Marathon 26.2



AUTISM AWARENESS















Sunday, October 25, 2009

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...




Tuesday, October 13, 2009

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: