Knitting Dragonflies

Winter weather has been crazy this year! Seems like warm to cold temps. Coldest temps I’ve seen in a long time. What better to get everyone in a great knitting mood! I wanted an easy shawl pattern to high light the handspun yarn. It was my first time that I spun a pound of fiber, I picked out an unlikely color (for me) because I tend to look at my stash and it is all blue. Pumpkin or persimmon colored Blue Faced Leicester fleece ! I splurged on a pound and wanted to see how much yardage I would get from it. I spun it up and plied it, It ended up giving me approximately 700-800 yards or so. It looked a little matt or dull to me, so my girlfriend suggested that I added a strand of something else. I picked out a spool of Sulky thread in the blendable colors, it did take 3 spools, I ran my plied yarn back through the wheel and loosely added the thread. The result gave it just enough dimension to make me happy. Large enough to wrap around your body in the house, in a chilly office. Yet

I was searching for the perfect cowl that I had in my mind to knit. Trawling on Ravelry, I wanted one, just the right size around, only once around my neck and not too tight, loose enough to pull up around my face and tall enough to get it around my ears during a windy dog walk, but able to squish it down into my collar of my coat and not be too thick and bulky. About a third of the way into the pattern I decided to make it long enough to pull up as a hood also.  I finally just un-vented this one, as Elizabeth Zimmerman would say. Add caption This is a simple stitch textured cowl/hood (you decide the length). Suitable for beginning knitters. Purl ridges make the cowl easy to scrunchy down or pull up. You can wear the ribbed end on top if you are wearing it as a cowl to make it snuggie around your neck or, wear the purl ridges on top if you are pulling it up as a hood. If you have any questions or find an error please let me know so I can correct it!  I’ve added some tutorial link

It was –4 degrees out, I had a day off and was just trying to stay warm. This was a perfect knitting day. I was on Ravelry looking around for a fast project, and found this Dropped Stitch Cowl . Pretty pattern, I was off to my stash to see if I had a bulky yarn to use. I found a super bulky yarn from Brown Sheep that I had never used. Got my needles and turned on Netflix and started knitting. Pattern available on Ravelry thanks to Abi Gregorio! I did modify the pattern, I wanted it to be larger at the bottom so It would lay on top of my coat. Modifications were: On the 3rd and 4th repeat of the pattern on row 2 I increased 5 stitches evenly all around, this allowed my cowl to lay nicely on top of a coat. I would like to make another one with the recommended yarn and pattern to see how it falls. Pattern only took 1 skein of the Super Bulky Yarn which was approx. 125 yds. I used a #13 size needle. Photos taken down by the river on a cold day! Burrrr, love this cowl it is super

A manly scarf, sometimes in our yarny world of color and exotic patterns. Always trying something new and different. We just need a plain scarf. I’m looking for a pattern for a manly scarf, and somewhere about 1.5 hours later, after looking through books, trolling blogs and Ravelry, I was still looking. I’m not sure what I wanted, maybe that was the problem. What was on my “must have” list? Well…..I think all one color. A classic style, something a man could wear to a winter wedding, church, I guess I wanted a simple but stylish scarf. I looked at ribbed styles (no), cable (high contender), seed stitch (closer), basket weave (too much pattern), and finally decided on moss stitch (just right). (see bottom of post for links to the other free knitted men's scarf patterns I considered) Moss stitch, it has some pattern, but not too busy, nice texture, lays flat, looks the same on the front and the back. Not too complicated, I can knit it while my mind is busy elsewhere.   What is St

From everyone at my house to yours, have a Happy New Year and may it include lots of knitting!

I’m knitting a Bone Yard Shawl by Stephen West . Using some of my handspun fiber. A Persimmon color Blue Faced Leicester fiber that I added a strand of Sulky bendable thread to it to give it some dimension. It looked so “flat” spun alone. I skein I had overspun, Ugh, overspun yarn is spun too tightly, when I hold it out flat it immediately winds up on itself and kink. The “fix” for this is to run it back through the spinning wheel the other direction and then I soaked it and dried it, to ‘'reset” the twist. That came out find, and didn’t take as long as I thought it would. So now, I just have a bit more to go before I’m done. I must have been stressed when I spun this! Read more on spinning yarn with the correct twist and balance, plus other helpful tips in Knitty article This was going to be a gift for a girlfriend who is going through tuff times, but when complications set in (with my knitting, not her), I ended up gifting her my Citron shawl Steve and Penny at the local

This is my Citron Shawl, done! I have been working on it for a long time. But had I knitted this all at once, it wouldn’t have taken too long. Love this easy, swingy pattern. Thanks Knitty! Free pattern here made by Hilary Callis . Knitty is a great online knitting and spinning magazine . Plenty of great articles and free patterns. This Winter Knitty 13 has a wonderful article about Ethnic Knitting Adventures by Donna Druchunas , it is about Designing A Norwegian Ski Sweater. Check it out, along with the other features they have. The pattern is a  semi circular shawl/cap (depending on the size yarn used and the length you knit it), It is all in stockinette stitch, with increases and decreases to form the gather/ruffle areas. Easy knitting, good for beginning knitter. Great item to watch TV, movies, or anything that you want to be on auto pilot. I was worried about the bind off, as I tend to bind off tightly. This pattern had so many stitches and they were at the full point of the