Knitting Tools | Mama Loves Knitting

4 Months Old

And her auntie FINALLY got her blankie done. Sheesh.

I suppose this post will be more a photo gallery than anything else. This is what Sloane looks like today, she’s not much of a newbie anymore, but at least she’s not 5.

So the time line goes a little something like this…

Sloane came into our big world on January 3rd and this is about where I was in the garter stitch process when her Mama Lexie went into labor. You’ll notice in the final product there are a couple of crocheted hearts in the purple section that has some special meaning. You see, I had the very special privilege of being Lexie and Colin’s birth doula and of course I brought my knitting along. I always do, and good thing I did, it was a long one.

I dropped my stitches a few times during Lexie’s labor. A couple of them got flipped over and unfortunately my yarn selection isn’t terribly forgiving. I used 100% Superwash Wool made by Cascade Yarns. If you want to see the very beginning of this process (only the blue yarn and a sweet pregnant belly) feel free to go back in time.

This was our first Ladies night (with our newest lady) at Sloane’s abode. New Mama Lexie, Auntie Sarah, Sloane, Mia (the big sister) and I. We did some knitting, crocheting, baby snuggling/smelling and celebrated with a bottle of wine.

I think I did something like 140+ stitches across each and every row and it wasn’t a quick knit. It was definitely worth it though for the sweetest little peach.

I drank a lot of martinis and watched a lot of movies during the long winter while working on this project.

I knit while I babysat my sweet little 2 month old niece. She spent a lot of time around her ‘work in progress’.

Some of it awake, much of it asleep.

Getting bigger by the day. Both of them.

Shiny needles, must get them.

Until we just had the finishing touches. The finishing touches were no quick task. I crocheted 4 hearts and stitched them on both sides of the blanket to cover the contraction bumps. The knitting would fall off of my needles every once in a while when I was needed to hold hair back, massage Lexie’s back or legs or cover her with a blanket or cool her with a damp cloth, or sway back and forth in the living room. Or lay on the bed in the bedroom beside her. I couldn’t predict when the timing was good to start another row of purple. I ‘purpled’ through the entire labor. And I lost my work a lot! It showed the most in these two spots, so I decided how fitting to put some hearts there. To make those flaws have a bit more meaning, well, and to hide them.

I think Sloane likes her blanket and it is nice and big and I envision her on it in the backyard on the grass…so spring better start heating up! Mama Lexie took some sweet photos of the wee one and her big puppy sister Mia and her new blankie, and holy smokes, it is all adorable.

Ball Winder and Swift Video

Today we decided to embark upon our very first video adventure on Mama Loves Knitting. I had a request way back in the day, when I showed off my new swift and ball winder, upon its much anticipated arrival in the mail, to make a video of how to use them. I make cakes quite frequently and am happy to be able to do it without having to make a trip to the yarn shop with two little boys. I think you’ll see why it is much easier for my “assistants” to “assist” at home as opposed to in a cramped yarn shop when you watch our video.

Making Yarn Cake

I hope it doesn’t make you vomit.

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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.

So Loopy had a sale and I just bought all of this incredibly enticing Noro yarn because I never can resist it, and it was on sale! I have no idea what I’m doing, but I’m going to knit a sweater for my sweet husband! In order to even begin something so huge though I needed to really work on my increasing and decreasing. Sure, I decrease all of the time when I knit my hats, but I haven’t had much of a reason to increase.

This yarn was my inspiration, well this combined with a very simple dishcloth pattern. This yarn is called Amaizing because it is made from 100% corn fiber. What a perfect time to make your own dishcloths! *Earth Friendly Dishcloths* during earth month – how fitting. I will never buy another dishcloth as long as I live. I usually get dishcloths by the handful whenever I visit my Great Aunt Jean – so she’s always been my “supplier” but she’ll no longer have to stock my dishcloth drawer. I’ll forewarn you – there isn’t the element of perfection I usually require, but it is a dishcloth and my first one using this pattern, so be gentle.

So this simple pattern uses size 7 needles.

Cast on 3 stitches.

Increase Section: Row 1 – Knit 3

Row 2 – K1 M1 (increase or Make one stitch), K1, M1, K1

*Row 3 – Knit all stitches

Row 4 – K1, M1, K all stitches until one stitch before the end, M1, K1*

Repeat Rows 3 & 4 (between *) until you are half way

Decrease Section: Row 1 – Knit all stitches

**Row 2 – K1, K2tog (knit two together), K all stitches until 3 stitches before the end, K2tog, K1**

Row 3 – Knit all stitches **

Repeat Rows 2 & 3 (between **) until you have 3 stitches left.

Bind off loosely.

So pretty simple, and really really quick! Since I didn’t really know how to Make One (m1) I used this book as a tool to teach me.

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I was increasing like a madwoman in no time! You can be too, if you aren’t already. If the book doesn’t do the trick I always watch You Tube knitting videos. You Tube is a really good teacher! You can make one of these dishcloths in one evening, so you could gift them or build up your supply at home. I have another washcloth that I made when I was just learning to knit (all garter stitch) and supposedly this yarn gets softer with each wash, but I don’t find it to be incredibly absorbent, so if you like your cloths to soak things up (in bulk) maybe this yarn won’t be your cup of tea. It is really soft though and I found a pattern for a handkerchief headband and it calls for corn yarn, so I’m planning to use this yarn to make that really soon as well.

It looks very pleasing to me close up.

So watch for my sweater progress, I plan to start soon. I have two other smaller projects that will happen within the next few weeks. A birthday ribbed hat – why mess around – when you are good at something might as well give that as a gift, right? The new endeavors are for people like Shane who will hopefully love it even if it isn’t perfect, since he’s married to me. Sucka!

Happy Knitting! Happy Earth Month!