The Green and White Fluted Rib Scarf

I got a lot done over winter break. My second project after the hats was this green and white fluted rib scarf. Doesn't it have a nice pattern? It's the same two rows, alternating between white and green. 

I found it on Ravelry, of course.

Here's the pattern that produced this coloring:

Cast on 21 stitches.
Following the pattern, work 12 rows in white.
Switch to green, work 2 rows.
Switch back to white, bringing the yarn up the side. Work two rows.
Switch back and forth between green and white until the scarf is long enough. Mine hit six feet before I stopped.
Work 12 rows in white.
Bind off.

Two Sparrow Hats

Over the holidays I got to practice Portuguese knitting on a new pattern. It's amazing how much I can get done when I don't have to go to work.

The first hat is huge. It is a melon hat. My sister tried it on and it covered her entire face.

I followed most of the instructions (cast on 100 stitches, knit 5 rounds of the pattern) but didn't switch to size 8 needles after the ribbing or use the contrasting color for the crown. It knit up in about three days.

The second hat knit up in about two days. I cast on 90 stitches and did only three repeats of the pattern. This made the hat more manageable and removed the first row of decreases from the pattern. It went by much faster.

Here's evidence of the size disparity.

I like this pattern. I think I can get by with casting on 80 stitches to finish up the last of that bright green yarn. 

The Orange and Black Checkered Hat

I had forgotten how quickly hats knit up. It took less than three days to finish this hat once my last scarf was done.

This hat was knit using Portuguese purling. The idea behind that style is to run the working yarn around the head and hold tension in the right hand while purling by flicking the yarn over the needle with the left thumb. The piece is worked inside out, so purling the entire piece ends up with a knit hat. 

The pattern wasn't free so I won't re-post it here. The orange yarn was some leftover Vanna White from my stash and the black yarn came from the Carron One Pound monstrosity. 

It worked out pretty well except for the crown. Patterns shouldn't tell you to place more stitch markers halfway through so I half-assed the crown. It's all bound off and that's the best that can be said for it. I definitely didn't have the yarn to do it 'right'.

When I do this pattern again I'll use another pattern for shaping the crown.

The White Cabled Scarf Monstrosity

Why do all of the projects I do with this yarn end with "It's DONE!"? Because there is no variety in these projects. I memorized the cables early on and after that it was the same thing over and over again.

The pattern came from Ravelry - the Change-ringing scarf. It was supposed to have two different cable sections but the second one wasn't pretty so I skipped it. 

This was knitted on size 8 needles with Carron One Pound yarn.

Still, it turned out well. The scarf reaches down to my knees and the cables turned out pretty alright. They gap a little at the cross overs but it's not that noticeable.

Practicing finishing techniques

Last month, I had the pleasure of taking a couple of knitting classes. One dealt with finishing techniques and a second taught different ways of binding on.

What I have here is some practice. Both have the same pattern, knit with the leftover Seahawks yarn.

The Dragon Scale Pattern

CO multiple of 4 sts.

R1: K across

R2: (K1, P3) across

R3: (K2, P2) across

R4: (K3, P1) across

This was the first one, on size 6 needles, 24 stitches. Bind on was the Twisted German cast on, bind off was the super stretchy elastic bind off, and I tried slipping the first stitch of each row.

Attempt two was 24 stitches on size 7 needles. Bind on was the twisted German cast on again, bind off was the sewn bind off, and I successfully slipped most first stitches on this piece.

Take away: the twisted German cast on is stretchier than the traditional long tail cast on, the elastic bind off is far too stretchy, and the sewn cast off is nice. I'll be using it again soon.

Slipping the stitches made the sides look nice, but I was too loose in the final stitches on each row to make it look good. Still, it's a good skill to know and it'll look better next time.

The Snowflake Headband

When I saw a friend knitting this stranded headband, I knew I needed to make one myself. Luckily, I still had leftover yarn from the Seahawks hats to use up.

