Matchy Matchy

I knit my second pair of Align Mitts this summer and they turned out exactly as I wanted.  

I made them slightly shorter in the cuff and fingers which suit me better than the longer version.  The yarn I used was Meilenlweit Magico II by Lana Grossa in the overly descriptive colorway 3513.  It's a beautiful yarn to work with although it is a single ply so it can be a bit splitty.  The colours flow like the caribbean - hues of oceans and beaches.

When I finished I realized I had more than enough of this yarn left to make myself a hat.  And since I was in an adventurous mood, the Zigs and Zags Hat was created.  It is my first published pattern ever!

It's a really simple knit, mostly stockinette, with a zig zag pattern in purls.  It worked perfectly with the self-striping yarn by breaking up the texture without messing with the striping.  Who knows, this could be the start of my designing career...only time will tell :)

Hitchhiker Take 2

I decide I needed another Hitchhiker in my life.  Having knit my first Hitchhiker last year, and having worn it frequently, I decided I needed another for variety sake.  

I had hand-dyed sock yarn earlier in the year in a blue speckled green that screamed garter so off I went.  Based on my first go round with this pattern I knew one skein was not enough for 42 teeth so I decided early on that I would add something on the end to extend.  I debated blues and yellows but the black...ohh the black, it was meant to be.  I added the black in a few lines at a time and finished with a wide stripe.  

I love it!

I'm over my Hitchhiker itch for this year...maybe another for 2017?  

Hats!

Sorry for the long delay in posts...I've been dealing with some medical issues lately and am finally (FINALLY!) getting back to normal.

How about a look at some hats :)  I had a flurry of hat making at one point in the late summer/early fall and banged out 3 beauties. I did all three as test knits through Ravelry and all came out lovely.

Hat #1: Oak Hat 
This hat is a slouchy beanie with oak leaves and an acorn and knitted up quite fast using a worsted weight yarn and 5.0 mm (US8) needles.

The leaf tips are a little fiddly but it all turned out in the end.  I used Cascade 220, my first time working with this yarn, and it was beautiful to work with.  I foresee many knitted things in the future from this yarn.

The pattern can be purchased on Ravelry and is called Deciduous Hat.

Hat #2: Cresmont Hat
While the Oak hat was for me, my other half also has need of a warm head this winter so I decided to make my second hat in a more manly size.  It looks much more complicated than it actually is and the pattern is well written with very clear and precise instructions.

It uses small cables and twists to create the effect which makes the hat beautifully squishy and warm. And it fits too!

I may need to make this hat again in the smaller size (it has multiple sizes in the pattern) and maybe in more of a blue tone so I can have one too.

I used Patons North America Classic Wool Worsted yarn in colour Mercury

The pattern can be purchased on Ravelry and is called Cresmont Hat.

Hat #3: Crunchy Leaves
With quite a bit of leftover wool from the Cresmont and some of the same yarn in a pink, I decided to do some mosaic knitting and chose this lovely hat which uses a houndstooth pattern.

There is no stranding, you only knit with one colour at a time; slipped stitches create the pattern. This was a really fun pattern to knit but be warned, it takes longer than a traditional hat because of all the slipping.  Not exceptionally longer but it was slower going than usual for me.
I love how the patterning came out though.  I shortened the hat from the pattern because I did not want a slouchy look but a more fitted style.

The pattern can be purchased on Ravelry and is called Crunchy Leaves.

Whoop Whoop for warm heads this winter :)

Web Stumblings - Knitulator

Behold!  The Knitulator!

This handy little tool (brought to us by the uber helpful blog Eskimimi Makes) helps calculate where to place increases and decreases so its evenly spaced.  For example, you select whether you want to increase or decrease, then enter your current total stitch count (i.e. 20), then your total required increases  (i.e. 10).  The calculator then returns this:

Isn't that awesome?  I can see this being very useful in future projects.