And of course, there has been knitting (part 1)

This year I have zero hand knit projects and nine completed machine knit projects. Last year I had one hand knit project and eight machine knitted finished objects.

I gave these socks to my son for his birthday. They were a tour de force of short-rowing and I am pretty sure I decided I had to make them only because I had the exact yarn and colourway that illustrated the pattern in my stash (and couldn't quite imagine wearing it myself).

These are Broken Jack (free pattern on Ravelry) done in Biscotte Yarns Felix self-striping yarn, colourway "Go Habs Go", a name that could be impossible to understand if you have no ties to Canada. 

Here's a hint. I like these stripes broken up into short row diamonds better than the straight striping pattern, but didn't see the benefit of continuing the diamonds into the foot area - where they would be mostly hidden and possibly lumpy.

After that it was all machine knitting, all the time.

In two years, I made three baby blankets.

This is a Diana Sullivan pattern - Seashell Child's Blanket.

It's knitted in a self-striping yarn on my mid-gauge and, like the socks, the shells are made by short-rowing which completely breaks up the repeating stripes and makes them look a lot more interesting. 

I made it for my nephew and his partner and apparently the baby really likes her blankie, which makes me happy. 

I made the baby's big sister a matching poncho. 

On the poncho, I did a wide i-cord edging - another Diana Sullivan technique. 

At right is the front side showing 5 stitches ...

Below is the back side also showing 5 stitches. 

This is knit on in one pass using the i-cord technique (knit in one direction, slip in the other) but over 8 needles. The slip pass makes a long float, which is then latched up for the missing 2 stitches. It's a neat technique.

I hate that Blogger now refuses to let me have two photos on the same line. Sorry for the spread-out read. 

Then I made this crazy intarsia animal faces blanket for a friend's first grandchild. 

It's an adaptation of a free hand-knitting pattern available on Ravelry. Warning: the pattern is written in Finnish. But what do you really need other than the charts and some good photos of the embellishments? 

Knitted on my bulky KH-260 in surprisingly nice aran-weight acrylic from Michael's. 

The finishing took fooooorevvvvver.

The final blankie was my fourth Amazababy blanket. This soft (but bumpy!) blankie never fails to please. 

Knitted in Woolike, budget yarn but so soft and so nice on the machine! 

I mixed up the colours by using dark navy and orange instead of black and red. You noticed right away, right?

Phew! That's enough blogging for today. Stay tuned for part 2 in which I will show you some other MK projects.