Another Ginkgo -- Custom Ordered

As you may remember, my beautiful daughter came home for Thanksgiving and while she was here we made a trip to my LYS. She picked out yarn for the Chullo that I made for her as well as some yarn for a shawlette. She had seen my Fall Colored Ginkgo that I did knit last year and wanted me to do one for her.

The yarn that she chose is a beautiful, variegated sock weight yarn by Plymouth Yarns: Sakkie. This yarn is a soft, slightly fuzzy and tightly twisted two ply yarn made of 40% Merino, 40% Mohair and 20% Nylon. This yarn is machine washable. The color that Jacklyn selected is the Fiji colorway; it is mostly a medium grey with splashes of magenta, lime and tangerine.

I started knitting yesterday evening and I already like the yarn. Lots of definition in the stitches and the fabric is knitting up very evenly on size US 6 needles. Maggie Magali's design starts out with a very simple stocking stitch triangle. So, for the moment, I am just blasting through the knitting.

Looks like I have lots of knitting left to do, so Happy Knitting!

The 3 R's: Re-Purpose, Re-Use, Re-Cycle

In this economy, one has to think about saving money. I have been doing a lot of trying to do more with less and utilizing the 3 R's: Re-Use, Re-Purpose, and Re-Cycle. If I don't knit or sew something for myself, most of my clothes shopping is done at re-sale shops and Goodwill. It is now the cold months of the year and I have been thinking about some of the ways I could use second hand sweaters as opposed to just wearing them. I found a great blog post at Kayla K's Thrifty Ways.

Kayla K's article on re-purposing sweaters was written about 2 years ago, but is still very relevant with gas sky high and unemployment still an issue. Enjoy! and Happy Knitting!

Berry Pretty Star Hat

I finished the hat using my over-dyed yarn.  This is the Norwegian Star Earflap Hat by Tiennie Knits. It is a really cute design. I like it, but not a lot; and that is not the fault of the design, I like the over-dyed yarn, but this was not the right project for it. The difference between the star and the background is not crisp enough.

I made some modifications to the pattern. I started with a 4 stitch i-cord and worked up into the ear flap same as the three previous Chullos (here, here and here). The pattern is bigger than I expected. I started out with a size 8 circular needle, ripped the hat back to the earflaps, restarted with a size 7 circular and ended up changing to a 6 right after doing the purl rows. I do however, like the length of the hat. It comes down the back of my neck better than the other Chullo. It is loose enough that it does not mat down my hair when wearing it for a long time. I also put a pom pom on the top of the hat. Even though I liked the way the decreases formed a star -- the hat called for a pom pom.

I think I may end up doing another one of these in a crisper color way. I suppose a self striping yarn with a long, slow color change for the star would work better if I did not want to use a solid. I just need to make sure that all the colors pop off the back ground.

Happy knitting!

Grandmother's Wrap Update

After a long Thanksgiving vacation, I went back to work today and back to my commuting project, Haruni by Emily Ross. On the way home this evening, I completed row 28 of Grandmother's Wrap which is 3/4 of the way through the 1st repeat of Chart A. It is looking good and you can see the leaf detail clearly, but there is a long, knitting way to go. I am so glad I got the Addi Turbo Lace needles -- they have really made a difference.

Two Quilt Tops Completed

I finished two quilt tops and sent them off with my knitting sister to my other sister who has a long arm quilting machine. I love to design the quilt tops, but I am not so fond of the actual quilting. It is not really easy on a regular machine and since one of my sisters has her own long arm, I avail myself of her talents a lot. The picture above is the finished boy design shown in my last post.

The other two pictures are blocks from the girl designs in process. We made six total girl quilt tops in different combinations of hearts and butterflies. It was two more girl quilts than I needed to finish, but babies seem to come quick and I can always use extras!

Happy quilting!

Quilting in a Post Thanksgiving Carbohydrate Coma

 Teaming up with my knitting sister and my beautiful daughter, we decided to knock out as many baby quilts as possible for some newly arrived residents of this world (and a couple that have yet to make their appearances). We are trying to make the quilts bright and colorful, while keeping the complexity low. Hence all of them will have 4 big blocks and a pieced crazy piano key boarder. Using my favorite method of fusing and coloring page designs,we came up with a couple of "girl baby designs" and a couple of "boy baby designs".

My knitting sister came up with the crazy piano key boarder idea. I had suggested a piano key boarder (see the one I did on another quilt, here); however, she hates cutting fabric, so since wonky cutting is easier -- little measuring -- and faster -- again, little measuring, she suggested crazy piano keys. Knitting sister quickly started cutting out fabrics in color palettes, some for boy quilts and some for girl quilts.

Reds, browns and blues in one boy palette for for a sports themed quilt and pinks, oranges and yellows for a butterfly and hearts themed girl quilt. I have finished applying machine blanket stitching on one 4 X 4 block center of a heart themed quilt and have completed parts of two other baby quilts. But I have seven baby quilts to make in all.

With so much left to do, why am I still blogging?

Happy Quilting!

I Couldn't Stop at One

Starry, Starry Night Chullo

I have to say that I love this pattern. Not only is the Southern Lights pattern one of the cutest hats I have ever seen; it is one of the easiest that I have ever knit. Add to that the wonderful colors of Noro Hitsuji and it is hard to knit just one.

My beautiful daughter, Jacklyn, who is home for a visit from college, took one look at my South Bound Chullo II and requested that I make her one, too! She picked the yarn on a quick trip to my LYS, Wool and Co. Of course, I told her to pick one of the available colors in Noro's Hitsuji variety. So here is my third version of this hat -- Starry, Starry Night Chullo.

Urban Hunter

I did a couple of modifications to the pattern at Jacklyn's request. She wanted it to come lower on the back of her neck. I could have knitted something more like the Urban Hunter -- also a cool looking hat -- but I did not what to loose the ear-flap look and she loved the "braids", so I knitted the ear flaps only to the point where each had 20 stitches. I then connected them with the pattern directed 8 backward loop cast on stitches and knitted for about an inch back and forth before finally connecting the front of the ear flaps and knitting in the round.

As for the braids she wanted them longer so I knitted the i-cord a total of 20 inches before starting the ear flaps. For what ever reason, she did not want the pom pom on the top of the hat either. But that really was good, as I had only a few inches of yarn left.

Fun with Chullos?

LESSON LEARNED: When completed, her hat does not come down quite as long as she would have liked. I think that when I make the next one, I will want to buy two skeins of yarn. My gauge was good on the stitches, but somewhat shorter on the rows, I didn't worry too much as I knitted up the required number of inches before starting the decreases. HOWEVER, the error in my calculations did not consider that my smaller gauge would make a smaller "circle" in the crown, thereby bringing the sides up higher to the tune of about an inch. What I should have done was to knit an extra inch or so to make up for that loss in the center. Like I said -- lesson learned.

South Bound Chullo II

By the way, South Bound Chullo was lost only two weeks after I finished it and I recreated it with South Bound Chullo II. All in all, this is a pattern I will do again and again -- especially if I keep loosing them!

Happy knitting!