Le Petit Artichaut

It's that time of my life when friends and family start having babies. While it makes me feel old (and way behind everyone else), it's a wonderful excuse to knit all the adorable baby clothes I have queued up in my Ravelry favourites! I decided that the first project I would tackle would be the (Petit) Artichaut by Solen Couix-Loarer. 

I'm so happy with the result of this baby bolero. When I started the project, I was quite worried it wouldn't work out. First of all, getting Fingering weight yarn in rural Newfoundland is almost impossible. Luckily I found this Red Heart Stardust yarn in pink or I would have had to return to the drawing board. Also, I've never knit with fingering weight yarn and I didn't have a US 2.5 needle to work with (only a US 3 circular), so I had no idea if this would even resemble the sample pictures. But I stuck with it. 

I looked at a number of  YouTube videos to help me with the provisional cast-on, but it turns out they didn't help too much. I managed to do it, but when it came time to remove the waste yarn, the crocheted chain did not unravel easily. Instead, I had to reclaim the working yarn stitches and cut out the waste yarn through each stitch. A long process, but it worked out in the end.

Having read through almost all of the notes left on this project from other knitters on Ravelry, I have to agree with them on the fact that this pattern is unnecessarily difficult in certain areas. I assume it is a problem in the translation from French to English, but I had a hard time following the two row repeats. It would give you the pattern for the RS and WS rows then tell you to repeat this 5 times in total. Is that 5 times including the two you just knit, or in addition to those two rows? Did anyone else find that confusing? 

I also found myself taking a lot of notes while completing this project; mostly in an attempt to keep up with what row I was currently finishing and how many I had left to do. All the repeats made if difficult to keep track in my head. It also would have been nice to have the explanations of the LLIP and RLIP stitch embedded in the pattern and not at the end so I wouldn't need to keep flipping back to the last page to find it.

Overall, I was happy with the pattern however. There were a few frogged sections that I went back and redid but that's just because I was very intent on getting a great finished project that I could send to my cousin's wife who is having her baby in October. I'm fine with a few mistakes on something I will keep myself, but if I'm sending it somewhere, I like to have something I'm very proud of as a result. And I do!

If you find yourself knitting this project, here are a few notes. Good luck!

Notes: 

*Is the button hole necessary on this? Couldn't you just use the last four stitches on the left side border to start the 15.3 inch strap and pass it through the hole made on the right side seam?

*If you did include the button hole on the right side, couldn't you transfer the hole from the right seam to the left seam and start the second strap from there? It would take a lot less yarn and eliminate the strap needing to go all around the back of the garment. This would also eliminate any worry about the garment being too tight on the child. 

If you'd like to see more photos and details, head over to my Ravelry page

Canuck Socks.

Friends, I'm back at it! The needles are working away at new projects. Don't you just love summer vacation?!

I've been busy since finishing school in June and returning from my Disney vacation with my sister. My first finished project since picking up my needles again has been a lovely pair of socks; my first pair actually! I've been quite pleased with the result. I was quite apprehensive when I started the first one. All the terminology and the anatomy of the sock was quite confusing to me, but once I decided to just go with it, the whole process was painless. It was also a great project to take with me on the road. I spent half a week with a bunch of great girls at Pathfinders camp in Tilting, Newfoundland and ended up taking some really nice shots of my new socks while I was there.

For now, I'm working on a few more projects. A pair of comfy slipper socks, actual slippers and the Petit Artichault bolero for my friend Tracey's first baby! I'm pouring in most of my time to the bolero at the moment, however, as I'd love to finish it before going up to Halifax next week. More on that next time!

Snapshots

Easter in Halifax

The Rural Knitter Travels

I never really considered knitting a dangerous hobby. Well, to be honest, I never really considered knitting at all before this year, but I digress. Knitting to me was a hobby enacted and completed at home, from the comfort of my very oversized couch. It allowed me room to throw my needles around in exasperation and to lose all those pesky place holders with the ability to one day find them again in the abyss that is "under the couch cushions". What I'm trying to say is that for me, and most likely some of you, knitting = home. 

