I actually finished these weeks ago but only gave them to the new mom on Monday so I didn’t want to post them just in case. She loved them and I think was truly touched that I made them, which is exactly the reaction we’re all hoping for when we give something handknit! Her baby is so adorable, hopefully he won’t grow so fast that he’s not able to wear these before the summer heat breaks . . .
I was actually able to make two sets of booties out of one skein of Koigu, so that’s a very very affordable baby gift, note to self! I knit the second pair to keep just in case someone else announces they’re expecting a boy.The pattern is the old-fashioned type that’s wordy and doesn’t have many “next row” type instructions, but it’s easy to follow and I didn’t find any mistakes. If I were to change one thing it would be to shape the soles into a bit of an oval shape, these are squares and the corners are a bit too square for my taste. It’s a minor thing though and I didn’t think of it until after I’d picked up stitches for the second one, so I wasn’t about to rip it all out to fix a small detail no one else would notice!
Baby knits are SO cute and quick to knit, it makes me want to make a whole closet full of gifts to hand out in the future! But the thought of having a closet full of baby knits is also sort of creepy . . . I wonder if Arnold would be up for wearing booties . . .
Project specs:
Pattern: Christina’s Baby Booties, no modifications (shock!)
Yarn: 1 skein Koigu KPPPM in color P415
Needles: Size US 1 dpn’s
Started: July 3, 2010
Finished: July 17, 2010
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It’s a totally random coincidence that after finally photographing Shana’s blue Koigu Nutkin socks the next project I picked up was also in blue Koigu, and also for someone named Shana! What you see above is one bootie from the set I am making for my other friend Shana who just gave birth to an adorable baby boy. I’m using the Christine’s Baby Booties pattern which I’ve made before and they’re just as cute as I remember. Every time I knit something for a baby I’m again shocked at how tiny and cute baby stuff is — I know it’s obvious but when I’m actually holding a tiny bootie in my hand it’s still shocking to see just how little it is! What you see above was the first bootie of a set which is now finished, but when I realized I had about half the skein of Koigu left over I went ahead and started another set. It’s always good to have a baby present in the closet for a last-minute gift, right?
Oh and you see the book that’s open under the bootie? That’s The Happiness Project and I’m on the last few pages. I haven’t been able to put this book down since I started it: I’m loving it and it’s making me think and examine my own life and attitudes. The author, Gretchen Rubin, decides that she has a great life on paper but that her mood doesn’t always match, so she sets out to make her regular life happier by making small changes. She blogs about the process here but the book documents her year spent focusing each month on a certain aspect of her life and adjusting her behavior and attitude to ensure more moments of happiness. What I really like about this book is that she doesn’t do anything drastic or scary (no moving to India or even quitting her job) to reach her goal, she makes tiny changes in common everyday behavior so that her life doesn’t change but her ATTITUDE does. Before embarking on this challenge she did exhaustive research into happiness and read everything from ancient philosophers to Oprah, and throughout the book she references these sources . . . I love that because it means I don’t have to go do the legwork myself . . .
As soon as I get to the end of the book I’m going to re-read it while taking notes so that I can start my own (much less intense) Happiness Project. If this description sounds at all interesting to you I definitely recommend browsing the book the next time you’re in a bookstore, I bet it will speak to you, too!
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by Ivete on May 16, 2010
in Koigu
I was at Purl today picking up a few extra skeins of Cascade 220 for Babette and couldn’t help but scope out the Koigu selection . . . my eyes went immediately for this electric color and I thought, “I’ve never seen that color before!” Sure enough, when I reached for it I found that’s it’s dyelot ONE of color P928!
I can spot a new color of Koigu by instinct, apparently . . . =)
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I stumbled across the October Leaves Fingerless Mitts pattern and fell in love with the gusset detail. The next thing I knew I was casting on using some gorgeous Koigu from my stash in a color that makes me think of crushed berries. I should be finishing up the dozens of in-progress projects, but we all know how that goes . . .
