fo: Cobwebby Shawl

After knitting a worsted weight version of Ishbel, I decided I wanted to make a lace-weight one, too. This shawl has been a long time in the making--I bought the yarn about a year and a half ago, I believe. I cast off about a month ago, and finally got around to blocking it last week. I didn't do the greatest job of blocking (since I only have two towels here in Paris, I had to make do with one and when I wasn't able to pin the ends of the shawl, I just let them hang.) I'm a little disappointed in my blocking job. The stitches aren't nearly as even as I'd like and there are some flaws (caused by I don't know what) that are still super obvious to me.Yarn: Fiesta ballerina (alpaca and tencel), 1 skein (925 yards) with some left.
Needles: 6 (I think, anyway. I have the worst time remembering what needles I used only a matter of minutes after finishing projects.)

frogging

My slinky ribs sweater is no more. There were just too many problems with it, and it was too big. My closet space in Paris is at a premium, so I couldn't have an unwearable garment taking up space in it, not to mention the fact that this yarn was really too expensive to waste. So last night I stayed up until 4:00 am turning it into this:If I get motivated today maybe I'll de-kink the yarn so I can start knitting with it soon.On the train from Stuttgart to Paris, I made some good progress on my Ishbel shawl (not that you can tell anything from this picture.)

fo: ribbed baby jacket

I started this sweater for a friend's baby about two weeks ago, but had to rip out and start over twice because I hadn't gotten gauge and it was coming out way too big. I started the final version the day before I left to see my friends and the majority of it was knitted on my 3.5 hour train ride to Stuttgart.Pattern: ribbed baby jacket from Prima July 2005 (free download)
Yarn: Knitpicks Main Line cypress, a bit less than 4 balls
Needles: 8 (5mm)
Size: ultimately the 3 to 6 month size, even though Anton is 13 months!
Gauge: couldn't really tell you, even though I swatched. Something significantly less than 4.5 stitches per inch.The only modifications I made (other than blatantly ignoring the recommended gauge and just knitting several sizes smaller than the desired size) were to not bother going down a needle size for the collar (since I didn't have a size 7 needle with me) and instead picking up fewer stitches than called for along the neckline. I think I picked up about 100 stitches instead of 120.
And I also knit a buttonhole into the ribbed edging since I thought it would look good with a single big wooden button closure. Unfortunately, we didn't get the button before I left town so Anton's mom is going to have to get one and sew it on herself.

knitting again

After all the crafting in Wellesley last week, I'm back in the groove. I started these felted slippers (which would have been done for my mom for Christmas if I had gotten home on time) on the plane back to Paris yesterday, and finished the tops and straps today, so now I just have to knit the bottoms. I'm not sure how the felting in my strange French washing machine is going to go. I might have to put that step off until I'm home in June, which will make Mom's Christmas present 7 months late...

fo: four-patch baby quilt

I went ahead and finished off this baby girl quilt this weekend, along with my pinwheel quilt. Finished measurements: 33" square. Width of print fabric strips: 4". Width of sashing strips: 3.5". I backed it with just about 1 yard of pink fleece and bound it with pink polka dot flannel. Both quilts have gone off in the mail to their recipients (for babies coming in March and April!)

star blocks

In the midst of my quilting this week, I started to make some star blocks with some scrap fabric. I actually love how these blocks look individually, but I don't like them together. I initially thought I might make a quilt top with lots of different star blocks in reds and blues, but after seeing these two together I scrapped that idea. I don't know if I'll use these blocks for anything, but I'm happy that I'm learning how to make some slightly more complicated quilt blocks.

fo: pinwheel baby quilt

I started this quilt yesterday and finished it at 11pm tonight. That might be a record for a quilt for me. I learned how to make pinwheel squares and sewed all nine of those yesterday. I used 4 inch squares to make my triangles and ended up with finished blocks of about 7.5 inches. Today I added the sashing and pieced together the whole top (using 3" strips of sashing.) I backed it with baby blue fleece instead of a batting and backing, and instead of quilting it all over I simply stitched in the ditch. Then I bound it (sewing the binding by hand onto the back of the quilt is the most tedious part) and it was all done! The finished dimensions are just about 30" square.