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 actually 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 twenty 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.