I made a real actual sweater!
pattern: Nuuk (Jonna Hietala) yarn: Harrisville Designs Highland in Walnut (I bought 4 skeins but only needed 3 for a short-sleeved sweater in the pattern's smallest size) I've hesitated to work with Harrisville Highland in the past because of its scratchy feel in the skein, but it was actually quite pleasant to work with and gave me the less drapey fabric and sheepier texture I was looking for here. These are made from Songbird Yarn & Fibres's sock weight European Bee-eater yarn, such fun to work with. I used my old favorite mitten pattern, The World's Simplest Mitten Pattern (Tin Can Knits). But I'd never made it in fingering weight yarn before and the size 0 dpns made me feel like a giant while working the cuffs :)
I finally managed to make mittens where I didn't have to sew up gaps at the thumb while finishing. Terribly pleased about that. I found this resource helpful. Rainy-Day Rainbow color burst worsted weight from Wonderland Yarns (love it!!!) worked into Jaala Spiro's Pickford cowl. The construction of this cowl borrows from triangle shawls, making for a simple knit and an interesting end shape.
I designed these mittens with a honeycomb slip-stitch pattern for general prettiness and with a hidden opening for my right index finger so that I can to check text messages or take a picture with the rest of my hand still warm. The opening has a flap inside to avoid gapping. I'm quite pleased with how they turned out!
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Wool in Black Pepper and Cascade 220 in ... well ... blue of some kind. This is a fun little hat of my own design, though it uses the decreases and crown from Kristin Briney's Fairy Lights pattern. When worn, it looks like a regular beanie from the front but whimsically elven from the side.
Shoutout to my friend Janet for the passing-along of this sweet worsted weight yarn of unknown brand/color. I played fast and loose with decreases--and threw in some decorative increases--with this one, mostly because I wanted to add stitches for fit and decided to wing it with regard to the top of the hat. Yarns: Classic Elite Liberty Wool in Bronze Sky (very nearly the entire skein, whew) and Berroco Ultra Wool in Maritime.
This cowl was knit holding yarn double to allow for the interesting color shifts and has a clever split at the bottom so it can sit under a coat without bunching. (You knit each panel flat and then join them to work the rest in the round.) The pattern, Flying Solo, is free to download at Ravelry. I know it looks absurdly long for a cowl, but if you look at the pattern, you'll see how it drapes when worn. I used Holst Garn Noble (a fingering-weight geelong/cashmere blend) in Eggplant, Quarry, and Blue Stone. This yarn feels more like linen or hemp while knitting but blooms when wet blocked. Below, you can see the fabric before (left) and after (right) a gentle warm water bath. The stitches filled out and softened, leaving a denser and squishier garment. The bind-off method is no joke, though! It's a tubular bind-off based on the Kitchener Stitch and involves doing this setup step, plus a weird pattern of sewing while somehow not allowing stitches to pop off the four available needle ends ...
Although it's not the season to enjoy these bright and cozy new mitts, I know I'll be happy to have them come winter. They're my learning-stranded-colorwork project, and they proved great fun to make. (And although the insides initially looked like a rainbow yarn monster had puked voluminously, weaving in the ends turned out not to be so bad.) I modified Nguyen Le's Fingerless Mittens pattern in Color Knitting with Confidence just a bit, changing the color sequence and both cast-on and bind-off methods. The background neutral here is Berroco Ultra Wool's Driftwood, with accents in Cascade 220 colors from the household stash. I only started blocking my knitting projects in the past few months. This project serves as a good example of why one might want to do this step, at least sometimes: check out the blobby wonky distended unblocked (left) and nice tidy wet-blocked (right) mitts below.
I've been toying with the idea of a mini-Henrietta for a long time, and now that dream has become a reality. A really cute small pink reality. Original design inspired by the Pigs in Wigs patterns and also my own technique for wee creatures, knit in Berroco Ultra Wool in Peony (because our yarn store has stopped stocking Cascade 220 and I'm figuring out alternatives!), with a little curl of a tail crocheted by my older child.
Brioche is a new technique for me! I love the feel of the fabric it creates, and I also love the stained-glass or corrugated look of two-color brioche.
Working with this vibrant duo of Malabrigo Rios colors was such a pleasure. Pattern: Your First Brioche Hat, appropriately enough. |
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