Carole Barenys Baby Sweater No. 4

 I found Carole Barenys' pattern long ago, back when I followed the knitting.about.com site. I really liked that site.  They had lists and links to online patterns. 

I've done this sweater at least three times before, so I'm calling this No. 4.  It is a gift.   It is a fun knit.

The yarn is Adriafil Knitcol; advertised as worsted but I would call it sportweight! I got 6 stitches per inch. Nevertheless,  I like the yarn, warm, soft enough for a baby, and machine washable. 

It looks like knitting.about.com was taken down in 2017. It has now been` subsumed by https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/knitting-4162934. I can't find this pattern there anywhere.  HOWEVER the pattern is here: http://carole.barenys.com/YokeSweater.html.  I eliminated the decorative stitch pattern on the yoke.   Carole has other free baby knit patterns!

Mother's Day Bunnies and Baby Sweater

So, this is called a "haystache." 

It is a bunny nesting behavior, a way to collect hay to make a nest. Rosa thinks she's expecting (it is Mother's Day, after all). My other alert to the state of Rosa's hormones was that when I checked them this morning, there was a huge amount of matted fur in the corner of the cage (a big waste, to a spinner!)  

This all is the result of sister bunny (that would be Blanca, "the quiet one") mounting her unsuspecting sister, Rosa, two weeks ago. Blanca probably did this to establish her dominance. The mounting behavior then tricks the victimized Rosa into a series of hormonal events called "pseudopregnancy," ie ovulation. Too bad, as I would love at some point to have some kits! A few minutes after I got the haystache photo, Rosa dropped the hay and decided to eat it. A much better use!

On the knitting front, I completed a sweater for cousins who just had a baby girl. The pattern is "Helena" from Knitty. Done in some leftover Knitpicks Brava Worsted. I ran low on yarn and rather do the ties I did some button holes and added buttons.

Two Baby Sweaters

There have been thoughts of babies.

I have done in the past some knitting for Afghans for Afghans. This group has not been as active for several years. I cannot keep up well with what's going on in Afghanistan and the pullout, the not pullout, the NGO's etc etc,  but if I'm reading Ravelry right, they are now taking baby socks, mittens, and hats.   That said, I had a never worn wool baby sweater. As they are not taking sweaters, I sent this one to "Hats and More for War Torn Syria." 

It is done from Carol Bareny's classic baby sweater pattern, free online. I have done this sweater many times. And so has everyone else...there are 3100 versions out there! The wool is Jamieson and Smith, leftover from a long ago Sasha Kagan pattern.

and in the meantime, someone in my family had a baby, her name is Sophie. Here is EZ's Baby Surprise Classic. I apparently clipped the pattern from Knitter's Magazine from 1989...rather wise on my part, if I may say so... I have also done this one as a gift many times. It's from sock yarn...I keep all my ball bands but of course can't find this one...I do love it though and Sophie's Mom thinks it will fit in the autumn when she is 6 months old...

Wild Salad and new children's projects!

 Once upon a time, I lived in the Bronx.  I was interested in foraging for wild food.  My friend Lois and I went on a foraging outing in Central Park with Wildman Steve Brill.  At that time, we had to dodge the park police!  We had a blast.  His specialty was "Five Borough Salad"! Another friend's little son and my husband at the time formed a movement called "Men Against Wild Salad" or "MAWS"!!  Today, my sister sent me a clip to  a bit of video from youtube with Steve Brill that's current:

In knitting news, here is the start of two small people's items:

This will be a Tomten jacket for a wee one, I know not who...

 I saved the copy from an ANCIENT copy of Vogue magazine!! 

from 1988...note I wrote "bad directions" the first time I knit it, probably 18 years ago...

 And this will be a Fabled Cardigan for my niece

Here are some garden photos...

I am going on vacation on Friday to, well, somewhere in Europe. I look forward to sharing with you some fibery finds from my trip!

Baby Hoodie and some thoughts

 Completed a baby gift

The pattern is here, done in Cotton Comfort from Green Mountain Spinnery, knit from stash, oh yeah!  I ran out of the natural and did the button bands in green, saving some natural for the last row.  I like it. This yarn is not springy and due to the cotton it's stiff to work with.  I did put it in the washer and dryer, both for short periods, and it softened up nicely. It still needs buttons..in a plain natural mother of pearl, I think.

This last week marks the passing of Levon Helm.  Levon was the drummer for The Band, who kept on sharing his music through his life.

Here he is with friends at the Ryman (that's in Nashville, y'all) three years ago, smiling and singing well  following radiation to his vocal cords for cancer (never let cancer co-opt your smile or your attitude...).

