Over the last few months I've managed to string together some time to do some knitting - mostly on the weekends while avoiding schoolwork and sitting on my rear watching TV. I like knitting baby garments because they're quick and easy. Plus, they take less yarn and are thus less expensive to make. Plus, having made all these little sweaters and booties and hats, I always have something sitting in my gift closet should a baby shower come up unexpectedly!

Yesterday after my chiropractic appointment, I stopped by the specialty button shop a block away and picked up some buttons and ribbons to finish up a few of the projects I'd completed. So, as promised, here are the latest projects I've been working on, starting with the newest:

Continue reading "Baby Clothes Galore!" »

Posted by Zee at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

So I've been knitting up a storm lately. In the last month or two I've knitted a another baby sweater, a cute little fairisle purse and this little number, being modeled so exquisitely by Miss Rennie. I've made everything with Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino yarn, because that's what I had on hand.

This sweater I just finished last night and is going to be a gift for my mom's yorkie, Gracie. As you can see, it's a bit small/tight on my own yorkie princess. Click the picture to see it larger and see other shots of this sweater.

In any case, here are some shots of the other items I've recently finished:

Continue reading "Knitting: Latest & Greatest" »

Posted by Zee at 02:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yahoo!! Last night I sewed the final seams and put the finishing touches on the teddy bear baby cardigan I've been knitting on for a few months now.

This is the cutest darned thing I've made in quite a while and, frankly, I might never make another adult garment again. This was satisfying in that the design was fun and the cables were interesting and yet it had enough of a pattern that I could work on it and still watch TV without screwing anything up. BUT - and here's the important part - it didn't take an eternity and 40 gazillion skeins of yarn to complete.

So, to recap: baby garments fun to knit; no more adult garments.

The end. Thank you.

(Oh, and more photos of the sweater in various states of completion are here. )

Posted by Zee at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

It's NaBloPoMo Day #2!! Yahoo! (This daily reminder is gonna get old really fast. I can tell.)

Anyway, so I was going to write my Serious Post today but I just feel crummy and I'm having trouble thinking. Clearly, I used up the last of my functioning brain cells working this morning. And once the brain has shut down... well, it's rather difficult to get it started again. It's also hard to remember to turn off the lights in rooms I'm not in. But hey, we've all got our issues.

So, rather than regale you with tales of my (mis)fortunes, I'm just going to post pictures.

Here is one of the pictures of Amy Sedaris that I took Tuesday night. It is a crummy photo taken with the crappy camera on my Blackberry Pearl:

It doesn't at all get across how very cute and not-fuzzy Amy is in real life. But it is proof, nonetheless, that I was there! (The picture does kind of remind me of that scene in Deconstructing Harry where Robin Williams' character "goes soft" and there's an aura of fuzziness all around him. HAHA! At least, I think it was Deconstructing Harry. It was Woody Allen, at any rate.)

Anyway, here is a shot of that little baby cardigan I've been working on:

I'm tellin' ya, people - this picture just doesn't do it justice. It is SO DARNED CUTE it makes me want to run right out and pick up a baby from the Babies R Us store. (What, don't they sell babies there?) Anyway, I got tired of knitting the sleeve so I sewed the front to the back and then sewed the faces on the little bears just for something different to do. So now I'm back to the all-moss-stitch sleeve for a while but at least I got to be diverted momentarily.

Here are a few more random things:

If you're interested in checking out the NaBloPoMo participants but don't know where to start, Lane at Pink Elephants created a NaBloPoMo randomizer.

And...

My dad's friend Tim has created a video and posted it on YouTube, called Bury Me In My Car.

Enjoy! I'm off to sit on the couch and pray to the MS Gods that my body starts feeling better again. Damned paresthesia.

Posted by Zee at 05:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Last week, while I spent a couple hours daily sitting at the hospital getting my IV infusions, I spent time knitting. Although I would have liked to have napped or read a book or something else that didn't involve even slight movement, I've found that the place is typically so noisy that reading or sleeping is out of the question. So I bring knitting, which lets me mind my own business most of the time or chime in on conversations with other patients or the nurses if required.

The last time I got a round of steroid infusions, I finished this. This week, I spent knitting this little stuffed bear. I don't know why; guess I just thought he was cute.

I've just started this little sweater to match the bear. It's trickier than it looks, and although I was awake enough this morning to knit on it for a while, I'm now trying to wake up from a 4-hour nap that I got up from over an hour ago. Poor Rennie must think she's fallen into the twilight zone, where all mama ever does is sleep. By the time I'm feeling better she's going to be one rested dog!

This is the worst part of the steroids. I am just SO. TIRED. Fortunately, I know this to be a temporary problem and by Tuesday I should be feeling significantly better.

And the bad news is that my symptoms actually feel worse right now than they did last week. GAH! Frustrating. But I shall give it a bit of time and we'll see what my neurologist has to say when I go see him in a week...

Posted by Zee at 08:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Question for those knitters out there:

Have you tried the Yarn of the Month Club? If so, what did you think of it? I'm wondering about the patterns too: are they any good or are they patterns for items you'd never actually make?

Based on my reading of the website, it appears that for $7.75 a month you get four different skeins of yarn, which you can then buy more of at a "reasonable" price at one of the vendors the YotMC contracts with. You also get a monthly newsletter and a free pattern each month, plus access to their message boards. Shipping is free.

Considering that at my local yarn store I can barely get one skein of yarn for $7.75, this seems like a pretty good way to try out different yarns without investing too much money. Plus, how can you quibble with someone smart enough to post pictures of a Yorkie on their website? :o)

Posted by Zee at 08:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My aunt Laura will no doubt be thrilled to learn that her birthday present is now finished! I started these socks back in January, finished the first one in time for her family birthday party in February, and on Friday I finished them. They are now blocked and ready to go, so I just need to figure out when to take them over to her! Some pics for those of you who are interested, modeled by yours truly (natch!):

This is the project I'm currently working on:

It's the Lace & Bobble Throw from Debbie Bliss' Cotton Knits for All Seasons (page 83). This is the same book from which I got the pattern for that cotton cabled cardigan I finished last summer. Amazon apparently has it for $10.62 and I know I paid more than that for this book (grumble grumble) but even still, I'm getting my money's worth since I'm doing multiple patterns from it...

Anyway, I'm about a quarter of the way finished with the throw and it's turning out really well. It's actually a baby blanket and the book includes a pattern for a cute little baby dress and booties. I'm not sure whether I'll have enough yarn for all three of those things, but definitely the booties. Maybe I can create a hat pattern that will match too. Not sure why I'm back to making baby things, but heck, I can throw it in my gift stash for the next time someone I love has a little one. It's purple, after all, so at least it's versatile!!

Photo of my progress so far:

Posted by Zee at 09:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So the last few days I've been reading the blog You Knit What? and laughing my hiney off. It's sort of like that show "What Not to Wear" (not that I've ever actually, you know, watched that show, but hey, details...) except the authors post a picture of a different (ugly) knitted garment and then ridicule it.

Too. Damn. Funny.

Posted by Zee at 10:45 PM | Permalink

Well, now that my blog-home is back into some semblance of order, I thought I'd highlight some of the changes I've been making. Back in early January I updated the actual design of this site, but wasn't sure how to customize specific category templates. So I took a step back, ignored the little problem for the time being and focused my energies elsewhere.

Well, I finally sat down this weekend to tackle the little problem. What I wanted was to have the sidebar content change depending upon the category that's chosen. Turns out there's no way to natively do that with Movable Type, but there are some PlugIns that can be installed and tweaks that can be used to customize the category templates. Of course, things aren't quite as straightforward as I would have liked and I ended up using a couple different hacks to get the results I wanted... No elegant code writing for this girl! But no matter. It works, and that's what matters.

So, as of this morning, I now have different sidebar content for the Miss Yorkie Princess, Chef Zee and Knitting categories.

Click the links, people, and behold the power of MODULES!!!

I'm especially pleased with the knitting category page, since I found a page describing how to make fun little progress bars for each of my projects! Yippee!!!

Of course, now that I've done all this tweaking, I've decided I'm not happy with the design anymore. Ugh... so I'll be updating that again shortly. But right now it all works and I've got to turn my attention back to school and other matters; so for now this will have to do. Let me know what you think!

Posted by Zee at 11:48 AM | Permalink

For Christmas, I was given some cash and rather than do anything sensible with it, like put it into savings or pay off bills or something smart like that, I actually went and bought myself a gift. I had been wanting to pick up a couple skeins of something from KnitPicks and since I'd just gotten into sock knitting I figured I'd try my hand at knitting with some "real" sock yarn. So I purchased two skeins of KnitPicks' "Essential" in "Dusk" along with a couple books.

The yarn arrived a couple weeks ago, and since then, I've tried knitting several different socks with it. I pulled all of them out, frustrated because I could not see the pattern that was forming and because I kept skipping stitches or dropping them.

Now, I'm a fairly conscientious knitter and I'm not the type to give up easily, even when frustrated. I don't typically drop stitches and if I make a mistake I pull everything out and go back to fix it. But with this yarn? Nothing doing. It was so impossible to see where I'd even made the mistake, and so ridiculously hard to put the stitches back on after frogging that I figured I wouldn't even bother.

Well, tonight I gave up the ghost. I pulled out what I'd knitted (probably 20 rounds), wound the yarn back up and put it in my yarn basket, never to be seen again. Or, at least not for a while...

My mom, bless her, did try to warn me. But I wouldn't be dissuaded. No, it seems I'd rather beat my head against a wall rather than take some experienced advice. Actually, what I wanted was to give "real" sock knitting a try and now I've done so. But it turns out my mom was right. Knitting with this tiny yarn is like having hair removed from your legs with tweezers, one follicle at a time. Blaghhhh. The only saving grace with this little misadventure is that it was only a $6 mistake lesson. Thank God I didn't spend a fortune on this yarn.

I want to continue knitting socks, because I really enjoyed the first pair I made - which were knitted on size 5s with some dk-weight wool/cotton - and I think my trouble this time around stemmed from the teeny-tiny nature of the sock yarn itself. After giving up on the Essential, I pulled out some Debblie Bliss Baby Cashmerino I had in my stash and started a sock based on the basic pattern in the Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns and my own cable design; so far, it's going pretty well.

So what I'm wondering now is whether other knitters have tried this yarn and if they've had any success with it. And if not, is there a better sock yarn to try that isn't so maddeningly small? My guess is that the answer to this question is no..."Real" sock weight yarn is tiny and perhaps I need to just content myself with knitting socks that are a bit thicker?? I guess we shall see... And in the meantime, feedback and input gratefully accepted! I'll post photos of the latest sock when I get a bit more length so the design can be seen.

Posted by Zee at 12:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Warning: more knitting tech-talk follows. If you don't understand the headline, you can stop reading now. ;-) And for those of you who DO understand the headline, your ideas, experience and suggestions are welcome and wanted.

Anyway, this evening I sat down with the only "pair" of circular needles I have (size 3s; one addi turbo, the other bamboo) and some Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino (color #503) to give Cat Bordi's two-circular-needle sock knitting method a try.

I'm not convinced.

I figured out the basics of the method and have the sock cuff going now - 6 or 7 rows or so - but I'm not sure I like the results. Despite trying to keep the 'joins' fairly taut as I switched needles, I still ended up wth a bit of a 'ladder' in between the stitches, which I'm not at all happy with. I think I am going to keep knitting on this sock for a bit, just to see what the resulting fabric looks like - particularly at the joins - but I may end up pulling it out again...

My next experiment may be the method Laura suggested - the Magic Loop method, which is similar to the two-circular needle method but uses only one long circular that is doubled up in some way that I don't quite understand yet. My only reservation with giving this a try is the need to buy a 40" needle in a size 1 or 2. If I don't like it, I'm stuck with a REALLY long needle in a tiny little size...

Maybe I'll just skip it altogether and use dpns - they weren't so bad with that first pair of socks, after all. And the bamboo dpns are usually cheaper than the addi turbos...

Decisions decisions...

Posted by Zee at 11:44 PM | Permalink

Last night I put the finishing touches on my first ever pair of socks! I have to say, I love this sock knitting stuff. This pair went really fast and they're thick and cosy and warm. I am in love with them. They are, though, a gift for a lucky family member who shall remain nameless for the time being. Still, I can admire my handiwork for a bit longer since I haven't wrapped them up yet. :o) Here are some shots of the completed project:

Continue reading "My First Pair of Socks" »

Posted by Zee at 02:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Last night I finally finished knitting the last of my Christmas gifts! I know it's past Christmas, but as I'm not seeing the recipient of this gift until Wednesday, I gave myself a little bit more time to finish it up. Here are a couple shots of the latest Christmas scarf:

Blocking detail:

Blocked and ready for wrapping:

And now that I'm done with my Christmas gifts for this year, I'm free to try my hand at some new projects. I was given some cash for Christmas so I put in an order over at KnitPicks for some sock yarn and a couple patterns and had planned to wait until the package arrived before starting a new project. But, itching for something to do with my hands - I cannot seem to watch TV without knitting; feels like a waste of time to me - and since the KnitPicks package hasn't yet arrived, I dug around in my stash and decided to give sock-knitting a try with the Debbie Bliss Wool/Cotton I've had sitting around for a while. On my last trip to Mom's Extensive Knitting Library, I'd found a couple sock knitting books that looked interesting, so after figuring out the gauge I could get with the yarn and the size five dpns (double pointed needles) I had on hand, I chose the "Denmark" pattern out of Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road.

