Saturday, March 7, 2015

Claire's "Gone Hog Wild" capelet






I am a big fan of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander. I have been watching the show on Starz and really enjoying the knitted items. I was thrilled when I found this pattern for the capelet Claire wore in the episode entitled, The Gathering. 

I knitted this pattern on size US 11 circular needles with Bernat's Softee chunky yarn. This yarn is super bulky in the Pumpkin colorway. I used 2 skeins to knit this. I learned a new stitch, The kfb (knit in front loop, then back loop) this was a way to increase and very easy stitch. The pattern is a top down pattern. You start with the collar in seed stitch, k1, p1 (knit 1, purl 1), in seed stitch you knit the purls and purl the knits.  

I love this pattern, it was easy and quite fast to knit. Everytime I see this capelet, it makes me smile.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

The Big Blue


This pattern is called The Big Blue by Meg Gadsbey / Atelier Yarn. I knitted this shawl for my Knit Wit's knit group (A prayer shawl knitting ministry the Novato United Methodist Church).
 This patttern me learn a new cast on, The Garter Tab Cast On. I had no idea what that was.  So as I always do when confronted with a new stitch or method, I went to You Tube, where there is a video on just about anything. I found what I was looking for on the New Stitch A Day channel. This was very helpful and after a few viewings and a lot of practice I was able to do the Garter Tab Cast On.  You cast on 3 stitches, knit 7 rows turn 90 degrees and pick up and knit 3 stitches then turn 90 degrees pickup and knit 3 stitches. Then there were 9 stitches in total on the needle.  
I also had to learn M1L (Make 1 Left) and M1R (Make 1 Right). Once again I went to You Tube and on the Knitwitch channel I learned to do that stitch.

I knitted this with 1 1/2 skeins of Red Heart Soft Seafoam on US 8 32 inch circular needles..