Loopy Blues

I was looking for a scarf that would work well for spring/summer and also stay on as an option as the weather got colder. (I’ve been looking for lots of projects like this recently!) I got a hint from a friend that she’s like something and so I chose this!

It's knit in the round, so it’s one big loop. No sewing, hooray!

Blocking did wonders for this project. I stretched it out and pinned it down dry, then stuck a wet tea towel over the top and ironed it. Unpinned when dry and all was well.

My one comment is that the loop could benefit from a bit more length (circumference?). Maybe cast on 250 instead of 210 or something like that. I think that might make it just a bit easier for triple wrapping.

The aforementioned friend who received the finished product is Marisa, of recent Stupid Vegan Cheese Won't Melt fame. I don't have a picture of her wearing it, but maybe someday I will! *cough*

Overall, I’m really happy with this project! In fact, just tonight I finished binding off on one of my own and now all it needs it blocking. Pictures of that one to come as well.

Yarn:
Berocco Ultra Alpaca Light (50% Wool, 50% Alpaca)
2 skeins Blue Violet (4240)

Needles:
US8 (5mm) 24" circular needle

Lacy Springy Slouchy Hat

Well, I've been slacking on this whole blog thing. It was bound to happen sooner or later, and I think a busy summer is a pretty good excuse. But I'm here to play catch up now!

I started eyeing the Dream in Color Starry as soon as it came into So Much Yarn but it was a bit expensive for me. When it turned out to be the yarn of choice to put on sale for the Yarn Store Tour, I jumped right on it.

It wasn't soft enough for me for a scarf, so I chose a slouchy hat pattern instead -- 107-15 Hat by DROPS design. As it turns out, I had the wrong size yarn and calling it a "pattern" is really pretty generous. So I used some knowledge gained with the Sockhead Hat and made the rest up.

I used US3 for the band and decided just to stick with that size through the body (instead of going up a size as written in the pattern). I cast on 130 and knit 2” of K2/P3 ribbing. I knit the lace pattern for about 6.5” after that.

I changed up the top of the hat a bit too. The pattern calls for garter stitch, which I thought was rather strange. So, I did stockinette stitch instead and I’m glad I did. I decreased 10x evenly a few times, then K2tog for a few rows, then pulled everything together!

A note about the yarn: it totally dyed my fingers and needles as I worked with it. Washing my hands did the trick, but it was still a bit annoying. Everyone else I’ve talked to said they never had this problem… strange.

Yarn:
Dream in Color Starry (98% Merino, 2% Metallic)
1 skein Black Pearl

Needles:
US3 (3.25mm) circular needle

Socks, Take 2: Birthday Stripes

Remember how I was talking about allllll of the birthdays in March? Well, this birthday was in February. And I finished the socks in June. Yep.

These socks were made for my good friend, Jessica, and she didn't seem to mind too much getting a birthday present four months late. Maybe if I ask really nice she'll even send a picture of her feet in the socks. *cough*

I used the same pattern as in my first pair of socks, Lauren's Basic Worsted Weight Socks. As you can see, however, there was a little stripe action thrown in there! Stripes are fun.

For the ribbing on top, I knit four rows of each color (red, brown, red, brown, red) before transitioning into the body. The heel was done in the contrast color (red) and then I stopped an inch short of where I normally would to start the banded toe decrease.

Then it was 2 rows of each color (red, brown, red) and then 4 rows of brown. Finally, I knit the tow decrease in red.

Yay, socks again! I definitely still could use some practice though, as the decreases and color changes weren't as clean as I'd like them to be. I think these will make some killer slipper socks though! Happy warm feeting, Jess.

Yarn:
Cascade 220 Superwash Quatro (100% superwash wool)
1 skein Brown Bear (1936)

Cascade 220 Superwash (100% superwash wool)
1 skein Maroon (855)

Needles:
US5 (3.75mm) double pointed needles

Scarves are for spring, too!

Just because spring and summer roll around doesn't mean that I want to stop wearing scarves. And this is still Seattle, after all.

Quite a while ago I bought this sparkly, purpley yarn. At the time I had it in mind to make a second Grace Lace Beret. That never came to be and so I pulled it out of my stash and went looking for something to make.

I went poking around on Ravelry for things like "spring scarf" and "lightweight scarf" and decided on the One Row Lace Scarf.

