Rob just explained to me how the concept of terminal velocity could assist with shoveling. Paternity: established.
I finished my second Knitted Thing!
I used Lion Brand Homespun yarn, in the colors we had on hand. (We have a huge pile of yarn and needles and things from my mother-in-law’s house, and I’d bought the pink and yellow on clearance to practice with.) I found the yarn medium-difficult to work with because it’s all kinked and fuzzy, but I liked trying a different yarn. I cast on 50 stitches, which turned out to be kind of a lot for a beginner: it seemed to take FOREVER to make any progress. I’d intended for the 50-stitch side to be the short side of a rectangle, but I ended up making it the long side.
Rob taught me how to do stripes, so that’s what I was practicing. I didn’t plan how many rows to do each stripe or how many stripes to do of each color. I did pink and added purple, then dropped pink and added blue, then dropped purple and added yellow. Then I felt like I was done, so I stopped. The finished Thing is about 12×17 inches. I am hoping the cat will want to sleep on it, but so far she is shunning it in favor of a piece of bubble wrap. What is it with her and plastic? She’s always licking it or sleeping on it.
[Edit: Look what I found when I went out to the living room!
She accepts it!]
Now I’m working on something I hope will be a knit headband. I wear my hair twisted up in a clip, so hats don’t work. What I want is a hatlet that will go over one ear, across the top of my head (where I have always pictured a heat-venting hole, like a whale’s blowhole, ever since learning as a child that heat is lost through the head), and back over the other ear, tying…somewhere (under the chin seems too bonnetlike, behind the neck seems like it might slip off).
I started it with just a few stitches for near-the-tying-place and then wanted to increase to covering-the-ear width, and Rob and I had learned Knit One Front & Back from the Knit Witch when he needed it for a diagonal-stripe scarf, so I decided to use that. Here’s his scarf in progress:
I was glad Rob had been using Knit One Front & Back for awhile so he could watch and advise. (The best part was when I hesitated and he said “Now catch the sheep…” exactly as if tenderly coaching a young child.) At one point I realized I’d increased in the wrong place, and I said, “Oh! But I can just undo it, right?” and he said, “Yes, but, uh….” and I slipped the two stitches off the needle. Then I didn’t know what to do next. He said, “Yeah, you don’t know what to do with that, do you. Here, give it to me.”
I know exactly the sort of thing you’re talking about for your head, there is a pattern (which Rob could probably help you with) for something called a “calorimetry”
Give it a whirl!
I think I know just the pattern for you! It will involve learning some new stuff, but I think between you and Rob that should not be a problem. http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter06/PATTcalorimetry.html (Alternately, there is a super cute headband in Stitch & Bitch Nation that you could probably adapt to cover your ears.
I love that he is gently coaching you! It is probably empowering to him to be able to show you how to do something. In our house, our oldest is the expert on all things having to do with comic book characters. His face lights up when he “educates” us.
Cute knitted thing, and I think Rob teaching you to knit is very cute.
Aw! I can’t wait to have older kids. Well, older kids like Rob, who are kind and sweet, not older kids like SOME of the kids I see, who turn nasty and snarly around the age of nine and seem to think their parents are the hired help.
I love Rob so much for teaching you to knit! And if you are both ever stuck check out http://www.knittinghelp.com/ Videos of just about every stich – I’ve been knitting for over 6 years and still find myself going there for refreshers.
And calorimetry is a great pattern – short rows are pretty fun to knit.
Aww, Rob sounds so sweet and his scarf is beautiful! Your cat blanket thing looks nice to me too, I don’t think I could knit anything! I hope your cat likes it soon, OR you could get a new cat and give it a new bed. :)
Does your hubby have any single brothers, or cousins? Who, umm, are interested in pregnant women?
Just askin’….
that’s so precious. i want a son who will help me with my knitting too.
I’m jealous. My sons’ idea of helping me with my knitting is to grab the ball of yarn and run away with it.
I love how the cat is just perfectly curled up on that thing.
I think I love Rob.
You’ve got a keeper right there in that boy.
Say, how’s the school thing going? Have things gotten any easier for him?
Leeann- He hasn’t mentioned anything else about the school thing. I’ve brought it up a few times and he always acts like DUH of course there’s no problem, so I don’t know what to think.
