I’ve been working on a non-public project for the last week, so there has not been a lot of knitting progress I can show you.

But I finished this project late last week so I needed something new to work on. One thing I’ve been in the market for is a hooded scarf.  Leaving for work in the wee hours while hair is wet, or even slightly damp after blow-drying makes for a chilly start to the day. A hooded scarf would keep the head and neck warm without causing hat-head.

I did a search for a pattern on Ravelry and bought one that incorporated some nice cablework. I started it but quickly discovered that the pattern had a lot of problems. For starters, the gauge required did not correlate with the finished size unless one were planning on stretching the crap out of the scarf during blocking — not a good idea for a cabled design. And the numbers in the pattern were simply wrong. I fiddled with it for a while but couldn’t make anything that satisfied me, so abandoned it entirely.

I decided to go for a simple stitch pattern, knitting straight. When done, I’ll fold the scarf in half and sew up the back for 10″ or so in the middle to make the hood.

Here is my scarf in progress:

It’s all neatly rolled up.

This is The Fibre Company’s Tundra bulky yarn, in the “Tamarack” colorway. It’s a lovely blend of alpaca, merino wool, and silk.

Here’s my scarf pattern:

With a U.S. size 9 needle, cast on 45 stitches.

Row 1: Knit across.

Row 2: Knit 1, purl 1 across, end knit 1.

Repeat these 2 rows until you run out of yarn.

I have 5 skeins of yarn, and estimate with my gauge of 4 stitches and 5 rows to the inch, I’ll have a finished scarf that is approximately 11″ across and 75 – 80″ long — good and long so that I can sew up the center for the hood and still have nice long ends to wrap around my neck.

I may or may not add fringe to the ends. I’ll see how I feel about it when I get close to the end.

Book Giveaway

The winner of my copy of My First Cardigan Workbook is MariGayle, who has been emailed. Thanks to everyone who left a comment!

Milestone

This past week was my cute little Mini Cooper’s birthday — I’ve had him for a year now. We celebrated with a trip to the dealership for annual maintenance and a car wash. And as of yesterday, this was his odometer reading:

Lucy

Here is Lucy watching her favorite tv show on Animal Planet: Cats 101.

Honesty compels me to tell you that when I started knitting the Wurm hat, I had no expectation of it actually “working” as a hat for me. The only time I have ever been able to successfully wear a hat was when my hair was long and I put it up with a clip, then could put a slouchy hat over it all.

With my hair short, I can’t keep a hat on my head unless I pull it down far enough that it smooshes my bangs into my eyes. I have too much hair for a hat to sit nicely on it and stay put.

So I knew from the start that Wurm was not destined to be my hat. I just need to hang on to it until I find the right head for it.

Winners!

The winners of the the Lilly SOS brushes are Lauren and KathyM in SE VA, both of whom have been emailed.

Cardi Help

I recently got a review copy of another book from Annie’s, who has been putting out a lot of great books lately. This one is called My First Cardigan Workbook and it is written by Georgia Druen.

The book is designed as a tutorial — there are 4 different top-down cardigan patterns, each one designed to teach a new or new-ish knitter new skills. You can knit each of the 4 cardis in a baby size to teach yourself the skills, and then knit full-size adult cardis using the same techgniques. As a rule, the patterns for the baby cardis use a finer yarn than the adult ones — sport for the baby and worsted for the adult, for example.

There are 4 basic cardis: texture, cables, lace, and colorwork. Four each of the 4 basic types there is an infant-sized pattern and an adult sized pattern. The baby sizes are sized for 6, 12, 18, and 24 months, and the adult patterns are sized small — 3XL (6 sizes) with chest sizes 32 -34 through 52 -54″. You can easily swap out different texture, cable, lace, or colorwork patterns so you end up with many variations available in the patterns.

Who’d like my review copy?

To be entered in the drawing for my copy of My First Cardigan Workbook, leave a comment on this blog entry by 11:00am eastern time, Sunday, March 3, 2013. I’ll draw a winner at random at that time.

While I have been knitting along on my “main” projects, I’ve also had a “commuter” project to work on. That’s not a terribly accurate description of it as I never knit on my commute anymore. So the secondary project is worked on during my lunch break at work, and I usually only get one or two rounds in before I am interrupted, so it has been slow going. But I did finish this:

This hat is “Wurm,” a free pattern by Katharina Nopp. I knit mine in KnitWhits Freia Handpaints Sport Ombre in the Atlantis colorway. This is a lovely handpainted single ply wool that has very gradual color changes. Very fun to knit with.

Unfortunately, the hat isn’t really “me.” It’s not really the KOARC’s style either.

