Summer Sweater Knit-A-Long

I've joined my first knit-a-long, sponsored by Shannon from luvinthemommyhood.  A knit-a-long (or KAL) for those who are unfamiliar, is when a group of people get together to knit the same item (or type of item) at the same time.  This is an online knit-a-long through Shannon's website and Ravelry, and (obviously) a sweater knit-a-long.

This KAL came along at just the right time for me.  I was planning to start my next sweater project anyway :)  I had bought a bag of Ella Rae Classic Wool in purple at SAFF.  I bought this yarn for another project, but have gone back and forth with it and finally decided to knit a cardigan.

I finally settled on Peterborough by Norah Gaughan (from her Berroco Vol. 8 booklet).  This cardigan might just be perfect for me.  I love the cabled collar with just a little bit of lace detail.  I think it will be very wearable with a lot of different outfits.

I'm going to try to keep my modifications to a minimum:

1.  I'm shortening the overall length from 28" to 25".

2.  Because of this, I'm raising the back ribbing belt to 11" from the bottom cast on edge.  I want it to sit at my natural waist.  

3.  I'm also casting on for a bigger size in the hips, then doing more decreases to make the chest and shoulders smaller.

I'm going to post regular updates on my progress here as part of the KAL.  Wish me luck :)

Oh, and I'll be posting a new knitting pattern for my first shawl in the next few days.  Be sure to stop by and see!

New Knitting Pattern: This Way Up! Chevron Cowl

Here is my latest FREE knitting pattern - This Way Up! Chevron Cowl.  

 
This pattern is a quick and easy peasy knit, and perfect for a great gift and/or using up some of your stash yarn.  The pattern consists of only two rows and you can make the color chevron blocks as wide or as narrow as you want, or just knit until you run out of yarn :)  I've made mine long enough to double around my neck and hang a bit, but you can change the length to suit your style.


The pattern is available on my Hubpage, along with my other knitting patterns and articles, and other craft tutorials.  I hope you enjoy this pattern!

A New Obsession: Shawl Pins

I recently finished knitting my first shawl - the beautiful Luster Shawl by Amélie Bernier (which I love, love, love).  I have, however, found that it is almost impossible to wear a shawl without some type of clasp to hold it together and in place.  So I started looking online at various styles of shawl pins, and realized I already had the necessary materials and could make a few shawl pins on my own.

Above are the fruits of my creative labors :)

The top pin is a geometric wire and bead design that anyone can make with some simple supplies
(a bead and some wire) and a pair of needle nose pliers.

The middle pin is a beautiful  beaded stick pin that can also be worn as a hair ornament.  This stick pin is made with a polymer clay stick and a bead, then decorated with acrylic paint and some copper wire detail.

 

The last is a polymer clay pin and stick, kind of a traditional design in a bright color combination.

  

All of these pins are easy to make with some creativity and some time.  The tutorials for all these pins are on my Hubpage, or you can follow the links below:

Wire and Bead Shawl Pin
Beaded Shawl Stick Pin or Hair Ornament
Pretty Polymer Clay Shawl Pin and Stick

Free Knitting Pattern: Color Field Baby Blanket

As promised, here is my latest free knitting pattern:  the Color Field Baby Blanket.  Baby blankets are always a great handmade gift for new parents.  A blanket is very useful, and a baby doesn't grow out of it as soon as clothes or other gifts.

 I designed this pattern to be fun and colorful, and adaptable to match any personal taste or nursery decor.  For my blanket, I used the detail color of my first block as the background color of the next block, and transitioned through 6 colors that way to make my design.  However, this blanket could also be knit in just two colors (it would be beautiful using a variegated or striping yarn as the background and a solid color as the detail throughout; or - do the reverse.  Use one solid color as the background, and a variegated or striping yarn as the detail!)

I love how this blanket came out.  I hope you like it too :)  You can find my other free knitting patterns and articles on Hubpages! 

Yarn Love

My pre-birthday present :)  Lots of possibilities....