I already finished the first mitt (even wove in the ends!) and am a few inches into the second one. The pattern isn’t the clearest I’ve ever knit from but I figured out what was meant after re-reading a few times. The finished mitt is so adorable that it was totally worth it! Oh and the KPPPM color is P306 before anyone asks. Based on how much of the ball is left, I think I may be able to get the pair out of just one skein!
It’s been cold and raining here for the last week and I’m wondering where the heck spring went! No wonder I had the sudden urge to knit myself another set of armwarmers. Just look at the fog we had yesterday:
Normally this view has the Manhattan skyline in it . . . couldn’t see a single building yesterday! At least I have cheery pink mitts to brighten my day.
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by Ivete on October 7, 2009
in Koigu
A long time ago I mentioned wanting to use my odd Koigu scraps to make something . . . at the time I was imagining making lots of mis-matched socks in crazy stripes of handpainted colors and wearing them interchangeably with each other. While that still seems like a good idea and I may end up doing that also, over the weekend I was reading a book and found myself with no simple projects in stockinette to work on while I read. When I’m reading I like to knit stockinette on circulars (either in the round or flat works well), but it has to be a completely mindless project. Enter the scraps bag:
This bag actually has more than just Koigu leftovers in it, it has all sorts of fingering-weight sock yarn scraps and leftovers. All the baby skeins of Koigu I got years ago at TNNA are in there, too. I’m sure there are even scraps of Koigu collected from my days at the knitting store! Apparently I hoard Koigu like it’s a precious metal. I’ve been adding to this bag for years (literally!), always with the intention of turning it all into something one day.
This past weekend, I went through the bag and separated out all the Koigu scraps from the rest of the sock yarn riffraff (as if, everything in there is awesome!). Here’s what I have to work with:
As I pulled out those partial balls and tiny butterflies of yarn, I kept remembering the projects that each scrap belonged to. It was like going through my jewelry box! The gray in the bottom right-hand was from the first Charlotte’s Web I ever made . . . the very bright orange-pink on top of it became a pair of ruffly socks . . . and on and on. It’s amazing how well I can remember working with each of these colors! Although not surprising, given how much I love Koigu and how the color is the whole point of Koigu . . .
I pulled out a set of size 4 circulars and cast on a bunch of stitches and just started knitting. Here’s what I had after one day’s worth of reading:
I’m trying not to worry about what color comes next, but I did decide on two rules:
- Colors next to each other should be different enough to stripe
- Adjacent stripes should be of varied widths
So basically what I’m doing when I finish a section is reaching blindly for another bit of yarn and then seeing if the amount is OK and if the color isn’t too similar. I was shocked to see how much medium blue is in this pile! It’ll be a challenge to make sure all that blue doesn’t end up overwhelming everything else.
So far I have about 10″ of fabric knit and it’s about 20″ wide. I was initially thinking of making a stole, but now that it looks like I have way more yarn than I realized, I’m thinking of turning it into a small throw. This may end up being a perpetual project that I add on to as I finish other Koigu projects, but that’s completely fine with me. Using up my scraps this way makes me think of old-fashioned patchwork quilts and the idea just fills me up with warm fuzzies. And knitting with all these Koigu colors isn’t half-bad, either!
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There are no words!
This fabulously 80′s colorway is 107B, dye lot 6, and I cannot wait to knit it up into a new pair of elbow-length armwarmers. I initially planned to knit up the same pattern from The Purl Stitch to replace my previous set, but now I’m planning to design something incorporating slipped stitched to play up the colors in handpainted yarns. While I think the original gauntlets are quite gorgeous, I think the shape of armwarmers is perfect for a little stitchwork to better show off the yarn! And with yarn this gorgeous, showing it off is all I really care about . . .
And speaking of Koigu, my solid colored Cecil socks are progressing nicely. Here’s how the first foot looked a few days ago:
I’ve since finished it and am about half-way done with its mate, just picked up stitches for the gusset and am about to start the foot. I just noticed that this semi-solid Koigu KPM color (color 2171, dye lot 113) looks a lot like stonewashed jeans! Kind of funny to think about knitting with washed out jeans . . .
