It’s been awhile I know. I choose to blame several things: post-wedding craziness, the holidays, and some health problems experienced by both my husband and myself.
This post is essentially just going to be a run-down of things I have been working on. It features some great patterns, including one I am writing myself (my first!). I guess that might be another reason for my lack of blogging: knitting addiction. I state where I got each of the patterns. To see which yarn(s) I used, click on the image to see a Ravelry description page.
I’ll start off with the arm knitting trend. Despite my already large stash, I decided to buy some extra bulky yarn and give it a whorl. I used the tutorial here and followed the guidance of Unwind Yarn House in using Mirasol Ushya yarn held double. I’m pretty happy with the look of the result, albeit it’s not as warm as some of my other scarves, and I’m worried that getting a stitch snagged on something might cause the whole thing to be pulled out of shape. We shall see.
Curious to see what arm knitting might possibly look like in progress? Voilà.
PS: I entered this in the Ravellenic Games, which coincides with the Olympics.
I’m also planning on entering a pair of slippers that I’m making for my husband in colours from Fallout, his favourite video game. I started off following this pattern, but had to make so many modifications due to hubby’s extra extra large shoe size that it’s practically its own pattern now. I’m considering publishing it 🙂
Before these I finished Shara Lambeth’s Dentelle Cowl for my mother-in-law. It’s a lovely short cowl, and I really like the finished result. Though I will suggest that if you plan on trying to make your own that you make the foundation chain very loose. The stitch pattern is very stretchy, plus you will be putting many dcs into the foundation chain, so it needs to be able to give a little.
Being at that age where friends and cousins start having kids, I’ve also been doing some baby knits.
This adorbale pair of booties is based on a Saartje de Bruijn pattern. Albeit I used the seamless version by Fleegle instead, because I hate seams. Hate. I had to learn the Turkish cast-on it order to do it. I highly recommend FluffyKnitterDeb’s tutorial, it’s really easy to follow. A little tricky until you get the hang of it, but I’m glad I’ve learned how to do it. It makes beautiful sock toes, bag bottoms, mitten tips, etc.
One of the babies was born in December. She of course required something more warm and snuggly, hence I made her a hat using the Bulky EarFlap Hat pattern from As the Bunny Spins and booties using Simple Soft Baby Booties from Adirondack Mama.
She might not be so happy about wearing it, but I think her parents are glad she’s warm in these -20°C tempertures we’ve been getting.
Then there was my Christmas knitting.
I made a Jayne hat again. This time it was for my middle brother, and I used this pattern, which I think I was happier with.
Here they both are, sporting their hats in true browncoat style 🙂
And now for my pride and joy of the whole lot. The pattern is Fightin’ Words by Annie Watts of Wattsolak Designs. These fingerless mitts were for my youngest brother, who seemed to get a kick out of them.
My first true stranded colourwork. A pretty awesome pattern, and a pretty awesome job, if I do say so myself.
Those are some wonderful finishes! I’m especially enamored of the fighting words mitts! Looking forward to seeing the pattern you are writing.
Thanks! 🙂
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I am currently working on the simple easy baby booties pattern. However, am I confused at the that when you knit the short rows and then have to pick up the end stitches to knit them together. Do you pick up all the stitches at once? Do you work just the stitches on those 3 needles? The instructions are unclear to me after the “knit the short rows” part. The author is no longer actively blogging, so I thought maybe you could assist, since obviously you were successful with yours. (I hate giving up on a pattern; it’s like a vendetta…) Thank you!
Hi!
Have you been knitting the three sides so far in the round (which turns into the foot part of the boot) and are at the toe (though “toe” is a bit of a misnomer because really it’s the part that will cover the top of the baby’s foot) instructions? If so, what you do is leave one set of 5 stitches and the 20 side stitches (10×2) on their needles, and continue knitting with only the remaining 5 “live” stitches. Just back and forth in garter for 5 rows. The only tricky bit is that at the end of each row you need to take the last stitch you just did and transfer it to the needle holding the 10 side stitches. Now you just k2tog (the one you just transferred from your short row and the nearest stitch on the 10 side stitch needle).
Make sense? If you just work through it, it starts to get clearer, I promise 🙂