Knitpicks Box Arrived

Yesterday a box arrived from Knitpicks full of woolly goodness and temptations to cast on a new project.


There's enough Andean Treasure Baby Alpaca for a sweater which I will not start until I've finished the three sweaters I have in time out. I will not, I will not!

Didn't I say I was going to bring those sweaters out this week and declare their fate? It's Friday. Only one more day in the week to do it. I'm sure once the job gets done I'll wonder why it took so long to get started.

The new yarn's color is Mystery Heather. Not very exciting but very practical.


Andean Treasure in Hot Red Heather was on sale so I ordered two skeins to see if I loved the color. It's OK, but I'm not in love. The two skeins will become a scarf and Knitpicks can discontinue the color with my blessing.


Mom asked for a hat like My Red Hat. I know she likes her knits washable, so I bought two skeins of Swish Worsted, a superwash wool.


Because wool hat weather is here now in SW Michigan, I knit the hat last night. It's all ready to keep Mom's head warm this winter.

Red Hat

The past few weeks my knitting has reflected the reality of the season. It will be snowing soon. There have been years when we've had snow by the middle of October.

This is the first hat I've ever knit that actually fits and/or doesn't have a weird looking knob on the top.

I pulled out a skein of red wool and using a 99 cent discount store hat as a template I whipped up a nice warm very basic red hat to wear on dog walks.

In order not to lose my notes on how I knit this hat, I'm going to post my method at the end of this entry. It's not intended to be a formal pattern. Just a reminder.

Anyway, I'm sure all the other knitters in the world know how to knit a simple hat that fits.


Red Hat
Worsted weight wool. #6 needles.

Cast on 90 stitches and join in round.
k1,p1 ribbing for 5 inches.
Stockinette for 4 inches.

k8, k2tog for a round.
Knit a round.
k7, k2tog for a round.
Knit a round.
Etc until after the k3, k2tog round.
Skip the knit round.
k2, k2tog for a round.
Turn stitches to inside of hat and bind off 27 stitches with 3 needle bind off.

Now, instead of buying a 99 cent hat at the discount store, I can spend $5 on a skein of wool and knit myself a hat. Makes sense to me.

Scarf and Sky Socks

There has been some knitting. Simple, mindless knitting with soothing soft yarn reminding me how knitting can be a pleasure.

First I finished the scarf with the gift yarn from Brother Dave's Karen.


Pattern: One-Row Scarf by the Yarn Harlot.

Yarn: Cherry Hill Alpaca Handspun. DK weight.

Color: Mystic.

Needles: US #8.


The Yarn Harlot designed this scarf for handspun. It's easy. The texture accentuates the softness of the yarn and there's no curling at the edges.

I declare it to be perfect scarf pattern and I'll be using it again and again.

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Pattern: Basic cuff down sock on 60 stitches. k5p1 ribbing.

Yarn: Stalwart Sock from Slackford Studio. 75% Superwash Merino, 25% Nylon 4 Ply Fingering Weight Sock Yarn.

Color: Skydive.

Needles: Options 2.50mm circulars.

Gauge: 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch in stockinette.

Sprout in Action

Early last evening I headed east to granddaughter Kimmy's choir concert at Pennfield High School northeast of Battle Creek.

On the way, I picked up Mom and asked her to snap a few Sprout pictures while it was still daylight. Thanks Mom.

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I'm not broad in the shoulders. If I had it to knit over, I would shape the set-in sleeves more so they fit my shape better.

Pattern: Cultivated Vines by Sara Louise Harper in the May, 2010 Creative Knitting

Pattern Modifications:

• Knitting lower two-thirds of sweater in the round instead of separate front and back.
  
• Pattern goes from size 38 (too small) to size 42 (too big). I'm knitting a between size, size 40 on 240 stitches.
  
• Used neck shaping for size 38 and sleeve shaping for size 42.
  
• Shortened sleeves so they'll end just above my elbow.

Yarn: Knitpicks Cotlin, a DK weight 70% Tanguis cotton 30% linen yarn.

Color: Sprout, a summery green.

Needles: Options #4, 3.5mm.

Gauge: 6 stitches/inch, 8 rows/inch in stockinette.

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Kimmy and her Great-grandma Monette after the concert.

The concert was very entertaining and impressive. Kimmy had a small solo belted out clear and on key. We were all very proud of her. She's ending her freshman year. It will be fun to see what she does with her singing talent as she progresses through high school.

Sprout Finished

I think I'm happy with it, but it's impossible to know for sure until I wear it for more than five minutes.

We've been having April weather in May. Cool, sometimes cold, and cloudy and wet.

According to AccuWeather, it's supposed to warm up tomorrow. If it actually happens I plan on wearing this to granddaughter Kimmy's choir concert tomorrow evening.

If it doesn't warm up, I'll save the wear test for another day.

Pattern: Cultivated Vines by Sara Louise Harper in the May, 2010 Creative Knitting

Pattern Modifications:

• Knitting lower two-thirds of sweater in the round instead of separate front and back.
  
• Pattern goes from size 38 (too small) to size 42 (too big). I'm knitting a between size, size 40 on 240 stitches.
  
• Used neck shaping for size 38 and sleeve shaping for size 42.
  
• Shortened sleeves so they'll end just above my elbow.

Yarn: Knitpicks Cotlin, a DK weight 70% Tanguis cotton 30% linen yarn.

Color: Sprout, a summery green.

Needles: Options #4, 3.5mm.

Gauge: 6 stitches/inch, 8 rows/inch in stockinette.

John's Birthday Socks Finished

Yesterday between bouts of dealing with the nasty weather, I finished John's birthday socks.

The cuffs are seven inches long from top to heel. Three skeins of Happy Feet were needed. One skein per sock took me to the start of each toe for John's size 11 foot knitting 70 stitches around.



Pattern: 70 stitch basic socks. The stitch pattern is from one of my stitch pattern books, Beautiful Knitting Patterns by Gisela Klopper. It's a simple 7 stitch knit purl pattern with a knit 5 purl 2 ribbing base.

Yarn: Happy Feet. 90% Superwash Merino, 10% Nylon.

Color: Dark blue.

Needles: Options 2.50mm circulars.

Gauge: 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch in stockinette.

Hedonist Cardinal Socks Finished

These socks are soft and cuddly. I'm looking forward to wearing them.


Pattern: 56 stitch basic socks. The stitch pattern is from one of my stitch pattern books, Beautiful Knitting Patterns by Gisela Klopper. It's a simple 8 stitch knit purl pattern with a knit 7 purl 1 ribbing base.


Yarn: Slackford Studio Hedonist Sock yarn, 80% Superwash Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon.

Color: Cardinal.

Needles: Options 2.50mm circulars.

Gauge: 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch in stockinette.

BFF Socks Finished

Don't have much to say about these socks except I'm happy with them and looking forward to wearing them often.

The pattern instructions are a good example of how to increase for a sock cable after the ribbing is finished and decrease for the heel or toe once the cabling is finished.


Pattern: BFF Socks, a free pattern by Cookie A. Size 56 stitches.

Yarn: Stalwart Sock from Slackford Studio. 75% Superwash Merino, 25% Nylon 4 Ply Fingering Weight Sock Yarn.

Color: Billie Jean.

Needles: Options 2.50mm circulars.

Gauge: 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch in stockinette.


Evening stroll through the melting snow.

Ivy Vine Cowl and Flowers in January

Last post said I was going to cast on something small and quick to knit until I got over the pain of frogging a seven inch cuff back to the ribbing.

Then I hopped over to Pat's Knitting and Quilting and spotted the perfect project - Ivy Vines a lacy cowl by Anne Hanson.

If you want to see what the cowl looks like on a human neck, Pat has lovely pictures over on her blog.

