Revivify (plus giveaway)
So I know your life is perfectly in order. You never need a plumber, or an electrician, or whoever it is you call to do something about that funny spot on the garage roof. And I bet you have healthy dinners every night and your laundry is all put away and your yard looks just great right now. But I? I sometimes have weeks where life gets the better of me...and when I have one of those weeks, I need my knitting to be simple. That usually means I find myself knitting little flared cuffs. They're quick, they're easy, I [...]
Good Mail (really good!)
Don't worry...there totally are more yarns for Curls 3...I've just been so busy swatching them that I've been remiss in showing them off to you. Let's fix that! This set is Miss Babs' Sojurn base in their German Waterways colorway. It's made of angel wings and clouds and unicorn eyelashes as far as I can tell (or, possibly the 65% cashmere, 30% silk they list on the tag...but I think unicorn eyelashes explains the softness better). And yes, yes it is an indulgent yarn...but really you deserve a little indulgence. I know you do. And this is a lovely combo [...]
Distractions
So you know I love flared cuffs. Sort of a lot. I tried to count, and it looks like there are at least four as individual patterns and some fairly alarming number in various books (I officially have enough patterns in enough places that it's kind of hard to sort them all!). And so it should be no surprise that I have another pair fresh off the needles. These really are a tiny, quick project (I knit each one in a few hours while trying to distract myself from the horrible and expensive things a pipe in my basement was [...]
Flip
Alright, so when last we spoke, the hat was looking a little something like this. Which is totally cute...but may be a bit too...enthusiastic? for my tastes. But then, in a happy accident (also known as weaving in the ends), I flipped it inside out. And look what the top does! That's really rather magical. And just just like that a plan was hatched. I wanted a second version with a few modifications. And the good folks over at The Lemonade Shop were happy to oblige (this is their Stormy Day colorway), and more yarn is on the way. I [...]
Meanwhile…
So, I'm eyebrows deep in Curls 3 swatches. Which is a fairly pleasant place to be (this is the part where I get to have All The Ideas), but it does make for rather limited blogging. I did start getting twitchy about not having finished anything just lately though and so finished up the World's Most Cheerful Hat. It started out looking something like this. Then with a bit of a fold here and a pinch there and a wiggle there looked like this. And with a bit of strategic fiddling that turned into this. Which is all well and [...]
And done
And this lovely bit of business is what happens when you pull up all those pins and see what your blocking has done! Now, the other fun thing about blocking is you can actually make some pretty big changes in how the finished piece looks. So for example on this one, I could have pinned the whole edge out evenly (instead of pulling out points) and it would have been more of a circle. But I'm a sucker for making points pop on things like this, so that's the way I went. I'm sort of suspecting I'm going to write [...]
Greenhorn (plus giveaway)
So if you've been here any length of time at all, you know I'm a firm believer in top down socks with a heel flap. But...every once and a while, the urge to do something a little (but let's be real...only a little) bit different strikes me. Greenhorn was one of those times! These are actually a very mellow way to depart from traditional top down heel flap socks. The leg is the same, the foot is the same, just the heel and gusset are handled a bit differently. Instead of working flat over half the stitches to make a [...]
Joining on
So remember the terribly dreary and grim hat? The somber and surly one? The one that's a little storm cloud on your head? Yeah...most cheerful yarn you'll ever meet in your life. But sometimes, due to the intervention of kittens or an error in judgement or some other mishap, you may find you need to join on more yarn. With a yarn like this, where there is a Very Distinctive Color pattern, you need to be careful how you do that. If you want to keep that progression you've established (and I assure you, you do, that's the whole point [...]
Blocking 201 – Flared Cuffs
So, I've given this lecture before, but everything you knit can benefit from being blocked. Everything. And if you've been around long enough to hear that lecture, you've been around long enough to know about my love for flared cuffs. So of course I have a way to block them too! Let's break this down. You've got a few goals here. One is to stretch the lace out evenly so you can see the pretty stitches you worked so hard on. Another is to make sure the wrist is nice and straight. And the final one is to have the [...]
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