Husband-Sized

As promised, here are some photos of my finished afghan for my husband.  He wouldn't model it for this posting, but he seems happy :)

I posted my modifications from the Walt Painted Baby Blanket pattern here.  The finished size of this blanket turned out to be 36 inches wide by 64 inches long (unblocked,and I don't have any plans to block it).  If I were to do over this project, I would add 2 - 4 more chevrons (15 sts each) to the width.  That would give a little more coverage on the side, but it's fine the way it is :)

You'll notice I only did two white stripes as opposed to the three I originally planned.  Knitting a third stripe would have meant starting another skein of yarn and I decided I didn't need any more length, so I chose to skip the stripe and return the extra skein.  Here an update on the yardage I used:

2 1/2  skeins of Caron Simply Soft in Gray Heather (main color)
2 skeins of Caron Simply Soft in Country Blue
1 1/2  skeins of Red Heart Super Saver in Tea Leaf (green)
1 skein of Caron Eco Ways in an off-white

I have enough yarn left over in a few of the colors to do a baby blanket, and we have a friend expecting in late May.  I hope to come up with an original pattern for this blanket.  Stay tuned :)

Keeping Hubby Happy & Warm

We've made it through our first winter in our new house and the one thing we've learned:  our new house is COLD.  My husband complains almost constantly and keeps raising the thermostat (neither of which really helps).  So when I was between knitting projects in February, it dawned on me that I should knit hubby a lap blanket/afghan to keep him warm and happy :)

So I struck a deal with him:  I would knit him a blanket if he let me choose the design and colors.  I knew I wanted a pattern that was simple and modern.  I came across this Walt Painted blanket pattern by Danielle Romanetti that I really liked and went about expanding the baby pattern to be husband-sized.  However, after doing some test knitting, I realized the purl front & back that she uses in her pattern was going to be a nightmare when I enlarged the pattern.  So instead, I used the basic pattern from Zig Zag Pram Blanket by Debbie Orr and made some changes to include garter stitch chevrons.  Since these are free patterns, I feel okay explaining how I incorporated both into my blanket.

First, since I knew my husband wasn't going to treat this blanket with any particular care, I decided to use inexpensive acrylic yarn from my local craft store.  I'm only about halfway through knitting my blanket, but I plan for the finished size to be about 42" wide by 60" to 64" long.  Since I'm still working on it, the yarn amounts below are estimates:

My materials 

3 skeins ( maybe more) of Caron Simply Soft in Gray Heather (main color - MC)
2 skeins of Caron Simply Soft in Country Blue
2 skeins of Red Heart Super Saver in Tea Leaf (green)
1 skein (maybe 2) of Caron Eco Ways in an off-white

So, first was to adjust the chevron garter stitch from the Walt Painted Baby Blanket.  Here's what I came up with:

Garter St Chevron
R1 (RS) :  K5, * kf&b, k5, sl1 knitwise, k2tog, psso, k5, kf&b, repeat from * to * until last 5 sts, k5.
R2 (WS):  Knit

Stocking St Chevron (worked only in main color)

R1 (RS):  K5, * kf&b, k5, sl1 knitwise, k2tog, psso, k5, kf&b, repeat from * to * until last 5 sts, k5.
R2 (WS):  K5, purl to last 5 sts, k5.

For my blanket:

With MC, cast on 220 sts with #7 needle (this creates a 5 st border on my blanket).

Worked 5 repeats of Garter St Chevron (10 rows total).  Then worked 6 repeats of St St Chevron (12 rows total).

*Changed to Country Blue and knitted Garter St Chevron for a total of 20 rows.  Then I changed back to the gray (MC) and knitted in St St Chevron for 6 rows.*

I repeated from * to* two more times for a total of three blue stripes.  Then I did the same pattern repeats to create:

3 green stripes
3 off-white stripes
3 more green stripes
3 blue stripes
(total of 15 colored stripes in all)

After finishing my last blue stripe, I'm going to switch back to gray (MC) and work 12 rows (6 repeats) in the St St Chevron and finish with 9 rows of the Garter St Chevron (end on right side).  I'll bind off loosely on the WS to finish my blanket.

As I said, I'm not done yet, but I like how it's coming out.  A hearty thanks to the two designers for coming up with such great patterns!  I'll post more photos when it's finished :)