Knitting Update

I've been knitting and knitting.  Although that's not unusual, my schedule has been a bit wacky with the new jobs so there is some getting use to the time frames and such.  This scarf has been completed for about a week and put me right on target for the Christmas gift knitting.  I love the dyed job on this yarn and am tempted to keep it.  I mean I won't, but I'm tempted. 

I finished this lovely Wingspan in record time and with the completion of this item I am ahead of my gift knitting time line.  This was knit with some of my hand spun and it turned out even better than I had expected.  The Wingspan is a great pattern for hand spun yarn, and gift knitting.

This is my current gift knitting project.  I've used this yarn before and was looking for an excuse to use it again.  This is a little shawl scarf I found on Revelry.com.  It's super simple to knit and the primrose edging makes the knitting interesting and adds a feminine touch.  The pattern is called Prim's Scarf and is Hunger Game themed, although other than the edging and the name of the pattern I feel it's a stretch.  The pattern however is great and I might make a second one of these. 

I am still knitting away on my hoodie.  Look I'm almost done with one sleeve.  The plan is to have this completed right before the fall so that when the weather turns chilly I have a cozy hooded sweater to wear around the city. 

New Pattern: Textured Triangle Scarf

Here it is! My newest pattern the Textured Triangle Scarf.  This pattern is a fun twist on a classic triangle shawl.  Knit from side to side it is an easy and interesting garment.  You can knit this shawl with any gauge yarn and needle although the pattern was designed with worsted weight yearn and size US 8 needles.  Check it out in my Etsy Shop.   

I aggressively blocked this shawl and now it it cuddly and I can't wait for the weather to be cool enough for me to wear it.!

Also, Congrats to Lee, winner of the pattern giveaway.  Email me with your choice of hat. 

Beginner Guide to Knitting Part IV: Knitting

Now that you have stitches on the needle its time to learn to knit! This is the fun part. In this guide I am going to show you the continental style of knitting. What this means is that you will hold your yarn in your left hand, and "pick" the yarn with your right hand needle. The other popular style is English knitting, where your yarn is held in you left hand and wrapped around the needle.

Hold the needle with your stitches in your left hand and your empty needle in your right hand. Wrap your yarn around your left index finger. Insert your right hand needle into the first stitch on your left hand needle. Insert your needle front to back from the left side of the loop, as seen in photo below.


Wrap yarn around right hand needle.


Pull wrapped yarn through stitch on left hand needle creating a loop on the right hand needle.


Slip loop off of left hand needle.

There you have it the a knit stitch. Continue in this manner till there are no more stitches left on your needle. When you have done this you have completed one row of knitting. Switch you needles in your hands and begin your second row.

Beginner Garter Stitch Scarf
Garter stitch is the result of knitting all of your stitches on each row. Its a great way to become framiler with the knit stitch
Using the backwards loop cast on, Cast on 20 stitches
Knit all
continue knitting until your scarf measures 60" or desired length.
Bind Off (check back next Tuesday for a look at how to Bind Off)

Knitting Resources
Which Style Should You Learn?
Learn to knit: knit stitch, video tutorial
Knitting-Basic Knit Stitch (continental), video tutorial

Finished Projects

Simon and I had a photo shoot yesterday. This means I finally have photos of things I have finished.

This was my Oz plan ride project. It is a modular shawl. It was a lot of fun to knit and super easy you only ever had 60 sts on your needle. I finished this while I was in Australia sometime in March.

The lace Ribbon Scarf, I knit this last Thanksgiving! I never blocked it till after I got home from Oz and now its finally chilly enough to wear.

This one is a design from No Two Snowflakes. The pattern is the Katrina Ballerina Layering Lace Cardi. I knit this almost two years ago...almost...ok maybe more like a year and a half. I finished the knitting in June of 2009, but didn't sew buttons on the thing for almost 6 months.

This is one of my favorite sweaters that I knit. It is the February Lady Sweater and I knit it last January to wear on the plan to Australia. I can tell you right now that I didn't wear it at all in Oz. This sweater also had an extended stay in Oz. I couldn't fit it in my luggage so it stayed in Australia till Simon brought it back with him in August. Much like the lace ribbon scarf I am excited that the weather is perfect for this sweater.

