Duplicating Her Mistakes

Recently I was commissioned to re-create a Christmas Stocking. It had really got me thinking about the legacy of a knitter and their knits. This stocking has outlived both the knitter and the pattern. It has survived twenty-two Christmas's with out one repair. The stitches are firm, maybe not as crisp, and holding tight after all these years. It has gotten me thinking about the quality of my own knitting. I have been working on an advent calendar for my son and as I make each ornament I keep in the back of my mind: I want this to last for years. Each stitch may not be perfect, but must be knit well. I can imagine that the woman who knit this stocking was thinking much of the same.

I charted out most of the stocking and while I was charting it out and studying the stocking I noticed an oddity. The number of cast on stitches was rapidly decreased after the name had been knitted by 10 stitches.  I began to wonder: Am I re-knitting her mistakes? Twenty-two years later am I looking at a beautiful finished product and planning on remaking her mistakes? I think about my own knitting and how I will make a mistake, but keep going as long as it doesn't alter the overall product. Will someone, someday, go back and re-create my mistakes and wonder: Why did she decrease like that?

 

The knitting is slow, as the needles too small for the yarn, and I recently had to rip back several rows to correct some of my color work. I hope that even with my small mistakes, it will become as well loved and cherished as the original. I am nearly done (I am working the gusset right now) and when it is complete I will breathe a sigh of relief. I will have accomplished at least one Christmas wish this year.

Happy Thanksgiving

I have posts to write. Lots of ideas.

Sadly they are all locked in my brain.

Right now my hands are busy cooking and knitting.

I hope to post something on Friday!

Project Report

In my absence there has been knitting. I think I have three projects on the needles right now (a scarf, a cowl, and a sock), and some flying off!

I finished the Christmas Bell a while ago. I think I'll add a bell before I declare it 100% finished. The goal is to have two more ornaments knit before December 1st!

I started the Sock for Jason for the second time. This time not in secret. I had him try it on, and it fits! Cue the music! I have turned the heel and now I am started the foot. The plan it to knit just the one at first while I work on other projects. 

I knit a farmer for my son for Christmas, I've named him Charlie. The pattern is from Spud and Chloe at the Farm by Susan B Anderson. I like the pattern, all by the legs. You can find my notes on Rav.

Unfortunately all my Christmas knitting has been put on pause until I can finish a paying gig. A relative of someone at my church is paying me to duplicate a Christmas Stocking. I spent an hour or so creating a chart to match and now I need to buy yarn. It should be an interesting knit. 

I've been thinking about my own Christmas Stocking and I'm not sure how to proceed. I'll be looking through some patterns to find one, but I'm leading towards this one wouldn't that be awesome looking with presents stuffed inside it?

I think after the holidays are over I will need to re-evaluate my list and add to it. If I get done what I plan to before Christmas most of my list will be done!

Charlie

I recently knit up the doll "Chloe" from Spud and Chloe at the Farm. I am a huge Susan B Anderson fan, she has never knit or created anything that I haven't immediately loved. This doll is not the first toy I have knit from her patterns. I have knit "Tuck" quite a few times and the cow from the farm book.  I like the ease of the construction and how quickly s/he came together. It is knit in the round, as most of her toys are, and once you are done all that is left is to assemble. All that being said, I am not in love with this doll.

I don't like the legs.

I am debating taking them off and knitting them again, but I probably won't.

The legs, they are like toothpicks. They sort of just stick out looking uncomfortable and unnatural. Maybe it's because I made her into a boy? I will be making a face for him, but I will do that the week before Christmas so that I am not tempted to give it to him before then. Once his face is on he will have some real personality.

I used the stitch from the sheep (in the book) to make the hair and it came out super cute. I knit a wig and then attached it, I will be doing that from now on when I make a doll. Making hair that way is so much easier, why didn't I do that before?!?!

