Leftovers anyone?

I am beginning to get a stash of leftover sock yarn and was enthralled with Wendy Johnson’s Leftovers Cowl. I favor purples, greens, and turquoise and here is the progress so far.

I didn’t make the cowl as wide as she did as I only cast on 122 stitches but I love the sense of accomplishment at having finished another repeat of a certain design.  Someone asked me when I expect to be done with it and I hope to be wearing it this fall.

I usually have two projects going at once because sometimes I need something that is simpler to knit depending upon the situation.

I’m seeing spots!

Yesterday was a busy day as I finalized another pattern for my latest design called the Spotted Diamonds hat. The pattern includes links to YouTube videos demonstrating some of the techniques I used when making the hat.  I like to include those because I like sharing things I’ve learned.  Similar to my Best Friends Forever hat, you can reverse the colors and get two hats out of two skeins of yarn.

Side view of Spotted Diamonds hat

I’ve done other fair isle designs and have struggled n the past with the resulting fabric puckering.  I’ve gotten better but still don’t have a fabric I’m 100% happy with.  The biggest benefit of this design is that there only a few places that have a float of five stitches. So the smaller floats really help make a nice fabric and I don’t get any puckering or tight spots. I think this is a good project for those who’ve had the tight areas or puckering in their work.

Best Friends Forever hat

With Valentine’s Day approaching, I thought I’d share a recent design I published on Ravelry.  It’s called the Best Friends Forever hat and the idea is that you can take two skeins of yarn and create two hats – one for you and your best friend!

Pair of hats in coordinating colors

Knitted hats that are made from the bottom up typically have crown shaping created by knitting two stitches together at certain intervals. In my design, I decided to purl the two stitches together. This produces a unique pattern as shown below. I figured “Why not be different?”

Decreases made with P2tog stitch

The patterns calls for Cascade 220 Superwash but I think any lightweight worsted yarn would work. I’ve noticed that some of my newer Cascade 220 Superwash is thinner than some other “worsted” weight yarns so it might be closer to a DK. Whichever yarn you use, you should make a gauge swatch to make sure your hat will be the right size.

So, have you thought of what colors you might have in your stash?

Sneak Peek

I’m starting to work on a new hat design and wanted to give you a sneak peek.