a finished object and a freak-out

First the finished object. Actually objects.



Yes, I made a little baby suit, called the Interworld baby suit after the Neil Gaiman children's sci/fi fantasy novel about parallel worlds.

Baby clothes always take more yarn and more time than you expect. These two pieces used five balls of Cascade Pima Silk, the cotton/silk blend I fell for when making the baby wash cloths. Each 50 gram ball contains 109 yards. I used #7 (U.S.) needles to get a gauge of 5 stitches to the inch, because I don't like the fabric as much at 4.5, which is the gauge suggested on the ball band.
Neither of the two patterns I used called for this gauge, so I had to make a bigger (jacket) and smaller (pants) size to get a finished size of (I hope) 3-6 months.

I want to thank two generous and ingenious designers for posting these free patterns on line. The Baby Sachiko Kimono by Erika Flory is from the online publication The Love of Yarn, which I've never heard of. All the issues seem to date from 2007, so maybe it is no longer active. But there are a lot of very cute baby patterns on there. The Baby Bell Bottoms pattern is from The Blue Blog of Alison Hansel, author of the Harry Potter knitting book, Charmed Knits. I found both of these on Ravelry. The Ravelry pages are here and here.

Regarding the baby in question, at the time I started these, the sex was unknown. I picked out this periwinkle blue as a somewhat neutral color. By the time I finished, I knew it was going to be a girl. I thought I could girly up the jacket and even the pants with some trim, embroidery, or applique. But I'm not sure that I will now. I kind of like the simplicity of the designs.

Now for the freak-out. All morning long, this was in my garden.

Here it is chomping my hosta.

Now I realize that this is no news to those living in the suburbs or in the country. But I live in CHICAGO. How is this happening? I was on the phone talking to my daughter in the suburbs who was telling me about the nest of baby skunks under her front porch, when my husband came in the house pointing to the back yard. He had been in the garage smoking a cigar, when this pretty doe poked her head in to the open doorway.

Actually, we live about 3 blocks from a city nature preserve that has a large and increasingly worrisome deer population. A city girl's impulse is to be thrilled that actual wildlife has picked her very garden to chomp, but in truth, this could get to be a problem. I need a deer repellent.

Compounding the problem is the fact that coyotes are sometimes seen in Lincoln Park, and a cougar was recently cornered and killed in a gangway not far from Wrigley Field. Those who know Chicago will know that this is a densely populated neighborhood, much more so than ours. That is scary. The presence of deer can attract predators, and cougars kill more than deer. Read The Beast in the Garden by David Baron about a cougar who ate an 18-year-old man near Boulder, Colorado. Sensationalism aside, this is a thought-provoking story about the intersection of man and nature.

smalls

Lately, I've been doing small projects, using up little bits of leftover yarn . Specifically, I made a set of baby wash cloths (or warsh rags as I can't seem to resist typing). Some are pictured above, some are pictured below.

In all, I made six, based on the squares of the Louisa Harding cot blanket that I call Neverwhere after the somewhat gross Neil Gaiman novel. As in Neverwhere, I added the cat and flower of my own design to the heart and star designs proposed by Ms Harding. I used the established 37 stitch/49 row format with the moss stitch edging, but I used worsted instead of dk weight yarn and #7 needles instead of #5.

The resulting squares turned out to be 7" square instead of 6.5 x 6.75" as in the Neverwhere version. I like this size better for wash cloths and maybe better for a blanket due to the squareness. One square turned out a tad bigger. That was the brown one made from the stray ball of Knit Picks Main Line that I test knit a few weeks ago. This is a thicker worsted weight yarn, perhaps too bulky for a baby cloth.

This little project turned out to be a good exercise in the further testing of yarn. The Knit Picks Comfy (pink) that I swatched along with Main Line worked up very soft and comfy-feeling, but it didn't block well as the photo above shows. Too much acrylic (25%) in the mix? I don't know. It reminds me of Lion Brand Wool Ease in this regard. It would work better if the squares were sewn together. I love the color though.

The yarn that really surprised me was Cascade Pima Silk (ivory). I had made a sweater from it at a gauge of 4.5 stitches to the inch (the recommended gauge), and really disliked the fabric: not enough body and too bumpy and uneven. On this exercise however, I got 5 stitches to the inch. What a striking difference! The fabric is smooth, firm, but not too, and silky. I can't wait to try it again.

the year of the scarf, part 2

Here are three more scarves from the 2006 Christmas project:

6) Ender's Scarf

Made July 2006
used 465 yards of Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran on #9(US) needle
blocked to 7" x 63"
Cabled Cashmere Scarf from Vogue Knitting on the Go Scarves

Why is this yarn grey when all the scarves for this project are supposed to be blue? The yarn came from Oze Yarn in Australia and of course the color on the monitor looked blue. The color is called Opal, which suggested blue to me. Be that as it may, the color, while a definite grey, does have a bluish cast and it is a very nice color. This scarf would suit a woman or a man.

7) Rococo

made July 2006

used 300 yards of Cascade Sierra (blue) and 100 yards of Cascade Pima Silk (white) on #7 (US needle

Blocked to 5.5" x 71"

The pattern is called Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf http://douma.net/Karen/knitting/Accessory-Scarves/Multidirectional_Diagonal_Scarf.htm

This Cascade cotton blend yarn is excellent. Sierra is a cotton/merino blend (80/20). The wool adds bounce to the cotton so it is not so stretchy or heavy as pure cotton would be. Pima Silk is 85/15 cotton to silk and is very soft and silky. I have some stashed in a light pea green for a simple sweater which I want to reproduce from the shape and measurements of a store-bought one.

8) Abarat

Made July 2006
used 328 yards of Noro Silk Garden on #8 (US) needle
blocked to 5.5" x 70"
same multidirectional scarf as above

This is the most spectacular of the scarves due to the spectacular Silk Garden yarn. Note also the cute corkscrew fringe from Nicky Epstein's Knitting on the Edge. The scarf pattern is very cute and clever as well. In the case of Abarat, the yarn does all in work. In the scarf above (Rococo) I tried to get the effect by changing yarns. While not bad, the effect is more subdued and a little rustic looking. I downloaded Photoshop Elements to help with the pictures. I think it did a good job on this one. It is especially good for color correction. Note the black cat tail in the upper right hand corner of the photo.