swatch!

I've been randomly busy with a lot of things lately, the most of exciting of which is definitely the Design Your Own Shawl class I'm taking from Stefanie Japel.* The material is self-paced, which is really great for my randomly insanely-busy one day, quiet the next schedule, and while I've been too busy to get as far as I would have liked though the videos and the readings, I still feel like I'm learning a lot. Above is a shot from a proto-swatch - not sure if this will be the stitch pattern I eventually use for the shawl, or not, but it was without a doubt the biggest swatch I've ever knit. I do, grudgingly, knit swatches for other projects, but I rarely make them as big as I'm supposed to - so I appreciate that the class is allowing me to move more slowly, rather than run off too fast, as I am often otherwise prone to doing :-) 

* Which makes me feel a bit star struck, if I'm honest; hers was one of the first knitting blogs I ever read, and I backpacked all over the UK two years ago with a copy of her v-neck sweater pattern in my oversized backpack. I didn't knit it, because the yarn got tangled up in the zipper of the backpack, but I will someday, I swear. 

arden in hat form!

The matching hat for the Arden hand-warmers is up on Ravelry! 

This hat uses the same cable motif and is shaped at the top by decreasing the pattern into a 1x1 rib. The smaller cables can be worked without a cable needle, which makes this hat knit up quickly.

Arden Hat is available in two sizes, a smaller size to fit an approximately 20” head, and a larger size to fit an approximately 23” head. In-between sizes can be easily accommodated by switching to smaller or larger needles to get a tighter or looser gauge.

Materials:

• 210 yards worsted weight yarn. (Large sized hat pictured used one skein of Malabrigo Worsted in Tortuga)
• Stitch marker, cable needle, tapestry needle.
• Size US 7 circular needle and DPNs or size needed to achieve gauge. 

This pattern has been test knit in all sizes - thank you again to my awesome test knitters!

download now! 

hat soon!

The last test knitter completed their test of the hat pattern I wrote to match the Arden Handwarmers, so hopefully I should be able to put it up for free download soon. There's been some discrepancies in the fit of the smaller size that are worrying me a bit, though, so I want to have a better sense of what's going on before I release it into the wild. Above is me trying on the size large I made for Iain; it's got a bit more positive ease than I'd prefer, but as our heads aren't actually that far apart in size, I can still wear it comfortably and worry about it not falling off.

The sweater in these photos is Francis Revisited, which is an absolutely gorgeous pattern that I hope to knit again. I was on a huge madelinetosh kick this summer, and so knit this very loosely in tosh dk (duchess); now that it's finally cold, I find myself wearing it all the time. I love how it looks, though the tosh dk is starting to loose its sheen a bit now that it's been washed. Also, the ends keep getting unwoven - does this happen to everyone, or am I just bad at sewing in ends? At any rate, I would like to knit this in something softer and fuzzier, though - with the ridiculous amount of yarn piling up and our time in Numazu dwindling - purchasing something softer and fuzzier may have to wait. 

So anyway, here is Iain modeling all his new knitted goods. Despite the fact that he's pulled the hat down over his eyes, I swear the hat fits him!

oooh, sparkly

Despite living in the land of Habu and Noro, I hardly ever buy Japanese yarn - the shops near my apartment stock mainly overpriced, acrylic fare - but I thought these were too pretty: 

above: oooh.

Span Jewel (about ¥715 for a 68 meter ball) is a nylon, acrylic, wool and polyester blend, with sequins (sequins!) and a fuzzy halo around a metallic base.

I also picked up one ball of Bacara Pur Fine (a nylon mohair wool blend?) to match - I'm really not too sure what I'm going to make with them. Something awesome, hopefully, which probably means that I'll reject about a million ideas on the grounds of not being awesome enough, which is what always happens when a ball of awesome yarn finds its way into my hands...

Simple Things

Finished! This is a beautiful pattern that looks even nicer when worn, though it did come out quite small, even with an extra repeat of the garter stitch eyelets - very much a shawlette rather than a shawl. Still, I think my mom will like it - this was my first time using yarn from the Sanguine Gryphon, and the color -  Bog Fritillary - is absolutely gorgeous.

With this shawl done, I am quite close to being done with the meager amount of Christmas knitting I set out to do this year - I don't gift a lot of knitted objects, mostly because I'm too self conscious and want them to be absolutely perfect. But my perpetually cold mother always makes a point of wearing whatever I give her (she models them for me whenever we have Skype conversations!) so she's most definitely on the list :-)

new pattern: arden

New Pattern up on Ravelry today! 

Arden is unisex elbow-length hand-warmer that uses a single skein of Malabrigo Worsted. One large cable is accented by single ribbing and smaller twisted cables, which can be easily knit without a cable needle, making Arden a fast, engaging project.

Arden is available in two sizes, a smaller size to fit an average woman’s hand and a larger size to fit an average man’s hand; the smaller size has a hand circumference of 7” and the larger size has a hand circumference of 7.5”. Both sizes of hand-warmer measures 7” around the arm, and are 15”/ 38 cm long when lying flat and un-stretched.

Two notes on fit:

• If you have small hands, you may prefer working at a tighter gauge by going down a needle size and/or using a lighter worsted weight yarn to ensure a closer fit.
• These mitts are elbow length, but it’s very easy to shorten them if that’s too long for you - some test knitters left off one repeat of the cable pattern for shorter mittens.

This pattern has been test-knit in both sizes, and includes written and charted directions.

Materials:

• 220 yards worsted weight yarn (I used Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Paris Night)
• Size 7 DPNs or size needed to achieve gauge. 
• Cable needle, tapestry needle, stitch markers.

download now!

lazy day knitting

All my other projects require much math or frogging or, horrifyingly, both, so I am ignoring them...

...  and finishing up a Simple Things shawl for my mom's Christmas present. This goes quite fast once you get to the garter stitch eyelet rows.