Wavy Feathers

This is a not so fantastic picture of my new favorite project. I found myself itching to knit something late Thursday night, but nothing on the needles interested me. I dug around in my stash container, but the only thing that kept snagging my attention was this brown wool/silk fingering weight yarn. I had bought this for the Wavy Feathers Wimple, which is a free smoke ring pattern. I’ve been wanting to do a smoke ring for some time now and a friend, knowing I was watching for the perfect pattern that was doable by me (I someday want to knit the Flared Lace Smoke Ring–but not yet) emailed me the Wavy Feathers pattern and it is a perfect fit. The yarn is Regia Silk, which is 55% Merino, 20% Silk, and 25% Polyamide (whatever that is), and I’m using US6, 24″ Knitpicks circulars. I love everything about the project, love the yarn, love the way the knitpicks needles knit it up, love the pattern, love the way the pattern (Japanese Feathers) creates the waves, and etc. ad nauseum. I added 11 stitches to the fingering weight cast on for 3 reasons:

1. My head is bigger than the young girl in the picture
2. I wanted to comfortably use 24″ rather than 16″ circs
3. I don’t like overly blocked lace, so I didn’t want to have to severely block it to get it the right width.

I’m 1.5 pattern repeats (each repeat is 28 rows) into the required 3.5 repeats for fingering weight, I might do a full 4 depending on how the height is looking. I don’t really see myself pulling it up over my head, but you never know when a cold wind my whip up and I’d wish I could!

 

The new Knitty…

The only knitting that has been going on here is working on my erstwhile Irish Hiking Scarf, which I do love–I even gave cabling without a cable needle a go, but I’m not sure I like the way it looks, it seems like I can tell the difference between a regular cable and a needle-less cable. It’s not as neatly done, but maybe with practice, I’ll do a couple more twists and then snap a picture.

In the meantime, Knitty came out with its newest addition and I love the alternative Fetching called Dashing; purported to be guy friendly, I’d certainly wear them!I’ll have to go stash diving to see what I have that would work because while I’ve made two Fetching, neither ended up with me, so I’m still in need of a pair of fingerless mitts. Should be quick and fun!

 

Finished!

I finished my Hot Water Bottle Sweater today, using this yarn (Waterlily)and larger needles (8s instead of 7s, I wasn’t able to to make the ribbing the 8″ the pattern called for, I just went until I was out of yarn, around 6.5 inches. It works fine enough to cover the top of the water bottle neck, so that’s fine. This was a fun project and now I can use my hot water bottle without having nasty plastic on my neck or messing around with wrapping it in a towel. All in all this was a great project: easy, fun, fantastic yarn, and a usable piece of knitting at the end. Now I just have to find another pattern for this yarn because I definitely want to knit with it again.

I’ll be moving back to my sock and putting something else small and portable on the needles as well, I’m thinking these gorgeous cabled fingerless gloves. I will be using the modifications to pull the cabled part onto the back of the hand instead of the wrist so that they will show and not get lost in a coat sleeve. I’ve got some yarn in stash I’ll be using for this, a navy blue tweed DK weight yarn I had put aside for a different fingerless glove pattern.

 

Circled surprises…

Friday I went over to my friend Sherry’s house to help her get her blog going and I had a little Christmas present waiting! Two gorgeous needle rolls–one for my double pointed needles, and one for my Knit Pick interchangeable circular needles! I love them both, I love the fabric (these pictures do not do them justice, I need to retake them with better light, it’s too overcast) and all my needles fit in perfectly. I put up more pictures in this album. I can’t believe she made these, they are just perfect and I think she ought to sell some online!
As far as knitting news goes, I’ve really not had a lot of knitting time as I’ve been busy with home renovations at my mom’s and also at our house, but I have been plugging away at my sock and hot water bottle when I can steal a few minutes. I still love the sock yarn and it really is going along fast for the time I’ve actually put into it. The hot water bottle pattern is great and the Waterlily yarn is really perfection, I will definitely be using this yarn again!

