The age of steam

... or, What a difference a steam iron makes!

 

I think we spend a lot of time worrying about knitting, and not enough time worrying about finishing. Steam blocking or wet blocking makes such a difference to the finished product, don't you think?

Second Sleeve

In keeping with my plan to show more 'in progress' shots, here's Little Birdies as I get close to finishing the second sleeve. I'm very anxious to see what magic the blocking will provide. I'm hoping I can block it to have more shoulder shape 'cuz I don't think any creature slopes that much....except I suppose the hind end of a German Shepherd, but that's not who I see wearing this sweater.

Dragonfly Socks

Someone we know likes dragonflies, but she doesn't like wool. Sad, but true. Here are socks I made for her from 100% bamboo yarn. The band of dragonflies is superwash wool though. I hope she won't mind. And I really hope superwash merino and bamboo play nicely together in the wash. The bamboo did some squirelly pooling.

 

 

Here's a close-up of the chart, if anyone else wants to knit dragonflies. It's a 14 stitch repeat. With 14 rounds.

 

 

 

Details: I used 2.5mm needles for the socks, but went up to 2.75mm for the dragonfly band, because the fair isle bits tend to work tighter. I also used the method the ladies use in the Maritimes for catching floats. Basically, they catch each stitch so there aren't any floats. I love it, but I still have a few problems with my tension. More practice required.



Progress

The Little Birdies sweater is coming along. Here it is with one of the buttons.

 I LIKE it!!

And here you can see it still needs a couple of sleeves, but they'll have to wait a while 'cuz I'm workin' on something special for a little Saudi princess.

Little Birdies

So, I've finally figured out that if I wait until I have a finished object to show, we're going to go a long time between posts. Here's what's on my needles right now.

Doesn't look like much, does it? It's actually a pretty faithful reproduction of Wee Chickadee by Ysolda Teague. I want to use this design as a blueprint to make little sweaters with different stranded motifs on the yoke and in different weights of wool. For me, the quickest way to that end, is to really understand the construction, and the easiest way for me to do that is to knit Ysolda Teague's sweater as she intended. It's like going to school to learn the basics. After you graduate, you have the background to spread your wings.

This version is knit in fingering weight yarn. The heathered green is Louet Gems Fingering Weight in a colourway called Baby Willow. The other yarns are all superwash sock yarns chosen so the finished sweater will be easily laundered. 3.25 mm needles. I'm making the size to fit 6 - 9 months.

We've got our pompoms on!

Pompoms! Up until today, I've been total rubbish at making pompoms. They're a complete mystery. My mother used to make them with a piece of cardboard. They turned out fine. Apparently, I didn't inherit the pompom-making gene. :(  I offer the floppy old pompom on the large hat below as proof.

When I was a child (maybe around 1960) I received a pompom-making thing-a-ma-jig for Christmas. Hard plastic. Lime green. Different sizes, maybe? You wound the yarn and made pompoms and then you made things from the pompoms. I've been wishing I still had that toy, quite apart from the fact that it's probably very valuable as an antique by now. But, this morning, in the mail, I got a Clover Pom-pom maker. The large size kit, with 2 plastic makers for pompoms makes 2-1/2 inch and 3-3/8 inch pompoms. And, boy does it ever work!!

I found that you can vary the size of the pompom by filling it less (or more). My first one's a little big. That's the orange/red one in the middle. For the second one, I just wound fewer wraps of wool. There was very little trimming required to get a nice round pom. I'm sold on this gadget. Cassie gives it 2 paws up, too!

These 3 hats are going to the kids way up north via the Warm Hands Network. BTW See the elephants? I guess next time I ought to put in polar bears.