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Winter Hat Love

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More deets on other winter projects coming soon. My needles have been busy all winter. If you’d like to follow on Instagram I am walkingstickmama.

I cried myself to sleep last night, you know that silent cry, so not even your husband knows you are crying? I didn’t think that would happen this time around, but who was I kidding, really? I never have dry eyes through a parent teacher conference, I never have dry eyes through a choir concert, hell I barely have dry eyes through dinner most nights, so when I thought I was unaffected by my baby starting Kindergarten today I was really just kidding myself. He didn’t know I was sad, nor will he know tomorrow when I don’t even get to go inside the school with him. I got teary leaving Simon in his 3rd grade classroom and he barely even wanted me to set foot in the door with him.

We sprinkled magic dust under his pillow last night to help him peacefully sleep. I always check on my kids before bed, but there was something “right of passage y” about last night. Tomorrow will be the first full day elementary school for both of my kids – under the same roof – without me. They’ve grown into kids, officially. I know I’ll enjoy the change, just as soon as the newness wears off. I feel comforted knowing they are together at school, even if they don’t see one another throughout the entire day. I’m comforted knowing they’ll watch out for each other on the bus ride home tomorrow afternoon.

When Simon started Kindergarten he needed a little bit of extra love through the day, or a reminder that I was with him, even when I wasn’t right there. My heart was still with him. I stitched up a little cloth heart and we pinned it inside his pants each morning before school, until he didn’t need it anymore. My heart wasn’t really mine anymore after he was born.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

To make the power band I used Shepard’s Wool Yarn, which is probably my favorite yarn ever. I used size 8 dpns. I cast on 32 stitches and passed 8 onto each needle. I k2, p2 the entire way around – changing colors for the different powers that needed to be incorporated into the band and did 3 rows of each color combo. Ta Da – it was done and I am going to be happy to wear it just as soon as Gus doesn’t need it anymore.

Sayonara Summer

Time to start knitting again. If you have some acrylic yarn that isn’t worthy of much else…here are some ideas.

We’ve spent the entire summer wrapping yarn around sticks making swords, staffs, decorative pieces, and each color has a “power.” My favorite is pink – that is “sexy power,” according to my 5 year old. Just to clarify “sexy power” gives you a skirt (whether you want one or not). Yellow is blinding, red is fire (of course), green is life, black, I think we all know, is death, and I might have to check in with Gus in the morning to be reminded of the rest of the powers.

If you tie yarn around your head (or ankles or stomach) – color dependent – you get special powers. Be mindful of your color choices!

I made only one hat this summer…and I’ve started on my second. Time to start hanging out in the basement after dark and knitting my life away. Of course this is just another of my infamous ribbed hats. I cast on 84 stitches and knit 2 purl 2 until the end. It’ll fit forever. This is supposed to be for a baby – and it fits Gus (my sizing model). It will fit the masses.

If you follow peeps on Instagram you can find some occasional knitting pics @evosshickey.

Life is grand – summer was fabulous. I’ll be knitting hats in San Diego – on our vacation in September. I was thinking I would attempt a hat a day on vacation – that is a stretch. I will be on the beach, in the sand, maybe I’ll finish one hat while I’m basking in the California sun and hitting Legoland with my all time favorite boys!

Hope your summer was as magical as ours.

Yarn Tagging

As promised, forever ago, here are some more photos from our yarn bombing event. The holidays came and went, my little toy store went through a remodel phase and now it is May. May seems to be the perfect time to share some snowy photos.

It is pretty pleasing to see the burst of color amidst the dreary, drab wintery Missoula skyline and downtown.

The cause for the yarn bombing was this organization.

In case you are wondering my hand model is my good friend Niki. A tiny flaw…we stitched these bits of cozy warm blankets together using a needle and thread and in the future when we do yarn bombing again we’ll need to stitch these beauties on with yarn. The thread didn’t hold up on the windy bridge quite as well as it could if burly yarn were used in place of the thin thread.

There she is! Niki joined me spur of the moment to tag the posts on our Higgins Street Bridge.

Tag something, with yarn of course!

Socks – and then some…

I have yet to complete a pair of socks…er even one sock…but I am going to finish my sweater – hopefully before the weekend is over.

I wanted to share this blog that is full of fun patterns and mad skill. Today the focus happens to be sock construction…and I will be revisiting this after my sweater is complete.

