13 posts tagged “panda cotton”
We drove up to Portland this week to visit family. That's 10 hours of Erik driving for me to knit! Well, I drove for a few hours on the way up, but I did get a lot of knitting done. On the way up, I finished my Mingus socks, knit a couple of fish tawashis for the boys and knit part of a dishcloth that ended up being ripped out. On the way back, I made a lot of progress on my Chocolate Tomato.
The kids brought their umbrellas and were hoping to get splashed by the falls.
There are also gorgeous views to be had of the Columbia River Gorge. Of course, the photographs don't do it justice.
It's not that I have been knitting, I have. I'm working on Mingus, by Cookie, but I'm doing them toe up. Just since this is a knitting blog, I'll give you a quick peek at them. It's not terribly exciting. Actually, they're much farther along than this now, I just haven't taken any more photos.
Okay, so the knitting is out of the way, now I can talk about what I made today: an Amy Butler Frenchy Bag.
I think if I make another (and I might, in the shoulder bag size) I would use the decorator fabrics and sew down the middle of at least one of the pockets to give a smaller pocket option and also to keep them from flopping open quite so much.
Knitting... my hobby, right? I have been doing it, but not as much as usual because I keep falling asleep putting Stefan to bed and some nights I just stay in bed. I think more sleep keeps me more sane than more knitting. That sentence may test my theory, however.
In any case, there has been knitting. I started my grandmother's Hannukah present. It's the Menorah Pillow from Handknit Holidays. I got the front all knitted in a couple of days. After almost throwing my back out patting myself on the back for finishing it so quickly with only one mistake that I think you can't even see, I noticed a bigger one. Now that is all I can see. Horror of horrors, a miscrossed cable! I was considering trying the Yarn Harlot's duplicate stitch for fixing miscrossed cables, but I don't think it would work well in this yarn (All Seasons Cotton) so, instead I'm going to follow January One's tutorial and snip the yarn above and below. Not tonight, though.
I also finished a pair of socks. (Foxgloves, from New Pathways for Sock Knitters.) They're a touch big, I'm hoping washing helps that.
And started another pair. (Jeweled Steps, from the same.)
I cast on for Bartholomew's Tantalizing Socks from New Pathways for Sock Knitters, Book One by Cat Bordhi. I think these socks have the best name ever. I am making the smallest size in the pattern which looks like it will fit Stefan. I realized last night at BobaKnit that right before the heel turn, it would make a nice dress for Barbie, so she got to try it on when I got home. This is my old-school 80s Barbie and it was still a touch big. I think today's Barbie has a smaller bust, so keep that in mind if you decide to use this pattern to knit Barbie a tube dress.
Here's the heelless footie picture, thanks to Jill! Um, the picture is thanks to Jill, it was certainly not her fault that I was foolish enough to do the i-cord bind off before actually knitting the heel. Actually, she was the one who opened the bottle of Pinot Noir that I drank, so maybe it is her fault, in a weird way.
I finished my footie socks tonight. There was a brief hiccup earlier today at Cindy's birthday party when I realized that I hadn't knit a heel, about 90% of the way through the i-cord bind off. Oops! Jill got a picture of it, since I didn't have my camera, with the cause of my problem: wine! I actually think her photo was with a bottle of port, but that's close enough. Friends certainly don't let friends knit drunk!
I am pleased that I managed to get two socks for myself out of one ball of Panda Cotton. It took a few tries, though. I'm not sure I'd do it again. I think they'd look better with a bit of a cuff and a turned rather than short row heel. Live and learn!
Now that my sock needles are free: Cat Bordhi patterns, here I come!
Anyway, I have at least three socks picked out that I want to make once the needles are available, as well as a jar full of sock yarn that needs some attention.
Anouk is almost done, which is good because my friend's baby is due like next week. I have all the pieces knit, I just need to sew them together and weave in a few ends. I mostly used the weave in ends as you go idea but with a cotton yarn, it doesn't hold that tightly. I'm considering taking some sewing thread and sewing the very end to the back of the dress since I want my friend to be able to machine wash it without the ends coming out.
I'll start with the finished baby blanket. I finished it several days ago, it's just waiting for me to take it to the post office. I think it turned out to be very cute and I ended up with only a tiny bit of the white yarn left, so It was definitely just the right size. I hope my friend and her baby like it.
The thing is, I was hoping to write up this pattern but I don't want to write up a pattern that requires 1.2 balls of yarn. That's just annoying.
First up, big ass skeins of Sugar 'n Cream. I got two of them at Michael's today. They're 12 oz each, 608 yards. I'm not actually sure why I bought them since I could make a dozen dishcloths from each, I think and somehow that seems unlikely. Maybe I'll use one of them to knit a sweater for Stefan. I also got four colors of CottonEase which I plan to use to make a baby blanket for a dear friend who is due next month. (I better get on that!) I'm still finishing up the blanket for my other dear friend whose baby was born 10 days ago. I finally finished the first of the four big mitered squares. I expect the rest to go much more quickly because I started this one several times trying to figure out how many stitches to start with. (I decided that with the giant yarn just knitting was easier than swatching.)
