ZeeBee #2

I finished ZeeBee #2 (the Christmas gift) on Wednesday evening. Here it is in all of it's glory.

Pattern: ZeeBee

Yarn: Regia 4 Ply- Strato Color #5744

This hat only took 31 grams of yarn. You could easily make one out of that stray single skein of Koigu you have lying around - or is that just me with the stray Koigu?

I asked the Hubby why he liked this pattern so much, specifically for his friend. He pointed to the top and said "for the birds". It took me a moment to remember that his friend is a huge bird watcher and he meant that the birds would get to see the interesting part. Sometimes my husband's brain works in the most delightful ways!

Did you see the grafted seam? I have a hard time finding it myself.

I ended up doing a Google search for "grafting garter stitch" through which I found this link on Purlwise. The technique she outlines worked very well and you really can't see the seam on the right side . On the underside it has a little bit of a ridge which is not particularly visible, but which does feel different from the rest of the fabric.

Overall, I still love this project and will keep this one in the stash of "go to" patterns because it is so quick, versatile and relatively entertaining to knit.

Good Mail Day!

Today I had a entire blog post prepared about ZeeBee number 2 and grafting garter stitch, but it is going to have to wait another day because today was a very good mail day.

First, on top of the mountain of mail that arrived was my "Fall Into Autumn Dishcloth Swap" package. It came all packaged up like this:

It included this great little project bag, 2 gorgeous, very well made dishcloths, 2 balls of Sugar n' Cream cotton yarn, some wonderful herbal soap, three sets of nice metal knitting needles and some pure maple sugar treats. What a great haul! Also included was a cute little Halloween card, however it was not signed so I have no idea who to thank! Thank you secret swap pal, whoever you are! **Edited to add that my Swap partner was Melissa C. Thanks Lissa, you did a great job!

Another fun thing in the mail today was the Winter Interweave Knits Magazine. It contains a beautiful sock pattern called Tilting Cable Socks written by my friend Chrissy that you can see here. This issue is particularly sweater heavy and at first glance not a lot stood out to me, other than Chrissy's socks. I could see myself possibly making the Celtic Tote or Gathered Pullover, but I'll have to look more closely when I have more time.

Finally, on the mail front, I received a package of invitations to Craft Warehouse's Annual Customer Appreciation Sale. It is taking place November 10 in Beaverton. You have to have an invitation to get in and it includes a 40% off coupon. Please let me know if you are in the Portland area and want one. I'd be happy to share.

Tomorrow will be all about the ZeeBee.

Happy Halloween

It's all princesses all the time around here. Funny thing is, they've never seen a Disney movie, but somehow they know all of the princesses. I blame pre-school.

By the way, Grammy made these gorgeous costumes. She said the other day "I don't know why I never made anything like this for you guys when you were little?" I know why - it's the same reason I don't make them for the girls now. It's called exhaustion.

Hope you had a good one!

ZeeBee's All Around

Today's post is going to be about the ZeeBee Beanie. Have you seen this one? I noticed it was published in 2004, yet I somehow missed it until recently. The ZeeBee trip started innocently enough. My husband is in a band with 2 of the nicest "old bachelors" I have ever met. They respect and appreciate my knitting obsession as a creative endeavor. More importantly, they support it with gift certificates to the LYS in my neighborhood. For this, they are rewarded with knitted items at the holidays. It's a win-win situation really.

A few months ago, I blogged about the scarf I have already finished for one of the band guys. The other guy is more of a hat sort of fellow. I was recently casting about for the perfect hat pattern for him and came across a ZeeBee knit out of sock yarn. My husband declared this the "perfect Doug hat" and so it shall be.

As I started digging into my custom generated hat pattern - really cool - I realized that this pattern called for a couple of knitting techniques I had never tried. So, I decided to make a practice ZeeBee first.

Pattern: ZeeBee Beanie

Yarn: Caron Felt It

Time to Knit: About 4 hours!

The new skills picked up with this knit include: crochet cast-on and short rows. Can you believe I never had an opportunity to learn short rows before. They are so fun!

Also, yes, I did change the cast on to a normal crochet cast-on. The way the pattern describes casting on seems like a lot of work to me. The crochet cast-on worked really well.

Overall, super easy little project that was lots of fun. The bonus is that because of the stretchy nature of garter stitch, this hat fits everyone in the family. It looks like V. has taken charge of it though, declaring it "Soooo soft mommy!"

Notice there are no pictures of the back of the hat. The one thing I still have to figure out is how to graft in garter stitch. I grafted this first one with normal Kitchener stitch and made a beautiful stockinette seem. Oh well, V. could care less. I did look around and found some interesting articles on the subject. Hopefully I can pull it off for the next one.

Here is ZeeBee #2, the real one. It's about 1/4 done in this picture. So far, so good. I think there may be more of these in my future.

