All work and no play makes Amie very sad

Very little time to knit lately. But when I've had time, I have been knitting! I've been working on helmet liners for the state DAR to donate. I'm still on the first one, but with any luck, it should be done tonight or tomorrow. I have a ton of yarn, so there's no problem there. I'm just going to keep knitting them until I run out of yarn, time or patience for 2x2 ribbing.

I'm not sure how I'll include these on my progress bar, since I don't know how many I'll end up knitting. Hmm. I'll have to think about that.

More info is available on Ravelry. I won't copy it all here; it's not that interesting. ;) And I'm at work and have to make this quick.

But here's a quick picture:





















That was taken last night. The ribbed portion goes around the neck and the stockinette portion (the top of the Pac-man-esque shape) is worn like a hat. There's more ribbing to be knitted around the face opening after the hat portion is completed.

In that picture, I'd only knit 10 rows of the hat. The pattern calls for it to be knit in stockinette for 4" before beginning to decrease, so I still have at least one or two more days of knitting left to do.

Jess playing catch up again!

I've been busy. I always seem to be playing catch up on here. Finish several things and then blog them all at once. I really need to work on that. But as I see it those seem to be what most bloggers say. hehe.

This little guy is one of the reasons I've been busy. This is Ryan (although I think most of you know that). He is 8 months old! And truly a handful. The sweater he is wearing is another thing that kept me busy for a bit.

Its my interpretation of Rocketry. I used the "tulip baby pattern" because I had it. The two sweaters (Tulip Baby and Rocketry) to me seemed so similar I didn't want to buy the other pattern when I already had this one. So I made the changes that I thought made it look more like Rocketry. Which included changing the colors. I did smooth color changes. Which actually isn't in either of the patterns but I liked it better. The other difference is the ribbed button band. Mine isn't exactly like Rocketry, but I'm happy with it. It fits him perfectly. Although that didn't happen without a little work.

The technical stuff
Pattern: "Rocketry"
Yarn: "Knit Picks Swish Worsted" in Coast Grey, Dublin, Jade, and Dark Navy
Needles: 3.75mm and 4.5mm (us 5 and 7)

This is the failed attempt. The colors just were not working for me. So after consulting Amie we decided that although all the colors I picked were nice. That bright blue had to go. And instead of doing smaller stripes more often just make them bigger. So I started over. I'm very pleased with how the finished product turned out.

Searching for buttons was a disaster but settled on some little blue star buttons. They are a pain to actually button but they get the job done and look ok doing it.

Next up is some mittens for Nathan. Nathan is the son that is hard to knit for. Or so that use to be the case. Lately the kid doesn't stop asking me for things. I asked him several times in the winter if he wanted me to make him mittens and he kept saying no. Until we moved to NY. He realized his hands were cold and mittens were warm. So he asked for some. With the fail of Ryan's sweater I had an extra ball of blue. Which happens to be the favorite color of all three boys in my life. So I quickly knit up these mittens.

Nathan loves them. Even if they were finished on the first official day of spring. He has already worn them often enough to make them worth it to me. Not to mention I was smart mommy and made them slightly bigger so that they "should" fit him when cold comes around again.

Pattern:"Classic mittens"
Size: 5-7 year old
Yarn: "Knit Picks Swish Worsted" in Deep Ocean
needles: 3.5mm (us 4)
notes: if I were to knit these again I'd use a smaller needle size for the ribbing. I might actually knit them at a tighter gauge too.

And last but not least. Do you guys remember this?

I FINALLY got around to sewing the zipper into the "dino sweater". I knit this sweater a year ago. A YEAR AGO PEOPLE! Nathan wore it very little. First because it was a costume not a sweater. And second because it didn't have a zipper. I bought the zipper 6 months ago. Finally got the courage to sew it in this week. I used "this" as a guide. Went and got the tape and pins. Pulled out the sewing machine and away we went.

It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. Didn't take near as long. I learned a lot. First time adding a zipper to my knitting. First time putting my knitting into my sewing machine. Also it was the first time I used the zipper foot on my sewing machine. I do feel accomplished. I'm very proud of the sweater. I had Nathan try it on and it does still fit him. I'm hoping he will wear it all spring. Until he outgrows it. In which case it will get washed and stored and revived when his brother gets older.
Its not perfect by any means. My sewing skills need a little work. The line is a bit wonky. But Justin agreed that Nathan wont care. Justin tested the zipper out and says it will hold up just fine.

Now just because I can and really want to share. This is our St. Patty's Day meal.