Winter Knitting Projects

Winter is a great time for knitting since there are less daylight hours and it is so cozy to curl up on the sofa and knit up some garment or other. Even though I knit throughout the entire year, it is something special and very comforting during the darker season.

At the end of January a very special little girl turned three. I have been knitting for all of her birthdays so far - I showed you the projects here and here - and this year didn't make an exception. I find a lot of knitting projects on Pinterest where I have several knitting boards and when I saw this pattern I knew this was the one for the Kiddo.

It has a beautiful leave pattern down the front of the cardigan - unfortunately you can't really see it that well in my photos.

In the back it has a super cute ruffle row - easy to make and such a nice touch!

I used a rustic tweed DK yarn with 65% wool, 25% Alpaca, 7% acrylic and 3% viscose - probably not the ideal yarn for this, but I like the look of it. Here's the Kiddo on her birthday:

I am currently knitting this cardigan in a bigger size for another little girl, and this time I used a worsted yarn. I will show you how it looks when it will be done. I still need to do the neckband and sew on the buttons.

My friend Lyz celebrated her birthday in February, and since she had lost her home and everything that was in it in last October's firestorm I made a sweater for her. My yarn store had my favorite worsted yarn - Malabrigo Rios pure merino - in a truly scrumptious color, called "Reflecting Pool". Lyz's name was written on it!

The sweater is called "In Stillness" and is a very simple, but beautiful pattern. Now, knitting a sweater is always a bit tricky. I had Lyz's measurements, but I couldn't try halfway through whether it would fit her since it was supposed to be a surprise. Sometimes I had doubts that it would be too small, then I thought she might not like the color... anyway, a couple weeks ago we met and I gave her the sweater. She tried it on and - what can I say? It actually took my breath away, she looked so beautiful. The sweater fits perfectly, and only I know where the mistakes in the pattern are. The pattern description was sometimes a bit unclear and the stitch count was downright wrong, but somehow I managed to follow it and even learned a new cast-off technique.

In between I knitted a Baa-ble hat because I needed a quick project before starting another sweater, and this hat knits up so fast and is fun to make.

As you know I love to knit clothes for dolls, especially 18-inch dolls like American Girl dolls or the My Generation dolls you can get at Target. This blue swing top is really cute and not very difficult.

The trick is to pay attention and make the increase stitches in the right places which I sometimes forgot even though I had stitch markers everywhere. There are times when I just get carried away and knit and knit - and forget to do the important increases (or decreases for that matter).

I'm not quite sure about the yarn. It is an acrylic yarn, but I don't know by which company. A friend of mine who passed away last summer once gave it to me from her own stash and it didn't have a label. I do like the light blue and the tiny specks of white, pink and yellow in it. It also has a subdued glimmer.

This swing top is knitted from the top down, no seaming needs to be done. Three buttons are in the back so that even small hands can put it on and off easily.

At the moment I'm knitting another swing top (I often work on several projects at the same time), this one with a completely different blend of nylon, kid mohair, wool and metallic. It's not an easy yarn and drives me up the wall every now and then, but the colors are so vivid. Shortly after I had taken this picture I realized that I had messed up earlier and had to unravel it again. Story of my life...

And socks... there are always socks. I found this wonderful superwash wool from Cascade and offer socks in these colors in my shop right now (these socks are made to order):

I'm making a pair in the purple color right now. When you see the yarn as a hank you can't really see how beautiful it will turn out when it is knitted. Remember the socks I made for myself last year? That is the orange-red yarn from this very same series!

Of course they pale compared to Kaefer's blue snowman slippers...

Knitting Up a Storm

When I looked at all the knitting projects I completed in 2017 I was surprised how much I actually knitted in that year. Yes, of course I know that I love to knit, but I wasn't aware that I do so much of it. Since I have started to take pictures of every finished project I know much better what I knit and how much I love it.

My birthday is at the beginning of the year, and in 2017 my husband gave me a yarn winder - one of the niftiest things ever. It makes winding yarn so easy while still maintaining the meditative aspect of it.

