Family Get Together

We took off last week to head up north for a family get together. It was lots of fun. My nieces and I played the Simpson's version of Life many times and everyone was wrapped up in their own Harry Potter book (I think I'm the only one on the planet that hasn't read any of the books yet). Fun was had by all, especially our son:

This would be Will enjoying Grandma's famous Saturday morning pancakes. Next up is a horsey ride with Grandpa on a broom.

He must have worked up a sweat because he decided to relax in his new pool.

Last but definitely not least is the famous "muscle man" pose since he is a future champion in the Strongest Man competition.

At night I did get some work done on the Peapod Baby cardigan. I should have another progress picture to post tomorrow. It turns out that I'll be in Chicago next Monday and it's a perfect time to give the finished gift to the baby-to-be's father. I'm going to try to get everything done by then but if not I'll just have to mail it. I'm not going to rush and end up making a mistake. I've learned my lesson!

Charity Knitting

I've been knitting for about 6 years now. My friends and family are overloaded with wonderful hand knit gifts and now I'm turning to charity projects. I like to knit every day and sometimes I just want to try a pattern without having a purpose in mind for the finished project. This is where the charity part comes in. A long, long time ago I knit up two manly scarves, Irish Hiking and Brioche, just for fun. Here they are after pulling them out of storage:


I can't remember what yarn I used for the Irish Hiking but I did use hand spun Irish wool for the Brioche. It was wonderful to work with. Just recently I hear of a need for scarves for our soldiers currently living at a base in Germany. Details are here. These scarves are perfect for the job! I'm heading out to the UPS store on my lunch break to send them out.

The braided cable scarf is definitely going to the Red Scarf Initiative when it gets closer to September 1st. I'm signed up to participate in several charity afghans on the Knitting Help forums. It may sound like a lot but I'm really just enjoying knitting and if people can benefit from the things I make then it just makes me feel even better.

There are a ton of groups out there for knitted baby items but I haven't gotten into that yet. Maybe it's because I can never keep any baby yarn in my stash for too long! Now that my yarn diet is over I may just have to start stocking up again!

Finished Object - Elizabeth I, Town & Country

Yesterday afternoon I washed and block my lace scarf finally it turned out very nice. I got to use my new blocking/dressing wires for the first time and it was a learning experience. I will suggest not trying to block something right after your eye doctor dilates your eyes. Unless you really want a challenge and a headache.

Here's my blocked scarf with the new wires and pins:

Not bad if I do say so myself. I probably could have stretched it more but I liked this shape and I didn't want to abuse the alpaca too much. This morning I found it dry and beautiful. Blocking is still just magic to me.

It's so pretty! I love how it looks all blocked out and the stitches definition is very clear.

Stats:
Knit Time - a couple weeks (I think)
Yarn - Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud
Pattern - Elizabeth I, Town & Country variation

I'm looking forward to working on the Glorianna variation in an earth tone yarn but I need to finish the peapod set first and then knit up a GAAA square. It's all about planning!

Pea Pod Progress

I casted on the Pea Pod Baby Set on Thursday night. I chose to purchase the extra long straight needles instead of working with a circular. It's just a personal preference thing. This is only the second cardigan I've ever attempted so it's slow going while I figure out the pattern. It's written like a conversation with a few charts mixed in. Not exactly the precision I'm used to but I'm always up for a challenge. I've got about 3 inches done so far:


I'm using Knit Picks Shine Worsted yarn in the grass color. This yarn was recommended for this pattern by one of my fellow Knitting Help forum members since I didn't want to spend a fortune on Debbie Bliss yarn. It's not that I'm cheap - this is a baby cardigan and will only probably be worn a handful of times before it's outgrown - I'm practical.

While I'm on the topic of yarn, can I express my displeasure with the amount in each skein?

Pitiful! This is a brand new ball of 75 yards! The color is beautiful, the textured stitches are sowing up nicely, it's super soft - but only 75 yards! This means I'll have to sew in a ton of ends. Ugh. I wish they would make these in larger sizes - I had to buy 10 balls for this baby set (1 extra just in case). Gracie is lending her paw to show how little yarn there is.

Other than that I'm very satisfied with how this is knitting up so far. I did receive my blocking wires over the weekend and I hope to block out my lace scarf finally this afternoon with pictures to follow tomorrow!

GAAA - McIntire Square

This is by far my favorite pattern in the whole book. Barbara McIntire's square is all cables which is pure beauty in my opinion. The cable in the middle called a "Saxon braid" and braided rib cables are on each side.


I don't have exact stats on this one because I started it over a year ago. I picked it up this past weekend and finished it last night. Super fast! I guess working with a US 8 needle can do that.

I have my next square picked out and ready to go but I need to take a quick break to make a baby project first. I would be disappointed about this but baby gifts take priority!

Progression

I've gotten a few questions about the Great American Aran Afghan and I think knitters are intimidated. Yes, I think this will probably be the most beautiful afghan I will ever knit and it's a challenge, but it's not that hard. This is what I did before I started:

Learn Basic Cables - There are a few great projects out there for people just learning how to cable. My all time favorite is the Irish Hiking scarf. It's easy enough for someone who's never used a cable needle before and it's long enough to get the rhythm of knitting without looking at the pattern for every stitch. From the same site I would then work on the Besotted scarf. The cables get a little more detailed but it's a nice step up from the first one.

Here's a picture of my Irish Hiking scarf:


This was my first cabling project ever and it looks great. That's what I love about cables! They're not that hard but they look wonderfully complicated. I don't have a picture of the Besotted scarf because that was a gift for one of my close friends.
Learn Seaming Techniques - This one was a bit harder for me because it's more like sewing than knitting. You could do this in a couple different ways. Maybe knit up a simple baby cardigan that requires seaming. Some sock toes are finished by seaming. Or you could just knit up two swatches and practice seaming them together. Whatever floats your boat.

In my case, I found an afghan sampler that I wanted to knit up for my son. It had some easy cables and twists and the patterns helped me get intuitive with my knitting. I will never like seaming but this project taught me that is it pretty important to follow the finished measurements of each square. It just looks nicer when they all line up and it's easier to sew them together. I posted pictures of my finished project of the sampler afghan here.

You really don't have to learn how to seam until all of your afghan squares are completed.


That's about it. I guess it would be helpful if you can read a chart too but they wrote out the patterns line by line so that's definitely not required. If you get bogged down by one of the instructions you can always hop over to Knitting Help for their free videos. I know I did many times until I got the hang of things. Good luck!

GAAA - Levy Square

My plan of attack to knit The Great American Aran Afghan was very methodical. I went through the pattern book and picked out the 20 squares I liked the most. I organized them from easiest to hardest just so I'd know what I'm getting in to. My hopes are to learn as much as possible from the easier squares to that the more difficult ones don't kill me.

Here is the finished square that I completed over a year ago:


This is the Julie H. Levy square, 1 of 5 easiest squares. I don't have any stats for this square but I will say my favorite part was the "Serpentine Cable" in the middle. I did learn how to make a bobble while knitting this up. It sounds difficult but it's super easy once you make a couple. This square took me about a month to knit. This was before I had much experience with knitting. I think if I was to start this same square today it would probably take 2 weeks at most.

Side Note: Since I'm one of the moderators now for the GAAA knit-along I should provide some info. The knit-along can be found here. This site has links for purchasing the pattern (about $12.95) and instructions on how to join (basically email me your info and I'll invite you to join). The archives are great for finding help on a topic and I love when people post pictures of the squares and progress. It's great motivation!