This was incredibly easy to knit, which also made it incredibly fast to finish. Just like the name says, it's just one row that you have to learn: K4, *YO, K2tog, K2*. Just do that until you're out of yarn or until you reach the desired length and voila! Scarf.

It's nice and reversible, which I love. I think I would knit more lace if I wasn't as turned off by the wrong side. (I should really get over that.) I really like the way this lace looks when stretched out, but because it's so floppy and the holes are large, it collapses on itself when you're wearing it. That said, it still looks nice on and I like it quite a bit.

Yarn:
Louisa Harding Jasmine (48% cotton, 39% bamboo, 10% silk, 3% polyester)
50g/107 yd skein
2x Slate (13)

Needles:
US9 (5.5mm) circular needle (straight would be just fine, too)

Socks on my head? Sure!

There were a couple of desires that led me to this pattern -- first, I was about to go on a trip overseas and wanted a project that was simple and easy to carry around. Second, there is some really cool sock yarn out there and I wanted to use some!

I saw my knitting teacher, Alex, knitting this hat and learned that it was something like his 6th one (so he must kind of love it). And you just can't argue with a name like Sockhead Hat.

This hat is really super easy. I knit the 4” of ribbing that the pattern calls for but then only knit about 4.5” in stockinette, instead of the 9” in the pattern. My hat is still slouchy, especially without the brim folded.

On the next one I make, I think I’ll throw in a knit row in the middle of the ribs so that I can fold it in the middle with a crisp edge. I'm glad to have a fun project that will use that aforementioned really cool sock yarn and also show off its colors and variegation well.

Yarn:
Berroco Sox (75% superwash wool, 25% nylon)
100g/440 yd skein
1x Venachar (1431)

Needles:
US4 (3.5mm) 16" circular needle

Grandma's Special Birthday Shawl

Speaking of birthdays, March 21 is Grandma Lois' birthday and this year was a big one. (I'll refrain from announcing which birthday it was exactly... you know a lady is entitled to some secrets.)

I wanted to give her something special for a birthday and so I decided to try and knit something nice. It being spring, I wanted something light and bright. It's spring in the Northwest, though, so I also wanted something cozy. Versatility! Lastly, she's heading out on a great European cruise soon and those boat decks can get chilly.

To meet the light-yet-cozy requirements, I decided to take another swing at knitting lace. I'd done some of this with my Grace Lace Beret and felt that was pretty simple. So after some perusing on Ravelry, I settled on the Knit Lace Shawl/Châle en Dentelle au Tricot.

I picked out some really pretty and soft Merino & Alpaca yarn in a great, light heathery green and I waited for a class night to get started. This pattern is made up of four repeating rows and I think this fact gave me a false sense of security to start... but I figured I'd probably run into some questions. I was right! After two hours in class and a good deal of help, I had gotten the first two rows done. That's it. I had to start over probably three or four times, as I just couldn't get the stitches to come out right at the end of each row. This worried me a bit, as I had not given myself a whole lot of time to get this done.

But, I got the hang of it! The first few inches were slow going... but then I finally started to get it down and move more quickly. After a handful or two of repetitions I started to see the patterns and where each stitch was meant to sit. At that point, I just booked through as fast as I could.

I'd given myself about a week and a half from starting this project until Grandma's birthday party and I was not at all convinced I would get it done in time. But I did! Hooray!

This being lace, it needed to be blocked to open up the pattern and make everything lie the way it's meant to lie. This is something that I've avoided with each project but one old one, and with that old one it didn't really work. But... this was a good time to give it another shot.

I laid two towels down on the floor and pinned the shawl down, stretched out into it's proper shape. Then I turned the iron on to Super Steam Mode and steamed the thing until it was damp and hot. Then I just let it dry. And wouldn't you know... when I unpinned it the next day, it had worked! So, I
guess now I know how to block.



I am really pleased with how this turned out in the end and I think my grandma liked it too! :D








Yarn:
Louisa Harding Thistle (60% Merino Wool, 40% Baby Suri Alpaca)
50g/98 yd skein
5x Bracken (6)

Needles:
US10 (6mm) 16" circular needle

March Birthdays, Part 1: Spiral Beanie & Cabled Gloves

Has March always had this many birthdays? I think it gets more and more packed with them every year. At least they're birthdays of some of my favorite people! I just wish that I had the time to knit something for all of the people on that list. We all know that even though they're calling it Spring now, it's really still hats and gloves and scarves time around Seattle.First, the Spiral Rib Hat for the wonderful and talented Vince Martinez with a birthday on March 11. This is a hat for which I had admired a sample in class and watched a couple classmates making. The hat is simple and quick and is totally unisex. Just pick the right yarn for the right person.

