My WIPs November 2021

I could be naming this post WIP Wednesday but I am slightly too disorganised to guarantee that I'll be publishing this today (I'm starting to write this on a Wednesday 😅).

At the moment I am working on 2 main projects: the main one being the sweater I'm knitting for my son at his request:

For this sweater I'm using a free knitting pattern I found on Ravelry called Turtle Dove II, but since my son had a specific idea in his head, I'm only using the pattern as a basis, mainly for the construction method.

I really like the ribbed split hem, even though I'm not allowed to use it (as Jack wants the version with the closed rib), but whenever I get time to make myself a sweater, I will add a split hem to it.

The thing I like best about this knitting pattern is that it's all made in one piece, so no sewing apart from weaving in the ends!

I've changed the pattern stitch as the sweater needed to look bulky, and I am also finishing the sleeves differently, adding a gap for the thumbs so that the sleeves can be either folded back or used as fingerless mittens.

Because it's a big project, I was getting bored by it so I also started a crochet project on the side. I can't really say what it is until I give it to the recipient but I'm planning on writing the pattern and sharing it on this blog if anybody's interested 😉. Here's a sneak peak:

What is everyone up to these days? Let me know in your comments or on my Facebook Page 😁.

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Revamped Easy Rolled Brim Hat Knitting Pattern: Free Beanie Hat Knitting Pattern

I've decided to revamp and add more sizes to one of the first knitting patterns I published on Ravelry. The pattern is called Easy Stripes Rolled Brim Beanie Hat as the yarn I used for the original hat pattern was self-striped.

For this pattern I am using Deramore Vintage Chunky yarn which is a solid colour yarn, so let's just call this the Revamped Rolled Brim Hat.

Revamped Easy Rolled Brim Hat

This beanie pattern has been downloaded many times so because of its popularity and also its simplicity, I decided to offer it on my blog for free. If you want to learn how to knit a beanie hat, this is an excellent basic pattern you should start with.

Adding the extra hat sizes and translating the pattern in French was as usual quite a bit of work (all my paid patterns are in English and also in French), so I will be adding a paid version of the Revamped Rolled Brim Hat knitting pattern to Etsy, Ravelry and Lovecrafts once I have the PDF including both languages ready.

The curling nature of the stocking stitch gives this hat a naturally rolled brim that can be rolled up or down, depending on how you prefer wearing it. Because of this, it is necessary to add some extra length to the bottom of the hat; this is taken into account in the following pattern.

Revamped Easy Rolled Brim Hat in 3 sizes

Sizes:

Small size fits a 7 to 12 year-old child head size (47-49 cm around);

Medium size fits a teenager to medium adult head size (52-55 cm around);

Large size fits a large adult head size (56-58 cm around).

Difficulty: Easy once you know how to knit in the round.

Materials:

1 ball of Deramore Vintage Chunky - 50% merino wool, 50% acrylic (100g/153yds/140m per ball);

6mm (US size 10) circular needle, length 60cm;

This yarn is now discontinued but any chunky yarn with a mix of wool/acrylic that matches the gauge below will work.

Scissors,

Tapestry needle large enough for chunky yarn.

Notes: after you start your decreases for the top of the hat, you can switch to double-pointed needles or use the Magic Loop method to avoid stretching your work.

Gauge: 15 stitches and 21 rows make a 10cm square using stocking stitch after blocking.

Abbreviations: 

k = knit,

k2tog = knit 2 stitches together (1 decrease).

Knitting Instructions for the Revamped Rolled Brim Hat:

1 - Small size hat:

Cast on 64 sts and join both ends to start knitting in the round.

Rounds 1 to 30: knit to the end of round (64 sts).

Round 31: *k6, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (56 sts).

Round 32: knit to the end of round (56 sts).

Round 33: *k5, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (48 sts).

Round 34: knit to the end of round (48 sts).

Round 35: *k4, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (40 sts).

Round 36: knit to the end of round (40 sts).

Round 37: *k3, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (32 sts).

Round 38: *k2, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (24 sts).

Round 39: *k1, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (16 sts).

