The Knitting Siren

Giveaway Winners!

2011-12-14T08:11:37-06:00

We have 3 winners all chosen at random by www.random.org

First up, Leah! You get first pick of the prizes.

Second up, Jennifer Sanford! You get second pick once I hear from Leah.

Third up, Susan! I'll let you know your prize.

Thanks everyone for all the entries! We might have to do this again soon...

A big thanks to Rafflecopter for a smooth and easy giveaway!

Winter Blues Giveaway!

2011-12-06T12:05:12-06:00

Is getting ready for Christmas stressing you out? Is it cold and snowy and you haven't left the house in a week? Are the days getting shorter and shorter and you're missing the sunlight? What better way to get cheered up than with a giveaway!

I'm going to offer 3 different prizes and one of them is an actual knitted item. Knit by yours truly.

#1 Doodlebirds Creations Swell Socks in Beach Vacation and free pattern.

You might not be able to go to the beach but maybe you can pretend with socks knit in this colorway. Super soft with a bit of a sheen. This is one of my favorite sock yarns.

Sock weight yarn, about 400 yds/4 oz. 50% Merino wool, 50% Tencel. Retails for $20

#2 Beautiful Blue Faced Leicester, Bubble Gum Bliss and free pattern.

Not one but two skeins of this super soft wool and a matching trim skein. Perfect to make a pair of Adorabubble Baby Britches or Sideways Longies. You might even have enough left over for a matching hat.

Worsted weight, 240 yds/4 oz, 100% Blue Faced Leicester. Retails for $17 a full skein and $10 for trim skein for a total of $44.

#3 Turtle Butt and Matching Hat

An already knit item hand knit by moi! Knit in x-small, should fit a newborn through 6 months. These make a great photo prop. Knit out of 100% wool, these do need to be handwashed. These are perfect for wool cloth diaper covers.

Retail value: Hmm, I don't even remember what I used to charge to knit a turtle butt and matching hat. Priceless?

3 winners will be chosen. First one chosen gets first pick and so on and so forth. Have fun and good luck!

Black Friday Sale!

2011-11-25T10:10:22-06:00

Did my sweater collection yesterday inspire you? Next to knitting baby pants, sweaters are my favorite thing to make.

It's not too late to start knitting Christmas presents! Today only to the first 25 customers, get 50% off you entire order (coupon code: Black50). After that it's 25% off (Black25).

http://www.ravelry.com/stores/melanie-hoffman-designs

For a little inspiration...

True Love Cowl $3.00

Turtle Butt $5.00

My sweater obsession

2011-11-24T18:10:42-06:00

I like sweaters. Ok, I love sweaters. You might go so far as to say I have a sweater obsession. I realized as I was tidying up my closet that I have a lot of handknit sweaters and many of them I don't have a good picture of. So I thought, let's do a quick photoshoot with all my sweaters I've made over the years. Yes, I made each and every one of these (I'm pretty sure I'm missing a couple as well). 22 total.

Knitting Can Wait

2011-11-09T09:17:26-06:00

How do people find time to knit with children? When I had 3, it seemed no problem. I could knit and supervise play at the same time. I had time to knit enough for my family and even do a few commissioned items a month. But not with 4. Between taking care of the kids, the house, the animals, and homeschooling 3 of the 4 children, knitting has had to take be put on the back burner. It doesn't help that whenever I sit, the youngest thinks it's time to nurse or cuddle. I don't mind because I know there will come a day when the cuddles are fewer and far between. I miss knitting but I prefer the cuddles.

So in the meantime, I knit while standing waiting for the dryer to finish up or dinner to finish cooking. A few minutes here and there. I knit while bathing the young ones. I don't knit during naps because that is a precious time where I can really get some cleaning done. Sometimes I'll knit in bed after the kids are asleep but that's usually my reading time.

This pair of shorts for myself would normally take a week at the most for me to knit. I've been working on these for a month now. I only have about 10 rows until it's done but that will probably take 2 days of sporadic knitting to do.

Oh well. I do miss knitting but knitting can wait. Blogging might have to wait too. Kiddo is crawling up on me for cuddles again.

How do you find time to knit?

Fundraiser for the city of Minot

2011-06-25T11:13:47-05:00

I've lived near Minot for almost 4 years now and considered this community my home. I love it here. I love the people, I love the city, I even love the weather (I know, I'm nuts). My city is now currently underwater. Because of the mass amounts of snow this winter and continued mass amounts of rain, the dams upstream from us are overwhelmed and had to release unbelievably amounts of water. The previous record high was in 1881 at 1558' above sea level. It is now currently at 1561.56' and is expected to continue to rise to 1563.5'. Devastating is the only word I can think of.

