All About Accessories
Posted: December 10, 2005 Filed under: Hats, Knitting, Scarves and Cowls 21 Comments »As you may have noticed from my recent posts, I seem to be stuck on knitting quick accessories. I have abandoned the Frieda Sweater and haven’t even touched it 3 weeks. I’m leaving it alone for now because I have no desire to work on it. It’s no fun knitting something when you’re not motivated.
When I was chatting with my sister about her Kureyon hat, I found out that she wanted a black cabled scarf. I was a bit surprised by this – why black, of all colors? What if you can’t see the cables? So even though I already finished knitting her Christmas presents months ago, I knit her this scarf:
Pattern: Karaoke Cable Scarf
Yarn: 3 balls of my favorite, Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran
Size (pre-blocking): 2.75″ x 80″
I chose this pattern because the skinniness makes it fun and offsets the black. I think the cables show up okay. This is a very simple pattern and a relatively quick knit.
I also finished the Live Dangerously, Don’t Swatch hat. Even though I didn’t like the yarn, I have to give it points for softness. It’s much more comfortable than my Kureyon hat. This is my first pom-pom ever. I know many knitters are anti-pom-pom, but I thought I would give it a try. I look like a dork, but I don’t mind. =)
I liked this pattern because you can use it with any yarn without worrying about gauge beforehand. I also like the look of the linen stitch and will probably use it again. However, I must admit that k2togs are easier for me than M1Ls and M1Rs, so for now I still prefer knitting hats from the bottom up.
Lastly, I knit this neckwarmer using Cascade 128 Tweed. This is a wear-around-the-house type of accessory as it looks funny on me. But it keeps my neck warm when I’m in my pajamas.
I’m not sure what’s up next…maybe a multidirectional scarf for myself, or another hat. At the rate I’m going, I could end up with ten hats by the end of winter.
Hooked On Hats
Posted: December 5, 2005 Filed under: Hats, Knitting 14 Comments »I’m going through a hat-knitting phase. Ever since I knit my first Noro Kureyon hat a few weeks ago, I’ve been itching to knit more hats.
I mentioned previously that I planned to knit a Rolled Edge Stocking Cap for my sister. She approved of the design and the color, and even requested a hat for her roommate. I was happy to knit them up because they go so quickly and are great projects for watching DVDs.
Hat for sister: colorway 40
Hat for sister’s roommate: colorway 147
My sister received them this weekend and seemed quite pleased! That was a relief.
On Friday night, DH and I went to see the Sacramento Kings play the Miami Heat. Two hour basketball game = perfect knitting time. What did I work on during the game? You guessed it – another Kureyon Hat. This one (colorway 90) will be gifted to a friend.
This project was a little bit “different” because I knit it with Clover Takumi needles. That was a big deal for me because I am a huge Addi Turbo fan. After a bad experience with 24” Clover circs, I swore off bamboo circs altogether. But I wanted to get a second pair of size 9 / 16” needles, and as we all know Addis are expensive. So I looked at the Clovers again. I figured that the cords on 16” circulars can’t possibly twist that much, so maybe they would be okay in bamboo. I soaked the cord in boiling water, and all was good after that. The Kureyon didn’t even drag too much on the bamboo. Maybe bamboo circs aren’t completely terrible after all.
That makes a total of, umm, four Noro Kureyon Rolled Edge Stocking Caps that I’ve knit in the past month. Am I crazy? To mix things up a bit, I decided to try Susan’s Live Dangerously, Don’t Swatch Hat. This hat is knit from the top down, so swatching isn’t necessary because you just stop increasing when you reach the correct number of stitches. It was neat to learn Emily Ocker’s cast on. There is a little hole at the top of the hat which I can’t seem to close, but that should be easily fixable. For the sides, I am using the half linen stitch. This is what I have so far:
The yarn is di.Ve’ Teseo by Cascade. It’s 55% wool and 45% microfibre. I’ve never heard of it before, and I bought it because I liked the color and it felt soft. Unfortunately, I found that I dislike the yarn. It’s hard to knit clean stitches – I keep splitting the yarn, even when I’m looking. I’ve stalled on the hat because of this. I considered frogging it entirely and starting another top-down hat in Manos, but I’m far enough along that I really want to just finish it and get the darn thing off my needles!
Another Diversion
Posted: November 13, 2005 Filed under: Hats, Knitting 15 Comments »Last night I decided I wanted a hat, and this afternoon I finished this:
Meet the Rolled Edge Stocking Cap that uses one skein of Noro Kureyon. This is my fastest project ever! Part of why I knit it in less than a day is because I couldn’t wait to watch the colors change. But to be honest, when I bought this skein, I had no idea that there were so many colors in this colorway (#148). I thought it was just pink and purple. Here is another view of the hat (unrolled) so that you can see more of the colors:
And here is the top color:
A minor heads-up if you knit this hat — gauge is not specified in the pattern (not that I would have checked anyway). I am a tight knitter and I followed the directions exactly. I had very little leftover yarn. So if you are a very loose knitter, you might need to make some adjustments or use a tad bit more than one skein.
I liked this knit so much that I already picked out another colorway for hat #2! If my sister likes the second one, then it will be for her. If not, then it’s another one for me!!
Bolero and Irish Walking Hat
Posted: August 8, 2005 Filed under: Cooking, Entrées, Hats, Knitting 5 Comments »Thank you for the comments and suggestions about the Fiery Bolero. I appreciated all of your input. =o) I will block it later this week and see if it looks any better. If it doesn’t, it will go to the bottom of my knitting basket, waiting for a time when either the holes won’t bother me or I have the motivation to rip back and re-knit the ribbing.
Meanwhile, I finished the Irish Walking Hat! It’s a bit bigger than what I wanted, so if I knit this again I would probably remove one repeat. I think this one will still fit the intended recipient, though. It needs blocking, but here it is anyway:
I don’t have anything on the needles right now. I’m debating between starting an Artyarns ZigZag scarf or the Clapotis again. Both would be Christmas gifts. I’m already a bit concerned that I won’t finish my Christmas presents in time. I might have set my expectations just a tad too high, though, like…does my mother need a Branching Out, a Clapotis, and a Flower Basket Shawl all at once? Probably not, right? =o) Maybe I will do the Flower Basket Shawl later and give it as a birthday present in February. That might be more realistic.
In our culinary adventure of the week, DH and I tried another Rachel Ray recipe — Emmanuel’s Pasta, Peas, Proscuitto, and Onion. It actually looked decent enough to be photographed.
I doubled the amount of crushed red peppers and garlic, and the sauce had a nice kick to it. We both loved the spicy flavor and the light texture of the sauce, but next time we will probably use Aidell’s Sausages instead of proscuitto. Neither of us had tried proscuitto before, and found that we didn’t like the texture or the taste. But overall, the pasta was still yummy and the recipe is a keeper!
