Ophelia Done

It's been a busy week. Jasmine has the whole week off and our friends from New Mexico came for a short 2 day visit. (I was a bit anxious but it turned out to be great). Our kids got a long well. We had 2 days of beautiful weather so they were able to get out on the lake and go swimming! We also went to Chuck E. Cheese and had a blast. We won lots of tickets and traded them in for candy and trinkets. We ended it all with a delicious meal, cooked mostly by hubby. It was sad to see them go.

I received a package from my mom yesterday. She said her friend had knitted some items for Jasmine. (I had previously sent her a package with some of the yarn in my stash so I was curious to see what she had made). Wow, when I opened the package I found a pair of leg warmers (for me), a child cardigan and a child hat. She is so talented. I'm so impressed with her knitting skills and how she was able to mix and match the colors together! I wish I could knit like her! Here are the some photos of what she made ~ all without a pattern, I might add! (BTW, the pictures do not do them justice)...

Leg Warmers & Cardigan with cables:

and the hat...

I did manage to finish my Ophelia this week. http://amingledyarn.wordpress.com. It was a wonderful pattern! (I had so much trouble during my first attempt because stress + knitting for me = disaster, no matter how easy the pattern is). I love, love this pattern. The pattern is beautiful and it's such a fun, easy knit. It's knitted on a worsted yarn on a size 9 needle so it's a quick knit. I only used a little over 2 skeins of the cascade 220 yarn in a small (32"). If I had left off the i-cord, it would of been ONLY 2 skeins! The small size is a bit small so I added another 3-4 rows of single crochet along the front and neck. I also added buttons to the lower half of the cardigan. The only other modification was adding about 1" to the length. In the future, I would length the cardigan by another 1" or 2" and perhaps decreased 3-6 stitches on each of the front pieces as other people had suggested. What a great pattern! I enjoyed it so much, I'll be making more of her designs in the future.

Another photo taken outside to show better details of the cardigan...

Vine and Leaf Hat

When I saw the fall issue of VogueKnitting, I had to buy it. I love the beret the model was wearing on the cover. The pattern is called the vine and leaf beret by Angela Hahn. It's knitted on a size 3, 16" circular needle. (I have not used a size 3 needle for a project before). The pattern wasn't all that difficult since most of it was following a chart. I did make a few slight modifications, but overall the hat turned out just like the picture. It was a bit big so I washed it and put it in the dryer. It seems to be a better fit now.

I think I'm done with my hat phase for a while so I've been searching for a new project to start. I really wanted to make the vine yoke cardigan by Ysolda Teague but I'm a bit intimidated by the pattern. For some reason, I'm worried that it may be too difficult for me and that it was beyond my current knitting level. After some thought, I decided to try to Ophelia again. I actually attempted to make the Ophelia prior to knitting the beret but I ended frogging the rows I had completed. The pattern seems very straight forward and easy to follow so far. I only have 3 skeins of the cascade 220 so I'm making the small. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will fit, if not I'll be making some modifications by adding a button band!

Here's a few photos of my hat: