knitting | Love Is All You Knit

May 09 2010

baby knits, knitting, NYC, Uncategorized

FO: Baby Hipster

When we moved to NYC two years ago, we met a lot of new people. Meeting people is always fun and exciting, but eventually you start to figure out who your real friends are; those people who are genuine, who would do anything for you cause they are really, truly, good people. Our friend Chris is one of those genuinely good-hearted friends. And when I found out he and his lovely new wife Maricar were expecting a baby boy, I knew I had to kit something for this special baby.

Pattern: Baby Sophisticate by Linden Heflin
I’m calling it the Baby Hipster, cause this baby will be growing up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Yarn: Tahki Yarns Tweedy Alpaca, 3 skeins
Needles: US 10 1/2 circs and dpns

I think it turned out really great. The pattern was straight-forward and simple and the yarn is nice and soft and tweedy!

Apr 25 2010

3 Comments

baby knits, knitting, Yarn

Manly Mitts and Baby Knits

Joey’s 30th birthday was at the beginning of April and I couldn’t let the occasion pass by without knitting something especially for him.

He has been requesting fingerless gloves for quite a while now and I’ve been wanting to try Ysolda’s Garter Stitch Mitts pattern for a while…. so it was a perfect time to cast on. I started on 3/28 and finished on 4/1, knit with Louet Eastport Alpaca which is soft with a bit of a fuzzy halo. Great pattern, pretty yarn.

I’ve also cast on for another speedy project that I am quite enamored with at the moment- the Baby Sophisticate sweater.

I’m knitting this one with Tahki Tweedy Alpaca, which is soft and tweedy and nice to work with. I almost want to cast on a similar sweater with this yarn in my size! I’m so in love with it that I spilled the beans to the parents-to-be last night and showed them pictures of it in progress, and they’re totally thrilled.

Mar 27 2010

Stripy Socks The Second

A while back, when I was about halfway through the swallowtail shawl I was presented with a knitting conundrum. I was getting ready to leave for a weekend trip to Vermont with a big group of friends, one of them being a new knitter. I didn’t want to bring the swallowtail shawl, cause I can’t exactly knit lace from charts and socialize at the same time without making mistakes. That was the perfect excuse for me to cast on for some no-nonsense stockinette stripy socks!

The yarn is Vesper Sock, and I’ve had it for quite a while. I probably bought it back in my yarn-binging days of 2007. I’ve knitted socks with this yarn before (a pair for Joey- blue, red and brown stripes) and now its my turn to get a pair of stripy socks. I’ll be doing an afterthought heel on this pair as well, which I think is the best way to do a heel with self-striping yarn.

The afterthought heel is super easy- when you get to the point where you want to start the heel, you knit half the stitches on one round with waste yarn (the yellow line of stitches in the pic above). Then, after you’ve finished the leg, you remove the waste yarn and put the live stitches back on your needles and knit the heel. (I just decrease like you would for a toe, and it comes out pretty well.)

And just so you can see what was going on outside my window while I was snapping sock pics on my dirty windowsill:

Trash Day!

Mar 16 2010

4 Comments

knitting, Lace

FO: Swallowtail Shawl

Ideally, I’d be taking photos of this shawl draped prettily over a patch of soft green grass, or maybe a few of me wearing the shawl and spinning in circles on said patch of soft green grass with a bright sun shining in the background or something dreamy like that. But Daylight Savings Time saved me a smidge of sunlight today, so I took what I could get.

I’m very excited about this shawl for many reasons; it was my first lace project, it was my first time knitting from charts, the yarn is so soft and cheerful….. really I could go on.

Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock, one skein in Ochre
Needles: US 5
Started: January 26th
Finished: March 14th

Love it!

Mar 14 2010

2 Comments

knitting, Lace

Weather Fit For a Knitter

This weekend has been cold, windy and unbelievably rainy. Perfect conditions for bunkering down and finishing off a knitting project I’ve been ignoring for a couple of weeks.
And that’s exactly what I did.

Hope to get some modeled shots soon, but it will be difficult since Joey’s outta town and has the good camera. Maybe I’ll get inventive.

