Recently in Good Causes Category

Over the last couple of weeks I've knitted up a number of little projects. Taking a cue from Stash and Burn, one of my favorite knitting podcasts, I worked on one skein items knit from oddball yarns in my stash. They have a contest running here, where you upload pics of finished objects. There are quite a number of images there, including these from me:

It's a generic roll brim hat (50 stitches, knit for about 7 inches, and a swirl decrease). I don't love the decreases because the k2togs happened to be at thicker points in the yarn, so I may redo that part. But I do love the colors! The yarn is Trendsetter Yosemite.

This is a generic ribbed hat I made for Julian. Please forgive the red eye.

The hat was knit from leftover Debbie Bliss Cashemerino over 84 stitches on no. 6 needles.

This is my third Bear for the Mother Bear Project, which sends bears to African children. This one used Knit Picks Swish Superwash for the green and yellow and Lion Brand WoolEase for the white. I thought the skirt was a fun addition. The others I made are here.

Lastly, I made Jamie some socks with a fabulous rainbow yarn made by Regia Ringel.

I cast on 44 stitches and used Charlene Schurch's garter rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks.

I also finished Poppy and am blocking it now.

I'm going to be knitting my next pair of socks in the Campanula for the Cure pattern. It's a lovely, lacey pattern that Mezzodiva is giving away in exchange for a donation of any amount in support of the 2007 Weekend to End Breast Cancer, which is in Toronto in September. I have some Jaeger Matchmaker in a burgundy color that would be beautiful for thsi pattern.

Go check out her site and consider supporting her 60km walk. It's a great cause and a beautiful pattern. There's a KAL and everything!

I've finished an am about to mail my five Dulaan items: four hats and a scarf. I'm also sending a Dora the Explorer fleece blanket to Mongolia. My kids don't use it any more and it's doubled fleece -- so very warm. Do you think little girls around the world love pink too?

The final hat is a Meathead Hat. The bow I tied dressed it up a little, but it's not my favorite. That honor goes to the blue Greenery Hat. I'll be making one of these for myself soon!

Pattern: Meathead Hat by Larissa Brown
Yarn: Most of one skein of Wool Ease Chunky in Willow (I think), double stranded
Size: Adult small
Needles: Susan Bates size 15 circular needles (knit flat and seamed)

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"