Knit, Knit, Knit

I said I would post a knitting update, and I should - I've actually been knitting a lot!  While that last month of pregnancy is pretty miserable in virtually all other respects, it is nice since I get to basically sit on the couch all day and knit, and now, with a nursing infant I am still spending large amounts of time sitting on the couch (I learned with Liam how to stack nursing pillows to nurse hands-free.  I used to read, knit, and nurse simultaneously when he was little!).  I usually get the knitting bug  every July or so, and since it's still so warm and knitting with wool is just hot and sticky, I generally knit cotton then, and switch to wool later in the fall.  A year or so ago, I was given a number of cones of yarn and cotton thread, and so I decided to do some lace shawls using cotton thread.  I searched for all the free lace shawl patterns on Ravelry.com, and started working through the ones I liked.  The first one I did is a black one in a falling leaves pattern, called Papyrifera.  I liked it so much I did a second in a dark sage green as well, and if I get around to it I'd like to make one in the linen-colored thread that I made the second shawl from.  

The second one is called Lilac, and is very simple but beautiful.  I like it quite a bit, although I'd make it larger if I did it again.  

That is also true of the third shawl, although I will not be making that one again!  I like having a project that is intricate and demands attention, but this was even more than I was expecting.  It is a very complex pattern, with no readily apparent repeat, so I couldn't just follow the overall picture, so to speak (like in the first shawl, where I quickly figure out that the leaves grow in a particular way, and I can work without directions for a bit) - I had to read the line directions for every line, repeatedly, and just do those stitches, counting the whole time.  This one also came out small, by quite a bit. I had to guess at the gauge, since I'm using very fine cotton thread, and the patterns usually call for a larger yarn.  I went fairly big on the needle size, but this shawl ended up being more like a shoulder wrap, less than a foot and a half wide.  It makes a great nursing cover though, especially with its crescent shape, and is definitely a unique one :)  

I'm working on a fourth shawl right now, called Laminaria, that uses Estonian stitches, a first for me.  I think I'm going to like it as well, it has great flow to the pattern with the unusual stitches.  The pattern in the body of the shawl uses a 3-into-9 stitch, and then both decreases and yarn-overs to make expanding and contracting lines of flowery shapes.  I'm hopefully halfway through this one, but now that Ewan is here, it's progressing much slower.  

As for the other projects I'd mentioned before, they're sitting around in various stages still.  The little combat boots I made sold that Tuesday at the farmer's market, so I never got a picture.  I started a second pair, with fluffy white yarn around the top so they will look like fur-lined mukluks, but I haven't gotten very far on those at all.  I still haven't made the second red All-Star bootie, but I did get a photo of the one.   I''d better get that other one made soon, though, I think Ewan can wear them before long.  I've finished one sleeve of the cable sweater for myself and am close to halfway on the second (I've learned to do the sleeves first after too many sweaters that I burned out on half-a-sleeve from finished!), and I finished the baby cardigan just a couple weeks ago - very cute and stylish.  I've not gotten a chance to dye the little feedsack string sweater I made, but I hope to soon (I took a photo of that anyway, too).  I need to do a batch of that sweater and some of Liam's "white" t-shirts that are now permanently dirt-colored.  

The other knitting-related accomplishment of recent weeks was making some dryer balls.  I've heard of them for some time now, and Caleb's aunt reminded me of them recently, just when I was dealing with fleece.  I brainstormed a while, and eventually came up with a couple of methods best suited to my needs.  Most directions online say to wind either yarn (what a waste of good yarn!) or roving (again, such a waste - I'm not putting all that time and effort into a big wad of felt!) into a ball, and felt it down tight inside some pantyhose.  Well, I'm not wasting yarn or roving on that, and I don't actually own pantyhose, so here's my version.  I wanted to use up the bit of fleece that aren't good for anything else - stuff I was throwing away before - so I found some onion bags (since then I did pick up some hose at my local thrift store), and stuffed them tightly with the loose fleece scraps  into balls about 6-7" across.  I used twist ties to either close the bags, or if they were long enough, to make several balls in a line and then close the end.   I ran them through the washing machine with hot water, stopping it about 2/3 through to re-tighten the twist ties and keep the balls shaped snugly since they'd shrunk considerably, to about 3-4" across.  I then let them finish the agitation cycle, and spin briefly, before taking them out.  Then, I took some dyed roving from Juniper my East Friesian sheep (the least fine and soft of my wools) and stretched/wrapped it around and around, enough to cover the lumpy felt ball, then tucked the ball back into the onion bag (to keep the wrapped roving from coming loose) to finish felting by hand - rubbing, soaping, rubbing, soaping, dunking in hot water, etc. until it was nice and tight.  They came out really well - I did a rainbow, as well as one black one and several white ones.  When I get a chance, I want to needle-felt the black one into an 8-ball, and the white ones into eyeballs :)  Hopefully I can get those done by Halloween!  I also made two others with a different method - I knitted a ball, stuffed it very firmly with scrap fleece, and then knitted the last row, and sewed it shut, then ran it through the washer with the rest of them.  This is slightly more time-intensive (although it only takes maybe an hour to knit the ball, and that may be balanced out by not needing to wrap and hand-felt the final ball) but it's a good use for all those little tail-ends of yarn I have left, 5 yards here and 20 there.  

I have recently discovered that, since I got a "new" phone a couple of months ago, I can no longer put pictures in the text of my posts - at least not from my phone.  I am putting pictures of all these things in the knitting gallery, so you can hop over there and check them out.  The hat-scarf I finished out of my hand spun alpaca a while back is the item wrapped around one of the boys' balls for a head form :). And the background for everything is one of the sheepskins we finally got done this last week.  

Hopefully I can get this picture thing figured out eventually, but until then, I'll continue putting pictures in the relevant galleries.