Category: knitting

After finishing the cabled vest (which I still need to block and take photos of!), I was in the mood for something stockinette from the stash. Since pants have been the weak link for us recently, I found a pattern on ravelry for long-legged soakers that also worked as pants. The yarn is Plymouth Encore left over from a hat that I made for Kevin years ago.

The rounds are long, but between the short rows every 7 rows and the stripes every 15, there’s enough to keep it interesting. I had to stop and measure them to make sure they’ll fit – they seemed enormous, but the tape measure says they’re perfect.

I’m still knitting away on the little green cabled vest. H used to be content to sit and watch knitting, but recently must have a hand on anything happening nearby (car keys, bag strap, and now circular needles all included).

Knitting definitely seems to be a task where “many hands make light work” does not apply. Still, adorable:

I’ve been trying all week to get a halfway decent photo of the bear hat and it just cannot be done.

The light’s always weird, or he’s making a face, or it doesn’t contrast well against the background, or the camera’s on the wrong setting. Hopefully I’ll get a better shot of it in action at some point.

I was so excited about the pattern, and after finishing and seeing it on, it falls far short of expectations. The biggest problem is just that there’s one proper direction for it to face, and it almost never manages that in reality, so it always looks a bit haphazard. Bummer. (It has gotten a series of compliments when we’ve been out, though, so I may just be overcritical.) The pattern was a bit crummy too, so I improvised and I think I would have been happier if I’d been able to follow the directions and they just worked.

All of that said, it’s a cute hat in cute yarn and if it wasn’t following on the heels of the adorable pumpkin hat I’d probably like it a lot more.

The peapod sweater that I worked on during our Whistler trip and finished on the beach in Costa Rica fits!! It’s still on the loose side, but barely, so I’m glad I at least caught this one before it was too small.

Poor cranky baby wasn’t entirely in the mood for a photoshoot, as you can see from the blurry limbs and sad face. I love those orange buttons.

The back is cute, too, and he was much happier on his tummy:

On a whim, I thought I’d put H in a sweater that I knew would still be too big, only to find that it was nearly too small and the buttons barely close!

I guess we know what he’ll be wearing for the next week straight. 🙂 This was the Baby Surprise Jacket that I knit last spring – the last project before we found out that he was a boy. It’s very cute on and I particularly like the buttons. The hat is still a bit floppy and yet too short – another inch would have been better.

One more bonus photo from the back:

The bootees were quick to knit and then I ran out of time to buy buttons. Oops. Had to resort to plan B, which was sewing the straps to the shoes instead of buttoning them. They were adorable and perfect for the wedding, but I still intend to find buttons soonish and sew them on properly.

I’ve been knitting and knitting away on the Pembroke vest, and finally finished the back.


It was a relief to be done, since I realized that I only have one set of #7 needles and I thought I needed them for H’s bear hat. Of course, after swatching it became apparent that #5s were a better size, but it was still nice to have made progress. I love the cables, have completely come around to the color, and am enjoying the pattern, but (and this is a huge “but”) it looks like the back will fit for another few moments, tops. I’ve been sitting and mulling whether it makes sense to frog, without actually having held the vest back up to the baby yet… Sometimes it’s better not to have definitive proof.

Meanwhile, the bear hat is zooming along and incredibly satisfying. I’ve never knit with this texture yarn before – the nubblyness is slightly tiringfor my hands but it’s attractive and different, and I’m enjoying the mindless rounds of knit stitch after a lot of recent lace and cables and counting.

Little cabled vests are so appealing, and I loved the Pembroke pattern that came out this summer. The yarn specified in the pattern seemed ideal down to the colorway, so I’ve been vaguely trying to track down a skein for the last few months. Finally found one (and even on sale!) and it arrived in the mail yesterday! Such fun. I cast on in the evening, then thanks to an unusually constant-nursing, no-sleep night managed to make it through fifteen rows of the chart last night.

The yarn is slightly more pastel than I anticipated, but so springy and lovely to work with. I briefly entertained hopes of trying to finish this for our family gathering at Thanksgiving, but I suspect that’s overly ambitious.

The sweaters I knit are starting to fit, even if the shoulders are still way too big and make him look like a little linebacker.


We joked that he looks like an old man in it – all he needs is a pipe and an armchair by the fire. Also too cute from the back:


That collar is something of a mixed blessing. When we have him in the moby, it folds up and keeps his neck warm. But when he’s hungry, it’s practically cruel to have something that tantalizingly close to his cheek.