On & Off the Needles

Summer is the best possible time for knitting, even if you are lugging around a heavy, wool sweater. Vacations make is possible to spend lots of time knitting on planes, in cars, and relaxing in campgrounds. I've got several projects "on the needles" right now, and it is nice to switch between them, when I'm tired of looking at the color or the knitting has become monotonous.

I've just cast on The "Junonia" Skirt.  A beautiful design by Kerin Demeler-Laurence.  It is knit of KnitPicks CotLin.  A beautiful combination for summer weather.  You'll note from the pattern that the bottom of the skirt has a beautiful, lacy ruffle.

However, it is knit from the top-down, so I am currently knitting on the monotonous part. I decided to use a drawstring in the waist, rather than elastic, so I'll be knitting some yardage of I-Chord. Boredom has pushed me to start on a new design of my own.

This is the beginnings of "Hayden".  It will be a soft, little cardigan with matching bonnet.  This is the yoke of the cardigan, which will ultimately be worn and modelled by my new little grand-daughter.  She is growing so fast, and will need something warm when Fall comes.

I call this stitch a "peco cable", because it isn't actually a cable and because each stitch has a little hole peeking through the middle.  This pictures isn't a very good representation of the stitch, but when it is blocked out, the eyelets show up better.  This design is coming along quickly, and should be ready to publish by my next post.

You may remember this "practical baby bib", one of the free patterns I have published on ravelry.com.  Lots of babies have been born around me this summer, so I thought I had best get busy and knit up a few new bibs as gifts.

This was the first of 14 bibs I made for gifts. I usually always make the bibs in white, because the cotton yarn has such a tendancy to fade in the wash, and because bibs are always stained. White has always just seemed the practical solution. But, my daughter said her white ones never needed to be bleached and that all food always washed out easily.

So I decided to try some bright colors this time.  I also decided to knit them all in "garter stitch".  They turned out so cute!  I know they wll still fade, but if the stains wash out easily, who cares?  Five colors were used:  pink, yellow, orange, aqua and lavender.  Each gift contained 3 bibs of various colors.  Everyone seemed to just love them.

Hayden is really rockin' her's. Because she is my very own, she received 5, one in each color.

I hope your summer is going as great as mine. Happy Knitting . . . .