Dirty Post

BACTERIA IS DIRTY AND DIRT IS BACTERIA-Y

Dirt.

Bacteria.

Link about dirt and bacteria: USDA

Ethan's Hat On

You may remember this hat. It is knit with 2 strands of sock yarn. One of the 2 was the green that I couldn't locate for the Devan Sweater. It was in this hat on this baby's head. I was very pleased to see him wearing it and enjoying it (back in December). Here he is, happily displaying his head. It's the grown-ups who keep seeming to misplace it--and his nose, his eyes, his teeth, various other parts, and his mamma.

It's putting on the jacket and leaving that he isn't thrilled about.

Nothing to show for it

Thank you all for the many comments on the Baktus scarf. It warms the cockles o' me little heart, it does. Maybe that's why I have a heart murmur, from the cockles. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures on this entry. I wanted to get some sort of rhythm going here, so I thought I should post even though I don't have pics. I guess I'm using the rhythm method.

Well, I've been knitting a lot and a lot more, but frogging it. I am trying to knit a secret sock design of mine that has colorwork. I've tried Fair Isle and mosaic and something I unvented. Each was a little better than the last, but not good enough. Last night and tonight I worked on mastering duplicate stitch. I'm not thrilled with that either, but I think it's the best of the lot, only if I choose duplicate stitch I can't go with my original design. Yeah, I use the phrase, "original design," as if it were important. It's really just an idea. It's an idea I like a lot and I've become quite frustrated about it.

Colorwork-- Bah!

Here's Something: Baktus

This is the pattern: Baktus by Strikkelise. I was inspired to knit it by JP Knits' Baktus in Kureyon sock. JP is one of our knitting camp campers. I used Zitron Prisma that I bought at a nice yarn shop in Bakersfield, CA when I was on vacation. Laura and I hit three yarn shops there. I liked all of them. Laura even signed up to take private spinning lessons there. (LYS rant: Why does a town the 5th of the size of Milwaukee have 3 good yarn shops, but we can only have 5 altogether, of which 2 definitely suck?) Thank you, Sue, for modeling. If she had known she'd be pressed into service, she would have worn makeup. Me, I don't think she needs it. Do you also notice her lovely sweater? She made that.

Baktus is a quick and satisfying knit. It can be made with any yarn and makes excellent to-go knitting. It has an understated elegance. Take a look at some of the ones on Ravelry. The hook is that you knit from end to end increasing until the halfway point of your amount of yarn, then decreasing. I'd like to go again with a totally different yarn. I'm thinking about some of the Kureyon sock that I have.

Like I always say: Mohair, not less.

The Smarf

Today our lovely model is sporting The Smarf with matching hat. The Smarf is an original creation by Lynne. The Smarf keeps the young person's neck and hands both warm, yet leaves the hands free when needed. Best of all, The Smarf can't get lost like mittens. It can get lost like a scarf, but not like mittens Brava, Lynne, Brava!

Knitted Baby Quilt part Hat

Here's the whole thing all at once laying (lying, looing?) on a snow bank. As usual, I'm unhappy with the pictures' quality, but at the same time I still appreciate them for being pictures. The full picture here has the best color because the blue doesn't look aquatic.

Details, details:
Pattern: All but two of the stitch patterns came from the new version of the Harmony stitch guides. Why I seem to have to have these even though I have most of the old ones, I don't know. The image is courtesy of the folks over at Amazon who are nice enough to share their images. At least, I think they are. They certainly could make the pictures uncopyable if they wanted. Right? The stitch patterns that didn't emanate from there are the "E" and the one located at 3,2 reading down and across. The "E" stands for Evan.

Modus Operandi: I used size US 7 needles or maybe 6. I just can't remember. I chose stitch patterns on the basis of whether I could get them to fit in about 24 to 31 stitches. I added garter stitch selvedges to those that couldn't make 30 to 31 on their own. I made some 31 because I wanted even selvedges. I knit until each block was square, which I determined by folding the corner diagonally up to the needle. I then crocheted 1 row of single crochet around each block to help square them up. After that is when I decided the piece was too small and added another row of single crochet, but in the blue. I had thoughts of employing what a quilter would call sashing between the blocks by going back to the yellow and knitting another stitch pattern. However, after the 2 grueling rows of crochet I put the kybosh on that piece of brilliance. Yeah, I don't feel like looking up how to spell kybosh. Enlighten us, o wise in the ways of English somebody. Or not.

I worried for a long time about how to attach the squares. I Internetted what I could on the subject. In the end, after taking it for a vacation in California during which time I didn't work on it, but got help in choosing the locations and orientation of each square from a bonnie red-haired lass--Hi, Bonnie!--I ended up doing a mattress stitch. It worked excellently with the crocheted edges. I highly recommend it.

Next, in blue, I added a row of single crochet, a row of that taller than single crochet crochet and maybe a third row with that second thing. But it still looked skimpy. I crocheted more, but things started getting tight. Way tight. Off that came and I picked up and knit in yellow about 8 rows in two by two ribbing with a cable twist at each end of the stockinette. I believe you can make it out on one or two of the blocks pictures. Then I knit a blue row plain and bound off. I've been weaving ends in ever since. Incidentally, I'm splitting the ends in two and that's making it easier and quicker to weave, though my Monday Night Knitters think I'm making more work for myself. I think I counted about 8 ends left to go. Maybe during the Superbowl.

Last of all, clearly it needs blocking. That it does. Indoubitedlbyly. Indeed.

Yarn: A giant skein of Bernat Handicrafter cotton in one of the colonial colors seen earlier in the blog posts provided the yellow. The blue is Peaches and Sugar and creame. Either one or both--I don't know. I used a partial and part of a full skein which were acquired at different times. In fact here's the remainder of the second ball. Ididn't realize it was still attached when I grabbed the blanket out of the car and carried it over to the snow bank to catch the last of the light. I got almost there when I felt the tug. I had to free it from the garbage cart. The Bernat is less pilly than the Creme. It seems a little smoother and even. I liked it quite a bit, but they don't generally sell it around here.

And now, the cuteness, that is 3-year olds. Recognize the hat?

Kofu, Sophie

Last of all of the last, I took the couple leftover yards of yarn from Sophie's jester hat and crocheted it into a thick string to give to her. The hat and the string were in the car for several days before I had a chance to give them to Sophie. In the meantime, I went to Trader Joes 2 weeks in a row. Guess what I found in the parking lot on my way into the store the last time. You can see that it didn't snow, but it had to have gotten run over multiple times. That is some resilient yarn.

Knitted Baby Quilt Part 12

Took me awhile to get these pictures in here and balanced. I'm going to quick publish before something goes wrong. I'll put the explanation in a separate post.