First is a "nursing tank-top" for my friend who is expecting her first baby, a little boy, in August. I thought: cloth-diaper-supporter...appreciates knitting because she can make scarves...having a baby in the hottest month of the year...this lady would certainly appreciate a nursing tank! I don't have a very good picture of the finished (meaning all sewn together) product, but here's something, at least.
This was actually pretty fun to knit. The bottom was way boring - just round and round and round stockinette, although the periodic increases did keep me on my toes (and the fear that the whole thing was going to be way too short because it just rolls up and there's no ribbing at the bottom also helped keep me alert). The top part, though, was really neat! It's made in double-end knitting (which means knit one stitch with one ball of yarn, knit the next one with a second ball, continue - it makes a more "durable" (and less see-through) fabric but rather requires using two hands at once) and has many short-rows, and there was one point in the pattern when I stopped and just had to stare at the instructions for about 15 minutes until it all made sense. They're very well-written directions (I did find one "mistake" I suppose you'd call it), and it all worked out in the end. And making the inside triangles was also pretty fun. Then I got to bust out my sewing machine and sew this, that, and the other thing together. What fun! It did get a little stressful when the baby shower kept getting closer and closer and I still had much knitting to do. Fortunately work slowed down enough for me to spend some long evenings finishing up.The other item I'm working on is another deadline knitting project. I really have to stop doing this "make it by X date so you can give it" although I must admit that everything I've set out to make for someone else has been completed pretty quickly, but the top and socks I started for myself A YEAR AGO are still not done... That's sad. At any rate, the current challenge is sockapalooza socks.
I was sure I had a pattern picked out, but at the last minute I changed my mind. I am making very fast (for me) progress on the Shimmer socks from MagKnits. I started on July 1, and look!
Sock one is sorta-kinda-almost done! (It's past the heel, at least, and for me that means pretty much done. Heck, if worse came to worse, I could bind off right now and the sock would be done. Short, but done.)Part of the inspiration for my very rapid progress on this one is that I have to get it done by August 2 (or 7...the deadline sort of got extended...but I will be way too busy with work at that time, so it doesn't really matter). I realized, "OH NO! I have to magically knit two socks in a MONTH!? Yow..." That has resulted in me knitting pretty much whenever I can. Waiting for the bus...riding the bus...watching movies (see tomorrow's post for insight into this rather rare event)... I was kind of angry at myself for not taking the yarn and sticks with me to the 4th of July picnic I attended...and then couldn't get away from and thus was forced to also not have my knitting as I lamely sat around waiting for the fireworks to start. That was an utter waste of something like 4 hours of knitting time! Gasp. I suppose the talking to other people thing I did instead was of some use, though.
I want to take a moment to rave about this yarn, too. It's Peach Sherbet from VanCalar Acres, a family-run sheep farm in New York. The lady who spins and dyes just happens to be from Lansing, Michigan, near where I went to undergrad. Yay! That means she sells a very lovely green and white sock yarn that I will definitely be getting for myself and perhaps some other people...! The yarn is very lovely to work with, and the colors are awesome. I really like it. Yay!
So, there you have it. I actually do knit. Though obviously not for myself...
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