MAYARN

fiddleheads for a friend

Every March my knitting group, the Spiders, has a little party and hand-knits swap. This was the fifth year of this event and it was decided that mitts would be the swap object of choice. This was great news for me because it meant I got to re-knit one of my favorite knits of all time: the Fiddlehead Mittens.

Pattern: Fiddlehead Mittens
Yarn: Frog Tree Alpaca in Grey, Ivory and a nice bright orange (lining)
Needles: US4 DPNs

These went to Katy. And yes, I handed them over—though it wasn't easy! These are sooooft and super warm with that double layer of alpaca.  I somehow knit the second one slightly smaller than the first, but I blocked it as best I could and that seemed to help. In any case, Katy liked them, as did the other Spiders, so I will still call them a success. Plus, they're so soft. And warm... I love these mittens!!

warming baby heads

Yep, lots of baby hats getting churned out of casa mayarn. Most of them aren't for Miles, though. Like this little number:

Pattern: Osito Infant Bear Hat
Yarn: Blue Sky Organic Cotton
Hook: I think it was a G...

This went to Charlie. He probably won't be able to wear it for a while, but I hope he gets to take advantage of its cuteness in the fall.

This hat was pretty easy to stitch up. The ears turned out WAY too big the first time I made them, so I had to elimnate an increase round, a straight crochet round, and a decrease round, but that little fix made them turn out just right.

new-ish beginning

hellooooo...

I almost forgot this blog existed. :) But not quite. I'm still here. Still thinking about how to keep this thing going. Miles is keeping me busy, as are all kind of other life things. I won't even try to catch up here. I'll just start simple and see what happens from there. Sound good?

After a pretty long hiatus of not finishing any knits (or crochet), I've been finding time for it here and there. Baby hats have been the main event:

Pattern: Tubey
Yarn: Spud & Chloe Sweater
Needles: US 7

Super fun to knit, SO cute on. Miles doesn't love wearing this hat, but I'm training him to like it. :) I had to alter the pattern a bit to make a size between the med and large. Can't remember how many stitches... but the beauty of this hat is it's so simple, literally a tube, as long as you cast on a an even number of stitches, you can make it whatever size you want. 

baby!!!

From this:

To this:

Miles Herman was born on July 20 at 7:54pm. He was 8lbs 2oz and 21in long. He is such a good baby, very chilled-out, yet curious and active. We are totally in love, of course.

A little late bringing this news to theblog, but hey, I'm typing one-handed these days. He has received some amazing knits and hopefully I'll be able to post about those soon...

knitting and waiting

After announcing I'm pregnant only 3 posts ago, here we are--4 days from my due date. And I'm sitting here. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Is he here yet?

Time has just flown by. And obviously this blog has not been at the top of my to-do list in that time. Who knows what its fate will be once the baby actually arrives... I'm not quite ready to give it up, but I also recognize that I've lost my drive to write here. Maybe the baby will change this? Maybe the baby will just make it worse? Hard to say. I don't see this becoming a baby blog, but you never know. I'm open to whatever strikes my fancy later on....

Pregnancy also seems to have zapped my desire to knit and crochet, which has been really strange. I never thought this would happen to me, and yet... I've still been doing it, but not as much as I used to. For example, it took me a looooong time to finish this:

Crocheted Ripple blanket
Knit Picks Pallette in 5 colors (can't remember which--labels are long gone)
Size D hook

I had 5 balls of yarn, one of each color, and I just kept doing single rows of each until I ran out. It turned out to be a pretty good size and, hey, crocheting a ripple pattern is kind of addictive. For a blanket, crochet is so perfect—I can't imagine knitting an entire blanket after the couple crocheted blankets I've made recently. Mostly because it's just so much quicker--and it's fun--I'm all about that.

 

As much as my love for crochet has increased, I haven't forsaken knitting completely. Today I whipped up this little baby hat in a few hours

Muscle memory is amazing. I haven't knit regularly in (eep!) 3 months or so, and yet as soon as I cast on, I knit along, without looking, just like no time had passed at all. It was really satisfying.

Well, that's about it. This baby will be joining us any time now, so who knows when you'll hear from me here again. Soonish? I hope so. For now... looking forward to our lives getting flipped upside down. It should be quite the adventure.