As 2012 comes to and end...

What a truly amazing year it has been, both in knitting and in life.

Firstly, the obvious, I welcomed a new baby girl into my family. She has been such a blessing, and it's been so much fun knitting little creations for her. I love knitting for babies - the projects are so quick! Haha :). Here's a picture of a sweater I knit S for her Xmas present - the pattern (Neighborly) can be found on Ravelry.  It was inspired by a Alicia Paulson project I saw on her Ravelry site:



I used Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Frost Gray I purchased from Valley Yarn.  It was my first time knitting with a Malabrigo yarn.  It's so incredibly soft and beautiful to knit with.  I will definitely knit with it again!

My store has definitely picked up, in part because I began to sell my patterns online. I've been crazy busy the past few days with custom orders, but it's been fun making creations for my wonderful customers.

Also another big change - notice the website address? That's right! www.kareknits.com went live as of last night :) can't think of a better way to end this year.

Here's wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2013 :)

Winter Pompom hat

With the winter coming soon who doesn't need a warm hat, especially if you live up in the Great White North like I do!

My friend Jenn has the same problem I have when I comes to buying hats - we both have small heads. Sometimes this means shopping in the kids section sometimes. How embarrassing would it be to bump into a kid wearing the same hat as you? Haha :) Jenn has been hunting for a cable knit hat with a pompom for a while now. She actually asked me to make one for her last year, but with my pregnancy and prepping for S' arrival I just didn't have time. This year she asked me again, and I finally delivered :)

I went my favourite pattern site Ravelry to find a cable knit hat that would allow me to knit different sizes. But even if I couldn't find one I would have just bought a lower gauge yarn and used smaller needles and followed the pattern as is. I found a nice pattern called the Gingerbread Hat, which I liked because it had some additional design elements in addition to the cables.

I knit extra rows of the ribbing brim so that Jenn could fold it up - I thought the hat would look better this way, and I think I does :) I knit an additional 12 rows than what the pattern called for.  I found the pattern to be pretty easy to knit - the first couple of rows I had to keep my eye on the pattern, but once I figured it out it was smooth sailing :)

I topped the hat off with a pompom made out of the remaining yarn. I found this video on YouTube that showed me how to make it. I crapped up the first one, and had my sister help me with my second attempt :D Note to self - always try a new technique with scrap yarn that you're not going to be using for your project - I almost ran out of yarn making the second one!

And voila.. Jenn's new hat :)

Arm/Wrist Warmer Fun

I've gotten back to my roots - knitting wrist/arm warmers :)  I went through this phase early in my pattern knitting career making up patterns for wrist warmers.  But of course I made up the pattern as I went, and I didn't write it down (well there are notes, but it's all short-handed jibberish with dots, squiggly lines and numbers - a language I think I could only understand).

My sis and her husband ventured downtown one afternoon and happened to stroll into this yarn store.  Now, my sister does not knit (she sews... we make a pretty good crafting mega team!), but she strolled in because she wanted to get me a business card just in case I wanted to go some time.  While she was there she saw these arm warmers that looked pretty cool - it was a long cable knit arm warmer with a cable pattern.  What was so interesting about these arm warmers was the cable wrapped around the thumb hole.  She asked me if I could knit something similar for her.  I consulted my cable knitting bible (LoL) and this is what I came up with:

 
I think they turned out pretty well :)  I used Martha Stewart 100% merino wool to make her wrist warmers.  I love knitting with merino - the structure of wool but super soft.  My sis loved the arm warmers - yay! :D

Pattern is available to purchase by clicking the "buy now" button below (sold through Ravelry and is a direct file download)

Finally! Knitting for S

Since I last posted (more than 8 months ago!) I became a mom :D  I gave birth to a lovely baby girl in February, and this little munchkin has taken over my heart.  I dove into a world of baby songs, baby games, baby talk, cloth diapering, shopping on baby deal sites (which is highly addictive!).. everything baby!  It left little time for anything else - like knitting!

After months and months of learning how to be a mom, I think I finally got the hang of it (sort of).  This meant I could finally knit again! Hooray! :D I realized about a month ago I haven't really knit anything for S.  I did knit her a hat before she was born, but it was too big for her, and by the time she was able to fit into it, it was summer.  Who wants to wear a wool hat in the summer?  And since the colder weather was slowly sneaking in on us, I decided to knit her something to keep her warm.  I scoured Ravelry to find a cute little sleeveless cardi I could knit her.

I used Estelle Cloud Cotton 100% organic cotton (2 skeins) that I had bought last year when I was attempting to make something for my friend's twin girls.  I had bought an off-white colour in anticipation for S (at that point I didn't know what I was having so I had to choose a gender neutral colour).  This pattern was quite easy to follow, but like any lace pattern, if you screw up it's horrible!

 
I also opted to finish off the edges with an i-cord trim.  This was my first time making/using an i-cord and it was a learning experience.  I ended up making the i-cords too long, so the edges of the garment were wavy.  And cotton does not block well, if at all - which is one of the reasons why I don't particularly like knitting with cotton.  But I must admit, besides the waviness, I do like the i-cord embellished edges. 

I knit the 12 month size, and in knitting it for an almost 8 month old, it sits pretty big on her.  But with all kids clothing, it's always better to size up.  S does like wearing it... but I think she enjoys chewing on the buttons even more :D 

My iPhone Case

Like all of us avid knitters we always have a "left over" yarn stash that we keep just in case there is something small that we knit.  My bin was getting quite large, considering I was also knitting for my Etsy store.  So what to do with all my left over stash?

A few months ago I decided to experiment and knit a nice cable knit phone case.  The reason being is that it didn't take too much yarn to make one, and they're quite quick to knit up.  I could have knit a plain stockinette stitch without the cable, but I find if you have a simple plain yarn it doesn't look as good (variegated or self-striping yarn produces wonderful cases with just a stockinette stitch.  I also wanted to make this case seamless because I just hate seaming!  The less seaming I do at the end the better!  Now I'm the type of knitter that likes to just pick up needles and some yarn and knit, coming up with the pattern as I go.  What I came up with was this :)

This has become a best seller at my store :)

I've also been approached with the pattern - it took me a while to get it out because it was in my head :)

Pattern is available to purchase by clicking the "buy now" button below (sold through Ravelry and is a direct file download)