It's an Owl Woobie!

The last couple of weeks have been kind of a blur. Lots of personal stuff has happened. Everything is fine now, but the knitting and crochet and all related events kinda screeched to a halt. But over the weekend I back to it. I needed it. Yarn, I swear, it does something to your insides.

My dear friends are having a baby soon (well, December) and they revealed that the baby boy is gonna have an owl-themed nursery. Which is, in my opinion, one of the best choices for nursery theme. So, I do what I do, and hit up Ravelry, and that is how the crocheted Owl Woobie came to be:

So cute. I love it. I think they will love it too!

As you all know, I'm not much of a toy/amigurumi maker, but I think I did pretty okay. I think that is one adorable owl face.

I added and edging from Edie Eckman's Crochet Borders book, because I can't just leave a pattern alone. :) You can see a list of my mods on my Ravelry project page.

For this woobie I used various Knit Picks yarn I had in the stash. I have lots of Comfy Worsted and used that for the dark green and used some Swish Worsted for the light green. I think they go pretty great together! The pattern is the Owl Lovey Security Blanket.


Now off to find more owl things to make...

The Stripey Sock Obsession Continues

I finished up the stripey socks that I worked on for fifteen months, and of course started a new pair. It was the right choice. This time, I'm using Knit Picks Felici Sport in the Southwest colorway (sadly, this yarn is discontinued, though you can still get it in fingering weight).

Once again, I'm going with a toe-up sock with afterthought heel, though this time I wanted a little more patterning than the last pair of socks. I went with the old standby: Broadripple. I modified the stitch pattern slightly to make it work for my 64 stitch count. Well, and the pattern is written for top-down with heel flap and I'm knitting toe-up.

I finished the first sock last weekend and will probably cast on the second one tonight at knit night. These socks are the perfect knit night project....mostly mindless.

I love the chevron action. I am finding them way more enjoyable to knit than the last pair. I think it must be the pattern and the fact that I'm on sport weight yarn with bigger needles. Quick socks make this knitter happy.

New Pattern: Clarendon

Earlier this week, the Knit Picks City Tweed Collection went live on the Knit Picks website. In it, my latest shawl pattern, Clarendon. Yay!

Clarendon is a bottom-up short row shawl (you know I love those) knit out of 4 balls Knit Picks City Tweed DK. A cozy shawl for fall and winter.

The shawl starts with cables, but there is no reverse stockinette between the cables, giving you a very textured edge, a lovely match for the City Tweed yarn. 

You can get the pattern as an individual download or as part of the City Tweed collection. The collection includes a total of 6 patterns. There are 3 pullovers, a cardigan, a cowl, and my shawl.

Hope you enjoy the new pattern! :)

Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Hat Book

Before I talk about this week's book, we need a winner from last week's book giveaway. And the winner is....Michele/pdxknitterati (go read her blog, it's great!). Yay Michele!

This week, I took a look at Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Hat Book. This book has been out for awhile (as I said a couple weeks ago, I am super behind on the books around here).

The book is a collection of 50 patterns, many of which are new. At first glance at the book, I thought they were all new, but I recognized the Double Knit Hat from an old Vogue Knitting magazine. I remember really loving it when I saw it in the magazine then, and I still love it now.

The book starts with a brief history about hats and some hat knitting basics.

From there, it's broken up into several sections, making it easy for the knitter to find what they want.

Some of the hat patterns are a little out there for me. But, it's Vogue, so you kinda expect that. There are several that I loved though! Here are a few:

Newsboy Cap:

Cloche:

Nordic Snowflake Tuque:

and the Brioche Swirl Hat:

The book is chart-heavy. The lace, cables and colorwork hats have charts without the accompanying written instructions, so that's something to consider if you are not a chart person. I think this is a great book to add to your collection if you are an accessories knitter. Lots of new techniques to try for sure! However, if you are looking for a book with hats for men, this is not the book for you. You are not going to find one in this book.

Want to see all the patterns in this book? You can check out them out here.

Free-Spirit Shawls

Another week, another book on the blog. This week, it's Free-Spirit Shawls by Lisa Shroyer.

The book consists of 20 shawl patterns and is broken up into sections: Color, Lace, Simplicity & Texture. I really like the book being organized this way. You can find what you want to knit with ease! There is also a section about shawl shapes, which as a shawl designer, I enjoyed reading. There are lots of pretty shawls in the book, here are a few of my faves:

Bethe by Angela Tong may be my favorite:

Basilica:

Framework:

There are so many different types of shawls in this book, I am sure most knitters will find something they like. If a pattern involves a chart, there are no written instructions to go along with it. However, there are patterns in the book where there is no chart, so if you are not a chart-reader, there is still something in there for you too!

You can see all of the patterns for this book here.

Want my review copy? Leave a comment on this blog post between now and Sept. 10th. I will draw a random winner on the 12th (when I have the next book mention/review up on the blog). Make sure you leave your Ravelry name or something so I can find you should you win.

Happy knitting!

The 15 month socks

When I first learned to knit socks around 2005/2006 I would knit sock after sock after sock each month. I was probably cranking out a pair of socks in a week on average. I went to the first Sock Summit and knit 3 pairs of socks in a long weekend.

Yeah, those days are gone. Now that I design (and what I design is pretty much not socks), I don't knit socks too often these days. They make an appearance here and there at knit night, when I have a design project that requires a little too much attention for gabbing all night with friends. That is why it took me 15 months to complete this plain ol' pair of socks. That is pretty pathetic.

I started these back in May of 2012 while heading to Ohio. I finished them last week after knitting quite a bit on them over Stitches weekend.

The yarn is Knit Picks Felici in the Time Traveler colorway. I had no idea it was Doctor Who themed colors, until Laura pointed it out to me at Stitches! (not yet into Doctor Who, I've been spending a lot of time watching Mad Men and Felicity. Judge me on the Felicity watching if you must). I just bought it because I loved the colors.

I knit these socks toe-up with an afterthought heel. I used every bit of yarn I had. I maybe had 1 yard total left at the end. One ball for each sock. I look forward to the cooler weather coming and finally getting to wear these babies.

Have you been knitting stripey socks lately? What's your favorite self-striping sock yarn?