Amazing Generosity

I want to give a big thank you to the knitting world! Thanks to you, I donated much more to Doctors Without Borders today than I would have otherwise been able to.  I’ve gained a lot of knowledge since I learned to knit, but one of the most surprising things I’ve learned is how varied, exciting, active and supportive the online knitting community is.

That one blogger, the Yarn Harlot, can lead a fund-raising campaign for Doctors Without Borders that raises over a million dollars is incredible to me, and I tip my hat to all of you!  I’m ecstatic that I was able to participate in such an effort.  If you want to find out more about Knitters Without Borders, click below -

If you came here to read something a little bit more directly related to knitting, check out how my most recent set of Bella’s Mittens was received by Lauren in her blog post.  You can even catch another picture of the mittens, and the cute pink yarn and needles I included to start Lauren on what I’m sure will be a fabulous knitting career!

Snow Day!

Or maybe more appropriately, ice day. What to do with the safe-and-snug-at-home free time?

Maybe some knitting . . .

Gypsy Girl Creations Fingering Weight, Taste of Wine

And definitely some writing . . .

Estelle Pullover, Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted Solid, Pine

Bella’s Mittens x 2

If you don’t remember my previous ecstatic post about these mittens, replicas of Bella’s mittens from the movie Twilight, then just scroll on down. I ‘tweeted’ about these mittens right after publishing that post, and almost immediately got a tweet back from my friend Lauren. Turns out I wasn’t the only one that became obsessed with these mittens – I just happened to be the only one of the two of us who could knit my own pair (a condition soon to be remedied, I’m told!).

Oh my!  Is that a vampire behind me?  Oh, wait, no, it’s just my reflection (i.e. I am extremely pale in this picture – and also in real life).

So, being the loving knitter I am, I offered to make Lauren her own pair of Bella’s mittens to tide her over until she is able to knit her own. You can imagine how happy she was with me! I chose to work with Rowan Big Wool this time, feeling that the color and wooly-ness was closest to the original mitten from the movie. The Big Wool made for some very thick mittens, which are now on their way to Lauren as I type! I hope she enjoys them as much as I enjoyed knitting them for her!

And don’t forget that 50% of all Estelle pattern sales until January 31st will be donated to Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières!

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Just Call Me Bells

Over the holiday, I got the chance to take on a little project that I’ve been wanting to knit for a while. Now, before I tell you what inspired the pattern (and you judge me), let’s just take a look at the finished product – without prejudice.   : )

Aren’t they lovely? Now, some of the more diehard fans of a certain vampire related series may already recognize them . . . they’re Bella’s mittens from the first Twilight movie (you know, when she’s standing next to her truck right before . . .)! When I saw the movie I remember thinking that her mittens looked incredibly warm and wooly, so thankfully Marielle Henault came up with a pattern to reproduce them. I used some Rio de la Plata Three Ply Kettle Dyed that I got in Chicago (there’s an upcoming sweater in the same yarn), and I think it matched the pattern nicely.

The Rio de la Plata Three Ply is a lighter weight yarn than the pattern called for, so my mittens aren’t quite as cushy as the original, but I still really love them.  The pattern was well written, simple, and free!  I love my new mittens so much that I’ve been wearing them whenever I have the slightest excuse, even if it’s only a 20 ft walk from my car to the door.

And here’s my favorite shot of them – this is when I said, “Ok, Mom, put your hands up to your face and look scared – like a vampire just came up behind you!”  Apparently, Mom would just cover her face and hope for the best in the event of vampire attack.  : )

Just for comparison, Mom, this is how scared you should have looked . . .

Or maybe I should have asked you to stare foreboding-ly at nothing in particular while wearing headphones and being unaware of your surroundings . . .

Either way, you made the mittens look good!

Mama Margot

I mentioned previously that I started working on a Margot for my Mom for Christmas, as per her request after the pattern came out.  We went to the yarn store together and she picked out Rowan Lima (score!), a new nylon/merino/alpaca braided yarn in two colors (Chile and Pampas) to make a two tone version of the pullover.  After ordering the discounted yarn from Webs, I was ready to settle in for a relaxing, almost entirely stockinette knit.

