Tag: Knitting

Baby Noah has arrived!  And with his arrival, my knitting to-do list has probably tripled in size.  I have tried two new hat patterns so far, and I expect that I'll not only being making several new hats for him this coming winter, but also a whole range of baby clothes as well.  I almost pity him for how much wool he will forced to wear come January and February 🙂

The first hat I made for Noah was the newborn Hat from Louisa Harding's Natural Knits for Babies and Moms.  I used some stash yarn for the project, and was really happy with the result, particularly because it fit Noah when he was born (I was afraid it might be way too big or way too small — it's so hard to guess baby measurements!).  The second hat I made for baby Noah was a beautiful pumpkin hat from Sonnentaler.  I purchased yarn specifically for this project at the recent New York Sheep and Wool Festival (more to come on the festival soon!), and the colors are really, really perfect to evoke the intended pumpkin image.  Project details follow pictures of the completed hats.

Noah's Pumpkin Hat

Pattern:  Kurbis Hat from Sonnentaler

Yarn:  70% Kid Mohair/30% Cormo Wool from Buckwheat Bridge Angoras, approx. 1/4 of an orange skein and extremely small amount (a few yards) from a dark green skein

Needles:  Four US2 dpns for the rolled brim of the hat, and four US3 dpns for the body of the hat

Post-Blocking Measurements:  Ok, so I didn't actually measure the hat when I was done, but I will soon and update this post!

Modifications:  I cast on 7o stitches to get a 12-inch circumference for the hat.  I knit 6 rows with the smaller needles for the rolled brim, and then knit 3 inches in stockinette (not the ribbing called for in the pattern) with the US3 needles.  I then started the decreases, though modified them to reduce the number of plain rows between the decrease rows.  I also made the pumpkin top significantly shorter so that I didn't need to fold it over and sew it to the base of the hat.

Noah's Newborn Hat

Pattern:  Hat from Louisa Harding's Natural Knits and Babies and Moms

Yarn:  Approx. 0.1 – .2 skein of Shelridge Farm Soft Touch DKW in Spring Green

Needles:  Two US size 4 circulars for the first four rows, and two US size 6 circulars for the body of the hat

Post-Blocking Measurements:  12 1/2-inch circumference at the widest point, and 3 3/4 inches tall.  The hat grew only slightly after wet blocking.

Last year I promised my sister a pair of lightweight summer slippers to complement the thicker socks I had knit her in 2009.  By the end of this summer, I finally got around to knitting them, so I redubbed them "fall" slippers and shockingly enough finished them in fall, so thankfully did not need to recharacterize them again as "winter" slippers.  They turned out well — most importantly, they fit! — and the full project details follow the picture (modeled on my smaller-than-my-sister's feet) below.

Summer/Fall Slippers for Malli

Pattern:  Summer Slippers in Knitting 24/7, size 7-8

Yarn:  2 balls of Nashua Handknits April, Color 0704 — used up almost one entire ball for each slipper

Needles:  Five US size 5 dpns

Post-Blocking Measurements:  Foot length of 9.5 inches, 6 inches from bottom of slipper to the highest part of the top, and the ankle opening of 4.5 inches wide when stretched.  The gauge was larger than called for in the pattern, so I used a slightly smaller slipper pattern size to achieve the result I wanted.

Modifications:  In the last round of the pattern, I modified the bind off for a more snug ankle opening.  I knit 2 together 3 times, then alternated knit 1 with knit 2 togethers until the last 8 stitches, which I knit 2 together to the end of the round.  This was the bind-off round.

For eight or nine years (I cringe as I type this), I have had incomplete a “summer sweater.”  The summer sweater is made of a lightweight raw silk and cotton yarn, and a failed effort to downsize the pattern resulted in a clown-like (or maybe just weird) garment.  I decided to salvage the project though, and have had sitting on a pair of poor cast-off needles, the bottom parts of both the front and back of the sweater with “only” the upper body and sleeves to be re-knit.  Every spring since I decided to reclaim this project, I have put on my to-do list to start work on the summer sweater.  The first several years after I originally mis-knit the summer sweater, I actually made some progress — some years I would work in earnest on the math of resizing the upper body and sleeves, and others I would actually do a bit of knitting.  The past three years (at least) though, while I have faithfully added the summer sweater to my early spring/summer knitting list, I have made absolutely no progress on it.  I have even avoided trying other summer knits so that I can remain focused on this long-delayed project.