Round 40: *k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (8 sts).

Round 41: *k2tog*, repeat from * to * 4 times (4 sts).

2 - Medium size hat:

Cast on 72 sts and join both ends to start knitting in the round.

Rounds 1 to 34: knit to the end of round (72 sts).

Round 35: *k7, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (64 sts).

Round 36: knit to the end of round (64 sts).

Round 37: *k6, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (56 sts).

Round 38: knit to the end of round (56 sts).

Round 39: *k5, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (48 sts).

Round 40: knit to the end of round (48 sts).

Round 41: *k4, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (40 sts).

Round 42: knit to the end of round (40 sts).

Round 43: *k3, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (32 sts).

Round 44: *k2, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (24 sts).

Round 45: *k1, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (16 sts).

Round 46: *k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (8 sts).

Round 47: *k2tog*, repeat from * to * 4 times (4 sts).

3 - Large size hat:

Cast on 80 sts and join both ends to start knitting in the round.

Rounds 1 to 38: knit to the end of round (80 sts).

Round 39: *k8, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (72 sts).

Round 40: knit to the end of round (72 sts).

Round 41: *k7, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (64 sts).

Round 42: knit to the end of round (64 sts).

Round 43: *k6, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (56 sts).

Round 44: knit to the end of round (56 sts).

Round 45: *k5, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (48 sts).

Round 46: knit to the end of round (48 sts).

Round 47: *k4, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (40 sts).

Round 48: knit to the end of round (40 sts).

Round 49: *k3, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (32 sts).

Round 50: *k2, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (24 sts).

Round 51: *k1, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (16 sts).

Round 52: *k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times (8 sts).

Round 53: *k2tog*, repeat from * to * 4 times (4 sts).

Finishing:

Cut the yarn, leaving a 20cm tail.

Keeping those 4 stitches on your needle(s), insert the yarn tail into a large tapestry needle and weave the tail into these 4 stitches. Remove the knitting needle(s) and pull the yarn tight to close the hope at the top of the hat. Weave in any remaining yarn tails.

Wash gently in warm soapy water, roll in a clean dry towel and block your newly finished hand knit hat if you wish.

Knit the Revamped Easy Rolled Brim Hat for a quick handmade gift this season 

I hope you enjoy knitting this simple hat and since the Holiday Season is approaching, why not make a few of these easy to knit beanies to use as handmade gifts? 

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Knitty And Crochetty Halloween

Have you ever had any knitting cravings (and before you ask, no I'm not pregnant!)?

Yesterday I was taken by an urge to knit one of these cute Halloween Pumpkins (free knitting and crochet pattern available from Hannah Maier on Ravelry):

I'll be visiting my sister for the Halloween week-end so I thought I would make one for her so she can have one piece of Halloween decor for her flat.

I also had to make one for our own house, this one will probably look a bit out of place among our tacky Halloween decorations (I'm too lazy to decorate so I more or less gave my kids a free hand for our Halloween decor, I had to stop them before having the walls covered in fake blood - creative kids can be a curse sometimes!)

I knitted both pumpkins using the same pattern and wool but using a different needle size (3.75 mm for the big one and 3.00 mm for the small one), which explains the difference in sizes.

My eldest wants to dress up as a black cat this year so she asked me to crochet her a cat ears hairband for which she found a free pattern online from Stitch11. Of course doing this in black means my eyesight has been blurry since (should be better by the time I have to drive to Dublin). She started making herself a cat tail without a pattern which I had to finish for her as she has crafty ADHD too.

The plan this year is to leave the Trick or Trick responsibility to their Dad and his girlfriend (I'm no good at doing fun stuff) while my sister and I head to the Knitting and Stitching Show (yes it's that time of year again:)

Hopefully the little one doesn't decide that she needs a full Halloween outfit crocheted for her 5 minutes before going to Dublin!

Happy Halloween!

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Knitted Scarves: Ready For Winter.

Over the past week I've been producing various items with my knitting needles and hooks.

