Strolling around hats II and III.

Yes, I knitted 2 more hats! All of them with different yarn and with small modifications.
They are all very different, the first Strolling around, which you can find here
https://vintagecasahandmade.blogspot.it/2017/07/strolling-around.html
is warmer, more elastic and smooth.
For the second version I wanted something bright, contrast to grey...
And I found this Multifilo egyptian cotton by Adrianwool.

 I don't like so much mercerized cotton as it seems rather stiff to me.
So I tried even some other yarns and different stitches. I wasn't sure about the result so I decided to knit and see what happens with the top, with the drape. As you can see, at the beginning I made a progress with grey Sesia hat, which lately I undid, and now I knit another hat with this yarn.

 After different cast on, unripping, cast on etc...

I made another border (simple garter stitch with crab stitch finishing instead of double picot edge) and this hat is shorter as this yarn is not the best for draping. 

Now I like it, the color is great and it looks cute.  

One more thing, always for better draping, I sewed the upper part from the wrong size, so the pleats look much better.  

Then I continued my Strolling around series with Piuma (machine knitting yarn). 

I knitted the double picot border with 5 threads and the main part with 6 threads.

This yarn is smooth and lighter, I wanted this hat to be a bit more slouchy, so I added one more pattern repeat. Sewed on the wrong size. Even this hat is a bit shorter than the first one, and the pleats look better being sewed on the wrong size. 

Now you see the difference?

Strolling around

I've never knitted summer hats for adults... Only for children, to protect from the sun and mostly because they can be so cute... children... and hats.
And when I was given the idea to knit  some summer accessories, I felt a bit lost.
I had a vague idea of the hat, which should be light, but keep the form, lace but rather sportive.
I found a nice online shop https://dilanaedaltrestorie.it/ which had the yarn I was longing to try - Askham 4ply and Milburn 4ply from https://www.edencottageyarns.co.uk/, and I was curious to try new CONCEPT by Katia COTTON-YAK. 

On that occasion I decided to try even CONCEPT by Katia COTTON-CASHMERE (cotton 90%, cashmere 10%).

Later I saw another nice yarn, which looked softer than many other cotton yarns - Sesia Baby. 

So I continued to think over this new summer design considering these two new yarns. I tried several stitches with both yarns and decided, almost at random, to start with Katia. 

No wonder that it took me more than 2 months to complete the project... Surely, it wasn't my only WIP and I even sewed a bit, but it's too much for a simple hat. 
I hope to be much faster with the second hat.... just give me time to chose the best stitch for it!

You can find Strolling around on Ravelry:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/strolling-around
 

  

Duffle coat for Sara.

I started this project... let me see, I was still pregnant... and my son is almost 27 months old... the 10/01/2015.  I used Lana Gatto machine knitting wool and DROPS Alaska. I completed all the garment and left only the closure to be finished. This coat was too big for my son, and then it was too warm to wear it... so the years have passed and my son has grown up... Meanwhile our long-awaited niece was born so I decided that this garment will be more useful for her. And last Saturday we presented her this duffle coat for her Christening. Also I've knitted a cute dress, using DROPS Baby Alpaca Silk. I will publish the pattern as soon as I've tested bigger sizes of this design.

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/NatieKnits/cappottino-celeste

A cute summer hat. Very long story...

Two years ago I knitted this cardigan for my son.
Striped cardigan with anchor.
Like always, it was too big for him.
When he was born I knitted another smaller cardigan using the same lime-yeallow cotton yarn. No stripes, no anchor. I also knitted a striped hat.

Then we lost it, so I knitted another one.

This year the cardigan fits perfectly well, all we needed was a scarf.
Ok, let's knit a scarf!
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/NatieKnits/summer-scarf-for-ale

But the hat was a bit worn out, so I started the third striped hat.

And here we are, after more than 2 years the set is completed. As you can see I always reduced the number of stripes. And the last hat is knitted with 4 threads instead of 3 threads of yarn. Just like the cardigan and the scarf. Always with 3,5 mm needles.
All we need now that the spring comes back and we can show all this beauty to somebody outside!

Volo di Farfalle stole

Today I published my new spring pattern “Volo di Farfalle”.
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/volo-di-farfalle

I don't really like to knit with summer yarns, wool blends are my all year round favorites. 

Spring and summer stoles knitted with light wool, alpaca and silk blended yarns are the best projects for this period of year. You can wear it with light dresses in summer evenings or use them as gorgeous accessories for bride and bridesmaids. 

A couple of years ago I purchased this beautiful Garnstudio DROPS Lace yarn (7238 Olive shade). It was still manufactured in 100 gm skeins. I bought 2 of them with an idea to knit a stole.

Later I changed my mind and decided to knit a vintage sweater, so I bought other 4 skeins (50 gm), and decided to mix them to make invisible any possible color difference. 

I also purchased 8 skeins of 501 light grey Lace and all this treasure was waiting and waiting...

This spring I was asked to knit some summer garments. I wanted to knit something particular, elaborate, but modern. Perfect for any taste. Suitable for any occasion.

I saw so many beautiful patterns and projects, but, like always, I wanted something different. 

The most important features of this stole are:

- the lace motives are mixed in asymmetric way;

- the stole is knitted with a yarn held double (still it weights only 240 gr). 

