Tiny feets!
Thanks for the response on the sweater–I do like it quite a bit, and it’s definitely going to become part of my wardrobe, I just think there’s some room for improvement in my future sweater knitting endeavors.
I moved on to something completely different yesterday–my dear stickyfingers said that she had a sweater kit that she didn’t want, and she would be happy to trade it with me for some handknits for her incoming babeh.
!!
Of course I said hell yes. And then I learned that babyknits=instant gratification. Like, instant instant. Like, in four hours I went from a few grams of Koigu scraps to these:
So cute. And perfect for a spring/early summer baby. Look how cute the yarn striped up on the soles:
All I can think when I look at these is how cute the feet are going to be that go into them. They will be so tiny. And adorable.
I took a look at another bootie pattern, one that happens to be very popular, but… man. There are ends and seams everywhere. That doesn’t strike me as particularly comfortable for the baby. Plus, annoying to make. So I think I might try to reconstruct their shape in a seamless form. We’ll see how that goes.
(These are here on Ravelry.)
Things I learned while knitting this sweater
1. I can, in fact, knit a full sized adult garment, even if it doesn’t end up being particularly flattering on me.
2. Raglans are perhaps not the best types of sweaters for those with already rather wide shoulders, e.g. me.
3. It is a good thing that I am a process knitter, otherwise I’d be very upset by the above two points.
4. A full sized cardigan made out of alpaca is delightfully warm (especially since my heat only works on days not ending in ‘y’.)
5. February is not a good month to try and be productive in. February is an excellent month for slacking off and whining a lot.
6. Attention to tiny details (like picking up underarm stitches and lining up faux purl seams) makes me very happy.
7. Sweaters are not difficult; they are tedious and long (says the girl who once spent four months knitting a lace monstrosity) but not difficult.
8. I had a point to go here, but now I don’t remember what it was.
9. I like knitting sweaters. I want to knit more, better fitting sweaters.
10. There is no way I can afford that kind of yarn. Unless I sell my soul…
10a. Kittens are cute. (Cosmo’s with his new parents, and now we’re fostering his sister–she’s too shy to come pose for the camera though, so these are the last pictures I took of Cosmo before he left.)
*edits* be nice of me to include project specs, wouldn’t it?
Pattern: this one, heavily modified to accommodate my much smaller gauge
Yarn: Grignasco Top Print, 9.5 balls
Needles: US6/4mm KP Options circs
Duration: about two weeks
here on Ravelry. 🙂
Februaries
How is it that a month that is shorter than the rest seems to drag on for forever? Sigh.
This sweater is also dragging on forever. I’ve been approaching the finish line for days now, and I’m still not quite there.
Right now I seem to be at the point where I start worrying about how it’ll turn out; is the body long enough? Maybe I should rip out the bottom edge and add a couple more rows. Is that really enough ease? Did I completely misjudge my size? Are those sleeves too baggy? Should I really have done that, that way? I’m really trying to wait until it’s done and blocked to freak out about it being all wrong but it’s a struggle, let me tell you. I guess I’ll know by the end of the week, in any case. I have some buttons picked out that I cannibalized from elsewhere,
but they’re a little big, I think. I’ll probably use them just until I get around to buying better ones.
Paolitos
These little cheese rolls are officially called pao de queijo, but I first discovered them in a small shop in the city, where they were known as paolitos, so that’s what I call ’em. These little things are amazing–really tasty and filling and of course, entirely gluten free, without any fussing with recipes or ten kinds of flour or xanthan gum (I hate xanthan gum.) And they’re versatile: the same basic dough can be used for little snack sized bites, giant rolls to be cut open for sandwiches, it would even be excellent as a pizza dough.
Pao de Queijo
Ingredients:
1c milk
1/2c butter or margarine
1tsp salt
2c packed tapioca flour (also known as tapioca starch)
2 large or 3 medium eggs, beaten
2c parmesan or other hard cheese
Instructions:
Heat milk, butter and salt over medium heat, until it begins to boil. Remove from heat and quickly stir in the tapioca flour. Allow to cool completely. Lightly grease two baking sheets.
Once cool, turn oven on to 400F. Transfer dough to a bowl and knead in eggs a little bit at a time until dough is free of lumps. Add cheese and knead again until smooth. Knead tablespoon sized clumps of dough into spheres and place them on the baking sheets, well spaced apart. Cook for about 15 minutes, until tops are lightly browned. The insides may still seem a little doughy or gooey while warm.
Remove from oven and transfer immediately to a plate or cooling rack; if the rolls cool while sitting on the oiled pans they will absorb the oil and lose the crispness at the bottom.
(I ate mine with some dal bukhara for dinner–it was quite fantastic.)
Life is a time-suck.
Seriously. All this life going on is really getting in the way of my internetting and knitting and generally doing nothing. It’s starting to be a problem. I add another class to my schedule starting tomorrow, and I have an unfortunate three and a half hour gap between my usual Tues-Thurs class and this new one. There’s no way I’m making the forty minute walk home just to hang around for an hour and then walk back. So I suppose I’ll bring some knitting and my homework and maybe the lappy and see if I can’t catch up on something.
Speaking of not catching up on things, the seekrit project that I’d meant to have done in a weekend is only about halfway there:
(ten points if you can guess what it is)
and I may instead be working on a sweater, ahem.
Which is a total time suck, because I swear I’ve put at least eight hours into this thing already and I’m still not done with the raglan increases. Am I just of gigantic proportions? Or maybe it’s because I purl ridiculously slowly. Or maybe it’s because I hate purling so I stop after every knit row to do something else so I don’t have to face the purling.
Oh, the cookies I promised? I kept munching on them while doing various things… and ate them all before I managed to get pictures. But, I have plans to make new and improved cookies before this weekend, so with any luck I’ll have something decent to share by then.
Cosmo kitteh!
This little guy is so adorable. And SO TINY. We’ve been calling him BittyKitty, and Kitty Carlisle is now GiantKitty. He weighs maybe a tenth of what she does.
He’s about two months old, we’re holding onto him for three more weeks or so. Right now his ‘meows’ are actually little squeaking noises, and he’s purring constantly.
His face is kinda funny lookin’ but I have hopes that he’ll grow into it. (The camera flash is to blame for the squinty eyes though.)
And here he is with the pink cotton candy shawl, which I finished this morning. Hasn’t been blocked yet, though–maybe tomorrow.
GiantKitty is unimpressed by BittyKitty.
I’m going to go knit up some stuffed hearts for Valentine’s day. Oh! And next time I have wonderous made from scratch cookies to talk about.
Jeshknits 