I haven't found a free pattern anywhere, but purchased one for $3.50 from Lauren. I very rarely pay for patterns (I mean, really... there are so many free ones out there!) but this one was totally worth it. It's set up with information to make four different sizes (child, kid, small adult, large adult) and with eight different gauges. Sweet! I can use it over and over and over and over...

This hat really was fun to knit. And did I mention quick? I think I made it in something like three hours. This is pretty great when you decide to make someone a birthday present four days before said birthday.

Yarn:
Cascade Yarns 128 Superwash (100% Superwash Merino Wool)
3.5oz/128 yd skein
1x Bitter Chocolate (872)

Needles:
US10.5 (6.5mm) 16" circular needle & double pointed needles

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Then, the Dashing fingerless gloves for the wonderful and talented Lilianna Koledin with a birthday on March 27. Again, there were samples of these gloves in the store and I always liked them a lot. Lauren dubbed them her "favorite dog walking gloves" and I thought, "hey, Lili has a dog that walks!"

I was always kind of scared of the thumbs on gloves... and I'm still too scared of that kind of thing to ever try real gloves with all five fingers. This pattern has a really neat set up for that thumb though. Basically, you knit in some waste yarn for a few stitches in the right spot and keep going like normal. When you're done with the main tube, you just take out the waste yarn, stick those loops back on the needles, and knit a smaller loop. Genius.

I learned with this pattern that cabling back is somehow much harder than cabling front. It seems like it would be no big deal... the stitches held on the cable needle just go in back instead of in front. But no. Somehow, it's both more cumbersome to hold and turns out with bigger holes and other funkiness. That all got patched up though and I'd imagine that next time I try it will look cleaner.

I was careful to count all of my rows so that the two gloves would match. Of course, it didn't work out that way and one was a bit longer. We can just say that I did it on purpose... a reminder that they're hand made?

I want some for myself now, hehe.

Yarn:
Plymouth Select Worsted Merino Superwash (100% Superwash Fine Merino Wool)
100g/218 yd skein
1x Moss (12)

Needles:
US7 (4.5mm) double pointed needles

Taking the sock obsession to a whole new level!

I love socks. The sock drawer in my dresser won't close when all of mine are clean. I also love knitting. It's really a match made in heaven.

The term "turning a heel" always struck a bit of fear in my heart. I think that was just because I thought it sounded really hard. Are we sensing a pattern here? Carmen seems to be easily intimidated and should just suck it up more often and get to the part where she learns that it's really not that hard.

Enter my first part of socks!

After months of encouragement and professions of sock-knitting love from my classmates, I bit the bullet and started my first pair of socks. Lauren helped me pick out a great skein of superwash (that is, machine washable!) yarn, printed me out her own Basic Worsted Weight Sock pattern and off I went!

There is about 2.5" of ribbing on top of each sock and then most of the rest is made by knitting around and around and around and around. Where it gets exciting is when it comes time for the dreaded turning of the heel.

It's really not that big of a deal (go figure). Basically, you take half of the stitches and use them to knit a flap with some slipped stitches and knits and purls mixed together. Once you've done that for another 2.5", you pick up stitches along each edge. Now that you're back on all four needles, the gusset and gusset decreases start with K2togs and SSKs and you find that you're turning that heel without even knowing it.

Once you've made it back to your original number of stitches, you knit around and around and around and around some more until it's time to start the banded toe. There are some more K2togs and SSKs and pretty soon your ready for the next and last feat (get it??). This is the kitchener stitch that's used to close up the toe in a nice, seamless sort of way.

These socks are quirky. See how one toe is darker than the other? Yeah... I definitely ran out of yarn before I was done. I'm a tight knitter, which requires more yarn to cover the same distance. And of course there wasn't any more in the shop. So I grabbed a new coordinating color instead. Good news is it's a great yarn for a new project I had in mind! Silver lining, my friends.

A little harder to see in these pictures is the fact that one of the ribbed cuffs is wider than the other. It's really only 1/4-1/3" but still... you can definitely tell. I have been assured that it's fine to just leave that part under the pants when I'm showing them off.

All in all, I'm stoked and already working on the next pair!

