Baby Baseball Hat

In honor of Craig Biggio being elected for the baseball hall of fame today, I will finish my summer of baby hats (I know…  I’m super behind.  Other hats included:  Chappy Newsboy Cap, Lacey Summer Baby Cap, Elmo Inspired Baby Hat, and Emory Beanie.) with my baby baseball hat.  Some friends of mine are huge Astros fans, so when they had a baby I naturally wanted to make them a baseball hat.  I had seen pictures of hats I liked, but couldn’t find a pattern.  I ended up remaking the Chappy Newsboy Cap with same alterations.  Instead of single crocheting in the front and back loops, I single crocheted in both loops to give a smoother texture.  I crocheted the hat in white with a red brim and embroidered baseball stitching over the white.  It turned out super cute!

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Difficulty:  Easy

Time Required:  2 Movies

Overall Experience:  Good

Lacey Summer Baby Cap

As mentioned in my previous post, I have a lot of friends who have had babies lately.  Next up:  the Halas.  The Halas have an awesome adoption story that I would not do justice.  Check out the story on their blog.  I simply made a hat for their beautiful baby girl, Evie.

I recently purchased a new book, Luxury Yarn One-Skein Wonders, and wanted to make something out of it.  I combined Alpaca and Silk Baby Cap with the flower from Angora Baby Bunny Cap.  I also added some pearl details to the flower.  It turned out so precious!

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Difficulty:  Moderate

Time Required:  One movie

Overall Experience:  Excellent

 

Finished Nachtfalter and Misadventures

Behind, behind, behind…

Due to work vamping up right before my dissertation defense, I got way behind on my summer knit-a-long project. The website said I had until Monday, July 22 to post my finished picture. I took that to mean that I could post a picture on July 22, but I wasn’t sure. I knitted all day on Sunday, July 21, but at 11 pm I was worn out. I had all but three rows of knitting finished, but I still needed to bind off, sew up the sides, and tuck in all of my ends. On July 22 I was disappointed to find out that I had to submit my picture before July 22 to be eligible for prizes. I was still planning to finish my sweater on July 22; however…

The cat peed on my wedding dress

I picked up my dress about two weeks ago. My fiance has two extra closets with basically no clothing in them. I chose the taller closet, hung my plastic enclosed dress in it, and shut the stiff-hinged accordion-style doors. My fiance has a cat. Somehow she managed to get the door open and pee on the dress. I don’t have a clue how she got the door open. It’s difficult for me to open. Most of the pee was caught by the plastic bag, but some of it seeped through. There were only a couple of spots of yellow, but the dress reeked of cat pee. I spent all of Monday evening trying to get the smell and yellow out. I did both successfully. Yay! Needless to say, the cat is in trouble.

Kittyface and Kittyface

Finishing the sweater

I didn’t finish the sweater until Tuesday night. I wore it to work today (Wednesday). It turned out really cute! My colleagues couldn’t believe that I actually made it.

Nachtfalter Front

Nachtfalter Back

Pattern Tips

The pattern can be purchased at Holla Knits (the store/blog that hosted the knit-a-long).

Usually I post tips and hints for things that I make, but I basically made this pattern as written. I lot of other people were making this sweater at the same time, so they posted tips about what they were doing. You may find these resources helpful.

  • Stefanie (the pattern author) gave some helpful tips for the butterfly lace on her blog
  • I used a crocheted seam on the sides of the sweater, already described here
  • There is a Ravelry discussion that talks all about the project here
  • A lot of people ran out of yarn because the quantities in the pattern were a little off. I think that the pattern has been remedied, but I’m not sure.

Difficulty: Moderate to Difficult

The lace was difficult if you have never knitted lace before.

Time Required: ~50 movies

Overall Experience: Good

This was really fun to knit, and I love how it turned out!

Nachtfalter Summer Knit-a-Long Week 6 Progress

Well… I should have had the sweater finished by today, but we were all graciously given another week.  I’ve knit 5/16 of the back lace repeats in the last two days.  Hopefully I can finish by next Sunday!  I love how it is turning out.

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Nachtfalter Front

Nachtfalter Summer Knit-a-Long–Finished Front

I have been furiously finishing my dissertation this week, which resulted in no knitting from Sunday through Thursday.  I finally finished the front of my summer sweater this morning, almost two weeks late.  I’m really pleased with the way that it looks.  I wanted to post a quick picture of it pinned to my form.  Now I need to address those wedding invitations.  I picked up my wedding dress this morning.  Exciting!  Only 85 days until I walk down the aisle!

Nachtfalter Front

Nachtfalter Summer Knit-a-Long Week 5 Progress

So…  I’m pretty much behind on everything.  I’m behind on my dissertation writing goal.  The wedding invitations should have gone out on July 5 and won’t be going out until after I get my dissertation done.  I’m way behind on my summer knit-a-long project.  At this point I should have 16 lace repeats finished for the front of the sweater and 8 on the back.  I have 15 total.  The good news is that Katie and Allison, who are in charge of the knit-a-long, have decided to give us an extra week to finish.  That should be perfect.  I’m almost exactly one week behind at this point.  See my progress below.

Week 5

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Nachtfalter Summer Knit-a-Long Week 4 Progress

I am way behind on this project.  I’m currently finishing up my PhD and things have been crazy the last two weeks.  I haven’t had much time to knit.  I have 9 of the 16 lace repeats I was supposed to have done finished.  Hopefully I have time to start catching up this week!

KAL Week 4

This is what the finished product should look like.

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Nachtfalter Summer Knit-a-Long–Week 1 Progress

As I wrote previously, I am participating a summer knit-a-long.  Each Monday during the knit-a-long, Holla Knits will post the weekly goal.  This week’s goal was to cast on and knit half of the bottom ribbing.  The bottom ribbing is simple, but the twists make it interesting.  There is a forum on Ravelry where participants can discuss progress and challenges.  I’m having so much fun knitting with other people!  Below you can see my progress thus far as well as what the finished product should look like.

KAL Week 1

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(Ratings based on this week’s work only.)

Difficulty:  Easy

Time Required:  3 Movies

Overall Experience:  Good

(I tend to get a little bored on very repetitive patterns.  I’ll enjoy the lace much more once I get there.)