Category: Knitting

Yesterday, I finished knitting two WIP’s (works in progress.) These were completed while on a road trip to visit my brother and his family. Since a one way trip is about three hours, I knew this would give me sufficient time to complete both.

On the way, I finished knitting this autumn ribbed hat. It’s made out of wool.

 

 

The hat’s long enough that you can have a cuff around the brim. I love hat cuffs. I used worsted weight wool yarn, and my size 6 Hiya Hiya Stainless Steel Sharps circular interchangeable knitting needles. Although I did not use a pattern, it’s simple to follow since it only consists of knit 2 (k2) and purl 2 (p2.) I can knit this simple pattern with my eyes closed. Actually I did, since we left out early in the morning. It was so dark, I could not see my hands. It’s what I call ‘no brainer’ knitting. You k2, p2, until you almost reach the desired hat length,  and then you start your decrease round until done.

Hand wash only

The yarn I knitted with, is a soft wool, but not as soft as malabrigo. The simple rib stitch makes it extra thick, stretchy and warm, but it isn’t machine washable.  You will have to hand wash and set out to dry. If you don’t remember this, the hat will shrink and if you washed/dried it on hot you might have an unwanted shrunken felted project. Felting is great when that’s your goal, but frustration can arise when it’s not. 🙂

 

 

On the road home…

During the ride home, I finished knitting this cowl. No pattern was used. It’s just alternating rows of various stitches; rib, stockinette, seed, stockinette, purl, stockinette, seed, stockinette and rib. This is a pretty yarn,  it compliments my complexion and it also has a thin thread of silver woven throughout the yarn. Which adds a bit of glitter when the light hits the yarn. In hindsight, I should have added beads. I can always do that next time, right? I do think it will make a nice gift for someone special.

I like them small…

This cowl was knitted with my size 3 Hiya Hiya needles. My Hiya Hiya needles go down to a 000, but I thought the size 3 was perfect for this cowl. The yarn weight is fingering weight yarn. So it definitely won’t be as warm as the autumn ribbed hat, but it sure will be stylish. The last cowl I knitted was the checkered cowl.  I’ve had this yarn for almost a year, it’s some of the Stroll Glimmer: Carnation yarn that I’d purchased from KnitPicks during their Cyber Monday sale in November 2013. There wasn’t much of this yarn left when I saw it online, and so I bought the rest that was in stock. Which was about six skeins of yarn.

I normally don’t use anything above a size 4. I like the dense fabric produced by a smaller gauge. Knitting hats, with worsted weight yarn, using size 3 knitting needles? I’m in knitting heaven. The small needles produce a dense fabric, which makes it hard for the cold air to penetrate.

These are two of my favorite things (to knit)….

Knitting cowls, are my second favorite small project to knit; hats are my first.   Unlike the knitted ribbed hat, this cowl is also made with superwash wool aka treated wool. So yes… this wool can be put into the washer/dryer.

Feeling Accomplished

It feels great to finish knitting WIP’s, I’d started the knitted hat at the beginning of October 2013, and I’d started knitting the cowl in August 2013. Embarrassing, yes I know…  since I could have easily knitted these projects within a few days! Sighs  The past few months, I’ve been extremely busy so these knitting projects languished while I went on with my busy life.

 

A little something for me…

Today, I rewarded myself, by purchasing the revised hardcover edition copy of The Principles of Knitting: Methods and Techniques of Hand Knitting by June Hemmons Hiatt. It’s huge, it’s 736 pages!  I already know it’s a great book since I’ve borrowed it from the library several times before. I view it as the most comprehensive guide for knitters. It reads like a textbook. I like it’s no frills approach, and my goodness is it thorough! It’s a wealth of information for knitters, regardless of their level. I find it interesting, how my “rewards for myself” usually have me doing something creative.

What will I knit next? I’m not sure, but I would love to knit something with cables or lace… perhaps I’ll start on something this evening!

A few days ago, I was on Ravelry, and learned that Hiya Hiya is now making cables with lifelines!

