New addition to the Tiger family

Sheldon Turtle Tiger was born last night at 10:24 PM. Turtle, Andy, and Knitting Tiger are recovering and resting.



After almost a year of watching me knit sweaters, scarves, and bags, Andy put in a special request. Sheldon. Since it'd take me forever to knit him a sweater... and it'd cost a fortune... and he'd never wear it, I was intrigued by the request for something so small.

"What will you do with him?," I asked.

"I will take him everywhere," he replied.

"Really, you're going to take him places?"

"Yes, and I'll take pictures of him everywhere we go. Can you finish him before December 13 so I can take him on the cruise?"

I ordered Sheldon's yarn and some needles and the anticipation in the Tiger household began to build.

Sheldon's pattern was a bit of a challenge -- I hadn't used double-pointed needles before, and working with something so tiny made me a little crazy. After about 15 tries, things starting working out like I had hoped. We left for a camping trip the morning I started him, and I knitted in the car on the way to/from the campground. His little legs took about 2 hours of semi-distracted TV watching. And, his shell was packed carefully in my carry-on bag this past weekend when we headed up to Cape Cod. I finished his shell on Monday on the way back to the airport and after messing up the I-cord that was supposed to attach his shell to the belly panel, I gave up and tigered some crochet around the edges.




Sheldon is made from 1 skein each of KnitPicks Sport Shine in Green Apple and Grass. He required US3 DPNs, and US4 straights. He knits happily on KnitPicks harmony needles -- so pretty!

Katie's Birthday Bag

I found this pattern online and decided that Katie needed one for her birthday. It's made from Lamb's Pride Bulky, and was very hairy after felting. Once I figured out how to do it, it was really fast to knit up. It definitely needed a flower, so I knitted two and stitched them together.

Here it is pre-felting:And, here it is after:

Central Park Hoodie

Since I finished the Leaf Tee, I'm getting into my next project -- the Central Park Hoodie for the knit-a-long. So far, I've only knitted my swatches. I didn't realize how much they'd change after blocking (first time with wool), so I had to knit swatches using US7s, 8s, and 9s. Naturally, I'm going to use the 8s -- the first ones I swatched!

I'm using Ella Rae classic in grape -- I like the grey-ish purple color.

Finished Sweater(s)

Finally got around to taking pictures of the finished sweater. It's pretty frumpy -- the sleeves are way to wide, but it was the pattern for the beginner class.This one took much longer than I had expected -- almost 2 months -- since I had to keep ripping out rounds and rounds of stitches while I was learning how to do raglan increases. I used Debbie Bliss Cathay and found the pattern on Knitting School Dropout's blog. Not sure I got the sizing quite right, but it'll do :)

Sewing it together

The knitting is done -- here's the sewing-up in progress:
Ella examines the sweater to make sure I'm doing it right.Picture of finished sweater coming when I can find it. I know I have one of me modeling my masterpiece somewhere!

Cables!

I was sick the week we learned cables in class, so I gave it my best shot. The front's finished now, and I'm working on the sleeves. Trying to get it done before the weather gets too warm!

The goal

Here's what the sweater *should* look like when I'm done. We'll see if I can do it!

Tiger knits a sweater

As part of my Christmas present, Mary signed me up for knitting lessons. The ladies at the Yarn Barn have assured me that in five weeks, I will learn all I need to know to knit my very own sweater. ("Just in time for summer," says Andy.) Trip #1 to the Yarn Barn left me much poorer (yikes, yarn is expensive!) , but with 9 balls (or smunches) of pretty green silk/cotton yarn.
Starting on the back:Almost finished:
I need to take a picture of the sample sweater at the yarn shop so I can compare mine to what it should look like.

Little Tiger learns to knit

On Christmas, Mary gave me some knitting needles, yarn and a few books. According to Andy, she created a knitting monster.

First attempt at a scarf:




Here's a ruffle scarf that I made from a book called Scarf Style: