Thick Stripes Cowl

Four skeins of clearance-priced Lion Brand Alpine Wool somehow jumped into my basket about six months ago. I thought about knitting hats and mittens with them, but during a Christmas-shopping trip I saw some great chunky, soft cowls and decided to see just how far those four skeins would take me:

This was super simple to knit, and made me especially glad that I had bought a 40-inch cable for my interchangeable needle set. More details on my Ravelry project page.

Orange You Glad I Knit You a Sweater?

A recent splurge has become this: 

A top-down raglan pullover for my son. I've used tubular cast-off on the cuffs and waist, and TECHknitting's post on the subject is really well done. After having my son try on the almost-finished product, I abandoned the idea of also using this bind-off at the neck and instead just picked up stitches and worked a few rows of stockinette stitch for a nice rolled edge. I used a suspended bind-off that I've used before.

Knit 1, *slip st back to LH needle, k2tog through the back loop; rep from * until one st remains and draw end of yarn through last st to secure.

I knit the sleeves straight until just before the cuff, where I did a few rounds of decreases before switching to 1x1 ribbing. In hindsight, I think I would have preferred using paired decreases from the elbow to the wrist: next time, right?

Simple Things

Sometimes I get caught up in patterns with intertwining cables, intricate color work, and outrageous construction. The challege is exciting, and the new techniques are inspiring and educational, but sometimes it's nice to go back to basics, because the basics can make for some pretty, sweet, and often nostalgic garments.

This is girl's smock was knit from the top down in the round with a garter stitch yoke, stockinette body, and garter stitch hem.




Three wooden buttons were sewn on at the margin where the end of one round and the beginning of the next meet, making a sort of faux buttonband.

These simple but classic elements along with Patons Classic Wool in a natural heather colorway add up to, in my opinion, a sweet smock that can be dressed up or down.

New Pattern: Big Sweater, Little Pockets

I'm so excited! The pattern for Big Sweater, Little Pockets is live on Ravelry.

This sweater is sized for 2, 4 and 6 years and is intended to be oversized. Learn some new tricks, like the tubular cast on, and then relax with some stockinette stitch in the round. Two tiny afterthought pockets add a little interest to the front of the sweater, and bulky yarn means this project knits up quickly.




Buy it on Ravelry! See what some other fantastic knitters have done with Big Sweater, Little Pockets! Not a Ravelry member? Join here or purchase pattern without joining by clicking the "buy now" button below.

Striped Raglan Sweater

I've spent the last three weeks knitting a sweater for my 2-year-old. Due to his age and proclivity for messes, and my general dislike of handwashing, I used a superwash DK wool. I had a little bit of dark green left over from my ice cream cozy, so I added some stripes to keep it interesting. It's a percentage sweater. I used Elizabeth Zimmermann's wonderful book, Knitting Without Tears, and tried a tubular bind-off method for the first time. I can't say enough about the percentage method: you get exactly the sweater you want, and as EZ promises, you get it without shedding any tears.

Free Pattern: Luxurious Loops Washcloth

This loopy little cloth was designed a few months ago, but since the pattern just got a facelift (read: now available as PDF), I decided I ought to post it here, too.

I seem to recall this project used most of a 50-gram skein of sport weight organic cotton. There is a simple seed-stitch border, a loop to hang it that can be made with a crochet hook or double-pointed needles, and these fun little loops, which I explain how to make in detail. Available from Google Docs or Ravelry.

Free Pattern: Cabled Ice Cream Cozy

This little chill-chaser prevents frozen fingers while eating ice cream right out of the carton. Sadly, it does nothing for brain freeze.




Knit in the round on DPNs with three simple cables and a k2, p2 ribbing. The stockinette bottom is made with decreases on every other row. Pattern available here with Google Docs or on Ravelry.

Mermaid Sorbet

This little gem, which ended up being almost 12 feet long, has been neglected for a week or two because I didn't want to block it. Actually, I had no place to block it due to its enormous, ridiculous size, because blocking on the floor is a no-go with a cat and a toddler. I ended up blocking it in halves on the bed, but I'm not entirely happy with the stitch definition and, when summer classes wind down in two weeks, I'm going to block again.

I really like this tutorial from the purl bee, particularly the part about blocking on a towel that isn't "too linty." It's like they've actually seen my linen closet. . .

The Little Lebowski

Almost two months after casting on, and 10 days of drying/blocking, The Little Lebowski is finished. This project was inspired by Andrea Rangel's amazing pattern, The Dude; Elizabeth Zimmermann's EPS sweater design theory; and the perfect yarn sitting in my stash.

