More Plums, birds, mice, quilts, and Easy Eggs

  First off, a few little delicious tidbits from a few weeks ago.  The combination of knitting gifts and having this blog can be an awkward one.  I don’t want to post photos of gifts before they are given, and then by the time they are given, I’m too lazy to go back and post.  Here, however, are some photos of gifts.

One is another little mouse.  This guy was also made with sock yarn, but with size 00 needles instead of 000.  The change in needle size made it much easier to make the little bobbles that are his feet and hands and don’t seem to actually have affected size all that much.  And the stuffing doesn’t come through the holes in the knitting or anything like that. 

The second gift is a little nest pin cushion.  I have a friend who once told me how she thought the nest was a very nice symbol of home.  Ever since then when I see nests on necklaces or screen prints, I think of her, but my bank account doesn’t really allow for random silver nest purchase, nor, do I think, she would appreciate me filling up her house with nests.  However, when I saw this nest in Closely Knit by Hannah Fettig, and I probably saw it now about a year and a half ago, I thought of my friend and decided that some time, I would make it.  So, after a year and a half, the stars aligned, I had dark brown and egg blue in DK weight.  I couldn’t find all of my dp size 6 that the pattern call for, so I did try to make the nest on size 3 first (I’m sure if there is a way to use smaller needles and yarn then I will).  The nest itself is done in a pretty simple K2, cable 2, K2, cable 2 cable stitch.  You can’t really see it in the pictures, and you can’t even really see it on the nest, but it is ultimately worth it I guess.  Using the size 3s and doing the cables made the nest very tight and tense and hard, not quite the effect I was going for.  But then while doing a massive reorganization of my yarns, sorting by weight instead of date purchase J, I found the rest of my size 6 dpns, don’t ask me what they were doing away from their friends.  The next nest was much more successful.  I’ve seen on other blogs, that people felt the need to block the nest, but I did not feel such a need.  Mine had good structure (and I hate blocking anyway).  I used a little purchased bird as the directions suggested.  I did ponder making a knit bird, but in the end, I wanted to be able to send off the project and the little bought bird does give the nest somehow a more homey, thrift store type feel that I like. 

Also, no offence meant to the author, but I could not stand the directions for making the eggs.  I’m not sure if I’m just a sloppy provisional caster-oner, or if there is some other malfunction in my knitting, but casting on, and knitting in one direction, and then casting off and picking up the stitches in the middle and knitting in the other direction did not work for me.  If you want an easy egg, here  you go:

Easy Egg

Materials: 4 size 6 dpns, a little stuffing, a little egg colored yarn

Onto 3 size 6 dpns, cast on 6 stitches, 2 on each needle.

Row 1: Knit 1 round

Row 2: *k1, make 1, k1*, repeat twice more (9 total stitches)

Row 3: *k3, make 1*, repeat twice more (12 total stitches)

Rows 4-8: Knit 5 rounds

Row 9: *k2, k2tog*, repeat twice more (9 total stitches)

Rows 10-11: Knit 2 rounds

It is a good idea to go ahead and stuff the egg now, as the next two decrease rows would make it hard to do so afterward. 

Row 12: *k1, k2tog*, repeat twice more (6 stitches total)

Row 1: *k2tog*, repeat twice more (3 stitches total)

Cut yarn, draw cut end through remaining 6 stitches on needles and pull tight.  Use cast on end to sew any hole remaining at the bottom together. 

I’m not sure what else you could do with knitted eggs besides put them into little nests.  They seem to make great, if short lived, cat toys, though this was not discovered on purpose.  Also, I must say, the nest makes a great cat sized bowler hat. 

Other updates include the quilt which grows when I grow board of plums

And the plums, which grow when I get board of the fact that you can’t carry a quilt around with you and whip it out at social gatherings.   The back is all finished and I’m at present working on one of the arms, in order to feel like I’m making more progress, working with fewer stitches, and also to gauge the actual amount of yarn this project is going to take by working exactly half a sweater.