Rejection

When knitting for kids, my greatest concern is always the potential mess that could be made of a hand-knit item. The food, the dirt, the falling and sliding and somersaulting, the inevitable destruction of anything in the hands of a three-year-old spells certain disaster for garments. While I don't enjoy this on my son's lovely Hannas, I really fear it with his hand knits. So imagine my surprise when little Marty decided he wouldn't wear a sweater that I had made him. What do you mean you won't wear it?!

I recently saw someone on eBay selling an adorable eggplant hat. The seller clearly stated that the hat had been hand knit for their baby, but they had never used it. As someone who often knits for others' babies, I was appalled. First of all, how do you justify not putting a cute hat like that on your baby? At least do it once for five minutes, snap a photo and include it with the thank you to the knitter. It seems like such a small 'inconvenience' considering the amount of time even a baby hat takes to knit. Second of all, how do you justify putting a hand-knit gift on eBay!!! Shouldn't it be passed on to the next baby, or a cousin, or in the baby's hope chest or in some way treasured?
P.S. The hat is currently at $.99 here.

Maybe I am being too sensitive. Marty's rejection of my sweater stung for a good while, which was okay because I had a new baby to knit for who hadn't yet learned to assert himself. A few months later, Marty's opposition to the manos sweater (from the Yarn Girls' Guide to Kid Knits) ended, and he gladly wore it.


And a closeup:

Peace, Fleece

I finally finished one of the sweater kits I ordered from Peace Fleece, for baby Jackson. I wanted a project where I didn't have to think about anything - the kit was great because it had the pattern, all the yarn - including little balls for the colorwork in the collar, and even the buttons. There may be enough yarn leftover for a matching hat. I have another Peace Fleece kit, the everyday cardigan, but I have another project for myself in mind before I get to that. I'm so happy to have finished a handknit for my wee one:



I have a few other things on the needles, and some FO's that were out the door before I got pics, but I am happy to be finally knitting on a regular basis again!

Doell Family Happenings

Photo mishap

My apologies for the lack of recent posting... knitting is actually happening, but photos are not. Will post again, soon, when the issue of image storing is resolved. Thanks!

Sorry Charley!

3 months after Christmas, and Rob's Charley sweater is half-way done. I love working on it - the cable pattern is simple but interesting, and the Rowan all-seasons cotton is great to work with. But the sweater is for a large guy and my knitting time has been crippled by this guy:


But, I have got half a sweater, with the 2nd raglan sleeve cast on, so we are making progress. I haven't abandoned it, after all. Here's a close-up of the front:

Mom's gift

For Mom, the fog chaser jacket from Knitter's Stash. (I can't believe how many projects I have made, and want to make, from this book!) The jacket still needs to be blocked to Mom's measurements, and hopefully once that's done I'll have a shot of it on her. The yarn is from Mountain Colors and uses 4 strands of mohair, wool, silk, and ribbon, in the ruby river colorway. I loved the seed stitch pattern and really enjoyed making this. Hopefully Mom will like it as well.

Confession

Today, January 6, 2006, marks the day I sent out my holiday cards. Knowing they would be late, I did have the good sense to order Happy New Year cards, but that is not much of an excuse.

How odd that the holiday knitting was finished before the holiday cards? (Not counting Rob's sweater of course, but that's what he gets for being 6'4" - he'll never get a sweater on time!)

Knitted Gifts

Lots of people received knitted gifts from me this year. It was such a joy to knit for so many of the loved ones in my life!

My dad got these Lithuanian socks, knit from Nancy Bush's pattern in Folk Socks using Elsebeth Lavold's silky wool. Dad is 50% Lithuanian, and I've wanted to knit these, or something that would speak to our Lithuanuan heritage, since his dad, my Papa Tony, passed away this past February. The picture shows the pair unfinished, but by now both socks have been given:


My brother's girlfriend, Kristyn, got a Sophie bag knit from Lopi. The burgundy color was actually a variegated yarn with flecks of the teal, but they disappeared during the felting process. Also, I used an I-cord bind off and like the more stable top edge.


My mother-in-law got these cool flower-petal washcloths. The pattern is in Weekend Knitting and, for once, I got to use the yarn that the pattern called for - 100% cotton chenille from Crystal Palace. I left one as a sample with my LYS and inspired sales of several books and yarn! I have a a bunch of colors and plan to make them as thank you and hostess gifts, given with a bar of nice soap. Each one took about 4 hours to knit, and the pattern was easy to memorize.


My brother got the coolest present, custom designed for him. He's admired the Norwegian mittens that I made after a knitting workshop with Beth Brown-Rensel (author of Knitting Ganseys, so I wanted to make him something along those lines. The skull is of my own design, since nothing I found in books or on the Internet were quite right. I needed a specific number of stitches to fit the pattern, both in width and height. I used a bulky-weight yarn to fit my brother's large hands without completely changing the basic pattern that I had to work with. They are knit with Berocco's Pleasure (angora and merino) and wow is that nice yarn to work with! I'll share the skull chart here soon.


Shot of the back and thumb:


More gifts to be posted soon!

Christmas Knitting: All Wrapped Up!

Christmas is over, and the compelling urge to complete as many knitting projects as possible has passed. What a relief to again be knitting any old project. The holiday deadline did wonders for my UFO status, however, as I finished nearly everything on my list. Rob was, once again, this year's knitting victim, and my dad's 2nd sock was delayed by a few days. But it felt great to give away so many knitted gifts.

We also drove to Chicago to attend a family holiday party. Here's a shot of me and Marty at the hotel, sporting our hand knits:


More pics coming soon!