Join me for a knitting group at Ames Knittery!

Let's knit together!

I will be hosting Wraptures, 
an afghan and shawl knitting group

at the Ames Knittery

(upper level of the Shoppes on Grand)

6th Street & Grand Avenue,

Ames, Iowa

1 - 3 pm

Third Saturday of each month

starting April 21st

Bring your afghans and shawls or wraps to share and work on. They can be plain or lace, textured or cabled, anything that wraps around you to keep you warm.  This is a great time to work on a project for a gift or charity knitting or something for yourself. Feel free to bring questions.

Best of all -- it's free!

Denise

Amaliya in red for February

I had so much fun designing and knitting this beautiful, textured set!  There is a capelet with a cowl collar that covers the shoulders and neck, a hat to warm the ears and either mittens or fingerless mitts for the hands.  The texture makes pockets on the inside to trap the warmth. The texture reminds me of the bark on our Ash tree. The set looked so good on our beautiful daughter, Amy, that I named it in her honor. 

Meet Amaliya !
The patterns are available on my web site. You can buy separate patterns for each piece or a combined pattern which includes all 4 pieces.

 

Baby knitting!

As soon as I found out that we had a grandbaby on the way I was looking for baby projects to knit for her. Baby items are small and quick to make so I made quite a few before this little one arrived!  Nothing like a first time grandma who loves to knit right? I decided it was about time I shared some of what I made.

Because my daughter and her husband had decided not to find out the sex of the baby ahead of time, I tried to make some things that were gender neutral. My daughter loves color so the first sweater that I made was multicolored.

This is a basic top-down raglan cardigan pattern from an old pattern card that I found at my local yarn shop.  The yarn was a DK weight. I love how the stripes worked out on this.  I even found buttons in several of the colors.  Isn't it cute!

I finished that sweater in May then I had the opportunity in June to test knit a new pattern for a designer. The Simply Stripy Baby Sweater was made from two sock yarns that I had in my stash.  One was solid purple Cascade Heritage, the other was a long striping yarn called Mini Mochi from Crystal Palace Yarns.  I made a simple hat to go with the sweater and there are tiny socks too!

 
  The pattern for this sweater is available here.  It includes options for short or long sleeve sweaters, a onesie or a dress with sizes up to 24 months.  Now that I know we have a girl I may have to make the dress!

She seems to have found it to be quite cozy.

Our New Grandbaby!

ILENA -- One month old tomorrow.

And the Winners Are...

I am really pleased with my State Fair results.  Though it is sometimes hard to understand just why they choose the things they do.

Blue Ribbon (first place) and Best Child's Sweater award from the Des Moines Knitting Guild -- Cabled Sweater made in River Jeans cotton yarn. 

Blue Ribbon -- Eggplant round-yoke sweater with stranded designs 

This is my favorite sweater of all that I have knit.

Red Ribbon (second place) -- Purple & Green Stripy Baby Sweater

This cute little sweater has beautiful classic lines with some fun striping.  It was very easy to make.

 

Pink Ribbon (fourth place) -- pink & white sock knitting tote
This is the one that I was most surprised about. It is a very simple project that I put in with the entries because I  had an extra tag. There were several other more complex bags that didn't place at all.

Iowa State Fair time

Ten Items or Less -- oh wait, that was the name of a children's book that we used to read to the children. This is the pile of knitting that I sent off to the fair. There are actually 10 items in the pile ready to go. Sweaters, afghan, hat, shawls etc.  Wednesday night there is a preview for the entrants.  Last year Ames was flooded on the day of the preview, let's hope that doesn't happen again! 

If you get to the fair don't forget to check out the Fabric and Threads display on the second floor of the Varied Industries Building.

Lace Shawls

I love lace shawls.  They are so delicate and pretty! I have been reluctant to make them for myself though because I wasn't sure if I would wear them. This past winter, some of the women of my knitting group have been making and wearing some beautiful lace shawls though so I decided to try my hand at them too.

I made the Multnomah shawl in a small size last fall. It was easy garter stitch and Feather & Fan lace. Only one ball of yarn required. I wore it with the point in the front and wrapped snuggly around my neck under my coat all winter. 

There is more information about it on my Ravelry listing here: Multnomah Shawl
The pattern is available free from this web site:  http://helloknitty.net/  
It is made in a sock yarn with a slow color change. I found the yarn at the Double Ewe yarn shop in Circle Pines, Minnesota. A fun little shop.

I really enjoyed using this shawl, so when the group started talking about the shawls they were making I decided it was time to make another one. Summer is a great time to work on a shawl because it is much lighter in your lap than a heavy sweater or blanket! 

The Adamas Shawl came up in the discussion.  After taking a look at the pattern, I decided I had the perfect yarn to make it.  A few years ago, I dyed some lace weight yarn with the left-over Easter egg dyes. Fun, bright colors!

I am enjoying the pattern. It is really knitting up fast.  The changes in color keep it interesting.  I am actually farther along than this picture shows.  I have about 2 inches of green after the yellow.

More info on my Ravelry listing: Easter Adamas Shawl
The Adamas pattern is available free from MimKnits:  Adamas Shawl  She has other beautiful shawl patterns for sale. I may have to try some of those later.
The yarn is KnitPicks Bare, an un-dyed, 100% Merino wool yarn which comes in lots of different weights.  

This shawl will be great fun to wear.  It is such bright, happy colors.  I seem to wear a lot of basic dark colors in the winter, especially black.  It will be fun to throw this on over things.