Mom’s Margot did not disappoint in the relaxing knit department, and the Lima was wonderful to work with.  This is some of the softest stuff I’ve used, and I like the way it fills in once it’s knit up.  The braided nature of the yarn leads to sort of blended stitches, so the fabric looks very cohesive and the little details that alter it show up all the more (like the small holes at the yoke increases).

I think that my Mom really loves Margot, and that the two tone version turned out to be quite flattering.  The two greens that my Mom chose are gorgeous, with so many subtle colors (there’s even purple somewhere in that dark green!).  I’ve made her promise that she will actually wear it and not just wrap it up and “put it in a safe place”.

When working with alpaca, I’ve found (as have many others, I’m afraid), that the yarn has a tendency to stretch.  Margot already has such a stretchy garter stitch neckline, that the neck was loosing a lot of it’s shape (i.e. making Mom look like an extra from Flashdance).  We decided that the cast on edge needed a little bit of reinforcement, so I took a double strand of the lighter color yarn and ran it all the way around the neck, going into each stitch on the cast on edge.  It didn’t take as long as it sounds like it would!  This created sort of a drawstring, only I didn’t cinch the neckline in, we just adjusted the neck to the width Mom wanted and then I wove in both ends of the “drawstring” so that it would stay in place.  The fix seems to work well – we’ll have to see if it gets stretched out with time, but I can always readjust it if it does.

Aww, Mama, you look so pretty!

And to Sum it All Up . . .

You may have noticed an overarching theme to my knitting for the past few months – shawls, particularly, green shawls! To be completely honest, it started out as an unconscious trend, but soon even I couldn’t be completely oblivious to the overwhelming pile of emerald shawls I was accumulating.

Luckily, I have some amazing women in my family, so I knew that they would all find a good home, as well as be perfect, handmade with love, Christmas gifts.  This plan pushed me to knit a few more green shawls to round out the number, a particularly welcome “task” for someone like me.  As an aside – that is not my Mom’s hair sticking up in the below photo, it is just an unfortunately placed tree, barren of leaves, that really looks like crazy hair [thanks for being the model Mom!]

Before I was a knitter [so odd to think back to those days : )], I’m not sure the idea of wearing a shawl had ever crossed my mind.  I knew that my mom had an old one that she had crocheted, but I never really considered that I might want to wrap one around my shoulders someday.  Now I can definitely see the attraction – they use just the right [read: affordable] amount of delicious yarn, they take long enough and are large enough to feel like a substantial project, and they yield the opportunity to practice new stitch patterns and techniques.  The variation in construction between different shawl patterns also contributes to the illusion that you might actually sometimes wear 28 different shawls, thus rationalizing more shawl knitting.  Vicious. Cycle.  Well, not so much a cycle as many straight lines that all lead to more shawls.

The final shawl in what I’ll be calling my “emerald period” [which I still consider myself to be in, and for which I see no end in sight] may be my favorite.  I cast on for it almost as soon as the Winter Knitty came out – Citron by Hillary Smith Callis.  Luckily I had some Malabrigo Lace in Verde Adriana on hand [again, in order to be completely honest, since finishing this knit I now have more Malabrigo Lace on hand].  While I found the knitting a little bit tedious on this one [especially at 540 sts for the ruffle!], I really, really love the finished product!  I’ll definitely be knitting this again soon, with the aforementioned Malabrigo Lace!  I would happily recommend this pattern for someone looking for a really soft, simple and adorable accessory.  I just hope that the recipient [who looked adorable in the shawl, by the way], is continuing to wear it [just how I showed her - like all the cool knitters are wearing them! : )].

All together now!

Estelle

My grandmother, Estelle, has always loved flowers. Her favorite color has always been red. I have to admit that when I first conceived of Estelle, I didn’t have my grandmother in mind – but once all the pieces of the design came together for me, I knew that Estelle was the perfect name.

Estelle, or as I sometimes like to call her – flower yoke cardi, is a top-down round-yoke cardigan.  The sweater is knit in an aran weight yarn, so the knitting goes very fast.  A large lace flower motif around the yoke and the slightly bloused sleeves make this a feminine cardigan with a little bit of whimsy.

