Drum roll please! Dum ta da dum! All Season Sleep Sack o' Baby is done, done, DONE! Done and done. Hecho. Cooked. Stick a fork in this baby. This Mama has a post-freakish-hand-injury FINISHED OBJECT. The real article. An FO of my very own.
Oh, what a relief! I have been feeling terribly guilty - this is the first knitted goody for Baby Isaac, who just turned 6 months. Hopefully I can make up for lost time!
In more exciting news, I wrote up the pattern and am now trying to recruit testers. Onward!
The popular Kindle cover is now available for
the iPad Family! Cozy Fire is knit like a toe-up sock on a magic loop, so
you can try it on as you go. (It is the sister to Cozy Fire: Kindle Cover.) It has a simple flame lace pattern and a
one-button closure. It is a quick knit and a perfect companion to your iPad (1st,
2nd, 3rd, or 4th generation), iPad Mini, and even your iPad in its OtterBox!
And don't forget to check out the Useful Goodies page for some, well, useful goodies like tutorials and tips. Click it! Download Cozy Pad Happy Knitting!
Cozy Fire and Cozy Pad are knit like toe-up socks and
use several techniques familiar to sock knitters. Three of my favorite
techniques are commonplace toe-up and cozy-knitting treats: Magic Loop, Judy’s Magic Cast-On, and Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy
Bind-Off.
Magic Loop
I am pretty biased when it comes to knitting in the round.
It is all about magic loop for this knitter. But putting my disdain for
double-pointed needles aside for a moment, to knit the Cozy Fire or Cozy Pad I
strongly recommend using the magic loop (or two circular needles). Because,
unlike a sock or a sleeve that is perfectly cylindrical, our “tube” is flat,
with a front and a back, with half the stitches in front and half in back. It
is very challenging to try to divide
those cast-on stitches by 3 or 4 – it is almost physically impossible! Don’t do
it!
For both the written and video links that follow, you want to ignore the instructions for casting on and dividing up stitches and the
like. You won’t be casting on to knit an open “tube”. Instead, you will be
casting on using Judy’s Magic Cast-On (see below) which starts you off with a “seam”
at the “toe”. Your “tube” will be sealed at the bottom!
Truth be told, I hardly ever use video tutorials. When it
comes to Judy’s Magic Cast-On, however, I was about to give up on toe-up socks
for good after several attempts to use a written tutorial, when I was
miraculously rescued by Cat Bordhi and her video tutorial. (I’ve included the
link to Judy Becker’s article in Knitty.com in case you are smarter than I.)
I find Jeny’s written tutorial of her inspired technique to
be easy to follow. If you prefer video tutorials, I’ve included Cat Bordhi’s on
the assumption that it is as helpful as her cast-on video was to me.
I have compiled a short list of possible answers to the
$64,000 question.
Add a crab stitch or
single crochet edge to the flap. This works pretty well, though not
perfectly. Most of the tutorials show crocheting the edge to a crocheted piece,
but this tutorial shows adding the edging to a knit piece.
Knit into the back of
the first and last stitch of every knit (right side) row.This is what I
did and I’m pretty happy with it!
Knit the flap in
garter or seed stitch.As the designer, I just don’t love the way either of
those options look, but it will take care of your curling problem!
Did I leave anything out? Did you try any tricks on your Cozy Fire or Cozy Pad that you want me to share?
Leave me a comment here and let
me know. Thanks and Happy Knitting!
Well, most. Or even several. As I am getting back in the saddle, I was nudged unknowingly by a few Ravelry sisters to write my Cozy Fire: Kindle Cover to fit more tablets. I am currently hosting a test knit for 2 more kindle sizes and I'm about to have a pattern draft for a Cozy Fire to fit an iPad. Look out Tablet World, Cozy Fire is coming to cover and protect you! Stay tuned...
Indeed, I am dusting off the old blog. And knitting needles.
A whole lot has happened since the first layer of dust settled!
I stabbed my hand and severed my digital nerve, then had it
surgically reconnected. My injury certainly put the brakes on my knitting and
designing momentum. I still don’t have full feeling in my pointer finger – more
of a tingle.
We moved. Hopefully, fingers crossed, for the last time.
Plenty of yard to eventually bury me in. My unsolicited advice: don’t move in
your third trimester.
I had a baby. Isaac joined our family September 20, 2012. He’s
an easy, delightful little guy.
So I am cautiously starting to knit again. I am
so unbelievably behind on what I wanted to get done in my knitting life that
returning to my needles makes me anxious. (I mean, I don’t have a single FO for
my baby that’s not a hand-me-down from his older brother or cousins!) Which is
not how I want to feel about knitting. I am trying to design a simple baby
blanket for Isaac as my re-entrance to the knitting and designing race. And
hopefully soon it will be more fun than stressful.
L’eggo My Waffle Rib Sweateris an almost-completely seamless, richly textured, and comfortable sweater for your favorite toddler or child.L’eggolooks great on little men and little women, and is roomy enough to last several seasons, even for fast-growing tykes.
L’eggo is worked in one piece from the top down. It is first worked back and forth, and then in the round below the button band opening. The waffle rib stitch pattern and the raglan and neck shaping increases are all shown on clear, user-friendly charts. The sleeves are worked down from held stitches on a magic loop (or double-pointed needles if preferred.) Finishing is minimal, with less than one inch of seaming at the base of the placket. The pattern requires basic and intermediate knitting techniques: knit, purl, cast on, bind off, decreases (k2tog), increases (M1L and M1R), yarn over, reading charts, picking up stitches, knitting in the round, and simple seaming (whip stitch, back stitch, or crochet).
The pattern is written for 3 toddler and child sizes and includes: size measurements, clear instructions, written explanations of special stitches, a color-coded chart, and helpful pictures. And in the month of February, you can get it on the cheap in my Ravelry store here when you use the coupon code Leap Year. Happy Knitting!
