a ball of cylinders

i love this ball.

knitted from 6 stockinette strips and woven together. knitters might note that stockinette curls on itself; this pattern takes advantage of that, and the strips effectively become squishy cylinders. the length is short enough so that when carefully woven together, the volume created by the curl creates the substance of the ball. no stuffing required.

so the ball is infinitely squishable and (theoretically) can always spring back to its original shape. it's a perfect little knitted gift to make for a toddler boy, which is a hard demographic to knit for. and it took just a couple of days of easy knitting.


a couple of months ago i went to a wedding on the east coast and had a too-brief visit with my college roommate. this ball was a present for her 2 year old son.

pattern: Braided Ball
yarn: Caron Simply Soft Brites

daisies for you

our front step is overgrown with giant daisies. i can think of worse fates.

in just - spring

in Just-

spring when the world is mud-

luscious the little

lame balloonman

whistles far and wee

and eddieandbill come

running from marbles and

piracies and it's

spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer

old balloonman whistles

far and wee

and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's

spring

and

the

goat-footed

balloonMan whistles

far

and

wee

e.e. cummings

sunrise, sunset

a little something i made a month or so ago for the lovely lady who regularly watches boo. this scarf is for her young son.

pattern: staggered rib scarf
yarn: kertzer tweed montage, new to my lys. this is a lovely bulky weight yarn with long color repeats and nice gradations in between.

here's a picture that she took of her her daughter in the hat/scarf that i made for her a couple of months ago.

happy green ... volcano?

last weekend boo was So excited about this "science experiment" with daddy. they made a "volcano" out of flour/salt/water, put an empty yogurt smoothie bottle in the middle with baking soda + a few drops of dish detergent + food coloring, and then poured in the vinegar. he wasn't sure what would happen the first time and refused to stand any closer than 10 feet away. after discovering there was no kaboom like the real thing, he mixed a bunch of different colors for the lava himself. overall, a great way to blow off a little steam. :)

socks for ME

pattern: baby cable socks, another pattern from charlene schurch's sensational knitted socks
yarn: heritage paints sock yarn by cascade
for: me!

successfully used yet another yarn purchased at stitches midwest 2010 (the goal is to use all most half? of the yarn i bought last year before i buy more at the next one)
got this yarn from the WEBS booth, i believe, but last week i believe i saw this same line now at my LYS. huzzah!

made the heel a little bit more narrow on one of the socks because i apparently have a narrow heel. who knew. self-knowledge through knitting.

warm weather and warm ears

warming up! family walk/bike around the block, on repeat. he's finally pedalling! it only took 4 years.


finished these ear warmers to fit around boo's bike helmet just as they were heading out the door. they work great!
pattern: bike ear warmers
yarn: cascade 220, leftover from the tractor boots

i've done bike ear warmers before - knit for my dad for christmas 2008 with this pattern out of some alpaca that was spun in charlottesville. my dad rides his bike to work even in the middle of nebraska winters, so he says they have been really useful. the ones i did for boo are a bit different in that they're not only smaller, but they also are attached by a ribbed band at the top to make them less likely to fall down, because there's not as much of a brim to hold them up.