New Spring

The weather has started to warm up a little bit around here and I am very happy about that. I know that as a knitter, I should like the winter and cold, snowy weather - but I just don't. Give me a warm sunny day and put me on the beach and I am truly a happy camper. Needless to say, I am looking forward to spring and I have more than a few knitting projects lined up which i am very excited about..

I recently purchased this book:

This is Kim Hargreaves book from last spring and I absolutely LOVE it. I am not lying when I tell you that I want to knit every single thing in it. And I have already started on this:

This is the beginnings of Starr. A lovely cable and lace hat pattern. I have been on quite a hat kick lately. I know.

I have also purchased some lovely blue silk yarn for a little shrug, which I cannot wait to cast on for.


.....and I have more yarn on the way. I will have to keep you posted!

FO: Norie

After my last hat mishap (the cabled one that turned out too small), I still needed a new hat. I decided to knit Norie, a very slouchy hat pattern - but very pretty with cat's paw lace panels.

Pattern: Norie by Gudrun Johnston
Yarn: Quince & Co. Chickadee in the colorway Frank's Plum
Needles: size US 5
Mods: I only knit 3 repeats of the lace panels instead of 4. It turned out slouchy enough for me at this length.

I really like the way this turned out - I think it is really cute. I absolutely love the yarn and I have been looking for an excuse to try out Quince & Co. It was a dream to knit with, the color is so vibrant and saturated and for a yarn that is 100% wool it is so soft. The price is amazing as well. I think that this is going to become my go-to yarn. I really enjoyed knitting this hat.

FO: Cabled Cardigan

I have been wanting to knit this sweater since I bought the Fall 2006 issue of Vogue Knitting. I was a newbie knitter and at that point, I pretty much knew how to knit and how to purl and I had never even attempted something as big as a sweater. I was 8 months pregnant and I was knitting away on a garter stitch baby blanket (which turned out really terrible - I feel so bad for my little boy). Cue to 5 years later - I finally did it!

Pattern: #19 Cabled Cardigan by Margaret O'Leary from the Fall 2006 issue of Vogue Knitting
Yarn: Berroco Peruvia in Gris Claro
Needles: size US 8 and 10
Mods: added 3 inches to the length and added an extra buttonhole

I absolutely love the way this turned out. It fits really well. It is so wearable and so warm. It was a relatively quick knit because of the chunky yarn. I finished the back, fronts, and sleeves pretty quickly and sewed them all together and the collar/button bands were knit on last. I figured that they would go quickly as well (its only the collar, right?) but they took forever and they also took up 2 skeins of yarn! Isn't that always the way things work out? The only thing that I don't love about this sweater is that the button bands are double thickness of chunky yarn and then doubled again when buttoned and I think that it makes me look like I had a double cheeseburger for lunch.

The yarn is wonderful. It is 100% wool and I can officially say that this is the warmest sweater that I own. It blocked out beautifully and has worn pretty well so far with very minimal pilling. I would definitely use this yarn again. I am so glad that I waited to knit this sweater because it turned out just perfectly.