excellence in S's and Zs!
I originally saw these shoes more than a year ago on the Green Kitchen, with a link to the Earth and Living Website for the Tutorial.
I made them for my husband for our anniversary in February 2009. I knitted feltable socks to go inside, but never felted them, so they’re still just giant socks.
Zach finally decided to try them out without socks and he loves them. Now I can make them in nice leather (this grey suede was inexpensive for a sample pair).
Look at what I made for Zach!
I sewed this nifty bag by following the directions (if not the exact measurements) set forth in this wonderful and easy-to-understand tutorial at mmmcrafts by Larissa! I took better photos of this when I made the bag, but can’t find the pictures, and now the bag is dingy from use, so you’ll have to put up with these lame photos.
I also sewed these dolphin pantaloons in clever Thai-wrap styling (also called fisherman pants). Craig came over wearing a pair of pants in this style and I liked them so much that I invited myself to his house and we each sewed a pair using his pants as a pattern.
These are really flattering on him. I wish I had captured that!
These photos were taken in Florida when we were vacationing. Today it is the first rainy, cold day of fall, and I’m remembering the warmth!
What an embarassing dust cloud lurking beneath my sofa. Don’t look.
How cool are these pants?! My sister-in-law Natalie gave me the pattern last year for the Boogedy’s first b-day. She originally saw the pants in Craft: Magazine, but my boy was already too big for the published pattern, so she bought me the book. She gave me money to buy yarn, which I purchased in cream and dyed using kool-aid (see previous post).
The pattern was really easy. I had one tiny question and emailed the author, who assured me that I was doing it right. Before I seamed them, I handed them to all sorts of people to puzzle over, including these two teachers at my school, who wondered on what planet this “thing” would be a pair of pants (and possibly why I thought “sunset” was an appropriate “boy” color scheme).
The Boogedy was impatient with photography while I was snapping these photos, and got grouchy, but you need to see the difference between the front and back of these pants. Plus, you get to see Nat, the gifter of said pants.
I made these super luxury soft fingerless mittens for my friend Jenn in Half Moon Bay for xmas. She got them late, though, after a back injury mid-December seriously slowed down my crafting. She and I have been friends since we worked together at a small cooking school in Los Angeles a few years ago.
Jenn is a kind soul with a no-nonsense attitude. I made her these downy mittens because she seemed like she needed something soft just now.
I used a lovely heathered oatmeal alpaca yarn called Baby Twist, in a stretchy, one-size-fits-all 1×1 rib. By some stroke of luck, she says they match her winter coat perfectly!
Here Zach is in all his knitted xmas finery, plotting the next pillage. The hat is already his most complimented item of clothing ever.
The scarf is the Noro stripey fad that I first learned of through the Yarn Harlot. Kristin and I went shopping together, but used different colorways (her Ravelry link). We both made the mistake of reading “supplies: two balls”. She went back for more to match her first balls, but I decided to try a third colorway. It’s an interesting jog where the third ball meets, but I like it.
The hat is my own invention. I used Lamb’s Pride Bulky in dark gray for the beanie. The horns are crocheted from a skinny yarn Sonya gave me (koigu?) and stuffed firmly with fluff. I’m quite proud of the horns, especially that fact that I managed to make them the same size, when I never wrote down the pattern. Kristin and I spent ages cutting out napkins and thinking this thing through to get horns that curved this way! The braids are Cascade 220. The bolts are plastic buttons.
I’m working on writing up a pattern. Leave a comment if you’re interested!
I knitted these little boy mittens over the Thanksgiving break. We drove to Boise late Wednesday night (arriving at 3am!) and I spent most of Thursday Cooking and Cooking at my in-laws’ home. Zach took the Boogedy and the Chibberty out for a walk along the lake that is behind the house, just to get them out of my hair. Dinner was wonderful and I ended up taking the Boogedy in for a nap while people were still eating, because he was just so tired. I conked right out too and ended up being completely unhelpful in the cleanup portion of the dinner. I felt only slightly guilty.
I made these little mittens for the Boogedy on Friday during my down time, while he played with his cousins. I used a small fraction of the handspun yarn Kristin gave me for my birthday. The yarn turned turquoise all of a sudden at the top of the second mitten, and I decided to leave it that way, because the color is so gorgeous.
Thanks to Michelle at Green Kitchen for a fabulous tutorial on these sweater pants! I shopped at the local thrift store last weekend, and found the perfect sweater, but it was a women’s medium, MUCH smaller than her tutorial suggested. So, I couldn’t use the sleeves, but I was able to cut a pattern from the front and back of the sweater. I’ve never sewn pants before, so my mom had to help, because my brain wasn’t grasping it (again, that’s because I didn’t actually follow Michelle’s explicit and clear instructions).
Oh yeah, and the sleeves from this thrifted sweater are going to be a pair of trendy legwarmers for me. They are sure to be way cooler than the plum slouchy pair I had when it was actually the 80s.
Now my guy is a colorfully clad dreamboat. This bohemian outfit is finally something stylish enough to rival Sonia’s quirky kids. Yes, I did knit that hat. And that sweater (successfully put in a zipper, by the way!!). But those maroon curtains are original to our 90s luxury van. I wish you could see the big tv in there …(it’s true, I’m not the mom I thought I’d be…he watches Winnie the Pooh when he’s cranky).
I have made so many pairs of these over the years, but always for grownups: friends, husbands (current and ex) and self. These adorable clog slippers for the Boogedy were the most fun. They knit up Really fast…two days on the bus. I was so impatient during the felting process. They sat in my dish drainer overnight to dry out.
The Boogedy is unimpressed, as he is with all footwear. We tried showing him that mom and dad both have slippers. (the answer was NO: “nu-nu-nu!”). We called them “shoes” one of is favorite words (“shu-es? shu-es?”)–no. We said they were socks (sahs?), but he just didn’t buy it.
Zach then did what we used to have to do when putting on shoes of any kind. Shoving them on, then suspending him an inch above the floor and making him “run” throughout the house chasing the dog. This elicited giggles, and temporary forgetfulness of the shu-es. However, as soon as the fun stopped, those slippers had to come RIGHT OFF. We’ll try again everyday until he loves them as much as we love ours, or he becomes cognizant that we have cold hard wood floors.
FYI: I used this Fibertrends pattern, which I purchased at Black Sheep Wool Co., my favorite local yarn shop. I knitted them up using that gorgeous Cascade Quatro Yarn, of which I love every color!
As a knitting teacher, I’m just about the worst example ever set. I DID follow my own advice and make a gauge swatch. I got 6 stitches instead of 5.5 to the inch, not such a big deal, but I totally failed to think all the way through how that would impact my finished project. I knitted the first sleeve to 8 inches long before I thought to measure it against my boy. Lo and behold, it would not go around his little hand. I had to rip it out and start over!!
But, here are the finished pieces, pinned and blocked. That feels good. They’ve been held up to a squirmy little guy and it appears the cardigan will indeed fit. (You’ll forgive my stained ironing board…no matter how careful I am, it always looks like I’ve been eating ham sandwiches while doing my domestic chores.)
I made another not-so-obvious mistake in the sleeves, which I chose to forgive and forget. I am including side-by-side photos of the sleeves and will send a prize to the reader who spots the mistake and writes me a comment that doesn’t hurt my feelings horribly.
Today I brought the sleeves with me on the bus and managed to seam one completely. The commute back should produce a second sleeve. Home stretch here. I’m still accepting good luck wishes on the setting in of sleeves and the sewing in of zipper!
8/12/08 Update: An observant reader (Allysha) saw an error I hadn’t noticed, and upon closer inspection, I saw yet another!! I’m NOT redoing that green sleeve. No Way.
I don’t have a knitting bag. I’m always working from the shopping bag like this. I like these firm white paper bags my yarn comes in when I shop at Black Sheep Wool Company, because they hold up for the entire length of my projects.
Here’s a work in progress. It’s july and I’m knitting a stranded cardigan for the Boogedy. I made a size 2. He’ll be 2 in February, so I felt ok about using slightly smaller needles than were called for and getting a half stitch more to the inch. He’s a small little fellow, so hopefully this will fit all winter long.
A fellow knitter on the bus this morning asked why I hadn’t knit it in the round. I told her I was uncomfortable trying that technique where you knit the sweater then CUT it to put in a zipper! She exclaimed how easy it is. I guess I really must learn something new and do it next time, because this sort of colorwork would be much easier in the round. Currently, I’m knitting with one color in each hand (illustrated here nicely by Judy Gibson), but just saw what TECHknitter has to say and I want to try that! However, neither of these ideas is easy to implement on the purl side.
The sleeves will follow the pattern of “O”s established on the band of the sweater. They will be purple background with green “O”s on one sleeve and yellow on the other. The pattern calls for buttons, which, before I had a kid, I would have done. Now, I have found that zippers are SUCH a nice invention, I’m going to do that instead.
The pattern comes from the Vogue Knitting on the Go: Toddler Knits book. I don’t really like anything else in the book, but I got a gift certificate for Black Sheep Wool Co. for my birthday a few weeks ago and figured it was the perfect opportunity to start something new for my guy.
I’m apprehensive about setting in the sleeves. I haven’t had to set in sleeves on a piece with this construction before. I think I’ll do what I always advise my students and head over to the shop and get a pro’s advice. For that matter, I haven’t set in a zipper either. Let’s hope I don’t get caught up in dread and fail to finish this awesome piece!
ibbyskibby 