But suddenly, I was no longer home; I was at my sister's place repacking an oddly shaped piece of luggage. I held in my hand my current project, a beautiful deep purple hat that I had started a few days prior, and it hit me: can I even take this on a plane? When I normally looked at this hat, I saw hours of garter stitch and elaborate cables littered with place holders. A soon-to-be garment hanging from size 8 needles. But for that brief moment, I was a passenger on a flight watching an elderly old woman lose her marbles and take an entire plane hostage by holding a knitting needle to another man's jugular. Despite my very vivid and violent imagination (I love to watch crime/detective dramas on tv whilst knitting), I think I had a valid point. My hat would get past security but my needles might not. 

What ever would I do? No security man or woman would ever make me frog the project and hand over my needles. It was 7am in the morning and I had no stitch holder in sight. And most importantly, those needles belonged to an interchangeable set. Be damned if the imaginary security guard stole my 8s and the 20" cable! (Side note: Where did this passion for knitting come from?! That's a completely different blog post, but it warms the cockles of my heart to know that me and knitting have become so close that I would fight imaginary security guards for it.) And I couldn't repack again. The thought of my precious hat crunched up in my already too full checked-luggage gave me heart palpitations, not to mention the question of what I would keep myself busy with on the plane. So it was in this anxiety-driven stupor that I carefully place the hat in my carry-on and pledged to do what was needed. 

Upon arrival at the check-in desk, I was pleased to notice that the attendant ignored my carry-on. I guess I didn't really expect her to demand to see its contents, but I was in full soldier mode at this point. Guard knitting at all costs. The young lady smiled at me brightly and handed me my boarding pass. "Please head through security as soon as you're ready, Miss. This plane normally boards early." I accepted it graciously and thought to myself, Oh, I will. The showdown will not be delayed. 

As I walked towards the escalator I considered my reactions to them telling me I couldn't take the needles past security. There was genuine shock and awe (aka plead ignorance), the puppy dog eyes, irritated customer or just plain crying. I also considered practical reasoning, but that seemed like something they would expect. So I decided to play it by ear. It would come to me. 

And then it was time. I had bagged up my seven lip gloss containers in the appropriate see-thru baggy and was mentally prepared. I put all my belongings into two grey plastic trays and watched them make their way along the conveyor and through the x-ray. The whole time I pleaded with life. Please don't take my knitting. Please! And then nothing happened. Both trays came out the other end of the xray and as the technician pushed them closer to me, he said "Have a nice flight." What?! There wasn't even a backtrack of the conveyor belt. No second look. I had won! But I needed verbal confirmation. Them simply handing me back my bag wasn't enough. "So my knitting is ok then? I can bring it on board?"

The technician smirked a little at my question. "Yes. That's completely fine. We have knitters through here all the time. There are currently no restrictions on knitting needles and yarn. If you had scissors and a sewing needle, however, those would be taken." For some reason, my subconscious knitter had thought things through enough to pack my notions bag in my checked luggage. Thankfully. Ah. I was so relieved. I wanted to high-five the x-ray technician, but I decided to take my bag and skedaddle in case he changed his mind. 

So there I was, sitting at the gate prior to boarding with my knitting in hand. And out of the corner of my eye I spied a ball of yarn on the floor. There was another knitter on my flight! She too had passed through the gates a victor! I admired her work and she smiled at me and gave me a little nod. That's my people, I thought. Kindred folk. Should we come up with a secret handshake even? Ok. That's a bit much. I'll take the smile and nod. Probably for the best. But I still wanted to talk to her. To ask her about her experiences travelling while knitting as she seemed like a pro (to me, anyone who can knit a sweater on a plane is a pro), however I never got the chance. The boarding call rang out and I was up like a flash because I have some odd, innate need to be the first person on a plane. Why? I'll never know.

My first knitting travel experience was nothing but eventful, admittedly, in my own head. But I've grown as a knitter because of it. I will never have to imaginary fight security guards trying to take my needles ever again (unless I start travelling outside of Canada and then it's anyone's game)! 

The Norie Shetland Hat (cont.)

