17-28.1.11 Baby Feeties by Anne Sahakian

I tried last year the Baby Feeties instructions, designed by Anne Sahakian, but failed to understand them. I decided this time to try them again because they seem so cute. After several trials and errors, using 3.75mm & 4mm dpn needles, it took me 2 days to understand how to knit these booties properly.

I put for your convenience a tuto available here, with pictures I have taken during the process, to better visualize and accompany Anne's instructions.

21-23.1.11 Maple Seed Hat by Angela Hahn

Knitted with doubled thread of cotton yarn with circular needles of 5mm size all along the knitting for a newborn size. Since the gauge was far from fitting the smallest size proposed in the pattern, I casted on 72 sts as if to do the medium size of the pattern, in order to reach the newborn size I wished to. 

Working Rnd 1-4 for 6 times, I reached a height of 4”. Then I started the decrease part. Unfortunately, I messed up with Rnd 2 and 3 of the decrease, but somehow managed to overcome and finish. 

The design is beautiful and a fun to make.

Picture taken on 30.6.11

22.1.11 Yaar Haruvit & Tel Tzafit

Omer picking up Arum  palaestinum leaves

Some weevil Coleoptera

Delicious cooked Arum palaestinum salad  (לוף ארץ - ישראלי) with lemon, onion and olive oil.
Careful:  uncooked Arum palaestinum leaves are poisonous unless well treated  to become edible (see explanation in the link above)

14-16.1.11 5 Peas in a Pod by Hansi Singh

Peas in a Pod instructions designed by Hansi Singh (Hansigurumi) appears in her book Amigurumi Knits (pp.44-47 open pod).

I used a 2mm dpn to form a 11.5 cm length (+stalk) on 2.5 cm width open pod.
Since the work with 2mm dpn from wood was really hard and finger aching, I also used a normal short pair of 2mm size needles and a crochet hook size 2, to pick up the sts for the peas. 
Even after using 2mm size needles to get a smaller result, it still came out too big to fit the newborn hat I wanted to decorate. 

3 peas wouldn’t fit in this length of pod, so I had to make 5 of them. The 5th one is a bit smaller (I increased to 12 sts instead of 16 (2 increases instead of 4) in round #3 and omitted round #6). 

I sewed an I-cord based on 4 sts, knitted on 10 rounds.
This is my first knitted object designed by Hansi that I am knitting. I was a bit hesitating before starting one of her designs since I knew there were errata in some of the patterns and some of them are quiet advanced ones. 
I must say again and again that Hansi is a genius. I was so admirative of the design, the perfectness, the thought and the knowledge behind the pattern. It is really Woow, even if it doesn’t come out exactly as in the book pictures.

One more important remark is the following (cited from the tips and tricks in the Hansigurumi Group): 

“Several group members have noticed that stitches should be picked up clockwise to avoid a purl row on the right side of the knitting.”

This means that if you look at p.47 in the regular reading orientation, on the peapod in Fig.1 (in the “Amigurumi Knits” book), the short thread of the yarn (end) should be at your left (closest to the upper existing pea), whereas the working thread should be at your right (facing the empty pod). This should prevent from you to mess up having purlwise peas.

8-9.1.11 Baby Cocoon by Angie Hartley

Most of the cocoon was knitted with the 9mm size circular needles and the decrease part with my dear husband homemade 4 double pointed needles (about 8mm size). For the thread, I used 4 threads together, working each time with 2 skeins in parallel. My choice was for the Medium size, so the dimensions came out 24cmX49cm. Following the pattern, I started the decrease in round 3. It is mistakenly omitted from the pattern that you start using the double pointed needles when you reach the decrease part. However, since I changed my needles size, I made each even round twice, except round 12 since the thread was running out. I am very pleased with the result. It is an easy and fun cloth. Hope it will still be relevant for poupik. In total, it took me about ~12 knitting hrs , but I am apparently a slow knitter.

Even if the pictures below were taken on 10.6.11, the cocoon is very relevant for Jerusalem's weather at night.