Ruthless Knitting

. . . but at least the baby is making the most of his knitwear. See?

This top was a long, long time in the making. You may not recognize it, because it used to be orange. I won’t revisit the entire tale of its genesis, since it is already well-documented, and my memory is pretty fuzzy at any rate. The short version is that this garment started out as a copy of an Anthropologie sweater, veered off into disaster when I (a) ran out of yarn and (b) couldn’t figure out how to get the bottom portion right, and (c) sat in my unfinished pile for almost a year while I refused to contemplate it.

Luckily, all that time off took the sting out of my disappointment, and I was recently able to unearth the project, unravel the hideous bottom portion, wash and reskein the yarn, and figure out a new plan for finishing. I ditched the flowy part altogether in favor of a fitted look. Whereas the bodice portion was knit flat from side to side with purled ridges every inch or so, the bottom is picked up and knit straight down in a wide ribbing that lines up with the ridges. After futzing around with how to finish off the bottom edge, I finally settled on a purled ridge that curls under.

The result is far from perfect, but it is at least better. And it would be wearable, too, if I didn’t spend my days caring for the sort of baby who will spit up on it at the first opportunity. I think I’ll put it away until next spring.

James is ten weeks old as of yesterday, and I have in fact managed to knit a few times in the last several weeks — with him sleeping in a wrap on my chest, naturally, as he is a Baby Who Does Not Like To Be Put Down. And that is okay. He is a little baby, so he gets to dictate the terms. At any rate, the Derivative Top (see teensy picture in the sidebar) is finished except for weaving in the ends and blocking, both of which are on my to-do list. Expect a finished object post sometime in the next two weeks.

Meanwhile, I have acquired another vintage Bernat Christmas stocking pattern, this one with candles, trees, and wreaths on it. I got permission from Bernat to post it on my site, so I have added pattern, charts, and tips, all accessible via the Vintage Stocking Patterns link in my sidebar. Enjoy!

Though I haven’t knit a stitch since James was born, I do have something to share with all my blog friends this Christmas — a finished pattern for the Carseat Blanket, offered free for your knitting pleasure. You can access it via this link or through the Designs link in the sidebar. It’s offered as a downloadable PDF. Enjoy!

This year, I’m profoundly thankful for my son, James Cormac, who was born at home on Monday, November 24, 2008. He weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces at birth and is 19.5 inches long.

He already makes an excellent knitwear model. We couldn’t be more delighted with him.

After I finished the February Lady Sweater, I got it into my head that it would be fun to knit a baby hat. So I pulled out a bag of miscellaneous partial balls of DK-weight superwash wool and got to work.

Next thing I knew, the bag of leftover yarn was empty, and I had four baby hats. Turns out the suckers are kind of addictive.

Oh, and I also made a pair of socks to match the blue and green striped hat before deciding that the DK-weight socks were bigger than I wanted.

These are all the handknit hats and socks I have made for the baby to date.

Oh, and I also knit those three baby sweaters . . .

And my mom knit this Baby Surprise Jacket and two matching hats (which I think of as the Sherpa Outfit) . . .

Bringing the grand total of Baby Surprise Jackets to three, as I received this beautiful multicolored and red one from my knitting friend / textile artist Alison . . .

I think the Knitting Trousseau is complete, don’t you?

Pattern: February Lady Sweater (an adaptation by Pamela Wynne of Elizabeth Zimmerman’s February Baby Sweater)

Size: 37″ bust, 16″ length and 13″ sleeves to armhole, about 9″ raglan seam

Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted (100 percent wool; 245 yds per 100 g skein), color 133 (blue fog)

Yardage: About 800 yards (3.25 skeins)

Source: Yarnzilla

Needles: US 8 (5.0 mm) circular needles

Gauge: 16.5 stitches and 32 rows = 4″ in garter stitch, blocked; lace repeats are about 1.75″ wide and .75″ tall

Notes: This sweater took me six weeks to complete. Given that I spent much of my free time in those six weeks lying on the couch reading detective novels and vampire books, I think I can safely say that in normal circumstances it would have been a quick knit.

I ended up modifying the pattern a bit to suit the yarn I chose, which knit to a slightly larger gauge for me than the 18 stitches over 4″ called for in the pattern. I cast on 83 stitches for the 35″ size and then just kept going with the garter stitch raglan increases until I had 168 stitches at the armholes, omitting the eyelet row altogether. The sweater looked awfully small while I was knitting it, but it blocked to more or less the size I wanted (whew).

I used some vintage mother-of-pearl buttons on the yoke, and I’m quite pleased with them. I may need to reinforce the buttonholes, which gap a bit, particularly at the bottom. But that’s easily done if it turns out to be necessary.

I enjoyed working with Nature Spun Worsted, which is a dirt-cheap workhorse yarn that comes in a huge number of colors. I think I spent about $15.00 on this sweater. Can’t beat that! The only drawback was that the yarn was rather smelly before I washed it. I suspect that’s not the fault of the online seller but rather a consequence of the fact that Brown Sheep mothproofs this yarn. I would rather not have my yarn dipped in mothproofing chemicals before I knit with it, but at least the smell went away with one washing.

