Major Knitter

Prepare to Dye!

Remember this sweater that I knit for Primogeniture for Christmas?  (Note - being modeled by Secundogeniture because he was available!)

I knit it in natural wool - because that's what I had on hand.  Primogeniture requested a charcoal gray sweater.  I asked for help in my Finish or Frog It Friday group on Ravelry and got a lot of suggestions.  My friend, upon realizing that this was my very first time dyeing a hand knit sweater directed me to the RIT dye videos.  It looked so easy, so that's what I did.

Supplies on hand:
6 gallons hot water
2 cups vinegar
Rubber gloves
1 bottle Rit dye
1 bottle Fit fixative
2 teaspoons dishwashing liquid
Sweater to be dyed
Sample knit swatch (with same wool as sweater) to test the dye

I carefully followed the instructions on the packaging and the video.  The sweater soaked in the dye for about 30 minutes (with constant stirring).  Then it soaked in the fixative for about another 30 minutes.  Then I rinsed it in cold water until the water ran clear.

I pressed out the excess water in the sink, blotted the very wet sweater in a large towel, then blocked it to the proper shape on my kitchen table.  Notice the swatch alongside the sweater.  I'll send that to my son to keep in the unfortunate event that the sweater requires mending down the road.

Now we wait a few days for this Forbes sweater to dry.  If you like this - please check out designer Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed.  

I can't wait for Primogeniture to try it on!

 

 

 

Forbes

I knit Brooklyn Tweed's Forbes Sweater for Primogeniture.  He wasn't available to try it on for me, so Secundogeniture happily modeled it.

I love the texture of this yoke sweater.  This style is especially nice if you're like me and hate sewing up and finishing a sweater.  When you finish knitting this sweater there are minimal loose ends to weave in.  And you only need to sew the underarm.  

Primogeniture has requested a grey sweater so I'll be dyeing this sweater (and some spare yarn, just in case) soon.  I'm a little nervous because I've never dyed a completed sweater before.  Fingers crossed!

 

 

 

Finishing Friday: Mom's Cabled Mitts

I have a wonderful group on Ravelry called Finish or Frog It Friday.  I've been virtual friends with the knitters there since 2009 and we encourage each other to finish WIPs and UFOs on a regular basis.  Sometimes we even take a deep breath and let other knitters know it's OK to frog a project that just isn't working and repurpose the yarn.  It's been a blessing to learn that you don't have to finish something just because you started.  Before I started this group, I used to have around 15-20 WIPs or UFOs in my Ravelry queue.  Now I generally keep it to under 6.  I have discovered that I need about 6 projects on the needles at any given time to keep things interesting.  I have never been a monogamous knitter.  I know some people swear by that, but not me.  I get bored.  I need to work on different types of projects for different occasions: gifts; obsessions; socks; blankets; and more.

This week I finished a fun project: Mom's Cabled Mitts by Jessica Jensen.  They were displayed as a suggestion at my LYS, Westport Yarns, for a one skein wonder with one skin of Juniper Moon Farm Stratus.  I'm always a sucker for a sample and something quick and easy - so I bought a skein of red and boom - a FO!

I like the way these turned out.  The yarn is scrumptious which makes them even more fun to wear.

And I had enough yarn to make them longer for my extra large hands.  If I were to make another pair, I'd probably buy a second skein, make them about 2 inches longer on the wrist (because I like long mittens) and I would make closed mittens instead of fingerless mitts.  I always like the look of fingerless mitts... but I've never actually worn them.  They were fun to knit and I'll definitely knit another pair someday.

 

31 Projects in 31 Days

Wow!  I like knitting lots of quick knits.  So much so that I actually knit 31 projects in the month of January.  I should say more accurately, that I finished 31 projects in 31 days.  Yes - there were many hats and jumbo Christmas stockings which are all very quick - but still THIRTY-ONE projects is a lot of knitting.  I don't think I posted every single on in the blog.  You can look at my Ravelry project page (click on the tab that says 2016) to see what I've been up to so far this year.

Now we're on to February.  I hope it's equally as good a month.  So far, I have quite a few felted hats and felted projects in mind for this month.  I hope it goes as planned.

Remember the Size 2 Wonderful Wallaby I knit last year?  It's for a friend who has had her first grandchild and I wanted to knit something special that her little darling could grow into.  As you know, the Wonderful Wallaby is one of my favorite projects to knit.  But it needed something else to give it a little extra pizzazz so I found Hanna Leväniemi's Siksak hat pattern that was featured on the front page of Ravelry on February 1st and knew that was the perfect accent for this gift.

It turned out quite nicely and my Curious George was more than happy to model the finished hat.

I made a pair of children's mittens and incorporated an abbreviated version of the zigzag pattern.  I added the crocheted string to go through the sleeves of the sweater so the mittens won't get lost on a toddler.  Is this a thing anymore?  

