What do you think? I’m not so sure about the teal. Either the original pic was altered, or there is a HUGE difference in dye lots (very unusual for Cascade).

I’m sitting here at Tangle anxiously awaiting the arrival of my UPS lady. (All of my postage delivery people are women – interesting.) I’m excited because I ordered in yarn to make this:

Isn’t it purdy? I’m even making it in that exact color which is quite a departure for me, but, hey, I gotta say, I love the green!

As you can probably tell, I’m really loving Stefanie’s new book, Fitted Knits. So much so, that if I had the time I’d knit through the entire book. Seriously, there’s very few pieces that I wouldn’t knit.

As with all books, check out the Errata here before enjoying!

(While I was trying to write this between customers my shipment arrived. I know what I’m doing tonight! – I’ll have the yarn up for sale asap at Tangle too. )

I think I knit this like 6 months ago. I felted it 2 months ago and I took the picture a couple weeks ago. I’m really on the ball here huh?

Pre-felting (lens cap for size)

post-felting

I think it turns into a really cute bag. Plus it takes like no time at all to knit.

Stats
Pattern: Noni Carpet Bags (smallish carpet bag)
Yarn: Cascade 220
Needles: Denise size 13 (I think? maybe 11’s)
Use: model for Tangle

The thing I love about knitting pure and simple patterns is how much you can change them to make them really fab. This baby dress is not only very cute, but was a great way to use up scrap yarn too. (Pictured on either side is a knitting pure and simple bulky cardigan and child’s cardigan – can you tell we love these patterns at Tangle?)

Specs
pattern: knitting pure and simple’s sundress pattern

yarn: GGH Samoa – used up all the leftovers from various projects – I just knit until each ball was gone.

needles: Denise

changes: Instead of sewing the straps down, I used a provisional cast on, and added the straps in while I was casting on for the back. I also made sure to slip the first stitch of every row for a nice clean edge. And I decided to crochet around the neck to clean up the strange looking stitches that occurred when casting on for the body section.

Now I only wish I made it in Eden’s size!

My list of things I’m knitting is growing again. I do this, finish up a whole bunch of things and then start a whole bunch. It’s not too bad of a cycle I suppose, as long as it all gets done eventually.

This hat was one of the things that I worked on in the car on the way to the hot springs last week. I really like this pattern – but I have to say, it’s not one that you can knit and be distracted.

A couple things that helped me were being in a quiet place and running a “safety line” after each pattern repeat. (I just ran some scrap yarn through each stitch on the needles after the pattern repeat – thankfully, because I ripped back SEVERAL times.) The only thing I would have changed about the pattern would have been to make the garter stitch cuff shorter. Considering the family that I came from, it’s surprising that my head isn’t really all that big.

I used one skein of Malabrigo Worsted Lettuce and size 7 needles. Oh and the other thing I did to the pattern was kitchener the seam rather than work the 3 needle bind off. I have no clue why it was written for a 3 needle bindoff rather than a seamless kitchener. (oh and to make the garter stitch look seamless with the kitchener, I worked those last 10 garter stitch stitches of kitchener on the inside of the hat rather than on the outside.)

Have you seen the German knitting magazine Verena? I’m in love. The only problem is that I can’t speak or read German. Luckily, I have a WONDERFUL person who helps me out at the shop who is German. I’m going to keep her around forever!

I’ve started knitting this shell, isn’t it beautiful? I’m using a rich, royal blue cotton with a tiny bit of wool in it. Actually, I’m really excited about this new yarn – that little bit of wool really makes it a nice yarn.

Other things I’m working on?
-a slouchy hat out of Malabrigo
-a funky free form crocheted blanket
-still my sweater workshop sweater (but it’s getting closer – I’ve finally been re-inspired)
-a baby dress
-a couple pairs of socks
-and I’ve got a couple patterns floating around in my head in various stages of knitting.
hmmm, I’m sure there’s more but I can’t recall… All I want to do these days is knit.

