Tag: hats

Sayonara Summer

Time to start knitting again. If you have some acrylic yarn that isn’t worthy of much else…here are some ideas.

mailbox art

Yarn and Simon Mama Loves Knitting

We’ve spent the entire summer wrapping yarn around sticks making swords, staffs, decorative pieces, and each color has a “power.” My favorite is pink – that is “sexy power,” according to my 5 year old. Just to clarify “sexy power” gives you a skirt (whether you want one or not). Yellow is blinding, red is fire (of course), green is life, black, I think we all know, is death, and I might have to check in with Gus in the morning to be reminded of the rest of the powers.

Sword


If you tie yarn around your head (or ankles or stomach) – color dependent – you get special powers. Be mindful of your color choices!

I made only one hat this summer…and I’ve started on my second. Time to start hanging out in the basement after dark and knitting my life away. Of course this is just another of my infamous ribbed hats. I cast on 84 stitches and knit 2 purl 2 until the end. It’ll fit forever. This is supposed to be for a baby – and it fits Gus (my sizing model). It will fit the masses.

fall knits mama loves knitting

If you follow peeps on Instagram you can find some occasional knitting pics @evosshickey.

Life is grand – summer was fabulous. I’ll be knitting hats in San Diego – on our vacation in September. I was thinking I would attempt a hat a day on vacation – that is a stretch. I will be on the beach, in the sand, maybe I’ll finish one hat while I’m basking in the California sun and hitting Legoland with my all time favorite boys!

summer time mama loves knitting

Hope your summer was as magical as ours.

Fall and Knitting Links

Canning Cukes Tomolives

Just canning and knitting happening around our house the past few days. And, that about sums up my start to fall. Two of my favorite pass-times all snuggled up in my house, with two kids it is no easy feat to pickle and can. The funny thing is, it is 80 degrees outside by the time afternoon rolls around. Oh well, it is still time to start preparing for winter, I feel it.

I’m a pretty big fan of rainbows, I saw this today and it looked fun enough to share. I’m slowly collecting needles right now to fill my circular needle holder, that I love oh so much, but I debated taking this route. I just didn’t know if there would be some sizes I’d never use, turns out I need to go get some size 2 circular needles and some size 3 circular needles for another pattern I’m going to attempt in the next month (those are definitely sizes I never thought I’d need). But, before I start something new I’ve got a billion hats I need to crank out for birthdays (September and October are crazy birthday months for this Mama).

Hat Madness

And, my good friend Julie shared this link with me this morning. Oh regretsy, so hilarious. Seriously who doesn’t want M. Night Shyamalan creepy knit attire, er M. Knit Shyamalan rather. Christmas Presents!

Happy Cozy Knitting Weekend!

Dishcloth Increase/Decrease

Noro Yarn

So Loopy had a sale and I just bought all of this incredibly enticing Noro yarn because I never can resist it, and it was on sale! I have no idea what I’m doing, but I’m going to knit a sweater for my sweet husband! In order to even begin something so huge though I needed to really work on my increasing and decreasing. Sure, I decrease all of the time when I knit my hats, but I haven’t had much of a reason to increase.

Amaizing Yarn

This yarn was my inspiration, well this combined with a very simple dishcloth pattern. This yarn is called Amaizing because it is made from 100% corn fiber. What a perfect time to make your own dishcloths! *Earth Friendly Dishcloths* during earth month – how fitting. I will never buy another dishcloth as long as I live. I usually get dishcloths by the handful whenever I visit my Great Aunt Jean – so she’s always been my “supplier” but she’ll no longer have to stock my dishcloth drawer. I’ll forewarn you – there isn’t the element of perfection I usually require, but it is a dishcloth and my first one using this pattern, so be gentle.

Dishcloth

So this simple pattern uses size 7 needles.

Cast on 3 stitches.

Increase Section: Row 1 – Knit 3

Row 2 – K1 M1 (increase or Make one stitch), K1, M1, K1

*Row 3 – Knit all stitches

Row 4 – K1, M1, K all stitches until one stitch before the end, M1, K1*

Repeat Rows 3 & 4 (between *) until you are half way

Increasing Start

Decrease Section: Row 1 – Knit all stitches

**Row 2 – K1, K2tog (knit two together), K all stitches until 3 stitches before the end, K2tog, K1**

Row 3 – Knit all stitches **

Repeat Rows 2 & 3 (between **) until you have 3 stitches left.

Bind off loosely.

So pretty simple, and really really quick! Since I didn’t really know how to Make One (m1) I used this book as a tool to teach me.

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I was increasing like a madwoman in no time! You can be too, if you aren’t already. If the book doesn’t do the trick I always watch You Tube knitting videos. You Tube is a really good teacher! You can make one of these dishcloths in one evening, so you could gift them or build up your supply at home. I have another washcloth that I made when I was just learning to knit (all garter stitch) and supposedly this yarn gets softer with each wash, but I don’t find it to be incredibly absorbent, so if you like your cloths to soak things up (in bulk) maybe this yarn won’t be your cup of tea. It is really soft though and I found a pattern for a handkerchief headband and it calls for corn yarn, so I’m planning to use this yarn to make that really soon as well.

Close up Dishcloth

It looks very pleasing to me close up.

So watch for my sweater progress, I plan to start soon. I have two other smaller projects that will happen within the next few weeks. A birthday ribbed hat – why mess around – when you are good at something might as well give that as a gift, right? The new endeavors are for people like Shane who will hopefully love it even if it isn’t perfect, since he’s married to me. Sucka!

Happy Knitting! Happy Earth Month!