Madhu Knits and Cooks

Trio of Baby Knits for Sam

I am still significantly backed up on blog posts, and perhaps no post exemplifies this sad state more than this post, which is 7- 8 months behind schedule.  Late last summer, I completed a trio of baby knits for baby Sam.  Sam was born in early summer, and I wasn't sure what best to knit - something that would help him transition to fall or winter knits to help keep him warm in long Chicago winters.  I ended up using my indecision as inspiration, and decided to knit a trio of items that could hopefully take Sam through the seasons.  Details about the vest and booties projects follow the picture below, and details about the petal bib can be found in an earlier post.

Vest for Sam

Pattern:  Oz Vest by Louisa Harding (Natural Knits for Babies and Moms), modified to cast on 78 stitches, improvised picked-up stitches for borders, left 5 stitches for each front shoulder to fit goal measurements.

Yarn:  Mission Falls 1824 Cotton, 1.9 skeins in Lemongrass (color 305)

Needles:  US6

Measurements:  Cast on 78 stitches with a goal of getting an 18-inch circumference vest.  Post-blocking measurements of 8 3/4 inches wide (17.5 inch circumference), 11 inches long, 4 inch long armholes, and neck opening 2.5 inches wide.

I generally liked this pattern, but did not like knitting with this relatively rough cotton.

Baby Booties for Sam

Pattern:  Boy's and Girl's Booties by Louisa Harding (also found in Natural Knits for Babies and Moms). I omitted the twisted cord ties.

Yarn:  Mission Falls 136 Superwash Merino in Oyster (color 003)

Needles:  I don't remember (clearly need to blog more frequently!)

Measurements:  Post-blocking measurements of 4 inch wide foot, 3 3/4 inches long from top to bottom, and 1 3/4 inch wide ankle.

My First Cowl -- A Cashmere Delight

It's rare that I actually design a project around using up yarn in my stash - particularly yarn that has been in my yarn "collection" for years.  I bought the yarn in question several years ago at School Products in NYC simply because I thought it was just beautiful - a multi-strand cashmere in which the colors just seemed perfect together.  I had no idea what I would use it for (a hat? a scarf? both, as the salesperson recommended?), but I am definitely glad I purchased it as it ended up being the perfect yarn for what has become my favorite accessory this winter, my new (and first!) cowl.  Hopefully, completing this project will help me embark on a year-long stash-busting effort?  Maybe I shouldn't get ahead of myself...in any case, project details follow the first two pictures!

Madhu's Cashmere Cowl

Pattern: I just did a broken rib (1 row of k1, p1 followed by a knit row), in the round, casting on 144 stitches for an ideal 44-inch cowl (approx. 13.5 stitches for 4 inches in my gauge swatch).

Yarn:  Multi-Strand Cashmere from School Products, used approx. 2/3 of the 290-yard skein.

Needles:  One US9 circular

Measurements:  The pre-blocked cowl was 44 inches long and 6 inches wide.  The post-blocking cowl was 52 inches long and 5 inches wide.  After almost daily use for one month, the cowl has grown slightly further to approx. 53 - 54 inches long.  Although the cowl is longer than I would like, I am still quite warm when I double wrap it around my neck (so it's not TOO loose double-wrapped, which is good to know for future cowls).

Ishbel Scarf/Shawl for My Mother

My mother celebrated a birthday this month, and my gift to her was a completed Ishbel scarf.  I settled on the Ishbel pattern after searching Ravelry for a project that might properly feature the Habu N-6B root sizing silk that I purchased at Churchmouse last year in Washington state.  

I am extremely happy with the result -- the slightly shimmery color of the brown silk is fantastic and the drape of the lacy scarf is lovely.  I do wish that I washed the scarf a few more times (I washed it three times, with two different light detergents) to completely eliminate the sizing from the material, but I got a little impatient after repeating the washing/blocking process three times.  The scarf was noticeably softer after each additional wash, and I think/hope it will probably continue to soften with use as well.  

The pattern itself was slightly difficult to complete with the Habu silk because the yarn was quite slippery, would too frequently split, and the texture made it difficult to accurately count the stitches, so I admit that I made a few mistakes with the pattern while knitting it.  I'll probably make a simpler project with the remaining skein of the silk that I have -- perhaps some sort of knit cuff or another accessory?

Additional project details follow the picture of the blocked Ishbel below.

Ishbel

Pattern:  Ishbel by Ysolda Teague

Yarn:  Habu Textiles N-6B, 3 skeins

Needles:  One US3 circular

Post-Blocking Measurements:  42 inches wide at its widest point, and 13 inches long at the center

Vest for 3-Year Old Henry!