Yarn:
Pagewood Farm Kiana Hand Dyed Light Worsted Yarn (100% Merino Superwash)
3.4oz/225 yd skein
1x Army Girl

Needles:
US5 (3.75mm) double pointed needles

More hats! I will eventually either learn or learn my lesson.

Hat attempt #5 (or whatever the heck number I'm on now) spurred from the Irish Hiking Hat - Bulky Version that I came across on Ravelry. I really liked the unique design and that fact that I didn't quite understand how it would all go down before reading the pattern. After being reassured by my mom that it wasn't too feminine for my dad, I was totally sold.

I got some more practice with cabling with the band of this hat, which is made first and then sewn together. I did not want to sew fleece in as a liner, so I used a seed stitch on one side of the band to prevent rolling and stockinette stitch on the other. Then along this side a whole bunch of stitches are picked up (another thing I still need more practice on as well) and used to knit the rest of the hat. It then has a decrease pattern that makes a fun spiral on the top.


This pattern is actually pretty funky and leaves you alone to figure much out for yourself. I was lucky enough to get a measurement from my dad of his head size (28.25") and a classmate with the same size head for an example for the band. How many decrease rows to knit and when to add in the second set though... I was knitting blind on that one.

I made this hat twice. Go figure. The first time it ended up looking really nice! But... it was just to short. It didn't even quite cover my entire ear, and my head isn't as big as my dad's. Well, I guess I'll just hold on to that one for now.

For the second attempt, I added an inch of straight stockinette up from the band before decreasing. This came out to the right height! But when I finally got it on his head, I found that it's just kind of poofy in places that I don't want poofiness. In some ways it looks great, but it's still just not great. I was a bit bummed, but not really surprised.

If I were to make this again, I think I might go with the worsted version instead. Might make it a bit cleaner.

Also, it looks like this hat will need that liner after all. Since Dad is sensitive to wool but not as severely as Mom, I figured I'd give another natural fiber a try and went with super soft Alpaca. Turns out that itches him too. Good thing Mom is a master sewer!

Yarn:
Plymouth Yarn Company Baby Alpaca Grande Tweed (90% baby alpaca, 7% acrylic, 3% rayon)
100g/110yd skeins
1x dark gray (500) (plus just a little bit of another skein for the larger hat)

Needles:
US9 (5.5mm) 16" circular needle
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While I was working on that, I really wanted something else that I could just knock out and that I knew would fit someone, so I made Erich's A&F Knockoff Hat, too. This one got orange and gray acrylic and it was definitely fast. It's still hanging out in my apartment but it might go to the dads eventually, especially if I can't make anything else that works, haha.

Yarn:
Berocco Comfort Chunky (50% nylon, 50% acrylic)
3.5oz/150yd skeins
1x Dusk (5713)
1x Filbert (5745)

Needles:
US15 (10mm) 16" circular needle

Hang your stockings...

Sometime in the past an aunt of mine tried to knit some socks. As I may have mentioned in previous posts, gauge is hard! These socks turned out quite large and they had been serving as my parent's Christmas stockings ever since.

The thought struck me (after being hinted at by an example hanging in class and a classmate working on the project...) that I could probably make some huge socks too! And that maybe doing so would help get me ready for normal sized socks that I hoped to make someday.

I picked up most of the yarn for these at Jo-Ann with the intention of saving some money. I chose some nice heathery maroon and dark green with woolly white for the cuff. Turned out it wasn't quite thick enough even double-stranded, so I got some mohair from Lauren and threw that in too.

I have to say that knitting with mohair is kind of a pain since it's so sticky and tempramental, as is knitting with three strands at a time. It was worth it though! I ended up with a fabric that was a little fuzzy and soft, but sturdy enough to shove full of presents and food every year.

This project gave me my first taste of turning a heel! For some reason, this phrase always made me so nervous. But, like with cabling and lace, it's really not as hard as it sounds. It's even kind of fun!

Then I got to practice picking up stitches again, or creating new stitches at the edge of the fabric where there were none before. Then came the sewing. These stockings were knit flat and then a sewn up with a seem up the back. This let me practice some more of that mattress stitch which I'm still struggling a bit to master.

I only have the one picture of these currently and it was before they were even totally finished. You'll get the gist though. Just imagine some awesome tassels hanging off the top. A perfect finishing touch, I think.

