MAY DAY! MAY DAY!

So last blog post I was lazily knitting along, bragging about how I could easily switch between projects and it was all super happy LALALALALALA... and I was going to finish everything in good time and MAY IS AWESOME!

Well... SOMEONE had the audacity to be born TWO WEEKS EARLY... and SOMEONE has me like this:

I was sliding into a rainy long weekend, with an enormous Lego kit for the kid to work on and hours of knitting time before me.

This took my kid a day.  There are 1005 pieces and he's FOUR- he built 95% of this himself.  

(mom brag... it's my blog, I'm allowed!)

Husband raised the hackles early on Friday afternoon with this text: "Bre is 38 weeks BTW..."  And that got me thinking.  So, after bragging about my 2 project system I switched to working on the blanket only.

I knit.  And knit.  And knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and knit....

And Sunday I was nearing the finish line, but also feeling general "blah" over knitting the blanket and I was just about to reward myself with some mitten knitting when I get this text.  "Bree had her baby yesterday, girl... that's all I know."

And then....

via GIPHY

So, I plugged back in, sat back down and grinded out the blanket and got it cast off and the ends sewn in.

The next part (which is going to be TEDIOUS), is to pick up and knit the borders on each side.  See those little morse stitches?  Instead of evenly dispersing them throughout- they are every stitch.  It's going to take awhile.  But first, the blanket needs to be blocked, because picking those stitches up with it rolling like that is going to be miserable if it's not lying flat.

So, while it's blocking... I did cast on the mitten....

This is cast on #2, I decided that cast on #1 was going to too big.  I'm already worrying that cast on #2 is also too big... but I'll make that call a little further into the cuff.  Picot always looks enormous and then it pulls in considerably once you start working in pattern.

I'm hoping soon that I'm going to be as chill as this guy...

... but we're not there yet.

May There Be Music!

Well, as planned... I finished the music mittens and I'm quite pleased with how they look!

Pattern: Everything above the Latvian Braid: For the Love of Music by AvaAdore
               Everything Latvian Braid and below: ME
Yarn: Filatura Di Crosa Zarina 1404 (black) and Koigu Premium Merino (KPM) 00 00 (natural)
Needles: Cuff is US 2 (2.75 mm) and Hand is US 2.5 (3.00 mm)
Notes: Pretty straight forward pattern.  I decided to modify the cuff to make the mittens more personal for the recipient.  So... if you ever wanted "Baa Baa black sheep have you any wool" charted out- here it is.

I'm hoping Miss Patti likes them.  They look quite lovely and I'm so pleased with how they turned out.

   

I'm actually pretty pleased in general with the knitting right now.  Meeting mini goals and switching in between projects is working out quite well.  It keeps my brain engaged and prevents me from the "BLAH" I sometimes I feel when I'm working on one project religiously.  I usually set a row I can knit to on the mittens and then I switch and complete one ball on the blanket before going back to a new row goal on the mittens.

Here we are, nearly done ball 4 and I'm feeling quite good with where I'm at on this blanket.  This part knits up fast.  I'm at 21" and I think I'm going to go to about 32" before I stop. (or maybe 34"... I haven't decided.)  The harder part is coming.  Once this part is off the needles, I need to weave in the ends and lightly block it.  THEN I need to pick up and knit a border on each side.  The border is going to be challenging and is going to be a lot more knitting.  (Instead of doing a morse code stitch row every 6 rows, I'll be doing them every row and in every stitch... a lot more work!)

And so... because I know that the borders are going to get tedious, I've decided to add another mitten project to the mix to help me get past the tedium and keep it interesting.

This project is ready to go once I finish the current ball of yarn.  (It's a mystery for now.... but I love the colors!)  I wanted to gift mittens to teachers next year for kindergarten (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and it's best to get a jump on that now.  (I will reserve my "HOLYCRAPMYKIDISGOINGTOKINDERGARTEN" freak out until summer is ending.)

I'm recognizing that I'm likely not going to have the blanket done when the baby it's intended for shows up, but I'm hoping to stick pretty closely to an "end of June" timeline.

Oooo... unrelated to knitting, but if you could send me some "NO FROST" mojo.... I got my flowers in for the spring and they look so pretty!  (Having a little boy means having flowers in pots and not beds to give them a fighting chace!)

May Project Slay

Oh MAN- the progress train continues it's steady path towards a finish line!  The lovely thing about working on two projects at a time is that you can "switch up" when things start to feel a little less interesting.  It has the added bonus of keeping things interesting and avoiding that "meh" feeling you get when you've been working on something for a while.

The mittens are moving along beautifully...

My concerns about the hand being too long were unfounded and in general I'm quite pleased with these.  NOTE TO SELF... US 3 knits up a nice mitten size and you don't run into that "it might be too small" or "I need to block the ever loving s$@*! out of this" thoughts.  I'm hoping to get this off the needles by Friday.  And then- THUMBS.  Oh god do I hate knitting thumbs.

Mittens are addicting- and I'm already thinking I might cast on another pair once these are done. It will give me another project to work on to keep it interesting when I need a break on the blanket. Parker will have several teachers in his class next year and getting a jump on that NOW isn't the worst idea....

Thankfully I have the blanket to move along to as well.  I'm loving this Morse pattern!  (Pattern is HERE (click link).  I highly recommend trying it out.  It's simple and easy and the proceeds of the pattern go to a really good cause- so I'm not telling you how it's done.  You need to buy it and help out her cause!)  I'm already 10 inches into this and I'm quite enjoying the knit.  It's relatively easy and it looks sharp!

I was apprehensive about the yarn, as the reviews were mixed on Ravelry.  Many argued the yarn pilled and split and had knots, but so far I've been quite satisfied with it.  It is incredibly soft and, so far, a pleasure to work with.  I'm glad I took the risk, I have not been disappointed.  If it holds up at the finish line I would consider it again for another blanket- it's that nice to knit with.  (I'm guessing it's the teeny bit of cashmere in in that makes it so delightful.)

So far progress in May has been moving at a great clip.  Likely when I get to the border area on the Morse blanket it's going to go considerably more slow- the morse stitch is right up against each other and it won't be as quick to knit that part.  BUT- it will look nice and I'll hopefully have something else to help keep it from getting monotonous.

May Heyday

Hey!  It's May!  AND... to usher in a new month, we have NEW! THINGS! TO! TALK! ABOUT!

One of those things are moving along at a good click so we should probably talk about it!  Parker has been in a music program with a phenomenal teacher since he was 12 months old.  He loves Miss Patti, I love Miss Patti, everyone loves Miss Patti.  And, because of that, we've done her music class one day a week for the last 3 years.  Sadly, this is our last semester with Miss Patti and I'm crushed.  I really like Miss Patti!  So, of course, because she's been such a part of our lives for the last 3 years, I thought it would be nice to make her a pair of music mittens.

I had originally wanted to design a pair, but time was less supportive of that idea, and I decided to MODIFY an exsisting pattern to make it a little more personal.  The earliest "favorite song" Parker had in his music class was "Baa Baa Black Sheep".  Before he was really even talking he'd request, (DEMAND) to be sung "Baa Baa", "Baa Baa".  We'd walk into Miss Patti's class, look her dead in the eyes and say "BAA BAA"- as if to say "we better be singing that song lady!"  And Miss Patti would totally oblige Parker.

And so- I modified the pattern to have a cuff with the music to Baa Baa Black Sheep.

 

It required a little graphing, and perfecting, but I think it turned out pretty great.  Now, I'm well into mitten one and hope to have it off the needles and #2 cast on this week.  (Dream big!)  I'm mildly concerned about length with this mitten (length of the hand) so we'll see how we end up.

Miss Patty's mittens need to be done by early June when it's our last class- so I'm hoping to have them well ahead of that in mid May.

Next up on the needles, freshly cast on is the baby blanket for the baby due in early June.  Since it's for a colleague in his office, husband helped pick out the pattern, and of course, he picked out something more complicated.

It's "Morse Stitch", a unique way of creating a bobble.  So far the pattern is quite interesting and I think it's going to knit up lovely.

I even bought yarn (GASP) for this yarn because I wanted the right "color" and softness.  And so, Debbie Bliss "Baby Cashmerino" joined my collection and so far I quite like knitting with it!

Once the first section of the blanket is done (and it looks like after some serious blocking), you pick up and knit a hefty border.  I'm a little nervous about that, but I've been finding that getting out of my comfort zone has worked out great this year so far, so I'm hoping to continue on the momentum of it.

And that, lovely reader, is what you're going to be seeing and hearing a lot of in May.  Back to knitting!