Just so you have a fun photo to view this is another holiday gift that I knit up for Simon’s 2nd grade teacher – Mrs. Rothwell – whom he loves dearly. And I love this boy dearly…my little potato.

I knit this from some local yarn – made in Corvallis – Mountain Colors is the brand and boy is it colorful. It was a fun project – I knit most of this scarf in the hospital (doula-ing) while the little nugget below was being born.

His mama was my yarn bomb buddy.

Here is a pretty cake of Mountain Colors yarn – which I will most definitely be using again.

Happy Knits.

Year End Holiday Knits

My year has been full. It has been full of love, friends, family, knits, change and all kinds of good stuff. I embarked on new projects this year, tried new things, grew a bit as I feel like I do with each new year. My kids are obviously growing too, I’ll be doing some shopping for Simon in the new year he barely fits in any of his clothes these days. It warms my heart to see both of my boys still loving their knit hats I made them back when this whole new passion became a part of my life. The hats were one of my very first projects.

This year I’ve been crankin’ hats out. I can make one in no time flat anymore, all I need is one evening and a good movie and of course some chunky wool and my 10.5 circular needles. It doesn’t hurt to have my husband snuggled beside me on the couch either, never does really (knitting or not). I still have a couple of projects in the works. My sweater for example. Sheesh when will I ever finish that bad boy. But I’ve made two baby blankets over the course of the past few months and several hats.

Here is a quick snip of one of those blankets.

This one was for Baby Evelyn whom you met a few months ago.

Then I got to spend nearly a week with one of my favorites – knitting a few nights when we weren’t cleaning, rearranging, and organizing at my store.

Here she is…knitting by our sweet little Christmas tree.

She brought me a surprise…a huge one…my sister and her baby whom I hadn’t gotten the chance to meet yet. Baby William Jeffery.

The nights when we got to sit down and knit were, and always are, my favorite. The aforementioned hats I worked on for Christmas gifts were for my husband (whom I’ve never made a thing for – on purpose anyway) and his brother who happens to heart the Chicago Bears.

In order to complete these projects before Christmas morning I used some fairly chunky yarn and some size 10.5 circular needles. The yarn is malabrigo chunky in the hat pictured above. This hat I knit right in front of Shane (because I didn’t really have a choice) but since he didn’t inquire the gift ended up a surprise. This yarn is Kettle Dyed pure merino wool the variation in the skeins was so pretty. I decided to stripe it a bit – I’m a total sucker for vertical stripes.

The hat below was the Chicago Bears inspired hat that I decided to attempt a tiny bit of fair isle on. I don’t really know what I’m doing but it sort of worked. I didn’t know if my brother in law would like it though so I quickly knit up another ribbed hat for him too. Two hats on Christmas morning – that’s a fine gift…right?

I finally found some Brown Sheep Yarn Co. yarn to use for the Bear’s hat, but it was no easy task finding yarn, in one day, that came close to being the proper colors. Plus I needed wool…and it wasn’t the softest wool – hopefully Bryan doesn’t have an itchy head. I ribbed the bottom of the hat in the pictures above and then just knit knit knit (on circulars) and knit in those little fair isle stitches for a couple of rounds. I didn’t use a pattern just decided to wing it.

And now I’m feeling a bit more caught up. I realize it is actually February and I’m still reminiscing the end of the year. I guess I’m just in a much better space today than I was a month or so ago. Things are calming down and I’m filing through photographs. And, I’m getting excited to have the time to start some more new knitting projects. Happy 2012!

New Sweater – Knit in the Round

I’m starting another sweater, I tore out the sweater for my sweet husband – that will be a project for later…

I started my sweater a few days ago and pulled the entire thing out last night. I decided on a hoodie of sorts. I didn’t want to deal with a zipper though, so I’m knitting a pullover hoodie. The pattern I picked I found on Ravelry. The sweater is called the Weekend Hoodie, unfortunately not a free pattern, but one that looked pretty much spot on. I love having a hood on my sweaters, it is a definite bonus on windy/chilly spring days. I decided to start with a sweater for myself, maybe that is selfish, but I haven’t made a single thing for myself yet so I suppose it is high time!

