S and her new hat

I finished S' hat :)  It only took a lazy 3 days to finish the hat.  I think it turned out well!  Here she is rocking her new hat.

In my last post I stated that I was worried about doing the decreases properly.  The pattern was a bit confusing, but I managed to figure it out while knitting it.  I think understanding the mock cable pattern and thinking a few rows ahead really helped me with the decreases.  Basically you are merging two mock cables in the decrease locations - once the cables have merged, you perform the decrease stitches in the next mock cable rows.  I contemplated not knitting the ear flaps and putting a pompom on top, but I really liked the idea of strings hanging from the side and wanted a hat that she could wear under her hooded coat.

After knitting the hat, I really wanted a pair of matching mitts.  I don't know what it is about having a matching hat and mitts makes it more complete.  Since there was not pattern available for mitts I thought I would just make it up myself.  I took my knowledge from the mittens I've knit in the past and came up with a pattern.  Here's the basics:

Mittens
Cast on 28 sts

Rounds 1-14: k2,p2 ribbing
Rounds 15-22: knit the same mock cable pattern as the hat

Thumb gusset:
Round 23: k1fb, k1fb, knit mock cable pattern
Round 24: k4, knit mock cable pattern
Round 25: k1fb, k2, k2fb knit mock cable pattern
Round 26: k6, knit mock cable pattern

Transfer 6 sts to a stitch holder, cast on 2 sts, then continue the mock cable pattern until about 1” from the top, then do 3 decreases (spaced out as evenly as possible) every other row until you get near the top, then k2tog until you’re left with 4-5 sts (I forgot how many).

For the thumb, pick up 4 sts from the top of the thumb hole, the continue to knit the 6 sts the off stitch holder. Knit in a round until desired length (I did 12 rows), then k2tog until there are 3 sts.

If you need the mitts bigger, the next size up would have to cast on 32sts (multiples of 4) and for the do 4 decreases spaced evenly.

I absolutely love the mitts with the hat :)  So happy with them!

Keeping the iPad cozy

Happy New Year! :D

This is a MUCH delayed posting about my cable knit iPad case, but I figure with S sleeping and the hubby still at work I might as well get caught up blogging :)  I'm behind on blogging about a few projects :S

Last year I received an email from a lady that had received one of my cable knit iPhone cases as a gift, and she was asking if I could knit her a matching case for her iPad.  I was thinking about doing another side by side cable knit pattern similar to my iPhone case, but I felt it would look a little too simple for such a large surface area.  I could have done just straight 4 columns of cables, but that didn't seem too interesting to me.

I'm a type of person that appreciates symmetry (sometimes a little too much.  One freakish fact about me - when I chew my food I always have to make sure there are equal amounts of food on each side of my mouth.  It just has to be symmetrical! LoL).  I started to come up with an idea of having the two inner cable columns larger, with the outer cable columns smaller.  And this is what I came up with:

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

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)

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)