Feb 16 2010

3 Comments

knitting, Lace

Nupping to See Here

Ah, the Swallowtail Shawl…. if you’ve knit it then you know. If you’ve even read about it a tiny bit, you know: those nupps are a pain! Basically, you increase into a single stitch five times and then on the next row, you purl those five stitches together and back into one, creating a gorgeous but damn near impossible-to-pull-off nupp.
I perused Ravelry enough before starting this shawl to learn that lots of knitters found an easier way to achieve the nupp: instead of purling 5 stitches together you can slip two, purl 3 together, and pass the slipped stitches over which basically accomplishes the same thing. Now, I’m a fairly tight knitter so I’m sure I’m not making it very easy on myself, but I’ve tried working it as loose as I can, and I still have a hard time getting those three stitches on the needle to purl. I’ve had to resort to lifting them up off the left needle with a sewing needle and then placing my right needle tip underneath them in order to purl. It works, but it is painfully slow. And its pretty intense, cause if I drop one of those stitches, I’m gonna be lost.

Nupptastic

I also discovered by perusing other Swallowtails on Ravelry that lots of knitters choose to forego the nupp in favor of a bead. I can understand the desire to avoid the nefarious nupp, but I am most definitely pro-nupp. To me, they make this shawl.

Nupptacular

Sigh…. Some things are just worth it.

Feb 10 2010

4 Comments

knitting, NYC

Better Put Some Wool On

The snow we were promised last week finally arrived. We were forecasted to receive around 8-10″ of snow today, and I think we’ve already gotten that much. My work let us go two hours early and I’ve made it home, safe and warm, which means I can get in two extra hours on the swallowtail shawl tonight. I have four more repeats of the budding lace pattern before I can switch to the lily of the valley border. Time to throw some cookies in the oven, snuggle up with my sweet puppy, and get some knitting going!

Jan 31 2010

4 Comments

knitting

Charting New Territory

The day after I finished knitting my silk kerchief was a cold, dark, rainy Monday. One of those days where you wish you could just stay in your warm bed and sleep late and drink tea and knit some glorious project all day while watching Pride and Prejudice or something like that. After trudging through the gloomy day, I needed a little pick-me up. I stopped by the yarn shop on my way home and picked out a golden yellow skein of Malabrigo sock yarn, which I’ve had my eye on for a couple of months. I went home and started searching Ravelry for a sock pattern. Midway through my sock-search I decided that this yarn was a little too special for socks. It’s too bright and soft and pretty to be stuffed into dirty dingy winter boots. No, this yarn needed to be something soft and pretty, like…. a shawl. A proper lace shawl, at that! So I decided to start where it seems like lots of shawl and lace-knitters start: the Swallowtail Shawl.

I cast on and worked quickly through the first chart of the lace pattern. Then I decided to rip it back and start again with smaller needles, so the stitches will be more dense and the open lacy areas will stand out more. So far I’m just barely into it, but I think I’m going to really like this project as long as I pay attention and use lifelines.

Jan 27 2010

5 Comments

knitting

FO: Silk Kerchief

I finished off the silk kerchief on Sunday night after knitting a couple of extra rows to make sure that bright pretty turquoise made its appearance.

I’m pretty pleased with how it came out. This was my first time working with Noro and I guess my experience was the same as a lot of knitters: its not exactly soft, that Noro… but it sure stripes beautifully. Its so exciting to keep going a couple of more rows until the next color pops up. This was such a great pattern for using Noro. I think there might even be just enough yarn in each ball to knit another one.

Pattern: Silk Kerchief by Kate Gagnon Osborn (Ravelry link)

Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Sock

Jan 24 2010

2 Comments

knitting

Sneak Peek

Here’s a little peek at what’s on my needles now. I won’t show the whole thing yet, cause I hope to finish it very soon and get some completed pics.

I’m using the Silk Kerchief pattern from Kate Gagnon Osborn (ravelry link). I’ve adored this pattern for quite a while now, but never thought I had what it takes to pull off a cute kerchief- I guess we’ll find out soon enough! I’m using the same colors as in Kate’s original, because it is just so perfect. I should probably bind off soon since I’ve knitted the number of repeats called for in the pattern, but I’m holding out a couple more rows for this bright turquoise to show up:

Category Archives: knitting