I ran into problems right from the get-go, you’d think after all of the knitting in the round I do, I would have it figured out, but I definitely didn’t! The second row was the reason for pulling my entire sweater apart. When I say entire sweater – I was on row 12 ish…so not really that far, but when you cast on 220 stitches it feels like a LOT. I started over after figuring this out….

Flat Knitting:

garter: knit every row
stockinette: knit 1 row, purl 1 row
reverse stockinette: purl 1 row, knit 1 row

Round Knitting:

garter: knit 1 round, purl 1 round – this is where I went wrong. I was just knitting, knitting, knitting…not making a very appealing bottom to my sweater.
stockinette: knit knit knit every row
reverse stockinette: purl purl purl

I mean, it makes perfect sense when you think really hard about it, problem is I wasn’t thinking very hard about it.

Before I sign off I should tell you about my delicious yarn choice. I keep going back and forth between whether or not I like it enough to wear that sweater as much as I ought to once it is complete. I think today I’m pretty into it. It is a Cascade Yarn – Lana Bambu. It is 79% Wool and 21% Viscose from Bamboo.

I’m taking a sweater class to complete this project. I cast on 220 stitches on my brand spankin’ new Addi needles (size 6) and I’ve moved onto the Addi lace needles (sharper points) in size 7 and I’m going for it. The pattern is knit rows 1-3, p3, k1 on row 4 and start over knitting again. I think the pattern will be pretty fun when it gets taller, I’ll keep you posted.

Oh and I’m going to make a video of how to switch to a new ball of yarn as soon as I need to do so. If you missed the ball winder and swift video and you feel like throwing up, you should check it out.

Happy Knitting!

New Baby Blanket

I went into Joseph’s Coat, in search of some washable wool – soft enough to be a baby blanket. I had a pattern in mind. I’m not following it exactly, just loosely. I am knitting every row, to get a beautifully simple garter stitch, and I love how the blanket is turning out. I just visited the Purl Bee and strangely enough this very pattern (in a kit) is featured right now. I wish I could afford one of these kits, but I had to write my own adventure. I bet that Alchemy yarn is completely amazing! I chose something washable (for Mama Lexie’s sake) and still soft enough for snuggles and wool for warmth and because I simply love wool. I have always been drawn to natural fibers, but after only a year of knitting I definitely prefer wool over any other fiber. There are some amazing bamboo yarns I’ve worked with and some blends that I like but if I can get wool, that’s what I’m gettin’.

The yarn I chose is just a simple 100% Superwash wool made by Cascade Yarns. In one delightful ball you get 100 grams/3.5 oz. The suggested needle size is a 7. I’ve been using my dice needles that I got on our incredible beach vacation this past summer, they are actually a size 8. The yarn is made in Peru and really easy/pleasing to work with. I am loving how the blanket is turning out. I don’t want to post too many photos of it, as I’d like to reveal the finished product when I’m completely done, with a sweet baby girl wrapped in it. Could be any day now, and that blanket is far from finished! Mama’s got her work cut out for her. Somehow I’ll squeeze it in with all of the other projects in my pot.

Happy Holidays! Happy Knitting!

Hats Received

Just wanted to post a couple of cell phone photos from the newlyweds – they got their hats.

Nighty Night! Happy Knitting!

Fall and Knitting Links

Just canning and knitting happening around our house the past few days. And, that about sums up my start to fall. Two of my favorite pass-times all snuggled up in my house, with two kids it is no easy feat to pickle and can. The funny thing is, it is 80 degrees outside by the time afternoon rolls around. Oh well, it is still time to start preparing for winter, I feel it.

I’m a pretty big fan of rainbows, I saw this today and it looked fun enough to share. I’m slowly collecting needles right now to fill my circular needle holder, that I love oh so much, but I debated taking this route. I just didn’t know if there would be some sizes I’d never use, turns out I need to go get some size 2 circular needles and some size 3 circular needles for another pattern I’m going to attempt in the next month (those are definitely sizes I never thought I’d need). But, before I start something new I’ve got a billion hats I need to crank out for birthdays (September and October are crazy birthday months for this Mama).

And, my good friend Julie shared this link with me this morning. Oh regretsy, so hilarious. Seriously who doesn’t want M. Night Shyamalan creepy knit attire, er M. Knit Shyamalan rather. Christmas Presents!

Happy Cozy Knitting Weekend!

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