knitting & tattoos

On Tues. Babygurl decided she needed some tattoos to match mommy and daddy, so she drew some herself. When daddy got home from work she showed him, then gave him a marker and held out her arm for him to do some.


It was crayola washable markers so it came right off.

Do knitting and tattoos go together? The answer is yes.
We left on Wed. evening for Kansas City, MO, for the annual APT's Tattoo Rendezvous . We had fun, while Tattoo Husband was working, Babygurl and I wandered around, went swimming, and visited people. She made quite an impression.







She loved looking at all of the tattooed people, and got to play with some kids about her age, and daddy's cousins. She flirted with all the guys, and chatted with all the women.

I got to meet some pretty cool people, one woman made some cool jewelry. The photographer's wife watched me working on the baby jays and said " now I have to go home and learn to knit." By the end of the convention I had finished the jays, working off and on while Babygurl was napping, and even cast on for the drunken jaywalkers with some Tub o Gin self striping.

Good suprises today!!!

I got home from the Tattoo convention in Kansas City, MO at about 3:30pm today, turned the computer on, unloaded the van, got the regular mail. My book came while I was gone. I had ordered The Natural Knitter by Barbara Albright. I set the book aside so I could check my email, then I was going to tell you all about the trip and post pics...........

But I got my Ravelry invite today!!!!!!
I played all day!
So it is now midnight and I haven't even gotten my camera out of the knitting bag to charge, or looked at my new book. I'll have to post stuff tomorrow or wednesday.

Baby Jays

Baby Jaywalker Pattern

First of all, I cannot take credit for this pattern the original pattern is written by Grumperina, I only changed some numbers around. Also Thanks to Minnie for helping me with the math.

This pattern is about a size 6 or 7 toddler.

Materials
Cherry Tree Hill Yarn of unknown colorway (the ball band was missing)

US 1 / 2.25mm set of 5 double pointed needles

Darning needle

Size
6 inches around foot and 5.5 inches from top of leg to bottom of heel

Abbreviations
k-f/b: increase 1 stitch by knitting in the front and back loops of the same stitch
ssk: slip slip knit – slip 2 stitches individually as if to knit, then knit them together through the back loop.
dd: double decrease – slip 2 stitches together as if to knit, knit the next stitch, pass the slipped stitches over the knitted stitch
sl1 – slip 1 stitch as if to purl

Leg
Cast on 52 sts. Divide sts. onto 4 needles, 13 sts on each. Join into a round, being careful not to twist sts.

Note: this join is the beginning of all future rounds; it is at the back of the leg. Needles are numbered relative to this join – the first one worked is #1, etc.

Begin ribbing: *k2, p2; repeat from * around. Work established ribbing pattern for 1 inch / 2.5 cm.

Begin zigzag pattern:
Round 1: k every stitch.
Round 2: *k-f/b, 4, dd, k4k-f/b; repeat from * a total of 4 times.
Work zigzag pattern until leg measures 6 3/4 inches / 17 cm (7 inches / 18 cm) or desired length to top of heel. End with round 1.

Heel
Heel flap: k13 sts on needle #1, turn. Sl1, P26, turn. These 27 sts form the heel flap. The remaining 27 sts form the instep and are unused for the moment. Work heel back and forth, turning after every row.
Row 1: *sl1, k1; repeat from *.
Row 2: sl1, p26.
Repeat the last 2 rows 8 more times.

Turn heel:
Row 1: sl1, k14, ssk, k1, turn.
Row 2: sl1, p5, p2tog, p1, turn.
Row 3: sl1, knit within 1 st of the gap, ssk, k1, turn.
Row 4: sl1, purl to within one st of the gap, p2tog, p1, turn.
Repeat rows 3 and 4 until all heel sts are worked. There are 16 heel sts.

