Momily Knits

Fruit Basket

2009-08-04T23:08:00.001-07:00

I made some more fruit...

Apple

I'm quite pleased with how this turned out.
It's got a nice pucker in the top for the stem and leaf to sit in and I love the rich red color.

Orange

Again, quite pleased.
I developed this one without a pattern, just followed the basic increase and decrease as with the apple but made sure it stayed pretty round. I knit it in seed stitch to give it some texture and I gave it a flat little green stem so that it wasn't just an orange ball.

Peach

I was most skeptical of this piece because of the shape and color choice. I liked it a lot better once I saw it next to the orange and realized just how different it was. I'm still a little concerned that it looks more like an apricot or a turnip.

Banana

By far the toughest pattern due to the short row shaping to make the curvature. And the scale is a little off because it is a baby banana. I'm also not entirely convinced by the brown accent yarn along the edges. It does help it look more banana-like, but I don't think I did the best job of stitching it. I'm a knitter, not a seamstress.

No scurvy here!

2009-07-29T22:01:00.001-07:00

Just don't try to make a margarita with them.

Pear

2009-07-27T22:31:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, it's just that simple.
Pattern courtesy of Peachcake Knits.

Next time I will make the neck two rows longer and the leaf top a bit smaller. I may also experiment with a different increase technique. The knit front & back looks a little lumpy but that might be because I didn't stuff this guy very full.

This was a great one night project and I look forward to making more fruity peers for the pear.

Little Bubbles, on a baby!

2009-07-25T10:00:00.001-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CORA ELIZABETH!

I hope you like your sweater from Auntie Em :-)

Ta-da!

2009-07-19T21:54:00.001-07:00

I finished it!Then I put buttons on it!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have made my first sweater.

I finished up the second sleeve on Wednesday night. I then had a heck of a time picking up the stitches along the front edge to make the button band but finally got it going. Picking up the stitches was much easier on the second side, but I struggled a little with the button holes. I don't think the button holes are big enough as written in the pattern (it's just a yarn over) so I did a double yarn over. In hindsight, I should have done a button hole where you bind-off on one row and then cast-on in the next row. As it was, I ended up going back over the button holes with thread to reinforce them and get them to open up.

It took another day to weave in the ends. I think the KnitPicks yarn is particularly difficult to weave in well. It's too slippery/silky in texture so I found it unraveling in some spots. I'm already not very comfortable with weaving in ends - which direction(s) to go in, when to stop, where exactly to cut the yarn. But fortunately there weren't a ton of ends to deal with. Today I choose some small crystal blue buttons and got those sewn on. I think I could have aligned the buttons a little better, but I was so ready to be done.

The sweater is in the washing machine right now. I'll block it tonight while it's still wet. I'd really like to work on getting the bottom edge not to curl. Next time I do the pattern, I'll give the bottom edge another two rows in garter stitch. That should help build a stronger curl-barrier.

This sweater has been a fun and rewarding project. However, I'll be happy to see it out in the world and off my needles. I'm not quite sure where I'll go next... perhaps back to my other sock or maybe into the world of knitted fruit :-)

Little Bubbles... vest?

2009-07-14T20:11:00.001-07:00

I did a bit of knitting with the Moms before vacation. I cast on stitches for the underarms, moved the arm stitches off my needles and onto scrap yarn, and started with the white yarn. Not much knitting happened over our 4th of July travels. I just progressed a little through the band of white. Over the past week, I worked the tiny stripes and was able to bind off the bottom edge. Hooray, a vest!

But... it's not a vest, it's a sweater! So, here goes one arm...

... and maybe by the end of the day tomorrow it'll have another arm!

Bubbles in Progress

2009-06-29T19:54:00.000-07:00

After pausing on the kneesock last weekend, I went ahead and picked up the Little Bubbles sweater.

This sweater is knit from the top down. In the picture below, the green rows are the neckline. You can see one set of the pattern repeat with the yellow bubbles.

While this was the product of one night knitting, it was my second night on this project. The first night didn't go so well... my cast-on was a little uneven and my "make one" increase method was flawed. I was originally using the "knit into the strand between two stitches" technique which left little holes at each increase. Mind you, there are A LOT of increases as the sweater starts taking shape. You add at least 30 stitches at each increase row and there are 5 increase rows. So, I ripped out the first night's work and began again. I achieved a much more even cast on and my "knit one in the front and back loops" increase method (aka Bar Increase) gave me much better results.

One of the surprises of this pattern was the "bubbles" technique. I worked a similar colorwork pattern last summer when I made a baby blanket for my niece Cora:

The difference in the bubbles pattern is that instead of slipping the outline (yellow) stitches as I did in the blanket, you actually DROP the main color stitches and pick up the outline (brown) stitches. As a beginning knitter, one of my biggest fears was dropping stitches and now I had to do it on purpose! I quickly got the hang of it though. Here's a shot of the drop in progress...

Four rows of green stitches unraveled to reveal the brown stitch below.

Pick up that brown stitch and scoop up the dropped green stitches on your way back up. Then knit into the brown stitch, trapping the loose green stitches on the inside of the sweater.

My knitting pace, which is not incredibly fast, results in one row of bubbles per night. So, this is where I stood after two nights...

And after four nights...

And after five nights...

That's where I'm at right now. I've done the last row of bubbles and I've completed all of the increases. What began as 69 stitches per row is now 243 stitches per row! I've also realized the limitations of trying to re-purpose my size 2 sock knitting needles. They are 12" and 16" circular needles (I knit socks on two circulars instead of double pointed needles) which are great for the small circumference of a sock... but the 16" is not long enough for 243 stitches. So, I've divided the stitches onto both of the size 2 needles. You can see a needle sticking out near the top of the photo.

I'll be knitting again on Wednesday with the mom's and I'll take my knitting along on our 4th of July travels. I'm excited to see how the sweater body takes shape... looking forward to all those stripes!

Sock, paused

2009-06-23T23:23:00.001-07:00

Here is most of my first kneesock. I didn't finish the top (2x2 ribbing) yet. I want to make sure that I have enough yarn to make the second sock as high. I may even add another 1/2 pattern repeat to the top of this one, if the yarn supply is good.

When I purchased the yarn, I had each color wound into two equal sized balls (by weight) so that I'd have a good chance of making equal length socks. I also knit them from the toe-up for this same reason.

So far, the biggest challenges in this project have been working on tension, especially in the single stranded knitting (aka fair isle) on the foot. You see some real shifts from the beginning - strongly teal - into the ball of the foot where I am more evenly switching between colors. I had some similar issues as I made it up the leg of the sock. I had started the project on size 2 needles and slowly began knitting more and more loosely on those same needles as I got up to the calf. I switched to size 3 needles for one pattern repeat and then finished the top four or five inches on size 5 needles. Again, I had to knit more loosely as I worked through the widest part of my calf.

The best thing about these socks is that they are made for me! The worst thing about these socks is also that they are made for me... the harshest critic, with the thickest calves!

We'll be seeing the socks on the needles again in about a month.

Bubbles Sweater, update

2009-06-19T09:39:00.001-07:00

So, I bought the kit and it arrived yesterday. I think I'll try to finish up one of my kneesocks over the weekend and then dive into the sweater. Exciting... my first sweater!

I've done scarves, hats, blankets, wrist warmers, socks, mocassins and a little clutch purse. This will be my first shapely garment. I'm planning to do work in progress posts, so look for those beginning next week!

Bubbles Sweater

2009-06-11T11:09:00.000-07:00

I really want to make this sweater. It is sold as a kit from KnitPicks with yarn included at a very reasonable price. The catch is that I want to use my stash yarn, not the KnitPicks yarn, and I want to make it larger than the biggest pattern size (12-24 months). I really just want to get my hands on the pattern and adjust it for my yarn and Mather's size. Unfortunately, they don't seem to sell the pattern separately.

Maybe I should just buy the kit and make a smaller sweater for a different kid in the KnitPicks yarn? Then, with the experience of having made it once, I could then move forward with the adjustments for Mather.

Welcome!

2009-06-09T10:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Momily Knits! This is the online home of my crafty side.

I've been knitting for a year and a half. My first failed experiments were guided by Stitch 'n Bitch and my first successful experiments were guided by ImagiKnit. That's not to say that Stitch 'n Bitch isn't a good book - it is in fact a great book - but I needed more hands-on visuals to get me going.

Nowadays, I take occassional project-based classes at ImagiKnit and knit with a group of moms twice a month. Most of my projects have come free-hand from my own imagination with a sprinkling of a few free online patterns and one book pattern.

I've amassed quite the collection of yarn odds and ends, thanks to a garage sale loving friend, and hope to use some of them soon. The only problem is that very few have tags identifying the fiber... to wash or not to wash, that will be the question! And what the hell do you make when you know you can't wash it?

Stay tuned for photos of past and present projects. Feel free to chime in and help inspire future projects.

Until then, knit and purl baby... knit and purl...