Ready for the Cold

December 19, 2012April 18, 2014 | Verónica

My local yarn store, Knitting in the Loop, had the audacity to hold a 50% off pre-inventory sale. 50% OFF! What’s a knitter to do?!

Buy yarn, of course.

This is Debbie Bliss Paloma – 60% baby alpaca, 40% wool. What is very interesting about this bulky weight yarn is that it is already knitted into a tube, aka chainette yarn. This close-up shows the chains of this very soft yarn.

We were getting ready to go on a trip to a much colder climate so I chose masculine colors to make my son a scarf and hat set.

For the scarf, I went with a fast and easy garter-stitch knit lengthwise. The chainette yarn has such a rich texture that it doesn’t need much to showcase it. For the hat, I repeated the garter stitch for the ribbing and switched to smooth stockinette for the rest. I love the way the set turned out. So did the teenager. (Picture a mother’s wide satisfied smile here).

The scarf and hat are keeping him warm as we walk around in 34° F weather.

Funky Retro Beehive Hat

December 9, 2012December 9, 2012 | Verónica

Remember the hand-spun I picked up in Philadelphia? I was eager to knit something with it. Since I only had 90 yards of it, I bought a complementary yarn to avoid running out.

This lovely teal is a 60% merino, 40% cotton blend from Juniper Moon Farm.

I searched all over Ravelry, Etsy and other sites for a slouchy hat pattern. It’s amazing how many hundreds of patterns are out there and how hard it is to pick just the right one. This is my inspiration hat. I didn’t realize until half-way through that I could have bought the pattern. Mine is improvised.

It turned out like a funky ’70s throwback! Here is Bear modeling it for us.

Now all I need is a drop in the thermostat and I’m set.

Toasty Hand Warmers

November 16, 2012April 18, 2014 | Verónica

My husband has a true appreciation for handmade items. So as I considered my knitting queue, I decided to make him a pair of fingerless hand warmers for the cool weather ahead. He has a wonderfully warm charcoal gray coat so I wanted yarn that would complement it. I found this hank at Nimblefingers, one of Houston’s local yarn stores.

Heritage Quatro by Cascade Yarns. Fiber content: 75% Merino Superwash, 25% Nylon. Yield: 437 yards, 100 grams.

For the pattern, I went to The Purl Bee and fixed on their Ribbed Hand Warmers. It is a nice gender-neutral pattern. As I started knitting, I noticed that the swatch was too flimsy and it didn’t seem like it would keep his hands warm. So I unravelled my knitting and doubled up the yarn. Much better.

Here is hand warmer #1 in progress.

Once the first one was all done, the second one went quickly.

I think he liked them.

T-Shirt Yarn

November 3, 2012November 3, 2012 | Verónica

This is what I have been up to lately. Rather than toss out old t-shirts or convert them to rags, I decided to give t-shirt yarn a try.

The white, blue and gray ones are my husband’s old t-shirts.

This colorful yarn came from a tie-dye t-shirt my son made in summer camp and never wore. He thought it was pretty cool that I made yarn from it.

The plan is to crochet a round cotton throw rug. I don’t have quite enough yarn but I’m getting there.

There are many how-to videos on the web for making yarn out of t-shirts. I liked these step-by-step instructions the best from Let Birds Fly. This video tutorial from Knit Picks shows you how to join the ends of t-shirt yarn.