My local knitting group has started up again in Galway so I get to talk to other grown ups about knitting (I think that I've managed to bore all my neighbours with my talk about knitting so they tend to leave me alone, oops...)

First off is this crochet bag cover which I spotted on a Facebook Knitting group during summer: this will be used to carry my projects to the knitting group mentioned above:

The Infinity scarf is finished and probably the longest I'll ever knit for a scarf. I used the brioche stitch as it's reversible, thick and lovely to hide in from the cold. I published a free knitting cowl pattern last year on Ravelry, this has more stitches as the wool is less bulky, and is much, much longer! I used a provisional cast on and used the kitchener or grafting method to stitch both sides together this time: it makes a cleaner join. A bit long for my taste but I know some people love their infinity scarves about 6 foot long in circumference. I need to take more photos to show off the size but you can see it here looped twice around the clothes hanger:

It's waiting to be listed in my shop (hopefully next week), and I've used some of the same wool for a crochet hat and some mittens. I'm not too sure about the mittens, as I never crocheted any before: I think one of them is tighter than the other so these won't be going in my shop:

I am also in the process of listing 2 new hand knit cabled tube cowls in my Etsy shop as I am writing this: these are made using 3 balls of Pure Merino so accordingly priced. I hate putting a high price on my knitting but if I matched the selling price with my time and materials, these would be over €100! The fact that they are shaped as a tube results as a double thickness which also means doubled time and amount of wool needed to knit them (and the wool wasn't cheap but oh so soft!):

I'll be back soon and show you some more work, as I've been busy making hats, working on a road trip scarf and a snood for me using some of the wool I got last June for my birthday.

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Knitting My Blue "Chocolate Passion" Cabled Cardigan

I've been hesitant about knitting large projects because of how time consuming they are, but rather than heading to Penneys and buy some cheap "I hope I won't look like everyone else around here" piece of junk, I've finally decided to start knitting a nice cardigan for myself.

A while ago, I bookmarked a free knitting cardigan pattern in Ravelry with nice cables that I really liked and I happened to have a blue yarn in my stash, not the one specified in the pattern, but a similar weight yarn for which I managed to get the same gauge.

The pattern is called Chocolate Passion jacket with cables but of course, since the wool I'm using is blue, I can't call it that.

January isn't the best time to cast on a winter cardigan pattern, especially since I'm still at the same time learning how to crochet, trying to stock up my Etsy shop with more knitted headbands and studying my double-knitting online course, but since I live in Ireland where the weather can be unpredictable, I guess I'll still be able to wear it in May or June, in between 2 mini heatwaves. And if my knitting is too slow, there's still next winter (a full 11 months and 3 weeks' long one, ha ha!).

It's a funny knitting pattern for a cardigan, as it begins with the back, but at about a quarter high, and the lower back piece is knitted with the fronts, (I guess I'll have to do some sewing afterwards to join them all together, sigh!).

The cardigan has lots of lovely cables and the picture of the finished knitted cabled jacket looks amazing: I hope mine will look beautiful too. If it turns out the way it's supposed to, I'll be wearing it a lot to show off my cable knitting skills!

Here's what I have knitted so far:

Middle back of my blue "chocolate passion" cable cardigan

I'll try and keep sharing my progress here, in between crochet and double-knitting bits and bobs and hopefully some of the ideas that keep popping up in my head - I think I'm suffering from knitting ADHD, wanting to do it all at the same time:-)

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My First Free Cowl Pattern is Available on Ravelry

I did it! For the last few months I've wanted to publish knitting patterns on Ravelry and I've finally managed to finally upload a free knitting pattern for my Infinity Super Chunky Cowl on Ravelry.

For my first pattern, I decided to give it away for free, mainly because how easy it is to make: you can't really ask for payment for a pattern that most people could work out themselves, and now I've worked out how to do it, it will be easier to publish some more free and paid knitting patterns.

What I would really like to do also is have a go at publishing a pattern booklet of between 5 and 10 knitting patterns, but first things first: here is the download link for my Free Infinity Super Chunky Cowl.

And here's the picture of the finished cowl:

Enjoy and let me know what you think!