A fan of The Band since college, I listened to their albums relentlessly.  I am a fan of live albums, The Last Waltz (1976) on disc or DVD is not to be missed.  For me, their music exudes American roots and gives me a sense of nostalgia and, somehow, patriotism. 

My hands down favorite album of theirs, also a live one, is Rock of Ages, recorded in 1971.  It got a full listen this last weekend. 

An interesting note:   if you saw Elizabeth Zimmerman's obituary in the New York Times, December 12, 1999, then you will recall (well, I might be the only one to recall this...) that Levon's band member Rick Danko's obituary appeared on the same page.  His was above EZ's.

Other people whose passing this week one might ponder:

Dick Clark (never let a stroke co-opt your smile or your attitude, or your business sense, either...)

Jonathan Frid (on Friday the 13th, you KNOW he did that on purpose; despite my ambivalence to Tim Burton's extreme gory visuals, I'll look forward to seeing the new Dark Shadows movie to see Jonathan Frid's cameo, if nothing else...)

More spring

The garden and yard have a lot of my attention this week

I love my iris

In other news, my friend Linda gave me a bag of cleaned soft underbelly fur from her pup, Isabelle.   It smells like doggie shampoo. Sammie investigates

The fibers are very short, about an inch.  The fiber will need to be carded and rolled on to puni's before spinning, both of which I need more practice at.  I have done this with cat fur before but not dog fur.

I had a nice weekend with lots of road knitting time as my son and I motored  to upstate SC and back. The baby sweater didn't go as planned, I changed patterns, here we are so far

It will be a little hoodie with buttons up the front.  I modified the pattern to do it in the round, my strategy.  A description of the pattern is here;  it's free although one must sign in to Bernat to get it.

Handwash? Must she?

Someone I know is having a  baby.  I am a firm advocate of machine washable yarns for baby, but I would like to use some stash stuff, and there isn't much machine-washable-suitable-for-baby in there. (I  tend to buy baby yarn for individual projects with someone in mind, rather than stash it).  This time, I would also like to use something more natural.  To that end, I dug out some Cotton Comfort from Green Mountain Spinnery for an experiment.

Pattern-wise, while EZ's Baby Surprise Jacket is always fun, I've done many and I really like a yoke down pattern.  I have  also done Carole Bareny's Seamless Yoked Baby Sweater many times, it's been on the internet for years and I really like it. Here's one  I did some years ago for a coworker's baby, ironically also in Cotton Comfort.

Carole now has a website with cute free  baby patterns and while perusing there I discovered another sweater similar in construction called the Eyelet Yoke Cardigan.  That is my choice.

I am happy to report that my Cotton Comfort sample made it thru the washer and dryer unchanged in size!  (This yarn is an 20-80 cotton and wool blend). I consider this to be a bit of a coup. It also softened up very nicely during this process. I don't know of any other natural minimally treated yarns that will tolerate washer and dryer.  Perhaps 100% cotton? 

Knitting time has  been precious little this week.  I'm working to optimize it this weekend!

Baby Gift

Someone in my family had a baby boy last week.  I was smart and started a blankie last summer.  I confess, it's another opportunity for a not-natural fiber.  Young parents don't have time to hand wash and line dry, sorry EZ.  No, it won't be terribly warm...but it's cute and will be warm-ish.   I just finished it last night.  It's all Bernat from Walmart.  

Basic directions:  cast on 3 stitches, work in garter, increase one stitch at beginning of each row, work till yarn is half used up, decrease one stitch at beginning of each row. Bind off last 3 stitches.  This is another loose hap shawl square variant.

There is crocheting involved:  With a crochet hook, with single crochet, pickup  2 stitches in each in between row (ie between the garter bumps).  Please don't ask me how to express that better in crochet lingo, I just don't know.  Go round the whole edge.  On the next row, to make picot edge, sc in 2 stitches, then double crochet x3 in every 3rd stitch/loop.  Contact me if you really wanna do this!  It makes a nice little slightly frilly edge.

OK, gotta get this in the mail soon, to Ohio, for a little baby boy.  It's very exciting to see one's neices and nephews have babies.  Uh oh, guess this means I'm a great aunt or something similar??

In other news, isn't the muted late afternoon autumn light lovely?  

I don't think kitties care, they just want to act like they really have an opportunity to hunt at the feeder visitors...

An azalea I planted is blooming, sometimes they bloom twice a year...

And, in the garden, lettuce, cukes, and broccoli are starting to sprout on the right side of this photo...