Warm socks for Christmas

Last night we've receive nearly 25 centimetres of snow. It makes me happy because every December, at least for a couple of years now, we are wondering if we'll have a white Christmas. But this year, I think we're good! All that snow shouldn't melt in 9 days ( Yes, only 9 days left before Christmas!!). Plus, there is still a light snow falling as I'm writing and looking through my office window full of lovely frost.

My Christmas projects have progressed a lot, but I've had a hard time taking pictures lately. I have an old and no-so-good camera (a situation that I should resolve in early 2014...) but the real problem is the light. I'm not yet equipped with a light box, and it's dark outside every week night when I come back from work. But hey, I'm here to learn and share my progress as I go, that's why I will post my pictures anyway!  :)

I don't know if I told you, but I love knitting socks! They're super useful, comfortable, make good gifts and aren't that long to knit, especially if you knit them in chunky yarn. Worsted yarn make really nice socks. If you've never knit socks, try with worsted first. They knit faster, are really cozy and warm.

I tried a new sock pattern recently and it's awesome! The socks look elaborated with they're diamond pattern, but aren't that complicated to knit. Plus, the extra wool from the yarn that goes in front of the slipped stitches makes them hot without being too thick. Perfect to wear in your boots!

Here is the link to the free pattern I used :
 http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/woven-diamond-socks

This is my take on the pattern, I used Knit Picks Swish in Bordeaux. I wish the diamond pattern would show more on the picture... I will give them to a friend of mine who I know walks a lot, even in winter.

Also, I've started a pair for Le Barbu. They are probably the simplest socks I have knitted so far. Still, I think he's going to love them. The colors that we've chose are pretty (Solstice and Dove heather in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Superwash) and the socks already feel nice and cozy. This way, when they are finished, he will have another option than his old, felted, nearly transparent cadet socks haha.

Again, the link to the pattern :
 http://www.knitpicks.com/patterns/Boot_Socks_Pattern__D50529220.html

This is where I'm at so far. They knit really quickly.

It's the first time that I try knitting the two socks at a time. I've heard it's a fantastical method for those who have what is called the "second sock syndrome". This is when you like knitting the first sock and then don't feel like finishing the second one because there is no mystery in the pattern anymore. I've never really experience the syndrome, but still, it's nice to see the two socks growing at the same time. Another good thing with this technique is both socks have the exact same length. The only down side I see so far: you need to slit you yarn in half at the beginning of the project, and you have to carry twice as many balls of yarn. Personally, it's doesn't bother me.  I'm eager to see how it's going to be after the heel flap, with all the stitches on my 32 inches cord. I'll try to post a picture as soon as they are finished!

Frosty Jar Cozy

I'm eating my first clementine of the season right now and it delicious. What does this means? It means that the holiday season has officially started! It also means I can listen to Christmas music all day long on Star 92,9 and I'm already using their web player a lot. My mom and I used to listen to it in the car when she picked me up at school or when we went Christmas shopping. When I was in college, I picked-up the "tradition". At the end of fall semesters I would turn on the web player on my computer while working on my final projects. The Christmas songs really help me get through the long hours sitting in front the screen. It reminded me that the holidays were coming fast and I would see my family soon. Some people say November is too early for Christmas music, but as I don't seem to ever get tired of it, why not start right now?  Plus, when you're a crafty person, Christmas preparation starts early.  

If you're like me, you might be planning on making some of your christmas gifts yourself this year. If so, you will like what I have for you today. This week, I've been working on a new pattern for a mason jar cozy. I say new because I made a couple of these over the past years. I used them a lot in school because I used to carry teas in mason jar. In fact, I'm totally in love with mason jars. They really are the safest way I know to carry soups, stews and drinks (hot or cold) in a back pack! And they are so pretty <3. So, if you like to drink tea or coffee from a jar you, should make one for yourself.  It insulate the jar, making it way more comfortable to hold and it also keep your drink hot (or cold, if it's an iced drink) for longer. 

Frosty Jar Cozy

An other use for this cozy, as my friend Chloé mentioned to me, would be a gift wrapping. Let says you made jam this summer, you could cover your jar with an assorted cozy and offer it as a hostess gift. And if you don't have jam jars, you could put tea bags or some hot cocoa mix in the jar and cover it with a red and white cozy to fit the Christmas decor! Anyway, I'm sure you can think of many other possibilities of filling for the jar and colours for the cozy. So here is the pattern for a plain version of the jar cozy:

Material: 35 yards of medium weight yarn (I used Bernat satin)

               US 6 double pointed needls (or cable needles if using magic loop)

               3,5 crochet hook

               An assorted botton

Instructions:  The cozy will fit a 500 ml standard-mouth mason jar. 

CO 40 sts

Row 1: Purl all sts. (40 sts)

Row 2: Knit all sts. (40 sts)

Row 3: Purl all sts. (40 sts)

Row 4: Knit all sts. (40 sts)

Row 5: Purl all sts. (40 sts)

Row 6: *k1, kfb, k6, kfb, k1* repeat from*to* until the end of row (48 sts)

Row 7: Join. Knit all sts. (48 sts)

Row 8: *k1, kfb, k8, kfb, k1* repeat from*to* until the end of row (56 sts)

Row 9: Knit all sts. (56 sts)

Row 10: *k1, kfb, k10, kfb, k1* repeat from*to* until the end of row (64 sts)

Rows 11 to 25: Knit all sts. (64 sts)

Row 26: *k1, k2tog, k10, k2tog, k1* repeat from*to* until the end of row (56 sts)

Row 27: Knit all sts. (56 sts)

Row 28: *k1, k2tog, k8, k2tog, k1* repeat from*to* until the end of row (48 sts)

Row 29: Knit all sts. (48 sts)

Row 30: *k1, k2tog, k6, k2tog, k1* repeat from*to* until the end of row (40 sts)

Row 31: Knit all sts. (40 sts)

Row 32: *k1, k2tog, k4, k2tog, k1* repeat from*to* until the end of row (32 sts)

Row 33: Knit all sts. (32 sts)

Row 34: *k1, k2tog, k2, k2tog, k1* repeat from*to* until the end of row (24 sts)

Row 35: Knit all sts. (24 sts)

Row 36: *k1, k2tog* repeat from*to* until the end of row (16 sts)

Row 35: Knit all sts. (16 sts)

Row 36: * k2tog* repeat from*to* until the end of row (8 sts)

 

Cut yarn and thread it through remaining stitches. Pull tight and close the opening. Weave in ends.

Finishing: Sew a button near the opening pf the cozy. Using a strand of yarn and the crochet hook( starting at the corner of the opening, on the opposite side of the button) chain enough stitches to fit the size of your button and close the loop with a slip stitch. 

From that, you can make plain jar cozies or you can create your own pattern using different colors. If you'd like to get the frosty jar cozy design, it's in my ravelry shop right here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/frosty-jar-cozy

Pssst, you can now follow me on Facebook :)  www.facebook.com/sweetteasoftskeins

                 

To unravel or not to unravel

Recently, I've notice that we don't have that many blankets in the apartment. It's getting colder and I'm feeling more and more like cocooning while listening to Christmas music. Knitting in a nest of blankets seems to me like a must of the season!

Most people have a legacy of blankets at home. You know, that quilt your grand'ma made you or the old throw that as always been around in your family... we mysteriously don't have any of these. Well, I have a blanket that my mom crocheted for me, maybe 15 years ago, but it only fits a single size bed. As for Le Barbu (aka my boyfriend) he does have a large velvet-like blanket but he often uses it in his office. That's why I came to the conclusion that we need more blankets. I searched through the massive amount of pattern on ravelry for a while and I finally chose this one: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/boldly-colored-plaid-afghan

I started it, planning to make it larger than in the pattern. Instead of seven stripes of nine squares I'm probably going to knit ten stripes of thirteen squares. This way, I will obtain a blanket big enough to cover our queen size bed.

So far, I really like the pattern. It's fairly easy to knit and to memorize since the pattern is created by only four rows of knitted stitches. Normally, by knitting all the stitches, you would obtain garter stitch, but the secret of the alveolar texture you find on this blanket is that every other row is composed of "knit 1, knit 1 below" repeats. This means you knit one and then you knit the second one by inserting your needle through the centre of the stitch below the next stitch. I like this idea because it's nearly as easy as a normal knitted stitch but, because it gives a lot of texture to the afghan, I believe it will make it really hot and comfy.

Sadly, after I had nearly finished my first stripe, I realized my first square was longer then the others. After a look on the pattern, I understood that I was one pattern repeat short for every square except for the first one! That is when the ultimate question stuck me: To unravel or not to unravel?

This is where I was at when I unravel 80% of it. See the nice texture!

You see, projects without any mistakes are to me, the exception. Sometimes because I choose to leave the mistakes there, sometimes because I didn't even see it before the garment was blocked. The reality is, when I think my mistake won't affect the final look of the piece, or when I know that no one except me will see the difference, I might very well leave it there (especially if I notice it only a couple rows later). However, if my mistake is going to affect either the shape or the global look of the work, I will unravel the problematic part. That was the case of my first blanket stripe. That's why I decided to unravel it, because the squares were uneven and it would have shown against the other stripes. I'm always a little sad when I unravel something because I know how much time I've put in knitting it. But on the long run, I know I will be happier with the final result and so, it's worth the couple hours more to knit this stripe again especially considering the lifespan of a hand-knitted blanket.

My first baby shower

Yesterday, I went to my first baby shower. My older cousin is pregnant! She's having the first baby of the family and everyone is really happy and excited. Soooo, since a couple of weeks, I've been knitting little baby things here and there between my other projects to give her on that occasion. 