The wool/cotton isn't exactly fingering/sock yarn, but it's fairly thin and seems to be producing a nice - if slightly loose - fabric. When I knitted a stockinette stitch swatch the fabric looked good and the gauge was spot-on, but the resulting sock seems really large to me... so I don't know. Here are a couple shots of the first sock in progress:

Continue reading "Now on the Needles" »

Posted by Zee at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

OK, not so much a terribly interesting title or topic, but now that I've given these gifts to their intended recipient I can post about them! These pieces are based on this pattern. I made the hat first and then decided to make the scarf to go wth it; so I fiddled with the pattern until the scarf looked right. This was the first time I made something that wasn't a line-by-line pattern, so perhaps my knitted-garment-designing days are just beginning? ;-)

Scarf & Hat

Scarf Detail

This was also the first time I did any blocking of a finished knitted piece and now I'm regretting NOT doing it with other things I've made, because this scarf now lays so beautifully flat and shows off the 'lace' pattern so nicely. Live and learn, right?

I'm not usually a hat or scarf knitter because I find them dull projects, on the whole, but I've made a couple scarves and hats in the last two month for gifts, and I've really enjoyed these relatively easy projects. I've been experimenting with different yarns, including novelty-type yarns like GGH's Intension, as well as Debbie Bliss's Cashmerino Astrakhan, and some bulky wool whose name I can't recall at the moment. Scarves are pretty forgiving, since they don't need to "fit," so I've enjoyed fiddling with some new yarns that I wouldn't ordinarily use. Will post photos of these projects after they're given away at Christmas.

And once the holiday season is behind us, I think I'm going to try my hand at sock knitting, since I've never knitted a pair of socks before. And, as I mentioned earlier, I'm going to knit another sweater and try making a felted purse or handbag, I think. I'm sure I can find a worthy recipient or two. :)

Posted by Zee at 03:36 PM | Permalink

You appear to be a Knitting Guru. You love knitting
and do it all the time. While finishing a piece
is the plan, you still love the process, and
can't imagine a day going by without giving
some time to your yarn. Packing for vacation
involves leaving ample space for the stash and
supplies. It can be hard to tell where the yarn
ends and you begin.
http://marniemaclean.com


What Kind of Knitter Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Found this over at Casting On. :)

Posted by Zee at 10:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I think my blog is trying desperately to find itself an identity. Since I no longer need to report back to family and friends on my adventures in Boston (which, in retrospect, were not terribly adventurous, alas...), I've been trying to figure out what exactly I want to write about here at Rathnait's Playground. Life in general, sure - that always seems to creep in regardless of what I intend to do. But I'm thinking I want to write more about food experiments - since I'm cooking a lot - and knitting projects with the life stuff.

So. To that end, I have a random question for the knitters among you:

I have 8 50 gram balls of Debbie Bliss wool/cotton in a dark purple color (701, I think, on the chart on that link) which I bought a year or so ago with no intended project. I thought the color was pretty, I could only afford 8 skeins, at the time, and figured I'd find something I could use it for. That was my critical error. Thus far I've had no luck finding a pattern that only needs 8 skeins.

Since I bought the yarn more than a year ago, I have no hope of purchasing more of the yarn from the same die lot. So, obviously, a full-sized, one-color sweater is out. I thus have to either find a pattern that uses 8 or fewer skeins or combine it with another color of the same kind of yarn.

So my question is, does anyone have any pattern suggestions? I spent about 3 hours at the yarn store a few weeks ago, digging through books, but just didn't find anything that struck me. Fair Isle appeals to me, but I've never done anything like it before. I'm also wondering if I could buy the remaining skeins in the same color - assuming there are only 2 or 3 I'm missing - and alternate rows so that the two different die lots blend together??

I just don't know what I should do... Suggestions/ideas gratefully accepted!

Posted by Zee at 09:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

As I've mentioned before and most of my friends know, I've known how to knit for years. My mother taught me to knit when I was in high school and I made a couple sweaters and then got so busy (and poor... heh.) in college that I pretty much gave it up altogether. That is, until I went to New York for a family reunion with my mom and step-dad about three years ago. Mom had brought a number of knitting projects to work on (packing light is not exactly her forte) and I found myself just the tiniest bit jealous that I didn't have any knitting to do.

While on the trip we stopped into several yarn stores in various places along the eastern seaboard, and I picked up a pattern by Ann Norling for a child's hat that could be made to look like a little strawberry.

Upon returning to Portland, I went racing to the yarn store straight away and came back with yarn to make up a little hat and get my hand back into the knitting game. This is what my first attempt looked like:

Continue reading "My latest knitting project" »

Posted by Zee at 07:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)