On the Needles

So, as you can see, my "On the Needles" section is going a little crazy. From now until the end of December I have 2 birthdays, 2 baby showers, and Christmas presents to do. I should have started in January!!! Luckily I have enlisted my husband to help with the simpler projects and I haven't picked anything bigger than a scarf, or more difficult than socks to knit. Hopefully I will get them all done in time- and not go broke in the process!! I have a feeling the projects may change a bit, and some may be started and finished quickly. We'll just have to wait and see. It's going to be a busy season and I will try to post the pictures as quickly as I finish the projects- so family and friends- NO PEAKING!!! Everyone else, check back soon!

Lace Slant Hat

Lace Slant Hat

So I really love this hat. I know that it’s suppose to be stretchy and big, but for some reason the yarn I chose just keeps on stretching and while the hat fit when I finished it, it now could fit a pumpkin. I’m hoping to shrink it in the wash- although it’s 70% acrylic so it may not shrink much. When making this hat make sure that your yarn isn’t to stretchy- or make it a little small.

This hat isn’t knit in the round, and I was a little concerned about the seaming because you have to make sure that your slant lace lines up. I think that I did a pretty good job of it :







Cloverdale didn’t much care for wearing the hat:



My hair tucked up in it perfectly- all good hippie hats must do that!

Simple Lace Anklet/Bracelet

So, I started a new job last week, and while showing tattoos was ok, they can’t be offensive looking. I wasn’t sure if the skull tattoo I have on my ankle was offensive (apparently the pink bow it’s wearing makes it more tolerable) so I decided to knit an anklet with some scrap yarn to see how it would look. Turns out I don’t need it, but I made the anklet anyways.

I used a black wool yarn that turned out to be to thick and looked strange on the ankle, but good to practice on. I think that this pattern would be really great for those cuff wrist warmers that were so popular. If the yarn were thinner I think it would work for the ankle

Here the photos show just how different they looked depending on the background:





I used a simple lace pattern.

Using US size 7 needles and a gauge of 4 stitches per inch the anklet was about 2.5 inches wide and 9 inches long.

Cast on 11 sts.

Row 1: Knit
Row 2:Purl
Row 3: k (k2tog, yo, k2)- repeat 2 times, k2
Row 4: Purl
Row 5: Knit
Row 6:Purl
Row 7: k (k2, ssk, yo)- repeat 2 times, k2
Row 8: Purl
Repeat until just short of desired length, then repeat row 1 and 2.
For the next row pick where you want your button holes and do yoyo to create the holes.
Purl the last row, making sure to purl one of the yo stitches and knit the other.
Bind off.

Since my yarn was to thick and the holes didn’t show up well I tied pink yarn between the holes in an x pattern to make the holes larger. I also used black buttons, but pink thread to tie them on. You can embellish the anklet/bracelet in a variety of ways. I blocked mine to flatten it out before putting it on.

Lace Slant Hat Progress

The hat is coming along well. This is the first hat that I haven't knit in the round. The yarn I chose isn't self striping but has a very need look to it. I'm about twice as far along as these pictures show, hopefully I'll be done later this week if nothing else gets in my way!

Ready for Ravelry

I'm getting really excited to join the Ravelry community and I'm getting so close! Don't know what Ravelry is? Check out the links to their site and blog over to the right. -------->

You signed up on June 29, 2007
You are #11664 on the list.
1392 people are ahead of you in line.
17065 people are behind you in line.
35% of the list has been invited so far

Heart Scarf

Since I’m a new knitter I try to pick projects that will teach me something new. The Head Huggers incorporated knitting in the round, dpns, k2.p2, and decreasing. The Topi hat was increasing and wrap, turn, the flower taught me felting and this scarf taught me how to yo, graft and do a lacelike pattern- super exciting!!



I really loved this pattern. You can find it here:
Knitty Breast Cancer Issue . It’s a downloadable issue, and there are some other cute patterns there too. Who doesn’t want a scarf covered in boobs or the super cute shedir hat? (Now on my list of future projects)

I knit the scarf using Sirdar Denim Chunky in a pink/fushia color. It’s an acrylic, cotton, wool mix and is super soft. My only complaint is that although it didn’t roll on the edges, when you hold up the edges kinda pull inwards and looks like it’s curling. I even tried blocking it but it didn’t fix the problem.

