Michigan IS the Mitten State after all

I love mittens. I live in the palm of a mitten, have traveled to the thumb, the cuff, the pinky and most certainly to the tip. (For those of you who don’t know where Michigan is, check out a map of the U.S., Michigan is the state that looks just like a mitten, it’s a peninsula sandwiched between some seriously Great Lakes.)

Here’s a local fave: We Michiganders have a habit of stating where we live by pointing to that area on our own hand – seriously.

I’m not saying that gloves are bad, but my fingers are always cold in them so I usually choose mittens instead. Mittens make navigating the steering wheel a tad bit tricky, but once my vehicle is warm the mittens get tossed aside. I also think mittens work better when in serious defense of a snowball fight with boys.

This is a hot-off-the-press pattern book and is it ever a good one. It’s got a bunch of different styles but it also has different sizes for your friends and family (charity too!) plus options with yarn weights. I’m tellin’ ya, you can’t beat that with a knitting needle!

One final comment I have about mittens this week – they knit up quickly. I’m always reading other blogs where people mention how quick socks knit up, that’s not true with me. But mittens really do. They’re fewer stitches (when working with worsted weight of course), bigger needles and you don’t have that fiddly heel turn. Go get yourself this book and knit a pair with me (and Juliaknits is getting her mitten on too).

And raise your hand to the Mitten State!

–knittinjen

Project Knitwear

Do you ever feel like you are at the end of a reality TV show rushing to get your project finished?  For me, this feeling is inevitable.  Each and every time I promise not to put myself in this situation and each and every time this exact situation happens.  Well, this time, it is not my fault.  With the craziness that was my Thanksgiving Holiday, there simply was no time for me to sit, relax and knit.  Needless to say, I am behind on my current knitting project.

After Thanksgiving Day, we decided to break out all of our holiday decorations and get the house ready for Christmas.  The tree this year is amazing and my house smells  wonderful.  So, now that my house is empty again, I hope to make some major progress on the Cables and Lace Hoodie this week.  Not hope – PROMISE.  I need a right front, 2 sleeves, a hood, some seaming and voila, I shall be done in no time.  I am really looking forward to this challenge.  Unlike reality TV shows, I will be in the comfort of my home and really, I am the only person who can stress me out.  Plus, I will be sitting on my couch with a cup of hot tea (or glass of wine), gazing upon my lit up Christmas tree, watching reruns from last week, while working on my project.  Now, doesn’t that sound amazing?

-BrennaLePurl

Time to get serious

Christmas is almost here, and I’ve barely started with my holiday knitting. Most years, I don’t give a ton of gifts, but rather try to make something nice for the special folks in my life.

My lil’ sister has thrown a wrench into the situation. I love knitting for her (she’s a size XS – do you have any idea how fast things get made??). I made her a woolen scarf and a beautiful cabled cardigan (if I say so myself), and about a year later, she admitted to me she’s allergic to wool. What? Aww.. I like working with wool and other natural fibers,  so figuring out what to do for her took some thinking.  I figured a nice hat and scarf made of something soft and cozy, and wool-free, would be good. Her only direction: the color Blue.

If you take a look at the Patons pattern book Luxury Knits, there’s a gorgeous color block scarf, knit in Patons Angora Bamboo. The suggested yarn is out of the question, due to its wool content.

Enter Patons Pure Organic Cotton. I know I’m not the only one who’s gushing about this yarn (Hi Brenna!), but it’s _very_ soft. I’m also a fan of the shade range – it’s very natural, yet feels contemporary and now. So let’s talk blue – there’s a few to choose from, but Marine’s the direction I’m leaning towards. The pattern calls for four shades, so I’m going to incorporate another blue (to keep the whole thing ‘blue’, and some neutrals to accent it. Here are my selections: Marine, Sea, Beige, and Taupe.

Pretty!

I’m excited! I love the feeling before you start something new. Now to avoid shiny distractions…

-jencraft

Sweater Race 2009

When I started knitting my Cap Sleeve Cable Pullover I figured I would surely be done with it in time for Christmas, and began to refer to it fondly as “my Christmas sweater”.

HA!

Christmas is next week and the front isn’t even completed.  Now that all my gift knitting is finished I am going to focus all my attention on the sweater and hopefully have it done by my completely arbitrary and self-imposed deadline of Christmas Eve.  Perhaps a sixteen hour round trip in the car this weekend will help me accomplish this goal.  I’m racing to get done with the cables before I leave so I can just work on the stockinette back, which I can mostly do without looking at my hands.  You know, because I get carsick.  We’ll see what happens….

