Sometimes The Yarn Just Knows

As tends to happen when one reaches a certain age, the tiny humans begin making their appearance with some frequency.

These tiny humans need blankets.  It's a necessity.  And blankets of the hand-knit variety are my personal favorite.

This is the Twinkle Twinkle Blanket.  If you look close, there's itty bitty stars everywhere.

The variegation in the yarn makes it a bit tricky to see.  Someone told me the favorite colors of this Mommy are teal and gray, and I happened to have those very same colors in the stash.  I've had a few skeins of Swizzle in the stash for quite a bit of years.  I knew I liked the yarn, but it hadn't told me what it wanted to be until just that moment.

Maybe it knew all along, it just wasn't time yet.

In Triplicate

This year, the Christmas order from my boss came in March.  She sent me an email with a subject line reading "These are really, really cute… Christmas presents for the boys this year?" The body of the email contained one image.

I sat on the pattern for a couple of months and decided to get them done so I could be wide open for the start of the Christmas Sweatshop.

My son happily modeled one for me.  It's small for his 10-year-old head, but that's okay.  It's made for a 3-year-old head.

I must say, these are impossibly adorable.  I left off the buttons, but otherwise I made no modifications to the pattern whatsoever.  There were none needed.  I even used the recommended Thick & Quick.

They worked up fast as lightening, the only finicky bit being the ears.

I will most likely end up making one for myself.  Because a grown woman wearing a fox hood is completely acceptable, right?

Cowl Jag?

What constitutes a jag, exactly?  The Oxford English Dictionary says that a jag is "a period of indulgence in a particular pastime, emotion, interest, etc."  In that case, my entire life is nothing more than a series of jags.

The summer included a bit of a Spectral jag.  I really liked the one I made for my mother-in-law, so I decided I'd make another one for me.  On the Yarn Crawl back in May I found this lovely kit at the second to last store.

The colors are a bit more "me."  The only thing I would wish to improve is the size.  There was significantly less yardage in this kit than the other, and although I decreased stitches, it still came out a bit narrow for my taste.

Now I know better for next time.  Can time elapse between projects for the jag to continue, or must it be one continuous period?

Who knows... The OED also says that a jag is "as much liquor as a man can carry; a 'load' of drink."  So there's that...

Blink And You'll Miss It

That's how I feel about the last 4 months or so.  

Once upon a time, I stumbled on the pattern for the Spectral Cowl.  I fell immediately in love and promptly ordered a gradient kit.  This one came from Black Trillium Fibres and is accurately called "Mint."

This cowl was my travel knitting when I went all the way to Australia.  It went on a couple of planes...

it drove on the left side of the road…

and it even saw a kangaroo!

While we were there, I realized my mother-in-law loves bright colors and it never really gets cold enough in Australia for scarves or wool socks or sweaters or hats.  But the night wind is definitely chilly enough for a light cowl.

I finished it up when we got back home and boxed it up just in time for Mother's Day.  We're still not convinced she knows exactly what a cowl is, but she's pretended to like it and I suppose that counts for something, right?

Stash Buster

My cat, Buttercup, and I have an ongoing war over the rights to my yarn.  I know she's a cat, and she's just doing her cat thing, and that's fine.  I've willingly turned over plenty of yarn to her possession.  But she's a greedy little bugger and always always wants the yarn I've neatly reballed and placed in the yarn cabinet.

She has a deep adoration, or deep hatred, of my Bernat Alpaca Naturals.  She is constantly dragging all of it out of the cabinet.  Doesn't matter how high up I place it, she finds it every time.

I decided I'd either have to throw it all away, or knit it all up.

This is the Growing Leaves Cowl.  I'm not usually a fan of cowls, sometimes having something rubbing against my chin makes me a little twitchy.

To avoid this, I only did the repeat two times.  It has a nice drape, and the yarn is soft and comfortable.

The pattern worked up quickly with no issues at all.  It was started, blocked, and worn in a matter of two days or so.  

I have tons of this in other colors to use before Princess Buttercup claims another skein.  If only I needed 369 cowls. 

Population Growth

Several months ago, right around the time I made the two blankets for her newest grandson, my boss asked me to make another pink blanket for another soon to be born tiny human.  

I had free reign to choose any pattern and yarn I wanted, so I went a little different.  The Circle Baby Blanket is a lot of fun and flew off the needles.

I used Pound of Love for this one.  I generally don't like working with that yarn but it actually fit this project well.  The shade of pink was just right and I only used about half of each color.

I especially liked the way the back of blanket is completely different, but still doesn't look like an eye-sore as some wrong sides can.

Once I attached the tag with the little white ribbon, it all came together better than I would have thought.

At this rate, all the tiny humans in the Tri-State area will be bundled in a Woolly Llama blanket in no time.

I'm okay with that.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

For those of you that read this blog, you know about the yearly battle that is Jack's Christmas Sweater.  There was the year he wanted a vest, no a sweater, no a vest.  There was the year he wanted a Christmas Sweater that wasn't Christmasy.  There was the year he didn't get a Christmas Sweater because there was a blanket that tried to steal my sanity.  

This year I started particularly late and didn't think it would get done.  He knew the sweater needed to be red, but not too red.  He knew it needed a snowflake, or maybe two, but not girly snowflakes.  And he knew it was definitely a sweater, not a vest.

It took some time, and some very generous liberties with a pattern, but we got it done.

Every year I try to remember that it doesn't need to be perfect because it will only fit him for this one season.  Then I long for the time when I can knit him something he won't grow out of so quickly.

Then I quickly remember that when that time does get here, I'll long for this time.  The now time.  The time when he's still my little boy and he still needs me and he still thinks wearing sweaters his mother knit for him is "cool."

So I'll knit him a sweater every year, and socks every birthday, and I'll remember to enjoy it while it lasts.  He's double-digits now.  I don't have much time left.