Knit, Knit, Purl...

Photo taken by Kathy Cadigan.

Here is a little update on my knitting projects of late:

When visiting The Netherlands last June, I bought five skeins of Schachenmayr regia 4-ply sock yarn in a light grey for very good money. I had been thinking of a simple light weight sweater for myself, but just couldn't decide on a pattern. Then our lovely dog Olive died early in July and I just knew I had to have something on the needles to help me with the process of letting go of her. 

So I went for the  free Flax Light pattern by Tin Can Knits to start with. Instead of their garter stitch panel on the sleeves I added a free sock pattern called Kalajoki that I also found on Ravelry. I added  a few stripes on the body, added a faux seam (p1, k1tbl, p1) on each side and a split hem on the bottom. It is super light, but still warm and I just love wearing it. A keeper!  {smile}

Sometime in July/ August I visited Churchmouse Yarns, another lovely yarn shop on Bainbridge Island with some of my cohorts from Tolt Yarn. There I came across a fun fisherman's cap (Seaworthy Gansey Cap) that they had on display. I found out it was one of their own patterns and so I purchased it and the yarn and made one for Mr. G. 

The difficulty of this pattern was to knit with worsted weight yarn (fairly thick) on US 1 needles ! (which are very small) This gives a very tight fabric which helps with the brim shaping. Love it also! I haven't made a picture of Mr. G. actually wearing it but will do soon...

Right now I have a sweater for Mr. G. on the needles called Goat Herder. I'm knitting it in Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter in Barn Owl. I normally knit sweaters top down (so starting at the neck) but this one is a bottom up one. It has short row sleeves as well, all new techniques for me!

I'm also working on a new shawl called Mainline, but I don't have any pictures of this one yet. The cable cast on of 450 stitches took me absolutely forever and so far I've only knit the first 8 rows. Can't wait for those decreases to start!  <wink>

If you would like to see other things I've knit then you can always check my Ravelry page for more details.

Happy Knitting everybody!

PS: The first picture was taken by Kathy Cadigan, a professional photographer and super knitter. She came along on our visit to the Asian Museum in Seattle to see the Indigo exhibit last week. I happened to be wearing my latest creation and she asked to photograph me and it. Of course I said Yes!  {smile}