Latest FOs and soul searching

My latest FOs (finished objects) are all from March. That's how little I've been knitting lately. Not only have I knitted less, but I've also had less desire to knit. This is a new feeling for me, and partly it's because I've been busy and sometimes too tired at knit to knit, but also because knitting is no longer a way to save my sanity. In a way I am relieved because I'm more free (not as obsessed) and the creativity has more ways to flow, including work.

So back to the regular program. Here is a t-shirt I made for my younger daughter. She is sensitive to wool, but was drawn to this yarn from my stash. She'd obviously studied the stash quite well, since she was able to dive right in and get it. It's a mix of cotton, wool and nylon and is meant as sock yarn, which got for my birthday just over a year ago.



The pattern is Country Kiddie by Pixie Purls, which I adopted for a larger size. In reality it is very simple top-down raglan design, but I bought it originally to have the sizing for babies. That was before I decided to use this yarn to make a shirt for my 4 yo. daughter. I started this project a long time ago, in August 2009, but it was largely ignored until couple of months ago, when I started to knit it again. After the New Year I was very interested in knitting out of the stash and finishing projects I've already begun.

The size of the shirt can be decided as you go, because you can just keep knitting the raglan increases until it is big enough, and I wanted it to be on the bigger size, so my daughter could use it for a while. However, the larger size meant I needed more yarn, the 100 gr. skein of sock yarn wasn't enough, but I was visiting a yarn shop in Parekersburg, WV, when I saw yarn that looked identical! It was completely different brand of yarn, but it looked similar enough that you could never tell that the shirt is actually made out of two different yarns.

The original one was Plymouth Yarn - Sockotta (nr. 6065) and the other (the second one) was Marks & Kattens - Clown (color nr. 1907)

As excited the younger daughter was about the shirt I was making just for her, she wasn't as enthusiastic about wearing it, claiming it was too scratchy (what else is new), but here you can see a photo of her sister wearing it.



See, you can't see the difference in yarns, can you :)

Other than that, I've been knitting these tiny little socks for few unborn/newborn children, which are plentiful these days. A coworker, my brother and my sister-in-law have all been having babies lately. Here are two of the pairs (two out of three)




You have that matchbook in one of the picture to appreciate the small size of these socks. They are made out of leftover sock yarn (what a great way to use up small amount of yarn, which is leftover when you make adult socks (women size)) and take couple of evening to do. The pattern is called Spring Daffodil baby socks which I found on Ravelry (where else). The pattern really shows off the variegated socks nicely.

The only thing I've been knitting in April is more on sleeves I've been working on since beginning of March (still not done) and a cowl.