I knit the scarf in two halves like the pattern calls for because I wanted to try grafting. I didn’t bother measuring the two halves to see if they were the same length because they were the same width and for some reason one was a full heart longer than the other. Whoops!!!

The pattern requires that you knit 4 stitches together, which seemed pretty hard. I used an embroidery needle to help me at first, but I was able to knit loosely enough to where I was able to knit the 4 stitches together without help after a little practice.



The 100g skein knit the whole scarf with added fringe at the end and there was even a little to spare. I was also pretty impressed with my first grafting job. I used kitchener stitch since I didn’t bind off the two halves. I used knittinghelp.com to figure that out because a written instruction just wasn’t enough for me ;)



Next time I’m going to try a different yarn and pay more attention to the length of the halves. And there will be a next time since my mom saw this scarf and wants one of her own!

Felted Flower Pin

I had never attempted felting, and never really felt (get it) the need to- but the Flower Pins in the Domiknitrix book were to darn cute. I don’t have a link to the pattern, but here’s a link to the site- Domiknitrix

I chose to knit a rose and used a Super Kid Mohair from Filatura Cervinia in dark purple and the leaves were a multicolor with more green in it than other colors so I think they had the fall leaves look.

Each rose needs about 9 petals and 3 leaves. It was an easy pattern and since I was felting them a few mistakes here and there weren’t even noticeable. If you can increase and decrease you’re set.

The yarn and needles I used left a really loose knit (I used the needle size recommended for the yarn, US size 7), that did tighten up a bit after I washed them, but I think next time I would use a smaller needle size.

To felt I just put the petals in a garment bag and washed them in hot water, making sure not to let them go through the spin cycle. Even just washing them I had some issues with the petals folding in half and sticking together. Next time I think I would use safety pins to pin them to the garment bag so they stay flat and don’t felt themselves into a ball.

I also dried them on high heat to get them to shrink up more but it didn’t help as much as I had hoped.

To form the flower I started by rolling the middle petal and sewing it, then added petals one by one and sewing them to look the way I wanted. All in all a successful felting project- but I’m not going to quit my day job and do it professionally. ;)

Topi Hat

Topi Hat from Knitty.com

I really loved this pattern. I finished the project in June 2007.

For it I chose Bamboo’s 100% bamboo yarn in a navy blue. This yarn is so soft!

The project starts by knitting from the crown down, all in one piece. My stitches for the center of the crown were to loose even though I was trying to pull them as tight as possible. It still turned out well though.

I had some problems with the bill. I wanted it to curve so my husband formed it for me, using the thick plastic mesh used for needlepoint, by heating it with an old iron. He used 2 pieces to make it thicker and melted them together. But, as soon as it was washed, the bill cracked into multiple pieces. Second time around we used an old Tupperware lid, heated it slightly to bend, and it seems to be fine.

The pictures are of the hat before putting in the bill.

First Completed Knitting Project- Head Hugger

Head Hugger by Ann Norling, Pattern #55

This was my first project and I completed back in June 2007

After practicing knitting in the car for about 9 hours strait (and losing the ability to move my fingers) I decided it was time to knit something that didn’t look scarf-like. My husband, Brian, and I were in Spokane, Wa for his graduation and we went to the local yarn store. You know the woman that you imaging meeting in a knitting store? The grandmother like woman who would spend all day helping you get things just right? Well this is the place to meet her. Her name was Allinda and she was wonderful. Here’s her shop:

Allinda Knitting Boutique
321 W Indiana Ave 
Spokane, WA 99205
(509) 328-4670

Since the hat was going to be for my husband I let him pick out the yarn. He chose a Renolds Lopi Icelandic Wool yarn in a great burgundy color (0047). It’s a little too itchy for my taste, but the hat wasn’t for me. I completed the project in about a day, but didn’t like it so I ripped it out and planned to knit it again.

In the meantime my husband picked up knitting and picked a new yarn, Nature Spun 100% wool in Burnt Sienna (101), and proceeded to knit himself a hat. I also reknit the hat so I had to choose a different style. The pattern provides variations to the same hat so they both look quite different. Brian did his on size 4 needles and did a 1 inch border in k2,p2 ribbing and then did stockingnette stitch around. I did mine on size 10 needles and did k2,p2 the whole way.

Here they are: