love's labor's, ruffled

It took me an entire extra week of furious ruffling, but my spiral baby blanket is done.

Here it is, pre-blocking.

 I used two skeins of yarn for the center spiral, and about 90% of a third skein for the ruffle.

And after a nice bath and smoothing, things are looking much nicer.

I am a huge proponent of wet blocking.

I also like how serendipitously this turned out -- the skein I used in the middle was obviously a bit lighter than the other two, and I love it. 

The finished size is about 33" across, and it's perfect. Not so huge that it will drag on the ground, but large enough to wrap a baby in or to use as something comfy for her have tummy time on. By the time I was done with this, I was scrunching one hundred million stitches onto a 40" circular, which slows down progress considerably and does things like break your interchangeable circular needle clean off in the middle of a round.

I am done with interchangeable circulars from a certain company who shall remain nameless. My fixed circulars handled the heavy load just fine.

I will put together some simple directions so you can make your own spiral blanket if you want, and will put that up soonly.

After I finished this, I was ready for something quick and easy, and this was the balm my frayed knitting nerves needed.

It's the Rosy Scalloped Hat from Tot Toppers, and I made the 0-6 month size in one movie and one cup of breakfast coffee.

I followed your advice and knit this out of Parisienne on Springvale DK. I love how it gently spiral striped around the hat.

And you couldn't see it in the above pictures very well, but isn't the edging just the cutest? And it's really not that hard to do, thanks to the easy to follow directions in the pattern.

(Blocking on a happy birthday balloon, of course.) The details make this hat. The rosettes, the scallops, the little pixie top.

When I was done, I immediately wanted to make another, and I could, because I have plenty of yarn left. This only took about 1/4 of a skein of Springvale DK.

I have 82 days of knitting left, and 23 projects left to finish, which means I have about 3.5 days to make each project.

I've decided the next colorway I'll be knitting with is Vivien Leigh, which has been a favorite of mine since it was released.

And for everyone who messaged me telling me to stop wasting time knitting and to hurry up and make your orders, I say phooey. I already work about 12 hours a day, and I promise your yarn will be be headed your way as soon as humanly possible. Emphasis human.

The Yarnista is allowed to knit now and then. Especially when she is 82 days away from having a baby and sick with a sinus infection that's been hanging around for two weeks.

Also, I'm bigger than you. Moreso now than ever. So there.

89 days of knitting

I did not make my goal. I don't like not making my goals.

But I do like this baby blanket.

I only have 689,245 stitches left before I can begin the 17 day bind off it will require.  That's because I'm knitting a ruffle around the edge, and with every round, you have to increase the number of stitches considerably to make it look, well, ruffly. And the ruffle has to be large enough to ruffle.

So that's where I am. Mid ruffle. 

I love how this colorway knit up. It's Autumnal Splendor from Yarn Love. When I'm done with it, I'll post the formula for how to make your own baby blanket that requires a 17-day bind off.

Or you could just knit it with bulky weight yarn, in which case your estimated bind off time is approximately 90 minutes.

It's about 28" across right now. When I'm done ruffling my brains out, it'll be closer to 34".

I'm sure Shamrock will love this blanket all the more knowing how many stitches I knit. She will never spit up on it, drag it on the ground, or allow either of the horsedogs to come near it.

She is Super Shamrock, able to ward off approaching horsedogs with a single glance!

This blanket needs a name, what should I call it?

Yarnista's Epic Blanket of Ruffliness?

90 days of knitting

I'm almost done with the baby blanket. I only have 3864 stitches to knit 8 more times, and then I can bind them all off.

Swear. Pics tomorrow.

And then I can cast on for this sweetie:

Y'all chose this colorway by less than 1%, so I'm going to obey.

I'm a finisher. I love to finish things. I can start more than one thing at a time, but there is no pleasure like being done. I do not seem to be in good company in this regard. When I teach workshops, the overwhelming majority of you tell me you really prefer to start things, that starting is the most fun.

And I do get that. But I am task oriented. It's fun to be able to admire my handiwork, to be able to sit back and admire what I made, or did, or baked, or painted, for a minute.

Speaking of which, these eleventy trillion stitches aren't going to knit themselves. They apparently multiplied while I was in the middle of typing this. So I should go before things get unmanageable.

How about you: starter or a finisher?

96 days of knitting

I started knitting this spiral baby blanket over the weekend, and I'm loving it.

It's hard to see how big it is at this point, because the size is being constrained by the circumference of my circular needle, but it's about 14"across.

The colorway is called Autumnal Orchard, and it was dyed by my friend Katie from Yarn Love.

I'm almost finished with the first ball of DK weight yarn, and this is perfect movie knitting -- just enough to do so it doesn't seem like the endless slog through the stockinette desert, but not so much that you can't look up periodically and see what's happening.

I'm planning on adding a small ruffle around the edge, which I'm sure will involve binding off 504,300 stitches. But I will feel very accomplished when I'm done.

I hope to finish this this week.

Stop laughing.

97 days of knitting

97 more days until Baby Shamrock is due to arrive. Telling a baby when to arrive works really well, have you ever noticed that? They follow instructions. They care about your comfort. They understand timelines. 

So this post should really be titled "83-111 days, or thereabouts, of knitting."

What kind of Yarnista would I be if I let my baby girl arrive with no squishy knit things to wear? While it's true that I have no clothes, toys, toiletries, or safety gear to use, I figure that can all be solved with one epic Target trip. Knitting, on the other hand, takes time, and that is what I will run out of if I'm not careful.

Over the weekend I started a spiral baby blanket, which I'll post a picture of soon. It's coming along swimmingly.

Ideally, I would like to get 25 baby things made before Shamrock arrives. Telling a Yarnista to knit 25 things works really well, have you ever noticed that? I'm certain I'll have no trouble whipping out 25 adorable knitteds, right? That is so easy and not time consuming, which is why everyone in the world does it.

Humor me here, OK? I have reached the I have nothing to wear phase, and you should take pity. My husband, who is 6'5" and 220 lbs, doesn't have any clothes that fit me, either.  God love him, he is not pitying my lack of wardrobe options nearly enough.

I need more people to say "You poor, poor girl. It is NO FAIR that you have nothing to wear! You have my complete sympathies!"

Instead, God love him, he told me this morning that he was going to an outdoor/camping store to buy some REALLY GIANT T-SHIRTS that he heard were on sale.

Can you hear the violins that I've queued?

I told him no thanks, that I don't wear clothes from outdoor/camping stores because that is just not who I am as a person, but that if he wanted to buy HIMSELF some really giant sale T-shirts he was welcome to do so, and if I felt so inclined, I would steal them from him.

Do you know what he said? He said, "Right, that's exactly what I meant."

Pity? Do you feel it yet?

Let's get back to the baby knitting. That is more fun and more cute.

I've picked out several projects, and want some input on which colorways I should choose.

First up in the 97 days of baby knitting (once I finish my spiral blanket which is one of the larger projects in the queue) will be this sweet hat:

It's called the Rosy Scalloped Hat, and was designed by Kate Oates of Tot Toppers. So adorable.

I'm thinking about using one of these three colorways:

Parisienne:

Sproutling:

or Sweet Pea:

Help me choose!

I'm going to knit it out of Springvale DK, if that makes any difference to you.

I think I should reward myself if I actually complete my knitting goal, don't you? What is an appropriate reward for, "You just finished knitting 25 items for a baby human that you grew and gave birth to"?

Taking suggestions!