I’m Knitting As Fast As I Can

Months ago, my daughter’s friend asked if I could make him a beanie.  Yesterday I decided I needed a break from a commissioned project that has a rapidly approaching deadline.  So I picked up some yarn on my way home from work and whipped up the hat in one night.

Instant gratification.

Yarn: Shepherd’s Wool

Needle: U.S. 7 (4.5mm)

Pattern: Improvised.  I used a twisted rib at the bottom and inserted the school name in a two-color band.  The crown decreases are double decreases, worked in 5 sections.

I love, love, love this yarn but after blocking the hat I realized it has very little memory.  In that sense, it reminds me of Cashmerino Aran — soft but easily stretches out of shape.  I’m using a different colorway to make this scarf. . . .

.

. . and now I wish I’d used a smaller needle.  I may full/felt the scarf slightly when it’s finished.

As you’re probably aware, MagKnits is gone and all the archived patterns have been deleted, including my Amber Hat and Lombard Street Socks patterns. I contemplated creating PDF files of the patterns and uploading them to Ravelry, but I know there are many people who aren’t yet on Ravelry. (As an aside, what are you waiting for?? Sign up now!!)

Jody graciously offered to host the patterns on her new ezine, Knotions and I quickly took her up on the offer.

You can find Amber here, and Lombard Street here. I’ve also fixed the links in my sidebar and on Ravelry.

Three cheers for Jody. The patterns look awesome!

I had a very productive January, knitwise.

It all began when I joined the Stash Knit Down 2008 group on Ravelry and got jazzed up about the January challenge which was to knit up a mile of stashed yarn. Hmmm . . . that sounded like a completely doable goal.

So, I created a spreadsheet in Google Docs and kept track of the yardage from my January knitting projects. You can see my spreadsheet if you click here.

2050 yards as of yesterday. . . not bad. It was permissible to count spinning projects, too, but I didn’t enter the 730 yards of lace-weight singles I spun up over the last week.

Despite the annoying lack of sunlight the last few weeks, I managed to take a photo of nearly every project. I think they’re all on Ravelry now, but you can also see them by clicking on the tab at the top of this page (in the header) that says “2008 Projects.”

There is one completed scarf project that’s not entered yet, both because I haven’t had time to take a photo and because I’d like to work up some more detailed notes before I show it. So stay tuned.

Pattern: Mountain Stream Scarf

Yarn: Buckingham (80% baby alpaca, 20% silk)

Notes: I loved working with this yarn. It’s soft and nicely spun with really good yardage. I completed the scarf with just one skein (218 yards). It’s approximately 7 inches wide and 52 inches long. I altered the Mountain Stream Scarf pattern by working a narrower center panel. This scarf is destined for my son’s teacher.

Project: Urchin by Ysolda Teague

Yarn: Colourmate by Naturally (2 skeins)

Notes: I like the idea of this beret and the clever construction, but the fit is a little unusual. Because the band is knit sideways in garter stitch, it’s rather large compared to the rest of the hat and it stretches out of shape too easily. I have come up with a way that might solve that problem. I’m thinking of knitting the 3-4 band stitches with a needle at least 2 sizes smaller than the one used for the rest of the hat. If you’ve knit this project, that will make sense to you. If someone tries it, let me know if it works. This hat was given to Margene‘s friend who has had some health problems lately.

Project: Felted Fortune Cookies by Tanya Brooks

Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted (one of my all-time favorite yarns for felting)

Notes: These were fast and fun to make. The pattern contains instructions for two sizes; one with a 15-stitch cast-on and one with a 10-stitch cast-on. For the two I made, I cast on 15 stitches for the larger and 12 stitches for the smaller one. I worked them up in the colors of my son’s high school. They’re a gift for his friend who plays two varsity sports sport at the school.