While it's the perfect project for a luxury yarn, I didn't have any luxury yarn in a color that would go with my dog walking parka, so I picked a skein of Nature Spun wool instead.


Pattern: Ivy Vines a lacy cowl by Anne Hanson.

Yarn: Nature Spun wool, sport weight.

Color: light gray

Needles: #3 and #4 16" circulars, down a size from what the pattern calls for. Fit is OK but fabric should probably be looser for a better drape. If I knit another, I'll go up a needle size.

Flowers make the perfect gift for a birthday in the middle of January.

Thanks Mom.

Anne's Birthday Socks Finished

Although simple, these socks were an entertaining puzzle to knit because the skein of yarn had three knots and each knot started the color sequence in a different place.

I started out knitting from the skein until I hit the first knot, about an inch and a half down the first cuff. Then I carefully wound the skein into multiple balls, documenting the color sequences of each ball to calculate the best way to proceed for matching socks.

Other than the knots, the yarn appears to be nice. It felt "wooly", even with the added Aloe Vera. Not necessarily a bad thing for those of us, including Anne, who have real winters.

Other knitter's have let me know it washes and wears well.


Pattern: Basic cuff down sock pattern on 64 stitches. k3p1 ribbing on cuff and instep.

Yarn: On Your Toes. 75% Superwash Wool, 25% Nylon.

Color: Moss.

Needles: Options #1, 2.5mm

Gauge: 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch

Anne's socks have a seven inch cuff and she wears size 8 shoes.

The On Your Toes only has 390 yards of yarn and I was so certain I was going to run out that I ordered a second skein. It turned out to be unneeded. This is the total amount of yarn I had left over.

It will be interesting to see if the second skein I bought has knots. But I'm not interested enough to check it out this evening. For right now it's going in the stash with a reminder note that there isn't enough yarn for a man's pair of socks and there are possible knots.


Granddaughter Sydney sent lavender On Your Toes for her socks. Winding it into two balls, I found 5 knots!

Two of them were joining breaks in the yarn and interrupted the color sequence.

Three of the knots were something I've never come across before in all the sock yarn I've used - the yarn wasn't broken at all, it was just tightly tangled. I was able to untangle those knots and keep winding.

Mom's Third Pair of Purple Socks Finished

Mom asked for purple socks, and she got them - medium purple, dark purple, and now a pastel purple.


Pattern: More Fun Than Cables.

Yarn: Stalwart Sock from Slackford Studio. 75% Superwash Merino, 25% Nylon 4 Ply Fingering Weight Sock Yarn.

Color: Iced Lilac.

Needles: Options 2.50mm circulars.

Gauge: 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch in stockinette.


Now that we've had our snow cover refreshed with a new layer of about six inches, the temps are going to drop down into the single digits tonight.

Good thing we bought 120 pounds of sunflower seed Wednesday. The birds are going to need to eat to keep their body heat up.

Yarn From Idaho

In the Christmas box from Idaho was a bag of yarn for my upcoming birthday with a note that I could open it immediately.

This is the second year the Idaho family has picked out their own birthday sock yarn so I'm ready to knit their birthday socks.

The dark blue is Happy Feet for Son John. He remembered I ran out of yarn for his man size feet last year, so this year he sent three skeins.

The purple On Your Toes is for Sydney. Her birthday isn't until April, a silly time to give wool socks to a rapidly growing child. I plan to knit hers up as soon as John sends me an ankle measurement and shoe size.

The green On Your Toes is for DIL Anne. The cuffs are started and I'm hoping to have them in the mail soon since her birthday is January 10.


The bright and happy red/pink/lime green is for me. Instead of adding it to the stash, I whipped up a pair of simple, practical socks to brighten up the colorless winter days ahead.

Thanks John, Anne, and Sydney.


Pattern: Basic k3p1 ribbing on 56 stitches

Yarn: Happy Feet. 90% superwash Merino, 10% nylon.

Color: 25

Needles: Options 2.50mm circulars.

Gauge: 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch in stockinette.