I picked this pattern because I thought it would make an attractive maternity sweater that I will still be able to wear after the baby is born. And indeed, it is a nice maternity style, but it turns out that after 37 weeks of pregnancy I am somewhat weary of wearing things that button only over the chest and then drape fetchingly over the gigantic baby bump. Not that there are a lot of other style options to choose from — one may as well highlight the bump, since concealing it is a lost cause.

Still, as much as I enjoy the baby’s exploratory nudging from the inside, I look forward with pleasure to having a non-globular stomach again, even if it’s a bit worse for the wear. Last week I thought of a favorite pair of pre-pregnancy pants and was swept with a wave of nostalgia. Likewise, it is with pleasant anticipation that I look forward to wearing this sweater in the more standard, non-pregnant fashion. Meanwhile, it’s doing a nice job of pinch-hitting as maternity wear.

Is anyone out there interested in knitting Santa Claus Santa stockings like these for hire?

These stockings are made following the vintage Bernat pattern that I have on my website. Throughout most of the year, I get an inquiry every few weeks regarding whether I’d be willing to knit one of these stockings for pay. Now that Christmas is approaching, I’m getting a couple requests a week.

Knitting for money is not really my cup of tea, but I’m sure it’s somebody’s. If you’re interested in knitting stockings for hire, leave a comment to that effect and I will add you to the list of names that I give out to people who e-mail me. Then, if you’re contacted by a stranger about knitting a stocking, you can decide if you’d like to do it and can set your own schedule and prices. I encourage you to charge prices that value your time and skill appropriately!

In other news, I’m (gasp) almost finished with the February Lady Sweater. I’m hoping to wrap up the second sleeve soon and block the sweater tomorrow night. I’m looking forward to having my first finished object in a long time!

In my leisure time this month, in addition to reading eight or nine books about a certain Detective Inspector Rebus, I’ve knit this much of a February Lady Sweater, which is the grown-up version of the February Baby Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmerman. At thirty-four weeks along, I continue to have an easy-peasy pregnancy, yet the lure of the couch is strong, and I’ve been helpless to resist it. Perhaps I’ll finish this sweater before the baby is born — I had intended to get some use out of it as a maternity garment. If not, I suppose it will still be there when I get back to it . . .

In other news, the falling leaves, windy weather, and gobs of candy on display at the grocery store all conspired to give me a wicked craving for some caramels, so today I made them.

I sprinkled salt on top, because salt always makes caramel even tastier. Here is the recipe, should you care to make your own:

Milk Caramels

2 c. sugar
1 c. light corn syrup
3 c. milk
1/4 c. butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla

Preparation
Heat sugar with syrup in 1 c. milk. Stir until dissolved. Cook to 246–248º, or firm ball stage. Stir occasionally, slowly adding the second cup of milk. Repeat cooking process. Add remaining milk, butter, and salt. Cook to 246–248º (until a ball in cold water is firm as desired for firmness in caramels). Remove from heat; add vanilla.

Immediately pour into a buttered pan and grind salt on top if desired. Let cool before cutting into squares. Wrap squares in waxed paper if desired.

Notes
Be careful when adding milk to the hot caramel mixture, as it will boil up like crazy. Add just a little at a time and keep stirring to keep the temperature up.

It seems that every time I go out in public, someone asks me when the baby is due (Answer: Thanksgiving), if we know whether it’s a boy or a girl (No), if we’re going to find out (No), and if we have a hunch (No). Then they usually tell me that I’m having a boy.

If so, he’s going to miss out on a lot of cute knitwear. When my mom came to visit, I asked her to bring some of the knitted things my grandmother made for me. These are the ones that ought to fit a little baby.

(By the way, my camera is back from Nikon. It had a mysterious, intermittent problem that may be fixed or may just be waiting to recur when I least expect it. Meanwhile, I am ever so happy to have it back.)

This green sweater and bonnet set has a beautiful stockinette petal motif on a garter-stitch yoke. I’m not sure what stitch the body uses. Any guesses?

This one was knit in a heavier yarn, perhaps a worsted. Lovely details.

This one is my favorite, I think, for its whimsical pompom placement and the very smart combination of stitch patterns with yarn choice and overall shape. Mom says Leona used to wear it a lot. It has a little hole that I will have to try to darn.

And if I do have a boy, perhaps he can wear this one — though I think that Grandma actually made it for one of my dolls, so we’ll see. (Sorry, the red is so bright that it’s sort of washed out. I suppose I should have corrected for that.)

There is also an absolutely gorgeous newborn-sized cardigan and bonnet that has several tiny holes in it. I think it’s too fragile to use for this baby, but if I were feeling ambitious I would recreate the pattern from scratch. It uses fingering-weight yarn and has beautiful trinity-stitch edgings (or daisy stitch?) against a stockinette background. Since my ambition is somewhat lacking of late, I have packed it away for now, to be reconsidered in a few years.

Anyone know how to get the smell of mothballs out of clothes? My mom already washed everything with Kookaburra wool wash, so that alone won’t do it, and I don’t want to cover up one smell with another by using a stronger-scented product. I suspect that at least a few of these sweaters are acrylic and may tolerate machine washing, so that’s a possibility. I could also try hanging them up outside in the crisp October air. Other ideas?