Playing Catch-up

It's the most amazing and amusing thing to hear a toddler trying to say,"Happy Valentine's Day Mommy!"

My youngest gave me this lovely pink azalea for Valentine's Day (with some help from his Daddy). It will make a nice addition to the garden-to-be. He has requested that I include a fountain in the garden, since he so adores playing in the water. How can I refuse?

...And a patch of lawn for him to play on, a big sandbox to dig in, some fruits and vegetables to eat, a play structure...

It's time again for the Gimme Some Needles Exchange. For my assigned swap buddy: You may look at my previous answers to the questionnaire here, or you may surprise me. As for me, I intend to surprise.

I am just itching to knit something. I haven't done any knitting at all during this move and now it's like I'm having withdrawals. Now, if I can just find enough of my knitting supplies to actually start something...ooh, wait, here's some kitchen cotton, now where are those needles...

Back in Blogland

We finally (finally!!!) have our internet connection installed in our new home. We were on a waiting list (but you can't put me on a waiting list! I have a blog to run here!). I have been waiting quite impatiently, can you tell? Now I can share with you all some of the joys and pratfalls of moving to a new place.

Pratfall #1: Boxes.

Boxes upon boxes. Boxes within boxes. Boxes surrounding boxes. Boxes completely filling rooms. You get the idea.

Once a body has unpacked the contents of the boxes and actually found homes for said contents, one still must deal with all of the empty boxes. For me, that's the easy part-a simple posting on my local Freecycle board does the trick. Somebody who needs boxes will come and get 'em. Then they can enjoy their own box-o-rama.

Joy #1: A new landscape to work with.

This very large and well-established Cape Honeysuckle positioned near-but-not-too-near to my backdoor. It attracts hummingbirds, which is lovely, but also attracts bees, which you don't want too close to any doorway. The distance seems perfect, the bees happily do their business and aren't bothered by our foot traffic.

This shrub and a very large tree are the only real plant life in my yard at the moment. Some would think of that as a bad thing. I see it as a wonderful opportunity to landscape the place to my own tastes without having to rip out existing plantings. What fun!

Bloggus Interruptus

Oh my, I haven't posted in a few weeks now. I've been so busy! We're moving into a new home and there's a lot of work to do; you know, packing, painting, figuring out where to put the fondue pot. I will return to regular posts soon, I promise.

Blogiversary

I hope you've had a wonderful holiday. We've had a great time around here, I can tell you.

Here you can see a trace of my Dutch ancestry, a simplified version of the large face cookies that appeared next to our shoes on New Years morning. The Toddler decided that the only edible portion was the icing and M&M decorations.

This is the anniversary of my blog, or blogiversary if you like. Wow, it's been a whole year. I've had a lot of ideas for projects, started a bunch and finished some. I started 6 baby sweaters, and finished 4 of them. I made 10 hats, 5 scarves, 14 dishcloths and 84 afghan squares this year. Many odd little things were made just for fun, like those dozens of stitch markers. All in all, it was a busy year.

What shall I do in the coming year? It'll be fun finding out!

Doll Bunting

This is the toddler's new baby doll, one of those inexpensive ones you find in discount stores. It didn't come with much clothing, so I was asked to make something to 'keep baby warm'.

So, I sat down to knit a simple bunting.

As you can see, when the doll is in a sitting position, the legs spread quite wide. This is a problem. If the bunting is made in the same way a real baby garment is, it would be too narrow to fit around the legs while seated. If the garment is made wide enough for the legs, then it is much too bulky in the torso. Some shaping is required to make it fit properly.

I decided that I would make a prototype to test shaping and ease. If it turned out well then everyone would be happy. If it didn't go so well, then that would be ok too, it's just a test: a learning experience.

I chose garter stitch because it's easy and quick to work and the proportion of rows to stitches helps simplify the math. I decided to use raglan sleeves because they are easy to knit and to fit.

This doll's measurements:
Approximately 9 inches tall (23 cm.)
5-1/4 inches around belly (14 cm.)
10 inches around widest part of legs in seated position (25 cm.)
2-1/2 inches to fit loosely around thickest part of arm/hand (6.5cm)

Here's what I did:

Sleeves

Cast on 14 stitches, knit 18 rows or 9 ribs of garter stitch, cut yarn about 6 inches long and use a yarn needle to pull the yarn end through the stitches on the knitting needle- this works as a stitch holder. Make second sleeve to match. Set aside.

Body

Cast on 10 inches worth of stitches. I used King Cole brand Smarty Double Knitting yarn, which has a gauge of 22 stitches to 4 inches/10 cm. on US 5 needles (4mm). So, I cast on 56 stitches because I wanted an even number of stitches to divide front and back.

