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Fit for a princess.

We’ve been calling the unborn little lady by the nickname “Princess Mozzarella.” I really don’t know how this got started. It was a joke and just stuck. I don’t think we’re going to be revealing the real name prior to her birth, even when we figure it out, so don’t get your hopes up, interested parties!

I’m not really a girly girl (though there’s nothing wrong with being one). I think I shocked some of the ladies at knit night when they saw me in a fuchsia dress. It was that or a black dress in that style…I like color, ok? I hope that calling our unborn bean “Princess Mozzarella” doesn’t make people think that we want a spoiled little pretentious ruffle-wearing future queen. It just sounds ridiculous, and since many things that happen during pregnancy/parenting seem ridiculous…why not? Anyway, check out this yarn:

I’m thinking it’s going to make a perfect Pinwheel Baby Blanket. I made one of these before for some great friends that were expecting at the time. Sadly, I forgot to take a finished shot, but it was lovely.

I haven’t abandoned my Curve Hem Top. I am determined to finish that before I let myself cast on a blanket. I’m at the front after the divide for the v-neck, closing in on the last few inches. After that, I just have the collar and sewing it up! I’m hoping to finish by Tuesday or Wednesday, making the whole project a week and a half venture. My Honeybee Cardigan is still languishing in her project bag, not because it’s not a fun knit, but because the thinking-and-making-me-look-at-it part was taking away from my reading Feast for Crows. I can’t wait to start this Pinwheel though, so I’d better get finish with that top!

Creating curves.

I’m creating curves all over the place, both in my knitting work and my baby growing work. This knitted work in progress is the Curve Hem Top by Vicki Square, in the most recent Spring/Summer issue of Vogue Knitting. The knit is simple to execute and proved mindless enough to let me absorb myself in reading at the same time. There are a few corrections to the pattern, so if you make this top, be sure to check first.

I started the back last Friday morning and finished it yesterday morning. I got a piddly start on the front yesterday. Even though it is very simple, the minimal counting involved in the short rows threw me a bit at knit night at Hand Held last night. I’m hoping to fly through the front and be able to wear this before my belly has curved to a point that won’t allow it.

Speaking of curves…as I have mentioned before, it’s tiresome how many people freely comment on my changing body with no filter. At 6 months along (or any point), I do not want to be told I look so big that I should be having twins, even if that’s what you think. This is my first pregnancy. I’m already freaking out about putting on pounds and pounds. I’m eating healthfully 90 percent of the time and I’m walking nearly every day. I’m growing a freaking human, m’kay? I just wanted to put that out there, because even though the people that say these things most likely do not have ill intentions, I’m not always brave enough to point out their rudeness in person. But believe me, a couple more comments, and I’ll be there. This is nothing new for pregnant women, I’m sure. It’s just annoying.

Have I mentioned that I love my Signature Needles? I bought some of these for myself for Christmas. I bought all circular needles with the stiletto points in a 40″ size, since I do a lot of magic loop for circular projects. I adore the tip. It makes lace knitting, like that on my WIP Honeybee Cardigan a snap. Sometimes I wish the cord had just a little less flexibility, but I’d definitely choose this amount to the stiffness of Addis for magic loop. The only issue I’ve had is that the cords on some of my needles have stopped rotating in the needle socket. This is a feature that the company and many customers laud. I sent back a couple of needles to replace when the needle would not rotate on the cord. They happily replaced them and said sometimes you have to work with them to get this to relax. I’ve noticed on a couple of other needles that they used to rotate, but they have since gotten stuck. I guess if this bothers me I’ll send them in again, or maybe they will relax. Overall, these needles are sensational. The points and the light aluminum and more flexible cord seem to help with hand fatigue quite a bit. I definitely noticed that I was able to knit for a longer time on the Liesl (with stiff linen) this time around. Last time I used Addis.

I plan to knit up as much of the front as I can this weekend, while also attending some friendly festivities to celebrate a great friend’s 30th birthday. Welcome to my decade, Kathleen. Happy weekend, everyone else!

Hey little sister…

Ok, ok. This dress is for no little sister, but it is called Little Sister’s Dress. I think the Norwegian version of the name looks cooler: Kjole til lillesøster. This dress is by Tora Frøseth. It’s free on Ravelry and is a snap to make.

I had it in my favorites for a long time. Unfortunately, when I first pulled up the pattern and started knitting, I neglected to see the cute little “update” button in my Ravelry library. I was using the first version, which had a few errors. I got almost to the armpits (from the top) and then had to tear out. At least it’s a tiny baby garment. I made the six month version. That should time about right with the spring if she’s true to the six month size. I have no idea about these things with babies. This is my first (and maybe only) kiddo. I’ve heard that babies often quickly outgrow the expected monthly sizes, but I tried this on a friend’s baby when it was in process and she is about 14 months and it fit her with no problem. Who knows.

