Plumecrazy China Blue, New Knitting Helper

Introducing our new Maine Coon cat, Plumecrazy China Blue!  She is a four-year-old from Plumecrazy Cattery, via MJ's Cats, in Fargo and Fergus Falls.  We are getting acquainted at our lake home in northern Minnesota.  China kneads very well, can knitting be far behind?

Bruce's Christmas Hat

I finished the hat I was making for my husband for Christmas!  The pattern is Kathleen Taylor's Picot Hem Stranded Snowflake Hat, modified to use Red Heart Super Saver yarn and size 8 circular needles.  It is a perfect fit, but Bruce only got to touch it once.  It will be under the tree!

Another Hat for Christmas

This Fair Isle hat is also knitted using the Kathleen Taylor pattern (see the previous entry).  For this hat, I used size 8 Denise circular needles and magic loop technique.  It also has four sections.  I used size 8 needles to make a larger size.  The yarn is Red Heart Super Saver.  My husband asked for ribbing instead of the picot edge in the original pattern, so I added that, too.  It is to be a Christmas present.

Hat for Christmas!

Here is the finished hat that I knitted using Kathleen Taylor's free pattern posted November 16, 2007 on http://kathleen-dakotadreams.blogspot.com/  I modified the pattern to knit the proper size with size 6 Denise circulars and Red Heart Super Saver yarn.  The number of segments in Kathi's hat is 6, in this modified hat, 4.  It is planned as a Christmas gift.

 

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Shawnee Parkway Cardigan Update

The first set of maple leaf designs is starting to take shape.  Knitting with five colors across and back is a little challenging.  I am using the miniature plastic bags to help control the dangling yarn ready for the next pass.  The next design will be maple leaves facing the other direction in different shades.  Needles are size 5, yarn is Caron  Simply Soft.

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Shawnee Parkway Cardigan

The lower band and ribbing are on the needles.  The design, as planned, has this border of slip stitch combined with Fair Isle knitting on the rows where the colors change.  I am using this combined technique to make the sweater lighter in weight.  The bird border was modified from a border in Barbara Walker's Mosaic Knitting.  I removed the "cartoon" look for the head of the bird.  The next section of the sweater will have fall leaves in the colors shown in the yarn bin (hopefully, if it works out!).

Jackson Elk Fair Isle Cardigan completed

The Jackson Elk Fair Isle cardigan is finally completed.  The body was knitted in one piece up to the armholes, then split and knitted in four parts.  The bottom part was designed using the Hillswick chart from Ann Feitelson's book.  The elk were adapted from the chart given on the Jess-Tromp web site.