Category: Knitting

February/March Newsletter

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I’ve realized that, rather than strictly holding myself to writing about what has happened last month, I want to do a bit of look back and a bit of look forward. Still don’t know what I’m going to start titling these, but for now just going to title it with last month and this month. Anyway, on with what I’ve done that’s noteworthy last month:

YouTube:

Starting with February’s YouTube tutorial: Crocheted Button Flower Pins. It’s a rather simple pattern, so if you prefer a less than 1 minute run through, I also made a short version. Thank you to everyone who has watched so far.

Charity Project:

February’s pattern for my Knit the Rainbow donation project was the Simple Convertible Hat-Cowl by Rachel Sandler, and I managed to make # of them in the 28 days of February (plus a few days in January, but who’s counting).

Ko-Fi:

Finally, I added several capybaras, tapirs, and button flower pins (and a one of a kind hippo) to my shop this month. I think I’m going to go with a single monthly drop from now on, currently planned for the first Tuesday of the month (tomorrow if you are reading this the day it posts).

Which brings me to what’s coming up in March:

YouTube Tutorial: Fruit Slice Keychains
I’ve been planning to make a tutorial video and release a full pattern for a while and just haven’t. But now I’ve got a good filming setup and the experience of creating a simpler tutorial and I know what I’m going to do about it. The tutorial will be the general pattern for the shape, and then I will also release a paid PDF pattern with detailed instructions for the watermelon, citrus, and apple slices.

Charity Project:
I’ve picked (with my mom’s help in deciding) the Rainbow Waves Headband by Melanie Shovelski as the pattern for March. I’m alternating knit and crochet patterns each month just to give myself a good variety in what I’m doing.

Ko-Fi:
The cross stitched roses from my Tri-Color Rose pattern testing will be going up in the shop update on March 4. The PDF pattern for the Fruit Slice Keychains will go up with the YouTube tutorial, as well as going up on LoveCrafts and Ribblr.

That’s it for this month! If you want to get this delivered to your inbox, sign up in the sidebar. I promise these will only be once a month, so it won’t clog your inbox. If you want to follow me elsewhere, I’m most often on Bluesky, plus Ko-Fi and YouTube.

Finished Object – Trellis Tee 2

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You know what’s really difficult to photograph? Black yarn, almost as difficult as it is to see properly while working with it.

A close up of a white woman’s torso standing in a garden in the sun facing the camera wearing a knit shirt made mostly of black yarn with stripes of brown and blue on the upper third and a skirt with white and black stripes.

But I managed to grab a couple pictures of this finished Trellis Tee by Lauren at Mother of Purl. I actually finished it a few weeks ago, but even though it was my “cooler” version of the previous one I made in acrylic yarn, it was still too hot for the second summer heatwave we’ve been having recently.

A close up of a white woman’s torso standing in a garden in the sun facing away from the camera wearing a knit shirt made mostly of black yarn with stripes of brown and blue on the upper third and a skirt with white and black stripes.

This version is made from Knit Picks Cotlin yarn in varying colors of scraps I had in my basket, hence the stripes near the top working in the brown and blue.

A close up of the top of a knit shirt showing the varying-sized stripes of black, blue, and brown going toward the neckline.

Unfortunately, I didn’t bother to keep any notes of how much of each color I had, so this isn’t a very helpful post in terms of yarn specifics. But what I can be helpful about is that this pattern is wonderfully written in a “recipe style,” meaning you take your measurements, make a swatch, and do a tiny bit of super easy calculator math to get your cast-on number, and then you are set.

A close up of the lace detail panel on the left side of the front in black yarn with a “wheat stalk” pattern.

The one modification I did (aside from the striping) was to work in the round where the pattern normally calls for seaming the sides. That was also necessitated by the fact I was working from scraps, so that I could keep track of where I needed to start adding the other colors. 

I have finished a few more projects, and am slightly motivated to do those write-ups as well, so hopefully a string of finished object Fridays is going to happen over the next few weeks.

Finished Object – Framed Sweater

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I finished this sweater two weeks ago, delivered it to the shop a week and a half ago, and am only just now getting around to writing about it. The good news is, if you are looking to make one for Rhinebeck, you’ve still got 2 months. If you are just here for the mathematical details, it’s at the very end.

The front view of a knit sweater with pink and peach color work on the body and sleeves in a pattern of squares filled with “sunbursts” of alternating colors and purple hem, cuffs, and shoulders.

This is the Framed sweater by Andrea Mowry of Drea Renee Knits, her Rhinebeck sweater release this year. I was asked to knit a sample in Malabrigo Rios for The Altered Stitch, my LYS.

The back view of a knit sweater with pink and peach color work on the body and sleeves in a pattern of squares filled with “sunbursts” of alternating colors and purple hem, cuffs, and shoulders.

Unfortunately, for these pictures, my dress form only went small enough to show this at 0” of ease. Seriously, my dress form literally only went down to 34.5 inches around the chest, which was actually lucky that it fit, just doesn’t show it with appropriate ease as called for in the pattern. But I guess if you like your sweaters with no ease, this demonstrates that for you.

Close up of the inside of the neckline of a pink and peach color work sweater with purple details showing the floats and pickup edge.

As cool as the outside looks, I almost love the inside more. Though its resemblance to a Good Humor strawberry shortcake bar often made me hungry while working on it. One tip I will give for this neckline (and really any neckline where you cast off while working shaping/shoulders), use Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-off even though you will be binding off in knit stitches only. Keeps you from having a neckline that doesn’t fit over your head.

A finished knit sweater with pink and peach color work on the body and sleeves in a pattern of squares filled with “sunbursts” of alternating colors and purple hem, cuffs, and shoulders laying flat on a light wooden floor.

Now for the details in one convenient place:

Size made: Size 1, finished chest measurement 34.5 inch circumference

Needles used: US 5 (3.7 mm) for ribbing, US 7 (4.5mm) for body

Color A (hem, cuffs, and shoulders) – 68 grams (approx. 142.8 yards) of Malabrigo Rios in color 282 Leo (less than 1 ball)

Color B (lighter color in body) – 135 grams (approx. 283.5 yards) of Malabrigo Rios in color 695 Peachy (less than 2 balls)

Color C (darker color in body) – 132 grams (approx. 277.2 yards) of Malabrigo Rios in color 057 English Rose (less than 2 balls)

Extra construction notes (in case they help): I used the Tubular cast-on and bind-off suggested in the pattern on the hem, cuffs, and collar, but used Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-off for the part of the neckline that is picked up for the collar. 

If you choose to make this sweater, especially using this yarn, feel free to ask any questions and I will at least try to steer you in the right direction.

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