Hat, finished and Scarf, interrupted

I bought the book 60 Quick Knits from my "local" yarn storn in Lexington (two hours away).  It's sixty patterns knit with Cascade 220.  I thought it would provide a helpful reference for patterns using standard worsted wool - scarves, hats, and mittens.

I have knit Twisted Toque hat:

Yarn:  Black Wool of the Andes from Knitpicks. 

Needles:  US size 7.  I started with double pointed needles, but switched to two circulars, and found that much easier and faster.

Pattern:  Twisted Toque in 60 Quick Knits

I blocked the hat on a bowl, and I think it's blocked too large.  I think I need to reblock it smaller.

I also started the Ruffled Scarf from the same book, using Knitpicks sugarbunny yarn in a pale blue.  I like the ruffled boarded, but the scarf body rolls.  And the yarn is very hairy.  I'm not sure I'll finish it. We'll see.

Koigu Linen Stitch Scarf

I'm still knitting! This project was finished in time to give as a Christmas gift to my mom.

Steve and I were in Asheville, North Carolina, and we went to Yarn Paradise, a great yarn store.  I've posted about this trip before.

In the middle of one of the rooms of the store was a round table on which sat a large basket of Koigu yarn and several examples of this scarf.  The sales clerk showed me that pattern and helped me to choose the yarns.

Pattern:  Koigu Linen Stitch scarf by Churchmouse Yarns and Teas.  I bought it and the yarn I used to knit the scarf in November of 2010 while Steve and I were visiting Asheville, North Carolina.  The store is Yarn Paradise.

Yarn:  One skein each of Claudia Handpainted yarn in Plumicious, Koigu KPPPM 581, and Koigu KPPPM  470.

Needles:  U.S. 6 (4.0mm)

Timing:  I started the scarf in February of 2011 and finished it in December of 2011.

The fabric created by the linen stitch is very different from regular knitting.  It has an almost woven feel.  Great pattern, and I love the result.

Alaskan Scarf

When we were in Alaska, I bought several yarns.  Two of them were from Rabbit Run.   I used them to start a scarf, which I talked about in this post.  You can actually see the colors better in the picture associated with that post.  The scarf is finished now.

Yarn:  Rabbit Ridge Columbia Worsted Weight Wool in Wildberry and in Water.  The two colorways are almost the same except that that wildberry has raspberry in it in addition to the blues and greens.

Needle:  US Size 7

Pattern:  No real pattern -- just a 2 x 2 rib of stripes two rows wide.  It doesn't look striped since the yarn is so close to being the same.  I think it's 42 stitches wide.

It has been one of my movie scarves -- I would grab it when I was going to the movies to have something to knit in the dark.  I like how this turned out.

Snow People

Two on the right were gifts for friends; two on the left stayed with us.

In progress

I was looking through my email when I found a pattern from Knitpicks that intrigued me. I ended up knitting five of these little snow people. I kept two, haven't quiet finished two, and gave two away as a Christmas gift.


Hats and scarves

Pattern: Knitpicks Lumpy, Rosy and Slim by Melissa Burt.  I haven't made Lumpy, but I have made the other two.    I followed the pattern as written except that I used a smaller needle (just because I knit loosely.  I have found on Ravelry that many people who knit them haven't felted them, but I much prefer them to be felted.  I've included a picture for comparison.  The felting just makes them look much more like snow -- more professional the finished (in my opinion).   I felted them by hand in the bathroom sink. 

Yarn:  Knitpicks Palette in various colors -- white, black, garnet heather, and marine heather.  I also picked up an orange, green and yellow to finish off the last two I'm making.  Those two, when finished, will sport my boys school colors.

Unfelted on left; felted on right

Needles:  US 2.5 (3.0mm) DPN

Felting each one took about 10 minutes, and as the felting came to an end I could feel the object shrink and could see the stitches disappear.

I made their noses out of orange polymer clay with a hole in one end to sew it on.  The clasps on the capes are also handmade with jewelry wire.

Fun pattern -- enjoyed it.