.

The sweater has a 25" chest circumference and is 16" long with a 14" zipper. It was knit entirely in 1x1 ribbing and has a shawl collar that I improvised as I went. I used three sizes of needles to prevent having to increase stitches in the sleeves, since increasing and decreasing in ribbing is something I've yet to master.

It's intended to be my son's fall jacket, so hopefully it fits like size 2T or 3T come October. My son, of course, detests modeling my handknits, but since it's so unreasonably warm lately, I'm content to wait and get a picture come fall.

Free Pattern: Corrugated Cloth

I recently whipped up a few washcloths with Knit Picks Simply Cotton. The stitch pattern reminded me of corrugated cardboard, or even corrugated metal roofing. The pattern is available here with Google Docs or Ravelry.

Steek: Eeek!

Okay, it's been 24 hours since I did my very first steek, so I think I'm ready to talk about it.

For those unfamiliar with the technique, it involves cutting your knitting: like, with scissors. Perhaps you understand why I wasn't ready to post about it yesterday. The adrenaline/fear has finally worn off, and since I have successfully sewn the newly-formed edges down with no major unraveling crisis. . .



I referred to Eunny Jang's steeking tutorial for guidance, but really this was a by-the-seat-of-my-pants effort. I hand stitched up either side of front-center and then carefully - so carefully - used my sharpest, tiniest scissors to snip my way from bottom to top. I then whip stitched the edges down, reinforcing top and bottom.

Had I to do this over again, I would definitely have factored in some waste stitches at front-center to make turning back the facing a little easier. If you read Eunny's tutorial, you'll see the beautiful little facings she knits. So, note to self: do it the "right" way next time.

The Little Lebowski: Stalled

This in-the-round Fair Isle sweater is slated to become a zip-front cardigan for my son, and of course, because it is an original pattern and a stash-busting project, I have run out of yarn. As evidenced by the picture below, I'm roughly 95% done.



I have a handful of decrease rounds left and then the collar. I'm thinking about doing the steek and adding the zipper, then picking up stitches for the collar at the end. Originally I was thinking of a short, simple crew neck, but now that I have to buy another skein of yarn, I might as well try a shawl collar a la the original adult version. Now I just have to convince some of the other ladies from my knitting group to help me reach the $50 free shipping magic total at Knit Picks. . .

Mermaid Sorbet: A Use for Otherwise Unusable Yarn

About a month ago I dyed this yarn with Easter egg dye. The yarn is Knit Picks Bare superwash in fingering (sock) weight, and I used four of the color tablets - red/pink, blue, yellow, and purple - to get a sense of what the colors would look like. The yarn looks gorgeous all wound up like this, but because I didn't make a longer skein for longer color repeats, it will not stripe if I knit it into socks and would probably be a horrible, variegated mess.

My solution: dropped stitches. I'm using the Seafoam pattern from Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book and size 5 circulars (40 inches). I am calling this scarf Mermaid Sorbet because of the colors and the pattern, but I inadvertantly cast on 666 stitches (I needed a multiple of 10 + 6), so I toyed with the idea of calling this project Devilfish.


I've completed two pattern repeats, each repeat being 8 rows, and I think I'll have enough yardage to do two more repeats. As bright and crazy as this yarn is, I really like the longer pieces of color I see because of the multiple yarn overs. In my humble opinion, a dropped-stitch pattern or one with multiple yarn overs seems an ideal way to show off a colorful yarn that doesn't seem suited to many other projects.

The Little Lebowski: Body

After knitting a stockinette version of The Dude's Sweater from The Big Lebowski last year, I was inspired to knit a child-size version for my son with the leftover yarn (Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky in Bare, Caribou, and Coal). I'm also doing this sweater the "right" way, which means the entire garment is worked in 1x1 ribbing.

I toyed with the idea of using a tubular cast on but fear I might be short on yarn. I am, however, using TECHknitting's advice to eliminate the "icky dots" that result from purling in more than one color. Solution: Knit all stitches in the first round or row of a color change.

And speaking of colors, the bulky yarn combined with a pint-sized sweater led me to do away with the more intricate colorwork and use only the repeating "Z" chart (shown below) at the middle of the sweater.



My intent right now is to knit sleeves, then join them to the body and knit around with raglan decreases. Also, I will be doing my first ever steek to turn this into a zip-up cardigan.