This summer, I declared enough was enough.  No, I did not unravel my unfinished summer sweater to retain the yarn, nor did I just burn it.  But I did free myself in a sense by finally taking on another summer knit that would be for me — not a gift (of course, I had a gift exception to the ban on summer knits).  The pattern I chose was the lovely Coral blouse by Helga Isager.   The pattern seemed to produce a perfect flowy and summery top, and I could not wait to start knitting it.  

Unfortunately, at the time I was looking for the pattern, the individual pattern as well as the original pattern book were no longer being sold by the designer.  I could also not find the pattern for sale on Ravelry, searches of the Internet, and by calling some of the Isager stockists in the U.S.  Finally, I saw a comment on Ravelry that one could receive the pattern from Websters, a yarn shop in OR, if you ordered the Isager yarn that accompanies the original design.  I contacted Websters, and they quickly confirmed that the comment was true and provided me guidance on how much yarn to buy for the different pattern sizes.  I ordered the yarn, and Websters quickly processed the order so within days, I was really to move forward on the project.

I had a few other projects on the needles, but unlike my decaying summer sweater of years ago, I was determined enough to actually immediately start knitting the top so that I could wear it before the summer ended.  I completed the pattern in mid-August, and unfortunately have some mixed feelings about it.  First, the yarn itself is lovely after blocking but too easily split and wasn’t that soft to knit with.  Second, I knew that the yarn would “grow” during blocking, so I shortened the top by 4 inches but it still ended up being around the same length as the original pattern, which calls for a quite long top.  Third, as some other Coral-knitters have experienced, the top has a “maternity”-like quality to it, and I just don’t think it’s that flattering on me.  In addition, the neckline significantly dropped while I wore it the first time (despite using much smaller needles to knit it — size 1 US — and knitting it in two pieces for added stability), so I will definitely need to wear a tank top or shell under it when I wear it in the future.  If I make another Coral, I will probably make a few other alterations as well, including starting the body of the top earlier so that the armholes are not as low as well.

All in all though, I am pleased to have broken out of my summer knitting rut and I will certainly be wearing the tunic a few more times before the cold weather sets in!  Project details follow the picture of the completed Coral.

Coral for Madhu!

Pattern:  Coral by Helga Isager, size S/M.  I modified the pattern by knitting the main part of the body for only 29cm instead of the 38 called for in the pattern.

Yarn:  Isager Strik Viscolin, approx. 2.2 balls in color 1000, and Isager Strik Bomuld, approx. .2 ball in color 0015.

Needles:  US 1 circular for neckband, US 6 circular for body, US 4 circular for bottom border.

Post-Blocking Measurements:  18 3/4 inches from bottom of the armhole opening to the bottom of the tunic, 34 inches around the bottom of the tunic, 26 inches around the bust, and 13 inches from the shoulder to the tip of the v-neck.  The back is 20 1/4 inches long.

According to Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, there is a distinct difference between a "knitter" and a "Knitter" (Knitter with a capital K).  "Knitting" is a "lifestyle" and it signals a Knitter who pushes herself to learn new techniques and constantly improve and challenge her skills.  I have to admit that I have don't feel that I haven't challenged myself with a project in some time — most of the projects I have made the past few years have relied on skills I acquired early in my knitting career, when I was far more adventureous and experimental.  Although I have made recent plans to explore steeking, felting, entrelac, and do more complex intarsia, those plans always seem to give way to smaller or more directed projects.  

I think that this "knitting" streak has been broken though with the successful completion of the Henry scarf pattern from Knitty.com's Fall 2007 issue.  The pattern itself is not THAT challenging, but it requires an intense amount of concentration and more preparation than I am used to.  The scarf is knit lengthwise, and for the 6-foot scarf I was planning to make, it meant I cast on 260 stitches.  Nearly all of the stitches are paired with an increase on the second row, so I was working with 518 stitches per row for almost the entire scarf.  And with this pattern, any mistake has to be fixed by going back to the original stitch because the pattern repeat is so rigid so making corrections on future rows simply isn't possible.  Thankfully, relatively early on in the pattern, I could easy "see" the pattern on the right side, so didn't need to go back and regularly review my work in the manner suggested by other Henry knitters on Ravelry.  And to get the hang of the pattern before starting this 518-stitches-per-row behemoth, I created a swatch with 1/4 of the stitches cast on and tried two different needle sizes on that relatively large swatch to determine which gauge I thought looked better.  I am generally a fairly lazy swatcher if you will, so making a swatch of this size, and in pattern, was definitely a huge deal for me and was the first sign I was entering the Knitter-dom.

I used a fingering weight cashmere/merino blend that the Henry recipient — my friend Mike — had ordered from YarnCountry.com for the project.  The yarn was an excellent fiber and weight to show off the pattern — the pattern/yarn combination seemed like it would work with both smaller and larger needles as well.  The project though with this yarn weight ended up taking almost 4 months to complete.   I completed 5 pattern repeats.  I also used a standard long-tail cast-on and a normal bind-off instead of the tubular cast-on and bind-off for a slightly cleaner look after reading the Ravelry reviews (and seeing the results of my tubular efforts, which may be more "knitter" than "Knitter").  After blocking, the scarf grew longer than I expected and also became slightly narrower, but the pattern looked fantastic — as some Ravelry commentators have noted, the scarf appears almost woven instead of knit.  I am really excited to see Mike wear the scarf this fall!

Mike's Henry Scarf

Pattern:  Henry by Mareike Sattler

Yarn:  Yarn Country 50% Cashmere/50% Merino, approx. 2.6 skeins in cobalt blue

Needles:  Addi Turbo US4 Circular

Post-Blocking Measurements:  6 3/4 inches wide by 6 feet 7 inches long

 

Coming up with handknit gift ideas for family members in India can be quite difficult given the lack of cold (and even "moderate") temperatures there.  So when I was trying to think of what to make for my grandmothers, thankfully my mother came up with the idea to knit eyeglass cases.  I found a good, detailed pattern from the Vogue Knitting Holiday 2008 issue, and decided to move forward with it after my attempts to design other patterns didn't progress too far.  I eventually made four cases, and while the results were smaller than the dimensions the original pattern produced (I used smaller needles to complete the cases), the cases were still so big that they may end up being used as small purses instead of eyeglass cases.  I was happy with the pattern generally — I did have to make some improvised modifications around row 33 of the chart (I just couldn't get the original pattern stitch numbers to line up), but generally, the pattern was easy to follow and worked well with the four different yarns I used.  Project details follow the picture of the four cases together.

Eyeglass Cases (General)

Pattern:  Eyeglass Case by Fiona Ellis, Vogue Knitting Holiday 2008

Needles:  Two size 2 Addi Turbo lace circulars

Green Eyeglass Case

Yarn:  KnitPicks Stroll in Grass (Lot 76371), 1/2 skein.  I did not make the foldover flap for this case.

Post-Blocking Measurements:  5 inches wide at the bottom and top, 4 inches wide at the center, and 7 inches from top to bottom.

Maroon Eyeglass Case

Yarn:  KnitPicks Gloss in Burgundy (Lot 77603), 2/3 skein

Post-Blocking Measurements:  6 inches wide at the bottom and top, 4 1/2 inches wide at the center, 8 inches tall, and flap of 2 1/2 inches long.

Blue Eyeglass Case

Yarn:  KnitPicks Gloss in Woodland Sage (Lot 77597), 2/3 skein

Post-Blocking Measurements:  6 inches wide at the bottom and top, 4 1/2 inches wide at the center, 8 inches long, and flap of 2 1/4 inches.