Red Scarf Project 2011

For the second year in a row, I have knit a scarf for the Red Scarf Project of Foster Care to Success.  These scarves are packed in care packages and sent to students in college or trade school who have "grown out of" foster care.  The packages are sent for Valentines' Day (which explains why all of the scarves are red).

Here are the details about the scarf:

Pattern:  The Yarn Harlot's One Row Handspun Scarf Pattern.  I use this "pattern" all of the time.  It is so easy and creates a great textured, reversible, non-rolling scarf.  I love how the colors in overdyed yarn run through fabric knit using this stitch pattern.  This scarf is 38 stitches across.

Yarn:  I wanted something worsted weight, wool and washable, so I chose Swish tonal from Knitpicks.  It is in the Gypsy colorway.

Needles:  Size US 7.

I haven't gotten a good picture of this scarf.  The lighting in my office isn't doing it justice, and I'm ready to mail it away.

Mitered Cross Blanket

It's finally finished and has been delivered to his dorm room.  Meet my Mitered Cross Blanket.  It is probably the biggest thing I have ever knit by size.  Maybe something I've done has had more stitches, but I'm positive nothing has measured this large.

We moved our son to college a couple of weekends ago, and I packed this blanket in a care package with snacks and supplies, along with a letter, explaining about the blanket.

The details

Yarn:  I used all Knitpicks yarn -- Chroma and Wool of the Andes (WotA)  .G is a freshman at West Virginia Wesleyan College. The school colors are orange and black; that dictated the colors of the blanket.

• Chroma in Smoothie.  I used more less than one skein to make 3 squares
• WotA in Coal.  I used 3 skeins to make 4 squares and to do the edging iCord
• WotA in Orange.  I used two skeins to make four squares and had almost none left.
• WotA in Cobblestone Heather.  I used two skeins to make four squares. 
• WotA in Dove Heather.  I think I used 19 skeins as the background color for 15 squares and 6 half squares.

Needles: US Size 6 Knitpicks options needles.  I used both the nickel plated and harmony interchangable needles, depending on my mood.  For the icord, I used nickle plated dpn.

Pattern:  Mitered Cross blanket for Japan by Kay Gardiner of Mason-Dixon Knitting.  Here's the Ravelry link, and here is a link to April in Mason-Dixon Knitting.  If you scroll down, you'll see Kay's blanket and a link to buy the pattern -- proceeds go to Japanese Earthquake relief.  I love that buying the pattern benefits others, and I hope when I told that to my son, it said something to him about serving others and its importance.  My son is over six feet tall, so I added two rows of squares to the blanket for a total of 15 squares in six rows.  I did the icord in a contrasting color (coal).  I liked the look it gave the blanket -- it just seemed right for G.  I added a yarn over to the icord repeats -- knit-knit-yarn over-knit through back loop, and then I passed the yarn over over the final knit two together through back loop. Somehow the yarn over covered the stripe.   By the way, go buy the pattern -- even if you don't plan to make the blanket.  It's a good thing to do.

I stitched a cross (Faith), an anchor (hope) and a heart (love) in the corner.   ¹³

And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.  (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Size:  I thought I was making a 6 foot by 3 foot blanket.  It turned out to be 8 feet by 3 feet, 3 inches.  I have no idea how it ended up so long, but he'll have lots of room to snuggle in this behemoth.

Final thoughts -- This is a great pattern that is interesting enough to knit for a long time (3 months) but simple enough to not be frustrating.  I enjoyed the knitting.  It was a great project to carry me through the transition of my son's high school graduation and his summer before college.  I was able to knit my love into something warm to leave with him at school -- something that left an important message about caring for others.  Something that told him how much he is loved.

He texted his dad a picture of his newly lofted bed today.  Check out what's up there -- the blanket.  Cool.

Emmaus Rainbow Socks

Steve was an ALD on an Emmaus walk in March and at the end of March, beginning of April, I served as an LDIT.  I knew that I would be serving in the background on Steve's walk (which would mean some sitting time) and that my position of a lay director in training meant that I would be observing the entire three day walk.  It sounded like a portable knitting project would be ideal.

