January 2007 Archives

I finished my first fitted garment.

It's an Ann Norling design. She writes wonderful patterns in that they can be easily customized for many different gauges and sizes. I bought this yarn originally for a baby blanket but decided that it was too busy for the blanket pattern I'd chosen.

I don't love the collar, it's a bit wide for my taste, and I hated picking up the stitches for the ribbed button band -- it could be a lot prettier. Plus I don't really like where I put the button holes (I started measuring for them at the bottom instead of the top). Other than that, I'm thrilled with the outcome.

Here's a detail shot of the lovely, soft, warm and wonderful yarn:

The yarn produces this tweedy effect with three strands wound together: one cream, one tan, and one in the variegated colors. I think with the purple buttons it's more feminine, and after Jamie grows out of it (not too long now!) I can put on blue buttons for Julian to wear it. And it's washable!

Pattern: Ann Norling's Pattern #29 Kids' Basic
Yarn: Seven balls of Classic Elite Beatrice in color Marble
Needles: Clover Banboo, maybe size 10.5
Size: I aimed for size 4 but it fits like a 5

Let me tell you how much I love this scarf. It only takes one reasonably-priced skein. It is super soft. It's reversible. It's a free pattern (I got it at my LYS but it's free on Misti Alpaca Yarn's site too). It's really warm and wonderful.

I'm a sucker for deep, rich colors like this red, and I have a ball of their lavender yarn ready to make another.

Pattern: Misti Chunky Ribs and Ruffles Scarf
Yarn: Misti Baby Alpaca Chunky in Cinnabar
Needles: Size 13 Clover Bamboo
Size: 46" long by 3" wide (wider at the ends for the ruffles)

Here are two cabled hats I made out of Lion Brnad Wool-Ease for the Dulaan project. I did them both without a cable needle, something that finally made sense to me after seeing it demonstrated on Knitty Gritty.

On the right in the picture above is called Greenery. I love this hat. The cables are fun and just a little bit complex, enough that you do have to pay attention. It's snug, warm, and very pretty.

Pattern: Greenery from Lilith Parker
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Blue Mist
Needles: Size 6 Clover bamboo
Size: roughly 18 inches around

The other hat is a Cap Karma Hat. This one didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, mostly because I don't like the fold-up brim. I added the longer ribbed brim to make the ear section warmer (it gets pretty chilly in Mongolia, after all). Unfortunately I think that sort of ruined the look of the pattern. As you can see in the following picture, with the brim down, the cables make a lovely sideways zig-zag pattern, but I think with the brim up the pattern gets lost. If I do it again it'll be without the brim and possibly with the smaller needles, as I did on the Greenery Hat.

Pattern: Cap Karma Hat from Smariek Knits
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Forrest Green Heather
Needles: Size 7 Clover bamboo
Size: roughly 20 inches around

This is a scarf I made during the fall for the Red Scarf Project, a drive run by the Orphan Foundation of America to prepare Valentine care packages for orphans attending college on their own. The packages all include a hand-knit scarf.

I was looking for something to knit on the bias to prepare for a bias lace wrap I want to do (Sarcelle) and found this pattern at Maia Spins. From there I learned about the project on this blog and so I made scarf in red for the drive. January is when they're accepting the scarves so it's time to photograph and mail mine.

At six inches, the scarf is a bit wider than I would have liked. But being a new knitter and thinking that gauge doesn't matter for a scarf, I of course neglected to swatch, so it's my own fault. I meant to do one fewer pattern repeat for the length but forgot by the time I got to the end, so I believe it's just as the pattern was written, other than I few typos that I found and have emailed to the designer.

This was a great knit. It makes a very easy start to knitting on the bias and produces a lovely, warm scarf. I especially like how the subtly variegated yarn turned out. It's not overly pooled or striped, I think it just shows a depth of color.

Pattern: Bias Scarf from Maia Spins
Yarn: Two skeins of Artyarns Supermerino in color 115
Dimensions: 6" by 69"