ganomy hat

so i finally did it - i made the super cute ganomy hat - and all it took was one afternoon. i have no idea what yarn i used i pulled it outta the stash without a label. Happy Thanksgiving!

this is my first zimmermania post. how exciting!!

April Mystery Blanket - finished!

It's a while since I've posted anything here, but I'm back and this time with a new item I never knitted before, namely the April Mystery Blanket.


I love the geometry of this blanket (please note the way my two photos above and below almost square up!) and am already minded to knit another one for a Christening in June.

The squares are knitted in cotton and the edges in cotton chenille.

The finished product is machine washable, soft as a baby's bottom and does not curl and wave as badly as the picture indicates!

All the details of materials etc can be found on Ravelry, where surprise, surprise I'm known as teeweewonders and other pictures etc can be found on my blog.

Blogger is really playing up and I think this must be the tenth time I try to post this. Hopefully this will be my lucky dip!

Pink and Blue BSJ

I never tire of the BSJ. I think I have made about 15 of them now. This little one is made from Rauma Babygarn a machine washable 100%wool yarn from Norway. It comes in such a wonderful variety of colors.

I chose a bright pink and blue for a friend's baby and did some random stripes. The sleeves always look unfinished to me so I have added ribbed cuffs that are long enough to fold back on themselves. Then they can be unfolded as the baby grows. The neckline is finished with single crochet to hide the changes in color. I need to get it sent off soon.

April 1 Poetry Blogging

Today marks the beginning of National Poetry Month, and that means poets and people who like poems are pasting poems they like in unexpected places all over the world for others to run into, by accident, by good luck.

So of course Bloggers are posting favorite poems today.

I don't know if Elizabeth Zimmerman wrote poetry. I know many of us find poetry in what she wrote.

Here's a good quote:


"Knit on, with confidence and hope, through all crises."
Elizabeth Zimmermann

That's a poem, don't you think?

Mary's Tomten

I just finished a tomten for my 9-year-old daughter in Malabrigo - I sewed the buttons on last night and this morning she wore it to school! I loved the project and the yarn, and will probably cast on pretty soon for a second one. I want to try one with a collar rather than a hood, and with applied i-cord for trim. For this sweater, I followed the instructions in Opinionated Knitter (short rows, picking up the underarm stitches, etc.). Details and more photos are on my blog.

February Baby Sweater and beenie

My second, but definitely not last, February Baby Sweater is complete at long last. I love the outcome and will be knitting these en masse for years to come.

I always try to accompany my baby jackets with a wee hat, and on this occasion i made a beenie using the same pattern as on the February Baby Sweater. I have tried to describe how I handled the decreases on my blog. I hope the instructions make sense, otherwise you are most welcome to ask for further details, and I'll be happy to try to explain.

Thank you all for sharing your February Baby Sweaters in this forum, it's helped me a lot.
Details of yarn, pattern etc. is on my Ravelry profile: teeweewonders. If you're not a Ravelry member, drop me a line, and I'll send you a copy.

In February Baby Sweater mode

Yikes - Blogger is playing up and this is my second attempt at showing me the result of my first attempt at creating the fabulous February Baby Sweater. I absolutely love the pattern and the result!

This is knitted for a wee surprise baby that suddenly made an entry into the world without its father's colleagues knowing it was expected!

The minute I finished my first attempt I swiftly moved onto my second. I can't wait to see this one finished, as I think it will look really cute and Christmassy and maybe it'll go to my new niece, who is due at Christmas, unless off course she turns out a nephew. :)

More pictures and details can be found on my blog and on Ravelry, where I'm known as teeweewonders.

Getting started on a BSJ

I have just begun on a BSJ. I am using Zitron Lifestyle in color #1860. It is a superwash Merino. I LOVE the greens!

~ Robyn

WeeBit Wonky

A Surprise for Stefan

Between my first and second efforts, I'd begun to wonder if it would be completed by the time Stefan entered college. Thankfully, it's done, and my co-worker's newborn grandson is a mere one month old.

This Baby Surprise Sweater is a far better end-product that its predecessor. Though not perfect, practice has definitely made my second attempt at Elizabeth Zimmermann's classic design more uniform. Where is the first? That baby's long since been frogged, with the buttons & yarn set aside for yet another attempt.

In a nod to practicality (sorry, natural-fiber enthusiasts: I feel your pain, but frankly, I'm lazy, and loathe the very thought of giving a new mom some knitted up thing that requires special handling), I worked the sweater in Plymouth Encore worsted, a very soft 25% wool/75% acrylic, machine wash & dry yarn, and stitched it up on size 6 KnitPicks Options, in three perfectly neutral and Harvard-like (the kid's college-bound, you recall) colors: cranberry relish, stony beach, and natural.

My two disappointments: 1. That I was unable to use the splendid hi-gloss cranberry-colored five-point star buttons, as originally planned (yes, Child Protective Services, it finally dawned unwise to fasten sharp pointy objects onto infant wear); and 2. That I don't seem to have positioned the round and satiny alternatives very well. In the photo, you see that that they tug a bit, distorting the edge of the sweater? That's something I've got to work on in the future.

Still, I'm pleased, and just love those striped corners! All in all, this was a fun project, and one I'd happily do again.

My thanks to all the talented Zimmermaniacs who daily inspire me with their creative takes on Elizabeth's timeless designs. And, yes... welcome to the world, baby Stefan!

Another EZ virgin confesses all!

I'm a virgin no more... I've knitted two Baby Surprise Jackets - and I'm hooked!

Having followed this blog - and the blogs of many other EZ fans for months, I finally ordered and received the pattern for the Baby Surprise Jacket in February and very quickly completed my first experiment. I was so excited that I quickly knit another one.

I love to experiment, and often buy cheap odds and ends - or find some in my (VAST) stash and try out a pattern before I commit good yarn to it.

For the first BSJ I used a 100g bundle of some acrylic yarn. I know it would break EZ's heart, but I had to experiment...

I was quite pleased with the outcome - despite the yarn... and without even thinking I grabbed the needles and quickly cast on for another BSJ.

This time I got a bit brave and experimented with two colours. I have a standard baby cardigan which I have knit so many times and I always like to add a few different colours to it to make it a wee bit more interesting. The pattern is one I made up myself, without knowing that I was using some of EZ's theories for pattern creation...

I thought I'd add a bit of colour to the second BSJ and used two different colours of purple to add the wonderful angular lines created by the pattern.

I really wanted to add a bonnet of sorts and as I didn't have an EZ pattern to match I decided to knit a pattern which I learned as a child, and which reminds me a lot of EZ's knitting pattern. You knit a long wavy strip, which stitches up into a wonderful wee hat. I was experimenting with the gauge and ended up with two hats, neither of which particularly fit the size of the BSJ, but I'll find something to fit!

A few days ago I went on a trip on the Amazon - and today I received the first part of my order; "Knitter's Almanac" and "Knitting Without Tears".

I can't wait to get started on the Modular Tomten. It's just my kind of thing.

Thanks for adding me to the list of EZ fans. I look forward to being able to ask questions here and share my new projects, now that the patterns have arrived...

Happy knitting (",)