I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas

Not really, but that song is stuck in my head and I smile everytime I hear it šŸ˜€

So, Christmas came early for me since the UPS man showed up this morning with a rather large box.  No, he didnā€™t bring a boatload of yarn (although, that would have been lovely too!)  He did bring something else thatā€™s been on my wishlist for agesā€¦

Meet Scarlett Oā€™Hara!  She now lives in my kitchen and sheā€™s red šŸ™‚

In the midst of all the usual hustle and bustle thatā€™s a part of this time of year, Iā€™ve managed to get a wee bit of knitting done.  Lookā€¦ more red!

Itā€™s the same pattern that I finished last month.  This time Iā€™m using Tosh Vintage in my favorite color ever :: T.A.R.T!!!!  Kiki picked out this yarn and I was so surprised she didnā€™t pick purple or pink.  I donā€™t know if I can finish this before the end of the year seeing that I still havenā€™t finished all my Christmas shopping and then thereā€™s that small matter of wrapping presents!  Itā€™s a good thing there is no knitting police to enforce deadlines šŸ˜‰

Despite all of the chaotic frenzy that surrounds the holidays, I hope that each one of you is enjoying family, fun and love during this special time of year!

Posted by & filed under Design, Kids, Rambling. This post has 6 comments.

Mustard Cables

New threads for the Little Miss

When I first saw this yarn, I fell in love with the color.  I knew immediately that I wanted to knit a cabled sweater with a bit of chic thrown in.  ā€œFunctional and funā€ was what I had in mind.  I love this little sweater even though itā€™s got a few boo-booā€™s (cough..mis-crossed-cables-tight-sleeves..cough, cough!!)

I used Cascade 220 Heathers for this sweater and Iā€™ve already cast on for another one, this time using Ultra Alpaca by Berroco.

The sweater is almost seamless other than a few grafted stitch at the underarms, but my favorite part of this knit is the applied i-cord on the button bands.

Mustard Cables (Ravelry project page)
Pattern: My Own
Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers in ā€œGolden Heatherā€³
Needles: Size US 7 & 8 / 4.5 & 5 mm

Posted by & filed under Cardigans, Design, Finished Knits, Kids. This post has 13 comments.

Change Over

Time to say goodbye to these cute little cherubs

and drag out ā€œMr. Fakeyā€ to get him all spruced up.  Because Tis The Season!

The kids laid out our ā€œsnow villageā€ this year

and I have to say, they did a fine job of it!

I do have a bit of knitting on the needles but since it is for Christmas gifting, I canā€™t really talk about it yet.  I did, finish (sorta) a cardigan for Kiki in this lovely Mustardy yellow and after I blocked it, I realized the neckline was all wrong.

Rip!!!

I say, better to re-knit than to let that pesky neckline bother me and so itā€™s back on the needles now.

Posted by & filed under Cardigans, Kids, Rambling. This post has 6 comments.

Frozen Fingers

Seen on our walk yesterdayā€¦

and this sweet girl

and this little guy

soon, all those leaves will fall

But look at that snow line!

Granted we donā€™t get much snow in Vancouver but this city is nestled alongside the Coast Mountain Range and those mountains get covered in white fluff every winter.  My hands are always the first to freeze when it gets cold outside (or with over-zealous air conditioning, or at the movies!)  But not today.  Today, they were TOASTY thanks to my new mittens!

Why is it always so impossible to photograph red???

Laurieā€™s Mittens (Ravelry project page)
Pattern: Laurieā€™s Mittens by Kirsten Kapur
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in ā€œRavelry Redā€³
Needles: Size US 8 / 5 mm

I used the same size needles throughout because I wanted these mittens to be snug but not too tight at the wrist.  They turned out perfect this way.  No more frozen fingers!!

Posted by & filed under Accessories, Finished Knits, Mittens, Rambling. This post has 9 comments.

Aidez

A wonderful way to celebrate Wovember with a wooly sweaterā€¦ my Grandpa Sweater Aidez is completed and is the coziest thing ever!!  I adore everything about it.  What an enjoyable knit!

