Tag Archives: Euro Baby Maypole

Apr1

FO: Maypole baby sweater

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This pattern is Nash’s Garter-Stitch Baby Sweater which is a pattern in a book, One More Skein. The first time I made it I followed the pattern. This time I did a quickie gauge estimate and cast on fewer stitches because of the bulkier yarn, and made it as a vest. The yarn is Euro Baby Maypole, and I had two skeins from my holiday in the UK last year. I made a random off-the-cuff knitted hat and only then decided to make the vest, so I wasn’t sure whether I’d have enough yarn.

I was careful to keep my tails short and even cast off a stitch each side of the back section after knitting the two fronts. With self-striping yarn, you sometimes have to wind off part of the skein to get the colours to flow correctly. I managed to do that, though the two fronts don’t match!

Well, I won the game of Yarn Chicken with this one. See that tiny ball in the photo below? That’s how much I had left from two skeins after finishing the hat and sweater. Eeek!

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I love the neat fastening – one tab pulls through the other and they button down. And the buttons are from my stash.

Last night, I also made progress on the poncho, joining the two sections together. I shall have to get photos tomorrow in the daylight.

I made the most delightful discovery yesterday, looking through what was available on Netflix. Outlander! Woo hoo! Diana Gabaldon fans will know what I’m talking about. We don’t have TV/cable/satellite and I thought I’d never get to see it. Well, I burned through the first three (hour long) episodes last night. I was a member of an Outlander group on Ravelry for a while and finally I can see what they were all talking about. And all the knits that they were talking about too!

Enjoy your weekend!

 

 

 

Mar26

So relaxed!

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Day 4 of a block of five consecutive days off between shifts. I don’t know what I did to deserve that, but I’m loving it.

Today I did one of my favourite things, which was tidy up my craft room as I had dumped yarn all over the place. I also updated my stash pages on Ravelry. I have acquired extra skeins from a couple of friends who were clearing out either their own stuff or someone else’s. There were some knitted pieces, two of which I darned in the ends on and will donate to the SPCA and the other two I unravelled.

Tai Chi Man and I had a pleasant walk along the waterfront this afternoon. It was raining but we had our new Costco waterproof jackets on so we were comfortable. Treated ourselves to some good tea from our favourite tea shop (and a cookie – oops!).

Friday I took myself off to the ski hill for some snowboarding on my own. I’ve never done that before but the boys weren’t bothered so I went. The drive started out rainy and ended up snowy. The road between the highway and the resort is about 20km and the second part was very slushy and slippery. Bit of zigzagging and tire spinning going on, and when I parked in the parking lot I just knew that I was going to have trouble getting out again, winter tires notwithstanding.

I had a free lift pass so that was great, but I had to rent a board and boots as usual. I have my own helmet (that’s saved me from many a potential concussion)! I did a couple of runs – first one always feels like I’ve forgotten everything. Second one was better. Snow was quite soft and deep in places and caught the board a fair few times. Got to the top of the quad chair and was pushing my way to the spot to anchor my right foot back in when someone asked me if I’d lost a binding. Oh great, the ankle binding had come off as a screw had come out and got lost in the snow. Told the lift guy who radioed down. Not sure why it took so long, but had to wait over half an hour before a snowmobile appeared to take me down the hill. I did get to warm up inside the hut at the top of the chairlift and chat to lift guy for a while.

The snowmobile guy was a fellow Brit and very nice and I enjoyed my ride down the mountain back to the village centre. Never been on a skidoo before, but it’s a lot of fun. Asked the girl at the rental place if there was any chance of a refund as had lost 50 minutes of boarding time out of my limited afternoon session and was told yes, and I could still get my binding fixed and do more runs first if I wanted. Did a couple more runs and then got a FULL refund (would have been satisfied with half) so was very chuffed!

As anticipated, car was bogged down in snow in parking lot, tires were spinning and I was going nowhere. Nice young man appeared in front of my car and pushed a few times while I was attempting to reverse and got me out. Drive back to highway was again rather hairy – nearly sideswiped a van coming the other way as I went around a bend. A pretty eventful day that could have turned out badly but thankfully all I had were a few sore muscles the next day.

And finally after all that blabbing I can show you a bit of yarn…

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Sorry for the fuzzy nighttime shot – I was very limited in what I could do as the iPad is plugged into the laptop, syncing and backing up. I decided to carry on with this baby cardi and trust that I will have enough yarn. Cross fingers! One front done.

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This is a finished gift. I bought some handmade soaps at the indoor farmers and crafters market yesterday and decided to give one to a friend. The mesh bag is Tunisian crochet, the washcloth just a basic granny square. The yarn is Stylecraft Classique Cotton DK.

The poncho has been neglected but not forgotten, as I have the skeins of Stylecraft Special DK lined up in front of the coffee table so I know which order to use them in. Thank goodness we don’t have any small children or curious pets in this house.

And finally, I almost forgot, the caterpillar set (book, blanket, cocoon and hat) which I mailed off to the UK weeks ago has arrived safely and the new parents-to-be love it. Yay!

I hope your weekend was wonderful. Have a peaceful and productive week and I’ll talk to you again soon.

Mar16

WIP: Nash’s Sweater

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Hello crafty peeps

I didn’t want to leave you in the lurch so despite spending quite a chunk of time posting to my other site today (a chunk of time that was an unexpected gift because work was quiet today and I was asked if I wanted to go home early) I thought I’d update you on the current knitting project.

First I’d like to show you the cute project I made from this pattern before. It’s a really sweet design with the simple closure at the front. After I made the hat last week, I hoped I’d have enough of the Euro Baby Maypole yarn to make a matching vest using this pattern. (Both of those links are to my Ravelry project pages.)

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I think we can all see that this is a game of yarn chicken right here. I have used nearly a whole ball and I’m not even up to the armpits. The partial on the left is what’s left over from the hat. What are the odds that I’ll actually finish this vest before the yarn runs out?

I just thought – if I really do need more, I could go back to that yarn shop in May and get some more. Heck, I’ll be going there anyway. Who can resist a yarn shop when on holiday, eh! It won’t be the same dye lot, but that probably doesn’t matter, considering the self-striping nature of this yarn.

Potential problem solved! In fact, I’ll email my sister and ask her what the name of the shop is. Maybe she will even be willing to take a drive over there to see if they still stock it. It’s a small island, it’s not far.

Good night all, and talk to you again soon.

 

Mar10

FO: Maypole Hat

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Well, WordPress is trying to confuse me. They’ve done some sort of update or rehash of their site and now all the tools that were on the left are on the right. Sometimes  I feel like saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”

Anyhoo, here’s the hat that was a WIP last time I posted. The diameter is about 16 inches, which I think is probably a 6 month old baby size. I still have part of one skein left plus a second, so it would be nice to make something else to match. I just haven’t decided what yet. I did a Ravelry search and didn’t come up with anything, except for one possibility, and it’s a little sweater I’ve made before from a library book, so I have placed a hold on it again. It’s Nash’s sweater and I could make it with or without the sleeves.

As I said before, this is Euro Baby Maypole, 100% polyester, and just in the knitting of the hat it’s already gone a little fuzzy so I don’t know how durable it is. Pretty colours, though. The ribbing was done with 5mm needles, and the stockinette with 5.5mm.

This was our view this morning –

The neighbour was out clearing snow off her car. Mine lives under our carport, not that I had to drive anywhere today anyway.

Yup, it snowed all day yesterday while I was at work (and I had to brush three inches of snow off the car so that I could see to drive home) and it was snowing this morning when I got up too. It didn’t last, though – by dinnertime, the sun had melted off quite a bit of it.

I had one of those lovely days today when my kitchen diary was completely blank  – no work, no appointments, no outside commitments – so I had a very sedentary morning (sorry, Fitbit)! This afternoon, though, I made up for it, doing multiple loads of laundry, cleaning bathrooms, the kitchen, the front entryway, and cooking scalloped potatoes, nut roast and date squares for dinner. Now that I have work some days, I appreciate the days when I’m home and can make more of an effort in putting a decent meal together.

Tonight, Tai Chi Man fancied a change of scene so booked us a couple of tickets to go to the movies. We are going to see The Ballerina, an animated movie which I’m sure will be cute and funny. My husband isn’t one for loud and violent films.

I hope Spring is springing in your part of the world. No sign of it here yet but we are supposed to see double digits (Celsius) next week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mar7

FO: psychedelic hat, WIP: Maypole hat

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Hello everyone. How is it in your corner of the world? We are still entrenched in winter here. We had more fresh snow today. Everyone else is complaining that winter is going on too long but I’m happy as I want to go snowboarding a few more times before the end of the season.

This is the state of my car…

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I did take it through a carwash a month ago, but since then it’s worked hard. Last Saturday ds2 and I headed off to the nearest ski resort for some belated boarding time. If you look carefully, those are icicles hanging off the bottom of my car. The winter wheels are on, which aren’t as sexy as the summer ones with the nice hubcaps. I was certainly grateful for good tires on Saturday, as a very impatient person passed us on a bendy road and absolutely covered my windshield with slush. It only took a second to activate the brakes and wipers, but a moment later and I would have crashed into the back of Mr Impatient as he had to stop for the car in front to turn left. Too close for comfort!

I am currently pro-croche-nating (procrastinating with my crocheted sweater) which means there are subconscious doubts about it. So I made this super bulky hat for some quick Finished Object satisfaction (I may remove the pompom, it takes it too far over the top for my liking).

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Here’s the link to my Ravelry project page if you want more specs.

And there’s another hat in the works. A knitted one, if you can believe it. I was feeling the itch to knit something, and this Euro Baby Maypole yarn had been sitting in my stash since my UK holiday last summer. It’s 100% polyester, and an interesting texture – sort of unspun and with a thread twisted around it.

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The orange, white and blue feels nautical to me. I cast on a random amount of stitches – whatever the tail of the long tail cast on made – but making sure it was an even number so that the 1 x 1 rib worked out. The ribbing was done with US8 (5mm) needle tips on my Knitpicks interchangeables, and the stockinette is being knitted with US9 (5.5mm) tips. I’m getting a gauge of about 4 stitches to the inch, which for a bulky yarn is quite tight, but I like the texture.  I have no specific recipient in mind for this hat. I feel like it is more boy-ish than girl-ish. What do you think?

My Fitbit is telling me that I haven’t even hit 5000 steps today so I should get out for a walk as my target is 10,000 per day. So I’d better sign off here. Talk to you again soon.