Ulee's Hat

Yes, I know it's summer and the last thing you probably want to do it put wool on your head, BUT...

Introducing Ulee's Hat, a simple Fair Isle hat ideal for Fair Isle beginners inspired by the film, Ulee's Gold. I've always love yellow and gray (or "grellow" as my friend calls it) together. Add a dash of corrugated ribbing and a lovely striped decreased crown and you have a wonderful hat!

Knit in The Fiberists squishy and amazing Curie Heavy Worsted, you'll need 2 hanks (one of each color). You can easily get 2 hats out of 2 hanks, so why not knit an inverted version for a friend?

Pattern available for download here.

Road Trip Blanket

We decided to be daring this summer and try something we hadn’t tried before with our son. We thought long and hard about it, planned it, packed for it and finally the day came. Our first road trip as a family. This could be a really great thing or something we would regret after the first few dozen miles… We’d be driving about 1500 miles roundtrip. With a car stuffed to the gills with clothes for all weather conditions, a snack bag that had so much in it we could open our own convenience store, books, DVDs, a ridiculous amount of knitting, toys, pillows, shoes and a birdhouse (don’t ask) we were off.

The thing about road tripping in the summer with a kid in the backseat is not only do they get bored easily (see the list of supplies above), but they can get chilly. The car air conditioning blowing on me keeps me awake and engaged the way a driver needs to be, but I know it can make the little guy cold. With this in mind I designed the Road Trip Blanket.

I’m a fan of knitting with cotton. Cotton is a magical fabric that is lightweight, can keep you warm in the chill and cool in the heat. I wear it year-round. I’ve always liked knitting with plant fibers and Peruvian cotton is no exception. Cascade Yarn’s Luna is a machine washable and dryable 100% Peruvian Cotton.  With over 50 colors to pick from, I chose 5 that worked well together, mostly in shades of green. We were heading north after all, to the land of green trees everywhere, green mountains, green moss-covered rocks and green plants. A dash of yellow added a bit of cheer, so I hurried up and casted on.

Feather and fan is such a classic, unisex lace pattern. There are dozens are variations and it reminds me of my grandma who knit a feather and fan baby blanket for me as a child. By using colors a few shades different than the one before (and with over 50 shades of Luna, this is super easy to do) it creates a cute gradient that kids love with a wavy edge. Nubby, soft cotton + bright, fun colors = a warm little boy under a blanket that’s easy to spot in the mess that we call "car."

The beauty of the Road Trip Blanket is that with only 6 hanks of yard at 82 yards each on size US 8’s, you’ll have a blanket large enough to cover a sleeping child in a car seat or stroller. It knits up quickly, blocks beautifully and when some of the 5,000 snacks you’ve packed for the road trip dump, you can easily throw it in the washer and dryer and it’s as good as new.

As we embarked upon our journey north at 5am, I tucked the blanket I had made for my son next to the car seat and didn’t say a word. When I looked back a little while later, he was cuddled under it with his lamby in one arm and his thumb in his mouth, fast asleep. I’d call the Road Trip Blanket a smashing success!

Free Road Trip Blanket pattern available for download here.

Brynna's Shrug

One of the things I miss most about living in Washington DC (we moved a whopping 8 miles away across the border to northern Virginia) is my friend Mary Beth and her daughters, Brynna and Rory, who lived 2 blocks away and often accompanied us to the playground. Luckily they still come to visit us!

Brynna and Rory are my son's "unofficial sisters" and watching the three of them interact has been both hilarious and heartwarming. These two boisterous girls that I see running around like maniacs at the playground, jumping from the top of the slide and performing daredevil tricks are so calm and gentle around my 2-year-old. They hug and snuggle with him like he’s a little bird, treating him with the love and care that only an older sister can. He adores both them and the attention they shower on him, the little flirt!

No stranger to handmade clothing, Brynna and Rory’s mom is a talented sewer and a great knitter. With Brynna in mind, I grabbed some of Cascade’s super soft Sateen yarn and casted on a shrug for this little spitfire of a young woman whom my son has a crush on.

The best thing about Sateen is the softness and sheen. Unlike silk or bamboo yarn, I had no issues with splitting and it ran easily though my fingers, making it a pleasure to knit with. It’s machine washable and dryable (a MUST for an active 7-year old), comes in almost 35 colors (a shade for every picky kid out there!) and has hefty yardage at 301 yards a skein! Being a knitting mom on a budget, throw a machine washable yarn with 301 yards a skein my way and I’m a happy lady!

I don’t normally reach for a variegated yarn, but the ones offered in Sateen have quite a few subtle ones, which mean the lace pattern I knit up didn’t get lost in the colors. With so many color options you can knit one for all the girls in your life in their preferred color so they’ll actually wear it!

Knit in a rectangle starting and ending with ribbing, the rectangle is then tipped horizontally and seamed at the ribbing to create sleeves. Not only is this shrug adorable, but it’s simple to knit and easy to size up or down. For a bigger kid, knit a few more lace reps (measure the “wingspan” of her shoulders from end to end, add a couple of inches and that should be your lace portion not including the ribbing). You can also omit a few reps to make it smaller. The finished shrug is stretchy enough that it can be worn for multiple seasons and won’t be outgrown right away.

How cute would this be for grade school graduation or to wear to a summer wedding?

Free pattern available for download here.

Printemps Shawl

I have permanent spring fever. I love walking down the street, cool breeze in my hair, trees beginning to sprout buds, crocuses already popping up to put small bursts of color on a barren ground, blue sky and the sounds of birds coming back from their vacation to the south. I love that it’s still chilly enough to warrant a lovely lace shawl wrapped around your shoulders, a lightweight hat or some fingerless wristers to cut the chill. I love this in-between stage where you can’t yet pack away the winter gear but it’s not yet time to drag out the tank tops and shorts, bid your knits adieu and break out the beach gear.

Spring. I love it.

So fleeting in an almost “blink and you’ll miss it” time period, spring is the best season, yet gets the least airplay. Here in DC, summer drags on to a punishment similar to Chinese water torture. Drip, drip, drip… The oppressive days drag on from May to late September, the mercury climbing higher still until you feel like you may as well retreat to an air-conditioned cave (with lots of knitting).

I adore a good long winter, snowflakes dancing their way down and exploding into a crescendo of extra snow knitting days, the constant need to wrap yourself in as much knitwear as possible, giant mugs of tea and arguments over what the best fiber is.

Fall comes and goes almost as quickly as spring, making me long for my childhood days of growing up in New England with the fireworks display of reds and golds the trees would put on for us. Sure, there are some signs of fall here, but nothing like a crisp, northern autumn.

Which brings me back to spring, or “printemps” as the French call it. This shawl is the perfect garment to get you through the transition of down jacket to no jacket at all. With the body of the shawl knit first, followed by 2 borders attached with a 3-needle bind off, you can tote it around with you easily. The feminine lace reminds me of rolling hills covered in grass, which is precisely why I chose this beautiful color, dill. I’m particularly excited about the yarn because it has a subtle sparkle. I like a good sparkle yarn as much as the next girl, but a lot of companies tend to overdo the sparkle, making you look more ready for Vegas than everyday life. This new superwash yarn from Cascade called Sunseeker has the PERFECT amount of sparkle, with the metallic thread matching the yarn color. Smart!

A blend of metallic, cotton and acrylic, Sunseeker comes in a generous 237 yard hank at a mere $8. $8 for 237 yards of sparkly yarn in 15 shades? Count me in!

Not only am I giddy that it’s finally spring, I’m excited to have found my new go-to sparkle yarn! Free Printemps Shawl pattern available for download here.