 

Turned the heel…

I’m really enjoying this sock, and it’s actually going quite quickly for what little time I’ve put into it–I guess US2s are so bad as long as your working on a small project! I love the yarn, love it, would definitely use it again in another color way…as soon as this sock is done. I love the feel of it, I love how it knits up, and I love the random, natural striping. I showed it to my husband last night and he said it looked store bought and he was amazed at how they made the yarn stripe like that once he realized I hadn’t randomly done my own stripes with different yarns…I think not.

The pattern is great to follow and I had no problem turning the heel (I loved this part of the baby socks I’ve done and loved it full size as well). The pattern suggests knitting the gussets picked up stitches twisted the first round and I feel that really made a much tighter seam there. One of the reasons I picked this pattern is for the 3×1 ribbing and also because it carried that ribbing along the top of the foot the whole way to the toe–I like the looks of it, but I also think it will make it a more flexible fit. Fun fun!

 

New starts…

I’ve been in a bit of a knitting slump, started a hat that was much too small, pulled that, worked on my sweater a bit, but nothing really pushed me to want to knit. What’s a girl to do? Start a couple small things!

My hot water bottle cap broke a long time ago and I’ve had trouble finding another water bottle–apparently people don’t use them anymore. Well, I like a hot water bottle better than a heating pad sometimes–there is something about the weight and bulk of it that the skinny pad just doesn’t compare. I finally found one last week, but the plastic isn’t anything I really would want on my skin, so I decided to knit a cover. I’m using the free BAWK pattern, US8 needles, and Classic Elite Waterlily yarn in the deep orange (the photo doesn’t do it justice). This yarn is extra fine merino and it is lovely, soft, and sprongy.
I’ve been wanting to start another pair of socks, I’ve only made socks for babies so far, but I was in the mood for a certain yarn, something that snagged my attention and was striping without being too precise–I found it this weekend. The yarn is Austermann’s Step yarn in the Gras color and I love it. It has Aloe Vera and Jojoba Oil in it and has a great feel to it. I’m using the free Basic Ribbed Socks from Spun Magazine–I love 3×1 ribbing–with US2 needles.

 

The perfect model…

I went to visit Ms. Bella, who is a week old today, and got to snap pictures of her in the Fetching inspired hat I knit her. She is a perfect model and would make any hand knit item look gorgeous. As her grandmother became a knitting fiend once she found out her first grandchild was coming, this little baby has more hand knit items than any baby I know! It sure is fun to see the things you knit on such a sweet little head.

She also had my booties on, so even more gratification! There is nothing more uplifting than to spend a few hours with sweet newborn baby-ness.

 

Finished the day before Christmas…

My sister Joanna loved my other sister’s hat so much I had to maker her one of her own. This is using the Meathead pattern I did the trial for, the pattern will be coming in a book. They are fun and quick and well received. I used doubled Lamb’s Pride Bulky, a red button you can’t see, and US15 needles.

This is the last of my hats and was finished just in time. New Years day is coming soon and I have to decided what I’ll start new, as something new always needs to be started the first of the year.

 

Another one down!

Yet another hat, made, again, from “the knitter’s handy book of Patterns”. I have noticed that while this is a great hat pattern for using whatever gauge yarn–both of mine have turned out large—actually all three of the last hats I’ve made have turned out big and I’m on gauge. I need to get a better basic hat pattern or just drop down a size! Ah well, this one is from Malabrigo so it wouldn’t be hard to shrink it down a bit. Knit with US8 dpns.

On to the next, and final, hat! This time back to size 15s for another meathead, their going to feel like tree trunks!

 

Another hat…

I finished a hat for Mike today. It’s been so cold out and he’s been doing some outdoor carpentry even though he is generally just a finish carpenter that I had to make him something warm. I used something I had lying around, some Lion Brand thick something or other, very sprongy and easy to knit with. I used US10 dpns and a basic hat pattern from the knitter’s handy book of Patterns by Ann Budd. Fast, fun, and easy!