I need to find a head for it.

SOS!

A little while ago I was contacted by the Lilly Brush company and sent samples of their brush that removes pills, lint, pet hair, etc from sweaters and other handknits made from natural fibers.

The brush comes in 2 colors, red and black.

It is very streamlined and fits nicely into a purse or tote.

I dug out an older fair isle sweater that I had knit and worn a lot — it was covered in tiny pills. I gave it the once-over with the Lilly Brush. Unfortunately, you can’t see the pills in my “before” photo, so the “after” photo here is not extremely compelling.

You’ll have to take my word for it — the brush did a great job!

And the company very kindly sent me two more brushes to give away to my readers. Who’d like one?

Leave a comment on this blog post by noon Eastern time on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 to be entered in the drawing to win one of these nifty little brushes.

 Lucy’s Blanket

Just in case you were wondering if Lucy still is enjoying her blanket . . .

She is!

Because Monday was a federal holiday here in the U.S., I had extra knitting time. Therefore, I present to you Lucy’s Mini Cornerstone Blanket.

An afternoon of British drama on DVD was all I needed to finish it up. Lucy approached it:

She tried it out.

She has given it her seal of approval.

She has slept on it for the past two nights. It helps, of course, that I have put it on my bed.

This was knit from Noro Kureyon in colorways 321 and 211 — around 4 skeins of each. I used a U.S. size 7 needle. The resulting blanket is around 32″ across.

Nice Needles!

A little while back, DyakCraft contacted me to offer me a set of their new Heavy Metal needle set. This is a set of interchangeable needles in 6 sizes: US 0/2.00 mm, US 1/2.25 mm, US 1.5/2.50 mm, US 2/2.75 mm, US 2.5/3.00 mm, US 3/3.25 mm). The set comes with three cables – 16 inch, 21 inch and 39 inch, and a pretty needle roll.

The set comes in either a 5″ or a 3.5″ needle length. I like shorter needles so requested the 3.5″ length.

They come in a pretty needle wrap.

Inside:

When I got the set, I immediately took the 2mm needle tips and attached then to a cord. I am very impressed by the join created — when I run my finger over it I cannot feel the join.

The tips are nicely pointy, but not so sharp that you’d impale yourself on them.

I took out the 3.25mm tips, and attached them to a cable. I cast on some stitches and gave ‘em a test run.

Nice needles! I knit a swatch with a loosely-spun single-ply sportweight yarn and loved the way the needles performed. I could knit without looking at the stitches and did not split a single stitch, even with the loosely plied yarn I was using.

The surface of the needles have an interesting feel. They have a tiny bit of texture so they have some “grab” like wooden needles. This will make them excellent for colorwork, where I like to be able to spread my stitches out to properly tension working with two colors. This is also nice for knitters who don’t like metal needles because they feel too slippery. I don’t think you need to worry too much about stitches flying off these needles due to a slick surface. Still, they were fast enough to work with to keep me happy, and I am a fairly fast knitter.

All in all, these needles get two thumbs up! Awesome joins, nice tips, a really great range of small sizes, and a needle surface texture that is very pleasing and easy to knit with. If I had to complain about anything, my only wish is that the cables were a little bit “floppier” — they are a little stiffer than I like. But they very well may relax with use. I may give them a once-over with my hairdryer to see if that will relax them a bit.

According to the DyakCraft website, extra needle tips and cords will soon be available. I can see myself ordering extras so I can, for example, knit a sock on two circulars.

Bravo, Dyak Craft!

First off, congratulations to Helene who is the winner of a copy of Knit New York. Helene, I have emailed you.

I did finally complete work on my Bulky Cardi and here it is, hastily laid out on the floor:

This was knit from 14 skeins of Shalimar Missy Bulky. I’ll not be writing up the pattern because I did not take good notes while knitting it. So it is a one-off. I haven’t tried it on yet. I finished it on Monday and set it aside. I’ve had a very busy week.

But I’ve started work on Lucy’s modified Cornerstone Blanket. Here is half the blanket:

I am knitting this from Noro Kureyon on a U.S. size 7 needle. The center of each square is knit from colorway #321 and the border from colorway #211. The squares are knit according to Kay Gardiner’s Cornerstone Blanket pattern, but I am making all the squares identical instead of varying the size of the center blocks.

The center is constructed from four 36-stitch mitered squares, and the border is worked until there are 10 garter ridges. Each square is about 15″ across. I will work 4 squares and then do an i-cord edging in the center colorway all around the outside.

I’m about halfway through the third square now.

And Lucy is waiting.