Leap Day, Free Day!

Leap day is the perfect day to give away another free pattern. Temperatures here in Fairbanks, Alaska are once again dipping down into the negatives so it’s time to get back to the warm stuff . I made this cowl for myself last month to help stay warm while outside at the start of the 2012 Yukon Quest and it worked so well I want to share it with everyone!

In-cowl-nito

This super bulky cowl will keep you warm in any weather; even a -30 degree day is no match for this thick cowl.  It may also help protect your identity, once you put on a hat all anyone will ever see is your eyes!

Hook: L

Yarn: 2 skeins Lion Brand Jiffy Thick & Quick or

              approximately 168 yards of Super Bulky yarn

Supplies: 3 buttons and matching thread

                        Yarn needle

Finished Size: 7.5 inches X 24 inches

Gauge: 8sts in pattern = 4 inches

Ch 57

Row 1: Hdc in third ch from hook and in each ch across (55 hdc).

Row 2: *Fpdc in next 5 hdc, bpdc in next 5 hdc, repeat from * across.

Rows 3-5: Fpdc in all fpdc and bpdc in all bpdc.

Row 6: *Bpdc in next 5 hdc, fpdc in next 5 hdc, repeat from * across.

Rows 7-9: Fpdc in all fpdc and bpdc in all bpdc.

Row 10: *Fpdc in next 5 hdc, bpdc in next 5 hdc, repeat from * across.

Rows 11-13: Fpdc in all fpdc and bpdc in all bpdc.

Weave in ends

Sew the 3 buttons evenly along one side. (The natural holes in the fabric will be your button holes).

If you have a bit of yarn left over it looks very nice, if you have extra room in your buttons, to sew over the thread with the yarn.

Ch – chain

Hdc – half-double crochet

Fpdc – front post double crochet

Bpdc –back post double crochet

Now you can all go out in-cowl-nito and cause some Leap Day mischief! 

Long Weekends are for Knitting

         This was a very productive President’s day weekend. I finished knitting my Ruffled Neck Kerchief by Laura Irwin from Boutique Knits (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ruffled-neck-kerchief). Once you get to the color change it goes so much faster than you'd ever think.

           I even started blocking it this morning! (I always procrastinate the blocking process, it's so boring when I could be knitting something else.) I also finished my green cabled hat, but I apparently didn't think to take any pictures of it. The hat  is also currently in the blocking process.

            I even made fairly good progress on my new project, Button Flap Fingerless Mitts by Missy Angus (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/button-flap-fingerless-mitts).

All in all, a good weekend!

Back to Knitting!

           I've been obsessively knitting the Ruffled Neck Kerchief (http://www.ravelry.com/projects/mransome/ruffled-neck-kerchief) from Boutique Knits by Laura Irwin for the past week. I’m a bit further than what this picture shows but I can’t put it down any longer than it takes to write this post/make dinner. (I like to multi-task). I'm actually to the color change part. Yay! I'm really liking the lavender and brown together. 

          There’s something special about a nice easy lace pattern that you memorize quickly. You just want to do one more row, it won’t take long…several hours later…one more row then I’ll stop, I swear! It seems like a bit of a knitting black hole, but I’m loving the black hole, I can’t get enough of it. I want to keep knitting this. I want to knit something else, but I don’t mind knitting this if that’s what it takes. (I realize that most of this may not make sense, I didn’t really mean for it to. It wrote itself.) 

Back to knitting!

Happy Valentine’s Day

          I haven’t been knitting or crocheting much in the past few days. I’m burnt out after 139 hearts for Valentine’s Day to be honest. Call me crazy, but it was a lot and I hurt my thumb pushing in all the thumb tacks to hold the darn thing up. I just needed a break. I did find a home for my leftover hearts.

          I've still been working on my green hat, I think I’m ready to decrease now, but it isn’t ready to make an appearance. Today I felt inspired enough to begin working on a new project. Ruffled Neck Kerchief by Laura Irwin (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ruffled-neck-kerchief) from Boutique Knits. I’ve been staring at my yarn for ages trying to decide what to use. After much deliberation, I decided some Dale of Norway Baby Ull would be wonderfully soft and use up some of my yarn stash. Then I just had to choose a color, which is easier said than done (I have two boxes on my shelves stuffed with it).  First it was going to be dark blue and orange, then dark blue and white, and then finally I completely changed my mind and went with brown with lavender.

          I’m hoping to use straight needles for this project, not that I don’t like circular needles; I just love straight needles. I only had straight needles for many years and my collection has a lot of sentimental value to it beyond that. They live in this vase they look a bit messy, but I’m mostly blind to the mess. I like to stare at them sometime and remember all the projects I’ve knit on them. I remember knitting my first blanket on the pink size 5’s, the pillow cover I failed to make on the weird flexible green size 10’s, the many dishcloths that have come off the size 7's, and the awful scarf I made with the sticky yarn that took the paint off the tips of the size 8’s. Circular needles come and go as they break apart at the seams, but straight knitting needles, they last a lifetime. 

Happy Valentine's Day!!! 

Finished Hearts!

           Today I finally finished my heart garland (Crochet Heart Garland by Sarah Anderson Designs http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/crochet-heart-garland-3). I’m so happy, I even have leftover hearts! 

           There were a whole 11 hearts left over, I had made an extra 6 on purpose assuming that my math would be wrong. I’m just glad I was wrong in the right direction. The 11 extra hearts can find a home somewhere else tomorrow; this took most of the afternoon all by itself. Almost all of the living room furniture had to be moved to hang the garland up. I don’t think I’ll ever take them down.

