You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘knitting’ tag.
Pattern: My own, based on the idea for Soft Mit-Gloves. I wanted to make them but didn’t have/want to knit with sport weight yarn, so I improvised based on my tried and true mitten method.
Yarn: Lion Wool, almost certainly less than a skein.
Needles: US 6/4 mm nickle plated dpns.
I’d been thinking for a while about what to make my friend Jon for his birthday, and after much browsing on Ravelry, I found the Cigarette gloves mentioned above and knew they would be perfect. A while back, I made Jon some fingerless mitts for him to wear at the shooting range to keep his hands warm in the cold Pennsylvania winters. I thought a nice pair of wool mittens would do the trick nicely. This way, his index finger is free to pull the trigger, and the other fingers stay nice and warm, nestled in the mitten side. The left one is just a regular mitten cause you don’t need individual fingers on that hand.
Increasingly, I’m finding that worsted weight is a little too thick and awkward for mittens and gloves. I think these will work just fine, but in the future, I think I may have to reduce the weight of yarn I use for this sort of thing, or at least use yarn with more drape. A tighter gauge might also help, much as I dislike knitting at tight gauges.
Coming soon: inchies. More Beatles. Post Secret. Other knitting things. Stay tuned!
Pattern: Studio Shorts available on Ravelry here.
Yarn: Knit Picks Comfy in Marlin, about two skeins
Needles: US 7/4.5 mm Knit Picks Options and 16″ circ
Mods: Went up a needle size cause the sevens were closer and I knit fairly tightly. Left out the huge increase row because my thighs are not half the size of my hips and instead increased about five stitches around the back to accommodate my ass. Skipped the short rows in the front. Probably added extra short rows in the back.
These actually went by quite rapidly once I got the right amount of stitches around the hips, and I think I would definitely make these again. It’s so hard to find shorts that fit, and once I got a drawstring in these, the fit is perfect. And they’re sooooo comfortable. I love Knit Picks Comfy. It feels like kittens on my thighs. : ) I think I would decrease right before the ribbing. The ribbing on the waist isn’t really stretchy at all, and I think a smaller circumference would help that.
I’m extremely pleased with these though. The pattern is staying on my queue.
In other knitting new: super secret project is coming right along. Started another secret project (but probably only secret til next week or so since I’ll be giving them to the recipient then). Unfortunately, super secret projects are really all I’m knitting lately.
Fortunately, my partner for one of my swaps has already sent, so I’ll be showing you that by mid-next week ish. I’ve also been working on my inchies, and I’ll be ready to send out soon. Plus there’s a Post Secret swap (which I am thankfully not organizing). I love swapping, and I’m sure readers are fond of them since they provide tons of blog content. Stay tuned!
So, I don’t know if you can tell from previous pictures I’ve posted on this here blog of mine, but I weigh about 110 pounds, sopping wet. I’m a tiny little person. So I’m not sure what I was thinking when I blindly followed the directions in my shorts to k1, Kfb around the circumference after I joined the legs. This is what I got:
Yeah. Those are not going to fit. The legs fit perfectly, but there is literally a foot of extra space at the hips.
I though about giving up and moving on to other things. But when I tried them on, the yarn felt so soft and lovely on my legs that I decided to take the plunge and frog back to the join and reknit them, this time without the huge increase row. At this point, I’ve reknit back up to the waist ribbing, which took half the time as before because the rounds are half the size. I’ve had to add more short rows, but I think the size now is just about perfect.
Once again, I have multiple works in progress on the needles. I usually prefer to only have one at a time, but one will take a while and is less than thrilling to knit (the super secret project), one is almost done, and one I started (once again) so I’d have something to knit at Busch Gardens.
I can’t show you pictures of the super secret project, but here are the other two:
A pair of shorts because I felt like knitting shorts. I have very few shorts beause I can never find any that fit. : ( These are almost done.
I also started a light weight lace scarf in a yummy alpaca yarn in a lovely maroon color. I bought it at the Knitting Corner, another yarn store in Virginia Beach that I hadn’t been to before this summer.