An Old Finished Object

Today was a big day here at chez counting. I finally bound off the pink sample I've been working on for over a month. What a great learning experience that one has been! I have mentioned the yarn weight before, but I don't think I've mentioned that it was cashmere. Gorgeous, incredibly soft and very fragile. Add to that the fact that it has a propensity to stick to itself and you can see why there was a steep learning curve. I told some folks last night though that I wouldn't trade the experience because now I feel like I can knit with anything. I'm sure something else will come along and kick my behind soon enough, but it's a fun feeling for the moment.

Because this project is a sample, I can't show you any pictures. However, I think it's OK for me to say that I think it is going to be beautiful when it is blocked and finished. I can't wait to see it and am hoping there will be pictures out on the web someday.

So, since I finished something today, I feel like showing a finished project. In place of the "pink thing" here is a test knit I did for Chrissy's Gardiner Yarn Works pattern line earlier this year. I've shown it to a few of you in person, but have never blogged about it.

Pattern: Feather Lace Shawl

Yarn: Sweet Socks from the Sweet Sheep, 1 Skein

Colorway: Wild Blueberries

This is a great little pattern. It's a good one for someone who understands the basics of lace and wants to try a triangle shawl. Chrissy designed it to see what she could make with 1 skein of Sea Silk. Her sample is absolutely beautiful and I highly recommend knitting it with the recommended yarn. At the time, I wanted to knit it with something I had in the stash and had been saving this yarn for lace. I really like how it turned out.

I have a few of these "pre-blog" finished objects that I'm thinking about dragging out when the blogging topics get low. Who doesn't love to see a finished object? Of course, I hope to be kicking the Christmas knitting into high gear around here as soon as I finish the other "knit for hire" project I'm working on. So, hopefully, there will be plenty of finished objects around in the near future.

Something to Distract You

We finally have gorgeous fall weather today and, after a weekend of sickness around here, it could not have come at a more welcome time. I decided to take advantage of it today and take a bunch of pictures of things I plan to blog about over the next few weeks. This time of year, you never know when the dreary weather will come back, so it's important to soak up and take advantage of every gorgeous moment we get around here.

Knitting is continuing on the samples, so nothing new to show in the knitting front. Instead, I thought today we could take a look at one of the books in my collection of children's books.

The Daddy Book by Robert Stewart, Pictures by Don Madden

McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1972

I found this little treasure at a yard sale two years ago. It is in pristine condition, I don't think it was ever opened. It is all about Daddies, as the title would suggest and is pretty progressive for 1972, with pictures like this showing fathers in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors.

It shows Daddies in a variety of professions, including hair dresser, acrobat, poet and window cleaner, among many others. I noticed there were no "stay-at home daddies" though. Oh well, I suppose even now that would be unusual in a children's book.

The illustrations are great. Every other set is the two color black and orange. On the alternate pages, you find these brilliant, colorful illustrations of all sorts of dad related stuff.

I love this one of the dad playing horse with his kids. So cute!

Of course, this was published in 1972, so there are a few stereotypes, specifically around sex roles. I'm sure my girls would be confused by the idea that the jobs on these pages are "mommy" jobs, since daddy does most of them far more often at our house...

Overall though, this is a really fun book.

A Very Tiny Finished Object

It feels like it has been awhile since I've checked in over here on the old blog. Ravelry is lots of fun, but has not been entirely responsible for my absence. Life is just busy.

On the knitting front, I'm still plugging away on the sample I'm knitting. I've actually been asked to knit another sample for All About Yarn. Even though it is also lace, it will be my "easy, taking around town knitting". So, all the knitting happening around here is for other folks...hmf. Interesting. I'm at the point where I am enjoying both though, so I think that makes it OK.

I did complete a very little project on Saturday. I started it in the early morning, when A. got up at 6:00 AM. Then worked on it during the second installment of the lace class I taught and finished it in the afternoon when the hubby and I ran around and did some errands. Details below.

By the way, am I the only one who has given up all driving when the hubby is in the car - so that I can knit? What a bonus! Since he can't read in the car and doesn't knit, he is always happy to oblige and takes on all of the family driving. I actually feel sort of cheated when I have to drive myself places now. I am so spoiled.

Pattern: Baby Hat from One Skein, size small

Yarn: Classic Elite's Lush, aprox. 20 grams

Time to knit: About 3 hours, maybe.

This project has been riding around in my knitting bag for months, so I decided to finally just work on it and it was done before I knew it. It seems either my husband or one of his band mates is always asking me to knit up baby gifts, so I thought I would just get a step ahead of them and have a gender neutral one waiting in the stash.

By the way, I love this yarn. It is so soft! I recommend at least touching it if you see it in your LYS.