Joyce Makes Art

The Knitted Rug

Kimberly R has finished the rug she made for me, and was nice enough to provide pictures in advance of its arrival.  It looks beautiful.  I'm planning on using it as the perfect splash of color in our playroom, although it has occurred to me that it's so beautiful that I may be forced to redo our bedroom around it.

I sent Kimberly a big box full of Elliebelly yarn, dyed on a bulky superwash Merino base.  In case you missed that post and want to see the yarn, it's located here.  The idea was to put all those different colorways to use -- I'm planning on using the leftovers to do scrappy sweaters for Ollie (and Ellie if the leftovers holdout).

This rug has to be one of the most innovative patterns I've ever seen.  Thanks Kim!

 

 

Just Because I Love It So Much...

One more picture of Hermione Loves Ron.  Best knitted hat ever.  I find myself not wanting to take it off.  Ellie snagged it and slept in it last night.  Make yourself one now!

First Look at the Finished Hermione Hearts Ron

Love, love, LOVE this hat! Here's a quick picture of it-completed in just a few days.

Hermione Loves Ron

This might be the cleverest pattern ever for a knit hat.  It's a simple ribbed watch cap, but the knit rows are cabled and the purl rows contain a simple lace pattern.

The pattern is available as a free download on Ravelry and its called Hermione loves Ron because it was inspired by the hat Hermione wore in the Half Blood Prince movie in the Harry Potter series.

The yarn I'm using is Classic Elite's Princess, a blend of 40% Wool, 28% Rayon, 15% Nylon, 10% Cashmere and 7% Angora.  I was intrigued by that blend when I saw the yarn on sale at my LYS.  It has been really nice to knit with, although it is not as soft as I would have expected with the Cashmere and Angora content.  I'll be interested to see how it feels after it washes up.

I've completed three of the four and one-half repeats the pattern calls for before going to decreases.  Although this is meant for my oldest child, it looks like he is going to have to fight off his younger sister to get it, and really, it is a bit more of a "girl pattern" than I anticipated when I began it.  I'm starting to think about a more teenage boy friendly version that omits the lace pattern on the purl portion of the rib.

Little Copernicus on the Go

Through the wonders of technology, I'm sharing my progress on Little Copernicus with you from an airplane flying somewhere over the east coast of the United States.

It's a sweet little pattern. I've just taken the stitches for the sleeves off of the needles and put them onto holders. I've got about four more inches in stockinette and then I'll switch to smaller needles for ribbing.

I like how this yarn is working out in stockinette and hoping I'll have some leftovers for a pair of mittens.

Knitting Little Copernicus

I'm so excited!  I get to be a test knitter for Julie Kieliszewski, who has written a new child's sweater pattern called Little Copernicus.  It's a sweet cardigan with a picked up and knitted 2x2 rib trim to finish it off.  It's very cute and I'm hoping the little wooden buttons I have in my stash from Peace Fleece will be the perfect accent.

I'm using Elliebelly Pixie (superwash merino), in the Stained Glass Paintbrush Colorway, for the sweater.

I did my Paintbrush Colorways with linen stitch (for instance, these gorgeous baby longies by Siobahn) in mind, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to see how it performs in a mostly stockinette project.  If I don't like it as well, it will be easy to convert the body of this pattern over to linen stitch, so I think it's a low risk proposition.

Although I rarely swatch for a baby sweater -- they're going to fit at some point, right? -- I decided I need to do that here, to insure that as a good tester, I provided necessary input.  And, I hit gauge, spot on, at my first try on size 7 needles, getting five stitches at inch.

Many thanks to my assistant, Harry the Maine Coon Cat, who helped to hold the swatch out flat so I could measure it.  He had no ulterior motive and did not proceed to pounce on it or try to chew my needles into two pieces immediately after the photo was taken.  Really.

I did a very small swatch, really just barely enough to get the gauge, so I'm not sure yet about this yarn in stockinette.  I'm tempted to say it's going to be very pleasing, but I don't want to jinx it.  I'm hoping it will be the perfect gender neutral color, with enough variation to coordinate perfectly with just about anything else a baby could want to wear.

 

Midway Through The Cabled Afghan

I'm just about halfway through with the cabled afghan, at least based upon the amount of yarn I dyed for this project.  The lighting did some funny things -- there are no horizontal stripes, that must be from the bad nighttime living room light.

This project has been too bulky to be portable for quite some time now, which puts it on a slower track for completion than I would like.  It is already incredibly perfect for snuggling under on the couch while watching TV.  But, given that I can only work on it at home, I'm hoping to work on it a couple of nights a week and finish up by the end of February.  At this point, I've crossed the cables seven times (it's a 14 row repeat).  I'm hoping to be able to get in at least another seven to insure the finished afghan is long enough to cover toes.

 

 

Snowy Progress

Cold, snowy days make for good knitting progress! Tomorrow it's back to work, but thanks to mother nature, my cabled afghan is halfway done.

Snow Day

Snow -- or perhaps more appropriately, ice -- day.  We've had a morning of exploring and sledding.  Now, some time for hot chocolate with peppermint marshmallows and knitting.

Knitting, But Not Blocking

I really need to do some blocking.  But the reality is, I'm not going to get it done anytime this week, so I'll share some knitting with you, nonetheless.

I finished the uber-colorful Far Away So Close.  It's incredibly warm and very cheeful to put around my shoulders on our cold mornings.  I stopped somewhere between the scarf version and the full size shawl, which seems to have gotten in just right. 

I think I'll have to knit a pair of fingerless mitts to go along with this.

As you can tell, it's going to be a struggle to stop loving on it for long enough to block it!

I've also finished another square on Ellie's Barn Raising Quilt, which is similarly in need of blocking.  The colors are fabulous and this reminds me I need to get back on this and knit a few more squares so I can stay on target for my planned finish, some time before she graduates from high school.  Really.