KNITSTER

Hello all!

Well, I promised to post the photos of the dreaded baby blanket when it was done, and I finally have the photos. Ironically enough, my little nephew’s due date was today, but after seeing my sister just two days ago, it’s highly unlikely he’s coming today. She hadn’t dropped or dialated or anything at her MD’s visit the day before I saw her, so she’s not even close unless labor starts SUPER fast.

Here’s my little nephew’s baby blanket and a little matching hat.

Here’s the detail of the blanket.

The yard was one of those One Pound deals that I had bought a while ago, but I can’t remember which brand. I had also made a little pair of mittens too with a connecting cord. The blanket is a pattern that’s in the Zoe Mellor book,

Adorable Knits for Tots

(or something like that), and the hat is from Debbie Bliss’

Baby Knits for Beginners

. The mittens were just two tiny rectangles that I folded in half and sewed, then crocheted a chain and sewed that to the mittens. My sister loved it. The baby’s nursery is the same pale yellow, so it coordinates with it perfectly. It turns out that she also had the baby’s coming home outfit out , which had a little yellow sweater that my BIL’s mother had bought or made when my BIL was a baby, and it was the exact same color, so that worked out well too. Hooray!

So, I’m looking ahead to figure out new projects to do. Drew wants a Rainbow Power Ranger sweater, which I have no idea what that is, so I’m just skipping it for now. I wanted to make the men’s sweater by Ann Budd that’s in the Summer 2006 Interweave Knits magazine. I started to try knitting it with a pretty acrylic yarn that I had saved to make a men’s sweater for my husband, but I couldn’t get the gauge right, and JC (my husband) said to not bother, even though it’s a sweater just in the style that he would like. So this morning I was starting to gauge for a top in the Yarn Girls’

Beyond the Basics

book that has a cable down the middle, so that way I could start learning how to do a cable, perhaps. I’ll have to see if the gauge works first.

In the meantime, I’ve been wanting to go to this shop in Mount Holly called Woolbearers, as they have both yarn and spinning stuff. I was originally going to go to the Knit and Crochet show in PA next week, but decided that it was a long hike just to look around, and most of these places are ones with web addressses where I can inquired that way if something REALLY catches my eye. Woolbearers is going to be at that show, and they were even getting ready for that while I was there. One of the owners chit-chatted with me while I was there, and it turns out that she lives in West Windsor, which is the next town over from me. She didn’t have the student carders I was hoping to get (she just sold them yesterday! ) and she didn’t have enough skeins of the Cascade 220 color I was buying, but she was going to order them for me, which was cool. Her prices seemed average to reasonable. (I guess I’ve done enough online shopping to know what’s a good price, or at least what I thought was a good price.). I bought the 4 skeins of the Cascade 220 in a blue-green heather color, to make JC’s sweater. He might have said no, but it’s really a nice sweater, and I think I’m going to make it for him for Christmas. Or maybe his birthday. Whichever one I finish it closer to. I think he’ll like it when it’s done, and as the loft and his office gets rather chilly in the winter, I think it’ll be a nice addition to his wardrobe. But overall it was a pleasant experience. The place was in historic Mount Holly. Some of Mount Holly is really beautiful, with the old town feel and Victorian homes, etc. This shop was on the border between the historic section and the ‘hood. It’s a very working class area, for sure. But that’s okay. It was worth the trip. Hopefully those other two skeins (which the owner said she’d even try to get them in the same dye lot if she could. I wouldn’t expect that, but hey, that’s great customer service to at least try!), and she’d let me know if she gets the new carders in soon. I’m looking forward to that.

Posted on July 9th, 2006 by Dani
Filed under: Finished Objects, Photos, Projects, Shopping