I sure do enjoy having a lifeline with my interchangeable cables. Interchangeable cables that include lifelines the only thing I miss about my Knit Picks Options. I haven’t touched my Knit Picks needles since purchasing my Hiya Hiya’s. That should tell you how much I love my Hiya Hiya’s!  Of course, I’m thrilled that Hiya Hiya has listened to its customers and will be offering these cables for those who want them.

These were only available with the Hiya Hiya Ultimate Knitting Gift set. Since these were recently released…

Include HiyaHiya’s new lifeline cables (currently only available in these sets) in each size, NEW interchangeable straights, a pair of cable connectors and needle gauges and Yarn Ball Stitch markers in an Interchangeable case (small/medium) or circular needle case (large)

I thought I might have to wait before I was able to by the interchangeable cable separately.
I left a comment for Qianer, on Facebook, and she responded with this message…

Qianer Huang

Hello, Opal, www.HiyaHiya-UK.com and www.HiyaHiyaNorthAmerica.com began to distribute HiyaHiya lifeline cables. Depend on where you are living, please check the websites! HiyaHiya UK hiyahiya-uk.com Quality Needles – Affordable Price

Qianer Huang, one of the Hiya Hiya owners/knitting designer, mentioned on Facebook that they were available, but currently I’m not seeing the new Hiya Hiya cables with lifelines. Hopefully, they’ll be available soon so I could purchase a few.

Knitting & cooking update

I haven’t made too much progress on the knitted autumn ribbed hat. Perhaps I added about an inch since I posted the picture? The reason is simple, I’ve been doing other things besides knitting. Today was a lazy day spent with my daughter, playing games, having tea parties with her dolls and planning outfits to sew tomorrow… after church!

This afternoon, my daughter requested another chowder.  Because of the freshness of the ingredients, this chowder was exceptionally good. Most of the ingredients came from our garden.  This time I did manage to freeze a large portion of the chowder (about eight cups.) That will be served on a day when I don’t feel like preparing a meal. That’s rare, but it can happen!

Knitting ribbed hats is one of my favorite “no brainer” knitting projects. I really don’t have to think about what I’m doing, after all the rib stitch is just a combination of knits and purls, until you reach the desired knitted hat length. I have fun playing with a variety of ribbed stitch length, but my standard is usually k2, p2….

This hat is a fun project, love the orange color. It makes me think of autumn! Cool nights, soups and chunky chowders to warm the tummy as we sit near a warm fire.

 

 

Of course, I’m using my Hiya Hiya Steel Sharp circular needles. Once I went Hiya Hiya… I never looked back. 🙂 A few days ago, I ordered two more 16″ HiyaHiya Interchangeable Cable (small.) It seems, I’m always running out of 16″ cables so I felt it was high time I added more to my collection. The 16″ cables are great for small projects. For some reason, during the cooler months, I find myself knitting a lot more items using my 16″ interchangeable cables.

It’s been a very busy week but I’m hoping that I can finish knitting this hat sometime this weekend. Hopefully, I’ll be able to squeeze in some time while my daughter is drawing, writing or reading.

This weekend Qianer, co-owner of Hiya Hiya needles, shared a lovely cowl on her Facebook page.

Just to clarify, it’s not one of her designs… besides making those awesome Hiya Hiya needles she’s also an amazing knitting designer! But, her “FaceBook Share” clued me into another amazing fiber artist. That share, came at the right time, since I’d been looking for knitted cowl pattern.

Although I came across numerous designs, thanks to the amazing Ravelry site, I didn’t find any that I wanted to make, until I saw the Wisps of Smoke Ring by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer. The pattern costs $6.50. I ran into an issue trying to download it via Ravelry, but I left a message on Jackie’s page, and she quickly fixed that issue. With customer service like she offered, I’ll be sure to purchase more of her designs in the future.

Oh by the way, Jackie has a few websites; Heartstrings Fiber Arts is where her knitted designs are featured. You can also find her writing at Knit Heart Strings where it appears she occasionally has giveaways. Taking Time to Smell the Roses is her personal website, although she doesn’t write as much there, I’ve found some great entries such as this fascinating post on grinding your own corn.

