2007 knitting plans, plus a boring sock

Projects in mind for 2007:

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1) Colorwork mittens -- need 2 skeins of light green Shetland jumperweight, I think they'll be light green and dark green with an angora lining (unfortunately most wool makes my wrists itch like crazy). The hand chart is pretty much done, must finish charting the thumb next.

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2) Fair Isle cardigan in Meg Swansen's Knitting, for mom -- need just 8 more skeins. I've been slooowly collecting the Shetland yarn for this over the last 2 years. I'll make it smaller and shorter so it'll be more fitted, but not too fitted. And it'll be shades of blue/silver grey/cream, not the colors in the book.

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3) Marihone or Marihøne, better known as the cute ladybug sweater from Dale of Norway -- I started this last night, but don't expect it'll be done soon. Cardigans are more useful than pullovers around here so I'm converting it to a cardigan, and plan to steek the front, neck, and arms. I'm making the 2 yrs size for a couple reasons: (1) We don't know when the adoption my younger brother and his wife are working on will actually go through, so I can give it to Kate (my older brother's newborn) if that doesn't happen before two years is up, and (2) I don't want to feel rushed.

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4) A children's cardigan from the March 1994 Knitting Digest -- Who is E.J. Slayton and what happened to her? Last month I found a stash of old-ish Knitting Digests at the thrift store and noticed her name was attached to most of the best patterns. She designed traditional looking sweaters in the round with steeking where appropriate. OK, I googled her name and she has a website. The sock and shawl booklets look interesting but overall there's nothing too exciting.

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5) Pixie Cables: a seed stitch/cabled infant's cardigan found in a Red Heart "Soft and Sweet" booklet.

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6) Start and finish the 2nd sock in this toe-up pair:



The "no wrap, no gap" short row heel is from Queen Kahuna's Crazy Heels & Toes. I received this book for Christmas, my review will be posted soon with close-up photos of the heel (no wraps and no gaps, the name doesn't lie).

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That's enough planning, now back to knitting! Right now I'm working on the ladybug cardigan but the sock will be started as soon as the size 0 needle is free.

But first, we have some Viewer Mail:
Katie asked: I love your Laila socks! Do you have the exact yarn color name that you used for this? Thanks!

I looked around for the multi-colored yarn's ballband and couldn't locate it. I'd like to know what it is too, I'll buy more if I see it again. I looked through the Regia yarns at a few online shops and didn't see it, but I do know for sure it was Regia. I bought it 2-3 years ago at the local Pacific Fabrics so I'll check for it next time I'm there (not holding my breath).

Hat x 3

My brother wanted a boring hat. I handed him the trusty Hats On! book and said I'd make him a striped hat, but only if he couldn't find anything he liked better in the book. He settled on the Lusekofte Cap and requested I leave off the lice on the crown. Good call, I'm not a fan of the lice pattern either. Off we went to the yarn shop and he selected two skeins of Cascade 220 in blue and grey.


click here for bigger photo

I ended up making two hats, mainly because there was enough yarn, but also because I wasn't paying close attention to the charts and I left the bottom border off the first hat (middle). Turns out my brother prefers the hat with the mistake, when I showed him the hats he pointed to the OXO on the first hat and said "I like how it starts with this." Oh. I should've shown it to him before making the second hat. The second hat on the right has a 1x1 tubular cast on, the much faster twisted german cast-on was used for the first hat. I like the grey crown and my brother is right, it does look better without the border below the OXO. Sometimes mistakes turn out to be happy accidents.

Pattern: Lusekofte Cap from Hats On! by Charlene Schurch

Yarn: Cascade 220 in blue (#9327) and grey (#8401)

Pattern Modifications: left off the lice pattern on the crowns, altered the charted pattern for the 1st hat, used a different decrease for the crowns.

I promised Dee the hat on the left 2.5 years ago. She selected and bought the yarn so I can't take the blame for knitting yet another blue and white hat. I do accept blame for taking so long to make it -- sorry Dee! This is a new variation on my variation of the Triple Patterned Watchcap.

Pattern: Triple Patterned Watchcap from Hats On! by Charlene Schurch

Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted (100% wool) in blue (#?) and white (#?)

Pattern Modifications: I knit this at 6 sts/in instead of 5.5 and simply followed the pattern for the XL size (so it's 20" instead of 22") to fit Dee's 21.75" head.** The cast-on through the diamond pattern are from the book, but I don't turn the cuff over, so the book's cuff patt becomes the body patt. I added the 9 rounds of patterns before the crown, the zig-zag was found in Sheila McGregor's Traditional Fair Isle Knitting.

**Negative ease for hats is good. To determine hat size I subtract about 1.5"-2" from the head for colorwork hats, more if the hat is something stretchy like ribbing. If you knit a 22" hat for someone with a 22" head then it'll feel too loose.