-AndreaK2tog

Smitten

The weather has become a little nippy and it was time to assess my winter accessories situation. Hats? Check. Scarves? Check. Mittens? Oh dear.

The situation is dire. This right here is the first pair of mittens I have ever knit. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with them per se, but they don’t scream; “Hey everybody! Check out my kick-ass hand knit mittens! I’m so talented! And warm! In yo face!”

I plan to rectify the situation immediately.
Step One: Step Seven. What? I mean Next Steps Seven.

Just in time to rescue me from mitten ennui, Patons has a brand spankin’ new book dedicated to all the wonderful wooly ways to warm your hands. I set to work choosing something both warm and, ahem, “kick-ass” looking:

A little fair isle number perhaps?
Kick-ass factor covered, I was left to cover Step Two: “Hey Everybody!”.

Nothin’ shouts; “Hey! Look over here!” like Peacock and Lemongrass (Patons Classic Wool). I’m so ready to get in yo face with these mitts!

-juliaknits

Oops! Tips for Correcting Common Mistakes

It is rare (I think) to knit anything without making at least one mistake.  The potential for mistakes increases with the size and complexity of the knitting project.  Yes, it is safe to assume that I have already made multiple mistakes in my Cap Sleeve Cable Pullover.  Here are a couple common mistakes (in my knitting, at least) and how to fix them with minimal tears.

Dropped Stitches. There you are, knitting merrily along, when all of a sudden you notice a little stitch guy hanging out by himself several rows down:

Hey, get back up here, guy!  The way to get a dropped stitch back where it’s supposed to be is by using a crochet hook to help it “climb the ladder” up to the needle.  Insert the hook through the errant stitch, grab onto the first “rung” and pull the rung through the stitch.  Continue until you’re back at the top and slip the stitch onto the needle.

Misplaced Pattern Stitches. This problem is easier to spot once the cable or lace pattern is established.  Somewhere a few rows back some kind of mistake was made, maybe a yarn over was forgotten, or a decrease was misplaced, and now there are too many or too few stitches, throwing off the continuity of the pattern.  There are two ways to fix this.

First, spread out the project on a flat surface and determine how far back the mistake was made.  Then take the project off the needles (yikes!) and unravel back to a row before the mistake.  You don’t always have to pinpoint the actual mistake, just rip back to a row that you know is correct.  I usually rip back to one row above where I want to put the needles back in, then take the yarn out of each stitch individually and place it on the needle (this helps prevent dropped stitches).

The second way to fix this mistake is to count how many stitches the row is off by and then increase/decrease in an inconspicuous area to get the correct number.  (This is not for perfectionists!)  The pattern is not actually “fixed” but the stitch count is back on track.  If you can live with one messed up row, (I can, as evidenced by the second pattern row in my cable pullover) this is the way to go.

There are certainly many more mistakes that can be made in knitting (trust me, I have made them) but these are the ones I make the most often.  So don’t be afraid of mistakes.  And don’t be afraid to ask for help from a knitting instructor/clever friend/the internet.

-AndreaK2tog

The many faces of a Yarn Over.

Did you know that there are 4 ways to do a Yarn Over?  I have been knitting for a little over 4 years now and I have just discovered this.  The type of YO (yarn over) that you do totally depends on the stitch before and/or stitch after the YO. The Cables and Lace Hoodie that I am currently working on, calls for a Purl 1, YO, Knit 1, YO, Purl 1 combo.

Let’s break it down…

Knit, YO, Knit – This happens to be the most common YO combo.  Knit one stitch, bring yarn to front and knit the next stitch.  Since not much yarn is used to create this YO, a small hole remains.

Knit, YO, Purl – Sort of tricky, especially if you are new to the world of YOs.  Knit one stitch,  bring yarn to front, wrap the yarn on your right hand needle one time and make sure your working yarn ends up in front of your work, purl next stitch.  This YO uses the most yarn, thus creating a bigger hole than all other YOs.

Purl, YO, Knit – Purl 1st stitch.  Since the yarn is already in front of your work from the previous purl stitch, just go right into your next knit stitch.  This YO uses the least amount of yarn, thus creating a small hole.

