Elephant Sweater : Cuteness Made Physical

I have a bad habit of getting bored of a knitting project before it's cast off. Unfinished sweaters and shawls litter the graveyard of my good knitting intentions. However, that didn't happen with this sweater, which was finished just over a week after I purchased the yarn.

Blame the adorable elephant. Or its even more adorable recipient, who's turning one later this month. The pattern comes from Roo Designs, which seems to have produced a fleet of aww-inducing kiddie duds. The alligator, owl and whale patterns were also close seconds when I was picking one up at All Strung Out, but... you've gotta love a pachyderm.

I would also love to knit with the yarn, Mission Falls 136 Superwash, again. It's soft, squishy and superwash and comes in such lovely colours. I used Teal, Oyster and either Poppy or Russet (I lost the ball band) for this sweater, but am now imagining another in Thyme, Cornflower and Ink. But adult-sized, for me.

Baby Blues

At some point in the past year, I must have accidentally entered a time machine and was sent straight back to 1952. How else to account for the baby boom I'm currently living through? I just finished one blanket and one sweater, and now I've got three more pieces of baby gear to bang out. Instead of grabbing the needles and yarn though, I've been having a little bit of an existential crisis.

One of the moms-to-be is pretty much my age. Now, I've heard of plenty of people I knew back in high school in Guelph getting pregnant. And by "heard" I mean "seen their Facebook pic get replaced with a photo of a newborn." But, you know. As of today they haven't been friends I was particularly close to. I could still pretend to be living in a bubble of eternal irresponsibility and cheap beer! I was barely making my credit card payment AND LOVING IT!

Alright, so not really, but a friend having a baby has made me selfishly obsessed with what the hell is going on in my life. It's not that I want a kid now - I still haven't decided what I'm doing in that area, except if and when such a thing appears it will be named Butch and it will be made to skate, damnit - but it's just that I'm so far from a place where that would even be imaginable, for personal and professional reasons, that I'm worried at some point it will be a decision made by my biology and not my free will. And even if that doesn't end up being an issue, I will still end having to face at some point... reluctantly... with annoyance.... that I'm getting old.

I guess I better get back to knitting, because that's one way of working out my snarled thoughts. And it will be something like this Seamless Baby Kimono for all of them, or maybe a big blanket that has "WHY NOW?" spelled out in intarsia.

Garter Stitch Mission Accomplished

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this in the blog before, but February is tied with November as my least favourite month. November because it is grey and dreary without having the benefit of being winter and February because of the flocked velvet terror that reigns until the 14th. So, this week has been a little blah for me. To help me get back into the blogging swing of things, here are crappy cellphone pics of the baby sweater I was knitting way back. The red thing is a ladybug button.

Yes, I forgot to take photos with a real camera before bringing it into work. And yes, you all must suffer the consequences.

I think the sweater turned out adorable-looking. I am concerned that the hood is too shallow and the arms are too long, and that there needs to be many, many more buttons, but you know what's tedious? Making buttons loops. Particularly so if you're not sure if the damn thing will fit. So if I get it back for repair work, there will be better photos.

As for the pattern, well, I really think there can be such a thing as too much garter stitch. The ridges, oh, THE RIDGES.

Jimmy's Got A Binkie

Ah, the satisfaction of finishing a knitted project. It's a satisfaction I haven't felt much in the past year, to be honest, unless you count hats and socks. And if you do, I've still only felt it... four or five times.

The knitting shame. It itches. It itches like mohair. Still, I'm pretty proud of this blanket which was knit for the adorable Jimmy. I still haven't seen the kid in person, but if he's anywhere near as cute as the photos his mom's been sending me, he's a beautiful child. Definitely Gap Baby ad campaign-worthy.

Still, it was hard giving up the blanket. Donna is a lovely, crepe-y yarn to work with, especially if you're looking for a blend. As I carried it to the post office, I kept on squeezing it. I would knit myself a cardigan, but then I wouldn't get anything done at work. I would probably keep on stopping to, say, pet my arm.

Project: Argosy Baby Blanket
Yarn: Scheepjes Donna
Needles: 3.5mm circulars
Notes: I added a single crochet border instead of leaving it plain or going for that cro-kay hybrid Kay's Blanket used. I still find the edges curl a bit, but I'm pretty sure the baby won't care. Also, this thing is impossible to fold in a neat square for mailing. Damn its slight tilt towards being a parallelogram.

Miles of Garter Stitch Before I Sleep

Okay, if I don't sort through the photos from the New York trip I went on two weeks ago, someone figure out a way to deliver a cyber slap to me through the computer. I deserve it. I've just been too tired for the arduous task of plugging the cord thingy into my computer... and then getting rid of all the fuzzy shots were I was cursing my dad's camera... and then hitting the upload button on Flickr. See, this is the kind of technological know how that has guaranteed I remain an arts student forever. But they will come, and I'll do a brief write-up of my miraculous time in the best city ever. Sorry Montreal, but you don't have the Strand or an amazingly byzantine subway system.

In other news, I finally got back on the knitting bandwagon. Unfortunately, it's just a series of mitered squares in garter stitch with tiny yarn, so I'm not sure if this project will finally put a tear in the general apathy that's blanketed my life lately. I'll post a picture once I finish a whole square, because then I'll have a better idea of how the colours are working together. Right now, I'm not sure if it's cute for baby or just right for Don Johnson circa Miami Vice.