The first project I finished was the kitty sweater in the top picture. It went to the little girl of my friend Denice (you met her in this post) and is still a bit too big for her. This wasn't the last kitty project, either. Later in the year I knitted up a lot of cat bookmarks.

Doll clothes that fit 18" dolls like American Girl dolls knit up fast and are usually quite easy. This was the first time that I knitted sets of cardigans and skirts. The dress was fun to knit as well.

There were hats with the Baable hat - modeled by Kaefer - being my all-time favorite. I just love the sheep that turn up around the circumference of the head. The pumpkin hat was the project I knitted the most during the fires. For some weird reason I received the most orders in that dreadful week and I was knitting pumpkin hats like a mad woman, which proved to be a blessing since it distracted me a bit from all the insanity. Of course there were "pussy hats" at the beginning of the year that I knitted for Kaefer and myself, but also for friends who went to the Women's March in Washington, D.C.

Socks - everybody needs warm socks. It only takes two or three days for me to knit up a pair of cozy socks, but a bit longer if I'm working with fine sock yarn. Most of the socks I knit for other people, but the fiery orange/red pair definitely was a keeper.

There were several baby and toddler sweaters I made. I wish there were more babies, toddlers and little kids in my life. It is so much fun to knit all these cute clothes for them.

I have two nieces in Germany, and both of them got a foxy scarf.

Of course I had to knit for Kaefer. A couple years ago I knitted her the "ocean breeze sweater", and this year I used the same pattern and a different yarn to knit this sweater for her.

But the most favorite project of the year was this little bird that I often gave as a little gift. It can be used as an ornament or a gift tag or whatever you can think of. You can tell that I had fun with these little guys!

**********

Please vote on my favorite photos of 2017 in this blogpost with the chance of winning a set of photo cards.

Stitch by Stitch

You know that I love to knit - I showed a few of my projects here. However, I only now realized that I never showed you the knitted items I created over the past few months. Some of them were rather easy, others were more challenging.

The top photo shows the beginnings of a baby jacket I started at the end of September. I had just discovered this beautiful merino yarn from Australia and was eager to knit up a project using it when I found a free pattern for a cute baby jacket on Ravelry. Since this yarn is a superwash it's perfect for baby knits.

The sheep was from a different project, and I think it fits very well on this little cardigan.

When my neighbors had their first child last year in May I knitted a hat for the little girl. Since her parents love cats I decided that a kitty hat would be a good idea. Of course the hat was still too big since this is a pattern for a six months old baby and not for a newborn.

Baby hats knit up so fast and they're fun to make. When I discovered this pattern I fell in love with it and tried the newborn size of it.

The knitting starts with a provisional cast-on which I had never done before. It's quite easy, but I still had to unravel the hat before I could finish it because I didn't pay attention!

As a final touch I put a big button on the side. I love to use buttons as an accent.

I knitted some more hats, and I show you three of them here.

Seedling, a pattern by Alana Dakos:

This hat was a Christmas present for the daughter of my friend Jo. It is one of my most favorite patterns.

On Pinterest I found the pattern for this gorgeous owl hat. I knitted two of them for my little nieces in Germany, using the Navajo-Churro sheep yarn I purchased a few years ago. The perfect yarn for this hat! However, sewing on the buttons for the owl eyes was a real pain!

And last but not least the Baa-ble hat - this is a very popular pattern which comes as no surprise. The pattern was designed by Donna Smith for the Shetland Wool Week 2015 - Shetland Wool Week is a world renowned celebration of Britain's most northerly native sheep. This was a gift for Kaefer who models it in this picture.

  
If you look closely you recognize one of the sheep as the one sitting on the blue baby jacket that I showed you first.

After all these hats it was time to knit up some socks. I found this rubber duck pattern and had a really hard time with it - it drove me crazy! But I did finish the socks and could give them to Kaefer as a Christmas gift. I will never knit these socks ever again!!!

The next - and last - pair of socks was mere fun to knit. The yarn was lovely and the pattern is so beautiful. It looks complicated but is actually quite easy. 

Only I know where the mistakes are that I made...

I'm currently knitting a bigger project, but I can't say yet what it is since it is a birthday present for Kaefer. It is green - perfect for a spring birthday.