Marsha's Reading Mitts

August 9: I realized that I had not yet made something for my MIL's birthday. Yikes! I think this is the perfect pattern and a good yarn to choose for her. I finished up through the thumb division on the first mitt today.

August 11: Not much knitting mojo lately. But I did finish knitting the main part of the first mitt today and sewed the top edge down. Still need to sew the bottom and add in the thumb. Then I get to do it all over again! It does look and feel really nice.

August 16: Finally finished the last bits of the first mitt and started the second one getting up to the point of dividing stitches for the thumb. Need to finish tomorrow as MIL is arriving the day after.

August 17: And done! The sewing to create the picot edging went a lot more smoothly this time (not that it was bad for the first mitt) as I feel I really got the hang of it. I usually pass up projects with picot edging because I don’t like the sewing up part, but now I think I can handle it so I can add more projects to my queue ~grin~. I’m looking forward to giving these to my MIL.

Pattern: Susie's Reading Mitts by Janelle Masters (free download on Ravelry)
Yarn: Cascade Yarns Alpaca Lana D'Oro in yellow (colorway #1105)

Malabrigo Mahogany Hat

July 29: I decided not to use a smaller needle for the ribbing. Since size 8 seems to work best for hats for me, that’s what I went with. I did only about 2 rounds tonight.

July 30: Finished the other 8 rounds of the ribbing. I overdid it this morning with doing some weeding outside (while 8 months pregnant) and as a result, I was just wiped out today and didn’t feel much like doing anything!

August 2: Right after the ribbing comes the first round with cables (1x1). I’m definitely glad that I’ve had practice cabling without a cable needle because this round would have been even more painful had I actually tried to use a cable needle. I’ll just say that I didn’t enjoy knitting that round very much and I’m glad that it’s only about 3 rounds (if my skim of the pattern is right) that contains these 1x1 cables. Why? Well, I’m a tight knitter and I didn’t look ahead to see that the cables came right in the next round so didn’t try to consciously knit the previous round a little more loosely (which is what I usually do). Second, the needles that I’m using, although some of my favorites, do not have sharp tips, which made grabbing onto the stitches really difficult. I’m most thankful, though, that I chose not to use the smaller needle for the ribbing because moving from a smaller needle to a bigger one on this round would have made it virtually impossible for me to get it finished without a bunch of dropped stitches and probably a bit of cursing. If I ever decide to knit this pattern again, I’ll make sure at the very least that I have needles with much sharper tips.

August 2 (later): I finished the remaining cable rows. Trying to knit more loosely on the previous row helped a lot but it was still not a fun section. Now it’s just 2x2 ribbing, so easy peasy.

August 6: So, the pattern said to knit 2x2 ribbing until the hat measured 7-1/4”. At 6-1/4” I tried it on and it seems like it was going to be a good fit for my head at that point, so I decided not to knit the last inch. Apparently the decrease section goes by really quickly (I should have realized that 7 rows wouldn’t take much space). So the finished hat doesn’t quite come all the way down to cover my ears, which it would have done had I just finished that last inch. Alas. I guess I should have listened to the pattern.

One place, however, not to follow the pattern is on decrease round 5. If you do the last K1 on the repeat then it will mean that you are taking the next knit stitch + purl stitch when you K2tog. Then you would purl a knit stitch, which would make the ribbing pattern off. So I just got rid of that last K1 (making the repeat K2tog, P1, K1, P1) and I think that really was what was intended because everything worked out just right after that and I ended up with the 13 stitches that the pattern says will remain. So I think Round 5 has an error.

So, listen to the pattern for the length to knit to but make the change on the decrease round 5.

Pattern: Jesse's Christmas Hat by Elspeth Kursh (free Ravelry download)
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Mahogany

Crooked Paths

July 16: I've wanted to knit this hat for quite a while (even though I'm sure it won't look quite right on me). I finished the 1.5 inches of 1x1 ribbing this evening. Even though the designer stated she is a tight knitter, I actually went up a needle size because starting with 5s and moving to 7s just still seemed too small for my usual use with Malabrigo worsted. Even the 6s for the ribbing feel a little small. Perhaps I shouldn't have used the smaller needles for the ribbing and just started with the 8s. But I'm going to just keep going and see how it turns out.

July 17: I finished the three repeats of the pattern today so all that is left is the decrease section. This hat definitely knits up quickly. Just looking at the pictures of the finished projects made me think that it was a little more complicated than it actually is. So it's one of my favorite types of patterns: a simple easy-to-follow pattern which looks amazing on the finished project.

