BeanMama Knits

There's been a tiny bit of knitting going on around here. It's been pretty crazy with the unpacking and nesting and getting the little one going in her new cooperative school... but I have managed to knit a wee bit here and there. I started these on a whim for my best friend who claimed she liked pink but couldn't wear it. I figure you can wear anything you bloomin' well want to on your tootsies, so I grabbed this pinkness from my stash and started a pair of Jaywalkers for her. I think the past few weeks have been stressful... because although I knit the first sock quickly and efficiently, the second one suffered. I forgot to slip the side stitches on the foot and had to rip back to the beginning of the gusset to fix it. Then I realized I only decreased the sole to 38 instead of 36 stitches and was faced with ripping it back again. Which I finally didn't do -- I decided it didn't make a huge difference in terms of fit and that I was ready to move on to other thi...

R.I.P. Yorick... So, I found this kicky pattern for a felted crochet skull (a free pattern from Lion brand yarns,) and made it for Mike to take to our friends' Hallowe'en party last week. He wore his Renaissance Faire costume and went as "Hamlet" holding the felted skull. It was a big hit. Well, as Mike was getting ready to go to the Hallowe'en party for his work o n Wednesday morning, we went to find poor Yorick and he was nowhere to be found. We searched high and low. Finally, we asked Rosaline and she confessed to disliking him. She told us that she threw him over the back fence and onto the sidewalk yesterday. I don't know for sure that she really did it, but it wouldn't surprise me. I turned the house upside down after Mike left hoping to drive it over to him before his party if we could find it. No such luck. Alas, poor Yorick -- I hope those that passed on the street and adopted you give you a good home. Stats: Pattern: free Lion Brand Yarns pat...

My daughter is obsessed with Ariel and the Little Mermaid. A friend is sewing her a green mermaid tail, and I found this great pattern for scallop shells from a 1983 pamphlet called "Crochet by the Sea" by Annie's Attic. At my knitting group on Wednesday, I crocheted the shells and then yesterday my daughter and I sat on the floor and I improvised and crocheted the ties and straps to fit her 3 year old body. I think it came out quite well! I've always wanted to be a mermaid, too -- I guess having a mermaid for a daughter is the next best thing.

First off -- all of my yarn has been baked and sealed into its own private little zip-lock freezer bag. It took two and a half days. I shudder to see my gas bill for this month. But I saw NO more evidence of moth infestation in anything and it should all be well protected now. Zowie, what a nightmare. On to more fun things! I got my Interweave Knits Holiday issue at the bookstore last week and fell in love with the Huckleberry Scarf. I fell more in love when I realized that I needed 2 skeins of worsted weight Alpaca and that I actually HAD that in my stash -- a gift from juliepersons . So I happily cast on and knit on it. 2 days later -- ta da! I had to go up a needle size to get gauge -- but if I could do it over again, I would knit with the smaller needles and be slightly under gauge. The problem is that the weight of the heavier ends with the bobbles stretch things out quite a bit - much more so than your gauge swatch will do! So, this is - I think - a bit bigger than the pattern i...