Smaller Things

With our temperatures rapidly climbing and the weather turing unusually hot for this time of the year, I have quite lost the will to work on my cardigan. Instead, I did reorganisation of my yarn stash and decided to knit up some cotton yarns to free up some space. Two potholders and two dischcloths later, I had managed to use an equivalent of only two balls of yarn.

The potholders are crocheted while the dishcloths are knit.

Anyway, the potholders are pretty awesome and performing very well in the kitchen. The dishcloths have not been used as of now, but I can foresee their use in the near future.

I am already looking for some other small knitting or crochet project. Any ideas? 

Craft Break

The final examinations are over and the school is out for the older kids, so I have a bit more free time, Alhamdolillah. I have been putting that time to good use by expanding my craft horizons. I have been indulging in clay art and jewelry making. Only a beginner in both, I have had a lot of fun with both. My oldest daughter joins in the fun and has been enjoying herself a good deal. We made some fridge magnets, candle holders and heaps of jewelry.

 Besides all that and a bit of sewing, I also managed to start the colorwork cardigan that I was hoping to, in the last post. I have never made a colowork sweater for myself and had been wanting to for some time.

 The pattern is a DROPS free pattern, but I decided to knit it from the top down. The yoke is done and I am halfway down the body now. It is looking good, though the progress has been slow on 3 mm needles. I am thinking of adding the colorwork to the sleeve cuffs. That should keep it interesting.

Driftwood Cardigan

The plain black sweater is finally done and I have been wearing it for many days. It is warm and comfortable. Its construction was a bit weird in that the pattern asked for too many sts in the underarm area. Also, the neck was too gaping. I will have to live with the former issue, but fixed the later by doing a row of slip st crochet with a smaller-sized hook.

In the end, it has turned out almost just as I had wanted _ black, plain and comfortable. Next, I have some hankering for stranded work. I may already have cast on another cardigan.

Crocheted Moccasin: Toddler Version

This winter, I had multiple requests for knitted/crocheted slippers from my kids. I had planned to make three pairs but due to the relative shortness of our winter coupled with my relative lack of free time, I only managed to make one pair. I finished these in December, well before our floors got really cold. Not that it mattered much, my toddler would not wear them for more than half an hour at a time. So, basically these are more to be looked at and played with, than be worn.

Still, they do prove one point. That is, my Crocheted Moccasin pattern can be successfully  downsized to toddler size, with thinner yarn and hook. So they still might be worth something. Also, I made them to be a generous size and a four-year-old just might be more inclined to wear them than a three-year-old. We will know the answer next winter, in sha Allah.

Simple and Black

Before I got caught up in sewing my daughters' dresses for a family wedding, I had cast-on for a black cardigan. I needed one for routine use, and considering how black (and sparkly black at that ) can be a difficult color, I wanted a plain sweater. And I wanted to knit contiguous sleeves. And I was feeling too lazy to figure out the details on my own. So I searched and found a free, contiguous pullover pattern and chose to knit it as a cardigan.

This is how far I came, before the wedding sewing put the inevitable pause in my knitting:

 As you can see, I have divided for sleeves and from now onwards, it is just rows of simple stockinette stitch, with a little bit of waist shaping. I hope to resume work on it in a couple of days. It is going to be an loosely-fitting, cozy sweater. For this season or next.

Poppy II

So the first finished project of 2017 gets to be a hat. More specifically a school hat for mu pre-schooler. She would wear no hat except her older sister's Poppy, so I decided to make her one of her own. This one too, is in DK weight, yarn probably being some ancient wool blend, I got from my mother-inlaw. It got done well before the preschool reopens on Monday, just right in the chillest and rainy part of our winter.

Lemongrass

This pattern must be easy to adapt, because I successfully managed it with different yarn weight, needle size and guage, considering too, that I knit this adult-sized sweater for my 10 year old. The ease was for most part due to the top-down construction and loose fit.

 

 I simply cast on with the sts for smallest size and winged it from there. I did do little math and worked out the number of sts I needed to have at the underarm, considering my gauge. (I do not remember the exact number, as it was mostly in my head). I also drove my daughter crazy, having her try it on several times along the way. Beyond the armholes it was all plain sailing.

 

The yarn is our good old acrylic. I am planning on adding a third button to the sides, to decrease gaping. Other than that, it is all done and looks good.