Tamarind Cowl

October 24: I wanted a quick project to start and finish in one evening. Although this is an easy project, I didn’t think about how long it would take to do the increases and then knit around on twice as many stitches. So I’m just a little over halfway finished with it.

October 25: Arghhh! The tight bind off strikes again. And I was really trying to bind off loosely. I guess I should have used a larger needle. It’s so tight that it won’t stretch over my head. ~sigh~ I’ll probably take out the bind off and try again, but that’ll be a little later because I don’t have the patience for that right now.

Pattern: Tamarind Cowl by Kristen Hanley Cardozo (free Ravelry download)
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Apple Tree


For sale in my etsy shop: Headwarmer

Brioche Cowl

July 19: Started during a class at my LYS. Definitely glad I took the class as this was difficult to begin (some of the terminology in the pattern is a bit confusing), but now that I’ve got the hang of it, it’s going more swiftly. I do need lots of concentration to do it, though.

September 18: Wow, I hadn’t worked on this in a while, so it took me a little while to figure out exactly what to do again. So I have one mistake that now would be really difficult to fix so I’ll have to leave it (a piece of the yellow crosses over the blue near one edge).

October 9: So, brioche is really neat but it takes forever just to get a little bit done. Instead of having this project just constantly hanging over me, I decided that it was currently the perfect length for a cowl. So I knit one row straight and bound off. Then I sewed the two ends together. Ta da! Reversible cowl!

Pattern: Reversible Brioche Scarf by Lori Law
Yarn: Cascade 220 Wool in 9325 (blue) and Cascade Lana D'Oro Solids in 1105 (yellow)

Airy

September 11: My LYS is participating in the Dream Club this year. This hat and yarn is the September pattern. Before looking at the pattern, I thought it might be a little more complex than it actually is. But after viewing the pattern, it’s super easy but it looks really great and allows the yarn to really shine through. Some of the skeins of this yarn had a lot of orange/peach in it. I picked the skein that had very little of that so I could get more of the purples and red-purples. Love it.

October 6: Worked on this off and on (mostly off) since starting it, but I’m finally at the point where I can start decreasing for the top.

October 7: Finished!

Pattern: Airy by Veronica Van (pattern for Dream Club)
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Rose Smash (Dream Club offering)

Malabrigo Neck Thingie

September 25: I’m in the mood to make some cowls, so this is cowl #1 for the season.

September 26: And finished. Simple pattern but it looks really nice. And it’s Malabrigo soft!


Pattern: Malabrigo Neck Thingie by Anne Sahakian (free download on Ravelry)
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Vaa


For sale in my etsy shop: Cowl

Argante

July 20: Am intrigued by the construction of knitting a shawl from side to side. So far so good and I like how it’s looking and really love how the yarn is feeling.

August 25: I’m almost to the halfway point. I keep thinking that I’ll go ahead and stop “now” but then I have more yarn in the first skein left and I think maybe a wider shawl to really be able to wrap around myself will be nice. I haven’t counted the number of repeats I’ve done so far but I seem to have quite a few stitches on the needle so I’m sure it’s been a lot.

August 30: And I’ve hit the halfway point (and beyond). I really have fallen in love with this sideways construction because I can just knit until I’m halfway through the yarn and then start the other half. It’s going to be wonderful for wanting to use up as much of the yarn as possible! I’ll be doing more of this type of construction (and more from this designer).

September 23: Finished! I ended up with a good chunk of yarn leftover so I guess I could have made it wider, but I’m happy to have some left rather than running out so I think that’s fine. And it turned out to be a really great width that I will easily be able to wrap around myself to keep warm. Although I got a bit bored of doing the edging pattern over and over and over, I did enjoy the sideways construction of the shawl and like that it is wide from tip to tip and narrowed from top to point.



Pattern: Argante by Corrina Ferguson
Yarn: JulieSpins 50/50 Merino Silk in Tea Rose

Hermione Hat

This is the hat that Hermione wore in the movie Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.



Here's mine:

August 13: I learned a new cast on for this hat - the Alternate Cable Cast-On. It wasn’t too difficult to get the hang of and after knitting just a few rounds, I can see the benefits of using this cast on. It provides a rather nice edge for the K1P1 ribbing. I’m glad that I tried it.

August 16: Finished! A perfect fit. Instead of doing the two full additional repeats, I did one full repeat and one half (I stopped just before beginning the eyelets) before starting the decreases. I’m glad that I did that because I think having 7 additional rounds on this would have made it just a tad too big.

Pattern: Hermione's Cable and Eyelet Hat by Jackie Lauseng
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Frost Gray

Roll Brim Hat

August 5: Since the yarn is so wild with color, I wanted a nice, simple pattern to go with it. The pattern works nicely, but I’m not super fond of the colors personally. Thus this hat is for sale in my etsy store: karendawn.etsy.com




Pattern: Easy Roll Brim Knit Hat (recipe) by Laurie Perry
Yarn: Madil Yarns Pierrot Print

Traveling Woman

July 9: Started during the River Knits Retreat.

July 11: Started Chart A. Somehow I was two stitches short. Decided to add stitches at the edges on next two rows (inside the 2 stitch border, not right at the edge) to make up for it. Looks okay.
July 16: Finished the two repeats of Chart A and got well into Chart B. On my second repeat of Chart A, I was once again two stitches short (I made sure to keep the pattern straight so increased in the two places that had 12 stitches rather than the needed 13 and I think it looks okay). I’m not sure what happened each time to lose those two stitches.
July 18: Finished! I knit it as written, with no extra repeats. I might have had enough yarn to do more but I didn’t want to risk it.

Pattern: Traveling Woman by Liz Abinante
Yarn: Handmaiden Casbah Sock in Stardust

For sale in my etsy shop.

MacDuff Hat

July 8: I saw this pattern and just immediately wanted to cast on for it.

July 12: And finished. Easy knit. Love the way the yarn colors came together even though it does hide the cables a little. This will be a great fall hat.

Pattern: MacDuff Hat by Corrina Ferguson
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Loro Barranquero

Half-a-Cardi

July 1: As the pattern is supposed to be for XS, I added 5 extra stitches to start and also went up a needle size. The yarn is very soft.

July 7: I wasn’t sure how much yarn I might have left and was worried about running out so I stopped the cardi a little shorter than I would have liked and knit the sleeves. I have a little leftover (need to measure) so probably could have done another couple of rows on the body.

Pattern: Half-a-Cardi by Patti Gonsalves
Yarn: Neota Designs Chinook in Indigo Nights (bought in Estes Park, CO)