Diamonds and Dogwood

I've been on a roll this last week. I bought the PVC pipe and joinings to make my own home made knitty noddy, I've dyed some light weight sock yarn, done some color tests on other yarn and been working hard on a few knitting projects.

I got stalled on my 10 stitch blanket because I bought all the yarn from my yarn shop and they had no more and had to order more.  That should be in on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. I am looking forward to getting back to work on it.

My knitty noddy was fun to make. My son helped me out by holding the pipe while I used a hacksaw to cut the lengths I wanted. I realize after I made it that I should have bought the 1/2 inch pipe and not the 3/4 inch, but it will work all the same. I put the yarn back on the noddy to ball it. Next on my list of things to make at home is a lazy susan ball winder. I just need to save up enough to buy the parts I need.

I dyed the yarn for a bookmark for my sons teacher for an end of the year gift. I used Wilton frosting dye and sea salt for the mordant on it. I picked the colors to try and create a fade from pink to yellow. It is of course WAY MORE than I need for a bookmark, so I am trying to think of what else to make with it. It is too thin for hexipuffs, maybe more lace or some baby socks.

I don't like how the bookmark came out, so I will probably make a new one.



I started a shawl just because I have always wanted a super pretty one to have. I found a pattern that didn't look too hard for a first one. It it the Freya shawl from Ravelry. I loved the design with the increases happening throughout so the pattern was circular.

And I found out that a good friend of mine is expecting his second grandson so I am making him a blanket for the little guy. His family is a big fan of baseball and really like the LA Angels. I am doing a nod to baseball diamonds by making a diamond pattern, and then a baseball itself by doing it white and there will be a red stitch around the edge. I hope they like it. I wanted it to be pretty without being OMGBASEBALL.

I am really enjoying dying my own yarn. I think I may want to dye some and see if I can sell it. That might be a good way to bring in a little bit of extra money for some fun things. I will start small. They have some nice superwash wool at my yarn shop for a good price, I will buy three of them and dye them in a few popular colors and see if I can sell it on Etsy. If they sell, I will use that money to buy three more and go from there!

I wonder what colors I should start with. I am inspired by spring. I have a vision of a light green fading to a medium green, then a white space, a gentle pink fading out into white again. I was watching the dogwood flowers bloom and they just felt like the whole reason why spring even existed this year for me.

10 Stitches of Patience

I have now started three blankets for a baby my friend is having. She lives far away and has a baby due in.... gosh, six more weeks now. And I wanted to make her a blanket for this one.

I started one but ended up not loving the yarn or the pattern so I put it aside. Then I started another one, but the color changes were a bit above my skill level at the moment and I was being crazy and making it up on my own, so I had no pattern to fall back on.

That blanket now lives in a Duplo box, half finished and destined to be pulled apart and turned into something else. Maybe a cute hat.....

A couple weeks ago at knitting one of the more advanced knitters, who has a Knitting Super Power of somehow remembering EVERYTHING she has ever learned about knitting and always being willing to stop and help anyone, was making a 10 stitch blanket.

It starts off as 10 stitches knitting each row, then turning a corner with short rows and continuing on going around and around.

I had some DK yarn I had bought with the intent of making slippers for my son, but decided that I didn't like the colors on it for slippers. It lived in my stash for a few months until I needed something with changing colors to make this blanket.

The blanket started out easily, going fast and corners were turned rapidly, it grew in size and then it slowed down. Each side feels like it takes forever now. But so far that is my only complaint about this blanket! I am even daring to learn to knit backwards sometimes, though my confidence in this is shaky.

The blue line is where it started.
I might have to knit some toy cars with this,
it reminds me of a little race track or game board.

I am not sure how much bigger this will get, though I did buy two more balls of yarn for it! I am hoping to finish it in time, but I have had a few things interfere.

Wound up with a migraine yesterday that has left me feeling icky all day and long into the night and now this morning all I have the brain power for is rambling on here. And all this beautiful sunshine (which may have been the cause of my headache!) has had my family rushing out into spring at top speed because WOW is it gorgeous out there. But, there is no way to knit outside with two kiddos who get into everything dangerous the moment I get out the yarn.

I did get a suggestion that I should crochet myself a sun hat, since I can not find one that fits me in the store. That project might have to take precedence to the blanket... I am sure that my friend will not mind if it is a little bit late!

The Imperfect Source of Perfection

I just recently decided I need to learn how to knit, recent as in about 6 months ago. I have been crocheting since I was 8 or 9, never finished anything until I was 19 though. I had tried knitting a few times but never got the hang of it.

The day before I got married was the first time I met my mother in law. (long story on why it was so fast a marriage, will tell that one later) She was going to perform the wedding. We instantly liked each other and I learned that she was an avid knitter. When my son was born she came out to see him and brought him a blanket she had made. This blanket was my inspiration to try again at knitting, but once more it did not go well. When she was diagnosed with cancer, it lit a fire under my butt to really learn. I wanted to have something to share with her, something in common with her, something of her to carry with me forever.

She bought me some yarn on my trip to Mississippi to see her. I took it home to make a blanket for my daughter who was about 7 months old. I had finally gotten to start on the last of the three colors of yarn when I learned that I had been knitting through the BACK loop, all of my stitches were twisted. I debated finishing it that way, after all, I had put WEEKS of work into this thing as a new knitter working slowly. In the end, I decided that if I was going to learn, I was going to learn RIGHT. So I took the whole thing apart and wound it into a giant ball and started over. I knit the whole thing in  stockinette. This stitch curls, more than Shirley Temple's pigtails, it curls. I was aghast when my simple little border I crocheted onto the blanket did nothing to help this. I stared at my curling blanket and frowned. Should I take it apart again? I spent a day reading online what I had done wrong and how all stockinette stitches would curl due to tension in the yarn. I needed to make a border as part of the blanket that would ease that tension at the ends and stop the curling somewhat. Or I could block it, but as it got used and worn the curls would come back until I blocked it again. I looked at my three shades of pink with their dark purple border and decided to leave it as it was. I would leave it as a reminder to me to always do my research before jumping into a project so that I would be sure to do it right.

 

My daughter snuggles this blankie and snoozes with it, she drapes it over her head and walks around the living room laughing. She drags it across the floor, the curling edges mean nothing to her, they are just part of the blankie.

Somewhere in this blanket, and all of my worry and struggles with it, I found a lesson about how our children do not see our faults like we do. How they love us with all of our imperfections. They see warmth and comfort, not curling edges and the flaws of a first time project. In a way, our children are a first time project, even our second or third or fourth children, simply because no two children are the same. We make mistakes, we scold at the wrong time, and turn our backs for that second that they end up falling off the chair, we promise ice cream but don't deliver. We are not perfect, we are dragged across the floor and loved, our flaws mean little to them in the end. All they see is love.

The pattern for my Imperfect Love Blankie

Cast on as many stitches as you feel would make a good size blanket in whatever yarn makes you happy with whatever needles feel good in your hand that day.

Knit one row, purl one row. Repeat those rows until the yarn is gone.

Look up a crochet border that you like, Google it if you don't have one memorized, use another yarn that makes you happy to make the border and laugh when you find edge stitches that are too lose or too tight. Enjoy the freedom of accepted imperfection. Rejoice in the curling edges. Learn from it. Love your blankie. Love yourself unconditionally.