Together I think they make a nice set.  Now there is some life to the pink baby set.

And my friend was here for Super Bowl Sunday and she loved the set.  It's always good to knit the extra mile.

Three Marled Hats

2016 is the Year of the Hat in my Ravelry Finish or Frog It group.  That's great because it coincides nicely with my 2016 Year of the Purge.  Since I'm trying to clean things out of my house and move them to places where they can be used and loved (or in worst case scenarios disposed), knitting hats is a fantastic way to use up those random 1-2 skeins leftover from other projects.

My friend Michelle made Plucky Knitter's Marled Hat.  It's the perfect hat for stash busting as it uses two different colors of worsted weight yarn held together to create the marled effect.  It's super thick and warm and since it's knit on big needles, it knits up quickly.

I made a blue marled hat using two skeins of Cascade 220 that were on my shelf for about ten years.  I'm thrilled to finally have them become a stylish wearable item.

It's fine as is, but I liked how Michelle added a fur pompom.  So I purchased a few faux fur pompoms online and played around with them.

My personal review is that the Bernat faux pompom is fabulous.  It is 3.5 inches in diameter, comes in a variety of amazing colors, and looks and feels like fur.  The brown pompom is nice, but it has the look and feel of a teddy bear pompom.

I wasn't kidding when I said it was a large pompom!

The hat has a lovely slouch to it.  It's fashionable, warm and you can make up your own color combination.  

I made the third marled hat in two shades of purple.  If you're fortunate enough to own some Plucky Knitter yarn - you'll have an even more luxurious experience knitting the Marled Hat.  But any worsted weight wool will do.  

How quickly can you bust your stash and make some of these lovely marled hats?

 

Repurposing Yarn Has It's Reward

After last week's post about repurposing yarn, I sadly left you hanging.  Trust me, I knit up that lovely red yarn into a hat faster than you can say lickety-split.  

I knit my fourth The Rikke Hat by Sarah Young because I just love it and it feels so nice and warm with this lovely yarn.  I enjoyed knitting with my new yarn bowl and my English Breakfast Tea enjoyed in my new collection of Starbucks 2008 cable sweater mugs.  Life is good.

It's simply knit in garter stitch.  You might think that makes it an unsophisticated hat, but I can assure you this pattern is divine.

Curious George volunteered to model the hat, but it was a bit large on him and you can't really get the full effect of this hat.

So I moved to my standard glass jar hat model (which works for some reason).  And this is basically what the finished Rikke Hat looks like.  Sorry - I was fresh out of actual human models.  After 11 1/2 years, this lovely yarn is finally a hat.  It was a long time coming, but I think it will be a well loved hat. It was definitely worth the work to repurpose that yarn.  

Finish or Frog it Friday - Where I Actually Frog Something

I love my Finish or Frog It group on Ravelry.  We support each other to either finish a project or even to frog it.  If you're new to knitting, frogging a project is when you rip it out (rip it, rippit, ribbit...) thus "frogging" it.  I haven't actually frogged anything in a very long time.  But since 2016 is the Year of the Purge, I spent Tuesday cleaning up my Knit Nook a bit.  I found a wayward chemo hat from 2004 that was still unfinished, still ugly, still not working and still on the needles.  It was such a pretty red yarn that I always thought I would finish it.  I was about to throw it away (because sometimes that is the answer) when I saw the yarn label.  It was the very same as the last two Rikke Hats I made in teal blue.  I immediately knew I had to salvage the yarn.  So I began to rip it out.

Duke and Otis helped me frog this old seed stitch hat project that was doomed from the start.  Sorry.  I love red - but you know it doesn't photograph well.

After I carefully frogged the project and wound the yarn around the backs of two chairs, I used a natural cotton to tie the hank together in 4 separate places to keep it together.  Duke was intensely curious about this.

"Mama - it looks like Ramen noodles, but it doesn't smell like food."

Two skeins, side-by-side, ready to be soaked and straightened so the yarn can be repurposed and knit into a new hat.

It always looks like too much gentle detergent - but the suds quickly dissipate.  I let the lovely red yarn soak for twenty minutes per skein. I only soaked one skein at a time to avoid tangling the two.

Here are the two finished hanks of yarn, nice and straight, drying on some kitchen cabinet hooks.  Normally I would add a very light weight to the end to help straighten the yarn, but this yarn didn't need it.  And you might notice it already grew quite a bit when it soaked.  In fact, it was too large a loop for my swift, so I had to put this around two chairs again and feed it by hand to my ball winder to make two lovely balls of yarn.

Yes it's a lot of work to repurpose yarn.  It's not arduous.  It doesn't require any real talent.  It only begs a little patience and order to give new life to old yarn.  Since I loved the weight and feel of the Adrienne Vittadini Martina from BF Sweater and the two recent Rikke Hats, I knew it was worth the effort.

