zigzagstitch

I knit mostly for myself and my immediate family. The kids get sweaters, my mother-in-law gets socks, other family get hats…sometimes. Maybe it’s selfish, but considering that much of what I knit is for my own patterns, I call it business.

But when my Aunt asked me to knit a sweater for a bear, I just could not say no. People rarely ask me to knit things for them* so I was pretty excited about it. My Aunt made the bear herself (a long time ago it seems, since I had to make some repairs to it) and she wanted to give it to her first great grandbaby, with a personalized sweater.

*Except for the random acquaintance who wants a hat but has absolutely no idea what goes into knitting a hat. You don’t know how many people from my hometown have asked me to knit them a Buffalo Bills hat!  I usually either quote them the fair price of $300 or show them this picture.

Anyway. I knit a vest for a bear!

The name on his belly is “paxtyn”. How cute is that name? I briefly considered doing a proper sweater, but the shape of the bear’s arms seemed better suited to a vest.

I spent a lot of time trying to come up with the design. At first I thought I’d do something stripety in worsted weight yarn, but I thought the vest would be better out of a thinner yarn. I ended up using Ultra Alpaca Light.

There were, ahem, gauge issues. After knitting the “paxtyn” section I took the knitting off the needle and realized it was about 5 inches too wide. Although I thought I’d avoid the use of a steek for such a small sweater, I reinforced the knitting and cut out the extra fabric. That made for some extra finishing work, but I’m really, really pleased with how it came out.

Knitting a vest for a bear for my first cousin twice removed was pretty fun, I’ll have to say. The knitting was quick and the design of it stretched my brain just a little. That’s always good, right? Figuring out all the little parts to make it look just so. I also thought about the new baby and his mom a lot, and that, I realize, is the fun of knitting for others.

I sure hope they love having the old bear and its new vest. I sure loved making it.

I know from experience that knitters take fewer classes at their lys’s during the hot summer months. But my friend Cindy, being the talented and inspiring knitting instructor that she is, continues with her classes all summer long!

Cindy asked me to be a guest instructor at one of her classes to teach her students about…steeking! Of course I said yes, and I knit up my own pulse warmer pattern – Amazonium – which was conceived especially for teaching knitters the art of the crocheted steek.

Both pulse warmers are knit at the same time, in the round, with two steeks that are cut open after the knitting and reinforcing. Then you finish the edges and put on buttons.

After using my sample to demonstrate the crochet reinforcement during class, I knew I had to finish the pair, so I sat down today to snap some pictures and knit the remaining edgings.

I think the most interesting thing about steeking is that it takes careful prep work and careful finishing. There are lots of ends created during the process, and you need to spend some quality time with your knitting to make it look its best. The easiest part, in my opinion, is the cutting part.

Of course, the students could not believe they were taking a pair of scissors to their projects. It was funny. I love that. Showing them something new. Holding their hands a bit. Making them suck it up. Love that.

Maybe they’re all going to be crazypants steekers now. You never know.

After the class was over, I was browsing the buttons and found these cute little orange ones for $1.35 and bought them. Of course, I only bought the three, totally brain-farting because I actually need SIX. Can I blame the wool fumes?

My Ravelry project page for these little guys currently shows I am 95% done. Three little buttons to sew on (Cindy is a doll and will hand deliver them to me!) and a quick bath and they’ll be ready for…winter. Heh.

These pulse warmers are a really quick little project. If you’ve never steeked before, what are you waiting for? The pattern is available for $6 as an instant download. You could be steeking in a few hours!

Amazonium: steeked pulse warmers
more info here, on Ravelry, or click the button below

The pompom hat from yesterday’s post was a huge hit!

(That’s Denise, the birthday girl.)

She loved it, as we all knew she would. We had a wonderful dinner last night at the Green Valley Grill in Greensboro. Very fancy and delicious!  We were finally able to give Denise the pompom hat, and I’m sure she was surprised and delighted.

We went to the bathroom together (how silly!) for pictures.

I added the pattern to Ravelry and listed my project here.

When Denise started planning her birthday celebration, she decided that she wanted a pink flamingo, and she decided that she wanted us to make it for her. I think that’s how it went anyway. She didn’t know we had already planned the pompom hat, but we agreed to make the flamingo for her. Actually, Lisa did all of the knitting of the flamingo. When I got it, everything was knitted and I just had to sew it up, felt it, stuff it, and pose it for pictures.

The pattern that Lisa used is the Flamingo Beach Party from Fiber Trends. We used Cascade 220 and some eyelash yarn.

I don’t think the flamingo has a name yet — suggestions are welcome.  Maybe something like “Phil the Flamingo.” Has a nice ring.

Celebrating with friends at a fancy dinner was wonderful, but I’m really looking forward to the Girls Only yarn crawl!  More hi jinks to come from the Fifty is Nifty Birthday Tour 2010!