In what has become an unsurprising opening for most of my blog posts, this latest knitting project has been over a year in the making.  And unfortunately for Henry, it was completed after the DC winter season (its now almost 90 degrees here!), so it may not be put into meaningful use until next fall.  But at least I finally finished it :-)

This children's vest turned out remarkably well -- I found the pattern on Ravelry, and ordered the pattern booklet, Sirdar's 324, online.  At first, I thought I would design the vest myself but I couldn't think of any interesting motifs to help make the vest more distinctive.  I'm glad I purchased this specific pattern booklet because it has a good range of children's patterns, which is where my knitting has been concentrated in recent months.  The yarn I used also turned out to be perfect as it produced a good mid-weight vest that can be used in both fall and winter, and it knit up fairly quickly on the needles.  I did convert the pattern to knit the pattern in the round (I hate seams!), and that was fairly simple.  The bulk of my "focused" time on the vest was spent on the neckband and armhole borders which required a fair amount of work with picking up a LOT of stitches. Details of the project follow the picture of Henry modeling the vest.

 

 Henry's Vest Project Details

Pattern:  Design G, Tank and Beanie, Size 3 -4 years.  Published in Sirdar 324, Vintage Snuggly DK Knits.

Yarn:  1.3 skeins (approx) of Mission Falls 136 Merino Superwash in 004 Charcoal.  0.2 skeins (approx) of Mission Falls Merino Superwash in 003 Oyster as the contrast yarn.

Needle:  2 size 4 circular needles for body of the vest, 2 size 3 circulars for the bottom, neck and armhole ribbing.

Post-Blocking Measurements:  26 inches wide (13 inches per side) by 15 1/4 tall (measured from bottom of vest to top of shoulder).  The armholes were 5 inches long, and the "v" of the neck was 6 inches long.  Although the gauge was slightly smaller than what was called for, the result perfectly measures to what the pattern calls for.

 

 

Soft Wool Blanket for a Newborn Baby Boy

I recently had the opportunity to knit a blanket for Mateo, who was born a healthy baby boy to Andy's cousin last month.  Unlike most of my recent knitting experiences, this was a relatively stress-free project planning experience.  I picked out a pattern pretty quickly in my fantastic Leisure Arts Baby Afghans book, and I was able to find a really great machine washable worsted weight wool yarn, Swish Worsted, at KnitPicks.com.  The knitting itself though was somewhat more stressful with me starting, finishing and blocking the blanket within a little over a week (I think I basically only knit, ate and slept the entire week, which happened to coincide with both the D.C. snowstorm and a nasty cold that I had that week).  The blanket probably took about 50 hours to complete.  Given the time crunch I felt that I was under, I ended up throwing the blanket in the dryer on just a no-heat cycle after blocking it overnight to get the rest of the water out.  That final step -- putting it in the dryer for about 15 minutes or so -- was exactly what this yarn needed for the pattern to truly take shape and for the yarn to get some "bounce" into the fibers.  I really loved using this yarn, and look forward to using it again for baby blankets given that it is 100% natural fibers and machine washable-- a fantastic combination for baby knits.

 

Mateo's Baby Blanket Project Details

Pattern:  Decked in Diamonds by Carole Prior, Published in Leisure Arts Our Best Knit Baby Afghans

Yarn:  7.2 balls (approx.) of KnitPicks.com Swish Worsted in color Bok Choy

Needle:  One Size 10 Circular, 30 inches long

Post-Blocking Measurements:  41 inches wide by 32.5 inches tall (wider and shorter than pattern original measurements; I wanted a slightly smaller blanket than the pattern called for)

 

Petticoat Socks for My Sister

In what I hope will become a more regular trend, my post today actually tracks the completion of my knitting projects!  Gone are the days of blogging about completed knitting projects weeks or months after they are blocked...at least I hope.  In any case, last week, I finished making a pair of Petticoat Socks, the pattern published by Veronik Avery in Weekend Knitting.  I made the socks for my sister, who is vegan, and admit taking a somewhat odd path to choosing this pattern.  More details follow the picture.

 

I first purchased the yarn after doing a fair amount of research online about easy-to-care and durable vegan sock yarns.  I ended up choosing Elann's Esprit, especially because I could find a wide array of available colors that my sister could select from.  My sister chose the pecan color (7625), and I ordered 3 balls because I had no idea if I would be knitting a long or short pair of socks.  I did a quick gauge swatch on size 3 circulars, and started to look for patterns -- and of course started by consulting Ravelry.com, Knitty.com and other websites.  Finding no patterns that I really liked, I started looking at my pattern books (you know, those things that, unlike the Internet, you actually pay money for because you think you'll really use them over the years) and found the Petticoat Socks pattern -- a pattern that I have literally flipped by for years with absolutely no interest in making.  The gauge matched up, the pattern seemed to be interesting enough to keep my interest through the entire project, and finally, I really did want to make my sister a pair of non-stockinette or otherwise "boring" socks.  

