FO Friday

It’s been a while since I’ve last done an FO post, not  because I’ve had no FOs but because I’ve never got round to photographing any of them. I normally rely on Boy #1 for this now. His  genuine interest in photography has made him into a fantastic little helper, but this still requires me to actually find the time to model the knitwear.

In the end, this morning, I just decided to take a few shots in front of the mirror instead. Not ideal for photographing cowls in particular, since my hand is sort of hiding half of them, but hey, better than nothing, right? ;)

The first set is the Cosan Cowl that I did as a testknit for Ruth a while ago. The pattern can be downloaded from Ravelry HERE. I’ve shown glimpses of this, but I never took any shots of it for the purpose of showcasing it as an FO.

I really enjoyed knitting this, and I love how lush and rich the colours of the two yarns are together.

I liked it so much, in fact, that when the boys started asking me why I didn’t have a beanie yet I decide to make one to match the cowl.

I’m quite pleased with the results, even if I accidentally knitted this beanie with a smaller set of needles, resulting in a slightly more snug fit for the hat. I’ll see how I go with this. If necessary I can always re-do it in a larger needle size…

The second one is the Alban Eilir Cowl, the most recent testknit I did for Ruth. The pattern is released now and you can purchase it HERE.

Again, I really enjoyed knitting this, although I was more than a little rusty with the colour work. The first few rows on the reverse side are a bit of a mess, but I’m not showing you that bit!

All in all I think this is a good little project for anyone who wants a gentle start into colour work. Just remember to carry those strands of yarn with you rather than cut them, is all I say!! ;)

So there you go – 3 FOs in one post, not too bad, eh?

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Flash Your Finishes Friday

Post-holiday FOs: Meet the Beanie Boys

I've not been entirely idle this holiday. In fact, while we were away I was downright busy. It felt like a regular beanie conveyor belt for a while!

The start was a beanie for boy #2. He'd been asking me for a beanie and scarf combo for a while now, and I thought this was as good a time as any to finally cast on for it. 

The colours he had picked were red and green. I wasn't took keen on buying lots of new wool, so I rooted around in my vast stash and found some dark green wool. I'm pretty sure it's Cascade, and I'm also pretty sure that I've had it since D's and my honeymoon, which is something like 10 years ago now. We spent it travelling New England on a Harley Davidson. I'm not your typical biker chick (or a biker chick at all, really!), and the trade-off for riding on that Harley was that we were also touring the Yarn Shops of New England. We visited many, always drawing surprised looks when we entered some little LYS in our full motorbike gear. It was a great holiday, and I brought back a whole lot of yarn - as much as would fit in the saddle bags on the bike, really. I also learned to spin on  that holiday, but that is another story.

Anyway, I still had this dark green yarn and I thought I'd use it. To accommodate boy #2's wishes I then bought some dark red Alpaca-mix yarn and I was set to go. Boy#2 told me later that he had envisioned brighter and lighter colours (something like bright red and a glowing neon- green... I should have guessed that I suppose!), but he is nevertheless thrilled with the beanie. So thrilled, in fact, that he's been wearing it most days, both during the day and often in the evening, in bed. :D

I used a very simple pattern for this. The inspiration came from Haven Ashley's Man Hat, but I amended the pattern a bit by using thinner yarn. I also went with a k1 p1 pattern on every row for this hat, which gae it quite clearly pronounced stripes. 

As soon as I had finished it, I saw boy #1's eyes light up - 'Mummy, that's cool, can you make me one!?'

Sure I can, darling, I'm glad you asked!

He chose a combination of the dark green yarn and the light green one that I still have left over from the Eyelet Yoke sweater. I love it when I find small projects for left-over yarn! 

I can tell you now, though, that one does not tolerate any procrastinating when he is waiting for something to be finished. At one point I was sitting down on the sofa for 5 minutes and he spotted me without my knitting, so he went and fetched it for me and threw it to me with a 'come-on mummy, you need to knit.'. Ha! 

That hat was finished in record time.

The next one was obviously boy #3's beanie. Since we now had three colours in the mix for these beanies I thought I'd go with the combination that hadn't been used before - the dark red Alpaca and the light green. 

I went with a k1 p1 row followed with a knit row for these two, which gave a slightly different look and shape. They are less stretchy and wider, overall, and for boy#3's beanie I altered the stripes by knitting 3 rows with red and two with green, which, together with the pattern, produced an interesting effect of one solid green stripe and one sort of dotted stripe... I quite like it. :) 

I obviously didn't want to leave out D, and in fact, this is the hat that started it all. I knitted it with a ball of Noro that I have had for ages. The pattern for this one is made up, and as you can see I ran out of yarn right before the end so I finished it with that dark green Cascade. 

So you see, I wasn't that idle on holiday, not at all!

4 boys - 4 hats! :)

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FO Friday
A Year of Projects