I decided on socks, and picked up my recently purchased Knitpicks Felici in Rainbow -- socks were off and running (excuse the pun).  I started them the day the men's walk started and finished them the day the women's walk ended (a little more than two weeks).

Rainbow seemed appropriate since it is one of the symbols associated with an Emmaus Walk.

Pattern:  The Yarn Harlot's "Good Plain Sock" from her book Knitting Rules (that's a Ravelry link).

Needles:  I used double pointed, US size 1.5.  I felt the entire time I was knitting that the needles were too large for the yarn and the fabric was too loosely knit.  I didn't change.  I'll probably regret that, but the socks are very soft.

Yarn:  Two skeins of Knitpicks Felici Rainbow.  I worked with the yarn so that I started at the same point of each skein in the color changes.  The socks are almost identical.

Pickets Baby Blanket

Yes, it has been a long time since I posted.  I have been knitting, but I haven't been knit-blogging.  I'll catch up.  I think I'll start with the biggest project I've been working on and have just finished.

A young couple at our church was expecting a baby, and I decided to knit a blanket.  We knew she was a she, so pink came to mind, but I worried I would get bored too soon to finish it.  The mother and I share the Emmaus experience in common, and a rainbow seemed a great way to portray that connection and to remind the family of God's promises.  The day after I decided to knit in rainbow colors, I found the Picket baby blanket pattern on Knitpicks.  It seemed perfect.

Each stripe is knit separately and then sewn together.  The knitting went rather fast -- it makes a great portable project, since it is knit in stripes.  I discovered, though, that I hate HATE seaming.  It is not portable, and I am not good at it. 

Last weekend, I made myself spend several hours finishing it so that I could give it to the family before the (now born) baby girl went to college.

Pattern:  Pickets baby blanket from Knitpicks.  Knitpicks no longer carries all of the yarn called for in the pattern.  I substituted bark for merlot heather, peapod for lemongrass heather, and bought the suggested moss to substitute for pampas heather.  The pattern calls for 11 stripes.  I ended up with 10 because I just do not like the moss at all. 

Needles:  US size 5, circular needles from Knitpicks.  My row gauge was very much off, but I think this is a pattern problem.  I do knit loosely, but each stripe calls for 248 rows to create a stripe (without the points) that is 34 inches long from point to point or about 30 inches not counting the points.  That would be a row gauge of 33 rows = 4 inches.  That pattern calls for a row gauge of 18 rows = 4 inches.  It could be that there are 18 garter stitch ridges per 4 inches.  That math comes out about right.  I decided I would just knit the 248 rows, which came out at about the right length.  It is a blanket, after all.

Yarn:  10 colors of Knitpicks Swish DK including seven heathers:  amethyst, marble, garnet, persimmon, grain, tidepool, forest and delft plus two non-heathers -- bark and peapod.  One skein of each was plenty.

CJ's baby blanket on a spring day in the park.

French Press Slippers

Back in July -- yes, I know -- July, I started a pair of French Press slippers.  I worked on them for an evening and then put them in a bag, and didn't pick them up again -- until December.

I finished both slippers and straps, felted them, dried them (took a long time to dry), and then left the pieces on the counter.  For a month.

This evening I purchased the buttons and sewed the straps onto the shoes.  Finally. Finished.

I thought I would count these as a 2010 finished object, but come on.  I left the last little, tiny bit of work until February.  I think I had better call them 2011.

Yarn:  Paton's Classic Wool in a blue / red / purple / brown mix.  I bought two skeins, although I didn't use all of the yarn.  The feltable wool is absolutely necessary for this project.

Pattern:  French Press Slippers by Melynda Bernardi.  Once the knitting is finished,  the slippers are felted.  I wish (kind of) that I knit them a little smaller or felted them a little longer.

Needles:  US Size 15

I like them!

The pattern is one you have to trust as you knit it.  I wish I had taken a picture prior to felting.  They looked like slippers for skinny footed giant.