Teaching & the Finished Product

My friends and I have started a knitting & wine night. We've had it for about a month now every week. A new friend came last night to learn how to knit. So I have now officially taught 3 people to knit. Who is next? I'm getting better at it. (I must admit I rely heavily on showing videos from knittinghelp.com before starting in with needles and yarn.)

Here are some finished shots of the Autumn hat I knit in the interim of restarting my sweater. I finished it up really, really quickly (i.e. one night) and used the leftover yarn to make the Autumn Leftovers hat all in one night. Hopefully I'll get pictures of the tiny hat soon to share.

I changed the pattern a little bit this time: I knit front and back (kfb) once at the start of the first seed row. Then I kfb at the end of the next seed row. From there I followed the pattern having 47 stitches on my needles rather than 45. It made it a bit more slouchy as planned!

On Ravelry.



Surprisingly, green is not my favorite color and I don't mean to be having so much green show up here. No fear-- it will change.

Green Grass

I cast on and knit the ribbing plus some in an hour Tuesday night for another Autumn Hat by Jane Richmond. (My first was for my sister.) This time it's for me! I did a few increases when I started the seed stitch to make it a little more slouchy hopefully.

Needed a break from the sweater. I need to start that over from the beginning so it’s been uninspiring lately. This is more fun for now.

By the way, the Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick yarn is called "Grass." I thought it was funny that it is actually exactly grass colored!

On Ravelry.

A Lifeline

This evening I found time to recover my sweater. I discovered while in D.C. that I had messed up back at the first row after the ribbing. Oops. I misunderstood Jane's pattern. Thanks to Google and Staci at verypink.com, I was able to easily jump back to that row using a lifeline. She has a video on how to do it here.

I used scrap yarn and a yarn needle to thread in a strand at the row I wanted to start back from by grabbing the "front leg" of each stitch in that row. Once it was thread all the way around, I ripped out the yarn into a big pile of spaghetti and wa-la it stops when I hit the lifelife! I put my needle back in through the lifeline and was off knitting again according to the pattern.




Now I'm back to row 6 after the ribbing and eating away at the pile of spaghetti.

Oh and good news: I ordered the extra skein that I realized I needed to finish the sweater. Four, not three skeins. Again, a pattern reading mistake. Live and learn right?

Weekend's Work

I finally cast-on for my first sweater over the weekend. Jane Richmond's Oatmeal Pullover. I'm so ecstatic about how fast it's knitting up. If it takes me a while to finish this sweater, it will only be because of a lack of knitting time rather than it being difficult!

After much trouble over getting the gauge correctly, I ended up casting on with 8 mm 32" circular Knit Picks needles and continuing with a 9 mm 32" circular of the same lovely brand (notice the signature purple cable and colorful wooden needle tips in the background). Using the magic loop method again. So much more economical than buying all those suggested needles. And by the way, I have no idea how Jane got 11 stitches over 4" with 6.5 mm needles using LB Wool-Ease Chunky!

Doesn't it look soft and comfy already?

Sewn-in Tag

I got around to uploading the final pictures of the newborn hat that I made for my adorable sweet pea niece. Another snow day today, or shall we say ice day in Atlanta. Yay!







I'm hoping to cast-on finally for Jane Richmond pullover sweater sometime tonight. Maybe I'll even photograph more projects I've got tomorrow. I just found out that tomorrow the storm vacation continues...

Check it out on Ravelry.

Finite!

Here it is folks-- finite. This hat was super easy and super quick to make. I'm planning to make another one for myself because I decided I will in fact give this one as a gift. Merry Late Christmas Lynz. I hope this fills your warm brown hat dreams!

A Small Project

I decided to whip up Jane Richmond's Autumn slouchy hat for a gift last night. But I may end up keeping it for myself because I'm liking it so much!

I'm using Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick in Barley and I'm following the pattern to a T for the 22" circumference size. I started last night while watching a movie with my family and I think I'll be able to finish it up on the plane today.

Jane's Oatmeal Pullover Troubles

I'm starting my very first sweater ever. I love this one called Oatmeal Pullover by Jane Richmond. I bought it through Ravelry when she had her 2 year Etsy anniversary sale and got a great deal.

However, I'm having a really hard time obtaining the gauge for this pattern. I am getting 14 st. over 4" using 6.5mm needles and Lion Brand Wool-Ease Chunky, which is what the label calls for. Jane's pattern wants 11 st. per 4" using the same yarn. Hmmmmmm... what to do. I tried going up to 8.0mm needles, knitting as loose as I could, and still only got 13 st. per 4".

Do I use LB's Wool-Ease Thick & Quick instead and get a different texture or size up a lot and make a much tighter knit sweater?

Finishing Touches

I've just got to switch colors and make the top loop now. I'm loving it and my Knit Picks needles! I'm planning to sew in a "handmade with love" tag too.

I'll have the finished pictures after Christmas when I give it to Ms. Cutie-Pie.

Project Update: Mila’s Hat

Row 2 of the crown is complete. I successfully transferred the work from 12” circular needles to a 32” for some magic loop knitting. I wanted to jump right into magic loop and skip the double pointed needles all together— they look like too much balancing for me.

On My Needles: Mila's Hat

Just have the crown left...