Finished another hat

I finished my second stranded hat this evening. I think it turned out pretty well. I'm glad to get one of my many work in progress projects completed. I've already cast on for my first lace shawl with my new lace weight yarn. I don't have pictures as of yet, and I've had to start over a couple of times. But I'll figure it out in the end.

Here's a picture of the new hat:


In other news, I have been bitten by the designer bug. I have ideas for a hat pattern and possibly a shawl pattern. I already have the design for the hat charted, but I still have to knit it and make sure it turns out okay. I have so many ideas for designs in my head, I just need to find time to knit them up. It's starting to get hard to find time to knit, especially with the summer weather finally arriving.

Until next time.
~~Happy Knitting~~

Yarn!!!!!!

I ordered some yarn and a book from KnitPicks about a week ago. It came today! I'm very excited about this new yarn. Usually I get my yarn from either Walmart or Hobby Lobby. So usually my yarn is mostly acrylic, and if you've done much yarn shopping you know it's hard to find real soft yarn that is acrylic. I do like the I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby. I've found it to always be pretty soft and easy to knit with. But, this new yarn from KnitPicks is all natural. Here's the run down of what I ordered, and what I plan to do with it!First off, I got 4 deals of Wool of the Andes. 100% Peruvian Highland Wool. 2 different colors, Stream and Sapphire Heather. Both of these colors are beautiful. I really love the Sapphire Heather. Each ball is 110 yards. I'm thinking about a skinny scarf, like an accent scarf rather than a keep you warm scarf. I'm not 100% positive what I am going to do with them, I just had to have the colors.Second. I got 4 balls of Palette. 100% Peruvian Wool. Colors: Black, Rainforest Heather, Fog, and Clematis Heather. I'm planning on knitting some mittens. I also ordered the book Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitting Tradition. This book has some amazing mittens in it! I can't wait to knit every pattern. I got the Palette to make these mittens. Each ball is 231 yards, so I figure I can get a set of mittens out of each ball.Third. I got 3 things of Telemark. 100% Peruvian Highland Wool. Colors: Colonial Blue, Delphinium Heather, and Snow Leopard. I had intended to get 4 things. However, I forgot to order the 4th one. So that will have to come in another order in the future. Maybe in a few months after I knit the rest of this stuff up. I believe these will also become mittens as well. Each ball is 103 yards.Fourth. I got two types of lace weight yarn. first is the Alpaca Cloud. 440 yards of 100% Baby Alpaca. It is so soft! The color is Raspberry Heather. It is so pretty and sooooo soft! I love it. I believe it is going to become a real pretty lace scarf. I'm super excited about the alpaca yarn!The second lace weight yarn is Shimmer. 70% Baby Alpaca and 30% Silk. It is super soft. The color is Stained Glass. The colors in it are so vibrant and so pretty. I absolutely love it! It is going to become a shawl. It is also a 440 yard hank. So pretty. I've been petting it this afternoon.Now I have to take the hanks and turn them into balls before I can knit them. I don't even want to think about trying to untangle lace weight yarn.

One last item to report. I finished my first stranded project. A hat. I turned out real good. I'm very proud of it. The brown and pink turned out real good, a lot better than I thought it was going to turn out. I'm not working on a second stranded hat in black and white.

I also have a hat pattern of my own in the works right now. I think it will turn out pretty good. I'm planning on knitting it in a light purple with the chart pattern in a dark purple. It should turn out. If it turns out real good I might post the pattern for others to use. Well just have to wait and see. I have lots going on. I want to finish the black and white hat and the purple feather and fan scarf I have going before I start on the mittens and my purple hat. So may projects and so much yarn to choose from.

Until next time!

~~HAPPY KNITTING~~

Stranded Knitting

I finished my pink fingerless gloves. I'm very pleased with them. Too bad it took me so long to learn to knit fingerless gloves on dpns. It's April, it's getting warmer. Figures.

Anyway, I started a new hat on dpns. This is my first attempt at stranded knitting. I would just like to say that trying to hold yarn in both my hands and use my left had to knit is just plain hard! I'm very right hand dominant. The first few rounds with the two colors felt very clumsy. I was finally directed to a wonderful website that has a video on it teaching how to do stranded knitting.The video was excellent! The lady doing the video is really good at explaining and demonstrating two color knitting. It was very helpful. Now, I understand how to do it. I understand how to hold the yarn. However, it's still difficult! I'm working on issues of keeping the tension with my left hand.

This is going to take some practice. I use hope this hat turns out good. After all the struggle and frustration, I'm going to wear this hat everyday!

More Spring pictures!



Until next time!

~~Happy Knitting~~