What Am I Doing?

This is for a class on the brioche stitch which is good for teaching the stitch, both working back and forth and in rounds and increases. It also uses the Channel Island Cast On, so is a good teaching project. It took awhile to get used to the pattern and it was easy to make mistakes. Ripping out was a pain! And I did a lot!

Pattern: Baby Brioche by Jen Hurley a free download on Ravelry

Yarn: Knitting Fever Painted Desert

Needles: US #6

 

No, I'm not in a dishcloth mood but the shop has a lot of new knitters so we're trying to offer classes for them. One series we're doing is a dishcloth each month, so I try to use a dishcloth which will teach a new skill.

Pattern: Heart Shape Cloth by Mary Marcontell-free download found on Ravelry.

Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Fantasy Naturale Solid

Needles: US #8

Since before Christmas I've wanted to make this sweater and I finally found the yarn I wanted and got it started. The pattern is Woodburne and the yarn is Ultra Alpaca. The sweater is seamless with shaping taking place between the cables in the back.

This is such a fun knit. I'm enjoying every stitch. Celestarium is growing. The color is really a darker blue so the silver lined crystal beads really shine. I have about 40 rows left plus the border which is a 5 stitch (I think) attached garter stitch edging.

Ravelry has a new feature where every day they show you patterns you might like. This is one of the recommendations. When I saw the little girl modeling it she reminded me of my 3 year old great grand daughter. She wants to have hair like Rapunzel, so it is always hanging in her face and won't wear barrettes or binders. She loves anything princess so this crown headband should be perfect and maybe she will wear it. The yellow one is hers and the orange one is for her 5 year old sister. "Fitting" will take place Saturday.

Isn't this done yet? It seems to be taking forever but I am past the half way mark. The pattern is Matsuri by Berroco. My first comment was that I didn't like to work the blackberry stitch but this stitch is called berries in a basket and doesn't have purl 5 together so is much easier to work. It is also for a class. It makes for good social knitting-so it should be done!

This project got frogged. I test knit and am "tech editor" for Kimberlolly in Germany and this is her next pattern which just went out to testers after it has been "tech edited".  At first I was real excited about it, but I couldn't live with the way the edge looked where the yarn was carried up the side so on this piece I tried adding the darker yarn to both edges and tried I-cord which didn't work because it wasn't elastic enough and then tried doing the edge garter stitch in the darker/heavier yarn but I'm not going to go through with that hassle. It really is a beautiful shawl but not for me.

2013 Yarn Clubs

A new year of yarn clubs. Oh, how I love receiving these packages!

Rosemary Hill's Shawl and Pin club for January. I subscribed only to the yarn and pattern, not the pin for this year. How many shawl pins can a person use. I know many people wonder how many shawls can a person knit and use, but that is a no-brainer for a shawl-o-holic like me. I just love knitting them.

The yarn is from Sincere Sheep, Terroir Fiber Series, special for Romi's club. Included are beads and 2 darling stitch markers. Stitch markers are something else a knitter can not have too many of.

The first yarn of this year from Cookie A is a beautiful dark green which doesn't show up in the picture from Indigo Dragon Fly, merino, cashmere and nylon. Included is the project bag and a note card.

This is the first time I've tried the Knit Circus yarn club. The yarn seems nice -superwash merino, silver poly, and silk. The extra is a mini skein of Starlight Sock Yarn and a set of premium bamboo US #1 needles from Stitch Berry.

A Verb for Keeping Warm Proverbial Yarn Club.

The last shipment from Knit Spot by Anne Hanson has Miss Babs yarn which is cashmere and silk. Need I say more? The patterns for this club are done in a beautiful format with beautiful photography. I'll join this one again.

 

Still Knitting

It's been awhile and I've been debating quitting the blog as it seems I don't have the time. Still debating. The knitting I've been doing has mostly been for the shop samples for classes, and am now down to the last two and then I can knit what I want to. Here's what I've been doing although there are no pictures of the last two yet.

 

In addition to knitting for the shop I've been doing some test knitting of the next Cottage Creations pattern and tech editoring for Kimberlolly from Ravelry-4 patterns.

 

These are the mittens. What is unusual about them is the gusset which is placed on the hand rather than the traditional thumb portion of the mitten. They have a great fit. The purple ones are made from Ella Rae Classic which is wool and acrylic using US #6 needles. Size, Large Child/Small Woman,

These are from the same pattern but are made for my good friend. The tip of the mitten was changed for the adult size mitten rather than the pointed one-the pattern is still in testing. The yarn is Malabrigo Rios which I sort of like. I've had trouble with the difference in color between skeins of this yarn, but figures making mittens out of one skein should not be any problem. Wrong. I got about 3/4 done making both at the same time one from each end of the skein and decided I couldn't live with the difference in color between the two so frogged and made one at a time, alternating the yarn from both ends. What a hassle and it resulted in a noticeable line where the yarn was changed.

 

I did not make these but were made by my good friend. They are microwave bowl hot pads to be used to microwave bowls which usually are too hot to handle when the food is hot. Love them!

 They are so pretty I just stack them, put a candle in the middle and use as a centerpiece.

This is Purslane Beret from KnitScene Fall 2012 made from Frog Tree Pedaboo which is really nice to work with. After it was finished, washed and blocked when I put it on it hung down over my eyes so I took out the last inch or so and redid it on a smaller needle. It is pretty, even if I never wear it. It is a class sample.

The shop has had so many Learn To Knit Classes that we are looking for easy classes for beginners. This is the first dishcloth for a dishcloth of the month class. Pattern is a free download on Ravelry called Purple Heart Knit Motif using Plymouth Yarn Fantasy Naturale and size 8 needles.

Another class sample. These are from Cat Bordhi's Sweet Tomato Heel book. I decided to make fraternal twin socks-same yarn, different pattern. The sock on the left is Simply Splendid Socks and on the right is Hidden Pocket. I used the e-book and made both from top down and found there was a lot of going back and forth between pages. I had a problem with the beginning of the Simple Splendid Sock as I think there is a mistake in the pattern, but never got a response from Cat Bordhi about it. Will I make this heel again? Probably not. One side looks good-the one on the picture, but the other side has holes at the turn. I did them over trying to follow suggestions on the Ravelry Forum, and the hole size decreased, but I still am not happy with them. The yarn is CoBaSi which has a little elastic in it.

This is my fun project I did start for myself. The yarn is custum dyed by my friend, Dawn, of Propaganda Yarn. It will be a round shawl based on Elizabeth Zimmermann's Pi Shawl and is a "map" of the northern hemisphere sky. If you look closely, you can see the north star in the very center and the Big Dipper from it.