new blog ... charity baby blankets!

Please check out my new blog that I just started yesterday. :)

Since DH & I are in the process of adopting, we've also taken in some foster kids. They often get into the system in an emergency situation, and with very little to start off in their new (albeit temporary) homes. I've gone into a bit more detail on the new blog about the whole situation, but the point is, smaller children (babies, toddlers) often not having their blankies with them. That's why I decided to contribute what I can, and I hope that fellow knitters and crocheters can help out and follow suit.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

hearts revised

I'm destined to not make the same pattern twice, I think. I've started knitting a hearts blanket from some worsted yarn I found in my office - as an effort to destash what I have - it's the pattern I used to knit a baby blanket for my cousin over a year ago. I got about 3 rows done of the large size and just got SO tired of it. So, I redesigned the actual heart part of it, so the actual heart is about 4 stitches wider and 4 rows longer; the entire pattern repeat is now 8 rows longer. In the end I've cast on 6 fewer stitche for the blanket, and with the new heart pattern it's now 7 hearts across instead of 9.

(picture shows original pattern on left, and my revised version on the right, which I think looks much better)

pinwheel baby blanket

I whipped up another pinwheel baby blanket - again making it in 12 sections instead of 10. I think this is the reason why the center 'pops out' a bit... I've blocked it quite a bit and the center of the blanket before the first purled row kind of comes out like a big boob. Meh. But I think there's hope yet in flattening it out, somehow.

The last pinwheel blanket I made, was donated to afghans for afghans, and this one will be donated to project linus canada.

finished 2 things!

These are pickled peppers from my garden... 3 different kinds of hot peppers + 1 sweet green pepper. Recipe can be found here. Filled a half litre jar! awesome!

The baby blanket is going to be donated to afghans for Afghans ... used up all my partial skeins of wool for that one. The pattern can be found here - I cast on 6 sts instead of 5, making 12 pinwheel sections instead of 10, and it's about 36" across.

Pictures, finally!

Finally, the camera program in the new computer is set up, and I can post pictures!

The blanket I finished 2 days ago for my cousin is called Heart Blanket, a pattern by Bev Galeskas, and officially my first finished lace pattern (short of a couple basic lace scarves). Phew, glad to get this one done!

I made it somewhat to the pattern specs: the 'large' version of this blanket is 9 hearts across (the small is 7 hearts across) but I only made it 12 hearts up - which is the small version, heightwise (the large is 14 rows of hearts). But, I managed to use exactly 6 skeins of S.R. Kertzer Northern Worsted, literally, w/o even an inch to spare! Kinda glad when projects work out that way!

etsy stuff... knitting stuff...

First and foremost, to get it out of the way: I'm having a Clearance Sale @ my etsy shop, because I'm temporarily closing it down... so here are the deals:

~*~ SPECIAL FOR MAY 2009 ~*~

(check shop announcement for more details)

- All vintage patterns are BUY 2, GET 1 FREE. Please buy your three, I will refund the value of the third (equal/lesser value) and its shipping cost via paypal!

- WHILE QUANTITIES LAST: a free homemade sheep shaped bar of soap (3oz) will be included with EACH knit or crocheted item in my shop.

- HEMP KNITTING KITS ~ for the duration of their listing ~ come with a FREE bonus skein (100g) of hemp yarn (please check listing for more details) AND free shipping PLUS a free pair of bamboo knitting needles! Great deal for less than $20!

So, that's that.

Also, a while back (I may have blogged about this, I don't remember) I started knitting a baby blanket for my expectant cousin (who's currently 6 months preggers) ... I've been slacking off a little the last month or so, but caught up this week, and am about 2/3's done! Yay! Pictures will come soon, no worries...

it's about damn time!

Finally finished my Superman baby blanket! It's all double crochet, 113 dc across, making it approx 34" wide, 33.75" tall. It's all made from Red Heart Super Saver - nearly 3 skeins of blue, a little bit of black, cornmeal (yellow) and cherry red (red). Great way to use up my scraps of black, red, and yellow. Hopefully my friends will appreciate it!

untraditional baby blankets

A few days ago I found out that a friend of my DH and I - the best man at our wedding, and his wife - are expecting a baby in January! Since he's such a comic book fan, I instantly thought to incorporate this Superman chart into a baby blanket. Why? Well, there's a scene in Kill Bill 2, at the end, where David Caradine's character tells a little tale of Superman, and how his cape was made from his baby blanket. Hence, a baby blanket with the Superman logo I think would make an ideal baby blanket!


I knit it originally, starting a couple days ago, but I completely miscalculated the guage, and I knit 4 inches of moss stitch for nothing. So, I frogged it, and started again with the proper cast on stitches, and crochet this time. This is what I have so far:

I really hope this turns out - I'm making the whole thing in double crochet! Hopefully it'll be a quick enough project! (I just hate the fact that I wasted 2 days knitting that effin' moss stitch! Argh!)


Yes, I know - not only am I using acrylic, but red heart of all things. But the problem is that traditional baby yarns that I've found do not come in the colours I need, only pastels, so this is the best I can do! And besides, acrylic is easy enough to maintain!

ETA: this link identifies that Superman's cape was made from his baby blankets, rather than the cape being the blanket itself. The original baby blankets were knit, by Ma Kent, using "ordinary knitting needles" - as opposed to what, dare I ask? Some sort of mysterious Kryptonian knitting mechanism? (I need to look into my comic-book-geekery-knitting-referance manual on that one...)