Not a Dork, Not a Noo-Noo

I recently finished two little baby projects. The first was this little Pixie Hat. It's cute. (I say that without much feeling; it was a little exhausting for me.) There are several of them on Ravelry. It was a little bit of a challenge because I read the pattern wrong and I had to rip it back to the third row. Lots of K2 P2. I think if that's all there was to knitting, I'd give it up. Fortunately for me and lots of other knitters, there are a multitude of challenges that go far beyond K2P2.

I made little i-cord ties instead of the ones they suggested, because I have fallen in love with i-cord. (Not to worry, Fred. It's no fun to sit next to i-cord and watch movies or talk.) This is Cashcotton and it's really soft. I won't be doing this again. I'm moving on to the many other baby hats out there that are smaller and quicker. Thanks to Torill on Ravelry for pointing out my mistake in reading the pattern and not making me feel like a dork.


And last night I finally finished my Baby Surprise Jacket (BSJ to those of us in the know). This is a picture of it folded wrong, but it looks right. As it is here, it's really small, too small, preemie small, baby doll small. The end product is extended and folded differently.


I must say that when I finally bound off, I said, "Oh my God. This is really amazing!" That said, the last third felt like an eternity. There's this whole business of knitting for ten ridges and then picking up ten rows and then you continue knitting for a while. The button holes are about five rows from the end. It makes no sense (on the first go round) and then there's lots of stitches to bind off. And then...it's this amazing little thing. Here it is, not seamed up and with some buttons just placed on it for illustration purposes.


This particular BSJ has so many little mistakes that I'm going to redo it and now that I understand how it works, I'm going to plan my stripes better. (I have more yarn, I'm not ripping it out.) Probably something simpler and more equal ratio-wise between the red and the brown. This one will probably end up in Mongolia. I found a YouTube video (really short) showing the BSJ being folded. It's amazing. Go look at it.

Jennifer on Ravelry was a great help with the BSJ. She held my virtual hand and explained a lot without making me feel like, as my father would say, a noo-noo. These were two very challenging (in different ways) projects. Last night I cast on for another Koolhaas. The plan is that it will go to a young friend in Ohio - I'm moving my gifting up by about 17 years. I got some great wool from a woman named Megan in Ohio on a trade, which I think will work great with this pattern. Still knitting through the stash, which I'm enjoying. It offers the challenge of using what I have.

I definitely recommend that.