Christmas Hat

One of my Christmas gifts was a watch-cap-style hat knitted for me by my daughter:

 It's a terrific color and a gorgeous stitch pattern.  I just called my daughter at work to find out what pattern she used, and it is the Fern Glade hat from Knitty by Megan Marshall.
http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter08/PATTfernglade.php

The photo below is a close-up of the stitch pattern, though the color is really like the picture above.

I forgot to ask about the yarn so I'll have to add that later.

Christmas must be more tiring than I thought because Boxing Day ended up being Nap Day.  After some clean-up chores today, I hope to finish up the aqua pullover ribbing and knit the sleeves on the machine.

African Flower Afghan Finished!

This afghan was finished in the year it was started – a new experience for me!  It is just the right size for a lap robe to use while watching TV, and it is certainly nice and warm. 

 

I’ll probably make another one sometime, and right now am thinking about  a cushion I saw on Pinterest that has a light gray background and flowers in shades of red, orange, and yellow.

It’s best for my hands not to crochet one project after another, so right now I am working on the aqua pullover, knitting the ribbing for the sleeves.

African Flower Afghan Border

 

It's nice to be near the finish line on this afghan.  The border is fairly wide which adds needed inches to the length and width of the afghan.  First I made a row of cream single crochets, then the dc, ch 1 row, then rows of yarns used in the flowers done in sc and hdc.  I looked through my vintage edging books for a lacy edging because I wanted that look and because the striped border tends to curl on itself and needed a heavy edging.  The photo above shows row 1 of the lace edging.  Here's how the completed edging will look:

 

This is really only a two-row edging and is fun to work.  It has a 'flower' look to it and the scalloped flower is an echo of the petals in the blocks. Here are the instructions, though I replaced all the trs with dcs, and I changed the second row as follows:  2nd Row - * In ch-5 loop make (2-dc cluster, ch 3) twice and cluster, sc in ch-3 sp. repeat from * across. 

It was interesting making hexagons, but I think squares are easier to finish off, so I hunted around for a square version of the African Flower afghan, and will try that next.

Sweater Idea

I love the back of this sweater.  This pattern is for sale from the designer for about $6.  Ideas I like from this design are the panel up the back, the garter waist definition, and the gathered skirt.  It has garter bands and what looks like a V-neck in the front.  So pretty.

I know you can do the gathers on a knitting machine by rehanging the stitches (you have to take them off by hand or a garter bar) but I would probably be lazy and take them off on a knitting needle, do the decreases, knit the garter band, then hang back on the machine. 

Love the color, too.

Tea Leaf Green

This time I changed the neckline up a little.  I wanted a V-neck but without the hassle of a continuous band that goes from the bottom to the center back neck.  To accomplish this, there is a 3-stitch flat area before the neckline decreases start.  This was sort of successful, but the next version will have a slightly larger flat area just to see how that looks.  This is a very pretty green that I couldn't catch in a photograph. As are all the other sweaters, it is made from Red Heart Supersaver and only took 3 skeins.  Supersaver knits up very well on a knitting machine except that you have to watch for the occasional flaw in the yarn that can snag in the yarn carriers.  I wind the yarn into big yarn cakes before knitting it on the machine.  One skein will make the whole back or front with a little left over, and one skein will make two cardigan fronts or two sleeves.

I didn't make any Christmas presents this year so have nothing to hurry and finish up.  It is very relaxing.

Purple Cardigan

Yet another plain cardigan with 3/4 sleeves.  This is also Red Heart Supersaver but I have lost the band that tells what color it is, perhaps Medium Purple.  It is a purple that has more red tones, and it is very pretty.  I did have a hard time finding buttons to match this one, too, and ended up having to buy expensive buttons at about $4.50 for a card of three.  Luckily, the buttons were on sale for 50% off that day or the buttons would have cost more than the yarn.

We had a lovely tea party for all the women on my side of the family last Saturday, and one of my sister-in-laws was wearing a pretty black lace sweater top over an emerald turtleneck.  It made me think about knitting a black lace top, but knitting on black, especially lace, is a recipe for madness.  I tried to knit some black lace socks once, and it was horrible trying to see where I was in the pattern.  Maybe it would work in crochet.

Mustard Yellow

 Another plain sweater that will get lots of use.  I love this mustard color, and this has reminded me to hem up a pair of gray slacks that have been languishing around for several years waiting to be shortened.  This color goes with gray, navy, and of course, black.  And purple!

This is knit of Red Heart Supersaver and was knit on the LK150. The ribbed bits were knit by hand.