I Knit

When Iddo says “I knit” it means she sees an elephant. When I say “I knit” it means I take two knitting needles (or four) and some yarn and make something. This year I’ve made a few things I can show off before Christmas. The rest have to wait till after Christmas.

Iddo had her first birthday earlier this year and we happened to be with my family that day. I got it in my mind that I needed to knit everyone a tiny turtle as a party favor for her birthday. We even sent some to Grandma and Grandpa Dennis who joined the party via Skype. The adults at the party got the normal turtle colored turtles. The kids got one of the “poison dart” turtles. Iddo keeps hers in the diaper bag and for a while loved sucking on the head. I keep mine in my purse as a little reminder of my little turtle. Dad’s is on his desk. About half way through I wondered if I’d bitten off more than I could chew but then I figured out how to streamline attaching heads and legs and they actually went pretty fast.

Way back in my sophomore year of college I started knitting my very first sweater. I’ve finished several hats, some baby booties, lots of wash cloths, many scarves, and a whole bunch of tiny knitted toys since then, but I had yet to finish a sweater. Saturday I finally finished a sweater. Except it wasn’t the one I cast on over 15 years ago. It was one I cast on less than a month earlier.

Last winter my dad knit Iddo a beautiful cardigan sweater to wear in our “cold” winter weather. She’s out grown it so I thought I’d see what I could do this year. I had to do a lot of lengthening of the different pieces to make it fit her so I’m glad I could measure it against her as I went. It isn’t as fancy as last year’s, and I need to work on a looser cast-on and my seams, but it’ll do for this year. She even likes wearing it when we go out, so that’s a definite plus. Brett picked out the color. We were trying to match her eyes and it’s a pretty close match.

Now, if she’d stop hugging my skeins and walking off with them while I’m trying to knit I might be able to get a few more projects done.