Monday, October 31, 2011

Excited today

Today I am working on a scarf for my hubby.  He needs a scarf to match his favorite coat and his birthday is coming up, so a scarf he gets.


I also got some kind of spectacular news. Someone I have never met, but know my sister, has requested a hat made by me.  ME SPECIFICALLY, no store item would do.  This simple request has made my flipping day!

Also, I am making a dear friend a NYAN Pop Tart Cat scarf.  I had to google it to find out what she was talking about...boy was I sorry. Nonetheless, I am off to yarn heaven for supplies!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Lazy Sundays

I am still working on my movie-night shrug, but more importantly homework...

Today the hubby got me the Jane Austen Knits 2011 magazine and Weekend Hats.  I got them in the digital format so I could look at the patterns via iPad.  Once I have made a dent in the Kami hat and the movie-shrug is closer to done, I might start a new hat from my book!!

Also, I've been commissioned to make a NYAN Poptart/Cat scarf and a beret, each for a different wonderful lady.

So no pictures today, just words!  :)


Friday, October 28, 2011

Mary Jane Pithy Hat - DONE!

The hat is finished; I am so excited!  Super duper glad that I did not have to use DPNs at all for this project!  The hat is so loose at the top that I easily finished without issue!
This hat was knitted with Red Heart Soft yarn in Mid Blue.  The yarn is as the name says, very soft to the touch and the hat is quite stretchy thanks to the lovely purse stitch!

A link to the pattern used: Mary Jane Hat

 From the front!

 From the back...though a little off-center!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Kami Hat Cont'd

This evening I cast on my Kami Hat in lovely eggplant! The pattern had a 13 + 3 repeat 5 times per round, so I am using place markers for the first few rounds. I normally don't use place markers for patterns repeats; I just memorize the pattern and say it to myself as I knit.  But something about counting to sixteen 5 times just didn't sit well with me.  The first round was atrocious as I cast on so tightly, but by round two things are moving along nicely.  I am using a homemade place marker to signify the new round.


Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Dishcloth Cont'd

About a third of the way complete with the dishcloth, I count my rows by the garter stitch edging.


Here I am exactly halfway done, 17 rows of stockinette stitch plus my 4 garters rows at the bottom.


All of the stockinette is complete, you will know you are done when you have 18 ridges counting the two for the garter stitch rows.


Finished!
Now I have to do the fancy stuff that you don't get to see until the recipient gets his/her dishcloth!

Swatches


It is very important to create a swatch...most of the time.  I usually create one, but I rarely keep the swatch.  I will frog it to conserve yarn unless the yarn is delicate and won't look good post-frogging.  What you see above is an on-the-spot swatch for the dishcloth pattern below.

Using Sugar'n Cream in Ecru, I am going to make a 7"x7" dishcloth.
It will have a half inch garter stitch border to prevent curling as it is going to be plain 'ol stockinette stitch.

My swatch is 8 stitches and 11 rows = 2" square, using US9.

My pattern:
Cast on 30
Rows 1 - 4, knit all stitches
Row 5 - knit all stitches
Row 6 - k3, p to last 3 stitches, k3
Repeat rows 5 and 6 for 31 more rows ending on a WS row, aka you would be about to do a Row 6 and should have a total of 33 rows in the Row 5 & 6 pattern.
K 4 rows
Bind off

More steps to follow, but as this is a gift for someone, I will be holding on the rest of the pattern until after s/he receives it.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Heather Shrug

This morning I decided to cast on a shrug...so here goes my first shrug attempt, ever.  I am making this movie night shrug in Knit Picks' Wool of the Andes Tweed in the colorway Flagstone Heather.  Using US10 10" needles, I have to add any extra repeat of the pattern and one extra knit stitch on each end.  I'm glad that I did a swatch on this one, because I would have been pissed off it was too small...
Here's the cast on row with 1 row of Ks.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

A Kami Hat

So on I love Yarn Day, I went to my LYS, Soft Horizons. I picked out a beautiful ice blue silk yarn, which I will show you all later, and an eggplant Aran made by Lang Yarn

Having no particular project in mind, I decided I would make a hat with my new yarn. I started scouring the internet for a one-skein hat pattern, but nothing was right. I had almost given up, but I pulled up Foxflat's latest blog and found her Kami Hat used the exact same yarn. 

Being a recognizer of coincidence, I decided I would use my yarn day yarn for a Kami Hat of my own. So be on the lookout for updates to my Kami Hat.
This picture does not do the rich eggplant color justice...



Pithy Hat

Currently, I am working on a pithy hat that uses a modified purse stitch for knitting in the round:

round 1:*yo, p 2 tog* repeat til end
round 2: *YO, k2 tog (TBL)* repeat til end
Repeat rounds 1 and 2 until desired length.