Pentagon Baby Blanket

I mentioned a little over a week ago that I was working on a large, machine knit project. Here it is, complete, seamed, hand knit border added, and steam blocked.

It's constructed from five triangular panels done on a Singer 360K knitting machine using punch card #2 for the fair isle portions. I cast on each triangle at the base, using waste yarn, then while changing colours and stitch patterns as I went, I decreased one stitch each side, every other row until no stitches remained. I then hand seamed the panels together, picked up the stitches from around the perimeter and hand knit a broken rib border.

This blanket has been made to coordinate with the hand knit baby sweater and hat I made earlier.

Enough Already!

Okay----very funny. You can stop now. No. Really. Enough snow. It was romantic in early December, perhaps even inspired the humming of traditional seasonal tunes on Christmas Eve, but in late February? Not!

I've had enough. Go away now. You're scaring the newly emerging tulips!

Baby Ganomy

I searched and searched for the perfect little hat to go with the "Offset Wraplan". I considered the "Norwegian-sweet-baby-cap", but it is written for fingering weight yarn and my brain wasn't wrapping itself around the conversions needed for it to work in the DK weight yarn I had chosen for the sweater.

The numbers for Elizabeth Zimmerman's Ganomy Hat worked perfectly when I used DK. I just shortened up some of the length and fussed with the final decreases a bit to make them work on the smaller version.

Ta Da!

I quite like it!

And I think it's quite in keeping with the general style of the sweater it is meant to go with.

Tropical Pooling

These socks, done toe-up, 2 at a time on one circular needle, are knit from Knit Picks Sock Landscape handpainted yarn in the "Tropical Sunrise" colourway, on size 2.5mm needles.

The pattern is a hybrid using my favourite rounded toe shape which is started with a "figure 8 cast on" and then using the gusset and heel of Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer's "Basic Toe-to-Cuff Sock", followed by a 1x1 ribbing for the leg and ending with a stretchy cast off. This hybrid has become my favourite basic sock. It fits well, is easy to knit, and doing two at a time on one circular means I actually get a pair, not one lonely sock that never finds a mate.

There are times though when perhaps I shouldn't use it. At least not the gusset and traditional heel style. The gradual increasing through the instep can cause striping yarns to pool unattractively over the instep.

I would have been better off using the Peasant Heel instead. No gusset shaping to throw off the striping sequence, a decent fit, very easy to make, and no pooling.

What's Your Preference?

You may have noticed that my blog entries are rather erratic in their frequency. For instance, after posting 3 times in 5 days there has been a long lag of 10 days between posts. That's because I only post when I have something to say.....and most often, I'll have a picture to go with it. For instance, when I'm working on a large project like this:

When you haven't heard from me for a while it is likely that I am working away for hours each day on some project that I haven't yet found the time to blog about. Or, if I have had the time but still haven't blogged then it is likely that the project is rather uninteresting in its unfinished state and I'm waiting until I have a finished object to show you.

All week long I have been working on the machine knitting project in the picture above. This is (the wrong side of) the fifth of 5 triangular panels for a pentagon shaped baby blanket. More on that in future posts.

I've also been knitting by hand a bit. Not much bloggable there, just a few more inches on a plain sock that you've seen before. I've been spinning, but again you've seen the humongous batch of light blue merino/mohair before. I'm just a little further along.

So, my question to you is, "What's your preference?". Do you, my regular readers, prefer the blog to be updated:

1. frequently (every day or several times weekly) regardless of the value of the content
2. regularly (weekly on a specific day) regardless of content
3. according to content (as often as I have something worth blogging about)

Please chime out in the comments. I'd love to hear your views!

Again Perhaps?

I LOVE the way this turned out. It's exactly what I had in mind. The contrasting, asymmetrical closure adds a bit of interest while still keeping the design free of fussy, frilly, feminine details.

Actual colour is closer to the bottom picture.

I might also make a smaller one though, as this may be too large for a brand new newborn and it is intended as part of a coming home outfit. My daughter and I checked it against Kaylen's coming home outfit. The cuff to cuff length of this one is identical, as is the width of the sleeves, but the body is considerably wider and slightly longer.

Hmmmm, what to do? What to do? On the one hand, I wouldn't want the baby to be swimming in his coming home outfit, (assuming said baby actually turns out to be a boy and wears this at all), but I also don't really want to knit something so small it is only worn once or twice. Or spend all that time knitting two boy sweaters and then have the baby turn out to be a girl anyway. Hmmm.......what to do?

In Case of Boy

There are plenty of little pink or mauve things if the grandchild-to-be happens to be a girl (which seems to be a family trend), but if the baby bucks the trend and happens to be a boy he'll need something to wear home. I've cast on for a simple baby cardigan, the "Offset Wraplan", in very boyish, though not traditionally babyish colours. The colours in the photo are off. In real life the colours are richer and darker with more depth. Very "macho".

I spent a pleasant day knitting and the asymmetrical sweater now only needs sleeves, and neck and button bands.

I need to come up with a hat and maybe some booties to go with it. Any suggestions?

The SUSPENSE!

Our daughter had her second ultrasound today. The baby's size and position were checked, and we were hoping that this time the gender would be visible.

Apparently not......*sigh*......."Baby" is being modest.

What's a knitter to do? Knit gender-neutral apparel? That's SO yesterday. Ya know? SO '80's for Pete's sake. Or should that be for Patricia's sake? Oh heck! We'll have to wait until somewhere around April 10th for the big "reveal". The "olden days" way. *sigh*