I knit his overalls with out a pattern and didn't do too bad. Next time I won't start with so man stitches because by the time I got up to the waist it was too big. Not sure if I should make some more clothes for him or not. If I was knitting this for a girl I'd make a bunch of clothes, but a boy won't be as interested in getting it dress and re-dressed, I think. I may make a sweater or pj's or something so that he can change it if he wants to.

I had to hide him from Stomper because every time he saw the farmer he shouted, "Baby!" and scooped him up. Gwendolyn got a new dress too. I was going to make her a little shrug, but it's turning into a scarf for an adult instead, unless I get tired of it, then it may become a shrug after all!

I am so excited for Christmas!

Sick, but Still Cute

We have been battling illness the last few days. Somehow he still manages to crack us up. On Monday I told him he could pick his own pants and so he choose his swimsuit. Then I told him to pick a shirt and he dug down to the bottom of the drawer and found a tank-top. I insisted he wear something warm underneath all that. 

Looks like his fever broke and things will be back to normal tomorrow!

Pears, Eggs, and Wolf

Despite our best efforts we lost all the kits. We have gained valuable information and found a contact who can help us in the future. Jason bred the two rabbits on Sunday so with any luck in about a month we will get another try and raising some meat rabbits. 

The pear trees didn't produce like they have in the past. We are disappointed that we won't be having pear sauce all winter. We did manage to pull a few squashes out of the garden and we intend on visiting a local farm to get some pumpkins and apples to put up for the winter.

This is Wolf, our new pet. He is an angora-jersey mix. He was a gift from a friend. Isn't he just the cutest thing! He is just what our hearts needed after loosing all those kits!

The daycare kids are thrilled and keep asking us when we are going to put him outside with Sarah our other pet bunny.

A couple of weeks ago we spied Fluffernutter and a couple of his gals out front of the house. Too close to the road for us! The chickens were all ushered back to the barn where they spent their first few weeks of life and given a few nesting boxes, just in case they might lay.

And they did! We have found four small little eggs so far (the white one is a store bought egg). We estimate that in a few more weeks everyone will be laying normal sized eggs. Yum! We are so encouraged that at least one thing is working right!

Embrace the Camera: Timer

We still are getting used to using the timer on the camera.

If at first you don't succeed!

:)

Project Report

It has been several weeks since my last post for Year of Projects and I have some really good excuses: Birthday, a Knitting Failure, and Rabbits. My little guy turned two and I was rather busy with party planning that I had no time to knit. The sock I was knitting taught me a valuable lesson about laddering and dpn's and I have been putting what I learned to good use. For the rabbit busyness pop over to the family's blog to read about our orphan newborn rabbits (we raise meat rabbits).

Even with all that is going on here I can cross somethings off my list. I made garland for the Advent Christmas Tree and I knit Stomper his Christmas hat.

The hat is knit from my own pattern: Hunters Plaid Hat. The only adjustment I made was to knit the earflap with double knitting which I am new to. I like the earflap much better this way and I may add that option to the pattern in the future. Does anyone know if you can decrease while double knitting? I was thinking how awesome it would be to have the hat reversible, although it would probably be a little too warm.

The mittens in the background are from Mittens on a String. I adjusted the mittens to fit 2T-3T by adding a few rows and stitches (rav notes). The mittens are knitting up really quick. It is so nice to have something checked off my Christmas knitting list. This week I hope to start the gray squirrel as I have relocated both yarn and pattern just recently. 

