A tiny sweater for a tiny puppy

So, I still have a sprained wrist...slowest healer ever? Probably. But I have received a steroid shot and praying it works like a miracle and I'll be knitting again in no time! However, since I can barely knit in the meantime, I'm resorting to blogging about past knitting. I actually have wanted to post this pattern for a while, since it was the first pattern I ever designed from scratch...and I'm kind of proud!

There is someone super cute and super important in my life...and his name is Jordan Bailey!!! He belongs to Jordan's parents, and with the winter here and chilling us all, he needed some protection (and style!).

I used classic wool for durability and warmth with a size 5 needle for the ribbing, and 6 for the rest of the pattern. You can use larger...depends on the size of your puppy! Bailey is about 5 lbs.

Abbreviations I will use:
C: Slip 3 stitches onto a cable needle, or spare double pointed needle, and hold to front. Knit 3 stitches. Knit 3 stitches from cable needle. 
MB: Make bobble. Do this by knitting once into the front of the stitch, then knit into the back, then the front, then the back, and finally into the front. You will end up with 5 stitches where there used to be one. Turn your work. Purl 2 together, purl 1, purl 2 together. Turn your work. Knit the 3 remaining stitches together. 
If anyone is confused about these, let me know and I will post a video or help you out!

For the top half: 
Cast on 47 stitches
Rows 1-10: K1, P1 across
Row 11: K8, P4, K6, P11, K6, P4, K8
Row 12: P8, K4, P6, K11, P6, K4, P8
Row 13: Same as 11
Row 14: P8, K4, P6, K5, MB, K5, P6, K4, P8
Row 15: K8, P4, C, P11, C, P4, K8
Row 16: Same as 12
Row 17: Same as 11
Row 18: P8, K4, P6, K4, MB, K1, MB, K4, P6, K4, P8
Row 19: Same as 11
Row 20: Same as 12
Row 21: Same as 15 
Row 22: Same as 14
Row 23: Same as 11
Row 24: Same as 18
Row 25: Same as 11
Row 26: Same as 14
Row 27: Same as 15
Row 28: Same as 12
Row 29: Same as 11
Row 30: Same as 14
Row 31: Same as 11
Row 32: Same as 18
Row 33: Same as 15
Row 34: Same as 14
Row 35: Same as 11
Row 36: Same as 12
Row 37: Same as 11
Row 38: Same as 14
Row 39: Same as 15
Row 40: Same as 18
Row 41: Same as 11
Row 42: Same as 14
Row 43: Same as 11
Row 44: Same as 12
Row 45: Same as 15
Row 46: Same as 14
Row 47: Same as 11
Row 48: Same as 18
Row 49: Same as 11
Row 50: Same as 14
Row 51: Same as 15
Row 52: Same as 12
Row 53: Same as 11
Row 54: Same as 14
Row 55: Same as 11
Row 56: Same as 18
Row 57: Same as 15
Row 58: Same as 14
Row 59: Same as 11
Row 60: Same as 12
Row 61: Same as 11
Row 62: Same as 14
Row 63: Same as 15
Row 64: Same as 18
Row 65: Same as 11
Row 66: Same as 14
Row 67: Same as 11
Row 68: Same as 12
Rows 69-80: K1, P1

As this is my first attempt at writing a real patten, I'm hopeful there are no mistakes...but if you find one, please share :)

The top when it's finished should look like this! This is my sweater on it's blocking table...

 

For the bottom half:
Cast on 19 st.

Rows 1-26, 28-39, 41-49, 51-52: Knit in stockinette stitch (ie, K one row, P the the next).
Row 27, 40, 50: K2tog on the first and last stitch in the row
Rows 53-62: K1, P1 across

When you are done both parts, block them. For an easy way to block, see this post.

Start your seaming at the top (neck) ribbing. Then sew about 4 stiches into the main body. Skip 16 stitches on the top part, and 22 stitches on the bottom part to leave room for leg holes and begin to seam again. When finished, it should look like this:

Voila! One fashionable, warm pooch!

Aww :)

This counts as my first sweater, right?

How I block my hats

For those of you who aren't into blocking...it's time to start. I tried it once, and I have never returned to my old ways!!! It makes the stitches look much more organized, and the garment always sits much nicer. And it takes so little effort!


There are many ways to block, but this is how I do it. I used my newly finished Miami Dolphins hat as an example. 


STEP 1: Totally soak your hat in water. Plug up the kitchen or bathroom sink, and swish it around for a while. 
STEP 2: Wring out your hat gently. 
STEP 3: Place a towel on the floor, and roll up your hat in it. Kneel on it to get out the excess moisture. 

Sorry my towels are so multicoloured!!

STEP 4: Take a towel and stuff it inside a plastic bag. The plastic bag keeps the drying time down. Place this contraption into your hat, and balance it on a table or chair somewhere. Arrange the stuffing so the hat is the size and shape you would like it. 

STEP 5: Place pins in the hat to keep it there. 

STEP 6: Let your hat dry! It may take a day or two. 

Then remove the pins and wear!

A hat for the Miami Dolphins fan

For those of you who aren't aware...there is a huge Dolphins fan in my life, and it was his birthday on February 3!! Jordan had requested a Miami hat a while ago, so I decided it would be the perfect birthday gift. I couldn't find a pattern for anything dolphin-related online (google fail!!!) so I had to start from scratch.

First, it was clear the hat needed to have earflaps. Jordan likes earflaps. Who doesn't like extra warm ears anyway? So this is what I did:

With BERNAT Satin yarn in teal, and size 6 round needles...

EARFLAP #1:
1:Cast on 5 stitches.
2 (and all even rows): Turn work, purl
3 (and all odd rows): k1f&b, k to last stitch, k1f&b

Continue until you have 19 st. Work 11 more rows. Cut threat, and make a second earflap. Don't cut the threat on the second earflap. I knit mine on round needles, and just kept the first earflap on the connecting part of the needles while I made the second one.

MAIN BODY OF HAT:
From the end of the second earflap, cast on 25 st. Knit across first earflap. Cast on 37 st, and join in the round with the second earflap. You should now have 100st!!! This was a little more wiggle room than normal, as I planned on having a fleece lining.
Knit in the round until you have about 5" from the top of the earflap.

DECREASING:
1: *k10, PM...repeat from * around
2 (and all even rows): knit and k2tg before each marker
3 (and all odd rows): knit

When you can't continue this anymore, take off the markers and k2tg all around. Pull the thread through the loops and tie off.

Now for the fun part!!! All the embellishments!!! To summarize, I made a pompom, a crocheted edge, the Miami Dolphins pattern, and the fleece insert. We'll look at each separately.

POMPOM:
I made a tricolour pompom with teal, white and orange (of course). To make a pompom, just take all three colours and wrap them around 3 or 4 fingers. When you have more than you think you will need, you are done. Tie them together perpendicular to the direction of wrapping, very tightly. Then cut! See this tutorial for pictures.

CROCHETED EDGE:
I used orange and white to travel around my edge. I switched colours every stitch. I learned how here. It's a great idea for anything worked in stockinette stitch, because it stops it from curling up!!

PATTERN:
Ah, la pièce de résistance. I made this pattern in paint...colouring in each little square until it was just perfect. Maybe not the fastest way?? Haha...regardless, here it is:

Notice how the dolphin is the same colour as the hat...no need to embroider that part. Also, the grey = white on the hat. (I also added more orange to the helmet after...it looked better)

To add this to the front of the hat, I used this method of embroidery (from here):

And for the one stitch for the eye, I used a French knot:

It took upwards of 5 hours (I made frequent catastrophic errors)...but it looked great in the end :) 

Before I added the fleece insert, I blocked my hat. This is how I block my hats. 

FLEECE INSERT:

As I obviously had no idea how to do this part, I once again went to google and I found this sweet blog! I also had very little skill in hand sewing, and it showed me how to do that  too. I am now loaded with skills. For the earflaps I just added triangles on after....but next time I might just make the body of the hat longer and trim it to avoid more sewing. Yeay for extra warm hats! 

Don't judge my stitching too harshly!

My model <3:

Nothing better than a happy birthday boy!

Knitting in the News!

A couple days ago, the increase in popularity of knitting hit the Canadian news!! Yeay for knitting circles across the globe!

http://www.globalnews.ca/knit+your/3952492/story.html

PS: Due to the recent sprain-ish problem with my wrist I haven't been able to knit. It's probably an understatement to say I'm going crazy.

Real men knit.

Jordan's mom just returned from a trip from Peru, and brings with her a tale of a very interesting tribe. Only the men can knit!

If you want to read more, check out the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taquile_Island

Felting fail?

The Hermione hat is finished, and was a moderate fail. As per usual, I encountered any number of disasters while making it. Hopefully I'm not the only knitter who this happens to...

The first problem was my inability to read patterns. As Ashley can attest to, even things like K1,P1 are hard for me to grasp....So there I was, cast on and ribbing away, when I decided to recount my stitches for fun. The pattern called for 82, but I was going to do 84 to make it a multiple of 4. To my delight (...) I discovered that I had only cast on 74 stitches (???). But since I had already knit an inch or so, it (for some reason) didn't make sense to start over, so I kept going. I wonder if anyone can guess what happened? Yes! My hat was too small!!!  Classic Jen. Actually, I could have dealt with it being the circumference it was, but the real problem was that it was more like a beanie than a beret. I knit the full 5" the pattern called for, and was disappointed. This is what it looked like when I was done:

So all in all, it was alright, but more beanie-ish than I wanted. Next, I decided to felt without fear, since I didn't feel particularly attached to the hat. I put it in a hot wash and set the timer for 5 minutes. At some point, a fuse blew, and the wash stopped, but I'm not really sure when...so the timing kind of went out the window. It wasn't felted at all the first time I checked it. When I went back down a few minutes later it looked like Super Felted Man, the superhero of speedy felting had arrived....my hat was WAY felted. And bonus, it has shrunk. Disaster! Hahaha...so now my hat was doubly as small as I had hoped, and so felted you could barely see the lovely pattern I had worked. Le sigh. Here it is on my makeshift hat blocking set up (aka a towel stuffed inside the hat):

Things I would do differently next time:

• Don't use smaller needles than the pattern calls for
• Cast on 80 stitches instead of 74
• Knit for at least 6-6.5" instead of the 5" called for
• Don't overfelt...check more often...don't have power go off when felting

I would definitely re-make this hat. It's such a nice texture when it's felted, and I can imagine it would be very warm. When my long of list of things to knit has dwindled, I will be revising this pattern. 

Peace out. 

Felting Fun!

After seeing the new HP movie (The Deathly Hallows), I totally fell in love with Hermione's hat in the graveyard scene! I've decided that Hermione's hat looks a little felted.

I went and bought this really pretty pink yarn:

And then to my dismay learned that you can only felt with wool, and not acrylic yarns. Always do your research before you buy your yarn kids. So I got this one instead:

I like the colour on the first one better, but that's ok. So being quite used to disastrous mistakes, I decided to follow advice and knit up a swatch to experiment on. I am following the instructions on how to felt here. It started out looking like this:

And after 10 minutes in the hot water wash it looked like this:

I wanted it a bit more felty, so I put it in for another 5 minutes. It came out like this:

Good enough for me! I am going to follow the pattern for the hat from here. Since I didn't leave it in the wash for that long, my swatch didn't shrink, so I'm going to follow the pattern exactly and hope for the best! What's the worst that can happen? Haha.....