Considering that this is a longer sweater and is knit using bulky yarn, it is actually quite light and the wool softened considerably after being treated to a warm bath with some wool wash.  This design has different cables to keep the knitting interesting and after a long, long time, I knitted a pattern that isnā€™t seamless.

Being knit in pieces and then sewn together is key to this yarn/cable combination.  The seams provide structure and reinforcement and I think they will increase the life of this sweater considerably.  I donā€™t mind seaming all that much which helps!  I think I used about a skein and a half of Cascade Eco + for this sweater and given the price of this yarn, I got a wonderful cabley sweater for less than 30 bucks!!

There was one (huge) oversight on my part.  I read the chart wrong for the seeded wishbone cables on the fronts and the sleeves and somehow converted them to ā€œribbedā€ wishbone cables.  I realized this error when I was knitting the last sleeve and wasnā€™t going to rip everything back to correct it.  It works with the design though and doesnā€™t seem out of place, so Iā€™m okay with that!

Iā€™ve been craving a cable fix for a while now and Aidez helped me indulge quite excellently!!

Aidez (Ravelry project page)
Pattern: Aidez by Cirilia Rose
Yarn: Cascade Eco + in ā€œGrey 8401ā€
Needles: Size US 10.5 / 6.5 mm

Posted by & filed under Cardigans, Finished Knits. This post has 8 comments.

Courtenay

Fall is my favorite season.  This time of year is so fleeting yet so beautiful with the rich autumnal shades that surround us.  As temperatures dip, a cozy hat is perfect to keep the chilly winds at bay.

Courtenay is a textured beret with a leaf motif that is perfect for fall.  I used a skein of SweetGeorgia Yarns for this pattern in the ā€œGingerā€ colorway and the color couldnā€™t be more perfectly autumnal!  This hat uses less than 150 yards of worsted weight yarn and you can easily customize it to add extra slouchiness by knitting additional pattern repeats.  If charts isnā€™t your thing while knitting a pattern, worry not because the pattern comes with written instructions too.

I really had fun designing this pattern and wanted to see how it would knit up in a different yarn.  For my second Courtenay I used Berroco Ultra Alpaca.  The alpaca in the yarn makes for a super warm hat that is so soft.

Thanks so much to my wonderful friends, Kelly, Jackie and Jocelyn who helped test knit this pattern.

Here is the pattern information if youā€™d like to knit up a your very own Courtenay:

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
Brim circumference approximately 18ā€³ after blocking, will stretch to fit upto 23ā€³ head.

MATERIALS 
Approximately 135 yds/125 m of worsted weight yarn
16ā€ US 6/4mm circular needle for brim
16ā€ US 8/5mm circular needle for body
1 set of US 8/5mm DPNs for top of hat
Stitch marker
Tapestry needle

GAUGE
18  sts / 26 rows = 4ā€³ / 10cm in stockinette stitch using US 8/5mm needles or size needed for accurate gauge.

Posted by & filed under Accessories, Design, Finished Knits, Hats. This post has 13 comments.

Warm Wooly Sweater

Do you have a favorite sweater that you always reach for when youā€™re cold, or when you want to curl up with a book (or your knitting), or wrap around yourself when youā€™re just lounging around the house?  I have one of those sweaters that I bought ages ago, I canā€™t even remember from where.  I call it my Grandpa Sweater.  Itā€™s ridden with holes from many a battle with the washer and I even have a spot near the wrist where itā€™s pretty much a goner after an episode involving burning coals, chicken wings and the grill.  Letā€™s just say I was glad that the casualty was the sweater and not my eyebrows!!  I have to just throw this sweater in the trash, but I keep hanging on to it because it is the coziest thing I own!