Then maybe I will attempt to knit socks for the hubby.

~~~

Project List

Pembroke Vest

Christmas Stocking

Finish Kat's gloves (done) and mine too (mine are done!)

Two Plaid Hunters Hat (one done)

The squirrel/hedge hog

Six ornaments for Stompers Advent Calendar:

1. Christmas Sweater done!
2. Christmas Stocking
3. Candy Cane
4. Christmas Bell
5. Tinsel (done)
6. Christmas Ball

Something from the book The Expectant Knitter

Finish a bear I started from the Nursery Baby Doll pattern done!

A pair of socks for the hubby that will actually fit him - started

Milo Vest 

Something Girlie -- possibly something out of The Expectant Knitter (done)

Rabbits

Saturday morning Jason came back in the house from doing chores, and I could tell that something bad had happened.

"What's wrong?"

"Stupid rabbit died giving birth."

"What?"

"She bled out."

"Are the babies alive?"

"Yeah, six of them. I put them in with the other mother, but I don't think it's going to work."

He then left to attend some training, while he was gone the rest of us wondered if anything could be done.

That afternoon Little Sister asked if Jason would mind if she kept one as a pet. He could breed it if he wanted to, but it would be her pet. I thought that'd be fine. I suggested she take two so that they would keep each other warm and to hedge her bet. I told her to take the two livelest ones. She went down in the the barn with my parents to help her.

When she came back she had three.

A few minutes later my Mom came up with a sheepish look on her face and said; "My sweatshirt pocket is moving."

"How many?" I asked.

"All of them."

"You do realize that even if they survive, we will still be eating them."

"Yes. I know."

We did some research and warmed a bit of cows milk for them and fed them with droppers we happened to have (sometimes it pays off to keep things--sometimes). We put their mothers fur from her nest making in a bucket with straw and a piece of flannel for them to crawl under. We put numbers on their back with a non-toxic washable markers and made careful notes on how much milk each took in. We fed them, put a warming light over them, and hoped for the best.

That was four days ago.

Their fur is coming in, they are peeing on their own, and taking a teeny nipple we borrowed from a friend. We are so surprised at how well they are doing. We all assumed that we'd loose them all in the first day. As far as we can tell all six are going to make it.

The question Jason keeps asking us is, "Are you sure you will be able to eat them when it comes time?"

"Yes, all but the one we keep as a pet."

Jan 2013 :: Edited to add--

A few days later all the kits died. Later we finally received some credible information and learned we had fed them improperly. 

New Techniques Just in Time for Christmas

I have been having some issues with my knitting lately. I had startititus for a little bit, but fought the urge by planning a Birthday Party for my two year old. Then I kept it at bay by being involved with my church's Sunday School Kick Off planning and execution. 

Now though, my fall is stretched out ahead of me and Christmas lies in wait like a hungry lion ready to make me panic. To counter act that I have kicked my Christmas knitting into high gear. 

The first thing I cast on was a pair of socks for my hubs. I had knit most of the leg when I decided to try it on. It was way too small. As I examined my failure I noticed something in my stockinette stitch that really bugged me: ladders. When I use my dpn's I always make sure that I tighten up my stitches, so why did I have ladders? In desperation I googled "no ladders dpn" and found this life saving video. 

I had never tried it before, it never occurred to me, but it works! I knit a few rows of the sock and was happy to see no ladders! I jumped for joy! (The sock is still in my knitting bag waiting to be rewound, or burned, I can't decide which)

Gleefully I am knitting a pair of mittens for Stomper, and with this new technique there are no ladders. Cue the choir! 

One of the blogs I read is Unravelling. She does amazing things with string! She also makes mistakes when she cabling, shock! I had this issue back when I was knitting a sweater for Stomper this summer, I miscrossed my cables. I had almost finished and lo and behold a cable miss-crossed. So I would sit and frog and cry and frog and cry, but I persisted and paid attention so it only happened maybe twice. I wish I had known about laddering back. So much nicer than ripping it all out. You can read all about it in her blog post. Basically you rip out the errant portion, and just that bit, the rest of the work stays put. Then you cleverly re-knit it right! Time consuming and tedious, but not as bad as re-knitting six inches.

Hot off the needles (photos can be expected for Sundays Project Update) is a hat for Stomper. On the needles are mittens knit from some of the same yarn and then next up I will knit at least one sock for the hubby for Christmas. The object is to knit at least one sock for each of the intended recipients so that I can have at least something under the tree for them.