Purl, YO, Purl – Purl 1st stitch.  OK, so the yarn is in front, but yet you need to do a YO, so again (like the K1,YO, P1 combo), you wrap the yarn around the right needle leaving the working yarn in front of your work.

The P1, YO, K1, YO, P1 combo that I am currently using sort of creates an issue if you are not well versed in the area of YOs.  If you do nothing to the stitches, you end up with a small hole (YO), stitch and then a large hole (YO).  How do you make the holes even then?  After completing the row with the YO combo, on the next row (wrong side of work), when I get to the YO combo portion, I simply loosen the stitches to get even holes.  This technique seems to be working very well on this project.

Yarn Overs’ are crucial to the knitting world.  Who knew there were so many?  Without YOs, there would be no lace and well, that would just be very sad.

Coming soon…  Cables and Lace Hoodie!!

-BrennaLePurl

Accessories, Accessories, Accessories

“The only thing that separates us from the animals [monkeys] is our ability to accessorize.”
– Clairee Belcher, Steel Magnolias (1989)

Patterns: Hats, scarves, “jean jacket,” monkeys from Patons pattern book 500875 Monkey Business

Yarns: Patons Classic Wool: Dark Beige Marl, Dark Grey Marl, Light Grey Marl, Bright Red, Aran, Rich Red,
Patons Decor: Navy, Burnt Orange

Results: Cuteness!

The cuteness of these monkeys is only increased with some accessories. Like many yarn crafters, I have a stash and I’m not ashamed to admit that. I pulled out left over yarn from this project to make the deep red scarf and hat combo and had some fantabulous Décor yarn for the burnt orange vest (“jean jacket”) and the navy scarf and hats ensembles. (I’ve never used Decor yarn and it is wonderful. I may have found a washable alternative to my fav Classic Wool–Whoot!)

Actually, I have a story that goes with that navy scarf. (I know, you’re surprised that I would have a story…) My Dear Husband (DH) knit that! One evening I was a tad bit over extended and nearing a breakdown when I said (okay, maybe I was shouting a little) to him, “I need to hire someone as my knitting assistant!” The next thing I knew he was asking for some yarn and needles and had me cast on. He didn’t even lose his confidence when about three hours after he’d been working away, that I cast on the red one and had caught up with him in about 40 minutes.

Proof is in the picture: He really was knitting!

I’d say he’s a keeper.

Here’s a picture of The Monkeys with the Monkeys. Our three sons. (The matching clothes that the twins are wearing to their respective monkeys was not planned. Honestly.)

–knittinjen & knittinDH

A tam so nice I knit it twice

Yay!

(If you look real close you can see the CN tower growing out of my head)

My second Fair Isle tam is a winner!

I rearranged my colours a little, watched my tension and BAM! A successfull tam.

I gotta say, blocking can really make or break this baby. I usually block beret style hats over a dinner plate. This hat however, really needs to be blocked to a specific size to end up the right shape. My lovely vintage hotelware just wasn’t going to cut it. I ended up doing like the pattern suggests (follow the pattern? – crazy!) and cut a piece of cardboard to block the tam with.

Worked like a charm!

-juliaknits

A Cavalcade of Finished Objects

The Fair-Isle Tam Knit-Along gave me a few weeks to catch up on some older blog projects that have been lingering a bit. This week, I’m very excited to show you my finished granny square afghan. I laid it out in my kitchen, as it’s the only place with enough room. Even in my tiny kitchen, it fills the space!

Not only is this my first afghan, it’s also my first serious crochet project. I couldn’t be happier with it – even while knitting it, having it cozy on my knees was perfect. It did take me forever – I’m not yet as comfortable crocheting as often as I knit, so this was often what I worked on when i took a break from knitting.

I did a single crochet border around the blanket to clean up the edges a bit. It works well, but the whole thing curves in just a teeny bit.

To recap:

Yarn: Patons Decor

Shades (from outside to center): Chocolate Taupe, Taupe, Pale Taupe, New Green, Rich New Green, Dark New Green

Pattern: Start with the basic granny square pattern in Next Steps Five – Crochet Guidebook. Keep going until you can’t stand it anymore, changing colors as desired.

Considering how behind I am on holiday knitting, I probably should consider gifting this…but I think I’m most likely to keep it for myself.

How’s your holiday gift making coming along?

-jencraft