Done!

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I finished up the Simple Baby Hoodie last night! I'm very pleased with how it turned out, although I still have no real clue what size it is! Oh well, it'll fit some baby some day.
If you click on the top pic, it'll show a more detail and you can see the crocheted edging and the hand made buttons. I extended the crocheted edging so it created a placket under the sweater's right side. Just a little more protection from cold and wind. The button loops are crocheted, too.

It's purty and I like it!

Pattern: Simple Baby Cardigan
Yarn: S.R. Kertzer Northern Worsted
Needles: US 5
Modifications: Using slip stitch pattern from Knitty.com’s Crusoe

Changed increases to YOs: K4, P8, PM, P1, PM, P9, PM, P1, PM, P18, PM, P1, PM, P9, PM, P1, PM, P8, K4 On RS, YO before fist marker of the set, sl M, K1, sl M, YO, knit to next marker, repeat.

I started knitting in the round after yoke was finished. Continued the garter stitch from the edges down the front of the sweater. Added a few rounds of ribbing to the bottom.

Sleeves have ribbing around the cuffs.

Crocheted edging and loops. Extended edging in front to make a placket.

Handmade buttons and loops at the neck and halfway down the opening area.

Next time: Use provisional cast on.

And that's about all I did yesterday. Spent the day knitting and listening to the Book du Jour: Die Trying by Lee Child. It's really pretty good. I was not happy at ten o'clock last night when I finally had to turn off my MP3 player and go to bed.

We had a nice thunderstorm yesterday afternoon and evening. "By the end of the afternoon storm, the official rainfall at the airport was 0.14 of an inch, but various places across the Tucson area reported much more — including the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, with 2.15 inches." Temperatures went from over 100 down to the 70s. It's still only 71 now at 7 am. There is no more rain in the forecast for eight days. Although the newspaper says these are the monsoons, if they are correct, they will be as disappointing as the monsoons have been for the last several years. Basically, no rain. One or two good storms over the two or three week period instead of one or two good storms every day.

Simple Baby Hoodie

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This sweater is just moving right along. I started the sleeve early in the day yesterday, had about two inches done and realized I'd not done any of the decreases. So, frogged it back, did the decreases and have now started ribbing on the cuff. According to this chart, the sweater should fit a 12 month old child. It just looks so short and so wide. But then all the hand knit baby sweaters look short and wide to me. I'm sure it'll fit someone at some time!
We had a bit of rain last night. I'm sure it wasn't very much, but it sure smelled good. I lived in Minnesota as a kid, and the summers were very humid. My mom could smell rain coming hours before it hit. I have a hard time here in the desert smelling it early, but once it hits, it's such a clean crisp smell. And it cooled down quite a bit. It's a full ten degrees cooler in the house this morning than it has been for several days.

Sabina proves San Diego dogs know how to handle the heat!
Robyn's Nest has Boye Knitting Needle Earrings on sale. Cute Idea!

KnittingIris had quite a dyeing adventure. It's really very interesting.

From Lovin' Comfort Knits:
From Kathy at irisheyes: One scoop or three?

Pullovers, Skies and More Hatz

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The Simple Baby Cardigan has become the Simple Baby Pullover. Dunno exactly why that happened... Perhaps I grew weary of purling. I'm continuing the garter stitch from the edge of the hood down into the body of the sweater. After the increases for the yoke were finished, I started up my slip stitch pattern again. Plans are to do the same on the sleeves when I begin knitting them in the round. I seamed up the top of the hood, too, so it looks a bit more like it's "supposed" to. There will be a button and loop at the neck and one half way between that and where it is joined and another one for show at the point of joining. I'm happy with how the colors are working out. There is a bit more pooling on the back, kinda like this but a bit more stripey. IOW, the pools are stationery and not wandering all around the back, like this.
There is rain in the forecast for the next few days. Not much of chance, 30% or so, but a chance. It's overcast this morning which is a treat. You know how Seattle has, like 360 days of cloudy skies? We we have 360 days of clear sunny skies. Ideal, you think? Not so much. Believe me we get just as tired of clear blue skies as Seattlites get of cloudy grey skies. Need to live somewhere in the middle, I think! Days with clouds are wonderful as they add some interest to the view. Isn't this more interesting...than this?For the StarWars/Disney Fans!
Look at Ray's newest Charity Hat! "Charitable crafting can be a way to take what you have but don’t need, and turn it into something someone else needs but doesn’t have."