I am waiting out the storm with my family in Minnesota while my husband helps fight the fight. Our house flooded earlier in the month and I sent my kids to my mom's house while my husband and I cleaned up our mess. I was actually on my way to retrieve my children when I heard the news that Minot would be inundated with water. Our house should not be affected by this flood unless we get hit with another 5" of rain in one day. I've been going nuts not being able to do anything and realized yesterday there was something I could do.

I'm offering 100% of pattern sales to go to the city of Minot. It's not much but it's something.

Please share with all of your knitting friends. My city is going to need a lot of help.

http://www.ravelry.com/stores/melanie-hoffman-designs

Sideways Britches KAL, anyone?

2011-04-21T15:01:46-05:00

I totally bombed the True Love KAL (knit along), literally. A flying soup bowl landed right on my knitting and I just haven't had the heart to cast on a new one. Now that's it's supposedly spring (snow storm earlier this week makes me wonder if we'll ever see spring), I'm especially not in the mind set to begin again.

A gal on my Adorabubble Knits group on Ravelry suggested a Sidways Britches KAL. What do you think? Squirt could use a new pair and I have a full tote of 100% Purewool yarn that needs to be used up so I'm game! Anyone else? This could be a great opportunity to try out the pattern if it seems daunting to you. I will admit, this pattern will reveal what an odd mind I have. You will have no idea what's going on while you are knitting until you are almost done. It's one of those just-trust-me kind of designs.

So today I'm going to dig through my tote of beautiful yarn and provisionally cast on (yeah, another one of those) a pair of board shorts, all in good faith that spring will actually come sometime this year.

This is one of my most favorite colorways for the Sideways Britches. It's Horizon on BFL by Doodlebirds Creations.

*A note on the pattern* After knitting a ton of these, I far prefer the wide version. Knits inevitably shrink through wash and wear and they will shrink heighthwise, or in the case of the Sideways Britches, they shrink widthwise. Knits also stretch more vertically that horizontally. What this means is a pair of normal knit pants will have more give around the hips. The Sideways britches won't have the same amount of give so you will want extra room in the hips. Normally for a pair of pants I will knit with 0 ease but these pants fit better with an inch of ease. Just think bigger. If you need assistance figuring out which size to knit, just email me.

Human Milk 4 Human Babies

2011-03-09T14:53:43-06:00

Why am I so passionate about getting breastmilk to babies? Imagine the following scenarios:

Scenerio #1

You take great care of your nutrition before and during your pregnancy to ensure the best outcome for your baby. The big day comes and you have a precious bundle eager for his first drink of mommy's milk, made just for him. The first few days you are not worried because it can take some time for your milk to come in. More days pass and still nothing. You begin to pump, seek a lactation consultant, advice from friends, nothing. Eventually you end up diagnosed with Insufficient Glandular Tissue and those 3 words break your heart. You did everything right, how could this happen? Now what? You check out the milk banks only to find the price is too high at $3-5 an ounce and even if you could afford the steep price, this milk is handed out on a need basis (as it should be), premature and the sickest of babies first. Even if you did qualify to receive breastmilk, there are very few milk banks out there and they are not the easiest to donate to so their supplies are always low. You think your only option now is formula.

Scenario #2

Like the above scenario, you did everything right before and during pregnancy but since you have to go back to work you decide formula is the option you want. A decision you are fine with until you give baby that first bottle and the formula does not agree with her. You try another formula and yet again, baby is sick. Another formula, same thing. A friend offers you some of her excess milk she pumped, you gratefully accept and for the time being baby is back to her happy self. But that supply runs out. Now what?

Scenario #3

You adopt a beautiful baby and you know breastmilk is the best. Enough said.

Scenario #4

You are the mom of a baby who decided to make his entrance into the world a little too early. While your sweet baby is in the NICU, you begin pumping like mad to ensure he has enough food. Turns out you are a milk making machine and you quickly fill up the deep freezer with more milk than your baby can drink. The nearest milk bank is over a state away making donation very difficult. It breaks your heart to pour that liquid gold down the drain, but what else are you going to do with it?

These are pictures of milk that was donated in Minnesota. Awesome!

My dear friend Emma Kwasnica had the sound mind to link these women together. It started out with the occasional plea on her very active Facebook page for breastmilk for a baby whose mom had suddenly passed away or a mom whose milk had dried up due to an unexpected pregnancy. A movement was born.

Now there are chapters in nearly every state and in many nations across the globe. To find a chapter near you visit Human Milk 4 Human Babies at http://www.hm4hb.net

Even little ol' North Dakota has a group (overseen by me).

Questions? Please, ask away!

Baby leggings!

2011-02-24T17:59:57-06:00

Stay Put Baby Leggings (Ravelry link)

Handknit baby leggings that stay up! Is that possible?

