Beginning a New Year

Well, I won't kid you, last year was hard. My knitting mojo died off and I spent the second half of the year mostly sewing. I think I feel the urge to knit returning, though, and I will start off by making something smallish, like a hat. A girl can't have too many brightly colored hats, so I will have to start looking around for beret-like hat patterns. I don't like a hat that smooshes down your hair since my hair needs all the help it can get.

Most of my yarn is still in the storage unit. Here's the deal - after the window replacement and having to empty out the sewing/knitting room, we decided to replace the haphazard storage with a nice Expedit unit from IKEA. However, now we have to take down the current shelves and the stuff that is on them before we start putting the unit together. Oh yes, we have to buy the unit first, too. It has cubbyholes that will hold a lot of yarn. My daughter M has a black one stuffed full of beautiful sock yarn, but I am getting a white unit. I also have a bunch of pretty fabric storage cubes to put on top of the wood shelves. This is so that the avalance that will probably occur during the next quake will be somewhat soft on the head. Only after this is all in place can my yarn come home. On the bright side, the spouse has finally found the extra key to the storage unit and told me the secret code, so I can now go visit my yarn if necessary.

In other hat news, my daughter gave me two lovely handmade hats for Christmas, so I will try to take photos this weekend and show them off.

Retro Baby Knit Tuesday!

Back to the Nomotta Baby Book from the sixties, probably. The first design is a hooded cardigan knit in worsted weight on size 5 needles. The textured design is made with cable stitches which would give a weight and thickness to the fabric. I like the tab with the button at the neck.

Most knitting books with garments for infants and children from the 40's and 50's showed knitted snow suits. I've always wondered how warm a knitted snow suit would be, even in wool. It would have to be only one of many layers of clothing. The following snow suit has a cabled cardigan, pants, hat, and mittens and is knit of 'Germantown Zephyr' at 5 sts/inch. I think that if I was knitting a suit for my toddler to wear in the snow, I would make it bright red so you could spot the child when he falls into a drift.

These are well-designed, classic-looking coats in a pattern stitch and tweed stitch with matching hats. Though I don't know what good it did to bundle up your child and leave them bare to way above the knees. The very short child garment was common beginning in the thirties, I think.

The sleeping sack below is called a 'nightie', so it must be to keep the child warm when the covers are kicked off in the night. It is crocheted in baby wool.

The little two-color jacket and bonnet have textured stripes in a contrasting color. The picot edging gives it a feminine look, and it would be very cute in pink and white. It's knit from the bottom up in baby wool at 8 sts/inch.


I am still working away on the blue socks and have just turned the heel. The yarn is very soft, having bamboo in it (Deborah Norville Serenity), but I am using size 1 needles and the going is slow.

Cold Winter

We haven't had a winter this cold in years. The last time this happened, all my freesias bit the dust. It was 26 degrees outside this morning, which is not much for other places but very cold for California at sea level. A storm passed through and there is a lot of snow on the mountain, well, more than usual:


The spouse says it is a very good thing we finished off the window replacement or it would be even colder in the house. I am enjoying not having to wipe the condensation off the windows and window sills every cold morning all winter long. Free at last.

Here's a view across town on a cold evening.
I have finally started working on the cafe cardigan again, sewing in all the ends. I hope to have the buttons sewn on by the end of the week. Perhaps.

Happy Thanksgiving

One Thanksgiving down, one to go. I am turning the heel on the Deborah Norville sock between bouts of activity in the sewing room. We still have lots of stuff in the storage unit, mostly yarn, that has to come home, but I am gradually getting the room back in order after the window replacement. The old room had ancient draperies in the window, but the workers installed the window blinds that have been waiting patiently in their box in the garage (for almost 15 years) for us to clean out the sewing room and make their installation possible. It is much lighter and more cheerful in the room now. I do have the knitting machines back in position and can start knitting again. In the meantime, here are some fall scenes from our house:
A surprise November rose!

Retro Baby Knits

This great booklet has a lot of useful baby items, the kind that never go out of style. There is no date on the booklet, but it does say Petaluma, California and Milford, Massachusetts, and has zip codes for each city. A quick google tells me that zip codes were introduced in 1963, so the booklet was printed after that date. It is very possible that the designs were created in the 50's since they have the fifties look about them, and companies often reprinted designs.

The first photo shows a helmet and mittens done in a broken rib pattern with knitting worsted. The pattern is written for 6-month, 1-year, and 2-to-3 year sizes. I like the way the mittens have a long cuff and a snug fit at the wrist. The hat shown at the bottom is a beret also knitted from knitting worsted.
I love yoked baby sweaters, and this is a very nice one. It is knitted sideways on size 2 needles at 8 sts/inch. The description says the yoke and cuffs are knitted in Quaker Stitch, which I have never heard of before, but which is as follows:

Row 1: (wrong side) Knit across
Row 2: Purl across
Row 3: Knit across
repeat these 3 rows for the rib pattern.
The booklet also has some cute bootie patterns:

Another yoked baby sweater, this time a pullover. They call it a Baby Sacque.
As I have often thought to myself, I should have a supply of baby items all knitted and ready to go so that there is no rush knitting when a baby arrives. But do I have this wonderful stash of knitted baby items? No, I still do not.

Still Here

There won't be much knitting around here for a few more weeks because the house is still all torn up with the construction. We had to completely empty out the sewing/knitting room, but we are just about ready to start putting the knitting machines and the rest of my stash back in the room. In the meantime, I finished one pair of socks and sent them over to the younger daughter, and I started another pair with that Deborah Norville sock yarn that has bamboo in it. The yarn is soft but pleasant to knit, and I am about 1/3 done with the first sock. As soon as the knitting machines go back up, I will be making some hats for the rescue mission and some scarves for another charity. This should help use up some of the yarn leftovers (that we really noticed when we had to empty out the room).

Knitting Room Under Siege

Next week and the week afterward, the contruction guys will be replacing the windows in the living room and in the sewing/knitting room. I will be glad when it is done, but I do hate having to empty out a room and then put everything back again. If you could see the sewing room, you would understand. I will have to fortify myself with sock yarn so that I do not run out while everything is in storage. Oh wait, if I run out, I'll be forced to buy some more!

In new product news, I ran across a new type of crochet thread, Aunt Lydia's Bamboo Crochet Thread. It felt nice and soft, and since I was going to use it for a lacy trim around a neckline where softness would be a plus, I decided to give it a try. I found it nice to work with and it performed well:
This is a top I made for my younger daughter so that I could practice free-motion machine embroidery. Only time will tell whether or not the bamboo thread wears well.