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The upcoming season of Knitty Gritty sure seems to be shaping up nicely!  I keep running across posts of some of my favorite Knit Bloggers saying they’re getting ready to go tape a show with Vickie Howell on Knitty Gritty.

Amy from Knitty is heading out soon to tape her show, as are Annie Modesitt (am I the last one to finally notice Wendy from Knit & Tonic is one of the “Knitsters” in Annie’s Corset-T show??),  StichyMcYarnPants (that should be good!), Herself:  Stephanie (Yarn Harlot) Pearl-McFee!!! and Stefanie Japel from Glampyre Knits are all in the throes of either getting ready for or packing for their spots on the show.  Looks like next season will be even better than ever. 

Tags: Uncategorized by EllyMae
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Tags: Uncategorized by EllyMae
1 Comment »

I have always thought it incredible that some knitters get to a point between projects where they’re not sure what they want to knit next. I have so many things I want to do that I figured I’ll never run out of things to do next. Only, somehow I hit that spot this weekend. I finished up the Lucy socks. Boy are they warm! Baby surprise by EZ is finished - except for buttons, but the knitting part is done. And now what? I had hit that spot. It wasn’t so much that I didn’t have anything to do next, as it was I couldn’t decide which one to start. So, I started rummaging through my spinning stash to see what I had in there waiting to spin. While doing that, I found my grandmother’s needle box with a stash of pale green acrylic in it. I think the acrylic might be as old as the needle box. (If that is indeed what it is. She had her knitting supplies in it, so I’m keeping it that way as a memento of the fiber link we have.) Since I don’t have any baby colors of yarn now, and since I have a new grandbaby on the way, I decided to grab the needle box with the acrylic yarn in it and thumb through my collection of patterns for a little project to try out. Figured I could practice a pattern on the acrylic, and then when I get the real stuff, I’ll make the actual gift from a natural fiber. So, I found Cat Bordhi’s pattern Baby Life Ring Socks that I had printed out a while back, and decided to knit those up. As it turned out, I made toe-up, short row heel socks. This is exciting for me. I have been convinced up until now that I couldn’t figure that technique out. Still not sure I want to do that on a pair of socks for myself, maybe eventually, but I think I finally “get it.” Anyway, it was a fun knit. I found out that I’m more of a “Magic Loop” knitter than Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles knitter. (Although I definitely recommend the book! I love that book and have learned a lot from it.) Anyway, it’s basically the same concept, but I kept forgetting to put my needle down and pick up the needle that was “resting” and kept magic-looping the project. For a little newborn size bootie, that works just fine on a 24″ circular needle, so I finally just gave in and used one circ. They came out differently - second one was smaller dang it! But now I’m thinking I’ll knit them again and have two pair (hopefully! how tragic would that be if I ended up with 4 singles?) - there’s plenty of that acrylic yarn. Maybe I could make a little doggy coat to go with, and give the whole set to my DS and DDIL for the dog! I’m pretty sure that’s what my grandmother was knitting with it in the first place since there was also a leaflet of dog coats in with the yarn.

Tags: Cat Bordhi, booties, sock knitting by EllyMae
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Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket, by Elizabeth Zimmermann.
Yarn: Jamieson & Smith 2 Ply Jumper Yarn.
Needles: Size 4 circs for sweater, Size 4 and 2 to knit off the I-cord
Gauge: 5 st/inch
Size: Not sure. It measures 22″ around and 15″ long.
For: My next grandchild.

Tags: Elizabeth Zimmermann, knitting for babies by EllyMae
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It’s just plain FUN to knit something that EZ designed. The Baby Surprise jacket is no exception. I bought the kit from EZ and daughter Meg Swanson’s Schoolhouse Press. It comes with 4 little skeins of Shetland wool in jumper-weight. It knits into a wonky rectangle, which then folds up into a little sweater.

I decided to finish it with an applied I-cord. In keeping with my tendency to grab what’s handy, I didn’t have a double point needle of the same size as I’d picked up stitches with, so I used a size smaller. Can’t say I really recommend doing that, as it has a tendency to pull in a little bit, but it seems to be OK.

This close up also shows another one of my blindly mushing on mistakes. I have a color change that’s one way on one side, and another way on the other side. If you knit it, and you change colors, my suggestion would be to not do the color change at the row where you increase 10 stitches in one row evenly across the back. Do it either before that or after it…or go to the Yahoo group KnitBabySurprise and join up. They’ve got some great suggestions for how to avoid this - (and fabulous pictures of finished Baby Surprise jackets), which, of course, I read AFTER I had already gotten to the point of no return on it. Oh well! As I’ve always said, sewing or knitting for dolls and babies is forgiving. They don’t notice your glaring mistakes. I’m chosing to call it a “design feature.”

Tags: Elizabeth Zimmermann, knitting for babies by EllyMae
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