I am obviously no great crocheter. The button area has a crocheted edge. If you look at the dress in the Ravelry link for the pattern, the original is much much neater. I might redo this at some point. I also think I made the loops a bit too short, so they pull the buttons closer than they should be. For now, I’m just going to live with both of these.

The color is pretty accurate in these photos. The yarn is Dream in Color Starry and the color is Melon Bomb. A piddly phone camera does NOT capture this color well as I discovered several times when I tried to post to Instagram while it was in progress. The yarn has actual silver strands woven in it. I never thought of myself as a sparkly yarn kinda gal, but it’s not over the top in the sparkly department. I think I have enough left over to make some Tiny Shoes to match!

Liesl: Still lovely.

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I don’t repeat a lot of knitting patterns, other than for the purpose of testing my own pattern making skills. Usually I quickly become enamored with something else and move on. Most of the time I find it hard to be monogamous to one pattern at a time, but don’t tell that to my drawer of UFOs… I often say that I will only have one man, so I might as well have as many knitting projects as I want. Liesl by Julie Weisenberger seemed worthy of making twice.

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Here is my first version where I ham it up in some photos at 7am at my favorite local park. My new Liesl is also made from Euroflax Sportweight, this time in the color Aqua. I am constantly and predictably drawn to most things aqua, aquamarine, seafoam, and various shades of turquoise. I wanted to make things out of this color of Euroflax last year, but it was on back order.

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Again, excuse the mannequin pics. I’m not sure why coordinating pictures for the blog has seemed so difficult lately, but I believe this will abate as my school duties wane for a couple of months. If you miss my dorky face, please click the link above.

This pattern is simple enough for a beginner, mindless enough for those of us that like to read and knit, and the finished product looks stunning on many different body types. This is a garment I have been wearing weekly in the warm months. Linen is also such a durable fiber that I can’t imagine it wearing out. It just seems to get softer and better with each turn in the washer and dryer.

Speaking of reading and knitting…I need a new stockinette or garter project. I’ve been devouring A Feast for Crows, but I find myself reading less as I am getting to the sleeve/shoulder decreases on my Honeybee Cardigan. I’m not enough of a badass to read and do lace at the same time. The lace on this cardigan is fun and intuitive after one or two repeats. I highly recommend it. I think a good, semi-mindless project could be this Four Corners Baby Blanket from Purl Bee. For some reason I’ve never done intarsia, but this seems like a good place to start. I love the clean and modern design. I think it would make an excellent adult blanket (upsized of course) too.

If you’ve read any amount of blog posts on this site, or know me in real life, it’s not much of a secret that I have a passion for sock yarn. It’s hard for me to believe that not everyone is in love with sock yarn in the same way. Not many other weights of yarn are so unabashedly bold with their colors or striping patterns, and when I produce an entire garment out of fingering weight yarn, like my Still Light Tunic, I love the way it seems more flattering than heavier garments and is easier to transition into multiple seasons.

I am newly discovering the benefits of sock yarn stashing as I am starting to make baby knits. When I did a Ravelry advanced search, there were over 3,000 different baby knits (with photos available) using fingering weight yarn. That’s exciting news since I have at least enough yarn to knit about 30 pairs of socks. This might keep me busy with the baby knits for some time.

I’ve been working on Little Sister’s Dress by Tora Frøseth.

I was happily working away on it last weekend until I discovered the math wasn’t adding up and I had the first version, rather than the updated version, of the pattern in my Ravelry library. Ugh. I need to remember to check these things, as well as look for errata at the very beginning of a pattern. Other than that brief misstep, the dress has been flying off the needles at a good pace. I realize the picture above is a pretty awful phone pic that does not capture the color well at all, but meh, it’s what I’ve got for now. I’m making the six month size in hopes of the baby being able to wear it in early spring.

Next up on my baby knits queue is the Clara Dress by Karin Vestergaard Mathiesen. I’ve had this one in my Ravelry favorites for years actually. Unfortunately, the pattern only comes as a kit from the yarn manufacturer. They sell it with some Isager Alpaca 2. I’m not opposed to this yarn, but when I purchased it the variety of colors available was lacking somewhat. There were a couple of blues, grey, brown, and a dark teal. I went with the dark teal, but I’m more likely to make something else out of that in favor of using a brighter skein of yarn from my stash.

My pregnancy is going pretty well so far. Some might even call it easy. Lately my worst experience is just waking up in the middle of the night and being awake for a couple of hours for no reason. I suppose this is ameliorated somewhat by the fact that I can’t stay awake past 9:30 most of the time, so it all balances out.