The results were disappointing. I enjoyed the colorwork but the band was too big for my head. If I made it again, I'd shrink the pattern and cut back on the ribbing. And the bind off wouldn't use the super stretchy bind off, which caused the ripples on the bottom here.

Maybe next time will be better.

The Isaac Mizrahi prayer shawl

Look at this little beauty. Three skeins of Isaac Mizrahi craft yarn produced this fuzzy prayer shawl. My friends keep telling me how pettable it is.

It was a fun side project and never got boring. Surprising, given that the entire thing was worked in seed stitch. I liked watching the colors change as I knit.

The pattern couldn't be easier.

Cast on 60 stitches on size 10 circular needles (Gauge is not important).
(k1, p1) util the end of the row.
Repeat until you run out of yarn.
Bind off.

The Lace Edged Prayer Shawl - Part 2

Done! Finally done.

And I still have half a pound of white yarn to use up. What was the point of this shawl again?

Go 'Hawks, Take 2

Guess who has two thumbs and a second Seahawks hat? This girl!

This time I tried giving more slack to the color I was stringing behind, to stop the wrinkling. That turned out pretty well.

I had just enough blue yarn left to knit the hat again. Literally, I had five inches left after binding off.

To top it off, the Seahawks shut out the Bears earlier today. It looks like I've found my lucky 'Hawks hat.

The Lace Edged Prayer Shawl - Part 1

I'll admit, not actually lace edged. 

This shawl was meant to use up the leftover One Pound Carron. That... didn't turn out the way I thought. Halfway through I ran out of yarn so I had to join another pound of yarn. You should never have to join pounds of yarn together. And how will I use up the rest of this yarn? This was not a well thought out plan.

I wanted to do something like the yarn overs from the triangular prayer shawl but with a rectangle. Have to say, it's really boring. At least I'm mostly done.

Seahawks Hat - Part 2

Done after five minutes on the DPN. And of course I'm making another one with the leftover yarn.

Materials used:
Main color: 220 Superwash Aran, Blue Velvet
Secondary color: 220 Superwash Aran, Green Apple
Tertiary color: 220 Superwash Aran, White
Size 7 16"circular needles, Size 7 DPN
Based on http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hawks-hat

Seahawks Hat, Part 1

Do you know what's great? Fair Isle Knitting. If I had known how much I love this, I'd have picked it  up years ago. 

See this? This is the beginning of a Seahawks hat, knitted in about 4 hours. There's the complexity of cabling with the color variation of intarsia without the hassle of a cable needle and bobbins.

Even using a color chart for the first time was simple - read right to left and knit the right color. Much easier than I thought possible.

The only reason this hat wasn't done in a week is because I'm missing size 7 DPN and my local yarn store was out of stock. Once those get ordered, I'm finishing this hat and making another copy.

The Stockinette Prayer Shawl

 I realized recently that I still have a ton of the one pound Carron yarn. And since I didn't want to count the rows of a baptismal blanket, I went with the standard prayer shawl. Well, not exactly standard: the body of the shawl is stockinette, not garter stitch.

The stockinette isn't curling because I added a border of garter stitch around it. Each row begins with three knit stitches, a yarn over, and three knit stitches, and ends with six knit stitches.

The edging here is far nicer and cleaner than when the shawl is knit with Homespun yarn.

Here's the pattern, knit with Carron One Pound yarn on size 8 circular needles:

Cast on 1 stitch.
Row 1: KF&B
Rows 2-5: KF&B, K to the end of the row
Rows 6-13: K3, YO, K to the end of the row
Row 14: K3, YO, P* to the last six stitches, K 6
Repeat rows 13-14 until the shawl measures about 30" long. End on a knit row.
For 4 rows: K3, YO, K* to the end of the row

Finish the shawl as in the original instructions:
Row 1: K3, (YO, K2TOG)* to the last three stitches, YO, K3
For 4 rows, KF&B, K* to the end of the row
Bind off

Intarsia: The Flag of London

Domine Dirige Nos

I wanted something simple for my first intarsia project. Thus: the Flag of the City of London. Two colors, no stripes, and no zigzags. Should be simple, right?

