Tuesday, January 31, 2006

In the Pink

Several weeks ago I found this pattern I so wanted to make for Sunny. When Jennie, Sharon and I went shopping at Skein Lane back in December, I found the perfect yarn (scroll down to the "OF to be created on demand, click on "Country" - it's colour #35).

The pattern is from Knitty.com, I fell in love at first sight with it. It actuall
y went rather fast but I would occasionally lose count and need to frog back a couple rows every so often.



I just love how it came out. The designer suggested a more
symetrical construction but I really wanted to do this easily. So despite being a libra and totally understanding Stephanie Roy's reasoning, I did a continuous length since time was of the essence.

Once done, I realized it would be really nice to make a hat to go with it. So in a fit of inspiration I did my first bit of design work by deciding to use the heart pattern on a hat. Friday I whipped out a basic hat with three repeats of the heart going around the head. I was inordinately proud of myself for conceiving of the idea, figuring out a reasonable count of stitches and doing it with out any problems. Start to finish in about 3 hours!



So happy with it! Far, and I do mean far, from perfect but considering I totally estimated the number of stitches, when to start decreases - quite happy!

Perhaps I should have
blocked it, but it really fits quite nicely.




Here is our Super Model, modeling the ensemble




Several weeks ago I fell in love with some yarn on eB*y, thinking it would make a great sweater for our niece, Leigh - she is SO cute! I bought a ton.

Before leaving for my conference I brought the scarf with me to work on - I had only done maybe two out of tw
enty pattern repeats before leaving. I finished it while there, as I had hoped. Being the optimist, I had packed patterns and yarn for about 3 more projects. Insane I know. I found a simple but sweet pattern from the 2006 Knitting Pattern A Day Calendar that I hoped would satisfy Her Royal Pickiness.

Yes, Jennie I skipped ahead to find possible hats for Sunny.




I started this at the conference and just about finished it there. The decreasing rows were done at home and ends were weaved in. Oh happy do!



Once again, I give you Super Model Bear.











I can't wait to decide on a pattern for Leigh's sweater!
There will be a hat to go with the sweater, that's already decided. There's this pattern, but I don't know. Jennie's in favor of it. In Family Circle's Easy Knitting, Spring/Summer 2005 there's a pattern I really like though it's designed for three colors, I like construction. Also it's sized for 18 months and Leigh just turned 1 year on December 28th. The first pattern would require some tinkering to make sure it is big enough. Of course the pattern I like suggests needle sizes 6 and 8. I made the hat with 8 and would like to go down in size for a tighter fabric for a toddler sweater.

The recommended yarn is 50g balls, each approx 116 yds. The mohair is 53g balls, each approx 131 yds. This is where I wonder how much I like math. I guess that I will have to do a swatch in the my preferred needle size, shifting down from 8 & 6 to maybe 7 & 5, or 6 & 4? It does give the finished size of the back, left front, and sleeve. So as long as my finished pieces are the same it doesn't matter, does it? Jennie? Cari? Okay I don't think Cari reads my blog, but a girl can dream.

So in the month of January, I started and finished 3 hats (all different patterns and yarns) and one scarf. Also started a scarf that will be for Jeriann. Yep, that procrasinator extraordinaire label may need to take a back seat.



2 comments:

Ancrene Wiseass said...

Wow! That scarf, especially, is so pretty. And I'm not usually that fond of pink.

louisiana swamp rat said...

Wow, beautiful work...you almost make me want to leave crocheting behind and try knitting! I'm thinking of you and Sunny often...take care.