April FO's

You have been busy and what a lovely selection.

I think my favourite is the scarf. It is beautiful and I love those soft colours. I can't get over the size of those tiny little feet in the striped socks. :-)

Thank you, Bernadette. The scarf was my first lace project, which I posted about a couple of weeks ago looking for advice. I was happy with how it turned out and gave it to my mother this past weekend for an early Mother's Day gift. The yarn was leftover from a pair of socks I made her last Christmas.

Hm, the owner of those tiny feet sounds like she is hungry. Better go!

LauraJ

I keep thinking of doing a branching out scarf. Yours looks great. Looks like you have been busy. In April I mostly worked on things for the Afghans for Afghans Mothers Day project - a blanket, three hats and a variety of baby socks (made from my sock leftovers). I also finished a pair of cadet grey wildfoote socks for my DH.

My WIPs include a felted bag for me and a celtic sweater for me.

In my stash and on my mind --- a Dale baby wool crossover cardigan for a new little person - sort of built like one of those tiny baby undershirts. I have very light green for the main color with the baby blue and really light yellow for the accent binding and ties. I may make a little cap to go with it.

I have more sock yarn -- including some nice yarn from Norway that is more sport weight that I want to use for hiking socks.

I have some lace weight that is enough for a scarf -- maybe I will try a branching out scarf with it.

That little bib is sweet.

Judy

Loved the pictures Laura. We didn't post March FO's either, so I'm gonna list both....

April Multi-coloured baby sweater & cap for DIL's expected baby. "Lucy" socks as seen on Wendy Knits blog.

March Variegated baby blanket for same baby as above White cotton baby "mary janes" Variegated purple Flickering Flames socks

2nd cap to go with Baby Arnold sweater from February Gloves for me in Rowan "Tapestry" yarn. (nummy yarn) White cotton baby scratch mittens Mint green Cottontots baby cap

It's so fun knitting baby things because then it looks like you've done a lot! (laugh)

Shelagh

That scarf is gorgeous Laura! Good job! I finally finished my pullover sweater that I started last year. Would have finished sooner but got distracted by other projects LOL. I also made a pair of socks out of the Regia Jaquard - the one that makes the different shades of blue stripes. Will be perfect to wear with jeans. Marie and the cats

Thanks for the compliments! Like yarn, you can never get enough of them ;)

The branching out scarf was lots of fun. One thing that is nice about it is since it is a scarf you can use whatever weight yarn you want. I used sock yarn. I believe the pattern gives directions for two different weights.

LauraJ

Thanks, Shelagh. I have been saving that stuff up for so long and we finally had a nice enough day (and a few extra minutes) to go outside and take the pictures. Sounds like you have been busy too! I agree with your take on knitting baby items! Though I have been having such knitter's block lately. I think I need a big project to work on so I don't have to think of something new to knit every week - what happened to the girl who used to have 10 projects on the needles at a time and 10 more in the back of her mind???

LauraJ

Thanks, Marie! It was a fun project - never thought I'd enjoy lace but I was wrong! Do we get to see pictures of your work? I'd especially love to see the sweater.

LauraJ

Hi Laura: You can see some of my stuff on Photobucket.com Bienchat is the password to type in. The shoulders of the sweater got a little scrunched up in the picture, (dont ask). Now that I think about it, I don't have a picture of the other sweater I finished on there. But the striped pullover is the first pic. The Regia Jaquard socks are in the 2nd pic. BTW, I got some pretty green mohair blend yarn that I started the Branching out scarf with. I don't know if the yarn was too fine or if the scarf needs to be blocked for a good look, but I wasn't too excited with how it was coming out so I frogged it. I'm going to try it again with a thicker yarn. Marie and the cats

Lace looks terrible until it's blocked. I'm knitting a feather and fan stole in fingering weight and it looks really pitiful. I think Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, The Yarn Harlot, coined the phrase "looking like a wadded-up Kleenex because it hasn't been blocked yet." Only knowing that it'll look great after it's blocked is keeping me going. If I hadn't known that I'd have frogged it about two hundred rows ago and wound the yarn back into a skein.

You can get some idea of how lace will look after blocking by spreading it out and pinning it down on a contrasting background. This won't give you the halo effect that washing does if your yarn is so inclined, but it will show you the pattern. It'll also show you if your needles are the right size. I'm not sure there's such a thing as yarn too fine for lace, considering that some people[1] knit lace with cobweb weight yarn. There definitely is yarn too fine for the needle size you're using, though.

I intend to take some before and after photos of several pieces of lace and post them, with some discussion of blocking effects, in my blog in the next week or so.

[1] I'm not one of those people. I rarely even knit lace with lace weight yarn. Fingering weight is about as thin as I usually use. I'm more inclined to go the other way, having knitted lace in Jumbo Merino and Cascade Magnum and been very happy with it. Although maybe if I get those Addi lace needles....

Yes, it is a lace weight yarn......I don't remember off hand what size needles I was using but they weren't tiny ones LOL. I did try to spread the scarf out to see how it was looking and it didn't look right to me. The yarn overs were doing something weird, you could see the eyelet holes on one side but not well on the other side of the pattern. I have no idea what happened !!?? Eh, like I said, I'll try it again maybe using a thicker yarn like they show in the picture. Marie and the cats

Hi Marie,

I finally got a chance to look at your work - it is beautiful! Thanks for sharing! The sweater is gorgeous and I really like that shrug as well. The afghans are impressive too - I don't have the patience for such a large piece! Looks like the cats really enjoyed them too :)

LauraJ

Thanks Laura! Sorry the picture of the bolero came out so dark. I'm not always so good with a camera. There are some other things that I made that I need to add the pictures to Photo bucket. The aran sweater was for a guy friend of mine- that was a big project. He used to play football and the sweater is a size 52! The entire sweater is patterned and has cables, it took me a few months to finish that one. When I finally got it done, I had to wash it good as it had a lot of specialty fibers embedded in the yarn from all the animals around here. (And I kept my work basket covered too). I make a lot of afghans for project Linus. I usually make the granny square type, that way I don't have to hold a big hot blanket on my lap during the hot weather. It's also easy to carry around little bits and bobs in a small project bag for *on the go*. Surprising how much you can get done in a few spare mintues here and there. I also carry a sock project around in my purse all the time! LOL! Marie and the cats

On May 21, 10:46 am, "Laura J" wrote:

I remember when you were working on that sweater. LOL at the "specialty fibers" :)

LauraJ

Such beautiful work, Laura!

I really enjoyed seeing all the finished projects and especially loved the scarf and the little tanktop. Where did you find the patterns? I have two little girls (one and one-and-a-half) who would love to wear the little tanktops this summer.

Murielle Who has not projects going ... yet.

Thanks, Murielle! The scarf is Branching Out and the tank top is Katja, both free patterns from

Let me know if you need help finding them (click on the Archive link and search for those names). The tank top was very simple and DD gets lots of compliments on it. I just started another one for a friend who is due next month (and lives in Portugal so they certainly don't need sweaters!). It is a fun, quick knit. I think it will lend itself well to experimenting with colorwork which I'd like to try my hand at, if for no other reason than to help use up some of the oddballs in my stash!

LauraJ

Thank you! I'll be checking that site out right away.

What a great idea for using those tiny little balls of leftovers we all accumulate. I have been making blankets out of them (a very simple design I "made up" years ago) and either giving them as gifts or donating them. But this is a fantastic way to use leftovers, especially the tiny little balls my packrat mind insists I keep.

Thanks again for the website, Murielle

Laura,

Just wanted to tell you that I found them both. I can't wait to start the little tank tops.