What I find fantastic about baby clothes and accessories is that they are small. Not only do they are quick-knits, they're also easy to carry with you in your purse or backpack. I find that they also are a great opportunity to learn the basics of a new garment. For example, if you've never knitted socks, a simple baby sock pattern is a good way to start. They are fast to complete, so if you miss something, it won't be that long before you notice the anomaly and you can start over or unravel a part of it without loosing days of work.

 Plus, baby things are so cute! Everyone loves them. I often knit at work, at lunch and on my breaks and I've notice that people want to see and touch them even more then my other projects. They're a perfect excuse to use super soft and colourful yarns too. 

So, if you don't have babies yourself, find some friends who do and start knitting cute clothes (especially with Christmas coming!!). Also, if you don't know where to start, here are the links to the awesome patterns that I used. They are all free, well written and relatively easy to complete. 

The blue  cardigan: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baby-sophisticate---free

The green vest: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hunters-vest

The little baby blanket:  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/newborn-baby-blanket

The tiny socks: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mock-cable-baby-socks

And if you want to see my version of each more clearly they are all on my Ralverly projects page : http://www.ravelry.com/projects/sweetteasoftskein

Winifred and my little UFO

Oups! I've been so busy in the past two weeks that I didn't finish my third pattern before Halloween. It was the first goal I fixed myself when I started the blog, finish my three little dolls and their patterns before October 31st. Maybe I wanted to do to many things at the same time. That's me, I get excited about all the things that I want to do, especially holiday crafts and time catches me up... Nonetheless, I'm really happy with the final result. Winifred has always been my favorite of the three Sanderson sisters, with her rich dress and her pretty curly red hair, that's why I kept her for the end.

 

You can now find her on ravelry (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/winifred---hocus-pocus) and I've also created a pattern collection so you can get the three pdf files together ( http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/sanderson-sisters-dolls ).

And in case you were wondering what else I was doing last week, here a picture of my halloween costume.

 

We voted for a costume theme at work and sci-fi won. As I'm not a big fan of light sabers and transformers, I opted for a more vintage version of science fiction and built myself a little UFO to fit with my 50's inspired outfit. I'm really happy with the picture, they took the time to make a professional set up and I think it was really worth it!

I hope you've had a wonderful Halloween and that you still have some candies to eat! I should be posting a bit more regularly in the next weeks as I will start knitting some Christmas presents and some home decor projects!

Mary and the cabbage patch

The end of gardening season is already here! It's been a while now that my tomato plants are dead and that we've eaten all the zucchinis from my little community garden. This year was the less productive that I've had in my three seasons long, urban gardening adventure. This summer, I've met all kinds of problems that I had not experienced before. For instance, my carrots and beets were eaten by some rodents. Also, most of the herbs (two types of basil and cilantro) and the swiss chard that I planted (twice!) have rotted due to the very rainy spring that we've had.

 Still, I'm really thankful that I had the chance to grow my own vegetables this year again. I was lucky to have a garden so fast, since we just moved in the neighbourhood last May. The waiting lists for community gardens are usually long.  Because of this, I've enjoyed fresh parsley (which I'm totally addicted to!) all summer long and even though the cabbages have suffered multiple slugs attack, they became crunchy and big. Luckily I had Mary with me to help harvest them!

I'm happy that I finally uploaded the pattern on ravelry. I finished the doll, which is the second one of my Hocus Pocus inspired doll, nearly a week ago but missed the time to finish the final version of the pdf. But now it's available if you'd like to take a look!
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mary---hocus-pocus

Do you have a garden? What did you grow this summer?

My first pattern

It's fall again and it makes me happy. All the colorful leaves, the crisp morning air and the pumpkin pie! There are so many things I like to do in the fall, like: go apple picking, wear woolly sweaters, cuddle with my lover, drink hot chaï lattes, cook hearty meals and... getting ready for Halloween!
 I can't say Halloween is my favorite holiday, because I just can't put Christmas in second place... Still, I'm a huge fan of making my own costume and eating chocolate!

As a child, I loved all Halloween related activities. Every year, I helped my parents decorate the house and carve a pumpkin. My mom would make me a costume, even though I wouldn't always ask for the easiest one. We would pack little bags of candies for the trick-or-treaters and most importantly, I watched my favorite Halloween movie. And that's exactly what inspired me for my first pattern.

I designed a little doll inspired by the character of Sarah Sanderson in the movie Hocus Pocus. It's one of the three witches from Salem (the blond one actually) who are brought back to life on Halloween night. My goal is to make a doll for each sister before the end of the month. Sarah is already up on Ravelry if you want to check her out! http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sarah-6

If everything goes by as I want, Mary (the brown one) should be ready at the end of next week. Hope you have a nice long week-end with a lots of knitting ahead!