Like I said, the shorts are almost done, so look for an FO post about that soon. I also have inchies and a swap coming up, so stay tuned!
Pattern: My own! A stockinette triangle with a wave lace pattern and a simple edging. I’d love to share it, but I fudged most of the numbers to make the lace fit, so it would be difficult to write directions.
Yarn: Red Heart Heart and Sole, about a ball and a half in “Spring Stripes”
Needles: US 7/4.5 mm Knit Picks Options circ
(It’s really not wonky, I just arranged it oddly on Elizabeth. It’s not crooked, I promise.)
I LOVE this shawl. It’s light but still warm, perfect for overzealous air conditioning. The colors and bright and lovely. I LOVE how the lace came out. It’s a simple pattern but because of the stripes in the yarn, it makes the colors pop and they don’t obscure the pattern tooooo much. The points didn’t block out as much as I’d hoped, but they’re pointy enough. All in all, the shawl came out almost exactly as I wanted it to.
Here are some more pictures (I really like macro mode):
Currently being crafty: Inchie swap. Soon to be another swap. A cool knitting project. And a super secret project that I won’t be able to talk about in detail until December. Don’t worry though, I’ll have plenty of other things to show you until then. Stay tuned!
Pattern: My own! This is my first sweater I designed myself! I based it on Lillie, but I didn’t want to do it in pieces and I wanted to make some mods anyway, so I just made it up as I went. It’s top-down, raglan style.
Yarn: Knit Picks Comfy in “Marlin”, fourish skeins
Needles: Knit Picks Options US 8/5 mm circ and some Clover dpn’s
I LOVE this sweater. It doesn’t much resemble my original sketches for the sweater, but I love how it came out. The fit is perfect, I love the angle of the fronts, and the cotton makes it perfect for layering over tanks in fall/spring. Perfect for back to school! I could probably wear it on cool summer nights too… Immediately after I finished it, I put it on over a short red dress I had on, and it looked fantastic, so I’ll definitely have to put it in rotation.
The buttons came from a swap (the Craft my Wish Swap, if you recall), and I used four of I think the five i was given. I think they fit quite well. And the yarn? The YARN. I’m in love with this yarn. It’s kitten-soft thanks to the microfiber acrylic and cool and pretty sturdy thanks to the cotton content. Did I mention it’s soft? Plus the color I used, Marlin, is such a lovely deep blue. And slightly shimmery. Amazing. AND, as a bonus, I only used four of the eight skeins I ordered, so I have enough to make something substantial. WIN. No idea what I’m going to make with the left overs, but I am quite happy to have it in the stash. I would definitely order this yarn again, and I probably will with my next Knit Picks order (whenever that will be).
Also: This marks number 12 in my dodecathon of sweater knitting! Since I finished in July, I may well go ahead and make 24 sweaters this year. Maybe. Right now, I’m in the mood for lace. Complicated lace, after the seemingly endless miles of stockinette in this sweater. And I did just buy some yummy alpaca lace in a lovely maroon color…
Pattern: Razor Cami by Katie Marcus.
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft, probably less than a skein
Needles: US 6/4 mm circ, Knit Picks Options
Modifications: Using light worsted instead of fingering, cast on 120 for 10 pattern repeats (which turned out to be perfect), divided for the armpits them did some garter in the front and bound off the back, and did two twisted chains for each of the straps. I was going to do icord straps, but by the end of this top, I was SO ready to get it off the needles.
So I like this a lot, even though it’s juuust a tad too short. I keep pulling at it. But worn over a tank that’s long enough, I think it’ll be okay. I got reeeeally bored about two inches from finishing this, but I’m glad I pushed myself through it because I’m quite fond of the finished product. It’s made of acrylic, so it’s rather warm, but I think it’ll look cute paired with a long-sleeved shirt for the winter, when I’ll appreciate the warmth.
And for those of you playing at home, this tank makes the cut for sweater number ELEVEN for the dodecathon. Here’s the monthly break down:
January: Corona/Talia
February: Burgandy (Cable Cardi from Knit Simple)
March: Spring Cardi (Hey Teach)/Lime
April: Lime/Superman
May: Climbing Vines
June: Lelah/Tank Top (Tank Girl)
July: Razor Cami
One more to go!