I made another Knitty pattern that I LOVE that solves the hair problem
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring03/PATTcoif.html
I love it!
I have no idea how to knit, but we did have this cool cat bed knitted for our cat, although I can’t remember from who, and she loved it. The picture of your cat on the knitting reminded me of that.
You’re both doing stripes?! Wow. I’m glad you have such a good teacher in Rob.
I’m pretty sure that coming out to find that the cat is sleeping on the thing I knitted for her would make my week (if I had a cat. I have dogs. They sleep on everything, including the things I DO NOT WANT THEM TO).
My GAWD! I hope my boy knits someday! It looks like what you knitted is a tiny blankie for a baby in a car seat. Just right for covering a newborn. Or a cat.
OK, I need to set up some kind of knitting lesson with Rob so he can teach me to be as good a knitter as he is. He is wonderful! And I love how he’s teaching you.
Your cat and my cat are Plastic Lunatics. Any piece of plastic, anywhere, is fair game for pawing and licking. Since we put plastic on our windows, you can imagine how fun this is at 3:00 a.m.
He will make a great teacher some day. It sounds like he has the patience to really show you how to do things.
You guys should try knitting socks next. I started doing them, and I’m having a blast. In fact I picked up more fun sock yarn to make more. I used this website to help- http://www.knitting-socks.com/index.html.
I love that Rob is helping you learn to knit, so sweet. And isn’t it great when the cat lays on something you want them to cover with hair?!
Cats are impossible to figure out, aren’t they!?
I love that you’re getting involved in Rob’s hobby, having him help teach you. I think that’s really supportive and is probably furthering his achievements in knitting! My mom has a hat cover over the head, sort of bonnet, attach under the chin kind of thing like you’re talking about. I’ve always been envious of it b/c it seems so much more comfortable than ear muffs, but w/o the tightness and hair-mess of a hat.
I learned to knit just 3 days ago, but then my knitting teacher went home. Boo! I would love to borrow Rob, or better yet, have a live-in Rob! Hey, could you ask him why, when I cast on 25 stiches, I keep ending up with MORE? Grrrr. I have no idea what I’m doing wrong, and I can tell you, I’m concentrating a TON. So far, knitting as been a “tense activity” instead of a “relaxing” one, so it’s not like I’m spacing out or soemthing…
A) How cute is Rob. He sounds like such an awesome kid!
B) Your cat is so pretty. Sleeping kitties look so warm and snuggly I can’t help but pester them. Maybe that’s why mine sleep under the bed a lot?
Actually, according to a recent blurb in O magazine (which means it MUST be right) the study which determined “most heat loss is from head” was flawed. If you walked around shoeless but with a hat, then most heat loss would be from your feet. Apparently. I don’t know how they measure actual heat loss in terms of therms, or whatever. So maybe the article is flawed. I don’t know.
But your knitting is very cute!
Oh, I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT! Everything about this post. I just love that Rob is still kicking a*s with the knitting, and that you are knitting Things. Wahoo!!!
Oh, I love it!
It ALMOST makes me want to have kids. Almost.
This is killer. Your son Rob is just so obviously AWESOME.
Rob sounds like a fantastic kid. You’re a lucky mommy.
This whole post made me extremely happy but that last part made my whole day.
The photo of your kitty looks similar to mine, what do you think?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jkl2/1426960866/
With the similar gray/orange/white markings. Does your cat have blue eyes? Mine’s part Siamese (and whooo boy do we know it when the howling starts).
Jennifer- YES, very similar! Mouse has blue eyes, too! She has a very soft meow, though. Like chirping.
Rob sounds like an awesome boy. I love how he started off coaching you like helping a small child, then almost immediately, was like, “yeah, you don’t know what to do with that do you? Give it here.” Heh. Good kid, but not too good.
SWISTLE! I’ve been meaning to tell you that you are a TOTAL TREND SETTER. That, or you’ve got your finger on THE PULSE OF TREND (or something like that). Because seriously? All the rage this winter? IS THE SNOOD/SNEED/WHATSIT thing that you made as your first knitted thing! I’ve seen them on TV, on celebrities, and in magazines! Kid you not!!!!!
And your Rob? Is adorable.
You knit-wit.