Hat Pattern: 1×1 Ribbed Hat
Handwarmers: Sucky Thumb Mitts
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease Solids, Heathers & Twists
Needles: US 6
And why are you making me wear these things?
My nephew moved from a warm climate to a colder one, Chanukah was coming, and I needed to use up my stash that is still going strong at 53 items (with more on the way) *ahem*. Enter, handwarmers and a hat!
She knew these weren't for her and gave them back after modeling them.
I used my standard 1×1 ribbed hat pattern because it just works so well. And that totally sounds like a shameless plug, but I didn’t mean for it to be. Of course now it is a plug. The Sucky Thumb Mitts pattern is a really good one, and I highly recommend it. Between that pattern and my last fingerless gloves project, I think I understand the idea behind the hand warmer construction and may try my hand at creating a pattern that’s in my head. But I’ve digressed, haven’t I?
The finished pieces
I guess I don’t have much to say about the project. It went together really fast and really well. I’m happy with the finished product. I’m a bit of a yarn snob and have had bad luck with Lion’s Brand in the past, but they redeemed themselves with this yarn. It was a good, solid yarn without any breaks. AND I liked the color. I bet it was because my Godson bought it for me.
Handwarmers on my kid.
We’ll see how the nephew takes to them. He may find the yarn tastes better than anything.
OMG I love how this sweater turned out! Heck, I love it enough to use OMG in a blog post and I don’t do that often. I had a lot of issues knitting and liking this sweater at first. It seemed like such a burden, none of it was perfect, and I kept ripping it out so it would be perfect. Then I realized it was because my inner Baljeet comes out when I take a class. No matter how much I enjoy the class.
Seriously, I just really wanted an A. So after the class (which was awesome) was complete, I decided to make myself finish the pieces. I didn’t want to stop mid-way through only to forget what I did and find my notes were awful. So I finished every piece and then put it aside, in a deep dark hole, to find my sanity. I even worked on Humanity in the interim.
Buttons! They are actually made from recycled plastic.
Then I started slowly picking it up again. First I took about a month to seam it together. I tried it on and was a little worried it would not fit, but decided to just do the button band once I found buttons. Button band completed and buttons attached, it was time to try the fit again and. it. FIT! It fit really, really well. At that point, it was only a matter of days to finish the collar, weave in the ends, and do a final block to straighten out the button band and collar. And I LOVE it. It really fits well. I think it fits better than it looks in the pictures since it was still blocking when I tried it (What do you want from me, I couldn’t wait?) and I always act like a dork when I have to pose for pictures.
My (cabled) Guns!
I can’t fully comment on how well the Central Park Hoodie pattern was written. I used the Viking variation for parts of it and sort of followed those instructions for a good part of the sweater, but what I did use of the pattern was well done. I do admit, it was a little difficult trying to blend the two patterns together since the Viking version doesn’t include the Central Park Hoodie parts for copyright reasons, but Lisa Kay does a good job getting you to understand how they fit. Of course, the most annoying part was having to spread both patterns and class notes for some sections of the sweater. It’s worth it though. If you love these cables but are afraid of doing them, don’t be. It’s easier than it looks and you won’t regret the finished product. I did learn how to do cables without the cable needle and was so thankful that I did. It sped up my knitting a lot.
When I saw someone's version with these cables, I got chills. Yes, I know it's dorky but so beautiful.
I don’t have much to say about Cascade 220. It’s a good and affordable workhorse yarn that produces lovely products. It’s not going to be a lush fabric nor will it be overly-scratchy. Someday I may convince myself to splurge and make a sweater out of the expensive stuff, but really with Cascade 220 there’s not much of a need.
I'd be yelled at for being too posey on ANTM
So after all the frustration and crankiness, I am so very happy with the product. I hope that what I learned from the class will be translated to more sweaters so they look just as good, if not better. Now, if only it would start snowing…
Pattern: Humanity Yarn: Frog Tree Merino Melange
Needles: US 6
There used to be a blog by Yarnsticks who is one of my best friends. There are friends that will be old and infirm one day, sitting in rocking chairs on the porch of the old lady’s home, knitting and just enjoying each other’s company. That’s us. We’re in different states but she is so important to me that we will be friends long into old age.
When I turned 30, Yarnsticks made a pair of socks for me. A few years later, I drove to her house while 6 months pregnant. I don’t know how it had come up in conversation, but she mentioned that no one ever knit for her. I decided then and there, in my pregnancy-riddled mind to make her something. I made sure to sneak in a hand measurement and took note of a yarn she liked. About a year later, when I thought I was ready to make the hand warmers, I came up with a lie to get a list of hand warmers she liked. About a year after that, I made humanity.
Let me say this about the pattern. It doesn’t quite make sense the way it is written, but it isn’t wrong. It’s just not written to make sense to me. Basically, the cabling row says to put 2 stitches on the cable needle, then purl, knit 2, and knit the two off the cable needle. If you do that as written, then you end up off the 2 x 1 ribbing. Instead it seems to make more sense (to me) to put 2 stitches on the cable needle, then put the purl stitch on the cable needle, knit 2, purl off the cable needle, and then knit the last two off the cable needle. Did I confuse you? Yeah, I’m still confused, but it worked well enough as far as I can tell, and other than that, it’s a good pattern.
Frog Tree Merino is to die for. I almost did not give Yarnsticks the handwarmers because the yarn is so yummy. I really did struggle. The yarn was so soft that I tried to talk myself into keeping these and knitting another pair. Thankfully, reason took over and I decided that I can knit a second pair for me another day. I have a lot of projects I want to do so if I hadn’t done these, they weren’t getting done.
Seriously, though. Go get Frog Tree Merino and snuggle with it. It’s just that good. Even OP didn’t want to give them up.
One would think that YarnKettle was a good person. I mean, she is. She’s a good person and probably the most open-minded person I know. No matter who you are or what you do, she will give you her time, her heart, and her craziness. YarnKettle is one of my best friends and knitting soul mate. I’m truly grateful she is in my life.
See, last week I received an email from YarnKettle. “I’m thinking of taking some classes at *insert local yarn store here*, would you like to join me?” she wrote. One of the classes was for a hat, one for the Central Park Hoodie, and one a steeking class. I hemmed. I hawed. I said yes. The hat class was during the Husband’s birthday so that was out. I did want to make myself a sweater sometime this year and this would be a good opportunity to do it, learn how to modify the sweater, and get a little me time. Since I always wanted to try steeking, I agreed to that class too.
The problem, however, is I didn’t have yarn for a sweater and would need to buy some. To be fair, this does fit in the yarn purchasing rules for 2011 because it is for a specific project, but it’s only January! I couldn’t have held off to buy yarn until, oh I don’t know, September? But, buy yarn I did. Many skeins of a lovely green Cascade 220.
Close but not quite as bright as the actual color.
I had a hard time picking a color. I wanted to avoid gray–I have knit myself 2 sweaters and a shawl and all are gray–and I wanted to go with a jewel tone. I just couldn’t decide…blue? red? green? Should I go with a neutral? It is, after all, a cardigan and a neutral would be easier to match with all clothes. I really wanted something bright and fun and not neutral. So after a lot of trauma (like 30 minutes of dithering in the store with YarnKettle and a baby), I went with green. I love the color and I can’t wait to see how it looks. I’m now in the process of figuring out how I want to modify the sweater. I’m thinking of removing the hood, adding a zipper or buttons to close it, and look into some shaping. I’m really exited about this class!
I’m hoping that I can use some yarn from my stash for the steeking class, but I won’t know until I get closer and they post the specs. I think I’ll feel better about buying this yarn if I can use already owned yarn for the next one. In the meantime, I’m working diligently on the Husband’s socks and hope to have the first of the pair knit within the week. We’ll see if that happens. I’m at the easy part right now, but sometimes life gets in the way. Fortunately, it’s fitting him really well so far so my gauge math was correct and I didn’t have to frog!
Pattern: Zozo
Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Sport
Needles: US 2
2010 was the year of the baby. Okay, I’m not sure if two babies warrants a year dedicated to babies, but I was blessed with both a niece and a nephew towards the end of 2010. Of course they needed a knit something. My nephew received two Zozo–a brother and sister named Bluelien and Greenly.
Waiting to go to their forever homes
I felt that since the Sister lives in a place where it’s generally warm, a hat would not be the way to go; however, since my niece received both a turtle AND a hat, it wasn’t fair to knit my nephew one little alien. Plus they can keep each other company or help each other escape the terror of an infant.
I brought the toys with me on Christmas day, when I went to help the Sister (and her husband) with their new little boy.
Blulien enjoying a parfait before his flight.
Greenly needs a Chai to get through the next few hours.
The nephew seemed to like them from the first. One would think that a 9 day old doesn’t understand such things at just over a week, but he is a genius so he really does know.
He held onto them right away and not because of the grasping instinct.
Send Help! Bluelien is going to be eaten!
It’s a really easy, albeit multi-step, pattern. I finished Greenly in less than a week. If I ever make another one, I’d be curious to change how some of the pieces are put together. Each finger is done separately and then combined to make the arm, for example, but maybe it would be easier done in the other direction so that the arm is made and the fingers come out from that. It would probably make the fingers have less personality, but it would make it all one piece so there’d be a lot less ends to weave in. Still, I really liked the pattern and recommend it.
