Ruthless Knitting

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?

Remember back when I told you that I was working on a Secret Design Project, and I hinted that it had something to do with this picture?

I can finally tell you what I was going on about. Way back in the spring, I was commissioned by Knit Picks to develop a set of special “shells” for Sheldon that they could sell on their website. They also asked me to rework the pattern so that it could be knit in Shine Worsted as well as Shine Sport (which is the yarn I used for the original pattern). And so I did that, and Super Sheldon was born. He looks just like Sheldon, only bigger.

Okay, this is where the pig comes in. In my middle school art class, we were required to make these clay pigs. Everyone’s pig followed essentially the same template, but we were supposed to customize our pigs so that every pig had a different outfit reflecting its unique character. There were basketball-playing pigs, ballerina pigs, and so forth. My pig, for reasons that I don’t remember, was dressed up as the Easter Bunny. No, really — see its little bonnet with bunny ears? And the eggs? And the Easter basket?

I saw my bunny pig while visiting my mom’s house at Christmas, and it gave me the idea to dress Sheldon up as other animals. Voila!

Knit Picks is selling the patterns and yarn together as a kit here. They also have some interviews with me and a very adorable photo gallery of the various animals in their natural habitats.

Which one is your favorite? I am very fond of the bat.

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Update: Knit Picks informs me that they have sold out of all the kits and will not be producing more. They will be releasing the individual patterns as free patterns starting soon (Feb. 2009), and they’ll have all of them released by spring.