April 2009

The holes are lining up nicely:

Today I am on square 65 of I think 72, so I’m nearing the end of the body. Then comes the strap and I haven’t read ahead yet to see what is in store for me there. I hope it qualifies as bus knitting or this baby is never going to be finished.

The bee hat was well received. We heard from Mr. MmmYarn’s sister that our niece put it on and immediately informed her mother that she was a pollen jock. I call that a rousing success.

There is nothing in my bag yet, seeing as it’s just under about halfway done today. This is what the Net Duffel Bag looked like on Saturday:

That is the base plus the beginning of the sides. Each little square is knitted separately (16 squares in the base) and you can only knit two base squares before having to cut the yarn. Once you get up into the side tiers, the instructions have you putting the one remaining stitch of each square on a holder. I was confused by this (uh… it didn’t tell me to split any skeins into smaller skeins) and have been cutting my strand after each square. As you can see, I have been weaving in ends as I go; otherwise, I see myself suffering from a fit of denial of finishing when it’s done and it will be relegated to the hibernation pile. Anyway, tonight I think I will knit a square, rip it out, and measure how much yarn it took. Then I’ll calculate how many squares in each eighth of the circumference and cut off however many yards I need for those 6 or so squares that can technically be worked from a single strand. It will save me some weaving.

In the pattern, each square is numbered. How on earth to keep track of all those little modules? This is my solution to that quandary:

I pinned numbers to each completed square. As soon as it was enclosed on all four sides by adjacent squares, I removed its pin. This technique is working quite well. I am on square 36 of 70+, then there’s the border and handle. There is a way to go yet.

I like how the diagonal lines match up:

Extremely windy and hard to photograph, this was, hence the bizarre horizon.

We hear from Mr. MmmYarn’s sister that our 2-year-old niece enjoys Bee Movie and uses the expression “thinking bee” relatively often so I came up with a design to help her in this when the mood strikes:

Pattern: own
Yarn: Universal Yarn, Inc. Dolce Merino; 50% fine merino, 50% microfiber; half a skein color 442 (black) and half a skein color 404 (freesia)
Needles: size 4 for the hat, size 2 for the i-cord antennae
Size: toddler
Started 3/30 and finished 4/6/2009

This is the same yarn I used for Mr. MmmYarn’s Viking hat a few weeks ago so I was able to simply launch right into the hat. I hope the recipient enjoys it. She leans towards pinks and purples in her usual wardrobe but to be able to properly think bee you must reach for black and yellow.

Socks for Mr. MmmYarn are bus knitting, and since I missed several days of work last week, there is not much progress:

Yeah, no great title inspiration this post. I stayed home from work with a cough and sore throat today, indulged in watching two movies that have been languishing for two months waiting for me to have time to watch them, and decided to catch up with the good old blog, too, since I have let it hibernate for far too long again.

Knitting is going slowly. The hippo is taking far more time than I expected her to. She’s still headless but the body is done. I cannot believe how long it took to evenly attach the arms and legs:

I sewed some seams and wove in some ends on my sweater this morning. But it’s really cloudy today, meaning no good photos of something that dark blue, so I present to you a refresher of which sweater I’m talking about:

I did finish another of my Rising Bubbles scarves since I last posted:

Pattern: own (Rising Bubbles, available under “Free Patterns” in the sidebar), started with 32 stitches
Yarn: 1 skein Crystal Palace Yarns Kid Merino, 28% kid mohair, 28% merino wool, 44% micro nylon, color 9801
Needles: size 4
Size: 5.25″ x 51″
Started 3/6 and finished 3/27/2009

On the needles is the start of a pair of socks for Mr. MmmYarn and I’m hoping to start the Net Duffel Bag (Interweave Knits, Spring 2009) this week. I feel I am supposed to be swatching for a baby sweater for someone who’s a few weeks old already but am feeling uninspired by both that and by the long draw drafting practice I have been doing at the wheel. Rather than sharing non-inspiration, I will end here on a cheerful and bright pink note: