Mama | Mama Loves Knitting

Fall in the Air

So I’m a knitting MACHINE right now. I love it, I’m not doing anything super exciting. Still working on my sweater! My husband asked me last night as I grabbed a new skein of yarn to ‘cake up’ “What about my pretty sweater?” He was partially being a punk and probably partially wondering when I would be finishing that beast up, it’ll be awhile.

It still looks like a tiny knit curtain. But it is a really really pretty tiny knit curtain.

I finished up the wedding beanies. I shall send the Wisconsin Badger inspired ribbed hat to Mitchell and the light green and turquoise one to Megan in a little newlywed care package in the morning.

It is birthday season around here! I sent a hat to my sweet Aunt Karen who just turned 60, which you’d never guess, and she sent me this. Her sweet thank you totally made the hat knit with love worth it! I definitely sent it to the right person.

I love this wool yarn rainbow – who doesn’t love yarn? and rainbows? Of course since I love that ribbed pattern it is what I do, it is good to do what you love, plus when I’m attempting to knock out a ton of projects I glue myself to simplicity.

The birthday train is still in full force. My mom’s birthday present is under construction right now. I’ve decided to pull out my giant size 15 needles and do a simple garter stitch (co 15) and whip up a quick scarf with some extra chunky wool blend I had stashed away in the yarn cubby.

And finally I recently sent my best friend Nicole a hat that I knit using some yarn I got from Purl Soho, another one I wanted to keep, but of course I have yet to own one of my own hats. This particular hat I cast on 68 stitches and k2 p2 the entire way to the decrease at the top. I used size 10.5 circular needles. Another snug delicious head warmer.

There is that pretty face I miss so much.

Happy Fall 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!

Plane Knitting

Gone are the days of me apologizing for how long it has been since my last blog post. I just decided I don’t need to start each post off by apologizing. And, I’m not going to apologize for making hat after hat after hat after hat, because I like making hats. I definitely am going to dabble in some other projects this fall/winter, but hats are the “gift” of the year (or possibly several years). If you are special to me, and you haven’t gotten a knitted hat yet, you can probably expect one at some point in your life. Don’t hold your breath, and you can pretend to be surprised when you get it, and maybe you honestly will be, since the majority of you aren’t reading “Mama Loves Knitting” in your spare time, someday you will (might) be gifted a hat.

So, we traveled a LOT this summer. I know the last post was a knitting sesh on my lap and I was torn between knitting and reading the novel that everyone and their grandmother read over the course of the past year. The novel won, but I finally finished the hat (photos coming soonish hopefully modeled on the head of the recipient), so the next trip we took was to my little brother’s wedding in Indianapolis. The knitting was the easier option since we had our kids along for the ride(s), no reading could be accomplished, well with the exception of My Father’s Dragon which might be the best book ever (to read to your 6 year old).

My family and I made my brother and his wife a pretty amazing quilt for their wedding gift, so…

I wasn’t sure I needed to get another gift, so I decided I’d KNIT SOME HATS for them. Mitchell told me he didn’t have a favorite color, which works out swimmingly for the above pictured quilt that he was the recipient of, but didn’t work out so well when I was attempting to choose a couple of Shepherd’s Wool colors at Joseph’s Coat the day before we flew away from Missoula. He did tell me that Megan (his bride) likes greens and blues so I chose two colors that I thought looked fun together and I’ve been wanting to keep that ribbed hat for myself ever since I started it.

I plugged away on the plane after starting at least 3 times from the beginning because I cannot count when I sit next to my three year old. I plugged away while we sat in our big house surrounded by my family and all kinds of cozy. I didn’t knit as much as I thought I might, as euchre was much more important, but I got a good start on Megan’s hat.

I plugged away on the way home whilst Simon spelled. This Mama Knitted! And since I got home from our trip, I’ve finished that hat and started Mitchell’s that will be Ivory and Christmas Red Shepard’s Wool, I guess you get the colors of your Alma Mater if you don’t specify a fave. I am using size 8 circular needles, 16″. For Megan’s hat I cast on more stitches than I did for the boys’ ribbed hats, even though now that I think about it, her head is probably not any bigger than Simon‘s melon. I cast on 80 stitches for Simon and Gus and for Megan I did 96, I think? And, I did a horrible job of decreasing up top, I’m a little bit out of practice. Don’t worry though I’ll be back in the swing soon.

I’ve also been plugging away on that sweater. I re-fell in love with that project last night while watching a movie. I also discovered while knitting Megan’s hat that I can knit and watch a sub-titled movie, yep, pretty bad-ass, for a rookie. It is true that knitting is much more desirable when the weather gets colder. I have a lot of projects up my sleeve now I just need some cold weather and movies, with or without subtitles.

End of Summer

These things sat upon my lap on a trip we just took to Houston, TX. It was a “vacation” of sorts, a good friend just got married so we went to celebrate. To knit or read, that was the question. I chose to do a bit of both, and that Noro yarn cake is nearly gone a week later…and that book is finished…which is pretty unheard of for me these days. That trip we took without our sweet little babies. I missed them like mad, but boy did I get a lot of reading and knitting done. It was fun to have some time to focus on myself and do whatever I wanted. I only packed my size 10 circular needles and this book that I started months ago, no toys, no kid books, and packing only a suitcase for yourself is pretty surreal when you are a Mama.
I felt sad, but excited about our 5 day adventure. I was super ready day 5 to see my babies. And they were so excited to see us too.

I haven’t stopped knitting completely with the busy days of summer, but I haven’t been as into it as I was when the weather was more frigid. I spent some time over the summer working on my sweater and I was hoping to have it done in time for Shane’s birthday which is in two weeks so that’s not going to happen, maybe Christmas? Maybe birthday next year? Hmm. I need some help reading my pattern so I’ll just plug away until I hit that point where I cannot go any further, and it is near, very near. I also used some of that Cascade cotton yarn and whipped up a little ribbed hat for baby Clara, but I haven’t taken a photo of it yet, I figured you’d probably be pretty tired of hat photos, so I’m going to really attempt branching out this fall…I promise not to bore you with continuous hats.

Happy Knitting and I’m back in the swing, so I’ll be back to posting my projects! School is back in session and I have about 8 hours a week when both of my kids are in school, crazy! I’ll be knitting my brains out.

The Beach

The beach was amazing! We were right on Pacific Ocean in Ocean Park, WA and it was gorgeous. We met my dearest friend Nicole and her family. We stayed at their family beach house *right* on the beach, LUCKY! I mentioned in my last post that I had my knitting all packed up and of course I completely forgot to actually put it in the car, so packed or not, did me no good.

The craziest thing happened when I missed a turn about a 1/4 mile from the beach house and my husband noticed a little cafe that was in the same building as a yarn shop. What are the odds? We ended up enjoying some delicious breakfast at the cafe one of the mornings we were there and of course…yarn time!

The decor at the Full Circle Cafe was pretty adorable. There were felted fish hanging from the ceiling along with other pretty things – beach related – and seriously the food was incredible!

We enjoyed our breakfast and the kids and my husband headed back to the beach house while I did a little bit of yarn browsing/shopping. Of course I’d forgotten needles as well, so I had to indulge in a new pair (or two or three). Someone locally made these adorable needles with a pair of dice on the ends, so I had to snag those up and I was leaning toward a quick and easy project that I could complete in the sand on a blanket while my kids made castles and waded and my husband strummed his ukulele.

I ended up deciding on the Cascade cotton yarn so I could make little beach hats for the babes. It was a bit of a stretch for me purchasing something other than wool but it made more sense for the season to get cotton yarn. This yarn can stretch too, that little ball goes a long way and it is very user friendly. Oh, and I threw in a hank of Cascade wool too. That wool will knit something sweet and maybe I’ll even felt it. I understand this Cascade yarn is wonderful yarn for felting.

In case you aren’t aware of the temperature on the beach on the West coast, it’s cold. We got so lucky and had beautiful weather everyday, but one, but it was still chilly. Windy and hat-worthy for sure. So I started on little Clara’s hat. Oh my gosh I finally got to meet little Clara. She’s a peach!

This was right outside of Tapestry Rose and I walked right along this beautiful coast from the yarn shop back to the beach house. Ahhhh! There is something very magical about the ocean.

And something even more magical about my new knitting supplies purchased right on the beach.

Look at those cute little dice needles and of course the variegated cotton wonders. I got myself another pair of circular needles and I was just crossing my fingers hoping I didn’t have size 5 already.

Meet Gary – he and his wife Colleen own Tapestry Rose. I was happy to meet him and find yarn right on the beach. One of the more perfect vacations of my life. Best friends, really relaxing, and my kids love sand and sea!

Happy Knitting!

Circular Needle Holder

So I have been on the lookout for a circular needle holder for quite some time now. I’ve seen the kind where you can hang them, but I don’t have the space for that. Then I noticed at Loopy, in one of their newsletters, that they’d just gotten a shipment in of Namaste Circular Needle Holders, so I headed down with a gift certificate in hand (that I got for my birthday from Sarah and Bryan) and nabbed one up! And, I couldn’t be more excited.

I’d like to back-track for just a minute and apologize for the lack of posts lately. We’ve been soooo busy I don’t even know where the time has gone. School is out, we’re playing hard and we’ve had a LOT of company and we are about to have some more and then head West on vacation to the Washington and Oregon coast on Monday. I’ve got my knitting packed and I plan to knit right on the beach! Here is a little snip of what we’ve been up to these days.

Okay now back to the Namaste Needle Holder.

Here it is closed, at first I thought it looked too much like a briefcase and that didn’t seem very fun to me, but then I realized it was just a tool and every tool doesn’t have to be cute – but it is a perk!

I can put a whole lot of needles in here and there are little tabs so you can label them yourself. They came in a couple of different shades – I chose indigo. I have some 29″ circulars in here but mostly 16″ since I’m a little bit ‘hat obsessed’.

So – long story short – I love my new needle holder and it is small enough to fit right in my knitting bag or tote and I don’t have to worry about finding a spot to hang it! There will probably come a day when I need more than one circular needle holder – then I’ll get a cute one!

Oh and here are some shots of my completed baby hat – my cute model is holding it on his ‘baby head sized’ fist.

Baby Hats

I loved the way this handful of things all matched. Yarn-corn nuts-knitting bag from my sweet friend-cozy couch – ahhh! I’m making yet another hat for a doula client and I’m using some more of the yarn I got from Skyline Yarns . The doula client is less of a “client” and more of a friend so I wanted to make sure to use something special. This is a worsted weight superwash 100% wool yarn. Machine washable wool is the best! It says to knit with size 7-9 needles and I am using size 8 circular needles. I cast on 68 stitches to start this sweet little baby hat. Knit 2 Purl 2 round and round we go! It is still under construction as I type. This yarn makes a pretty amazing pattern, look at that beautiful stripe.

I’m of course doing my favorite pattern – the good old ribbed hat. I love how stretchy they are and it just seems like a little person can get a little bit extra use out of a hat like this – it will fit for longer. I wonder what Karen used to dye this yarn, she dyes her yarns with all natural dyes – maybe carrots? Whatever it was – it looks delicious!

The second hat I wanted to make mention of, I whipped up in a couple of nights. It was for my last doula client and her sweet baby – Claira Rain – she was born a month ago (with the rain on April 30th) and I actually used the same yarn I used for the other Clara’s hat. It is special Skyline Yarn again but a bit lighter weight, sock yarn, fingering yarn.

This yarn called for size 3-5 needles. I used size 6 circular needles to knit this up. Same pattern knit 2, purl 2. I think I got a little bit slack when I decreased and closed up the top, I’ll have to look back at my old patterns when I close the hat I’m currently working on. It still looks pretty sweet on baby Claira’s head.

