Another Modified Mystery Blanket

This is the final version of my project from my earlier post. I made this 3'x3' baby blanket based on the EZ mystery blanket square pattern from The Knitter's Almanac and expanded the square until I ran out of long circular needles in roughly the same needle size (remember EZ says we can add 1-2 needles in 1 smaller or larger size without changing gauge when we're knitting circularly!!).

The square was a really easy pattern, especially because it was just knit stitch the whole way around. I knit it up in about a week, so it went really quickly, too. I threw on a few rows of garter stitch for the border.

I did run into a bit of a problem because I bound off too snuggly to make the blanket lay flat; so I ripped out a couple of rows and consulted Knitting Without Tears. I ended up using EZ's sewn cast off and loved how easy it was to control the tension of the cast off edge. It is now my cast off method of choice, I must say!

This will turn out to be a very serviceable baby blanket for my niece who will be born in February. More pictures and info are available on my blog.

Toddler Seamless Hybrid

This is an early fall/winter sweater for my son. I used Cascade 220 in silver grey over-dyed with many many packs of tamarindo kool-aid for the body/sleeves and azure for the button bands and hems.

I used a crocheted steek to turn it into a cardigan. the sleeves are a smidge long, so it's nice that the hems turn up so nicely. I have yet to decide on buttons!

Saddle Shoulder Sweater

Saddle Shoulder Sweater from Knitting Without Tears
Mission Falls 1824 Wool - Denim and Putty and Cascade 220 Superwash - Red - for hems
Actual knitting time - 9 days! (the finishing took a bit longer)

I loved knitting this sweater.

I actually had to reknit the sweater after finishing the arms and getting a couple of inches into the body. The yarn I had in stash was from before Mission Falls closed and reopened, and I started to panic that I wouldn’t have enough to finish the sweater, with no way of getting another skein in the same dye lot. If I had been knitting a yoked sweater I could have added color into the yoke with no problem, but it would have looked very strange on the saddle shoulder. I picked up the putty yarn at a LYS and added some stripes to the body and arms. I’m glad I did as it would have been very close and I don’t think my heart could have taken it. Then again if I had knit the body of the sweater a little shorter, I prolly would have been okay, but I like the longer length. I did have to fudge a bit on the shoulder/neck decreases since I wanted a larger opening for his pun’kin head.

All in all, I would knit another EZ sweater in a second, loved the whole process, even with the ripping and the grafting.

You can see more pics on my blog.