I also found the time to rip out my new green hat down to the ribbing and re-design it. I decided to make up my own cables as I go along and see if it turns out.

I’m much happier with it now! What a great day (at least yarn-wise, dinner was only little stuck to the tin foil)! 

A Hat and A Cupcake

          Today I ignored my Valentine’s Day project in favor of a brand new hat. I love making new hats. This time I’m designing my own hat with a few different cables from The Knitter’s Bible by Claire Crompton. 

I've been looking for the right pattern for this yarn for ages but nothing I started ever seemed quite right. This yarn is absolutely beautiful, Galway Highland Heather color 741; it is an amazing mix of yellows, greens, and blues. My only problem so far with this hat is that I keep losing my cable needle; so I took a knitting break to make a solution.

It’s so much easier to stick my cable needle in this cupcake than lose it once more to the couch cushions. The pattern is Quick Cupcake by Hannah Kaminsky (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/quick-cupcake). I added the cherry on top and half filled it with rice to make it heavier and steadier. So far it’s been a life saver. Tomorrow it’s back to working on my heart project with a fresh skein of Cherry Red Red Heart Super Saver!

Yukon Quest

          Today was the start of the 2012 Yukon Quest sled dog race. It’s quite an event in little Fairbanks, AK. I think most of the town showed up this morning even with the -20 degree temperatures.

           We braved the cold and took off some of our winter gear to take these pictures on a bridge over the Chena River. Later on we were down on the ice as the racers started one by one at the yellow banner down there behind us. It was freezing out there! We only stayed for the first 4 teams to leave before heading inside to warm up/do a little shopping. We decided to sponsor a mile of the race (mostly because they gave us a cool button).

          There’s also a raffle that we most likely won’t win especially because the name is register as “OAF” who happens to be…

…a bear! Either way it was a lot of fun to get out on the ice. Everyone was so bundled up we couldn’t find anyone we knew but I always enjoy trying to decide whose hats, gloves, and scarves are hand knit. It makes for a fun game when you’re waiting around!

          The day was even more successful when we stopped at a thrift store and I found some great yarn.

           Two skeins of Brunswick Ballybrae! They smell a bit old, but it’s nothing a little airing out won’t solve and I was lucky that one still had the label on it. I’m thinking I’ll use it to make the Miercoles Tam by Quenna Lee from the Winter 2011 issue of Knitscene. I love cables that make a flower at the top of a hat; it’s such a nice surprise. It works out even better when you’re short, like me, so most people can see the top of your head. 

         

          I leave you with a picture of the dogs starting the race!

Day of Hearts

           Today is the day of the hearts. For several weeks I’ve been working on Crochet Heart Garland by Sarah Anderson Designs (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/crochet-heart-garland-3). At first I thought it would nice to have a strand hang over our bay window and that I’d have to make 30 or 40 at the most and call it a day. Those plans drastically changed when I made a joke about them going all the way around the living room and my wonderful husband thought it would be a great idea. I already had a great big stack of them so I thought sure, how hard could that be?

Skip ahead a few weeks to now and 2 ½ skeins of Red Heart Super Saver later and you have...

          That is 130 hearts and I’m out of yarn again. Based on room sized I’ve estimated I’m going to need at least 136 hearts to make it around the room. All I can say it that my math had better be right or this may all end in tears. I keep recounting the hearts I have because I just don’t believe I’ve made that many. It’s a great pattern though, only 3 rounds and easy to memorize. I make them whenever I have a spare 5 minutes. I’m excited to get chaining and have this hung up before Valentine’s Day. I’m going to need some really good Valentine’s chocolate when I finish!

An Early Valentine’s Day Present!

        Valentine's Day is coming! Only 12 knitting days left before one of my favorite holidays (for chocolate reasons). I’m currently working on a very big home decorating Valentine’s Day project, which I will post details of later. Additionally, I finished another Valentine's Day project last month and it’s a present for YOU!

© My Slouchy Valentine ©

Materials:

Red Heart Super Saver: Cherry Red (MC), White (CC) 1 skein of each

16” circular needles, US sizes 7 & 9

Double Pointed needles size 9

Yarn Needle

Gauge: 20 sts = 4 inches using larger needles and working stockinette stitch

Pattern:

Using smaller needles CO 80 sts.

Set Up Section:

Using larger needles,

Rounds 1- 10: Work K2, P2 rib 10 rows.

Round 11: *K4, M1, repeat from * around.

Round  12: Knit all sts.

Round  13: *K5, M1, repeat from * around.

Round 14: Knit all sts.

Work the 30 rows of the Chart.

Knit 2 rows.

Decrease Section:

Round 1: *K4, k2tog, repeat from * around.

Round 2: Knit.

Round 3: *K3, k2tog, repeat from * around.

Round 4: Knit.

Round 5: *K2, k2tog, repeat from * around.

Round 6: Knit.

Round 7: *K1, k2tog, repeat from * around.

Rounds 8- end: K2tog until 5 sts remain.

Cut yarn, thread through remaining stitches and pull tight.

Weave in ends.

Heart Chart

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9

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Abbreviations:

CO – Cast On

K – Knit

P – Purl

M1 – Make one stitch

St(s) – Stitch(es)

K2tog – Knit 2 stitches together

Enjoy!