Friday, September 7, 2007

We know how to handle our balls!

So we just ordered our first ever swift and ball winder...and decided to take a crack at winding our first ever balls today. Some turned out better than others, but I think we've got the hang of it now. At least we are no longer dependent on our LYS (where we have to pay) or begging an internet yarn store to wind before they ship. It was really quite easy and we would now recommend this for everyone...if we can do it anyone can and now we have lots of balls to play with! We got a great deal on the swift and ball winder pictured here from Webs.


Here's the yarn pre-winding....


On the left is Worsted Peace Fleece from Kpixie and on the right is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted from Jimmy Beans. I hope to make the Kilo hat from Berroco with the green Peace Fleece and an upcoming future project for the rainbow-colored Lorna's Laces is the baby kimono from Mason Dixon Knitting.

And voila here's the yarn post-winding...

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Beach Baby Surprise (and breezy shrugs, too!)


It's inevitable that once you start getting "serious" about knitting, you're going to discover Elizabeth Zimmerman. And once you find her, you realize that her Baby Surprise Jacket is like a password ... just utter it's initials, and you instantly have some measure of street cred in the knitting world. This summer, Mom and I decided that we'd waited long enough, that it was finally time to reach the knitting milestone. We went into our LYS, bought some rather ridiculously priced Claudia's Handpainted, and headed off to the beach (toting Meg Swansen's DVD) to start the famed project.


Elizabeth Zimmerman's BSJ (and hat)
Yarn: Claudia Handpainted Yarns Sport Weight Merino in Cotton Candy
Gauge: 5.5 st/in
Needles: size 5 bamboo
Started: July 29, 2007
Finished: August 4, 2007


Mom finished that week .. I maintain because she had motivation to finish quickly since it's for an actual baby. She also made the hat that Meg Swansen gives instructions for in the DVD. She used a cute shell button inspired by the beach ..


We used a slightly larger yarn than the pattern calls for to make it a size appropriate for a 3-6 month baby. Hopefully, we'll have pictures of the baby in the sweater from the new parents soon.



I too have been working on and off on my BSJ in between other projects. It has been put on hold in my mad rush to finish some sweaters before I return to Minnesota.



While on vacation, we bought Interweave's Lace Style. A few weekends ago , we started the Retro Redux Shrug. I've been knitting on it like mad while Mom put finishing touches on the BSJ, bonnet and Sartjee's booties (pictures will be up soon) and have finished!

Retro Redux Shrug from Lace Style
Yarn: Tahki Stacy Charles New Tweed in Color 54
Gauge: 3 st/in in pattern
Needles: 8, 9, 10 and 10 1/2 Addi Turbos
Started: August 25, 1007
Finished: September 4, 2007


Mom is working on hers in Karabella Aurora 8 which is oh so soft. She should be finished in the next few days.


That's it for our first post. Expect more lovely projects to be up soon. For knittwotog, this is Katherine, signing off.