Yarn:
Lion Brand Wool-Ease Worsted Weight (80% acrylic, 20% wool)
2 skeins Chestnut Heather (179)
2 skeins Forest Green Heather (180)

Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick
1 partial skein Fisherman (099)

Katia Ingenua (78% mohair, 13% nylon, 9% wool)
1 skein Plum (19)
1 skein Olive (13)

Needles:
US11 (8mm) 24" circular needle

A Quick Break for an Infinity Scarf

Sometimes you walk into your yarn store and see an amazing, awesome yarn that you have to have. And sometimes you just want to make something simple and quick. Sometimes that aforementioned yarn you've fallen in love with shows itself off best in garter stitch and it's obvious the stars have aligned.

This yarn, Trendsetter Sierra Nevada, has amazing, rich swirls of color. The best part, though, is its texture. The strand flows from tighly wound, thin and shiny to loose, fluffy and matte. There were two color lots that I was trying to choose between and I got the lighter one -- white, cream, gray, yellowish-tan and purple. Unique and so pretty!

After toying with some ideas of what to do with it, I decided just to knit a regular old scarf in garter stitch. (For you non-knitters, that's just knitting every row over and over until you're done.) It wasn't long enough after one skein, so I got another one.

It was nice when it was done! But it wasn't interesting enough. So, I sewed the ends together and made an infinity scarf instead. Instant trendiness!

This is a super warm and cozy scarf, largely because it's so big. It wraps around my neck four times if I want it to. There's no getting cold with that.
Yarn:
Trendsetter Yarns Sierra Nevada (70% wool, 30% acrylic)
2 skeins Snow Bluffs (223)

Needles:
US13 (9mm) 16" circular needle (if I remember right...)

Hats: 2, Carmen: 2!

While I was really excited about the Grace Lace Beret when I finished it, I was even more excited about this finished product -- the Turn A Square beanie by Jared Flood. This was fun to knit and turned out very neat and clean. It's classic and modern at the same time.

I LOVE the colors that I used for this and think they're perfect together. The black/dark green as a contrast is subtle but stands out well in the light. I'm totally thinking about making it again, just reversing the colors this time. I should have more than enough yarn left from the original skeins.

I learned how to knit jogless stripes with this hat, which is a method that helps to make the changes in colors along the seam less noticeable (or "virtually invisible" as Jared Flood puts it).

This was knit for Lenny (good job on picking the colors, Lenny!) and he's been wearing it a lot since. It fits him well and looks good, if I do say so myself.

Yarn:
Cascade 220 (100% Peruvian Highland Wool)
100g/220 yd skeins
1 partial skein Black (8555)
1 partial skein Avocado Tweed (9413)

Needles:
US5 (3.75mm) 16" circular needle
US7 (4.5mm) 16" circular needle

Scarves are SO last year. Cowls are the new black.

I've always loved knitting fun textures using only knits and purls. Partially because it was something I could figure out early on, partially because it appeals to my love of checking off lists (one row at a time) and partially because it looks more complicated than it really is.

I saw the Darkside Cowl hanging on the wall when I went to class and wanted to give it a shot. It's a pretty close fitting cowl, not one of the trendy ones now that are super bulky and huge. I think it would be great for active things, hiking, skiing, running, though I haven't exactly tried that yet...

It's great for every day too... pretty and totally reversible. The one thing I'd do differently is make sure to cast on and bind off extra loosely, as one edge is tighter than the other and just a tiny bit difficult to pull on. Really no biggie, though.

Yarn:
Di.Ve' Autunno (100% Fine Merino Wool)
50g/98 yd balls
2x Forest Blue (46389)

Needles:
US7 (4.5mm) 16" circular needle

Grace Lace Beret: My Proudest Knitting Moment so Far

What? A hat that turned out well? Yes! Probably because sizing isn't so much an issue with this one...

Not too long ago I finally set up an account and started poking around on Ravelry. I want to have so much more time to spend there! This had been on my to-do list for a while and the final push was wanting to learn more about the Grace Lace Beret, which a classmate of mine had started up.

This hat is so cute! And so in-style right now, which is an added bonus for sure. It was also going to teach me a bunch of new things, namely how to knit lace!

This beret starts with a cast on method that I had never even heard of and that Lauren wasn't even super familiar with. To start, we crocheted 65 stitches with waste yarn. Then we picked up 60 stitches from the back of the chain using the main yarn and knitting needles. Basically, we knit into the humps on the back of the chain. When we pulled out the waste yarn after knitting the band, it left a very cool looking and stretchy edge.