Have you knit with tencel? It’s a wood derived fiber that is so soft and silky. The mitts above were knit out of a double strand of Cascade pima/tencel. It’s such a nice, drape-y fabric with a good weight, I’m thinking about what I want to knit next out of it.

This is also a new pattern I have for sale at Tangle. I named the pattern after my knitting friend who passed away last month and a portion of the sales will be donated to breast cancer research.

Another item that I recently finished (again, another store model for upcoming classes) is this felted Hobo Bag.

This is a Noni pattern that didn’t really need any changing although, when I have some more time (like 2012), I plan to make some sort of applique for it just to liven it up a bit.

A couple things I learned with this:
-Cascade 220 Tweed is beautiful, but it is not worth the extra $$$ when it comes to felting because the little flecks barely show.
-Sewing a zipper into a felted object is much easier than sewing one into a un-felted, knitted object. But both are equally as tedious.
-Craft stores in my town have something against purse rings. (That and decent felt, but that’s a whole ‘nother thing.)
-Circular stockinette is my friend, maybe too good a friend.

Stats on the pattern:
Noni Felted Hobo Adventure Bags pattern (will be back in stock at Tangle soon.)
4 skeins of Cascade 220 tweed (pattern called for 5)
size 11 (or maybe 13?) 32″ addi turbos

Lately, I’ve really been trying to look at a pattern and see more potential in it. I think it’s a good step for a knitter to be willing to take the bones of a pattern and make it their own. Take for instance this photo:

Never in a million years would I want to knit this sweater. But actually, I did. I’ve gotten to the point where I know that these sweaters (Knitting Pure and Simple) have good bones and I was fairly confident that I could change it into something beautiful.

This is what I did. I started with a solid colored yarn – an improvement already. Then I decided to work the raglan increases with a k1, yo rather than a kfb. After that I thought picot edging would be really great, so I worked that on every edge including the button bands. For the button bands, I only worked one row of garter stitch after picking up stitches then I worked the picot bind off. I decided to skip button holes and go with a single closure at the top, a sweet satin ribbon.

This is what I ended up with:

I think it’s a vast improvement to say the least AND I didn’t have to go and write a whole new pattern to get something totally different… I just changed a few things. THAT is my kind of knitting.

I finished this last week, but I just haven’t found Honor, the sweater and the camera in the same room together.

I’m really happy with how this sweater turned out. Although, I did have a few issues with carrying the yarn (really, who wants to weave in all those ends?), I seem to have pulled it off. My favorite part was making the skull applique. I’m not convinced that the cheap-o felt will hold up, but I figure that at 20 cents a sheet I can just make him a new one when it wears out. I’m also toying with the idea of ironing interfacing to the back of tee shirt material and making an applique from that.

Stats:
Yarn: GGH Samoa – 2 balls of brown (I think?) and 3 balls of blue
Pattern: Knitting Pure and Simple Child’s Pullover
Needles: US size 9 denise and addi turbos

I’ve been knitting up a storm. I knit up a Calorimetry that ended up way too big. But I wore it any way sledding on Sunday. I just ended up tying it in a knot in the back.

I finished the cable eight top awhile back, but I’ve yet to take a pic of it. And I knit myself a Ruffles and Ridges Scarf (PDF) adding another repeat to make it wider and I used two balls of the Misti Alpaca in Cream to match my cabled hat.

In other knitting news, I found this great free knitting graph paper. And I just got in a big shipment of the favorite Malabrigo colors at Tangle. Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier this week that there are a few things on sale at Tangle too, including the Very Best Sock Kits.

I’m still working on my Sweater Workshop Sweater after putting it down for several months. Mostly I’m motivated because I want my 32″ size 8 Addi Turbos out of it to knit Jim a pair of alpaca fingerless mitts and I’m too lazy to move the sweater onto waste yarn. Plus, I’d love to have another sweater to wear in these freezing temperatures. It’s a balmy 8 degrees right now with a slight hope that by Saturday our high will rise above freezing.

I’m off to boot the dog out of my seat, snuggle under a blanket, see what my TiVo has to offer me and work on my sweater.