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For the last few days I've been sloooowly charting a mitten, based on a photo in a German knitting book from 1982. I bought the book at St. Vincent's because I assumed the chart for the mittens would be IN the book. I saw those mittens and thought, "I'm going to buy this book just to make THESE MITTENS. They are the best mittens ever!" Now, I don't know German (beyond "I am very sick" and "I am very tired"), but with the help (?) of Babelfish I've kinda-sorta figured out that the chart is in a different book. Which I don't have. Argh. It doesn't help that a model is wearing the mittens so some parts of the pattern are hidden and other parts are curved on her hands, which makes it hard to tell where the stitches line up, the stitch definition is blurred in parts, and so on. It's been a BIG hassle but I think the end result will be worth it. I have to decide on the yarn and then swatch a bit before I can start.

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Question!
Li asked: "I went online looking for the book with the doggie slippers and the picture on the book doesn't look felted. Is it a felted pattern or did you do that on your own? If so, did you felt them with the ears attached, cuffs done (presumably non felting yarn), nose...."

Did you see the booties on the book cover? The book (Knit Baby Heads & Toes! by Gwen Steege) I borrowed from the library has a baby wearing a hat on the cover. Inside the book there are two photos of the booties made with two different yarns. One looks completely felted and the other looks barely felted. I like the look of felted things with no stitch definition. I guess it's really a matter of personal preference and the size you want them to be, but the instructions are written for felting.

The ears and tongue are knit separate and then sewn on pre-felting. The ribbed cuff is picked up and knit post-felting. (The pattern says to use cotton as a temporary placeholder for those cuff stitches, but I used black acrylic and it fused into the brown Lopi body during the felting process. Couldn't pull the yarn out. So I put the one row of acrylic sts on needles, and used black wool to knit the rest of the cuff.)

I cut the eyes and nose from black felt and glued them down with a hot glue gun. Now that I think about it, you could make some black wool bobbles for the eyes & nose and sew those on before felting, the same way you sew on the tongue, that should look good too.

Laila's Socks, both of them

Finished the 2nd sock, so more photos...

Gee thanks...

Ravel sulked in the background after I shooed him away. (He's named after Maurice Ravel, not the thing you do with yarn.)

Laila's Socks
Yarn: Regia black and Regia variegated, fingering weight sock yarn
Pattern: from Folk Knitting in Estonia by Nancy Bush
Needle: US size 1 Addi Turbo

Notes: I first followed the heel as written but didn't like the heel turn that much, so I ripped it out and used my regular heel turn instead. I played with a few of the color repeats, sometimes doubling the blues or sunset repeats. I added a few extra rounds of colorwork on the foot to make it a little longer.

As far as colorwork goes this was easy, I didn't need to refer to the chart or carry it around. If you like the look of colorwork, but don't want to refer to a chart after every few rounds to see what's next, then this is a great pattern for you.

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My younger brother asked for a hat like the (boring) Seahawks hat I made Dad last year, but he hasn't decided on the colors yet. So I guess that's what I'll be working on soon.

Laila's Socks

A few years ago I bought a ball of black and a ball of variegated sock yarn, with the idea of using them together to make a pair of colorwork socks. The yarn sat in my stash, waiting for me to design or find the right pattern.




Laila's Socks

Yarn: Regia black and Regia variegated, fingering weight sock yarn

Pattern: from Folk Knitting in Estonia by Nancy Bush


Right now I'm working on the 2nd sock but it doesn't have to be done until Christmas so there's no rush. I'll likely work on it until it's finished this week anyway, I don't have a specific new project in mind.

Blogger Beta allows labels! I should be able to edit previous posts and add labels to everything else, I apologize to the three people on bloglines if you see a large number of "new" posts from me.

Dog Booties for Baby (or Snoopy)

The cuffs can be unfolded for extra warmth:

Yarn: Reynold's Lopi (brown body), Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted (black cuffs), Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted (red tongue).

Pattern: from the book Knit Baby Heads & Toes! by Gwen Steege. These booties were designed by Bev Galeskas of Fiber Trends.

Speaking of Fiber Trends, I made these FT slippers for myself last month:



Betcha can't knit just one (pair). This is around the 10th pair I've made from this pattern.

Gratuitous cat photo:

Acorn Hat . . . FOR MY NIECE (!!!)

I have a niece! Katherine Anne (Katie), born 10/10. Is that a great birthday or what? Pretty hard for friends and family to forget. ;) I'm thrilled beyond measure. I would've been just as happy with a nephew too, but there was a tiny voice inside me saying I hope it's a girl.

My brother surprised me last week. I told him the cable baby hat was in the mail and he asked, "Didn't you say you were going to make a hat that looks like an acorn?" How did he remember that? It was around 6 months ago that I told him about the acorn pattern and I thought it went in one ear and out the other (you know how non-knitters tend to drift off if you talk about knitting stuff). Apparently he was looking forward to it! So I cast on for the adorable hat. I told him it would be a little big right now but it'll fit eventually. The smallest pattern size is 19" and I adjusted the gauge so it'd be a little smaller, but I didn't want it newborn size (so it'd fit longer).



The rolled brim uses 4 strands of fingering weight yarn (or two strands worsted), the rest of the hat uses 2 strands (or one strand worsted).


yarn: Patons Kroy sock yarn


Here is Snoopy's little sister Belle in Katie's blue hooded sweater (it zips down the back). I can't wait to see her in it:


yarn: Plymouth Encore