every day and the color changes keep it interesting.
I would have preferred to do it without the blue, but I also want this top to cover my stomach and without the blue I was certain it wouldn’t. With the blue I’m about 75% sure I will have enough, so fingers crossed. I’m to old for the cropped top look.
And I have been working on it every day since. It will take a while (thin needles, thin yarn, small stitches), but I am enjoying the process and that’s what counts.
I was going to write an elaborate post about depression and burn-out and how picking up things I used to love feels like big steps forward, even though it’s really just baby steps, but I can’t really find the words. Let’s just hope that I can show you some progress over the following weeks.
As per usual, along with my blogging, my knitting/crocheting came to a hold. I don’t know why, but it seems to be related. Now that I’ve started blogging again, I’m itching to pick up a project again too.
Luckily I did finish the Baby Surprise in time to take it with me to The Netherlands in May.
This is how it looks when the knitting is done:
And then you do a bit of folding (Elizabeth Zimmerman’s drawing is quite clear, I think) and suddenly it’s a sweater (after sewing two little seams, that is).
I read a lot of blogposts about it, but it was still – indeed – surprising. And fascinating. Most of the other patterns by Elizabeth Zimmerman I get. They are very straight forward. But to come up with something like this… well, I’ve said it before, she was a genius.
And then all I had to do was find the right buttons. Which proved to be a challenge. So weird, I have this whole tin of cute buttons, but I’d rather go out and buy some when I finish a project. Luckily I finished this when we were still home. We don’t have a big selection of those things available on the island. Anyway, I settled for these simple pale blue ones.
I thought I was making it for fall, maybe even winter, but it already fits. Growing so fast! He wore it at his very first visit to the zoo, early this month.
NOT A STATION 