The neck of the sweater is wide, and you increase almost immediately to the stitches for the flower motif.  Once you’re past the yoke, the knitting of the body and sleeves is quite simple – just a little bit of waist shaping and some decreases at the sleeve cuffs.

The gauge for the pattern is 17 sts/ 4 inches in Stockinette stitch.  Although the pattern is written at an aran gauge, I think that it would also look nice in a smaller gauge with more repeats of the petals.  The flower motif instructions are charted as well as written out line-by-line.

The pattern is available for 6.50 (USD) as a download in my Ravlery Store or through Paypal.  Just click below!  And if you do decide to knit Estelle, I always appreciate feedback!

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[Last Minute Gift!] Warm and Cozy Socks

Here’s a quick and easy pattern for some very warm house-socks for your favorite guy (I say guy because they are sized for a man’s foot – US size 10 1/2 – 12). They only take a few hours to knit, so are perfect for a last minute gift!  I used Encore worsted (doubled) to ensure that they could take some abuse (or at least washing).  They’re worked from the toe up and are a quick way to try out Judy’s magic cast on (my favorite for toe-up socks) and a toe up heel flap.

I’ve also worked out a little trick to eliminate the hole at the gusset/heel flap join.  I can’t guarantee that this method is original, only that my pictures are!  If you give it a try, let me know what you think and if it worked for you.  To set up the join, leave the final gusset stitch unworked until you have begun working in the round.  This method decreases the last gusset stitch backwards, so that you are knitting in the round and can close up the final gap between gusset and heel flap.  [If this doesn't make sense, it might help to take a look at the pattern]

One: after knitting the last gusset stitch, pick up one leg of horizontal stitch from previous row

Two: twist picked up stitch and place on left needle

Three: place previously knitted stitch on left needle

Four: pass picked up stitch and last heel flap stitch over knitted stitch

As far as the pattern goes – it hasn’t been tech edited and has only been knitted by me, so please let me know if you find any mistakes!

Traveling Woman

Here’s another project started over the Thanksgiving holiday in Chicago (wow, it’s almost Christmas and I’m talking about Thanksgiving still – I need to get with the program). Did I mention that Sasha’s mom and I went to 5 yarn stores over two days? It was awesome, and I managed to get my hands on some Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Peppergrass for another Liz Abinante project – her little shawl Traveling Woman. This one is based on Angela Montenegro of Bones, and it was the perfect excuse to buy new yarn.  The funny thing that happened on the second day of yarn shopping (after I had already bought my Mountain Colors), was that we walked into Sasha’s mom’s LYS and were almost immediately handed the same pattern by one of her knitting guild members!  Man, when a pattern is on a roll, you start seeing it everywhere you look!

I started the shawl on the last night of our Chicago visit (Tuesday) and had it finished by Saturday.  This actually is sort of a longer-than-normal-fingering-weight-shawl-knitting-time for me, but remember that there were almost two whole days of visiting family, eating pie, and playing hide and seek with little kiddos that seriously cut into my knitting time.

The pattern is a simple triangular shawl, stockinette at the start and then blooming into a fishtail lace pattern.  For the lace section you stop working the center increases, which leads to a nicely rounded shape that I really like.  The edging is dainty and open, and you can pull it out into little peaks during blocking for a pretty finished edge.

I made my shawl larger than the pattern called for.  Specifically, I knit the stockinette increase section to 187 stitches (so that I could add two repeats of the lace pattern).  I knitted Chart A four times and Chart B once.  I really liked Chart B (the edging) – I think the pattern mimicked the fishtail lace nicely, but created a pretty, open edge.

Let’s here it for Liz, and let’s hope she comes out with some more interesting little patterns soon!

Happy 100th, Margot!

Margot reached 100 projects on Ravelry today! And assuming that some people who aren’t on Ravelry also made Margot, that means that there are something like over 100 Margots out there in the world!  Whoa!

If you are on Ravelry, take a look at all of the beautiful projects!