Rose Red

Celebrating my 33rd birthday (hey, it's one third of a century!) with a sore arm from a swine flu vaccination, here is Rose Red that I've been planning to knit for a long time. I haven't had the right kind of yarn, because I wanted something with a halo, but yet not something that's mostly mohair, since I have mainly frustrating experiences with yarns like that in past past. (Angora would have been another choice, but I wasn't personally familiar with any angora yarns, either.) The great thing about Rowan Kid Classic, that I finally decided was to be the chosen yarn, is that it's mostly wool and therefore more pleasant to knit with. I knit the medium size but went down on the needle size to 3.5 mm since I expected to knit loosely. The size turned out perfect! No aggressive blocking, just laid it down on a flat surface after washing. The hat design itself is pretty genius, with all the shaping integrated into the cables and lace, and the brim being an organic part of the pattern.

The Ravelry project page

Baktus

I'm almost a week late blogging this, but here goes. I wanted to try out the new Novita Puro yarn, a sort of a Noro clone, and thought Baktus was the ideal project for such a variegated yarn. The scarf ended up a bit too short (I wanted to be able to wrap it around my neck twice and still tie it), but, other than that, I'm happy with it. I used 5 mm needles and knit the whole thing in two days. It's a very fast project.

The Ravelry project page

Cabled Cap

For this hat pattern from the Fall 2009 issue from Vogue/Designer Knitting, I went down on needle size (3.5 and 4.5 mm) to compensate for my loose knitting, even though my head is bigger than the intended size of the hat. I think the size turned out OK, although I wouldn't mind it being slightly looser. I used the leftovers of Berroco Ultra Alpaca I had from the Dimishing Rib Cardigan project. This is clearly one of my favorite yarns, combining the softness of alpaca with the sturdiness of wool. Too bad I have not seen it available anywhere in Finland.

The Ravelry project page

Snapdragon Flip-Tops

This mitten pattern by Ysolda was a conviniently small project after a couple of larger ones. The yarn I used was Paksu Pirkkalanka by Pirkanmaan kotityö Oy, something I've found well suited for mitten projects. The needle size I used was 3.5 mm, but the cuff is still almost too loose. If I knit these again, I'd use a smaller needle for the cabled section. We'll see if the button loop is going to be in the way in every day used when the tops are on. One use I can think of for these kind of mittens is outdoor photography in the winter time.

The Ravelry project page