A Little Detour

I have a little detour from my Easter Duck Soup. I am about 4 inches from being done with the body. Then I need to do the sleeves, seaming, and then the i-cord toggles. Still quite a bit to do. In the meantime, I have an order for a hat to be delivered Wednesday morning. So, I need to get cracking. I started it and had to rip it all out and start again. It is pretty bad when I make serious mistakes knitting my own pattern. Sigh. I feel like I am coming down with a cold. Maybe that's my problem. Yea, yea, that's it. I'll blame the impending cold for my inability to read my own pattern.

Easter Duck Soup

The race is on! Easter is 10 days away--if you count today and Easter. And this adorable little sweater is intended to be part of London's Easter outfit. It is Anny Purl's Duck Soup and is super cute. I am doing it in a heavy bulky cotton in hopes that it will be a nice transitional sweater for spring and fall.

I completed the hood and the increases for the body. Now I am on the increases to separate for the sleeves. Do you think I'll get it done in time? We'll see!

To Love a Child Hat Pattern

I designed a newborn hat pattern for the charity To Love A Child. They put together “Bundles of Love” birthing kits for women in Haiti and Zimbabwe. Keeping newborns warm can save their lives and I dream that hats made from this pattern can give babies a better start to life.

It will soon be available through Ravelry as well.

To Love A Child Hat

by Suzanne Morrison Gauvreau

Supplies:

Worted weight yarn

Size 7 double pointed needles (dpn)

Stitch marker (optional)

Darning needle

Measuring tape

Cast 60 stitches onto one dpn

Slip the stitches on to three needles with 20 stitches on each needle

Join the round being careful not to twist

Knit until the hat measures 5 inches from the cast on edge

Decreasing

Row 1: *knit 8 stitches, knit 2 stitches together* repeat until the end of the round

Row 2: knit

Row 3: *knit 7, k2tog* repeat until the end of the round

Row 4: knit

Row 5: *knit 6, k2tog* repeat until the end of the round

Row 6: knit

Row 7: *knit 5, k2tog* repeat until the end of the round

Row 8: *knit 4, k2tog* repeat until the end of the round

Row 9: *knit 3, k2tog* repeat until the end of the round

Row 10: *knit 2, k2tog* repeat until the end of the round

Row 11: *knit 1, k2tog* repeat until the end of the round

Row 12: *k2tog* repeat until the end of the round

Cut a 12 inch tail and thread the darning needle.

Slip the remaining stitches onto the needle.

Pull the tail to tighten the stitches and close the hole.

Weave the end on the inside of the hat.

Weave in the tail from the cast on.

This pattern is for personal and charity use only. It may not be copied or sold.

The hats made from this pattern may not be sold.

knittingknirvana@yahoo.com

Itty Bitty @ Knitty City

I was lucky enough to journey to Knitty City in Manhattan for Susan B. Anderson's book signing for Itty Bitty Toys.

I wrote about it for the Albany Times Union Fiber Arts Blog. Link here.

And Susan wrote about it at her blog. Link here.

I had the BEST time, despite the monsoon! :)

Ravelympics: WIPS Dancing Event

Yea, so I fell off the face of the Earth again. Sorry about that. How about if I show you a nice finished object to make up for it? Maybe even two? :)

As part of the knitting Ravelympics I decided to finish two projects that have been on my needles for way too long. They are both from Itty Bitty Hats by Susan B. Anderson. I was a captain for Team Itty Bitty Knitty, so you just know one of those hats had to make its way into my Ravelympics knitting.

This is my cutie in the Sailboat hat. Rav link here. The hat was a little snug on him because I cast it on April 2008 when he was only a little baby. Yup, nothing like letting those projects hang out on the needles. :) Ah well, it is done now and he loves it. In case you don't know, boats are very cool when you are a two year old boy. And apparently so is your mother's hand knits because he refused to take it off for days and days. He wore it inside the house at all times except when he was sleeping. At those times it needed to be on his desk so he could see it from his crib. Yup, he's the best. I am one lucky Mom.

And the second hat is the very sweet Little Chick. Ravelry project link here. I made the 0-6 month size, but my loose knitting makes for a bigger size. I used just about one skein of Adrienne Vittadini Dianna which I bought at the Webs sale last May. It is a great cotton yarn and I would recommend it.

I have had both of these hats done for months and months. I don't like doing the appliques and embroidery so it just sits and sits for nearly forever. The Ravelympics was the perfect catalyst to see me to finishing these hats. Plus, I have two more finished hats for my goal of knitting all of the hat in Itty Bitty Hats!

See you soon!! :)