Yes, it’s birthday time! Surly is celebrating a birthday today. I hope she remembers that I sent her an early gift!!
Surly has embarked on several exciting journeys this year, some planned and some unplanned. She weathered them all. On her bucket list was seeing polar bears and whales.
She took this picture on a recent adventure. Stay young, little sister!! And see you in a few weeks!
I am twisted both inside and out. Everything is uncertain. Animal Farm + 1984 + The Handmaid’s Tale = today in a nutshell. What will our children say? What did we do to stop it? I have no answer.
But, speaking of children, my daughter has a birthday coming up so I knit her these: Entangled Boot Cuffs designed by Apiary Knits. The pattern is not new, but was new to me. They are knit in worsted weight yarn with several size options. The pattern is very well-written and the cuffs can be worn in a variety of ways.
I lightly felted the cuffs as I thought they might be too big (should have either made a smaller size or used a smaller needle). I will probably knit a pair for myself!!
PS to Ingrid: I’m sure Australians are much smarter than most Americans.
Unlike the title of this post, I personally am not “in the pink” right now. I am reeling at the assault on our democracy and way of life. All the safeguards, guardrails, checks and balances seem to have evaporated. How can one man do so much damage in such a short amount of time? I feel silly going about my daily life as if nothing has changed. Everything has changed.
But, now onto knitting. I just finished my second Inovec. When I knit the first one, I hated it. I almost threw it in the bin. But, I kept going, finished it, and now love it! The yarn called for (Noro Ito — ginormous 437 yds/200 grams balls) was on closeout for half off. I bought three balls of a hot pink and orange colorway called Konan. I love it!
The pictures don’t do it justice. I will wear this alot!!
I saw this little project on Instagram and really liked it: Lacy Braid Cowl. I am not a fan of dickies typically, but this seemed more cowl, less dickie! The pattern is only available on the One_Row website, but I was able to link my project to Ravelry (a link to the pattern is provided on her Ravelry pattern page).
The yarn was a bit of a surprise (Jody Long Rovesoft, color Stone). The label on the front said wool-alpaca blend but turn the label over and it was 45% acrylic! For what I paid, it seemed way over priced. Head to Webs to see if it is still half off. It’s done, so nothing I can do about it now!! I hope it is wearable!
PS to Pru: It is very soft. The only thing is the front wants to flip up a bit.
As soon as I saw Vest of Luck designed by Zaneteknits, I wanted to make it. I thought it was really cute. I did not like the styling, however. I do not do tight or cropped, so I made some elemental changes to its silhouette. I knit it longer, wider, and changed the armhole openings to be deeper like the popular Lulu Slipover that both Sally and I already made.
The yarn I used is Léttlopi in Black Heather, Rust Heather, and Apricot. My gauge was a bit off, and I wanted the length, so I recharted the design to add rows. That added width as well, which worked out fine. I did some duplicate stitch just below the jewel neckline to add interest. I really, really like this little vest!
Here you can see the motif I added to the neckline:
All in all, a success!!
PS to Anne: I’m sure you can make adjustments to the back width, but mine comes right to the shoulder line on me. No over hang. The little cap is done with short rows and can be eliminated of course, but I happen to like that detail so left it in. Just do some measuring and math.
I made two of these in identical colors for my girls. Same color, no drama! Quick and fun to make: Easy Granny Christmas Bauble.
It is crocheted, but I suspect there are a few crocheters lurking out there!!
Tortured title, for sure! My latest FO was a challenging, fun knit! It is the Snowflake Vest, and it involved dreaded intarsia. Ugh!
The yarn is Sandnes Garn Kos, a blown yarn. I know you want to see the inside:
Dozens and dozens of ends. But that is the price you pay for knitting intarsia. 🙂 I love it. It’s cute and cozy and Christmasy. I hope all of you are almost ready for the holidays, because the clock is ticking!!
PS to Lisa and others: Blown yarn is actually a knitted tube (like i-cord) that is filled with wool fluff. Examples are Luft, Snefnug, and Cantata. The theory is less pilling, but I’m not sure that’s always true. It is nice to knit with, and joins well if you know how. I’ve used this type of yarn on several projects.
PS2 to Pam: I was afraid someone would ask me that! Basically, you use a tapestry needle to thread one end through the other for several inches. It’s hard to describe the final step, but this Belfair project has pictures that kind of show what I do.
The holiday bug has hit, but only on tiny knitting, and nothing to be gifted! I stumbled on this next little design on Faceb00k and bought the pattern on Etsy. I prefer to buy on Ravelry so the pattern is in my library. The pattern is on Ravelry, but I did not know it’s full name until I bought it: Ice Crystal Snowflake Ornament.
ETA: I heard from the designer that she ONLY sells her patterns on Ravelry and that someone was fraudulently selling a stolen copy on Etsy. Please use the above Ravelry link if you are interested in making this snowflake!
I used Classic Elite Fresco in Parchment from stash. This is a fussy knit. It didn’t help that KNITTERS CAN’T COUNT!! You do a Judy’s Magic Cast on. Six sections of 26 sts each. You add markers after every 26 sts, which I counted. BUT, I had SEVEN POINTS in my snowflake! Argh!! I didn’t realize it until I was trying to put the sts on dpns: 2 points per needle…so why do I have an extra section??!!?? I was so mad at myself, as this is a physically challenging item to knit.
I did stuff it lightly and I also put in three bamboo skewers from point to point to make it stiffer. ETA: You must read Gretchen’s comment!!
My other mini-project is a Candy Cane. I had seen a pattern that had the stripes going across the cane, not wrapped around. I thought, that’s just wrong! So, I experimented and came up with this:
The trick is to cast on 5 sts, but knit 3 white then 3 red. It creates the spiral effect. I wrote it all out on the project page. My knitting looks horrible, but does it really matter? I think not! 😉
It’s the holiday season!! I am not doing much in the way of holiday knitting this year, but this little project sucked me right in! It is called Ball-ble, and it looks like tiny skeins of yarn that you hang on the tree. These knit up quickly in fingering weight yarn. I haven’t tried it, but larger yarn would yield bigger skeins. Instead of hanging these, they could be cute in a bowl.
I printed out my labels and then laminated them (I love my laminator!!). The labels hide the transition area. These start in the middle and work toward the ends. Then they are stuffed.
It’s finally finished! My blue rendition of Jul is off the needles.
I did a modified Derecho hemline with beads and did the same at the cuffs. The neckline incorporates a modified Tiny Bubbles stitch (from the Killer Queen Cowl):
It fits and is the identical size to my Alpine Bloom Tee. It was a slog, but the results are pretty good!!
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