Bandana Cowl

I have gotten so far in the knitting of my Carnaby Skirt, that it no longer fits in my bag that I carry into the city on my commute. This means one of two things: either I don't knit on my commute or I start another project. So I decided on a quick knit by Purl Soho called the Bandana Cowl. I found Purl last week when I was looking for a good pictorial for my blog on short-row knitting. I looked at several of the free, online knitting patterns that they had, copied a couple of them to my hard drive and went on with life.

A week later, I was looking at some postings on Knitting Paradise and noticed this one on the Bandana Cowl and immediately recognized it. To me, that is knitting destiny.

I am somewhat limited on bulky weight yarn at the moment, but I had some left-over Wool of the Andes Bulky from my Chocolate Diamonds Sweater that I knitted last fall. Perfect. I cast on the pattern and am following it as written. There was some discussion on Knitting Paradise regarding converting the project to knitting flat instead of in the round and adding some buttons, but I decided not to mess with the pattern and just go with what was written.

I am about half way and have only knitted for about 3 hours. For me, that will be a REALLY quick project. I may have to get some more bulky yarn.

Happy knitting!

Sweater finished! On to next project.

Merry Christmas!!!

I finished my Chocolate Diamond sweater earlier in the week and as promised in my last post, I wore it to work one day and an open house for Maternity Homes of Fox Valley later that evening. I also wore it to my father's house for our family Christmas celebrations. Unfortunately, we have been getting some unseasonably warm weather this December, so the sweater didn't stay on too long. It certainly is a WARM sweater.

It was fun to wear it to the event for MHFV. Some of the other attendees had seen me working on the sweater and were appreciative of the finished results. It is always nice to have people pay attention.

I have been working on a new project the last couple of days. A pair of wrist warmers for work. My desk sits next to a window in a  year old building and the cold air rushes down off the window and across the desk. Wrist warmers will go a long way to making my hands stay warm. I am just winging the pattern as I just wanted to get started. After making a quick sample with yarn to get my gauge. I am just knitting up a plain stocking stitch with ribbed top and bottom.

I am using Washable Ewe yarn from Red Heart (Coats and Clark). It is a 100% super wash wool in a bright pink colorway called "icing". I actually think "bubblegum" when I see the color.

This wool has a sheen and feels slick when running through my fingers. It took awhile to adjust to the slipperiness of the yarn after working with the Wool of the Andes bulky that I used for my Chocolate Diamonds sweater.  I actually had to wrap it around my pinky finger three times before I could control the yarn.

I am going to work a peasant thumb as I did with my Convertible Mittens. This time, however, I did not make quite as wide an opening as I did with the Convertible Mittens so I should not have to do the emergency surgery with the Kitchener stitch.  As you can see from the picture, I have make pretty good progress and am on the ribbing on the wrist. I am planning to knit about 8 inches of ribbing so that when I wear 3/4 length sleeves it will keep my lower arms warm too.

I am also planning my next sweater. I have chosen an open jacket type sweater which I will fill you in on next time. I am looking at possible yarns -- I am thinking a silk/wool blend as I would like a smooth sheen to the fabric.

Happy knitting!!!!

Making progress

I love vacation if for no other reason than I am able to make some real progress with my knitting. As you can see I have gotten quite a bit accomplished even with time out to prepare a thanksgiving dinner for eight. It has been especially enjoyable as my knitting sister has been staying at my house for the holiday weekend.

As I did with my textured sweater vest, I am knitting both the front and the back simultaneously. For me this proves to be the best option as I would hate to become bored with the pattern and never finish the front of the sweater after I complete the back. What a waste of good yarn.

But knitting the two sides together adds a small problem, if I get interrupted for any reason when I am between the two sides, I sometimes turn the work too soon and have more rows completed on one side versus the other. I solved this problem by connecting the two sides with stitch markers. I then treat this as if it is one piece switching the yarn ball in the middle.

The pattern is fairly easy to do. I say only fairly easy as it is fairly easy to get the count off and put a purl where a knit should be. So I have tried to get in the habit of checking my work after I have completed every row. When I find that I have made a mistake in the pattern, I mark the stitch with a stitch marker and use a crochet hook to fix it when I come to that stitch on the next pass.

I like the Wool of the Andes Bulky that I am using. The stitch definition is pretty good, and the yarn is not so thick that the sweater will be too hot when worn indoors. I wish my camera was better so that I could show what the true color is. But I work with the tools I have.

My knitting sister has been working on a pair of socks. At the present time, she is using Cascade 220 in Lime Heather to knit a pair of socks from The Big Book of Socks by Kathleen Taylor. She is on her 4th pair of adult socks out of this book. She likes this book because most of the sock patterns use the same size needle, so she has not had to go out and purchase a bunch of Addi turbos in various sizes. (Being on a limited budget is really hard on a rabid knitter.) I spent some time sharing the Silver's Sock Class website with her last night as she is interested in trying toe up socks.

Well, I am itching to get back to knitting, so Happy Knitting!