My Knitting Escapades
Not tight enough to be a beanie, yet not loose enough to be a slouch, Diamondweave Hat delivers highly textured diamonds that float over background purl stitches. As you know, “textured” means you’ll be moving a lot of stitches around, so be prepared. But the payoff is a beautifully patterned hat that has depth and drama.
I’m so tired of this happening at the end of dude socks:
“This” being that I run out of yarn as I’m ready to knit the toe of the second sock. This is not the first odd toe that I’ve knit. I only started running out of yarn after the guys I knit for cried out for longer socks! AND I’m even using a yarn that has generous yardage (Cascade Heritage Quatro–437 yards/400 meters, color way: Brown Bear).
So being smarter than the average brown bear, I came up with a pattern that uses different yarns for a short cuff, heel, and toe. I’m calling this free sock pattern Longfellow Socks.
Oh, and I always have my knitting with me, even at (close to) the top of Angels Landing in Zion National Park. I couldn’t justify risking my life and ending my knitting career in order to hold on to chains for the last part of the hike! This park is magnificent! You should come visit!
Happy knitting, wherever you may be! And here’s to longer socks!
Thaynes Canyon Cowl is named after a canyon which connects to Millcreek Canyon outside of Salt Lake City. At the beginning of the trail, most people head right to the Salt Lake City overlook trail. But going left on the trail takes hikers to the less traveled Thaynes Canyon, a beautiful hike on a mostly tree-covered trail. The free knitting pattern is below:
Cowl or neck warmer made in a simple 2 x 2 ribbing with about 100 grams of yarn
Since we’re just coming out of “Finish It In February” month, I feel motivated to get busy working on my original design, “Nine Patch Mitered Square Afghan.”
Check it out here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/nine-patch-mitered-square-afghan
I am going to make this 4 squares tall and 6 squares long. It’s going to be more of a throw or a lap afghan. I really like how it’s mixed media (sort of), because it’s knitted, but it looks like a quilt!
Oh to float across the ice like skaters from the past! I love ice skating. I grew up on a lake where the neighbor kids took turns shoveling in the evenings so the hockey rink would be free from snow. There’s nothing like invigorating cold to wake up the senses during the darker days of winter. But staying comfortable is a must! Keep yourself warm at the ice skating rink with a modified tam hat with spiral cables from top to bottom. Imagine doing figure eights and scratch spins in style! Using just one skein (200 or so yards) of worsted weight yarn, you can whip this beret up in a few evenings. Doesn’t every knitter have an odd skein of worsted lying around? Pattern comes in two adult sizes (S/M, and L). You can purchase it in my Ravelry Store: Nancy Wilson designer
And, I still ice skate occasionally, even though I’m not a kid anymore!
Yes, I’m still here! I haven’t posted in a few months, but I mean to be more active this year. Our family is in the process of moving from Indiana to Utah! Needless to say, we are busy and excited! I have a new hat pattern coming out soon, but in the meantime, take a look at my blog’s year in review. In addition, look around my blog for a few free knitting patterns!
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 5,300 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 9 years to get that many views.
For once I finished my Christmas knitting way ahead of schedule, or so I thought. BUT then I remembered the socks I needed to finish for my mom and dad. I had one and a half socks knit for each of them, having just turned the heels on the second sock for each of them. So, crazy knitting ensued on December 18. Actually it wasn’t too bad because that was all I knitted on for a few days, and then they were done Yes, done by December 21!
These gray ribbed socks were for my dad, but I decided to give them to my dear husband.
My dad got a pair of tan cabled socks from me.
The socks below are for my mom:
And then I knitted these scarves for my nieces:
And I couldn’t forget my sweet little great niece (whom I rocked to sleep on Christmas Day because she was all tuckered out)! So I used this great yarn from Jojoland called Rhythm Superwash. It’s super spongy and has a ton of memory. I’ve used it on socks too, and it’s great. 
This pattern is called “Cute Little Buggy” and is free here on my blog!
Now I guess I’ll start next year’s knitting!
Buggy carries so many meanings here in Northern Indiana. We have a lot of Amish people, so we see lots of “buggies” here on the roads. Like anywhere, we have plenty of crazy people, so we call them “buggy.” AND since it’s getting colder, many little buggies are trying to sneak into any place warm to hibernate for the winter. Buggy.
Here’s a hat, however, which is meant for Cute Little Buggies. I’m hoping you have some of those in your life and you knit up some of these hats for little people on your Christmas lists.
My little model was not cooperating since she was very sleepy and grouchy, so I opted to put the hat on a couple of bowls in a small light box. Hey, it’s a free pattern!
I almost can’t stand it anymore. Everything I have on my needles are projects I’m tired of, or long-term projects that I’ll be working on for years to come. The “years to come” projects are two afghans made of tiny mitered squares. So I’m waiting for deep winter to work on those. I also have three sweaters on the needles. Oh, and I have two pairs of socks on the needles. And a laceweight scarf, Kernel. Plus a cotton table-runner. You can check these out on nancyknit’s Ravelry page. I like these projects. Well, I love these projects, but not now. I’m itching to start something NEW!
I want to knit some gloves 
and a vest 
and I want to start a new sweater. 
But I guess I’ll be disciplined and try to finish some things.
Here’s my dream list of items to have on the needle. If I can keep these items on the needles, then I feel my knitting is under control:
Socks: 1 ladies” pair and 1 men’s pair, plain, ribbed, or simple cable
Fingering: 1 lace project like a scarf or socks, or 1 pair of stranded socks
Sweaters: 1 ladies’ sweater and 1 men’s sweater
Home: 1 project for something around the house
So, I guess I’m doing well, except I have one too many sweaters on the needle right now. I guess I’ll wait to start something new. Hmmph.
I just rarely knit for summer. I mean, really, a sweater in SUMMER? But of course, this is my Michigan upbringing coming in to play, because there are many lightweight and short-sleeve or sleeveless sweaters to wear. Add to that the fact that every place is over-air-conditioned, sweaters really ARE practical in the summer!
So here’s a T-top that I knit this summer out of Plymouth’s Grass yarn, a blend of cotton and hemp. It’s got these great color variations in each skein so the yarn looks tonal depending on the angle.
My crochet skills (I’m using the word “skill” here very loosely) had to come into play in that I needed to crochet around the neckline and sleeves to tighten up the picots. I just chained around the neck with the chain side showing. That helped, but it needed more, so I chained one more row above that to make the picots look less like fingers and more like bumps. Then the sleeves needed something, so I loosely chained around the sleeve picots and it’s done! I think it’s very cute!
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