And Then Came Summer

It's been a busy month chez nous. Despite working a normal job, I've managed to squeeze in some knitting here and there. The baby knitting never ends, which is okay by me, and I've started my own very selfish project too.

Recent projects include:

1. Various Items for Baby Tharen

Meg called in her personal sweatshop (me) just in time for her good friend's baby girl to be born. I made a wee tiny elephant, a pixie cap I've been wanting to do since I started knitting, and some matching booties. They knit up quickly; I was able to leave the elephant for her in Vancouver while  I was there, and the cap and booties were mailed off shortly after the baby was born.

Wee tiny elephant pattern here. It's only so tiny because I used tiny yarn and needles, could easily be larger with heavier yarn! His eyes are made of Meg's graduation cap tassel, since I had no spare black yarn or thread laying around in Vancouver.

Pixie cap and booties, in a lovely cotton yarn I've had for ages. Knit in gender neutral colours, since no one knew what baby Tharen would be until she was born.

Cap and booties patterns are both free! Cap available here. I did short rows and grafted the back together rather than casting off and seaming shut, and used ties instead of a button.

Booties pattern available here, I used the modifications listed in this Ravelry project to do them in stockinette.

2. A Knightly Bear for Baby Michal

Another baby! Brad's childhood friend's wife is due any day now. I started this bear months ago on the ride back from London with yarn that Brad's mum had given to me; I had nothing else to knit with! He sat around in various pieces until I had time to come back to him. I sewed his pieces together and made him some knightly raiment for fun.

Pattern for the bear is here. The clothing is improvised.

Brad made me up a chart for the Polish eagle (who looks like a seagull and has a somewhat droopy crown).

Only the bravest bears ride dragons (even if the dragons are small).

I think they'll be pleased with him. Making little teddy clothes is FUN!

3. SHEEP!

Ohmygoodness I haven't raved about this yet! For my birthday, my mama got me the kit for the most beautiful sheep blanket that I have been ogling since it appeared. I had so many baby things to knit that I didn't get time to start it until recently, but the perfect occasion presented itself. Brad had to have some surgery on his leg, so I brought it along as hospital knitting.

Still very much in progress, but so much fun to knit.

So much love! The colours are wonderfully subtle, the yarn is fantastically lofty (and strangely soft for how scratchy it is), and it's so much fun to see the little sheep heads appear. It is the best blanket.

Non-Knitting Items of Note

A few other things worth mentioning.

Cut Paper Lakes

For his birthday, I got Brad a lovely piece of art. It's a cut-paper piece depicting the Great Lakes.

Etsy seller Crafterall; The Great Lakes in royal.

It's such a nice piece, and the maker included a postcard (now on the wall in my cubicle) and a hand-written note thanking us for our purchase. She's a really great seller based out of Minnesota, and she's got a bunch of other bodies of water (including several MN lakes). I'm really happy with it, and he is too. Now we just have to get a frame...

Baby T-Rex Shirt

For no good reason other than that baby T-Rexes are adorable and that Liam started making dinosaur noises, I made him a shirt with a dinosaur on it. I bought the white shirt on sale at Zellers, cut a dinosaur out of an old shirt I never wear, and appliqued away. Applique is a lot harder than I expected! I like knitting because techniques are always do-able, no matter how hard people claim they will be. Sewing, I think, is a different matter that takes a lot more practice and experience.

A bit of internet research revealed lots of places that recommended spray starch to stiffen the work and ironing the edges under for a neat look. The starch is in the cup, applied with a Q-Tip. The white is a stretchy fusible interfacing specifically for knits.

Despite the often frustrating process, it turned out really nicely!  I tried to zig-zag stitch the edges, but it just didn't look good. I probably wasn't going slowly enough, but I just didn't have the patience. After ripping out the stitches more than once, I just straight-stitched around, doing it a few times to overlap and hide any bloopy-looking curves. Curves are hard, but little tiny pointy bits are harder.

The multiple layers of  stitching make it look on-purpose messy, right?

The finishing touch on the bottom back corner.

It's size 3T, which means almost nothing to me. The good news is it's too big for Liam just yet! He grows out of things way too quickly. I'll have to get a picture of him wearing it someday.


My next applique project is going to be a long-sleeved Liam shirt with a guitar that extends up the arm, so when he's lying down with arm spread out, it'll look like he's playing guitar. I anticipated it'll be easier; it's a much simpler shape than a T-rex.

Garden

As always, the backyard garden is sad now that the trees block all the sun. All the plants were flowering the other week, but I forgot to take pictures, and now it's mostly a wilty green mess.
The front garden, on the other hand, is a riot of healthy green stuff. There will be tomatoes soon, and the beans, carrots, and lettuce are coming along nicely.

This illustrates illustrate the inverse relationship carrots and lettuce have with the sun. Sunniest patch is the closest, where the biggest carrots are. Shadiest patch is farther, where the biggest lettuce is.

That's about it for now. It's been a busy few weeks. Brad's surgery threw a wrench in the gears, but it has worked out fine and he's recovering. We spent the weekend relaxing with friends, which gave me lots of time for knitting, and let us recuperate in the outdoors after a week in the hospital.

And one more plant for good measure.