My Knitting Life

African Violet in Full Bloom!

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OK, you caught me on a knitting binge. Sometimes I’m just so motivated to get stuff done, and this project was one that motivated me! So, here are the pictures. It looks great on, but I don’t have anything to put on underneath it since I’m on vacation and have a limited color/shirt selection. I’ll post pics of me wearing it in a few days! By the way, if you want to see the pattern I used, I’ll post a link in the right column. Look for Knitty: Leaflet!

Remember! Check your gauge if you decide to use worsted weight yarn! This fabric on this sweater is a lot looser than the one on Knitty! So if you desire a stiffer fabric, you’d best choose an Aran weight yarn.

My Knitting Life

African Violet

I guess I like purple. It’s not an overkill thing, but if there’s a choice of yarn, I always lean toward the purple. I don’t always buy the purple, I just lean toward it.  So, when my LYS had three skeins left of Brown Sheep’s Serendipity Tweed yarn in the African Violet Colorway, I knew I had to have it.
Hmmm, now what should I knit with it? I know, I’ll knit Hey Teach from Knitty. That was my first idea. I started knitting and finished half of the back. The next night when I was about to pick up the project again, I decided to surf the web. Unfortunately for Hey, Teach, I noticed that Knitty First Fall 2011 had just been e-published! Oh, My Gosh! I found Leaflet by Cecily Glowick McDonald. In 2.3 minutes, I had ripped out the back of Hey,Teach, in order to start Leaflet. Not to worry, Hey, Teach, because I’m going to come back to you some day…some day soon with the Steel Blue colorway of Serendipity Tweed. But first, I need to finish Leaflet! Here are some of the notes I posted on Ravelry:
I know, I know. The pattern calls for Aran Weight yarn, but I want to use Worsted Weight. What did I do? Well, I didn’t check gauge until I was about 4 inches into the project, and there was a small problem. The row gauge was perfect which is great, because this is a raglan sweater, and the raglan increases should make for a sleeve hole that’s not too tight and not too droopy. BUT, the stitch count was off. I need 15 stitches per inch, and I was getting 16 inches per stitch, meaning that the circumference of the sweater would be too small. So, on this top-down sweater, I worked one more body increase above the medium size because I calculated how many additional stitches I would need to obtain the medium size.  I’ll not bore you with the math, but if you have a non-Barbie mind and can wrap your brain around numbers, you can PM me and I’ll give you the numbers.
6.29.2011 I’m just a few rows from the bottom ribbing. I keep trying this on to make sure it fits, and it does!

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Basic Super Stretchy Ribbed Sock

If you’re new to knitting socks, then this pattern and the suggested yarns are for you!  The pattern is mostly in ribbing to make for a good fit, and the suggested yarns have elastic or spandex or lycra in them giving extra stretch.  So getting your socks to fit won’t be as much of an issue as with a regular sock pattern.  Go ahead and give it a try!

Basic Super Stretchy Ribbed Socks

Knitting Patterns For Sale · My Knitting Life

Nine Patch Mitered Square Blanket

I continue to work on this blanket in a mitered square. I originally was going to use only superwash worsted scraps for this blanket, but once I got started and decided to make my own pattern, I decided I should BUY yarn for it! But I haven’t bought that much, and I’m waiting on some more superwash at my fabulous LYS: Knitting Today! Check it out in my links!
You can buy the pattern for just $1.00 on Ravelry!

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Warm & Bulky Scarf by offspring!

Warm & Bulky Scarf on right

Here’s a picture of the Warm and Bulky Scarf knitted by my daugher! If you want to check out her style and fashion blog, you can click here: http://re-mix-her.tumblr.com/

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Three Nieces Hat

I wanted to knit some hats for my northern nieces and so here’s what I came up with:
 
You can get this pattern for only $1.00 on Ravelry!
buy now

Free Knitting Patterns

Bulky and Warm Neck Wrap

Materials: 2 Skeins Lion Brand Thick & Quick yarn, size 17 needles (if you know that your gauge is loose use a smaller needle like 13’s or 15’s), 1 tapestry needle, 1 extra large button.

Pattern: Cast on 17 stitches. ROW 1 and all rows: Slip the first stitch purlwise, k1,p1 across the row until 2 stitches are left, k1, k last stitch in the back of the stitch.  Knit this row until 33″ in length.

BUTTONHOLE ROW:  Work first 8 stitches of row in moss stitch pattern, cast off 2 stitches, work in pattern until the end of the row.  NEXT ROW:  Work until cast-off stitches, cast on 2 stitches, work until end of row.

Work for 2″ beyond the buttonhole, and then bind off loosely.  Weave in all loose ends, choose a cool button and sew it on.  On the green scarf, I sewed the button on so the ends overlap.  On the black scarf, I sewed the button on so the scarf ends meet at a 90 degree angle.  Enjoy this pattern!  It only takes a few hours to knit 🙂

I’ve just updated this pattern (Nov. 26, 2011) because I am knitting a few of these for my nieces for Christmas and I discovered that I didn’t have enough yarn with just one ball to finish the wrap.  So, I purchased a second ball.  I’m pretty sure that Lion Brand changed the yardage in the Wool-ease Thick & Quick yarn…in their favor.

Bulky & Warm Neck Wrap

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NEW SOCK PATTERN Coming Soon!

I’m working on a new sock pattern and I hope to have it posted here sometime this week (Oct. 10th)! Stay tuned…

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Hand-Dyed…Literally!

I finally had enough $$ to get some of that fantastic Ella Rae Lace Merino yarn to make the Featherweight Cardigan by Hannah Fettig. So, I started knitting, and after the first evening I noticed that my hand was dyed…from the yarn…exactly where I held the working yarn and the sweater on the needles! Since it was the 4th of July, I said, “Oh my stars and stripes!” I washed my hands and it fades a little every day. But I keep knitting more and more, and so my hands get “overdyed.” Perhaps this is an alternative to a tattoo?

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Vintage Bee-hive Socks!

Okay…I’m a sucker for vintage yarn sometimes. I found this great yarn at a Garage Sale hiding in a bin with some gross acrylic yarn. My eagle eye spied 6 balls of this charming Patons Bee-Hive yarn, and it became mine (after a little pre-requisite bargaining). I purchased 6 balls for $3.00!  (They wanted $4.00, I wanted to pay $2.00, and we compromised at $3.00.  So, now it’s on to knitting socks!