happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling
I know… it looks shapeless and weird, but that’s exactly how it’s supposed to look.After you finish it, it’s supposed to fold a certain way and hey presto! A little sweater. That’s why it’s called a Baby Surprise Jacket, after all.
It’s so much fun to knit this. I keep trying to fold it to get at least an idea of how big it will turn out to be, but it doesn’t make any sense yet, so I’ll just have to wait and see.
This post by Alissa about the name of her blog reminded me that I started this blog as a knitting blog way back in 2006 when I did a lot (a whole lot!) of knitting. But these days… I’m trying to get back to it, but somehow the projects I try don’t really “click”. You know, that special something you need to pick up those needles as often as you can, because you just want to keep knitting.
I am working on something though, and I thought I might as well show you.
I have a lot of single skeins of cotton yarn that I bought at a thrift store years ago. And I’m kind of struggling to find something to do with them, but too frugal to just buy a whole lot of new yarn. So I started knitting a striped top, figuring I could just knit a tube and add some narrow shoulder bands if I don’t have enough yarn for sleeves. I weighed the part I have knit already and the rest of the yarn and I should be able to get a long enough body, but I can’t really get myself to knit much on it. Maybe I should just frog it and use the yarn for something else.
I also have been thinking about knitting a sweater for our grandson. We’ll be seeing him in May and than probably not until he is one year old in December. So if I make him a sweater in a 1 year size (80-86 in European sizes, I think) he should be able to wear it in Fall and maybe throughout winter. I would like to make a Baby Surprise Jacket. It’s on that list of baby things I never got to make. The fact that the sleeves usually come out a bit short may be perfect for a crawling toddler. There’s still a lot left over from the beige and dark blue that I used to knit a sweater and a vest for him before, so I could do stripes. And while I’m at it, maybe I could knit some matching pants? Now that I’m writing this I have to admit there is at least a little bit of a “click” there…
(edited to add: after I wrote this post I cast on for a BSJ and I’m loving it!)
Remember my “palate cleanser“? Wel,, it’s done.
I’m still not sure what I’m going to use it for, but I’m sure I’ll find something. It turned out 21″ by 15″ (not stretched out), so it’s a decent size for a towel. It’s just a simple basket weave, K10, P10 5 times and repeated that for 16 rows and then switched to P10, K10. I did that for a total of 12 repeats. I added a little crochet border, but it’s hardly visible.
Oh well, good enough.
But what do I do now? I think I need a palate cleanser to be able to start a new palate cleanser 😉
Is that the right expression? I think it is…
I was working on this knitting project a bit yesterday when I realized that I’ve had this on the needles since late August. I think I cast on for it right after we got home from our summer in The Netherlands. Since then, I finished a baby blanket, a baby vest, a baby cardigan and six hats. But I never finished this, even though I work on it regularly.
Usually I’m a one-project-girl; I finish the project I’m working on before I start anything else. Even when I allow myself a bit of startitis because of all the online inspiration and all the ideas in my head, I always end up finishing them one by one.
But this one seems to be different. I pick it up when I finish one project and then abandon it as soon as I feel ready to dive into something new. First I thought that maybe I should just rip it out. Clearly it doesn’t excite me all that much. But then I realized that it’s something else. Just a simple, soothing project that helps me to move on to the next exciting new one. A palate cleansing, that’s what it is.
I’m actually almost done with it. It’s close to ten rows of ten squares, but I have enough yarn to do twelve rows, so I think I’ll do that. And after I finish it? Well, there’s more boring basic yarn in my stash, so I may just cast on and start knitting something similar again.
Oh… you might wonder what it is. Well, to be honest: I don’t know. It’s a very soft cotton, it’s too big to be a dish cloth, but too small to be a baby blanket. Maybe a dish towel? I don’t really care. I’m sure I will find a way to use it one way or the other.
And here’s the last one (for those of you who didn’t read the other posts: I decided rather last minute that it would be nice to give our three girls, the two son-in-laws and our soon to be born grandson hats for Christmas).
I made it semi-matching with the father-son hats, since this is for the mom-to-be. I ran out of the dark blue yarn, but I thought these eyelet holes are similar to, but also a nice change from the stripes. I actually really like this one.
I couldn’t help myself… I just thought it would be too cute, even it was just for a picture to satisfy this crazy knitting granny. I made a hat for the father to be and a much smaller one for the baby to match. There’s not much else to tell about them, just simple stripes and a bit slouchy, because I know J. likes that.
By now I’m pretty sure that I’m going to try and make six hats for Christmas. That should be doable, especially since the sixth one is going to be tiny (three daughters, two sons-in-law and a grandson who will probably be born by then). This is the third, so I think I’ll have them all finished in time.
Although… I may decide to replace this one. I tried color work, in a very simple way. The only other time I did this, my tension was very tight, so I made sure I kept it loose this time. But now I am kind of disappointed with the irregularity of my tension. Then again, seeing these pictures, I think it actually adds to the charm. Maybe. Well, let’s stick to that story for now.
Yes, it is happening again. I can’t stop knitting hats (remember my 52 hat challenge in 2018?). I just love how simple it is to “design” something on the go, how fast it goes and how every hat is just slightly different. So here’s another one.
The ribbing is K3 p2, the top of the hat is a simple stitch pattern I found in my grandmother’s knitting book (actually T. picked it, because I was overwhelmed with the amount of choice). It’s just repeating a K1, P1 round and then a full K round, but I love how it turned out.
After I finished the baby blanket I itched for a small, simple project. And well… if you have been around here for a while, you know. I just wanted to knit a hat.
So that’s what I did, using the scraps of the blanket. The ribbing is a simple twisted k1, p1, and after that just plain stockinette stripes. So much fun!
After struggling a bit (a lot actually) last week, trying to be positive, but actually having deleted a lot of whining about how slow I was going, something shifted. It’s as if accepting that it would take a while to finish this blanket, made me more motivated to pick it up.
There was a whole lot of knitting in the weekend and on Monday morning I cast off and started weaving in ends. I finished it on Monday evening. On Wednesday I worked up the courage to try and soften the scratchy (acrylic) yarn and that worked quite well. It’s a lot softer now, though the dark blue (that was the scratchiest), could use another round. Maybe I’ll wash everything one more time before we go to the Netherlands.
I basically followed every step in this blog post, except for the dryer, since I don’t have one. Oh, and she mentions “ice cold water”, but I just used what came out of the tap (that’s almost lukewarm here).
Anyway, I’m really happy with how it turned out. I think I will try this pattern (or something similar) again (but with better yarn). It’s perfect for this baby’s parents, who like simple and basic, but also things that are slightly different. It’s big enough to cover the bottom of a standard playpen, so of course also plenty big to wrap a baby in, or to cover him while he’s sleeping. I hope it will be used a lot.
Now I’m thinking hard about what else to knit. I’m not really done with the baby knitting yet, but we had to switch airlines (KLM canceled our flight – the third time this year) and TUI allows only one piece of hand luggage. That means I have limited space to take stuff with me. So I cast on for an adult sized hat last night. That also needs to come with me (no need for a hat here), but isn’t as time sensitive as itty-bitty baby clothes. I guess knitting bigger baby clothes would be a solution. Or finally work up the courage to try knitting (or crocheting) toys.
Endless possibilities…. I think that’s why I love knitting (and crochet and sewing) so much.
NOT A STATION 