How I spent nap time

The majority of people responded in favor of charts to my question of whether charts or written out patterns were preferred. Well, there must be something to them then so this is how I spent Owen's nap time today (sorry for the crappy picture):

I finished, washed, and blocked the swatch so it is time to start the sweater! I'll let you know if I convert to chart reading...

Stripes!

Pattern: Garter Stitch Cardigan from Knitting For Baby by Falick and Nicholas
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece
Needles: Size 7
Thoughts: Knitting For Baby, while it has many cute patterns, drives me crazy. It is geared too much for the novice knitter, writing instructions on how to knit in the middle of the pattern: k2 yo (that's knit two and then yarn over). Very irritating.

I did the 24 month size so it should be no surprise that it is a bit big on my little guy right now, but he's a growing boy! It's so hard to take photos of him now that he's a fast moving target, but he stayed still long enough for me to take these:

Shhh.. concentrating

If you see me working on this, please do not talk to me or make any distracting noises. Terrible things could go wrong if I lose concentration for one second.


As you can see, at long last I started the aran sweater for Dave, or rather, I started the gauge swatch of the pattern.

All the cable patterns I chose to design this aran (in consultation with Dave) were from The Harmony Guide to Aran and Fair Isle Knitting, by Debra Mountford. This book is an excellent resource, especially for a first time aran knitter like me. She has arranged all the patterns by the number of rows it takes to make them and suggests, for sanity's sake, that you make sure that all the patterns you choose are divisible by the longest one. In mine, the middle celtic knot pattern is 16 rows so the three other patterns I chose are 16, 4, and 2 rows each.

I'm happy with the way it is looking so far. The pattern is pretty wide so I don't think I'll have to add too much double moss stitch at the side.

Another nice thing about the book is that it gives each pattern written out and charted. In my eagerness to start, I totally ignored the charts as I am unfamiliar with the symbols and thought it would be a drag to have to keep looking up what they meant. Presumably, I would learn what they were after a few repeats, but for some reason I found I liked reading the pattern written out more. So write it out I did, or rather I typed it out. Here's a bit of it.
You will notice that I changed color for each section for ease of reading. So far this system is working well for me, but I am wondering if I ought to chart it is as well. Do most of you cable knitters out there prefer charts or written out patterns?

30

It was my birthday yesterday. Yes, each candle on the cake represents a decade.


Of course my birthday meant getting some good knitting-related loot. Dave got me Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Workshop dvd! I watched the first lesson last night. She is so amazing and fun to watch. Of course I learned a couple new things from her even though the lesson was just casting on. I can't wait to watch the rest.

As for knitting, here is a striped cardigan I started for Owen with some Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. Last spring he got so much use out of the cotton cardigan I had made for him while I was pregnant that I wanted to make another for this year. I'm doing the 24 month size so he should be wearing it for a while. This yarn and the RYC cashsoft that I used for the Endpaper mitts were part of an early birthday present from my mom when we went to the Webs sale after Christmas. There also was some yarn for a sweater for me too, but I'll blog about that some other time.

Mitts for me!

This was a great first project of the year. My hands seem to be perpetually cold in the winter. I'll definitely be wearing these as I knit. I'm even wearing them now as I type this.

Pattern: Endpaper Mitts
Yarn: RYC Cashsoft 4 ply
Needles: 2 and 0
Size: Small, though I'm actually a medium, according to the pattern, but I don't have a set of 3 mm DPNs and so I did the small size on size 2 (2.75 mm) DPNs and it fits fine. Hooray for stretchy yarn!


And here's a picture of the inside just because I thought it looked cool.