I know "The World's Biggest Stash" has been circulated before. The more I view these pictures the more it makes me uncomfortable. If I had even 25% of this much yarn I'd feel so overwhelmed to "do something with it". I would feel compelled to give up sleeping, hire a housekeeper, and start using it up. I'd end up in Ripley's Belive It or Not, not as the woman with all that yarn, but the one that never left her house again in order to use it up.

In that same vein, what did we do before the internet? We had more time for spinning and knitting!

Cardigans, Lemons and Grapefruit

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Finished the hood on the Simple Baby Cardigan and have proceeded to do the increases to create the sleeves. The pattern calls for a Knit in the front and back of the stitch (Kfb) increase but the little purl bars showed up in different colors than the knitting around it and just looked less than appealing to me. So I frogged it back and changed to yarn overs (YOs) for the increases. I think they look nice and add a bit of airiness to the work.

After working about three inches on the sleeves, I realized I'd made an error about twelve rows back and one on the second row of increases. Thought it was a good time to practice putting in a life line back before the errors. I did, it worked, and then I thought it might be a good idea to put a lifeline in every four or five rows so this didn't happen again. Someday I'll learn how to frog back and fix errors at YOs.

I know I'm enjoying knitting on this because I didn't even get upset when I'd lost three hours of work. I just stayed up a little later last night and caught up to where I was before I found the errors. I dropped the slip stitch pattern I'd used on the hood when I started the increases. So the yoke will be st st. Haven't decided yet if I'll pick up the pattern again once it turns to even knitting again. What do you think?

Finally got the back yard cleaned up. There were several months worth of fallen fruit, leaves and garbage gifted to us by the neighbors in our little postage stamp back yard. I go out to rake it into the corner quite often, but getting it out of the corner and into the dumpster requires two of us. Lately it's been so hot in the afternoons (over 100 for a couple weeks now) it just seemed so daunting to get it done. But yesterday was the day and it's all clean now. The new crop of grapefruits are about the size of a good sized lemon. The lemons about the size of a quarter.
Hail in Virginia yesterday. Everyday I read about some strange weather phenomenon somewhere. Shades of The Day After Tomorrow.

George Carlin, RIP.

Long Term Knitting

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I've been feeling the need to knit something a bit more long term than Hatz or Mittnz. It's a feeling of discontent that I've noticed other knitters suffering from, too. A need to knit something "different." Hard to explain if you're not feeling it, but I can feel several of you nodding your head in understanding.

To combat it, I CO the Simple Baby Cardigan from Pure and Simple. And because I can't just knit a pattern as written, I employed the slip stitch pattern from Knitty.com's Crusoe. Because the sweater is knit flat, the plain knit rounds become purl rows. I did over six inches of the 8.5 inches needed for the hood. The yarn is S.R. Kertzer Northern Worsted acrylic. I love the colors and like how the stitch pattern helps break them up. Changes I'd make in the pattern so far: Use a provisional CO so the top of the hood could be Kitchenered or a three needle bind off.
I watched The Sound of Thunder on SciFi yesterday. It's based on a Ray Bradbury short story I'd read as a kid, and was written before I was born. It was one of the scifi stories that always stuck in my mind, wondering if indeed the web of existence not only reaches out to every thing in the Universe in the Now, but also to all that has happened and all that will happen. It's something to ponder, just don't try to wrap your head around it. It doesn't work! :) It brings back Dr. Malcom's quote in Jurassic Park: "Just because we can doesn't me we should."

If you don't subscribe to The Daily Kitten, you are really missing some very wonderful pictures! Booger says, "Peek!!"

Crazy Aunt Purl says people just wanna have fun. But does one loose the whole concept of fun by programming into one's life? To me, spontaneity is part of the definition of fun. Yes, we plan an outing to a specific location to "have fun," but we don't know for sure we will till we quit trying and just "do it." I guess I don't do very well with having "scheduled" fun.

I enjoy knitting, crocheting, spinning, reading making cookies, etc., but whenever I try to schedule it: Spin on Mondays, bake on Wednesday afternoons, go to the library Thursdays at 3:15, the time arrives and I don't want to spin or bake or whatever. I want to continue doing what I'm doing that gives me the pleasure I'm enjoying at the moment. And I know how bad I'd feel (bad=not fun) if I had to tell Sean Connery when he finally showed up at my door, "Sorry, Sean, it's 3:15 on Thursday and I have to go to the library to have fun." Discuss among yourselves.