Right?

I ended up with four bobbins, two red, two white, along with the pound of yarn that was the main strand. I had to unknit through the intarsia at least four times, and reknitting becomes far harder when you can't tell which side to start on.

It turned out alright in the end, even though I messed up the flag design.

I can't decide if I want to redo this pattern or try another one. There's plenty of time to choose - my next project involves crocheting six pounds of wool scraps. Let's see how that goes...

Cabled hats

Been working on a couple of things. First up is the antler hat. The pattern is a bit boring but I liked how the curling branches turned out. This had more slouch than I expected. 

The second hat was a blackberry hat, made for a friend's birthday. She likes wearing hats back behind her ears so I needed something short and far less slouchy than the antler hat.

The pattern has an actual braid it in and I plan to use it in a scarf. Knitting in the round isn't fun to start but cabling has been easier than I ever thought it would be. No more hats though.

Next up: intarsia

The Double Cabled Red Scarf (Part 2) + The Single Twist Red Scarf

And at 60 inches, my first cabled scarf is done.

Strangely, the pattern got boring at the end. You wouldn't think tracking four tiny cables would be boring, would you? But I finished this while watching Leverage.

That made my next pattern a bad choice. There's only one row of cabling every six rows and it doesn't change. Makes it easy to knit, for sure. If I had discovered this pattern earlier, I would have been cabling years ago. It's already at 56 inches.

I admit that's bad light for details. Next time I'll remember to take pictures in natural light.

The Double Cabled Red Scarf (Part 1)

Why am I making yet another scarf that I won't wear? Because my church knitting circle knits red scarfs for college bound foster kids and I wanted to try something new. Which brings me to...

Cables!

After five years of knitting, I finally learned to knit with cables, which isn't as difficult as it looks. The pattern below is LW4282 from Red Heart. It's described as intermediate but the cabling stitches are easy to understand and now I don't need to look at the pattern. I've also stopped nearly stabbing myself with the cabling needle.

The worst part is dropping a stitch. I have to rip out three rows to get back to the right side of the pattern and hope I don't make another mistake during the fix. Beyond that, this pattern is about as simple as the prayer shawls.

The Falling Leaves Prayer Shawl - Part 2

 And the shawl is done, just in time for the knitting circle.

I couldn't get a good photo of the edging but the yarn overs can be seen if you look hard.

The worst part is weaving in the edges, especially because there's no good method to follow. I can't weave in the ends like I would for garter stitch because of the loose weave of the shawl and because of the yarn overs. I ended up weaving through the beefy parts of the stitches a few times, just to make sure the yarn stayed. It's not noticeable since Homespun yarn is very forgiving.

Next time I'll try a different method of binding off than the basic bind off. It doesn't stretch enough for my liking.

The Falling Leaves Prayer Shawl - Part 1

Here's a project I've been working for the past week:

This is a prayer shawl made for my church's knitting circle. The pattern is almost entirely garter stitch with a yarn over in every row to get the lace effect at the edges. You can find it here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/knit-triangular-prayer-shawl-archived.

The pattern needs two or three skeins of Lion Brand Homespun yarn (this color's Wild Fire), and size 13 circular needles.

Homespun yarn does hide a multiple of mistakes and the dye lot numbers aren't that important, unlike other yarns. As projects go, it's fairly simple.

Why call it Falling Leaves instead of Wild Fire? It reminds me of the changing leaves in the middle of fall. And with all the rain, that's something of a rarity around here.

The W&M Hat - Master Post

The W&M Hat - Part 1 - November 9, 2012
The W&M Hat - Part 2 - November 23, 2012
The W&M Hat - Part 3 - December 2, 2012
The W&M Hat - Part 4 - December 7, 2012
The W&M Hat - Part 5 - December 12, 2012
The W&M Hat - Part 6 - December 17, 2012

Go Tribe!