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By Melissa, February 9, 2010 10:28 pm

I really hope this isn’t going to be an ‘every sweater’ thing…

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By Melissa, October 2, 2009 8:52 pm

Happy 3 Week Birthday, Little Man!

From Cabled Baby Hats by Julie Hentz using Sirdar Snuggly Kisses DK.  Rav link.

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By Melissa, June 30, 2009 9:43 pm

Most of my evenings of late have been spent working on my newest knitting love…Vivian by Ysolda Teague.

I’ve made it up to row 102 on the body and think it’s coming along splendidly.

Only 15 more rows until I can start on the sleeves!

What do you think my chances are for having this finished in time to wear to the Sock Summit in August?  Yeah, um, I gotta get back to the knitting…

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By Melissa, January 26, 2009 10:02 pm

I finished up my fingerless gloves tonight.  I love how they turned out.

They’re really cute on.

But then I noticed something…

Do you?

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By Melissa, January 4, 2009 12:10 am

Recently I’ve been in to cables.  And by “in to” I mean “obsessed with.”  Five out of the seven hats I gave as Christmas gifts had cables. 

I showed The Madre how to knit cables while I was home and even The Canadian got a cable lesson or two over the holidays.  The Canadian = Total Newbie Knitting Rock Star!!

I did take a break from cables while home in NY to knit a cute little Lacey Neck Warmer for The Madre out of Berroco Pure.  Oh how I love merino!

It was my first foray into lace and while I enjoyed it, I found that I was easily distracted (not difficult considering there were 4 people, 4 cats, 1 spastic dog and an excessive amount of yarn in a relatively small space) and kept messing up the pattern.  Needless to say, everyone around me now knows the meaning of “tink” and “frogging”.

Anyway, I found that if I placed a stitch marker between each pattern repeat, it was easier to keep track of stitches and where I may have forgotten to pass a slipped stitch, done a yarn over, etc.  The Madre and I managed to dig up 5 stitch markers, but that left me using mutilated paper clips for the remaining repeats.  While the paper clips did do the job, I decided “real” stitch markers probably weren’t that difficult to make, so off to the craft store I went to buy a pack of jump rings.  I dug out my old bead collection and wire tools and went to work.

These last few are made from beads that I had made a while back out of fabric and bits of yarn.  Who said stitch markers had to be boring plastic rings??

And stitch markers are also helpful for differentiating cables within a larger pattern pattern.  Like on my latest project – a Viking Bag with cables.  Surprised?  I didn’t think so.

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By Melissa, December 1, 2008 10:13 pm

Cables have always scared me.  And I’m not talking about all the computer ones that appear everywhere you look in my house.  (The Canadian is an avid collector of cables and yes, the number of said cables can in fact be rather frightening.)  I’m talking knitted cables.  Those beautiful twists and braids of knitted stitches that just scream “Don’t even bother trying to knit me I am far too complicated for you to understand and if you even try, your head will explode.”

Well, my friends, I went for it…and lived to tell the tale.

In fact, I did more than that.  I have a new found love and respect for cables.  I was poking around on Raverly on Saturday (after my attempt at buying more yarn to finish my latest woven scarf was thwarted by crazy Christmas shoppers) and stumbled upon my new favorite pattern, An Unoriginal Hat.  And what a surprise – it’s written by none other than my favourite Yarn Harlot.

This hat knits up incredibly fast and is actually quite simple to knit.  The chart is easy to read and I was even able to knit my first hat in under 8 hours while watching The Office reruns (with multiple cats on my lap, big surprise).

I loved knitting this hat so much I knit a second hat.  And shaved two hours off my time.  Oh yeah!

Now who’s obsessed with cables??