This piece is more recent. I blogged about it in October in the post Get Knitting, where I lamented the errata in the pattern and the yardage being off and needing a solution for my lack of yarn. Well I solved that by using some black wool and silk I bought at Nangellini. The rest of the red wool was added to my sleeves and then I finished the sleeves and button band in black. I like the contrast and think it looks much nicer than using all one color.

I was especially excited about the buttons I found, gold with black in the center I think they give me sweater a very sophisticated look. I block this sweater a week ago and just sewed the buttons on Saturday. I am definatly taking this up to my family's house for Thanksgiving this week.

Sneak Peek

Here is a sneak peek at the new scarf pattern that will be listed in my etsy shop on Monday October 19th.

I had a ton of fun coming up with this idea and can't wait to share more with everyone.

This pattern is super fast and relatively easy. It's knit in a bulky wool so it's warm and fast.

Lady of Leisure

I am a lady of leisure today. It is a day off for me. I slept in to almost noon, watched the end of Pride and Prejudice, knit on my lace (which is huge!) and now I'm going to actually do some errends and work.

Tonight Simon and I are going to a brithday party at our favorite watering hole the Nodding Head.

I designed a new scarf and my replace the knit mesh scarf with the on I just made. The new one is easier to create and way more interesting than the first one. I haven't started on my scarves so it will be easy to replace the old ones with the new design.

TTFN

Bananans

Like I said, I've been working on my spring line and here is the first item that will make the cut. This is a mesh knit banana silk scarf. I have two , and i'm keeping the blue one!
I haven't set a date for the release of my spring line yet. I felt that April was too late, but I'm not sure if I will be ready by March. I think I'm going to try mid March. That gives me time to order my supplise and get a small stock together.


With these scarves I may knit them in two solid colors and one varrigated. I haven't totally decided. Now I have to wait for my yarn samples to arrive to press on.

Candy stripes

I dyed this yarn a year ago and found it while I was going through my stash. It was a nice wool that I hand painted in yellow, orange and pink. I carried a strand of cream mohair with it, and it reminded me of these citrus candies my grandma use to get that looked like slices of lemons and oranges.

Another

Another one! I'm back on the scarves. This one is a hand dyded cotton linen blend with some nylon ladder yarn running through. I worked this scarf lengthwise and striped the hand dyed and the ladder yarn. I used huge needles US 17, not my 35's, but pretty beefy. This one came out super long.

Blue Betty is Open!!

I opened my Etsy shop tonight!!
Vist me at bluebettyshop.etsy.com, as of right now I only have four things up, but soon there will be more!

I really can't contain myself, I finally opened my Etsy shop for real real. I've been thinking about this for about five months and I've been activly planning for about two months.

The scarfs in the pic are in my shop, well the purple one and the green one are. I'll psot the yellow one in a day or two. But that's enough about me i'm listening to the world series game and hoping for a Phillies win. This waiting for the finish of the game has been so hard. The city is so energized, I'm so excited to be living in this city at this time.

More for later!

GO PHILLIES!!!

Purple Scarf

So maybe I did go Scarf Crazy. I started my third today and it's quite lovely. In my pile of yarn, that is mostly tucked away in a nice box/coffee table thing, I found this vibrent hand painted purple yarn. Bulky and wool so it will work up fast and be super warm. I'll post a pic when it's done. I'm a little less than half way through, but I expect to finish tonight durring the 5th game of the world series.

I like baseball, but I'm not a die hard. I have to admit that the world series being played in the city I live in is pretty awesome. I've watched every game, and am hoping for the final game to be tonight, knock on wood. The city of Philly will go crazy, and while I am slightly affarid of that I can't wait to see it happen.

Go Phillies!!!!

Scarf!

I went scarf crazy yesterday. Well maybe i wasn't that crazy, but i finished my friends birthday gift, which was a gray cat hat, by the way her birthday was in July, and felt that i could start another project. So i pulled out some bulky yarn from my stash my size 11 straight needles (vintage of course) and cast on a skinny scarf that ended up about 6 feet in length. I finished it las night whilw watching sex in the city.
I loved the way the colors moved in giant waves throught the yarn. This scarf is deffinate;ly a candidate for etsy