One thing that I have noticed is that people endlessly give advice and freely comment on what I should and should not be doing to care for myself and my unborn baby. I really haven’t experienced something like this at any other point. Perfect strangers feel free to comment on my body and tell me things I really don’t care to hear. I’m not trying to have a rant here, but it’s a really odd social experiment in a way. I’m trying to mostly look at it with curiosity, rather than anger. As in…”I’m curious that you’re a stranger, yet you feel that you can touch my stomach.” To me, there is probably no other “socially acceptable” time to just touch a stranger’s stomach. It’s a pretty intimate area. I guess I don’t really find this all that “socially acceptable.” Maybe I’m not that friendly after all, or maybe it just weirds me out. I read one site that suggested that I should touch the person’s stomach back to make a point if this makes me uncomfortable. So far I haven’t had the gall to do that and luckily most of the stomach touchers are people I’m comfortable with. I really enjoy Jezebel articles for their feminist bent and level of snark, so I’m linking this one that talks about how to interact with pregnant ladies. Simple stuff folks. If we’re an alien species for you, read that article and take it to heart.

As for other knitting content, I’ve given up on trying to obtain a better photo of some socks that I knit for the fella awhile back. I had some nice ones on my SLR and accidentally deleted them. Other than that, I just keep forgetting to do it. I found a pic on my phone last night and decided it was suitable.
He’s worn them a bunch, and while they probably still look like new due to the durability of the yarn, I’m going to put that baby to bed. More info about the yarn is available here.

The stripes I studied.

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I finished this Stripe Study Shawl months ago, took pics about a month ago and hated them, so I gave up and just used a dress dummy for the ease of getting it done. Please excuse the lack of facial expressions.

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I loved making this shawl. The green/yellow yarn shown (my main color) is Wasabi in Colinette Jitterbug sock yarn. This is one of my favorite yarns for the subtle variegation and the excellent squish factor. The magenta yarn is Linie Cosmo 33 in purple. The Linie is merino and cashmere. It is also deliciously squishy. I had my doubts about the wearability of this color combo with my wardrobe, but it’s getting use.

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I started a Little Sister’s Dress for my wee unborn one, and I thought I would use the Wasabi sock yarn. After searching for about 20 minutes, I realized I had already used it in this shawl! Ah, pregnancy brain. Luckily, there is no shortage of beautiful sock yarn in my stash, so I busted out some Dream in Color Starry in the color Melon Bomb that my brother and his gf gave me ages ago. This color seems like it will be impossible to photograph, but I’ll do my best when the time comes.

I still have a finished Liesl and Lolita to post coming soon. I’ve started a Honeybee Cardigan but I can’t seem to get the sizing right. I started out making the 34.5 inch bust size, but the sleeves were huge and the width across the bust would not have stretched enough to show off the lace properly. I frogged it and I’m making the sleeves in the extra small size. I haven’t decided whether to make the body in the small or extra small size. The extra stretchiness may partially be due to the Ella Rae Lace Merino yarn, but I have read of others experiencing this with the pattern, so maybe it’s not just the yarn. I’ll keep you posted.

Spring Shawlette

Dear Readers,

Let us welcome spring! I am loving the extra daylight in the evening. It makes me feel like summer (and the inevitable break from school that comes with it) are closer around the corner. I am in sore need of some time off after this semester. Thus far, it has been the most challenging time-wise during my PhD program, and the pregnancy was wearing me out during the first trimester. Now I’m at 16 weeks, and some of the enormous fatigue is fading. Knitting never goes away of course. It only becomes more like therapy when I’m stressed. Let me show you some of my recent therapeutic progress:

This is a little shawlette I whipped up out of a full and partial skein of Alpaca Sox. The main color is Aqua Sunshine and the contrast at the top is Cornsilk. Those color names seem to promise warm days to come. I should be posting about my Stripe Study Shawl, but I wasn’t totally satisfied with those pictures, so that one will have to wait.

This little shawlette came on the heels of the Stripe Study after I couldn’t get enough of the soothing, nearly mindless garter stitches. The pattern is my own, but so ridiculously easy. I basically just did increases on every other row until it was large enough for my liking.

I had coveted the Aqua Sunshine color in my LYS for awhile. I have decided that particular shade of aqua must be my favorite color, because I seem drawn to it over and over with yarn purchases, clothing, etc.

Spring break is next week! I am thrilled because the fella and I will head to St. Louis for some much needed chill time. I love many things about that town. The Forest Park area has several lovely and free attractions like the zoo, art museum, and science center. Cheap thrills, people. That’s where it’s at for a couple of students. Happy spring!

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