Shedir hat and mittens

hat_shedir_set
Originally uploaded by vampirefan

I really loved the Shedir hat pattern and the stash yarn I chose to make it with is so soft!

I wanted a stretchy edge so it wouldn't be tight around my head and after much searching, found that the Twisted German Cast On would do the trick.

When I was done I still had 2 balls left and thought it would be awesome to have some matching mittens. I looked around and didn't really find any Shedir inspired mittens so I decided to design them myself. 

I think they came out pretty good!

I'm putting the pattern together (and making a new, clean chart) so I hope to post it soon. 

Pattern Link:

• Shedir Hat (pdf)
  

Caston:

• Twisted German Cast On (google search - there are hundres of youtube videos and photo tutorials.)

Pirate Mittens

pirate mittens
Originally uploaded by vampirefan

Yay! I finished them! I think they came out pretty snazzy and I used way less yarn than I thought I would so there's still a lot of this salmony/pinkish yarn left over.

I then decided that I had to start another project so I cast on a hat. I learned a new cast-on method because I wanted something that was stretchy. After searching around quite a bit, it seemed that the Twisted German Cast On seemed to be the one people most suggested for stretchyness. I cast on the recommended 128 stitches 'cause I hate swatching and that turned out to be too much, so after a couple of rows, I frogged it and started over with fewer stitches - 116.

I guess that my thumb does a lot more work for this cast on 'cause the next day the area around my left thumb was killing me! It would cramp up and I had to keep massaging it to stop the pain.

I'm loving the hat though and the edge is definitely stretchy.

Mittens

A while back I promised my friend I'd make her Pirate Mittens. I finally started them the other day. I'm done with one mitten and have started the second, although I haven't taken more pictures yet.

When I told my best friend, she thought the mittens were really cool - and then she asked me: "What about MY (her) gloves?" Oops! I'm almost done with them. Really! Well, I've been almost done with them since December... I just need to make the fingers on the second glove. So after these mittens are done, I'll be finishing up her gloves. Then I can continue with my mom's shawl...and maybe start something else.

Pattern Link:

• Pirate Mittens
  

Heartland - first section

Heartland Lace Shawl
Originally uploaded by vampirefan

Here's the first photo!

I learned a new thing. Apparently, when you have a garter stitch edging, the best way to start out a shawl is by making a "tab".

In this case, I had to cast on 2 stitches, then knit 7 rows of garter stitch (that's knitting every row). Then, I turn the piece of knitting on it's side and pick up 3 stitches (one in each purl row) and then 2 in the 2 original stitches - making up a total of 7 stitches.

At first, when I read this explanation, I was a little confused and couldn't visualize it so I made one on some practice yarn and it was simple to understand once I followed the steps.

So far, I've only had to tink back 2 rows when I missed some YOs.

One thing that I realized almost immediately was that I cannot do this and talk or watch tv or whatever. I have to concentrate on the directions so no taking this to knit night or to work on while commuting.

Also, during my research, I noticed that many people talked about "life lines". This is a thin length of string (or someone even recommended dental floss) that you thread through the loops of one of the purl rows. You do this every few rows and can remove the prior one when adding a new one, if you prefer, always making sure to note which row you have lifelined. The purpose of it is to save yourself a ton of aggravation if you have to frog back some rows. Since the lace pattern will have many YOs and SSKs/K2TOG, it's really hard to keep track if you have to frog. With the lifeline, you simply rip back up to the lifeline and thread your needle back in and then start again from there without having to worry about dropped stitches.

I'll probably not work on this again until next week.

Heartland Shawl

I decided! I'm making the Heartland Lace Shawl. I cast it on last night and knit up the first section. I started out with 2 stitches and I'm up to 59.

I'm going to try to document my progress so photos will be coming soon.