I’m in this annoying stage where I’ve knit more than enough things for myself (how many scarves/cowls does one need, really? Especially when winter is nearly over and yet hasn’t even arrived) so I constantly offer to make things for other people. The knitting is still fresh enough for these people that they aren’t yet rolling their eyes and turning me down, or perhaps they are but we’re just chatting online so I’m not there to see it. Either way, offer I do! And they accept often.
I’ve unknowingly slipped into the black hole of yarn, where the standard store stuff no longer suffices and I’m on the search for certain types of wools, blends, organic cotton and bamboos and thank god Mister went snowmobiling with my brother this weekend because I looked around at one point in horror and actually stopped my knitting to start PUTTING AWAY ALL THE THINGS because I still can’t accept that I’m going to let projects and stufffffff just pile up everywhere even though I know it’ll eventually happen because the house, it’s small and the projects, they are many.
Projects like these I cannot imagine ever selling, because the material costs alone are more than others seem to sell them for. I still cannot understand how some price their items so low and I refuse to devalue my work and time, so I think I’ll just reserve these types of things for special people. The materials they can cover, but the time is my gift.
SO! I’ll keep this ambiguous because though I have no readers, the internet can often be a small place and I wouldn’t want to ruin any surprises. A person that is not me is having a baby and though a friend of a friend, I’ve met her before and she’s lovely, so I immediately offered to make something for her upcoming shower. The plan started as just a cocoon/photo prop which turned into a peapod and then there was nearly a full skein leftover so sure, what baby doesn’t need a monster too?
I started from this Peanut & Peapod pattern on Ravelry, but if we’re being honest, I found it quite frustrating. It was a two-fold (perhaps more) issue. First, the pattern was generally lacking in any detail. Let’s be clear – by just looking at the pod I knew it was simple, but I read and reread and kept thinking ok, where are the rest of the instructions? If anything, I’m upset at myself, not the pattern, because once I stepped back from the adorableness of a BABY in a PEAPOD, I know I could have just knit the entire thing without a pattern at all. Sigh.
Next, she suggests holding the yarn double stranded and knitting on 13 circular needles. Well I have 10 and I have 15 and I wasn’t going to buy new needles just for one project, so I found this gorgeous organic cotton and held it double stranded on the size 15 and it was coming together so well but I was absolutely tearing through the yarn – more than a skein gone and not even to the first button hole. And we already discussed how the material costs aren’t small, so I just couldn’t justify the cost of six skeins, even if I’d been working on size 13 instead. I’d feel sick charging someone that much for just the yarn. So I frogged the entire thing and started over with a single strand on the size 10, which knit together great but then none of the measurements were the same. I finally came to the realization that this is so simple, why am I over thinking it?! So I threw the pattern aside, glancing only as a guide, not a pattern, and just put them together based on my own intuition, and I think that turned out for the best, really.
I don’t have a baby, so Yoshi will have to do
I used Lion Brand Nature’s Choice Organic Cotton in Limeade because it was the perfect peapod color and I wanted something that would be great for a baby. I would have preferred a trip to my local shop (recently discovered, City Knits in Detroit!) but we were on an incredibly short deadline so I was happy to find a good yarn quickly. The final pod is super soft and the yarn knit up quite easily on my size 10 bamboo needles. The label suggests size 9, but I’m an extremely tight knitter (intentionally so) and I knew I wanted a floppy and soft final product, so I intentionally sized up. If anything, my only complaint is that the nubby-ness in the yarn sometimes shows in photos as uneven stitches and then my OCD kicks in and I panic, thinking it looks like lousy knitting. But really – breathe – its gorgeous in person and I’ll add all these notes to the Ravelry project in hopes of helping others out. The peapod and hat used just over two skeins, perhaps a bit more because I found a 3″ nasty hard section of yarn in one of my skeins and had to cut it out. The rest went to the monster below and I’m left with so little it’s hardly worth saving.
The monster, well we’ve been through this before. It’s an adaptation of Rebecca Danger’s Maddox which I’ve linked to so often, I’m sure she’s beginning to think who is this weirdo and why does she keep talking about me? I haven’t made a monster since the holidays, which seems like a lifetime ago, but really is only 6 weeks or so, and I’m amazed and how far I’ve come as a knitter. This guy was a total breeze and I’m thrilled, because I may have finally come up with a monster that I feel comfortable selling through Milkshed. He’s a great finished size and the organic cotton is perfect for babies. I’ve tweaked the decrease on the head three times now and settled on the final steps that I prefer.
Thanks for the stand in modeling, Yoshi
milkshed 