Look at that sweet little newbie and her pretty Mama. Knitting hats for new babies is quick and easy and so fun. I remember when my midwife knit a hat for Gussy while I was in labor, and it is one of my most favorite sentimental keepsakes ever. It goes on the top of our Christmas tree every year. Here is a photo of Gus in his baby hat 3 + years ago. Maybe some of the hats I knit will end as tree toppers? Who knows, what I do know is those babies will have warm little heads.

Happy Knitting!

Project Tote and Sweater Progress

I really scored this weekend at a yard sale. I nabbed up a cute little knitting tote or project tote. I don’t know what they are officially called I just know that all of the inspirational knitters in my life have them and mine was $1.00!

It came at the perfect time since I’ve been spending a lot of time knitting out in the sunshine.

I like to sit on our back deck and soak up some Vitamin D while I work on Shane’s sweater, watch my kids and chickens play, and watch my garden grow. The problem I was running into was that my ball of yarn seemed to fall off the table and somehow target a pile of chicken poo, which doesn’t tend to have a very good outcome. This is no longer a problem! I can keep my ball of yarn in the knitting tote, poo free!

I’ve made some progress on the sweater I’m working on. I’m using chunky Noro Yarn – that I’m completely in love with. It is great to work with and self-striping and the colors are great! I started off using size 6 needles at the bottom. The first piece I’m working on is the back. I think I cast on 99 stitches and I used size 6 needles for 6 rows of 99 sts in stocking stitch or stockinette stitch (which is just knitting one row and purling back on the other side). After those six rows the pattern tells me to switch to size 10 needles and work 16 + inches. I thought I loved the look of this pattern on Ravelry when I was admiring a photo of someone’s completed project, but once I visited the pattern on Yarn Forward I wasn’t as impressed. I decided today that a stripey colorful version will look much different. I can always fall back on myself as the owner of the sweater if all else fails.

One thing that I have thought of, is since this pattern is having me do the front independently from the back the stripes most likely won’t match up, but I don’t think I care and who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky. The cable stitching near on the armholes will also prove to be very tricky, as I have no idea how to work with cable needles. I will learn I suppose! And I realize that might be a matching nightmare also – again I don’t think I care. I just wanted this first sweater to be a fun, toasty, colorful sweater and I’m prepared for the imperfection that comes with it. I think the Noro yarn will make up for it.

My little model wasn’t thrilled with me, he was just trying to enjoy his frozen yogurt pop.

More to come soon on the sweater, just knitting my “spare” time away.

Happy Knitting!

Swift and Ball Winder

I decided to take the plunge. I don’t mind visiting my favorite local knitting shops to convert my hanks to something more easy to work with. But, since I order yarn online quite frequently I decided I wanted to have the means to make my very own yarn cakes whenever I darn well please! Don’t get me wrong I adore the winder that I used to take complete advantage of, but this made a lot more sense to me. So I got myself a pretty pine swift and got myself a ball winder to go along with it. My kids are having more fun with it than me. The swift attached nicely to my yarn cubby and we just put the ball winder on the little table from our store.

It is very easy to move around so it doesn’t get in the way, it is easy to store the swift and winder away whenever we want to, but oh so nice to be able to take them out whenever the need arises. This little guy takes his yarn cakes very seriously!

In case some of you might not know what the heck this all means you untie a hank of yarn and open it up around a swift (they come in an array of different sizes and styles). You find the ends and pull one of them over to a ball winder (or just use your fingers).

You just turn the crank on the ball winder and the swift spins about while the yarn winds up really nicely. I like to make pretty little cakes and that is precisely what this ball winder will make for you.

Mmm that is a delicious looking cake! I’m going to use this cake to start my sweater! It is in the very very beginning stages…pretty exciting! Wish me luck.

Happy Knitting!

Author: Mama

Hats Received

Fall in the Air

Fall and Knitting Links

Plane Knitting

End of Summer

The Beach

Circular Needle Holder

Baby Hats

Project Tote and Sweater Progress

Swift and Ball Winder