So away I went -- I made the two socks at the same time on two size 3 circulars (unfortunately not Addi Turbos, and I definitely noticed the difference).  I used less than 2 balls to create the socks, with maybe 10 yards of leftover yarn per ball.  The socks knit up fairly quickly, and I found the cushy cotton/elastic yarn somewhat fun to work with even though I am not necessarily the biggest fan of knitting with cotton.  However, because I am a tighter knitter, at times, I did have to consciously ease up my pull on the super-stretchy strands, which did break up the pace of knitting a bit.  Overall though, I don't think any potential inconsistency in my tension due to the additional elastic made a difference in the appearance or comfort of the socks.  If I had been working on Addis, this may have been less of a problem simply because I would have been moving faster through the stitches, but don't think I will shy away from using conventional needles with this yarn in the future.  After my sister washes these a few times, I'll try to post an update on how durable this yarn truly is in practice (for at least socks).

In terms of the pattern, I don't think this yarn blend was necessarily ideal to really showcase the delicate nature of the stitch pattern (particularly the hemmed top edge) but the result was still unique and exudes to the non-knitter a level of difficulty that exceeds that of what I actually experienced in making the socks.  In the future, if I decide to use this pattern again, I'll probably use a lighter weight soft wool blend.  And generally, for my next pair of vegan socks, I'll probably branch out and try some of the corn, soy or bamboo blends out there to see if they emulate wool a bit more in how they present more detailed patterns.

The final measurements, after blocking, are:

Foot length:  9.25 inches

Leg: 7 inches from top to bottom of heel

Circumference: 3.25 inches

Universal Toe-Up Socks for Andy

Andy recently (ok, more like two years ago) wanted a pair of long, handknit socks.  He thought that his last pair were a little too short, and for biking around in the winter, having a long pair of socks can make a big difference in one's comfort level.  He picked out a preferred color of yarn from Knit Picks, and even chose out a stitch pattern -- the Supple Rib in the 365 Knitting Stitches a Year, stitch-a-day calendar (June 23 entry).  To achieve his long sock preference, I chose a simple toe-up sock pattern from Knitty.com, Amy Singer's Universal Toe-Up Sock Pattern.  It was an incredibly easy-to-use pattern, the finished product fit Andy's measurements PERFECTLY, and I look forward to using it again to make a wide variety of socks.  The details on what I did follow the picture below.

These socks measure 11.5 inches from the bottom of the foot to the top of the leg, 10 inches from the back of the heel to the end of the toe, and about 8 inches around the foot/leg.  About two inches from the end of the socks, instead of ribbing the top of the socks for a more snug top, I decreased 8 stitches in one row to generally maintain the pattern (2 sets of 4-stitch decreases) and have a somewhat tighter top.  Whether or not that "technique" achieves the same benefit as ribbing remains to be seen with wear.  I found that the short rib toes and heel worked out well, and I don't think Andy will notice the missing traditional heel and gusset construction.

I used two skeins of KnitPicks.com Felici self-striping yarn in Putty on 2 size 1 Addi Turbos circulars (I knit the socks at the same time).  The gauge was 8 inches stitches per inch on that needle size.  

I have to admit completing these socks a few months ago -- next time, I promise to be more on top of blogging about my knit goods!

Another Alpaca Hat for Andy

Two years ago, I made similar baby alpaca hats for Andy and I:  http://www.madhuknitsandcooks.com/madhu_knits_and_cooks/2007/04/great_lightweig.html.  Andy loved his hat so much that he asked me to make another, using some beautiful brown alpaca we picked up at the 2007 Midwest Folk Art and Fiber Festival.   This natural-colored alpaca is from Frontier Fiber Mill in Indiana.

Although we initially purchased this yarn with the intention of making Andy some gloves, Andy decided this past year that he wanted another hat instead.  I used the same design as the 2006 alpaca hat, and ended up making the hat in the round on two #1, 24-inch Addi Turbos.  I ended up having to frog the first version of the hat that I made because of course I ended up getting my gauge swatch a little wrong by not knitting my swatch in the round and using bamboo DPNs.   I ended up re-casting on with 120 stitches to make a hat that after blocking was 10 inches wide by 8 inches long.  Despite the wear of frogging of the first hat, the yarn produced a wonderfully soft, strong hat and I definitely look forward to using it again.

And despite finishing the hat in April, part of my longstanding "tradition" of finishing knitwear in the wrong seasons, Andy was still able to get a few uses out of it before putting it away from a hot D.C. spring and summer!  Now I just need to figure out what to do with the other skein!