(Obviously it’s big and awkward on Mr. Frog. Go with it.)
Pattern: Green Zebra Baby Sweater at Dove Knits
Yarn: Nameless sport weight acrylic my grandmother gave me ages ago.
Needles: US 8/5 mm Knit Picks Options circ.
Mods: None, really. Accidentally knit the sleeves on US 6/4mm needles cause I forgot what needle size I was supposed to be using. *shrug*
A good pattern, I say, though it’s basically just a bottom-up raglan cardigan. I like the knit-on button bands, though keeping track of three balls of yarn in order to do it was a little fiddly. I didn’t bother with button holes cause I hate to keep track of them, so I just sewed on little loops for the buttons. It came out great though, and I’ll definitely keep this pattern on my list of knits if I should need another baby sweater any time soon.
It helps that this pattern has a bunch of sizes. I used the 24 month size cause the recipient, my cousin Colin, is just under a year and already in 18 month clothes. Hopefully this will fit for fall/winter! Regardless, it was pretty fun to knit.
Unfortunately, there are no modeled shots cause it’s July and I’m not going to stick a baby in a hot sweater in July for a photo shoot. Also, it’s too big cause he’s not quite in 24 months clothes yet. Maybe come winter I’ll get some from the parents.
In other knitting news: I finished the Razor Cami, pics to come soon. I also started a sweater and I’m halfway through a spinning/dyeing project. Stay tuned!
So I cast on for another project, even though I have yet to finish my Razor Cami. The baby cardi is done but still needs some sort of closure and possibly a blocking. And I really ought to start Christmas presents (or at least the birthday presents I’ve got coming up).
It’s a little shawl I started out of Red Heart Heart and Sole sock yarn. One skein likely won’t be enough, but I’ll work with what I have at the moment. It looks pretty basic now, I know, but I’m going to add a lace edging and I might even write up a pattern for it. : )
And I only started this because I needed something to knit while in lines at Busch Gardens. That picture was taken while I waited for Kansas to play (they did a show at the park). While I was waiting, I also played with the macro function on my camera and took some lovely artsy yarn/knitting shots:
Okay, that last one is my Swallowtail Shawl, which I brought in case it got cold (it did).
So this will likely be a wip for a while, cast aside while I work on other, more pressing things. But it’ll be nice to have a simple stockinette project on the side in case I get sick of the other projects I need to do. Including a stranded colorwork pillow for someone’s birthday. By when I go back to school. I could do it in a week, but I really ought to get started. Meh. It’ll happen.
It does, actually. I think this might be my last claim for a while (though not the last post–there’s this one and then what I got from the person that claimed me). I want to do some regular swaps and maybe even organize one. Or perhaps just get started on my Christmas knitting. Anyway.
I claimed lapoli for a cowl and acrylic yarn. Here’s what I came up with for the cowl:
(Modeled by my sister)
Pattern: A Noble Cowl, available as a free Ravelry download
Yarn: Almost a skein and a half of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes (left over from Climbing Vines)
Needles: Knit Picks 16″ US 7/4.5 mm circ.
Modifications: Only cast on 105 (though that was still waaaay too big), only did two repeats of the pattern instead of 2.5.
I think this came out rather nicely, actually. It’s big but still warm and it can always be pinned with a shawl pin or something similar. And in any case, she loved the drape of it. Turns out she hates things that are tight around her neck. Win.
I also sent her a bunch of acrylic yarn that has been marinating in my stash:
Some Red Heart Super Saver, some Vanna’s Choice, and some unlabeled stuff. She said it’s perfect for her charity knitting. So hopefully it’ll keep someone warm and make someone happy–more than it was doing in my stash.
I’m still working on the baby sweater and the cami. They’re sort of slow-going (well, compared with my usual rate of progress), but hopefully I’ll get Colin’s sweater finished by the time his family gets here. It’s getting there. It’s a bottom-up raglan, and I’m almost at the sleeves. Exciting!
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 