Friends of ours are expecting this summer and I spent a while hunting around for something to make their new little one. I finally decided on the Baby Surprise Jacket and since it will be hot out when the wee one arrives I'm going to make it out of linen. Right now this yarn feels like twine but I know that after it's been worked for a while and made a couple of trips through the washer it will be soft and not too warm.

I'm using Louet Euroflax which I think is a really nice yarn. Rob helped me pick out the colours in a yarn shop in Ottawa when we were there. We don't know if the baby is a boy or a girl but we both though that blue with some orange stripes would do for either.

I've read through the pattern several times and have decided not to try and plan the stripes at all. As far as I can tell any stripes I add early on will show up on the sleeves and stripes later on will be on the fronts but beyond that is too complicated to work out. I'm just going to wing it.

I spent almost all of Saturday afternoon winding up balls of yarn. Somehow I never realize how much yarn there is in a skein of hemp or linen - it must be the lack of squashiness. There were wound eventually however and after I'd spent some more time hunting for a needle the right size I cast on the 160 stitches and knit two rows.


It doesn't look like much yet and I have a feeling I should really find something to use as stitch markers at the decrease/increase points or I am going to get lost. Pretty colour though.

I started this sock ages ago but stalled out part way through October when I couldn't settle on a good colour work design ... and then I left my knitting around too close to floor level and Abby made a mess of it (fortunately my needles survived). The ball of grey wasn't too bad to untangle but the blue is so dark and difficult to see that I kept putting it off.

I finally got around to it over the Christmas break and was able to test the pattern I'd worked out in November (don't let it be thought that my knitting languishes because I never think about it). I'd originally been thinking of stars for these socks but snowflakes seemed more appropriate. It went surprisingly quickly - I finished the colour work and picot edge all in one sitting - but I think for the next sock I'll carry the blue in my left hand instead of my right and see if it pops a little better.


The picot edge is giving me a bit of trouble too. I love the dainty look of it but am not sure what to do to stop it from rolling. These are the options I've thought of so far: 1) knit a deeper border of the main colour before doing the edge in order to control the flaring caused by the colour work, 2) do a few quick decreases after the colour work to achieve the same result without making a taller sock, 3) knit the edge deeper so that it holds itself in place better, or 4) block it and pretend that will work. Thoughts and suggestions would be most welcome; this is the first time I've worked a picot edge.

Yarn: Knit Picks Crayon in Lime (8054) and Azure (8051)
Size: about 12.5" x 12.5" (32 cm x 32 cm) before washing
Yardage: 90% of the Lime and 10% of the Azure
Needles: 3.25 mm bamboo


Another finished knit. The opposite of the first one. I don't really have anything new to share about this pattern but I really liked my Washcloth As A Snail picture and wanted to share.

I finished this in the coffee shop waiting for Rob to finish work last Monday. I don't know why my darning needles were in my purse but it's a handy thing they were or this would be sitting in a pile somewhere waiting for me to get to it. Once I'd sewn in the ends I had nothing to do while I waited except mould my cloth into funny shapes and take pictures of it. Here's anothe picture of all the ends I snipped off.


I've got an entire ball of each colour left. I'm thinking of making a hand towel to match the two wash cloths. It would be a cute set for our spare bathroom. I could paint the walls to match (right now they are a pale peachy colour I don't really like - all the walls in our house are this colour - I have paint chips taped up all over the place).