Last evening, I finally got around to printing out the pattern casting on with my size 7″ Hiya Hiya Steel Steel Sharp circular knitting needles. The good news, is the pattern is easy to read. If you know how to knit (k), pearl (p), pearl two together (p2tog) , and yarn over (yo), you too can make this pattern! Since I only had a little bit of time, so I only managed to complete three rows, but I’m looking forward to knitting this lovely cowl. The good news is, that I already know who’ll be receiving this item. I’ll try to post pictures sometime soon.

I’m pleased to say that the majority of my handcrafted items for upcoming holidays; birthdays and Christmas, are completed for the year. I definitely don’t make items for everyone, but there are a few special people in my life that truly appreciate the quality of hand-crafted items.

 

Photo Source: Ravelry; Wisps of Smoke Ring

Several months ago, I stumbled upon this cartoon. It was during my yarn buying adventures and I could relate.

 

To be fair, with the majority of the yarn I purchased I had an idea of what I wanted to make with each one of them.

I’m happy to say that I’m slowly working through those lovely skeins of yarn. The past few days, I’ve been knitting a matching scarf to accompany the stockinette stitch hat I made with the seed stitch brim. I used some of the lovely single ply Malabrigo yarn that I’d purchased for cancer patients. When I’d made that hat, I’d taken a break from knitting hats for cancer patients and actually made that hat for myself.

Nope, I definitely don’t have as much yarn as this lady has, but I can’t help being a tad envious. 😉

It’s interesting that my daughter now loves playing with dolls. If this had been four years ago, you couldn’t pay her to play with them.

 

Earlier this week, I started knitting a hat with my Hiya Hiya Sharp 60″ fixed circular knitting needles; needle size is 0. It didn’t take me long to complete.

I used the yarn that I had chosen to make the knitted kitty love hat for my daughter. Not much was used in that hat, just a tiny band near the crown.

My daughter and I were watching some movie that I can’t remember. This small project was the perfect way to keep my hands occupied. I must say, I think this knitted hat looks great on Ken and as I told my daughter I think he wears the color well, don’t you? Some men, look amazing in pink. I’d wish more of them wore this color.

Regarding dolls…

I believe part of my daughter’s fascination with them, is creating back stories and stop motion movies for her Monster High Dolls. Often, she involves me into her doll play, and why shouldn’t she? She learned all about creative story telling from me. Before she went first grade, I had had her create stories. I’d tell her, I’m going to pick two words and you’ll have to create a story about those words. Initially, she found that a bit challenging, but over time and listening to me do it quite easily, she adjusted. I mainly did that to help her in school and it paid off well, since for the most part she’s always received A’s in Creative Writing.

For once, in a long while, I’m not working on any knitting. Well… it’s only been a few days since I finished the knitted hat. I’m sure I’ll have another project soon.

I love knitting with  tiny needles, I’m not talking about the width- which is size 0, I mean the actual needle length.

 

Too give you an idea at how small some of my Hiya Hiya Steel Sharp 9″ fixed circular knitting needles are, I snapped a picture, see, aren’t they tiny? The actual needle is less than 2″. These knitting needles are so tiny that if you were some distance away, it doesn’t look like I have anything in my hands.

 

 

Look at it compared to my 5″ Hiya Hiya sharp needle, huge difference right? Initially I purchased my 9″ Hiya Hiya needles to make socks/mittens, but to be perfectly honest, I much prefer knitting two at a time (when it comes to things such at that) and so the tiny 9″ needles have been set aside for other projects, such as tiny circular outfits for dolls and perhaps NICU babies?

Last week, I knit an outfit with my size 0 Hiya Hiya Steel Sharp 9″ fixed circular knitting needles and this week, I made a doll hat with my size 0 size 0 Hiya Hiya Steel Sharp 60″ fixed circular knitting needles. I couldn’t knit the hat with the 9″ knitting needles, since the hat would have been much too big for the doll that was receiving the knitted hat.