I have finally finished it! After almost two weeks, I can actually wear this beautiful outside. I decided to omit one repeat of the Cat's Paw lace pattern because I figured it would be too long, and I think it was a good choice. I also finished this before having to start a new skein of the Mustard yarn. When I was at Michael's this weekend I had bought another skein so I could finish, but I guess it will have to go towards some other project. So, without further ado, the Norie Shetland Hat:

Isn't it lovely? I adore the colour and may try one in ice blue soon!

The Norie Shetland Hat & Cards!!

A work in progress.

I can't wait until this is finished to post about it. The hat is too fantastic. It's mustard yellow, slouchy and has a beautiful lace pattern. I found it a few days ago while trolling Ravelry and instantly had to buy it once I saw the preview images that went along with the pattern. (Find the pattern here.)

This is what my hat looks like currently, after 4 days of work:

This is what it should like after I'm finally finished.

Needless to say, I'm very anxious to finish. I'm not used to spending so long on one item. The lace repeats and length makes this a bit tiring on my poor fingers, but the end result will be worth it. I'm also thinking that I might pick up this beautiful ice blue yarn from the model picture and knit this hat again.

On another note, I took a break from knitting to finally sit down and make a business card that I can hand out to people who ask (and to slip into gift bags for purchases). I am not very confident in my photoshop skills and I tried to create a card earlier last week, but to my chagrin it did not work very well once I got to the printing stage. So I gave it another try today and I have to say that I am very pleased with the result. It's absolutely perfect and really captures my style.

Aren't they the prettiest? I love them so.

Please note, the facebook page listed on the card doesn't really exist at the moment. It will, very soon, but for now it's just writing on a card.

Cranberry Sauce & Acorn Lace Hat and Mug Cozy

Boy have I been busy lately! I don't think I've stopped knitting these past few weeks. And if I have, it's been to look for new patterns that I'd like to try and to drive back and forth to the city. Due to this busy spurt, I decided to wait until things relaxed a bit to make another blog post but now that it has, I don't even really know where to start. I'm going to stick to jot notes!

• I wore my Shamrock Headband proudly this past weekend in St. John's and it was a hit! (So was Emily's -- I had made a lighter version for her). Women stopped both of us asking where we got them and we so full of praise when they heard they were hand knit. What a great feeling! A few even asked for my card. Another woman asked if I had a card when I was at East Side Mario's this weekend as well. I really need to get on that!

Even Johnny had to wear the headband for a bit!

• Finally got to deliver all the headbands and other orders to my customers!
• I've gotten very crafty with my packaging (gift tags, brown craft bag, tissue paper).
  

• Finally got around to making the Cranberry Sauce hat I fell in love with on Ravelry. I used the Fairy Tale yarn from Knitpicks (Bravia Bulky line) and it's so comfy. I think if I make it again, however, I'll add a few extra repeats of the cable pattern to make it more slouchy.
  

• My second hat this week was the Acorn Lace Hat that I've been asked to make for my sister's roommate. It turned out lovely seeing as it was the first time I'd babbled in lace work. But again, not as slouchy as I would have liked. The yarn is very stretchy however, so maybe with wear it'll get larger.
  

Acorn Lace Hat in Black.

• And my final project this week is the Mug Cozy in Candy Apple Red. I started this last night while teaching a friend how to knit for the first time. I used two strands of the worsted weight yarn, but it got extremely knit after the first few rows. Next time I'll stick to a single strand. Really happy with the result though!
  

Yarn Stash!

I live in rural Newfoundland. If you've read this blog before, you'll know that. If not, you've learned something new today! Now, I really enjoy life here for the most part, but when it comes to knitting, my choice of yarn is very very limited. I'm stuck with Red Heart or Bernat worsted weight yarn and only select colours. So when I visit the city (St. John's -- the best city in the world might I add), I kind of go a little crazy with my yarn purchases at Michaels, A Good Yarn and Wool Trends. I bought 10 skeins of yarn this weekend alone. I had visited A Good Yarn and Wool Trends for the first time and really couldn't leave without something for my stash. But I got a little out of hand. 