Why yes it is! And here's the proof:

Yes, that is snow in the background and yes he is barefoot. It's actually a warm day and our 5ft of snow is melting away to near nothing. Yay!

Even while crawling.

The secret is elastic enclosted thigh band. You can put elastic in the top and bottom or just the top. The pair shown have elastic in only the top.

Why baby leggings? First of all they are just stinkin' cute. Secondly, for around the house they make for nice quick diaper changes or if you EC your baby they make potty trips easy. Also, it's cold here and they make a nice quick easy second layer. In the spring they are nice for changing weather. If you leave the house and it's warm but it gets colder later in the day, pull a pair out of your diaper bag and cover those legs up!

And did I mention they are ridiculously cute. The yarn is from Biscotte & Cie off Etsy. I love knitting self-striping yarn.

I'm writing this up as a basic recipe so you can use whatever yarn and needle size you want. Need help? Just ask!

Materials: Yarn of your choice. Appropriate needle for the yarn. I used a 40" length and magic looped. DPN's would work just fine as well. About 9-11" of 1/2" width elastic.

1. Figure out your gauge per inch. I got about 5.75 sts per inch.

2. Figure out your circumference by measuring baby's thigh. Muchkin has 8" thighs (he's a squirt) and I added an inch so there was a little room to grow for a total of 9".

3. Multiply your gauge per inch by your desired circumference. 5.75x9=51.75 We'll round that up to 52.

4. We will work the thigh band like this: Enclosed Elastic Waistband (in this case it's a thighband). You don't have to do it this way. You can do a normal (but loose) cast on and just sew the band shut.

Provisional cast on the # you get in step 4 (52 for me).
Do not join in a round! Knit flat stockinette (knit 1 row, purl 1 row) for about 3/4". End having worked a knit row. Do not turn.
Instead of turning, now join in a round, place a marker and purl this first round.
Knit stockinette stitch for 3/4"or until the ends meet when folded in half at the purl ridge (see tutorial if this doesn't make sense).
Place provisional cast on edge onto another circular needle the same size or smaller than the working needle.
Knit the provisional cast on edge to the working edge (again, see tutorial for pictures)
You should now have the same amount of stitches on the needle as you started out with.

5. Now we will work even (knit stockinette stitch straight) until piece measured as long as desired. I measured a pair of store bought baby legs to get my length, so about 13". If you want to work a simple 1x1 or 2x2 ribbing on the bottom, work 1" less than desired length.

6. Ankle band: For an enclosed elastic band at the bottom, purl 1 round. Stop working in the round and just knit stockinette stitch flat for about 3/4" like you did at the top. Bind off very loosely. Fold at the purl ridge and sew in place.

1x1 ribbing: K1, p1 around for 1"

2x2 ribbing: K2, p2 around for 1"

Or use whatever cuff you like (lots to choose from in the Adorabubble Baby Britches Pattern.) I think these would be super cute with a fringie cuff. I need a girl to knit for.

7. Elastic: Cut amount of elastic needed, thigh circumference plus about 1/2." Make sure you don't make it too tight and cut off circulation. Feed elastic through using a diaper safety pin and sew ends together securely. You can sew the hole shut but I left mine open in case I need to adjust the elastic as the munchkin grows (or slims down as he is now a speed crawler).

Sew ends in and you're done!

I'm casting on a pair in worsted weight wool right now and I think I'll write this up into a more formal pattern so you don't have to do any math. I love math but I know not everyone else does. It'll be in sock weight and worsted weight.

Once you make a pair, I'd love to see them! Like me on Facebook and post a picture in the album.

AWOL

2011-02-14T15:01:06-06:00

I haven't posted in a long time. Why? Life has just been crazy busy. I honestly have not picked up my needles for more than 5 minutes at a time in quite a long while. Plus I got a little discouraged when I spilled a hot bowl of cheese soup on my True Love Cowl (and my brand new couch). I don't know if you are aware, but cheese soup is very hard to clean up. Luckily I was just 1 repeat into the project, but that's still a lot of time and gorgeous wool wasted. The couch cleaned up beautifully, thank my lucky stars.

I got this little outfit done for the munchkin just in time for it to warm up here.

It's 40F today but it is North Dakota in February. We'll have plenty of cold weather yet. Thank you Beth from Doodlebirds for the rockin' yarn! Horizon is my most favoritestest colorway.

The cardigan is loosely based off of Sophisticated Baby. I loved the idea but tweaked it quite a bit to make it more to my liking. I want to make another and if I do, I'll keep better track of what I did so I can write it up into a pattern.

Would you believe I have no projects in the works right now? Usually I have at least 3. What to start next... Still not feeling the True Love Cowl love yet even though it is Valentines day today.