For the lace I mastered slipping stitches and I learned the double decrease (slip two stitches together as if to K2tog, knit one, then pass the two slipped stitches over).

This was also the first time I've knit from a chart. See? So many new things. Here it is:

I'm proud of this hat and it's been a lot of fun to wear. My only complaint is that the band has stretched out and now it's a bit hard to keep on my head. I just bought some black elastic thread though to sew into the inside to tighten it up. I'll post an update about how that works after I've given it a try... fingers crossed!

Yarn:
Louisa Harding Grace (50% Merino, 50% Silk)
506/110 yds skein DK
2x Burnt Orange (12) -- though I really think this is more of a dark pink than an orange

Materials:
US4/3.5mm double pointed needles (for band)
US9/5.5mm 16" circular needle (for hat body)
Crochet hook
Stitch markers
Darning needle

Hats: 2, Carmen: 0

I've been wanting (and trying) to make my dad a hat for quite some time now. The first one I tried out back in the day ended up HUGE and silly.. gauge is really not my thing, especially then.

So, once the tea cozy was done I figured that should be my next project to bring to class. Since I wanted to learn something new beyond just choosing the right needles and yarn, I chose the Snappy Hat pattern from Picnic Knits for its cables and multi-gender potential.

Cables! I'd looked longingly at cabled pieces and at the knitters making them for some time, always assuming they were at a skill level way beyond me. Luckily I had Lauren to convince me otherwise and show me how simple cables really can be.

I chose an acrylic yarn in a nice rich brown since my dad is sensitive to wool and, of course, I wanted him to be able to actually wear it, some u-shaped cable needles, and got to it. It looked nice when it was done!

Unfortunately, the hat won again...


Yarn:
Berroco Comfort Chunky (50% Super Fine Nylon, 50% Super Fine Acrylic)
100g/150 yds skeins
1x Bitter Sweet (5741)

Needles:
US10.5 (6.5mm) 16"circular needle
U-shape cable stitch holder

I was bummed to have another hat that was just too big but I quite enjoyed knitting this and wanted to do some more cabling before I moved on to something else. So, I dug around in my stash and pulled out a really great skein that I brought up from San Fransisco. (It was bought for me as a birthday present while I was living there, but if I remember right it was from a great shop called ImagiKnit.)

This yarn was a bit more feminine and the skein a bit smaller, so I figured I'd try for a hat either for me or a girl friend. Here's how that turned out:

I'm happy with how it turned out! Besides one thing... it's way short. Like... barely will cover my ears. The hat wins again!

Hats: 2, Carmen: 0.

If only I knew a child that I could give it to...

Yarn:
Malabrigo Chunky (Kettle Dyed Pure Merino Wool)
3.5oz/104 yds skein
1x Stonechat (173)

Needles:
US10.5 (6.5mm) 16"circular needle
U-shape cable stitch holder

Mom's Tea Cozy: My First Class Project!

When I was first signing up for the Intermediate Knitting Class at So Much Yarn I knew that I needed a project to work on. I actually struggled a bit with this (strange, considering that now I have so many things I want to make that I have a hard time remembering them all). Maybe it's because I hadn't knit anything in more than a year...

Then it came to me. I'll knit the tea cozy that my mom had been asking about practically forever and that I'd be denying her all that time. I started searching around online and finally came across a pattern for Grandma's Traditional Tea Cosy posted on Keren's blog teabythesea. This was a pattern she wrote based on an actual 80+ year old tea cozy of her grandma's and I loved it!

By making this cozy, I learned how NOT to knit with multiple colors -- that is, I learned to pull the loose strands of yarn tight (but not too tight) across the back to make each column pucker. The entire cozy is knit in garter stitch so it's really pretty simple. It took me a long time to finish though since you change colors every eight stitches and I was just getting back into the swing of things.

It does require some sewing, since you knit two pieces and then sew the seams. This makes it simple to fit the right pot though, since you can leave holes for the handle and spout. This was my first real experience with mattress stitch.

