FO for Halloween

Other than waiting for the trick-or-treaters, I generally don't do much for Halloween. Sometimes I'll try to wear something interesting for greeting the kids at the door. Thanks to the great blogosphere, I discovered, this hallowig pattern on knitty.com. I used TLC Essentials acrylic yarn from Red Heart. I chose it because I liked the pumpkin-ish color. I chose this color figuring that it would be more wearable than a bright orange hallowig, although I guess "more wearable" is a relative concept.

I like the natural flip that it forms on the bottom -- part of which is helped by particular head shape -- I seem to have a deep occiptal ridge, or whatever, as well as a longish neck. I made my bottom section about 7.5" long before starting the bangs.

FO: Drape Neck Top

This is the Drape Neck Top from Vogue Knitting spring/summer 2011. My yarn is Cascade Ultra Pima, which is a finer gauged yarn than the recommended Cascade Sierra. I knit it at just under 5 stitches/inch, which is looser than its recommended gauge of 22-24 stitches/4 inches. I wanted a very draped look because the top has positive ease.

I changed the shaping to an empire shape instead of an A-line shape, and I made it a few inches longer. Instead of the sleeve bands which sort of stick out, I knitted short cap sleeves. I also omitted the gap at the bottom of the front panel. Instead of using YOs for the holes, I did make-1 in knit or purl and omitted the twist, which creates a hole. This created smaller holes than yarn-overs would create. I didn't want ginormous holes because I wanted to wear this without a layer underneath. It's a spring/summer top and two layers would be too warm.

I'm pretty happy with the top, but I'm hoping it won't stretch too wide with wear.

Craft blog directory

CraftyRie has decided to take on the daunting task of compiling a list of all the crafty blogs out in the blogoshpere. All you have to do is submit your link on her site, and just spread the word on your own blog.

A couple of yarn shops

Thank you for all the nice comments about my finished Peterborough!

I recently visited a couple of yarn shops that are new to me. First off, I have to give credit to the Other Half for spotting the yarn shops for me. He is proud of himself for becoming quite the good yarn shop spotter.

This first one is The Twisted Stitch in Monterey. It's located a block up from the famous Cannery Row and a few blocks from the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

This is a fairly small shop and its inventory is not large, but it's also only about 15 months old. I believe the owner was there when we visited and she was very nice. They stock a lot yarns by Universal Yarns.

I bought one skein of Tundra to knit this Riviera Scarf. I did not see the pattern there, but there were some samples knitted up and the owner explained to me how to knit it. I don't knit or wear scarves much, and this almost looks kitschy, but for some reason, I found it appealing.


This shop has a lot of nice framed lace art on display, such as the one shown here. They are created by a local artist.

The second shop is a part-time LYS because I am a part-time resident in San Francisco's Sunset District where the shop is located. For those of you unfamiliar with the San Francisco neighborhoods, the Sunset District is equivalent to Outer Mongolia for residents in the trendier neighborhoods. But, I digress. This small shop is named Urban Fauna Studio.

It carries mainly local hand-dyed yarns, as well as lots of supplies for spinning and felting. They have a nice selection of Cascade Ultra Pima, an I bought 4 skeins of it. One of the owners was there, and he was nice and helpful.

FO: Peterborough

This is Peterborough by Norah Gaughan. I love this sweater. It will be perfect for the cooler fall days. The front and back patterned band feels like I'm wearing a cozy long draped scarf around my neck. The yarn is Filtes King Extra Stampato, a very soft merino wool. I think the yarn has long been discontinued. My sleeves are short because I didn't have enough yarn. I knew from the start that I would be short on yarn so I made the sweater a few inches shorter than the pattern's length, figuring that I would have enough yarn to make 3/4 length sleeves. I underestimated how much yarn the front lacy cables required and still ended up short on yarn. Hence, my sleeves are just above the elbow. After the body of the sweater was finished, I had one ball of yarn left for each sleeve. I did a provisional cast-on for each sleeve, knitting about one inch before doing the cap, and then picked up the stitches and knit until I ran out of yarn.

I made the front panel cables mirror images of each other. I did not see that stated in the pattern instructions, but I think it looks better than way, especially since I am fastening the sweater at one central point. The symmetry also looks better in the back where bands join together. I omitted the waist ribbing. I think I prefer the look of one sleek sheet of stockinette. On the front bands, I slipped the first stitch. For the bottom ribbing, I just used the same needle size and cast on the same number of stitches as the body instead of doing a finer gauge with narrower ribbing. I was too lazy to do the latter.

These are just so cute

These are just so cute. I bought one from CB2 a couple of years ago, and I love it. Now Cost Plus World Market is selling them. I should get another one.

FO from a few years back

I knit a sweater for Henry, the son of a former co-worker, a few years ago when he turned one. I don't have much experience with baby sweater sizes, and it was a bit big for a one year old. Maybe "a bit big" is an understatement. Henry wore his sweater to his first day of pre-school! He's definitely stylin'.

I don't even remember what I used for the base pattern. I think it was a free ravelry download for a plain toddler's vest and I embellished it with a simple cable down the front.