Lightweight Pullover

October 20: When I saw this pattern, I just had to knit it. I even bought yarn specifically for this pattern (which I rarely ever seem to do these days). Got started on it tonight. I used a 24” circular to start and it was difficult going at first because the stitches weren’t quite enough to go around (120 stitches), but I don’t have a 16” circular in size 6, so I made due. When I increase, things will be better. Right now, I’m just getting exactly enough slack on the stitches to make it work.

October 25: Finished the 9” neck (took almost a complete skein). Round and round in stockinette is a little boring (I did a lot of reading while knitting it), but I really like the feel of the fabric the yarn is creating, so I’m excited to keep going with this project to see how it will turn out!

November 10: Divided for the sleeves! It’s coming along nicely.

January 2, 2010: Finished the body of the sweater. Just the sleeves to go. And so far it fits well.

January 16: I’ve gotten to the point on the sleeve that the 16” circular is just a little too big and the stitches are stretched pretty tightly over it. I don’t want to do the 2x2 ribbing with that happening. When I was at a LYS in Texas, I saw that there were some 12” circulars and I almost bought some but decided against it. Now I wish I had. I checked my LYS and didn’t find them so I ordered one online. I’m going to wait until it gets here before I get back to work on this project, so it’s on pause for a few days.

January 22: The 12” circulars are working much better (although it’s sometimes a little tight to knit on such a small cable), so I’ve finished sleeve #1 and started sleeve #2.

January 30: Finished! I’ve posted two pictures pre-blocking. I’m blocking right now and will post more pictures after that.

Pattern: Lightweight Pullover by Hannah Fettig (available for purchase on Ravelry)
Yarn: Classic Elite Yarns Fresco (wool, angora, alpaca) in Regatta

Jarrett's Felted Clogs

January 17: My husband has been complaining about his cold feet and I finally figured out that he’s been hinting that he would like a pair of these clogs. So I’m knitting the massive men’s large size. I’ve finished the main body of the first clog (just the sole to knit and of course the felting to go). This is still a fairly quick knit but at the largest size, it’s certainly taking up more time.

January 19: Finished knitting the first clog. I’m going to wait to felt it until I finish the second so I can do them at the same time. I also think I’m going to need more of the blue yarn as I weighed it before and after knitting the first clog and I’ve used up just over half of it. ~sigh~ (I’ll be fine with the grey, though.) In good news, the clog is ginormous on my husband’s foot, which means it should felt down quite nicely.

January 23: Picked up the second skein of the blue this morning so I started the second clog. Good thing I got the extra skein as I would have indeed run short of yarn by just a tiny bit. Finished the main section. Now I just need to sew up the bottom, knit the sole and attach it. (And of course felt them.)

January 26: Finished, felted, drying. (Am getting very tired of knitting this pattern! Although I am always very happy with the results.)

Pre-felting


Post-felting


Pattern: Felted Clogs from FiberTrends
Yarn: Cascade 220 Wool in #4002 and #9449

Cable Footies

January 13: Started these socks last night and they knit up quickly. I’m almost finished with the first one!

January 14: And first one down. I went ahead and immediately cast on for the second (although I did only two pattern repeats) so that way it would be started and I would let it languish under the Second Sock Syndrome.

January 15: Finished. I wore them to bed last night and my feet stayed nice and warm all knit. What a luxury to wear Malabrigo on my feet!

Pattern: Cable Footies from One Skein
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Velvet Grapes

Blanket of Many Browns

June 10: I was going to make a blanket with a bunch of cabled squares out of this yarn, but I decided I wanted something else. Looking through my patterns, I found this one and I thought it would be perfect for these various shades of brown. So I cast on and did the first square and first strip.

June 11: I decided to make the dark brown be just the central square rather than having it throughout the rest of the blanket since the other browns are a lot lighter. I like how it looks so far.

July 7: Worked a little bit on this project.

July 10: Spent a good chunk of the evening reading and working on the blanket.

July 14: This blanket is really starting to speed along and get much bigger. I really love how it’s looking so far!

July 19: Although the contrast of the stripes does not look as stark in actuality as it does in the photo, I decided to try some alteration of the ordering of the colors to see if it helps to break them up a bit.

September 9: Project on hold until I finish my mom’s blanket.

January 4, 2010: I’ve decided that I just don’t have it in me to finish this in the massive size that I had originally planned. It’s about the perfect size right now for a baby blanket, so I’m going to add two more rectangles to even it up and then add the dark brown border and call it done.

January 12: Finished. It measures about 32”x33”. I’m rather glad that I decided to make this a small baby blanket size rather than the large queen bed size that I had planned. If I had to pick up more stitches along the edges just once more I think I would scream. Two log cabin blankets are enough for me!

Pattern: Joseph's Blankie of Many Colors from Mason-Dixon Knitting
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton and Dyed Cotton (Nut, Sand, Bone, Pebble, Expresso)

Felicity

Jan. 6: I started the hat this morning using a size 6 needle (pattern called for size 5). I finished about 3 inches before I decided to check gauge and fit. Much too small (should have been 5 stitches per inch and I was getting 6; I couldn’t put it anywhere close to around my head). So I frogged it.

I started over again this evening going up yet another needle size to 7. I’m back to about 3 inches and I have exactly 5 stitches per inch, so it looks like I’m on target now.

Jan. 7: Finished. It’s still pretty darn tight (so good thing that I went up the 2 needle sizes!), but I’m hoping that blocking will stretch it out just the little bit needed to fit without cutting off my circulation!

Pattern: Felicity by Wanett Clyde (available as free download on Ravelry)
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Pink Frost

Hats for Charity

December 5: There’s a box at work set up to take donations of winter wear items, so I thought I’d knit up some simple hats with leftover bits of yarn to donate.

For the pattern, I’m just casting on 88 stitches, doing a 2x2 rib for about an inch, increasing to 96 stitches, and then just continuing in stockinette to the increases.

Finished one hat so far and started on a second.

January 6, 2010: Since the deadline for the winter clothing drive is Friday, I’m going to call this project “finished” even though I only knit two hats.

Pattern: Improvised
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Little Lovely and Oceanos

The Corrugator

October 18: I started another pattern with this yarn, but I wasn’t enjoying knitting it so I switched to this pattern. Now I’m thinking that I made it too wide because at only 110 yards per skein, even with 3 skeins of this yarn, I don’t have very much and the scarf will probably be a lot shorter than I’d like. But I’m going to keep going with it and see what happens.

Later: Okay, I changed my mind. I decided that the fabric was too tight and also that it was going to be way too short, so I ripped out what I had done (about half of one skein) and started over. I went up to size 8 needles and cast on 29 stitches (I had cast on something like 41 the first time on size 6 needles). I think it’s working out better this time.

January 3, 2010: Finished this scarf in the car on the way back from Texas. I like the colors but hate the feel of the yarn, so I think I’m going to donate it.

Pattern: The Corrugator by Paula Smith
Yarn: Noro Kureyon (#226)