And a fun added touch? I learned how to make i-cord for the first time to make the flowers on top. Here it is:
She loves it, by the way. :D

Yarn:
Tahki Stacy Charles, Inc. Cotton Classic (100% Mercerised cotton)
50g/108 yds skeins
2x Color No. Dark Olive (3609)
1x Color No. Burgundy (3432)
1x Color No. Light Milk Chocolate (3203)

Needle:
US 6/4mm 24" circular needle (though straight needles would totally work too)

Not bad for my first project back, if I do say so myself. ;)

Early Projects

Now that the introductions are out of the way, I wanted to share some of my older projects, namely the ones I knit before I started the class. I wasn't keeping track of this stuff at all while I was knitting it, so some has gone missing or been forgotten and I know next to nothing about yarn or needle sizes. Here is a good handful of things I pulled out of the depths of the closet! It's a pretty interesting view of the thing I tried to teach myself, I think.

Up there you can see my very first scarf! It's not the FIRST thing I ever knit, but close. Really simple: garter stitch all the way through. Some kind of wool, rich brown with some gold undertones. It's a bit wonky... stretched out through the middle, a snag or two, and a tail coming loose at the end. But I still wear it today! It's just so darn versatile.

At some point I started poking around Knitty.com and fell in love with quite a lot of the projects I saw there. Most of them were just too complicated for me so I window shopped. Eventually I decided to tackle this headwarmer. Not quite a hat, more than a headband. I hadn't even heard of short rows before this, but I learned them anyway!

I love alpaca yarn. Especially baby alpaca yarn. It's so freaking soft! Want to see what started this love? It was this dark red wavy ribbed scarf; another one that I still wear today. This was one of my first insights into the fact that complicated-looking patterns often aren't actually complicated (yesss!). My one complaint is that as it's stretched in length, the waves have become less apparent.

Then I started seeing thing in stores and thinking, "I could totally knit that!" Sometimes I was totally wrong. Didn't mean I didn't try! A few winters ago I found some fun cowls at the Free People store downtown. This was before the cowls were all the rage and I thought they were super interesting. And how hard could a simple tube be? Probably pretty darn easy for someone who knows which yarns and stitches make which kinds of fabrics. I didn't totally crash and burn with this one, but I never really wore it either.

One more for tonight. Another example of the complicated-looking ≠ complicated deal. I think the pattern was called something like Berry Stitch Scarf, though I haven't found it again. I knit and knit and knit on this thing and it's suuuuper long. I was just having a good time and didn't want to stop. I wear this one sometimes too, though it's honestly a bit cumbersome at times.

That's it for tonight! Coming up next: back to school knitting. I'm going to go through the projects I've made since starting my class. Yay!

Casting on...

A handful of years ago I picked up Knitting: Learn to Knit Six Great Projects from Klutz and proceeded to teach myself to knit from scratch. Today, I'm a total knitting expert! Not really, but I'm working on it.

After Klutz helped me to learn how to cast on, knit, purl, and bind off, I snooped around the good ol' internet for patterns that I could handle. Pretty much any pattern that wasn't solely made up of CO, K, P, and BO was quickly rejected because I was sure it was practically impossible to figure out and I'm pretty sure Klutz hasn't published Learn to Knit Six MORE Great Projects yet.

I knit up some decent scarves from these patterns, some that I still wear now, and figured out that dishcloths are great for trying out new stitches and designs (Mom and Grandma were grateful for that).

Eventually I moved on to trying to learn more from tutorials, written or in video form, about how to do some fancier stuff. Namely knitting in the round (ooooh). I figured out how to do it! Not super well, but still. It turns out that gauge mattered a lot more for the things I wanted to knit in the round and gauge is definitely NOT my strong suit.

Fast forward some years and after not picking up needles or yarn for probably about one of those, I signed myself up for Lauren Lindeman's Intermediate Knitting class at her wonderful shop in Seattle, So Much Yarn. Ever since June of this last year I've been there most Wenesday evenings working on projects, learning new skills, getting inspiration, meeting great people and asking a ton of questions. I love having this class as a part of my life.

I love having knitting as a part of my life, too! I like following patterns and watching the yarn turn into fabric. I love yarn and learning more and more about all of the sizes, shapes, colors, materials, etc etc etc. I like having something to keep my busy while watching TV, talking on the phone, or listening to a podcast. And I like being able to give the people who are important in my lives something that I spent my time and thought on and that I'm proud of.

And now I find myself here! Inspiration for this blog (and for starting the class at So Much Yarn this summer) came from the wonderful and talented Lenny of The Emerging Addiction and The DIY Experiment. I see it as a great way to keep track of what I've made and which needles/yarn/accessories I've used to do it. I think it could be a great place for book and shop reviews too.

It's like my own little notepad. If I'm lucky, someone else might actually read it. If you are that someone, welcome!