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Red Eyeglass Case

Yarn:  Lang Cashwool in Red (from stash, purchased almost 10 years ago), 0.9 skein

Post-Blocking Measurements:  5 3/4 wide at the bottom and top, 4 1/4 wide at the center, 7 1/2 inches from top to bottom, and flap of 2 inches.

Every time I finish a baby blanket, I become convinced that it is my favorite.  The Shale blanket I made recently for baby Aarna is no exception.  

I chose this pattern after seeing it on Jared Flood's Brooklyn Tweed website, which is definitely one of the best knitting sites/blogs on the internet.  The pattern called for a worsted weight yarn, which I had already purchased in anticipation of baby Aarna's birth, and the Ravelry.com pictures confirmed that the versatile pattern would look good in a variety of fibers, including a cotton blend.  

After the first few pattern repeats, I have to admit I doubted whether the pattern would turn out the way I hoped.  I decided to stick with it though despite the time crunch, and I am definitely pleased that I did.  The blanket turned out better than I had hoped from the Ravelry finished project pictures, and the time it took to complete each repeat decreased as it became easier to remember the simple 4-row pattern.  

Pattern details follow the pictures, which unfortunately show different colors for the yarn.  I think the "actual" color lies somewhere in between the three pictures.

Aarna Baby Blanket

Pattern:  Shale Baby Blanket by Jared Flood

Yarn:  KnitPicks Shine Worsted in Bachelor Button, approx. 8.75 skeins

Needles:  One size 7 circular

Post-Blocking Measurements:  31 inches wide by 33.5 inches tall.  I only cast on enough stitches for 6 pattern repeats across each row, and repeated the pattern 40 times, so slightly smaller than what was called for in the original directions.

I purchased Louisa Harding's Natural Knits for Babies and Moms specifically for the adorable "Amelie" dress pattern.  Somehow though the Amelie dress ended up as my third project from the book, and of course, I finished it over a month after my goal completion date.  

Despite the delay the dress turned out wonderfully and ranks among my favorite finished knit projects.  The dress fit Abigail, who is seven months old, perfectly and the colors were beautiful.  I am really looking forward to not only experimenting more with Harding's awesome book, but also with different types of accents for knitting projects, like the flowers used for this dress.  Project details follow the picture of the modeled dress.

Amelie Dress for Abigail

Pattern:  Amelie Dress from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms (I worked the pattern in the round instead of flat pieces); I cast on 67 stitches because of the larger gauge from the Meriboo yarn.  I also reduced the number of flowers on the dress.

Yarn:  Frog Tree Meriboo, 2 skeins in color 26 and 1 skein in color 000.  

Needles:  Two size 3 circulars for the edging, two size 4 circulars for the body.

Post-Blocking Measurements:  14 1/2 inches from top-to-bottom; 10 1/2 inches across the waist; 16 inches across the bottom of hte dress; 8 inches between the armholes; 4 inch long armholes; and 4 3/4 inch wide neck opening.

 

This past summer, I luckily stumbled upon Churchmouse Yarns and Teas in Bainbridge Island, WA.  I purchased one of their popular yarn designs, Welted Fingerless Gloves, as well as yarn and buttons to complete the project.  While I was hoping to complete the gloves before fall approached, as is my way, I did not complete them until well into winter (last week).  

I am so happy I picked up this pattern and yarn — the gloves are wonderful.  They are incredibly soft, fit like a glove (ha!), and are really cute!  Just days after first trying them on, I am already worried that I might wear them down by the end of this already diminishing winter.  Project details follow the picture.

Madhu's Welted Fingerless Gloves

Pattern:  Churchmouse Classics Welted Fingerless Gloves.  Although the one-size pattern calls for casting on 36 stitches, based on my gauge and thinner hands, I cast on only 29 stitches.

Yarn:  Rowan Classic Yarns Baby Alpaca DK in Chevlot (#207), approx. 2/3 skein used.  

Needles:  Two size 2 circulars and two size 4 circulars.

Post-Blocking Measurements:  7 1/2 inches long, 5 1/2 inches around the hand, and 6 inches around bottom cuff.