April, 2010 | Mama Loves Knitting

Dishcloth Increase/Decrease

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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Hope everyone had a fantastic Earth Week! I knitted most of an earth-friendly dishcloth last night, pattern coming soon. I was trying to teach myself increasing and decreasing and I think I’ve got it down now – soon I’ll be able to move onto a sweater (that’s the plan). For Earth Day I also planted a new strawberry bed right by our front door…Mmmm. I dug up our grass, used some scrap wood from around our shed and mixed some compost and soil – TADA! A new home for our berry plants, now lots of TLC and only about three years until we get to enjoy those flavorful berries!

Happy Earth Week! Happy Crafting! Happy Knitting!

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Finished Blanket

Finally finished up the blanket…and it is en route to Madison to sweet little Clara. I started crocheting her one back in June before she was born, but once I learned how to knit, I decided that crocheting was for the birds – well not really – but knitting this up was a lot quicker for me. I still really like crocheting too and luckily there are many projects where these two abilities go hand in hand. I used size 11 needles and this yarn was pretty chunky and it all came together pretty quickly when I would actually sit down and work on it. I mostly knit the entire thing but did a few rows here and there where I would knit two, purl two (k2, p2) just to add a little bit of variation.

So my blanket ended when my variegated yarn ran out. It ended up being really soft and actually a pretty perfect size for just a lap blanket, but great for a cuddle blanket for a wee one. It was pretty much square when I was done.

And of course we had to test it out before sending it. Hopefully little Miss Clara will pose in a photo for us that I’ll post as soon as she gets her gift. Since I’m sure you’re all dying to see her sweet little face again, I know I am!

My little testers seemed to be fans of the cozy blankie – that’s always a good sign. So onto other projects, next my plan is a bag/satchel of some sort.

I have a fun new book that I just got called Head to Toe Knits by Zoe Mellor and there are several projects in there I plan to attempt.

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I’ll dive into my yarn cubby to find the perfect yarn and I’m kind of thinking I might do a felted variation of something, I’ve been dying to knit and felt something, so I think that’s my plan.

Still working on this…whenever I get a wild hair. And someday I’ll finish at least this one! Who knows if I’ll ever make two – no just teasin’ I will!

Happy Knitting! Pull up a hammock and knit in the sunshine, who says you can’t knit in the summer?

Yarn Cubby

So I’ve never been the girl with 25 pairs of shoes…but boy did I find a way to fill this puppy up. I’m going to do whatever I possibly can to just keep my yarn in ONE of these and not go and get myself a second one. I best get to knitting! It is a shoe rack I found at Lowe’s in an attempt to find some shelving for my store. I stared at it for a bit and realized it would be the most perfect new home for all of my tasty yarn. I love being able to look at it and not have it buried at the bottom of a basket that I must dig through for inspiration. When I placed each skein/hank in its new home yesterday I was thinking about what I might use each of them for…so I’ve got all kinds of new project ideas up my sleeve. I’m thinking some felting is right around the corner.

In the meantime however, I’m still plugging away, when I have idle time, on this colorful blanket. I think I’ve finally decided that indeed it will be a blanket and I don’t think it will be much longer before I’ve used up the entire ball of yarn. My pattern (or lack there of) is just to knit, knit, knit creating a simple garter stitch throughout. I like to throw in some flavor every now and then with a few rows of knit two, purl two (k2, p2) making a ribbed pattern. I don’t have much of a rhyme or reason to when I add these “special rows” but I try and fold the blanket over to see if it is time for another row or three of variation.

I asked a special someone to cozy up in the blanket this morning for a little photo shoot and this is what I got out of the deal. I was feeling a bit worried that the blanket wasn’t going to be wide enough but it seems to be just right for a 3 year old. Gussy asked me if it was for him on Sunday, “Mama is that for me? It is so cute!”

He told me the blanket matched his arm warmers this morning. “How did you do that Mama?”

Well Goo – I did it on size 11 single pointed needles with a giant ball of variegated yarn!

I’ll leave you with a pretty view of some of the skeins of sock yarn that were gifted to me by my parents this past week when they visited. My collection really skyrocketed when they came to see us. Look at how nicely they fit right in their little cubby. Thanks for my bag full of birthday yarn Dad and Jan! I’m still in the same place with my socks that I was a few weeks ago, I’m the kind of girl that likes to keep my options wide open and I like to have at least 3 knitting projects going at once – I also like to be reading a few books at once to appease whatever mood I might be in.

I hope the next time I share something I’ll be done with my blanket and started on a brand new project. I’m close…so I don’t doubt it. Happy Knitting!

Knitted Spring Hens

Happy Spring. I did end up getting the chickens done in time for the bunny to stuff a couple in Simon’s and Gussy’s baskets. I mentioned my intentions to do so on the 1st birthday of our five hens back in March. I knitted Fire then, and you can see she made it into some of these photos as well. She’s the only one that got eyes, lucky girl!

This was August’s Easter Basket. He ended up with the white hen (which we don’t even have – so while sorting through his basket he said, “A white one? Huh.”) and the Black Hen who we call Compsognathus.

I again used my ancient acrylic yarn and didn’t even put a dent in it. Oh well at least it has served some purpose. My kids love their hens. Simon ended up getting a couple of the other hens we have.

The black and white hen is Octopus Pie and the brown hen is probably Captain Dan we have two Auracanas so I suppose the brown hen could be either of them but it ended up looking more like Captain Dan than Boingy.

I used size 4 bamboo needles to knit the girls and cast on 16 for each of them. I knitted until I felt like it was nearly square and folded them into triangles and stitched up the sides until I had only a small opening and then stuffed them with just some poly fill. I sewed them closed and crocheted the combs with red acrylic yarn and just sewed beaks on with bright orange acrylic yarn. It was a fairly simple project that I finally finished on Easter Eve. I was cutting it close but still able to hang out and play cards with family that night…so nothing too stressful. And it felt really good to have such healthy goodies in the Easter Basket. I hate Plastic Easter Grass with a passion, I think it an awful product so I lined the baskets with some recycled shredded packaging I’d gotten in something a few days before Easter. I filled the baskets with the homemade hand-knit chickens, a flashlight, some modeling beeswax, a bird whistle, a zipper pull and a few chocolate eggs. Happy Healthy Environmentally Friendly Easter! I’m such a dork Mom.

Happy Knitting!

Side Project

This yarn, from Purl, arrived in hanks – as it usually does – but Mama doesn’t have a ball winder…or does she…

I used my husbands arms and my hands to wind my own ball. Problem solved!

So after I had a ball I started knitting a little gifty for my Sister-in-Law for her birthday. Of course I decided I ought to stick to what I’m good at so I knitted another ribbed hat. Since this yarn is pretty chunky I used size 10.5 circular needles made from bamboo. My collection of needles is growing by the project. I knitted two, purled two the whole way around. I started by casting on 68 stitches (I think). I should always write down exactly what I cast on right when I do it because it immediately exits my brain and since I already gifted the hat I can’t count how many I cast on.

Trying it on for size. It isn’t quite done yet but I love the colors of this variegated wool. It is called Sheep Number 2, made in Uruguay. It has to be dry cleaned or hand washed in cold water. It is 100% pure wool and it comes in 100g hanks. I got it from Purl when they had their moving sale and I’m happy that I got two hanks of it, even though this project didn’t even require one whole ball of yarn. I have a little ball left over and one whole hank for Shane to hold while I wind for another project. I’ve become a yarn hoarder, I need to do some serious knitting to start diminishing my stash.

Happy Knitting! Happy Birthday Lex!