Saturday, March 2, 2013

The return of the sweater (and some hats)

Last year was all about the baby sweaters - I think I ended up knitting a dozen of them? Since I knit 11 sweaters in 2011, I was really burned out on large garments. I actually haven't knit an adult sweater since December 2011 - with the exception of the Alberta vest for Mr. Anderson on commission this past fall.

A combination of feeling oppression by my gigantic yarn stash, as well as having a yearning for a good sweater, has led me to pull out some KP Palette in my stash and find a pattern. I have 4.5 skeins of Silver and the better part of a skein of Sweet Potato, so not a ton of yardage. I decided to knit Paulie, even though I don't have enough yarn. I'm knitting a size smaller than I usually would, with larger needles for a looser gauge. I hope it maximizes my yardage, and I will likely end up doing short sleeves too. I'm also skipping the shawl collar. There are some really gorgeous projects on Ravelry without the shawl collar and it will be another way to skimp on yardage. I'm working on the garter yoke now, and am excited to see if my plotting worked out.

Prior to this sweater, I whipped up some hats with some of the yarn I bought when we were in Milwaukee a few weeks ago. I knit this hat for Brian out of the Mountain Colors Crazyfoot he picked out:

It's a modified version of the Molly hat. Brian requested a slouch hat in lightweight yarn, with cables. Seeing Christie's Molly hat really inspired me, and I monkeyed with the pattern to make it work with my yarn. I cast on 120 stitches and increased to 132 after the ribbing. I repeated the cable three times around the hat. Brian really likes it, which is always thrilling! He likes to make mean faces when I'm trying to make him model finished projects, though.

I knit myself a new hat too, using the Noro Silk Garden Lite I got on sale at Midwest Yarns in Milwaukee. The pattern is Rikke, and i have been super into stripes lately. I used some random gray yarn from my stash for the contrast color, and I think it really shows off the transitions of the Noro.

It's really hard to take pictures of your own head, by the way.

This hat is truly phenomenal and I want to knit one billion more of them! When I finish my sweater, of course...

Finally, I just have to say I am really excited for spring. This is our second spring on our little farmstead, and I can't wait to get the chickens and garden going. I loved the snowy winter we had, and I'm ready for the next season's transition!

 

1 comment:

  1. Wow, Paulie is super cute! Love the hats too.

    (I like to make mean/silly faces in the mirror in the morning when I'm getting ready for work so I get it.)

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