Superquick Babysocks

Needed a babyjacket-break. Got a tip on a pair of super fast babysocks, so thought my son could use some scrap-yarn babysocks/booties. The pattern is here: Superquick babysocks
They were indeed fast. Will probably make more of these to kill off more Colinette Skye scraps. This is Colinette Skye colorway Popsicle:

Inbetween FO's - Calculations-low

Goodness - I KNEW I shouldnt have done that! I started calculating - and the results are demotivating at best..
Ok - I timed how long it took me to knit 1 cm on the fingering weight yarn babyjacket that I am working on. It took me 20 minutes. Then I started calculating. I already knit 18 cms of it - meaning so far it has taken me around 6 hours at the very least - not counting the time it took me to knit the first 10 cm sample - then realise my gauge was off - then frogging the lot and starting over. Then casting on the sleeve - then realising I cast on the wrong number of sts and frogging again and casting on again. - But well - all that is behind me. The scary path is the one in front of me.
I still have roughly 90 cms left to knit (it is knit from front to sleeve - then over the back - the other sleeve and then to the other front) - meaning I have around 30 hours of knitting still left to do on that jacket. - And that is concentrated knitting - that is not halfhearted knitting while watching telly or chit-chatting or whatever..
So if I knit one hour a day - just on that project - it will take me a month to finish. If I knit - concentrated knitting - 3 hours a day on that project - then it will still take me 10 days - to finish..
Oh and for the curious - then I also calculated that each centimeter consists of around 500 stitches. That means I already knit around 9000 stitches. I still have around 45000 stitches left to knit - and the entire jacket will consist of approximately 54000 stitches..
Can I get dizzy now?

The Alpaca babyrib (the 2nd) is done!

So I admit that fingerprotector was pretty silly.. Sorry about that..
Now I finally have something real to show. I finished the ribbed alpaca babytop. It took me around a week altogether. Here it is - two different pics. Mostly because my son is so darned cute that he deserves an extra pic - but also because the first pic shows the color best, while the second shows the entire top without cutting off the buttom:


And then - well I cant give you the pattern or even a link to it as it is copyrightprotected and not available in English. (well hardly even available online.. sigh..) - but I can give you a detailed pic of the sleeve detail - as well as mention that it is knit flat from the top down until after the sleeve stitches are bound off, then the front and back are knit separate until after the raglan increases - then the rest is knit in the round.

Oh - and the yarn - gotta talk about the yarn. It is Drops Alpaca in color 7323 (it looks blue in that last pic but the first picture shows the color better - it is actually a blend of light and darker dusty green fibres. Lovely wool - available in some really sweet colors. They also have a huge number of patterns available for this wool on their website www.garnstudio.com - free even :D

New "unvention" - a balloon fingerprotector

Yeah - I know - this is silly. But my index got so sore from touching the tip of the needle and from moving and holding the yarn all the time. I tried a piece of band-aid but it kept sticking to the yarn and eventually when i took it off my fingers were filled with yucky sticky stuff that I couldnt wash off. So here it is - the amazing BALLOON FINGERPROTECTOR!
Well actually it is just the tip of a "long" balloon that I cut off - but it works :) Hehe - I wonder if the stash game awards bonuspoints for silly ideas.. Now that I cant seem to knit fast enough to keep up with everyone else..

The stashgame has started - and some thoughts about patterns..

Most of my planned stashgame projects are on the needles and I would like to finish at least some of them before I cast on new stuff.
I am working mainly on two projects right now - a ribbed alpaca babytop and a babyjacket in OPAL. I think a couple of pics are appropriate. Here is my alpaca babytop - using the Baby i Rib pattern from Designclub.dk -a very weird name as they dont even have a website- their patterns are practically impossible to come by. They are only sold by a few shops - and even fewer webshops. And only in a paper version - and only if you buy yarn at the same time - and only in Danish.. Sigh - some people just dont want to make money. No wonder some people feel tempted to violate the copyright law and ask a friend for a copy. Not saying it is a good thing to do - only saying it is very tempting when it takes so much effort and so much money to get hold of the original pattern.. -
Oh - sorry about that.. I was going to show the top I am working on.. here it is:

The second thing I am working on at the moment is a babyjacket from a Drops pattern available (free) here: Drops Babyjacket
Here it is:


As you see I have only knit a few centimeters yet - so still a looong way to go - especially considering it is knit on needles 2,5 mm. - Dont know why but recently I find that I really like working on these small needles. I hate the extra time it takes, but I love the feel of the small needles and the non-bulky look and feel.. Also for babythings it seems more appropriate to use the thinner yarn. Enough - the baby is asleep so I better grab some needles..

Entering stash game - and AN FO!!!

Can you even believe it - I made an FO! I am mighty proud of myself.. I used the recently homedyed yarn to knit my son a pair of Wondershorts to go on top of his cloth diapers. I admit that I had some problems getting the diamondshaped crotch to look even, but I really like the 3-dimensional way it is shaped. Apart from that an easy knit. I plan to make my daughter some too and my oldest son liked them so much that he wants some now too.. We'll see when I ever get around to it..
Anyway - here they are - the finished and homedyed Wondershorties. They are quite big on my baby but he will grow to fit..

My sons - the youngest wearing his new Wondershorties/capris

And then there is the stash game. I entered a game where I am supposed to use up as much as possible from my yarn stash within the next 6 weeks - starting tomorrow. So come and cheer - I really need to finish up some of those UFOs..