Heel gussets: sl1, k15 heel sts, pick up and k11 sts along the side of the heel flap. Work 26 instep sts in established pattern (round 2 of zigzag pattern, but repeat from * a total of 2 times). With an empty needle, pick up and k11 sts along the other side of the heel flap, 8 sts from the heel needle. There are 13 sts on needles #2 and #3, 19 sts on needles #1 and #4.
Round 1: Work to 3 sts from end of needle #1, k2tog, k1. Work instep sts in established pattern (round 1 of zigzag pattern). K1, ssk at beginning of needle #4, work to end.
Round 2: Work to 1 st from end of needle #1, sl1. Work instep sts in established pattern (round 2 of zigzag pattern). Sl1 at beginning of needle #4, work to end.

Note: in the heel and foot portions, the instep stitches on needles #2 and #3 are demarcated by slipped stitches at each side to resemble the patterning of the leg portion. The slipped stitches are made every other round on those edges of needles #1 and #4 which border the instep.

Repeat the last 2 rounds until there are 11 sts on needles #1 and #4. There are 26 instep sts and 22 sole stitches, 48 sts total. The difference in the number of instep and sole stitches accounts for the varying tensions of zigzag and stockinette stitch patterns.

Foot
Continue even in established pattern (including the slipped stitches mentioned above) until foot measures 2 inches (5 cm) less than desired finished length. End with round 1 of zigzag pattern.

Toe
Round 1: Work needle #1 even. *K1, ssk at the beginning of needle #2, work to 3 sts from end of needle, k2tog, k1. Repeat from * for needle #3. Work needle #4 even. 44 sts remain.
Round 2: Work needle #1 even. K1, ssk at the beginning of needle #2. Work to 3 sts from end of needle #3, k2tog, k1. Work needle #4 even. 42 sts remain.
Round 3: Work even.
Round 4: Work to 3 sts from end of needle #1, k2tog, k1. K1, ssk at beginning of needle #2. Work to 3 sts from end of needle #3, k2tog, k1. K1, ssk at beginning of needle #4, work to end of needle.
Round 5: Work even.
Repeat the last 2 rounds until there are 4 sts on each needle, 16 stitches total. Work to the end of needle #1. Move the sts on needles #1 and #4 onto one needle, and the other stitches on another needle. Kitchener stitch these sts together.

Finishing
Weave in all ends.

The fun stuff.

I had another good dye day yesterday, 6 lbs of wool roving, a little bit of ingeo, and some yarn(not pictured, but on my flickr), which means I spent all day today with stuff out on the line and me taking pictures. I updated my filckr site too. there are a lot of new pictures up now, I added a whole page and a half.



I have been working on another Jaywalker sock, but this one is for Babygurl. I'm adapting the pattern as I go so it will fit an infant size 7ish foot. once I have finished the first one I'll put the adapted pattern up here.




Here is some hand spun that I did not spin, but I dyed the roving! My friend Minnie spun it for me because I have a hard time getting any spinning done, let alone spinning fingering weight.
She made singles of the Viole(n)t and (B)Limey rovings, then plied them together.



This is the stuff that I spun, the first picture is some silk caps that I bought on my honeymoon(5 years ago). It was spun on a hand spindle then Navajo plied. The second photo is some tussah silk that I dyed they are each about 4oz the yellow and blue ones on the right I spun sometime before Babygurl was born, the green and purple were spun the Monday after Lillies while Babygurl was at Tante Yaya's house. I'll be knitting some Christmas stockings for us out of it, but probably wont get them done this year.



My garden is doing great! The cabbages are cabbageing, and the tomatoes are tomating, hopefully my tomatoes will get ripe this year. Last year they were still green when the frost hit.



The trip we took to visit grandma & grandpa's farm in the beginning of June? I think. Babygurl got to help feed the baby goats and she got to hold a baby kittie. She was really good with the kitten she didn't try to squeeze it or anything, she did give it lots of kisses.




AND NOW A SNEAK PEEK!!!!

The new Lime & Violet theme yarns I have been working on!
They are all self striping, and limited edition, they will be available only from the limenviolet.com shop , they probably wont be available for a couple of weeks as Miss V is seriously busy, but keep checking back.

THE END
(for today)