There you have it. I hope you enjoyed this photutorial.  What yarn will you be repurposing next?

Finish or Frog it Friday - The Year of the Hat

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm trying to clean up and de-clutter.  In this spirit, my Ravelry group - Finish or Frog It Friday - is continuing this theme with the 2016 Stash Buster Friday paired with a brilliant way to use up all those odds and ends yarn bits - 2016 The Year of the Hat.  

I love it.  Hats are the perfect way to quickly use up a skein or two of yarn.  It's a great way to turn that accidental over-purchase into something useful, pretty and loved.  I have tons of Zara, Zarella and similar yarns from various projects I was doing 5-8 years ago.  And that yarn is just sitting there taking up space and not causing any happiness. 

I started with my signature Owl Hat.  It's a crowd pleaser and I always get requests for this hat.  I made this one for my friend Carolyn.  She loved it!

It was so much fun, I knit up two more owl hats and managed to use up one complete skein of Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool.  Woohoo!  The Stash is slowing but surely dwindling.

I found a few skeins of Zara in my stash and did a search on Ravelry for most popular hats and found The Rikke Hat.  I knew a slouch hat would be welcomed by someone young and cool so I knit this one up in a jiffy.  

Then I used up some leftover Plymouth Classic Wool Merino for this Turn a Square adaptation.  I made four large stripes for this beanie.  I wonder how it will be received.

I enjoyed the slouch hat, so I found another pattern thanks to my friends at Finish or Frog It Friday and cast on for a Twist and Slouch hat using more Wool Ease Fisherman's Wool.

While I like the look and design of this pattern, the yarn wasn't the perfect fit.  It didn't slouch as I felt it should.  Maybe after a good blocking it will relax a bit and slouch.

In just the first ten days of the year, I already made great progress reducing my stash and knitting up hats.  Most of these will be for charity.  I firmly believe in "Knit Quality, not Quantity" when knitting for others.  If you wouldn't wear it yourself, don't expect anyone else to wear it either.

 

 

 

New Year's Eve = Last Minute Knitting

This year on my Finish or Frog it group on Ravelry, I challenged everyone to knit from your stash.  If you've seen my house you probably know that I have enough yarn to keep me knitting for at least 20 years.  So trying to knit from my stash is a huge goal for me.  2015 was a year of little projects - dishcloths, hats, animals, socks and blanket squares.  That helped me use up a lot of my stash.  Last night I decided to take a look at my Ravelry queue and see if there was anything I could finish before the stroke of midnight.  I found two nearly finished hats that just needed a little bit of attention - so that's where I focused my knitting mojo.

I finished my fourth Cabobbles Hat designed by my good friend Estella Haines.  I really like this pattern.  It's well written, easy to follow, and makes a beautiful hat!  It's also been the perfect project for using up yarn that I bought and quickly forgot what it was intended to be.

The second hat is a pink bear hat for a toddler.  I was less than successful with this FO.  In a brown adult size, it looks like a bear.  In a pink toddler size, it looks like a rat.  Maybe I'll just add some whiskers and call it a day.

Duke and Otis show what they really think of my New Year's Eve knitting.  Here's hoping everyone has a safe New Year's Eve and a wonderful 2016!

Finishing Friday - A Summer Contest

On my Ravelry group page - Finish or Frog it Friday - I'm having a contest to finish those Unfinished Objects (UFOs) or Works-in-Progress (WIPs) before Labor Day.  

The winner will get ONE book from my current knitting library (some exclusions apply - see original post for full details).  You must be a member of the FIFO group on Ravelry and post about it in the "Summer 2015 - Kick It Into Overdrive" thread in order to be eligible.

Here are the full details on the first post of the FIFO thread.

I’m posting to challenge you all to look through your queues and see what you can get finished. Let’s try to really get motivated to finish some of those projects that are just lingering and not getting any special attention.

From July 4th to Labor Day let’s kick it into overdrive. I’ll give away ANY book in my Ravelry library as a prize to the person who is the most motivated to clean up those UFOs and finish, finish, finish.

Please post all your FOs from the list all your Summer FOs here -plus the 2015 Stash Buster thread or 2015 FO thread - whichever is appropriate.

Let’s get finishing!

NOTE - I just looked through my library and realized it’s not updated. I’ve given away a lot of books and inherited others. It looks like I’ll have to “edit” my prizes to be more specific. Maybe the easiest way to do that is to have the WINNER put 5 books on a wishlist - and I can cross reference my current stash and let you know which ones I actually still have. That way you’ll be sure to get ONE of your top 5 choices. The prize will be ONE book from my current stash.

Yes - there will be additional prizes - because there always are.  But please join us.  It's a great way to clean up your queue and get ready for your fall knitting.