Baby knits

Julian has received some wonderful handmade gifts, and we wanted to show them off!

Gretchen made him an adorable vest, which fits perfectly and arrived just in time for the cooler weather.

Diane made the sweet bunny from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, which is a big hit now that he's old enough to grab things and chew on them; the bunny's ears are just the right size for his little hands.

And Emily made the Moderne Log Cabin blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting, which keeps him cozy for all his naps at home. Thank you all so much!

Indecision

No, wait! Retro Prep! Need to go to yarn store and look at pattern... good thing it's almost the weekend.

Ravelry, yum

I took a little look at Ravelry today (thanks Kate!!!). Best site EVER. I am a big nerd and a website that combines knitting with an outstanding user interface just makes me happy.

I learned a few things:

1. Someone has made an Hourglass out of Duet already, but we must have some very different knitting styles, because she seemed to have no trouble with the gauge. Oh well.

2. I'm not sure I want to make an Hourglass out of this yarn anyway.

3. I really, really need a copy of Rowan Vintage Knits. (And a roomful of Felted Tweed.) Also, Kim Hargreaves is a genius.

4. I have an idea for the Duet! And it is... Shona from A Season's Tale by Rowan. (The original version has stripes and a turtleneck; I'll ditch the stripes, but I may do the turtleneck, we'll see.) Like I said, Kim Hargreaves, genius. Now I'm just torn as to whether it's really silly to start this before I finish Bonny - they're from the same book! Rowan really has my number; I'm a sucker for all those pictures of warm knitwear in the foggy Scottish Highlands.

Next up: finishing J's sweater, and more swatching!

Sleeves

Yeah, I'm almost done with one sleeve on Bonny and it's pretty clear that the yarn I have will be inadequate. Bah. So the plan is to frog both sleeves and make them 3/4 length instead, which should do the trick, but I need to gather my strength before ripping out all those stitches. For now, I'm making Julian a top-down raglan pullover in green Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece and it's a nice, easy, quick knit. After that I may make him a few more hats, as we had a cold snap yesterday and I realized that the hat I made him months ago now fits perfectly, which means it'll be too small in a few weeks. More little cashmerino hats, hooray!

In other news, I just read this review of Veronik Avery's new book, and now I must make this red fair-isle sweater-jacket thing. Love it. I might choose a darker crimson red instead of this more tomato-ish color, but first I have to get the book and find out what the yarn is.

I swatched the Brooks Farm Duet and it is, duh, totally the wrong gauge for the Hourglass sweater. So now I'm in the market for a nice simple classy pullover pattern in a DK kind of gauge. Where oh where is my Ravelry invite so I can go looking for such a thing?

Knitting as fast as I can

Maybe if I post about my fear of running out of yarn on the Bonny sweater it won't actually come to pass?

I'm at the raglan shaping on the sleeves (knitting both at once) and I have less than 1 skein left. I just ordered the last existing skein of navy blue cashmerino DK in America from Jimmy Beans; of course it won't match the color, because the stuff I have is at least 8 years old, but I'm thinking I can use it for sewing the seams and maybe, maybe I'll have enough of the main color to finish the sleeves and collar. Otherwise I'll have to reknit the back, which has a weird gauge issue where I switched from bamboo needles to Addis, in hopes of getting a few more inches of yarn.

Julian got another awesome knitted gift in the mail the other day from G. and I'll post pictures as soon as I can get him into it!