The stole is knitted in two slightly different parts and then sewed together using grafting method. 

Now I'm planning to knit another stole with light grey Lace. This time in 1 piece, with slightly different finishing. As grafting took so much time and this time I want to make the begging and the end of the stole looking absolutely different. 

For edges I used the 2 stitches i-cord.
You can easily adapt this pattern for larger stole or smaller scarf, play with the motives, knit them wherever you want.
The pattern is easy to knit and remember.

Enjoy summertime! 

Spring colorful coat.

The spring is coming and my son doesn't have any medium season coat. He is still small and can't decide what to wear. And this colorful red yarn (Tulipano 100% lana merino colorway 80) spent too much time in my stash. I had only 8 skiens, not enough for the sleeves. 

So I decided to make a kind of spring cleaning and make something colorful, but rather boyish. 

First I've knitted the back and front, and it was just enough yarn to knit a collar. So I started to try different stash yarns. The best was Peruanskaya Alpaca of Pehorka (colorway 876). I had 2 skeins. Held double, it was right for the gauge. 

After knitting the first sleeve I realized that the yarn was not enough. So,  I re-knitted the sleeve, omitting the scuffs. Completing the second sleeve I was ready to knit the ultimate part in other color, but fortunately, the yarn was just enough. 

For the scuffs I chose Garnstudio DROPS Lima (colorway 0701), which  was thinner then the main yarn, but it was even better for cuffs and i-cord finishing.

And this is it! I was asked about the pattern. I didn't use any pattern, just general measures. Maybe one day I'll publish this pattern, as it has it's peculiarities: different number of stitches for back and front, asymmetric sleeve shape, different back and front length. And I used short rows for the neck line, which is absolutely symmetric. Everything according to my meticulous personality(:

Let me know if you're interested in this pattern!

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Natie379/spring-coat

Cute toy pattern from my friend.

My italian friend Stefania knits, crochets and sews beautiful garments and toys. Recently she started her own blog where she share her projects and free patterns  http://handmadesteffistorch.blogspot.it/
She asked me to translate this easy crochet pattern "Il mio orsetto ROY" in English and was so kind to share it on my blog. 

To make this cute crochet Roy bear you'll need only a couple of hours and any stash yarn.

Materials: knitting yarn, fiberfill for stuffing, crochet hook, scissors, tapestry needle, decorative ribbon, button.

Let's start!!

Rnd 1: 1 ch in a magic ring, 6 sc, join with sl st in the 1st sc. 

Rnd 2: 2 ch, 2 dc in every st (=12 dc), join with the first dc. 

Rnd 3: 2 ch, 2 dc in every st (=24 dc), join with the first dc. 

Rnd 4: 2 ch, 1 dc in every st (=24 dc), join with the first dc.

The belly of the bear is completed.
Now you'll make the paws and the head. 

The paws:

Row 1: 3 ch and 1 dc, 1 dc in next 3 st, 2 ch, turn the work. 

Row 2: 1 half dc in next 3 st, 1 ch, turn 

Row 3: 1 dc in next 3 st, 1 ch, turn
Repeat 3 times, finish with sl st.

Now let's crochet the head of our amiable friend: 

Row 1: 3 ch e 2 dc, 2 dc in every next 2 st, 3 dc in last st (=10 dc). 

Row 2: 3 ch e 1 dc in 1 ch, 1 dc in next 8 ch, 3 dc in last st (=12 dc). 

Row 3 and 4: 3 ch, 11 dc.

Next row - ears: 1 ch, 3 dc in next 2 st, 6 sl st, 3 dc in next 2 st, finish with sl st.

The half of the bear is ready. Now work the other half in the same way, sew 2 parts together, stuff the body, attach the ribbon and button.

Enjoy!

Abbreviations: 

dc double crochet 

sl st slip stitch 

ch chain 

st stitch

Umbrian Tale

This is my new long awaited pattern. It has a long story. 

The first cowl and hat were knitted with DROPS Lima manufactured in 2014. 

Later I knitted another set with Lima manufactured in 2016. And there was a quite visible difference. 

To my opinion, the "old" Lima yarn is very close to "new" Nepal.

Since then I’ve knitted several garments with DROPS Lima and Nepal. Several versions of Umbrian Tale.

In this cowl ("old" Lima 0701) I used double rise stitch, the hat is a bit smaller.

This cowl is knitted with "new" Lima (9020).






















At the end I decided to write 2 versions of this pattern, adapted to DROPS Nepal and DROPS Lima. I knit very tightly,  for Nepal I used 7 mm needles to obtain 16 sts x 26 rows, for Lima – 6 mm needles to obtain 18 sts x 29 rows. You can go down at least 2 sizes to obtain the recommended gauge.

It’s very easy to variate the size of both cowl and hat adding some stitches in garter stitch or changing the number of main cable pattern repeats.

The other day I completed the ultimate hat (Lima 519) and this morning I was happy to publish my new pattern which you can find here:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/umbrian-tale

This hat has an assymetrical cloche shape which looks cute and feminine. 

You can wear these cowl and hat together or separately, mix them with other garments.

For example I've knit grey hat to wear with yellow Byway scarf (pattern of Jared Flood).  

This set was knitted for one friend. She liked my original Umbrian Tale, but preferred simple double cowl in double rice stitch. Why not?