Knitting Bits

Ooh, this is going to be a bit all-over-the-place, but there are so many little projects needing updating here that I figured I'd just cram them all in. Between baby knitting and de-stress knitting, The Piles (you know what I'm talking about) have been growing growing growing. First, I finished my Shetland mittens and due to all this schizophrenic weather we've been having, they've gotten a lot of play in the last couple of weeks. I think they may now be officially retired for the warmer months, but hey, we could wake up (again) to hail tomorrow and biting winds. You never know these days. I have yet to give them a proper photoshoot or a more appropriate blog-post of their own, but they were so quietly sitting in the sunlight this morning that I figured they warranted a little show-and-tell time. And speaking of finished projects yet-to-be-photographed-or-written-about, I've finished a few more little baby knits. (As an update for those who have been asking, I'm going to be an official uncle (not a father) and I'm VERY excited about it!) Below is a charming little vintage-style baby bonnet - a free pattern from Larissa at Stitch Marker - that is sweet sweet sweet. I knit this with a linen/wool blend (stashbustin') and loved the crispness of the wavy ridges and soft-yet-sturdy quality of the fabric. The eyelets around the neck are for ribbon but I worked up a nice sturdy I-Cord instead. I blocked this using pins and a blocking wire (pictured) to open up the fabric. I could go on and on about how much I love blocking wires. I find I use them for all sorts of things and they just give finished garments that extra OCD punch. The stashbusting continues in the baby knitting arena: I had one skein of super-silky SWTC Bamboo - this stuff has great yardage (the skein feels a bit like a hockey puck - so weighty and satisfying) and I thought I'd challenge the skein to a duel. Is a one skein baby sweater possible? I believe so! I'm done with the yoke and body and just have the sleeves left - according to the weight of the remaining yarn (40g!), we should be golden for a newborn-sized EZ classic. The pattern is the ever-popular and always-charming February Baby Sweater from EZ's Knitter's Almanac (I made one a couple years back in green). Lastly: Remember my 'Reward Cone' of School Products Cashmere Merino? Well I couldn't wait until proper reward-time came around and felt a mindless stockinette pullover was in desperate need of conjuring. So I started. And it's making for some gooooood tactile gratification. More details on many of these soon - apologies again for the random project purge session!