Apples and knitting (not at the same time)

So today I and Alex

And Kari and Jack


went apple-picking, which meant going to a farm with a tractor and animals


and trees, and apple cider donuts, all things I've seen many times before, but it is still lovely to do these things with little ones who haven't done them before, and watching them experience these things as interesting and beautiful and boring and exasperating and fascinating for the first time.

In knitting news, I finished a pair of socks for my friend Jane. This is a terrible picture, but at least it functions as proof that they are finished.


Pattern: Undulating Rib socks from Favorite Socks (Interweave Press), Ann Budd, designer.
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn, one skein easily made the two socks, with quite a bit left over. Size 1 needles, which is smaller than Ann Budd calls for, but I knit loosely. I've lost the tag or I'd tell you the colorway. It really is a wonderful, squishy yarn. Jane picked out the yarn for herself, since it has the pinks and purples and blues she loves all mixed up. She also picked out the pattern. I do hope she loves the socks!

I really didn't change anything in the pattern, except to shorten the foot a bit because Jane has really tiny feet. Maybe she will put them on and take pictures, so I can post some pics of what the socks really look like. The pattern of the undulating ribs is really so pretty.

In other knitting news, I have started a baby blanket for a friend who is having a baby. Somehow most of my knitting is for babies these days. I knit some of this yarn into most of a Baby Albert jacket (from The Knitting Experience: Book 1: The Knit Stitch by Sally Melville) before I finally took a hard look at my work and realized that this yarn looked terrible as a Baby Albert Jacket. It wanted to be something else.

So I unknit it and spooled it back into balls (thanks again, Mom, for the really handy ball-winder!) And then I decided to try a mitred square blanket and I am very happy with how it is turning out, see my first few squares below:


I'm making up the pattern as I go along, basing it on patterns I've read for mitred squares in on people's blogs lately. Mom, you ought to try this pattern for making dishclothes--its really simple. The yarn I am using is from Berocco, its called "Love it", and its a cotton/acrylic/poly blend. It really is pretty nice--it has some stretch, and it has a soft but substantial hand knit up. I think it will make a lovely little baby blanket.

Who's this baby?

Why, it's Jack Baby, of course, wearing the sweater I belatedly presented him with.


Its a mite big at the moment. But would you believe its supposed to fit a one-year old? Give Jack a couple of months more and it will fit him just fine. As Dan and Kari reported on their blog, the pediatrician officially labeled him a "tank". He's in the 90th percentile for height and weight for babies of his age (two months).

The pattern is from Debbie Bliss, the Cable and Rib Sweater from The Baby Knits Book. I decided to knit it out of Tahki Cotton Classic instead of the recommended DB yarn. I had several balls each of these different colors of blue, so since I didn't have enough of one color to knit the whole sweater out of it, I made the sweater out of both colors. I also added red stripes around the hood and sleeve edges. I think it came out beautifully.

I enjoyed the pattern, which was fairly simple, though I made some adjustments. The biggest change I made was knitting the sleeves out of plain 2x2 ribs rather than continuing the cable-and-rib pattern in the sleeves as Ms. Bliss recommends. I found that when I used the cables, the sleeves came out too narrow for some reason, even though I got gauge and the rest of the sweater turned out fine. Maybe I should have checked for errata, I dunno. I never do that. Its all part of my growth as a knitter, I suppose.


Above: all the men of the Coy-Norton household.

ps. I uploaded summer pictures, including Alex's third birthday, to my flickr site. Click here to see them.

My upcoming birthday

I was blessed to be born in October. Somewhere in the first third of October. And there is a festival of knitting, wool, and all things sheepy held in Rhinebeck NY during the last third of October. I figure that's close enough to my birthday for me to say I want to go to the NYS Sheep and Wool festival to celebrate my birthday. If you want more information about the festival go here.

Due to a sad event that happened on my birthday a few years ago, its been a long time since I've celebrated my birthday with anybody other than a few family. I haven't felt like it. So this is a big deal.

If you would like to go with me on Saturday the 20th of October, to feel lots of homespun and handdyed yarn and hunt for glimpses of famous bloggers, let me know.