Then, I went to the post office this morning to mail off a few Shamrock Headbands to friends and discovered that my Knit Picks order had arrived! 8 more skeins for my stash. Whatever am I going to do with all this yarn?!

Finally here after 3.5 weeks!!

Jewel tones everywhere

The whole Knit Picks stash

What wonderful colours! 18 skeins of yarn love.

I knew that the first thing I needed to do was organize it all and get it out of the dusty corner in my living room. I have a beautiful 9 section black bookcase in the spare room here so I decided to reclaim a few sections for my yarn. Two sections for worsted weight, one for Bulky and another for Super Bulky. I'm quite happy with the result. 

Now I have to get back to the knitting. All that yarn is yearning to be used!

Shamrock Headband

While I certainly didn't intend to have a St. Patrick's Day filled Saturday, that's exactly how yesterday turned out. First of all, I bought the new Chieftain's album, Voice of Ages, and blared it on the ol' stereo  system all morning long. Then a trip to the local Dollarama was filled with Patty's Day purchases (beaded necklaces, earrings, decals for my front window). But I couldn't find a decent headband.

So when I got home and started trawling through the patterns on Ravelry, I came across this beautiful pattern for an adjustable, two-strand headband by Rachel Bishop (Pattern here). It's the first time I've made an I-Cord, and the whole thing turned out amazing. I made two cords in Kelly Green and thought I might leave it at that. But when I finished the cords, I wanted to add more to it. Hence the Shamrocks. I YouTubed a tutorial on crocheting (which has hated me up until now) and I made these two different crocheted shamrocks and attached them to the strands.

The best part of the headband is that it's adjustable. Most headbands like this on Ravelry are tied together in the back or joined by a series of knit stitches. This one, however, is joined by a hair elastic. Both strands are attached to the elastic and thus it will stretch to fit whoever it's made for. And it's comfortable! No pesky plastic digging into the back of your ears.

Happy Knitting!

Fair Isles Hat

I've been making hats for almost a month now. I have made berets, beanies and toques so far. And they were all solid colours. They are fun to make, don't get me wrong, but it's gotten a bit repetitive. So I decided it was time to try out some color work techniques (using two or more colours in a piece) using the Fair Isles Hat pattern by Bernat. 

This was a challenging project. It was the first pattern I've tried that uses a chart to designate the pattern and what colour to be used. This particular pattern isn't written very clearly (for a beginner in colour work at least) so I spent a good bit of my afternoon yesterday translating the chart into a workable row pattern.

When I get around to it, I will post this to Ravelry for anyone who wants to tackle the hat but is scared of  charts.

A few tips for fellow knitters though:

1. This pattern is written as a straight needle method project. I worked in the round (on US 8 - 24") and just ignored the abbreviations for WS and purl. Anywhere it says to purl, I just knit. 
2. In the last row of your ribbing, I used the k1fb stitch every 16th stitch in order to increase by 5 stitches evenly. I'm terrible at the M1 stitch and always get small holes in my work when I use that method of increasing.
3. It's very useful to place stitch markers between each pattern repeat once you start chart work. It kept me on track and it was easier to notice if I made any mistakes in my stitches.
4. Once you start Chart II, be very careful of the tension of your Contrasting Colour (the Mosaic yarn). I was using US 8 dpns by this point and my tension became very tight and the top started to pucker.
5. I also used another method of making the pom-pom for the top of the hat. The hand method used in this pattern made a very large and loose pom-pom. I made two small circles out of cardboard and followed that technique.

I must say though, this hat makes me happy just looking at it. All the colours are just brilliant and it was a great first colour work project. I really want to make another now!

A Most Bespeckled Hat!

What a fun hat to knit! It was my first attempt at colour work (knitting with two colours) and it was relatively easy -- but a tad tedious. The whole project was tedious actually. The ribbing took almost two days to complete as it's meant to be doubled-up or folded over. Then I had to knit the actually hat part. Then make the pom-pom. Blah. The moral of the story is that it took a lot of work to finish but boy is it ever nice! Fits great and looks super cute. One of those hats you wear if you're going to play out in the snow... or in my case, shovel it. 

