Hasta La Vista

Well, the Pumpkin Family is taking off for two weeks for some much-needed R&R. We will be (hopefully) sunning and splashing, and definitely knitting. We'll be roughing it, there will be no internet access, so there will be no blog updates, or blog-reading - gasp! How will I survive?

I'm packing Rogue, the Aran Braid Socks, and some more sock yarn to start another pair when they are done, so hopefully will have some good knitting content when I return on or about the 4th of July. Happy Knitting, everyone!

I Couldn't Resist

So I keep "wipping" out all these FOs that I never even put on my WIP sidebar. One of the great things about all the knit-blogs out there is that I often see variation on pieces that pull me a bit out of my comfort zone to knit something I would otherwise say "eh" to. Case in point...Glampyre's MiniSweater....I would never have chosen to knit this had I not seen several versions out there that made me say, hey I actually might wear that. The version out there in blogland that inspired me to knit this was Tami over at BlueRoseKnits. She made this take on it and this one too - both quite lovely.

I was going to make it long like Tami did, I even had a nice little trellis lace pattern picked out, but when I tried it on, I said, hey, this is pretty loose already (yes, I gave up meticulous knitting for this one and never swatched) and while my tummy is certainly a far cry away from flat since birthing the PumpkinBoy, I think (hope) I can still pull this off. I am pleased with it and think I'll be sporting it frequently this summer (it already made the trip to work today).


mini sweater

Project Specs:
Pattern: Glampyre MiniSweater
Yarn: Lionbrand Cotton Easy, color Candy Blue, just a hair over 2 skeins
Needles: denise #9
Notes/Mods: added a couple double increase rows after raglan shaping to make it a little looser, knit sleeves in the round

So, I am back to my relative project monagamy of Rogue and the last bit of instep on the Aran Braid socks. I really missed knitting on Rogue while I took these little side roads of gift and minisweater knitting - it has been a pleasure to reacquaint myself with it.

knitting "zines"

First - is the term zines still in use, or am I a tool for using that phrase? I guess I don't care, as long as you know to what I am referring. The three main ones I am aware of are Knitty, MagKnits and Spun. (if there are others, let me know)

As far as I am concered they are all great - free articles, free patterns, what more could one ask for? You don't HAVE to knit the patterns you see that you don't like, you don't even have to go check them out if you know you consistently do not dig what you see there. All of them have always had at least one pattern that I have found appealing in each issue. That is up until now. Go check out the latest version of Spun. They had a VERY promising 1st edition back in the spring - with a nice tank, and a couple other interesting little projects. This issue....not so much.

Now, I've seen Knitty catch a lot of flack in certain areas of the blogosphere for being a little too trendy/over-the-top/useless etc. And I would agree that for me many of their designs fall into that category - after all, I'm a 30-something-relatively-new-mom-who-spends-her-non-work
-time-chasing-a-grahm-cracker-paste-encrusted-toddler (they do have a check box for that on the census form, did you know?), so I'm not going to spend my valuable knitting time working on something like a Cleaves - that would be silly. (and in all honesty, I have never actually been even remotely up on the trends, so even if I were still a low-digit-childless-20-something, I wouldn't be up for making/wearing one of those)

So, why hasn't Spun caught any such flack for these or this? These go way past any silliness that I've seen in knitty, don't you think? I am generally not a snarky person by nature. Well, OK I am, but I like to pretend not to be, so I don't like to allow my "blog-face" to get snarky. However, if any pattern I have ever seen in one of these places has merited snarkiness its got to be one of those.

There - the mask is off, behold my snarky self in all its glory! Am I the only one who thinks these are just plain ridiculous - the hotpants, who needs knitted short-shorts, and rainbow ones to boot? And the hair band - do we really need a pattern for that? Come on gals I think we can manage that one on our own.

Thanks for letting me get my snark on. Your mild-mannered PumpkinMama will be back soon.

The Other Birthday FO

So, the other Mom's birthday FO is a table runner that looks like this:

Project Specs:
Pattern: Table Runner from Simple Knits for Sophisticated Knitting
by Barbara Albright (a mothers day gift to me from Pumpkin Boy)
Yarn: Reynolds Gypsy, color 74
Needles: #9 denise

Not a terribly exciting knit, but it came out nicely and hopefully will look lovely on Mom's new dining table, in her new dining room, in her new RETIREMENT house! My mom retired the day after her birthday, she and my Dad (who turned slacker a couple years back) are now livin' it up and hopefully never have to work again - way to go guys! I am beyond thrilled for them, as they both worked so hard to give us kiddos a great upbringing. I gave them much more grief when I was young than a daughter should be allowed to give parents, so they deserve the rest!

Long-Ago FO

One week without a post, that might be a record for me. Busy weekend, what with falling trees and travel then catching up at work from missing virtually all last week as the Pumpkin Boy had been sick.

Anyway, despite barely knitting a stich for the past week, I do have some knitting content for you. Below is a Nantasket Basket (a la Susan) that I made a month ago for my mother's birthday which was celebrated this past weekend.



Pattern: Nantasket Basket
Yarn: Araucania Nature Wool
Needles: #10.5(dpns and circs)
Notes: This is a great pattern - simple and well thought out and it has endless possibilities for adaptation and its a very quick knit.

The supersecret project was also part of Mom's gift, but due to obstacles mentioned in my opening paragraph, it was gifted still on the needles and taken back for completion. It no longer needs to remain supersecret, but I will wait to post about it when its done.

Happy warm weather to all of us long-suffering New Englanders - I cannot wait to soak up more of this sunshine - wheeeee!