fidget

Pattern: Lace Ribbon Scarf on Knitty.com
Yarn: Wolf Creek Wools Panda (a wool/bamboo blend)
Project Details (Ravelry Link)

I bought this yarn at Black Sheep Gathering last summer, assuming I’d use it for socks. My friend A from my knit group had a skein that she was using for a lace project and she mused aloud how glad she was to not be knitting socks with it. That gave me the idea to look for a lace project to use for my skein. The colors are too pretty to hide inside shoes anyway – a mix of greens from yellowy spring to bluey turquoise, accented with bits of coppery brown. I never got bored of knitting this. The pattern is just complex enough to hold my interest but not require too much concentration. This was my on-the-go project, I just kept it in my purse and worked on it in spare moments as I was out and about. The finished scarf is lovely, and very soft around my neck (usually even the softest merino gives me slight itch. Maybe the key here is that it’s superwash…)

Finally posting photos of my newest finished knit. Last month the sale yarn at the Knit Shop was Louisa Harding Kashmir DK, a super-squishy merino/microfiber blend with a touch of cashmere. I bought 2 skeins to make CO some mitts for her birthday, but only used a tiny bit of the second skein, so I went back and snapped up a 3rd to make a floppy beret. I’d been seeing these hats around and decided I had to have one. Bonus: this yarn is my very favorite color – a rich, teal-blue.

I looked on Ravelry for free patterns and there were a lot but none of them were for DK weight yarn. I decided to just make up my own, since I have big head and I wanted the hat to really be floppy. I had a bit of trial and error to make it tall enough before decreasing, but once I got started on the final version I finished it off within a week. This is my first new hat in years – and I love it.

Ravelry link

I finished my Re-Sweater!

I’m so glad I decided to unravel and re-design/re-knit. This sweater is so warm – I wore it all weekend with just a long-sleeved t-shirt and didn’t even need to wear a jacket over it. Super-cozy!

Before

After

Ravelry link: Before, After

Hot, hot, hot!

The first pair of socks I knit were for BN. He picked out a lovely reddish-orange yarn and I designed a simple-but-interesting chain/rib pattern for the cuff. They were fun to knit, and came out very nice if I do say so myself. But, I ran out of yarn right before the toe on the second sock! I had to go buy an additional skein just to get those 20 or so yards I needed to finish the project. The leftovers were plenty to make myself a pair and I found the perfect pattern – “Tiger Eyes” by Margaret K. K. Radcliffe from Socks, Socks, Socks. The intricate, swirling pattern that runs up the front is so exotic and appealing – this project caused a stir in my knitting group. This is one of the first really detailed lace projects that I’ve done – I had to pay attention closely to the chart. This project followed my 3 rules for successful socks:

1. Knit them toe-up. Not that my first sock-knitting project scarred me or anything! Seriously, though, toe-up prevents the dreaded run-out-of-yarn problem and I love long socks so if I knit them toe-up I can make them as long as the yarn lasts.

2. Must contain ribbing. They will certainly sag, bag, and bunch around the ankles otherwise. It’s best to make at least part of the sock leg ribbed so that it has a chance to stay up… I’ve knit several pairs now where the details and beauty are on the front and the back is ribbed. In this case, a pretty mock-cable rib keeps it un-boring and more in key with the complexity of the tiger-eye motif on the front.

3. Repeat after me: Cat Bordhi rules! Her “new pathways for sock knitters” allows me to take any sock design or stitch pattern and adapt it to my size. In this case I used the “riverbed” architecture.

Ravelry link