I need a new Grandpa Sweater which is why I cast on for Aidez.  Aidez is a free pattern published by Berroco and has cables and texture and general wooliness.  While my preferred meathod would be to knit this pattern top-down-in-the-round, this sweater is knit in pieces and then seamedā€¦ with very good reason.  The yarn the pattern calls for is a bulky yarn and the seams will add structure to this heavier garment.  Also, I donā€™t really mind seamingā€¦ there, Iā€™ve confessed!

Iā€™m using Cascade Eco + which is as wooly as all get out, but this yarn has nil softness.  It will be so cozy though, I can already tell.

Iā€™ve finished the back and the fronts.  Now itā€™s onto Sleeve Island, wish me luck.  I donā€™t want to be done too quickly either because Kelly and I had thought about KALā€™ing on this one and her yarn hasnā€™t arrived yet.  However, Ms. K is Lightning McQueen when it comes to knitting and she will catch up in no time šŸ™‚

What is on your warm woolies knitting list this year?

Posted by & filed under Cardigans. This post has 4 comments.

Find A Penny

Remember this shawl that I test knit recently?

This pattern is called, Find a penny and was designed by a dear friend and a fellow Amira, Lindsay.  I love all of her knitting and the yarns she uses.  Sheā€™s been steadily cranking out new patterns too, bravo!!  The first time I met Lindsay, it was at one of our knitting meetups in Dubai.  The Amiras meetups were always a blast.  We were the loud, excited bunch of ladies at a local coffee shop with piles of yarn and knitting projects.  And cake, plenty of cake!  Good times!!

Lindsay moved back to the States last year and now calls the beautiful city of Chicago her home where knitting is enjoyable as well as necessary šŸ™‚

Find a penny,  is perfect for that skein of special yarn youā€™ve been hoarding.  The shawl can be customized to be as large as you want and you also have two options for the edging ā€“ a rolled stockinette edge or a picot edge like the one I used.  You will have this shawl done in no time at all!

Penny (Ravelry project page)
Pattern: Find a penny by Lindsay Tabsh
Yarn: Unwind Yarns Merlot DK in ā€œKobaltā€
Needles: Size US 7 / 4.5 mm

Click the button below to purchase the pattern from Lindsayā€™s Ravelry store.

Posted by & filed under Accessories, Finished Knits, Scarves, Shawl. This post has one comment.

Squishy Hat For A Boy

It has been a while since I knit anything for my son, Prithvi and when he mentioned this fact to me last week, I felt a humungoid pang of guilt!!  Determined to remedy this sad truth I cast on for a hat using some 100% alpaca yarn from Aslan Trends.  If youā€™re looking for a soft yarn, this is definitely cloud-soft!!

I knew that garter stitch would be ideal and so I went on a Ravelry hat hunt.  I came across a pattern that I thought fit the bill perfectly called the Rikke Hat. Of course, I knew that I would have to modify this quite heavily to make it guy friendly and also the my yarn was a different weight than what the pattern called for.  So essentially, I would have to knit this with no road map.

We settled in to watch some PVR-ed shows and I cast on.  I used the Twisted German cast on (heart!!) and got something like 86 stitches when I ran out of yarn on the tail*.  Looking back, this was my perfect cast on number.  I used smaller needles to knit the garter stitch brim for about 1.5 inches and then switched to larger needles to knit the body of the hat in a staggered 2Ɨ2 rib.

When I gave Prithvi his new slouchy hat, he rolled his eyes and said, ā€œMom, itā€™s an oversized beanie.  Slouchy hats are for girls!!ā€  Fashion lesson from my preteen, haha!

Squishy Hat For A Boy (Ravelry project page)
Pattern: Based on the Rikke Hat
Yarn: Aslan Trends Royal Alpaca in ā€œGreyā€
Needles: Size US 7 & 8 / 4.5 & 5 mm

 * If youā€™re planning to use this cast-on for a project that requires a stretchy edge, use a tail thatā€™s three times as long as your usual long tail because this cast-on gobbles up that tail pretty quick. 

Posted by & filed under Accessories, Family, Finished Knits, Hats, Kids, Yarn. This post has 6 comments.