So that one is finished and I'm planning on starting a different hat today. The hat Hermione wore in The Deathly Hallows to be exact. Updates on that soon. 

And on a happy note, my friend Elizabeth over at The Elizabeth Files just received her hat in the mail today! She loves it and I couldn't be happier. I'm glad to see a hat find a head to call home :-)

That's all for me today. Until next time!

Snowday Fridays

It's Friday and of course we have a snowday. It wouldn't be February without a snowstorm every Friday. Seriously. Last year we didn't have school once on a Friday in February. It's a thing. But I am prepared! 

I also have to share a shot of the beautiful little Thank-You cards I came across at the store yesterday. Perfect for including with my hats when I package them up!

That's it for now. I'm off to start a new hat for a friend. Happy weekend!

Seed Beret and More Hats!

I'm officially obsessed with knitting hats. Since buying my Boye Interchangeable Needle set, I've made 5 hats and I don't intend on stopping. My first men's hat (the Regular Man's Beanie found on ravelry.com) has even been sold to a friend. My first sale! Needless to say I'm excited about that. I love to knit these hats, but getting paid for them is an amazing feeling.

I know I should post these pictures chronologically, I really want to showcase my latest knit first. I followed the Seed Beret pattern by Diane Serviss and I'm totally in love. I used the US size 11 and 15 needles as indicated in the pattern and Wool-Ease Thick and Quick (Super Bulky) in Fisherman. Mind you, it didn't come out as slouchy as the pictures indicate, I think I prefer this beanie style. Have a look see.

It's strange that my porch is the only part of my house with good lighting. 

I made the regular ribbed brim and star-crossed cap version of this hat  (it's the prettiest way to finish the cap of a hat, isn't it?!) but added brass buttons to the ribbing because I thought it added a lot to the look of the final product. Steps up the classiness really. And you can't have too much class. Ok, here's another picture of the ribbing detail and the buttons for good measure.

I really couldn't be happier with the result. Now I have a lovely hat to wear with my brand new Spring coat that I probably won't get to wear until June (did I mention that I hate winter in Newfoundland?).

But I digress. I have made other hats before this seed stitch beauty. I'll spare you pictures and a huge diatribe as they are just colour variations on the Slouchy Beret that I wrote about earlier this week. However, while I was bored this weekend, I knitted up my first men's hat from the Regular Guy's Beanie pattern. 

I used Red Heart's Super Saver worsted weight yarn in Aran Fleck and US 8 needles for this particular hat. While I love the colour of the yarn, a different yarn might have been more stretchy. When I make this hat again, I think I will add a few more rows of the knit repeat to make it a bit longer, but otherwise I'm pleased with the results. This is also my first sale as a knitter! A friend of mine tried it on at my Super Bowl Party and fell in love with it, so I was very pleased when he said he wanted to buy it. 

This knitting business is exciting. Can you believe I've only been knitting for a little over 1 month? I certainly can't. 

Star-Crossed Slouchy Beret

It's been a few days since my last post. Apologies for anyone checking in and finding nothing new. I was very sad to lose my amazing grandfather this week, so blogging certainly wasn't a priority. However, I kept knitting. Knitting has quickly become a hobby that I can lose myself in and calm down, so when I've had a moment to myself, I've been able to work on my first 'knitting in the round' project: a Star Crossed Slouchy Beret.

Now this is a hat I am proud of. I had tried a "cloche" style hat before, one that was knitted back-and-forth and then sewn together, but the result was somewhat lack lustre. It was very tight and wasn't really a style I'd wear. But this is a hat I'd wear everywhere.

And it was fairly easy to make. I followed a pattern written by Natalie Larson found HERE. Material wise, my sister bought a skein of Loops & Threads Impeccable (worsted) in Kelly Green for the hat (it was her first knitted gift from me) and I used a US 10 circular needle for the rim and US 11 for the body of the hat. Suggestion: have a set of US 10 or 11 DPNs on hand for the end of the hat. After 4-5 decrease repeats, you'll need to transfer the remaining stitched onto the DPNs to finish the hat. I also didn't pay attention to my gauge. I think if you knit moderately loose, it'll turn out lovely.