Hi, remember me? I used to blog hereabouts. Been busy the past coupla weeks. Gonna attempt to catch up.
I knit up a whack of preemie caps for Jeanne. Now I just have to get my act together to send them to her. If my brain had been working properly I would have brought them to Amy's party on Sunday (details in another post), where I could have given them to Deb to deliver. That was in fact my plan, however, usual brain malfunction occurred and I remembered the caps when I was already 20 miles on my way. Must find box and tape and make expedition to post office.
I started out about seven weeks ago with three skeins of Lion Brand Cotton-Ease.
Clockwise from upper left: Lime, Berry, and Lake. Perfect for soft, non-scratchy, washable, unisex hats...
...which Hannibal was absolutely delighted thrilled coerced to model for me.
These were all made from the preemie cap pattern on Jeanne's site, a pattern that yielded the perfect hat; unlike the first pattern I tried, which yielded an object more suited to life as a kippah.
[digression] Yes, Matthew has dyed his hair black. Whatever. At least it isn't a tattoo. [/digression]
We went to Chicago to visit Smokey's brother and wife last week because they wanted to see Andrew while he is home (another post). Chez Kat™ to BIL/SIL's house: 7-8 hours. What to knit in the car? More preemie caps, of course.
Although I knit a lot in the car -- I think I only drove about 20 miles out of the entire trip -- I didn't knit all these on the road. I also knit on the train into the city (another post), while resting my feet at the Art Institute (ditto), while chatting with the relatives, while waiting for the waitress when we went out to eat, while watching TV, etc. I got a lot of knitting done.
Here is the entire whack of Cotton-Ease caps, some of which were cat-modeled above. The kippah really stands out, doesn't it?
They were all knit on US#5 needles, 56 stitches around, except that one honker. I messed about with a picot edge on the pink one in front just for fun.
I finished up the Cotton-Ease, including the mangled tangled skein that En Esch had had his way with. Smokey spent the better part of two hours at his brother's house untangling it for me (just another reason why he is the Best Husband On The Planet), a time during which I knit most of another cap. Those things go really fast.
Next, I started on a skein of Socks That Rock heavyweight, color G-Rocks, that had been marinating in my stash for at least a year. Perfect for hats.
Knitting with this stuff was heaven. It knit up quickly at an appropriate gauge and size on US#3 needles over 64 stitches, and the yarn was pure bliss -- soft, sproingy (is SO a word!), colorful, altogether delightful. This close-up of the leftover yarn gives you an idea of the luscious texture and colors.
I got six little caps out of a 350-yard skein.
And a chorus of Awwww!s every time I held up a finished one.
Okay, the Cotton-Ease and STR were gone; time to move on to Knit Picks Shine worsted. This is a cotton-modal worsted weight blend that Matthew picked out for his socks. (I finished those on the trip, too. Another post.) It is lovely soft, and I had bought a bunch of the on-sale colors. However, I had only brought along one extra skein of the terra cotta, plus the ivory left over from the socks. Given another week or three, I would have knit all the Shine into preemie caps, as it was that well-suited to the task. It is a loosely spun yarn, and hence splitty, but I got used to that and (*fingers crossed*) fixed any splits on the next round.
Like the Cotton-Ease caps, these and the three below were knit on US#5s, 56 stitches.
Somewhere along the line in my preemie cap enterprise I tried Wool-Ease, but it wasn't as soft as the other yarns I had. Hence, there are only three caps in my Wool-Ease line.
For those of you counting along at home, that is twenty-five (25!) warm little preemie
heads, twenty-five (25!) little preemies who will have some help while their internal thermostats adjust to living in the cold world outside their mommies' warm floaty uteri.
