brights

I couldn't resist knitting some toys for Milo. My favorite is Celestine Sox, by Norah Gaughan, knit out of Knitpicks Chroma. It is a deceptively simple knit, and great for babies. I put a cage and bell cat toy in the middle, for some jingle.

before:




and after:




I also knit Elijah, by Ysolda Teague. I confess that I omitted his eyes because I just couldn't figure out how to embroider them properly on a stuffed piece. Let's just make believe I decided to leave them out to allow for more scope of the imagination when Milo plats with him!





Not a toy, but also adorable, is Pepita by Martina Behm, knit out of Wollmeise 100% merino in the Sonne colorway.







I love this jumper, and wish I could make more for him in larger sizes. But that won't happen, given that this took close to 600 yards of fingering weight yarn. I did two modifications to the pattern. I left out the feet and extended the ribbing, in part because I didn't have enough yarn, and in part because it extends the wearability of the garment as he grows taller. I highly recommend this knit for babies. Consider this instead of a blanket, if you want to make a unique gift.


Unrelated to baby knitting, I recently received a review copy of Clara Parkes' book The Knitter's Book Of Socks. Even though I did receive it for free from the publisher, it was a book I knew I would have bought for myself, and I'd like to think that my positive review is not colored by this.

Like her other "Knitter's Book Of..." books, this is a complete gem. It's such a pleasure to have a hefty hardcover, jacketed book in my hands. I regret that I can't do a full run-down of the contents, as I've read it in stolen moments between tending to the baby, and am now trapped under a sleeping baby, out of reach of the book. I did find it as comprehensive and information packed as her other books. My only complaint is that, from experience, I disagree with her claim that socks should have negative ease in length. (I agree about width.) In fact, because negative ease in width pulls the fabric shorter, I have to knit my socks longer than my foot, not shorter, to achieve a proper fit when worn. Otherwise they're just too short. I'm truly curious what other people think of this. How long do you knit your socks in relation to your feet, and does it work?

I think the patterns in this book are even better than in her other two books. There is a range of styles and techniques, and almost every pattern was immediately aesthetically appealing to me. In fact, I am tempted to try to knit my way through the book. It's something I've been wanting to do with a book for a while, and this is probable the one I'll choose. And I plan to try to be as faithful to the patterns as possible, because I want to go outside of my comfort zone, learn new things, and give a second or third try to techniques that I might have tried and dismissed earlier. My knitting time is severely limited, so what might have once been a manageable yearlong project will take much longer, and will not even start immediately. And I want to knit through some stash before buying yarn for this. But does anyone want to join me? Think of it as the loosest knitalong possible. Heck, even choose a different book for your knit-through! I just like the idea of this type of challenge.