I also tried it on since I finally had enough hat to do so, and it might be a tad tight but it does fit. Yay! If I knit this hat again in the future (highly likely), I think I'll use 7s for the ribbing instead of 6s just to make it a little less tight.

July 18: Finished! I'll have to see what happens after I block it, but I think I also should have gone up yet another needle size for the body (9 instead of 8). I had forgotten that almost every beret type of hat that I've knit has failed to have that distinctive beret poof because of my tightness in knitting. So right now it fits more like a beanie than a beret. It still looks nice, but it just doesn't quite have the same effect. Crossing my fingers that blocking will help it.

July 27: Blocking does seem to have helped. I blocked over a dinner plate as usually suggested for berets (I had not done this before).

Pattern: Crooked Paths by Melissa LeBarre (available for purchase on Ravelry)
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Violetas

Portlandia Cloche

June 28: I really just wanted to start a new project, something not too complicated yet with a little lacework, so I think this hat will work nicely.

July 14: I got a little bored in the repeat section so I put this down for a while. But once I got through that section and back to the longer section (with the decreases), it finished up quickly. Alas, this type of hat looks terrible on me.

 
Pattern: Portlandia Cloche by Emily Johnson
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in In Vino Veritas

For sale in my etsy store: http://karendawn.etsy.com

Mouse Bib

June 26: This one had the short row beginning option so I didn’t have to go to another pattern to do it. Another great design and easy knit.

June 27: And done. I think I may need to take a little break from these bibs for a few days and work on something else. Although it’s nice to be able to start and finish a project in a day, I don’t want to get burned out on these!

 
Pattern: Do I Smell Cheese? by Elaine Fitzpatrick
Yarn: KnitPicks Dishie in Azure

For sale in my etsy store.

Pig Bib

June 24: Once again, I followed the instructions (1 stitch difference) in the frog pattern for the short row beginning.

June 25: And done. I’m really flying through these bibs!

Pattern: Pig Out! by Elaine Fitzpatrick
Yarn: KnitPicks Dishie in Flamingo

For sale in my etsy store: http://karendawn.etsy.com

Frog Bib

June 21: Finished almost through the main body of the bib. Looks really cute! The pattern was easy to follow, although having a chart would have been really handy.

June 22: Very easy finish to the bib. Looks great. I’ll definitely be making more of the bib patterns by this designer.

Pattern: Hop-a-Long by Elaine Fitzgerald
Yarn: KnitPicks Dishie in Tranquil

For sale in my etsy shop

Baby Socks #4

June 20: Making socks to match the hat. I’ve now done this pattern several times so I didn’t even need to look at the actual pattern this time around. Yay!

June 21: I definitely have the pattern memorized now. I think I could make one of these in my sleep at this point.

Pattern: Easy Baby Ankle Socks by Hattie Adkins (free Ravelry download)
Yarn: JulieSpins Merino 370 in Christmas Cactus

And pictured with the matching hat:

For sale in my etsy shop (with matching hat)

Third Easy Peasy Newborn Sock Hat

June 19: Cast on for yet another of these hats. This time I’m trying out 12” circulars instead of DPNs. Seems to be going pretty well so far!

June 20: Working with the 12” circulars went really well, so I’ll definitely keep using them (which means I’ll need to expand my needle collection). And I love the way the hat turned out. Such a quick, yet satisfactory, project!

 
Pattern: Easy Peasy Newborn Sock Hat by Keri McKiernan
Yarn: JulieSpins Merino 370 in Christmas Cactus

For sale in my etsy shop (with matching pair of socks)

Baby Socks #3

June 18: Should have just enough yarn leftover to make this pair of socks to match the baby hat. At least I’m hoping there will be enough. Just in case, I’m shortening the cuff just a tad.

Finished the first sock and got through the heel flap on the second. I’m now thinking that there’s not going to be enough yarn to finish, but I”m going to keep on trucking for now and cross my fingers.

June 19: Okay, so I apparently am not good at calculating how much yarn is needed! I ran out while I was still decreasing the gusset stitches on the second sock. I had a tiny bit of the Malabrigo Sock in Impressionist Sky leftover, so I continued with that. And I ran out just as I got to the toes! So I looked through my stash and thought that the JulieSpins in Night Heron seemed a decent match, so I finished out the toe with it. If you look carefully, you can definitely see the different yarn (three different!) but from a distance it does actually blend together okay. But now I’ll know a little better about how much yarn is really needed, even for a tiny pair of socks!

 
Pattern: Easy Baby Ankle Socks by Hattie Adkins (free Ravelry download)
Yarn: Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Harmony Mist