Design-wise, I am finalizing a submission to IK and hope to have it in the mail by Wednesday this week. I intended to submit to Twist (btw, have you seen the new issue? It’s pretty awesome!) but the design I had in mind just didn’t work out when I started to swatch it, it got way too complicated way too quickly. It seems to be the case with many of my ideas, either it’s a simple, straightforward idea that works right away, or it’s a complicated design with too much going on at once. I wish there were more ideas that fell into a happy medium between the extremes!
It’s a scorcher of a day today in NYC so we’re staying indoors with the A/C on and a puppy between us on the couch. Bodes well for knitting productivity!
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That’s right, I do sometimes knit other things! Really!
I’ve been meaning to knit up my Cecil sock pattern in a solid color for, like, a year. I was even pretty sure that I wanted to use this grayish-blue color of Koigu for them, but somehow they never rose to the top of the to-do list. Now that my knitting mojo seems to be back in full force (finally!) and I’ve knit more over the last few weeks than I have in the previous few months, I thought it would be good to start a portable project to knit on my commute or in stolen moments waiting in lines. As I look through my Ravelry notebook, I see I haven’t finished a pair of socks since February . . . gotta change that, stat!
I cast on for this sock on Saturday morning and worked on it while catching up on my DVR. A few hours later I’d turned the heel! I sometimes forget how quickly sock knitting goes when you work on a sock for long stretches at a time! Usually my socks only get knit on the subway or in the line at the bank, so they seem to take forever to get done . . .
These probably won’t get done that quickly, though, because I already started something else and brought that project to work on during my commute today. I’m using this cheerful yarn:
Isn’t it so sunny and happy? I’m making a quick present for my sister with this gorgeous Artyarns Supermerino 6 in color 2278, and I need to have it done by next week when she’ll be on the East Coast for a quick visit . . . I’m already more than half-way done after just one day, so I should be able to meet my deadline!
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Folks, I think my Koigu problem is only getting worse, not better. Here’s the batch I couldn’t say no to yesterday, and I’m almost 100% sure that one of these colors is already in my stash. And I thought of that before I bought it, and bought it anyway. They’re just so pretty!
I’m definitely making a shawlette for me out of the 410 (the purplish red color on the bottom left), maybe my next design will use this color. It’s a perfect blend for me, dark enough to not wash me out and colorful enough to not be boring to knit with! And as a bonus, it seems to photograph well, which is something I so struggle with when it comes to knitting designs in colors I want to wear. Seems like a winner all around! And yes, that’s the one I’m pretty sure I already own . . .
I’m going to a wedding in Vermont this weekend so that’ll be like 10 hours of car knitting roundtrip, most of it with daylight . . . gotta plan what I’m bringing to knit so I don’t end up bored and/or running out! That would be just awful.
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I just stumbled across this Babette Blanket yarn pack from Yarnzilla and the above photo is so gorgeous, I am seriously considering ordering it! I’ve never bought anything from Yarnzilla before but I see they offer discounts based on price (the way WEBS does), so assuming you’d get the 25% discount, you could buy this pack for only $222.75! That’s a really great price, and just look at those colors! But I can’t tell from the website description whether the discount applies to yarn packs . . . although you would think it does, after all what’s the difference between ordering 22 skeins of koigu or ordering this yarn pack, right?
This is crazy, I do not need another 22 skeins of Koigu! Must. Resist.
They only have 2 kits in stock — can someone else please go buy them before I lose my mind?
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Bad cold plus grumpy mood = need for retail therapy! This color of Koigu KPM had to come home with me . . . such a gorgeous shade of orange sherbert! If only I knew someone having a little girl, I would definitely use this for a baby gift! Oh well, guess I’ll have to knit something for myself then . . .
(color is 1113, btw)
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