knit – fdigitalis.com

You’d have to live under a rock to not know that this holiday season has been all Star Wars, all the time… especially if you happen to have little (or even big) boys in the house. One of my husband’s birthday presents was tickets during opening weekend for Star Wars: TFA. We loved the movie and are so excited about the new characters, new droids, new villains… and questions. So many questions!

A few years ago, my mom gave me my old Christmas stocking, which was knitted by my grandmother, not long after I was born. I think every one of the grandkids got one of these homemade beauties, personalized with his or her name. I found a copy of the old pattern, a classic from the mid-40s on the Internet. I love mine, with the fuzzy angora Santa’s beard and the sequin sparkles. So kitchy and cool!

I’ve wanted to make one for J for years, and let’s face it, I’ve only got a few more years where he’ll still put up with this kind of fussy Mom-ness. So I decided to find a pattern and make it with a more modern spin, and personalize it with more than just his name.

I found the original pattern online, and then proceeded to find some really awesome Star Wars Intarsia patterns created by Leah Fenton and available on Ravelry as a free download. I kept it to a simple color combination, to honor the spirit of the original.

I made mine from an affordable, basic cotton worsted weight I found at the local Hobby Lobby. Probably, if I had it to do over, I’d choose a sport or dk weight to make the overall size less gargantuan. But, since I hate colorwork, keeping it larger and easier to manage ensured that I’d actually complete it by Christmas.

I did the lightsabers in duplicate stitch, with a strand of metallic thread worked in. This was the first project where I tried duplicate stitch, so that was a nice bonus! It’s rough in places, but overall I’m happy with the results. Plus, we were done in time for Christmas. May the Force be with you this season, everyone!

The one on the right is the original inspiration stocking, the one my Grandma Berta made many years ago.

I picked a combination of symbols of the Rebel Alliance and the Empire…. Darth, Death Star, Millenium Falcon and the Rebel symbol

For the bottom section, alternating red and green lightsabers, with handles in two shades of grey.

I added a metallic thread to the yarn when doing the lightsaber blades in duplicate stitch.

The stocking turned out huge, but it was fun, and holds a ton of loot!

Merry Christmas, everybody!

It doesn’t end! We have so many babies coming!

It’s usually my commitment to get the baby blanket done by the baby shower…. I did my best this winter and spring, but there were just too many babies coming to keep up!

I started this one just after the new year and the holiday buzz was over…. while I was getting the last blanket assembled, the squares from this one became my portable project.

This is the first blanket I ever made using Sugar n’ Cream cotton…. the mama-to-be likes things that are natural and simple, so I thought something in USA-made cotton with simple, earthy colors would be just the thing. Plus, they elected to be surprised by the baby’s gender, so these colors and designs were nice and neutral, and were sure to go with all of their other baby gear.

The squares were the usual 40 stitch width that I like to use. I’m fond of the number because it’s divisible by tons of numbers (1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 20… you get the idea) so I can do plenty of fun different patterns. I did a swatch and determined that I’d need to knit 55 rows to get a perfect square. I wanted a large blanket this time, so I went with a 4 x 5 square design.

Usually, I pick five colors, and attempt to do one each of solids, stripes, intarsia, and a knit/purl or lace design that features each of the five main colors. This time, I picked only four colors, and had to mix it up a little differently. I did one in each color of a solid, intarsia, knit/purl patten, lace pattern, and a stripe/block of color. I fudged a little and did two stripey blocks in the darker brown, mainly because I wasn’t sure I’d have enough of it left to do a full block in that color, and I had a fairly decent amount of the green left to do some more stripes with.

I wanted to do some basic shapes, and circles are always hard, so I needed to create a chart. Whenever I need to make a chart, I go to this page on the Sweaterscapes site to pull up the exact size graph paper to match the gauge of my knitting for a particular project. To get the correct proportions, you need to calculate the aspect ratio of your gauge–that is, the relation of height to width of your project. By dividing 40 (stitches) by 55 (rows) I got 1.375… and lo and behold, there’s the perfect size graph paper for that! I printed it out and got out the colored pencils to make the shape I wanted.

I had a lot of fun choosing some different sorts of lace patterns to try on this blanket, too… I particularly loved this cool diamond lace pattern.

I am a horrible seamstress (I’m working on that, I promise), so I do my assembly the easy way–I crochet the edges together. The secret to this is very loose cast-on and cast off–makes it easier to get the crochet hook through all the layers and keep them all even. BTW, Aren’t those rosewood seaming pins so pretty? I use them every chance I get.

I spend forever arranging and re-arranging to get the right mix of patterns and colors…. I never remember how they go, and things always get mixed up, so I usually take a few photos so I can remember where I wanted everything. I took the photo in the evening, so on our black dining table, it looks like the blanket is floating in an ominous alternate universe.

Here are a few more photos of the blanket in the gallery below, both under construction and finished. I’m super happy with how it turned out, and so very happy to be welcoming little Parker Jude, a healthy little baby boy, into our family.