Wednesday, December 06, 2006

I love to knit

You know what? I love to knit. There's no hiding the fact. I enjoy the process and the product. I think it's so neat I can whip up a hat in one evening or knit a complicated scarf that will take days and days all with a couple sticks and some yarn. I can't get enough of the textures and colors and the patterns.

Monday night I started another gift scarf. It's the Interlocking Balloons pattern from Scarf Style. The yarn is KnitPicks Merino Style in Dusk and it is lovely and squishy. I've only done two of the 10 repeats, but it's moving along pretty well now. It was slow going in the beginning as I had to adjust to the complicated looking chart, but it is getting easier and the result is so cool. I love the undulating lines of ribbing.

I'd read the yardage requirement may be a bit off in the pattern so I made sure I bought a couple extra skeins as the person this is for likes long scarves (who doesn't?). So far, one skein got me 15 inches in and just over two repeats. I have 4 skeins left - Looking good! (It irks me to ask such a sexist question, but here goes, the color is ok for a guy, right? It's an intense, but dark blue.)

So, last night after knitting the scarf for a little while I decided to make a hat to go with a scarf I started (but haven't finished) last month. I haven't blogged about the scarf since I only worked on it at a couple knitting group nights and then it got shoved off to the side. The yarn is from the ebay seller 100purewool and it feels like Malabrigo. It's from Uruguay (as is Malabrigo) and comes in fantastic colors (like Malabrigo). It's sold at a very very good price and knits up wonderfully so it's a favorite of mine. :)


The scarf is just a sideways garter stitch. I kind of just cast on lots and lots (maybe around 240?) and started knitting in garter stitch. I put it on hold when I came to the end of the first of three balls since I wanted to be sure I had enough to make a hat and maybe mittens too.

The hat took nearly a whole ball - probably around 160 yards (each ball is 218 yards). I'm debating whether to go ahead and knit the mittens and risk having a narrow scarf or just tossing the mitten idea and finishing the scarf making it really wide. What do you all think? (I think I'm leaning towards mittens...)

Here are the details on the hat:
Pattern: Based on the hat pattern in Ann Budd's Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns (I added a little more slope to the decreases at the crown)
Yarn: From Ebay Seller 100purewool
Needles: Size 6 (denise set) with a gauge of 5 stitches per inch
Date Knit: December 5, 2006




***Knitting Group is tonight (Wednesday) at the Borders' Cafe in Wilmette (corner of Lake & Skokie). We meet from 6:30 until 8:00 and any yarn enthusiast is welcome!***

7 comments:

Dave said...

That's a very okay guy colour. :-)

Love the Malabrigo-type yarn!!

Anonymous said...

Guys are funny sometimes when it comes to colors and mostly it depends on the guy. I usually keep to blues, blacks, browns and grey when knitting for them-it's turning out very lovely.

Now, if I were to pick a combination...go with hat and mittens. I like the idea of a scarf that compliments the other two.

Just want to say...great Blog! I always enjoy looking at your creations, you knit so fast...it's making me a tad jealous, since I've been knitting the same hat for about a week!

Anonymous said...

I have 14 skeins of yarn from that seller...that I purchased a year ago. I was planning on making a felted vest for a friend...and that obviously didn't happen!

I also lean towards mittens, but then I love mittens!

Kim in Oregon said...

You love to knit? Who knew?

And are you working your way through every scarf in Scarf Style now?

Monika said...

What? You like to knit? Wouldn't have guessed! ;o) I like this scarf from scarf style very much. I've seen it all over blogger land, but each time with a different color and it's always so gorgeous!

aija said...

I love that blue for a guy (have a baby sweater for my boy in the same). The horizontal scarf is going to be awesome... I need to knit one of those sometime.

mle said...

I think that color will be fine for a guy....in fact, that exact color is my husband's favorite. Yeah, I say go for the hat and mittens! That yarn looks really warm and cozy!