I knit straight garter stitch for a length that I thought would cover the legs from foot to knee, 24 rows or 12 ribs*. I then started decreasing at the sides to bring the width down to a good size to fit around the belly with some ease, 6 inches/15cm. I did it this way:

Row 25: Knit 12 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit 24 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit remaining 12 stitches- 52 stitches.
Row 26: Knit all stitches.
Row 27: Knit 11 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit 22 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit remaining 11 stitches- 48 stitches.
Row 28: Knit all stitches.
Row 29: Knit 10 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit 20 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit remaining 10 stitches- 44 stitches.
Row 30: Knit all stitches.
Row 31: Knit 9 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit 18 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit remaining 9 stitches- 40 stitches.
Row 32: Knit all stitches.
Row 33: Knit 8 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit 16 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit remaining 8 stitches- 36 stitches.
Row 34: Knit all stitches.
Row 35: Knit 7 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit 14 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit remaining 7 stitches- 32 stitches.
Row 36: Knit all stitches.

I then knit straight garter stitch for 10 more rows or 5 ribs to cover the area between the hip and armpit area where the sleeve opening begins.

Adding in the sleeves

Row 47: Knit the first 8 stitches, then take one sleeve and carefully put the sleeve stitches onto the left needle and pull out the stitch holder yarn, leaving the 6-inch tail hanging on the right edge of the sleeve. Smooth it out of the way of the work. Now, this is going to be awkward, trying to fit the sleeve stitches in between existing body stitches- just take it slowly and don't worry if things get a little loose, it can be fixed when you sew the underarm seam. Knit the 14 stitches of the sleeve and then knit the 16 stitches of the back. Again, carefully put the stitches from the second sleeve onto the left needle and remove stitch holder yarn. Knit stitches from second sleeve, then knit remaining 8 stitches. 60 stitches on the needle, sitting rather awkwardly, being pushed and pulled in different directions. This tightness will ease up with each row you knit after this.
Row 48: Knit all the stitches.

Raglan Decreasing

Row 49: Knit 6 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit 10 sleeve stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit 12 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit 10 sleeve stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit remaining 6 stitches- 52 stitches.
Row 50: Knit all stitches.
Row 51: Knit 5 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit 8 sleeve stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit 10 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit 8 sleeve stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit remaining 5 stitches- 44 stitches.
Row 52: Knit all stitches.
Row 53: Knit 4 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit 6 sleeve stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit 8 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit 6 sleeve stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit remaining 4 stitches- 36 stitches.
Row 54: Knit all stitches.
Row 55: Knit 3 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit 4 sleeve stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit 6 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit 4 sleeve stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit remaining 3 stitches- 28 stitches.
Row 56: Knit all stitches.
Row 57: Knit 2 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit 2 sleeve stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit 4 stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit 2 sleeve stitches, K2tog, K2tog, knit remaining 2 stitches- 20 stitches.
Row 58: Knit all stitches.

Knit 8 rows or 4 ribs of garter stitch for collar. Bind off.

Front Bands

Pick up 33 stitches along right front, knit 2 rows garter stitch, bind off. Repeat on left front.

*At this point I tried on the garment and discovered that I hadn't made it quite long enough, so I picked up stitches along the bottom edge and knitted another 10 rows or 5 ribs to make it long enough. I decreased on the 5th, 7th and 9th rows to make a curved bottom. It would be better to knit 34 rows to begin the work and pick up 38 stitches for the front bands.

Sewing up

Remember those 6 inch tails from the sleeves? that's what I used to sew the sleeve seams. It may need a little finessing and reinforcing to avoid having a hole in the armpit, so do that first before using matress stitch to sew the sleeve seam.

Lay the bunting on a flat surface with the front facing you and smooth it, overlapping the front bands in the center. Pin in place if needed and sew the bottom together using either a simple whip stitch or kitchener stitch. Stitch center fronts together about 2 inches up from the bottom. Sew 3 or 4 snaps to front bands to hold it together.

After I had finished the bunting, the toddler got hold of my needles again. There just seems to be something fascinating to that child about knitting needles. They are drumsticks usually, but this time the fascination was with splintering and breaking.

More Switch Marker Swap Arrivals

More stitch markers have arrived in the mail during the last week. I came home after a long day, feeling tired, to discover these little delights in my mail box. It really gave me a lift!

Here is the 3rd set of stitch markers I've received for the Switch Marker Swap and they're from Audrey. These markers are petite little darlings and the presentation is lovely. So lovely, in fact, that I don't want to remove them from the card! I'll leave them there for a while until I'm ready to use them.


This is the 4th set, from Jannett. What a luscious shade of blue! They feel wonderful in the hand and will move smoothly in my knitting.

Thank you, Swap Buddies, for your wonderful work!

Free Yarn Arrives

My free ball of yarn from Bernat has arrived! The color, Mr. Brown, is perfect for making a teddy bear or other animal. I'm looking forward to playing around with this yarn, it promises to be a lot of fun!

Have you requested your free ball of yarn yet? If you haven't, then you'd better do it quickly-the offer is only good through December 31st. Order yours here.