Month O'Socks: Froot Loop

 Today, I completed another pair of socks for this years Month O'Socks (MOS). These socks are for my husband. The pattern is Froot Loop and the yarn is Knit Picks Felici (Firefighter). The pattern was quite simple and straightforward and the bright color sequence in the yarn kept things interesting. I am happy that the stripes match up in the two socks. No modifications here.

 Next I am going to cast another pair of socks. I had wanted to finish that too in the Month O'Socks but it is not possible now with only three days remaining till February 15, when MOS ends. Let us see how much I can manage.

Girl Friday

My Girl Friday cardigan is all done. The pattern was straight forward, the lace pattern, easy to memorize and execute. It was a totally relaxing knit, especially after the aborted attempt at Vine yoke cardigan. The only modification I did was knit all body pieces together and knit sleeves in rounds to minimize seaming. It is just right for the chilly January we are having, with its snug shawl collar and extra-long sleeves. The yarn is Knit Picks Wool of Andes (Grizzly Heather). I am still undecided about how many buttons I want, one single large one or multiple smaller ones. As I do not normally wear my cardigan buttoned to the bottom, I am inclined to go with a single button.
  Next, I have a long line up of smaller projects for the coming month. More about those in the next post, inshaAllah.

Butterfly Garden

This is a pair of socks I started around Eid. The yarn is Knit Pics Stroll Tonal (springtime) and I, very non originally, decided to knit a pattern which was featured in same colorway. So, no surprises in the FO, it looks almost identical to the photo featured in the pattern. However, I did a few modifications and added the lace strip at the back of the leg and did a couple of extra repeats.This toe-up pattern is easy enough to fellow and memorize and I made sure I bound off very loosely, so as not to have a tight picot edging. And I am particularly partial to the butterflies on the top.

Scrappy Doll

I stumbled across this cute pattern at ravelry and was tempted to knit it, as it seemed to be a quick, easy knit, I had just the right scrap wool for the project and I wanted to reacquaint myself with felting.

The pattern instructions were excellent, except for the head size which was quite large compared to the torso. So, I had to decapitate the doll and re-knit the head from the neck up, making the neck thinner (18sts instead of 24) and less increases for the head (48 sts instead of 60).

  The doll itself takes little time to knit (I did it in a day) but the felting, drying, stuffing and the making up took a lot longer. I stayed up well into the night, the second day to do the face and hair. Instead of the leggings I opted for shorts and changed color at feet to make shoes. Then I embroidered the shoes with white yarn to make Mary Janes and knit some frilly socks.

Next, the doll needed some clothes and by this time, I was pushing to get it done. Thus came into being this little blue dress with a crochet heart and edging.

 Here is the doll finally done and dressed.

  It was surprisingly well received by my daughter whose tastes in toys go after her elder borher and she can not be bothered with dolls as a rule. But she was enamored enough to take it to bed with her last night.Not so surprising, was the envious reaction of my son, who has supplied me with various sketches for the Lego superheroes for me to knit and has extracted a promise from me to see if I can knit those too. Sigh, a scrappy doll is not so simple a knit after all.

Shetland Baby Blanket/Shawl

 This project has been the cause of my recent absence. It took about three weeks of totally monogamous and dedicated knitting. We are expecting a baby in summer, inshaAllah. This blanket marks the official start to my baby knitting. I also plan to do a bit of sewing.

Coming back to the FO, the pattern is a vintage Shetland shawl pattern, rewritten and made available free. (edited 2016:  It is no longer available for free). I first stumbled on the Danish translation of the pattern whose ravelry  page has some gorgeous FOs).

 I used Knit Picks Palette (white) and 4 mm needles. I modified it to knit it in round (except for the edging). The details are on my ravelry project page.This omitted most of the seaming but called for very long rows/rounds. It did get a bit tedious in the end with the edging, though thankfully it was easy to memorize. Now that the blanket is done, I am again in love with it. It blocks out to a large size of 130 x130 cm, which is good, seeing how we will have the baby grown a bit, inshaAllah, by the time winter arrives.

Shawl Update

It seems to be taking so long but it is growing. I manage to work for an hour on it on weekdays, if I am lucky.  Just about to finish the first repeat of the repeat section at this point:

 I am also working on a cardigan but it is no more than a pile of plain stockinette stitch at this point. SO a picture will have to wait till its finished.

Sunburst Cardigan

 So, it has been test knit and put up for sale at my ravelry store. It is the adult version of my earlier Sunburst Coat. I had a great set of test knitter for this one too and you can also see their FOs at the store.

Yarn weight:  Aran / 10 ply (8 wpi)

Gauge:  15.5 stitches and 24 rows = 4 inches in st st on 5 mm needles

Needle size:US 6 - 4.0 mm, US 8 - 5.0 mm

Yardage: 1000 - 1800 yards (914 - 1646 m)

Sizes available: 34(36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56) inches 

Finished Measurements:
Bust: 34(36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56) inches.
Length: 21.5 (21.75, 22, 22.75, 23, 23.25, 24, 24.25, 24.5, 25.25, 25.5, 25.75) inches.
Armhole/yoke depth: 8 (8.25, 8.5, 8.75, 9, 9.25, 9.5, 9.75, 10, 0.25, 10.5, 10.75) inches.
Body length: 13.5 (13.5,13.5, 14, 14, 14, 14.5, 14.5, 14.5, 15, 15,15) inches.
Sleeve length (to underarm): 17 (17, 17.5, 17.5, 18, 18, 18.5, 18.5, 19, 19, 19.5, 19.5) inches.
Includes charts for lace with written pattern instructions.

Rainbows

A few months ago, while buying some yarn from Knit Picks, I happened upon this colorway of Felici (Rainbow) and had to get a ball. I intended to make a pair of socks out of it for my daughter. Good thing I did, the colorway has sold out since then.

   So this week I finally started the socks and those being for a four year old, knit up quite fast. To spice things up, I decided to try my hand at entrelac. There were many beautiful entrelac sock projects at ravelry to inspire me. Even though it was my first entrelac project and I was not following any pattern, I was determined to do the heel and toes in entrelac.

 Heels were an easy affair but the toes required some frogging and reknitting. It turned out of a most vibrant pair of socks.

    The fun did not stop here as I still had some leftover yarn. So I knit up a simple kerchief too! So much fun with a small ball of yarn!