Mocktails

I've been hankering for a hank of Yarntini sock yarn in Vintage Stripe for longer than I can remember. Then Jessie posted on the Yarntini blog that she would start doing self striping yarns primarily as custom orders. Then a few months later that she was so busy, new custom orders were on hold.

After seeing the colorway on other blogs I decided to take matters into my own hands. Let me state for the record that I would have been much happier paying for the real thing, but desperate times call for desperate measures. A girls gotta have her sock yarn. So I grabbed some Knitpicks Merino and silk blend sock yarn (YUM!) some koolaid & vinegar and wound up some reeeeeally long skeins. Thanks to Eunny Jang's post here on self striping yarns, I ended up with an FO I really love.

Ooooooh, purty. But how does it knit up? So glad you asked.

Love, love, love.

Recycle, Reuse, Repeat....

I'm a very thrifty (cheap) girl. I have no sense of urgency when it comes to knitting up my entire stash. If a finished object no longer works for me, I have no qualms about ripping it out and turning it into something new.

When I found out I was pregnant with #7 I cast on Rosebud from Knitty. The sweater was designed by Alison Hansel and she posted possible modifications on her blog that would convert the original pattern into a maternity top. Those mods can be found here. I knit it up with a few changes of my own and it worked beautifully. I knew I was due in mid November so I shortened the sleeves so they ended where they would normally start to flare out. I also used Merino Style from Knit Picks in place of the yarn originally called for.

Not only did the short row shaping work over the belly, but I was able to wear this right up to the end quite literally. I actually wore this sweater to the hospital on delivery day. If I hadn't been in labor on and off for hours I probably would have thought to have someone snap a picture, but you'll have to settle for the lovely Sally Stitches with a little help from a throw pillow.

So where is Rosebud now that I'm no longer pregnant?

I was suddenly taken with the idea of using the yarn from my maternity sweater to knit up a little woolly coat for baby next fall, but ecru is such a bad idea when knitting for little ones, so into the dye pot it went with some Jacquard acid dye in brown. et voila!

I know what you're thinking. Brown for a girl? YES! After 5 daughters in a row I'm so over the pink I could scream. Have you been to the baby girl section of your local dept. store lately? It's a sea of pink, pink and more pink, with the occasional pastel purple thrown in to break things up. Would you want to open your closet door and see variations on the same hue 365 days a year? I didn't think so. Plus I love the cool browns mixed with pastels that Debbie Bliss has been working with lately, so that was my inspiration.

I was a little concerned at first that I would have to throw this all back in the dye pot for a second time to even out the color, but I knit a test swatch alternating skeins, using a seed/moss stitch and I really like the results.