Sky Scarf

Have you every heard of Conceptual Knitting? I didn't until last year and when January 1st came I was ready.  I assembled a collection of different blues, grays, and white yarns which represented the colors of the sky and began my Sky Scarf.  What's that?   It's a scarf that documents the weather.  I cast on 40 stitches and each day I knit a row in a color that matches the sky.  Some people look at the sky at the same time every day, but that doesn't work for me.  Whenever it is that I remember to look is the color I pick.  Some days it's been foggy in the mornings and clear blue in the afternoons.  Other days it's been cloudy and then raining.  There's a fair amount of gray but also a lot of blue which reminds me that Oregon's weather isn't always cloudy and rainy.  It's a fun project.

A Blue February Baby Sweater

Another February sweater, but this one has the gull pattern.  I found some cute Peter Rabbit buttons for it and this one has also been put aside.  I found out last week that I will be a first-time grandmother in November and this little sweater will work well if it's a boy. 

February Baby Sweater Set

I've been wanting to make this pattern for a long time. I decided to make it using a skein of sock yarn I'd bought from AlaskanNancy on Etsy.

Yarn: A 420 yard skein of hand painted pure merino fingering weight sock yarn. Colorway: Cherry
Needles: Size 3 needles (circular and straight)
Pattern: February Baby Sweater in Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac, pgs. 28-29 with modifications

Now Elizbath's Zimmerman's patterns have been described as pithy. What that mean's is that they can be confusing. I had no problems understanding the directions until I got to "Place remaining 92 sts on needle, knitting up 4 x 7 sts at the cast on sleeve sts...." Huh?

I found some clarification in this post on a blog titled Ruthless Knitting.

To make it even easier on myself, I decided to knit this sweater in stockinette instead of using the gull pattern. I also realized I could use just about any seven stitch pattern and have been searching for more. Yes, I plan to make more of these little sweaters!


I wanted to knit a matching hat and booties and had just enough yarn to do it.

What cute little outfits they would be with soft linen pants or a delicate flower patterned dress!

I added a little tag and some longer pieces of yarn and an extra button on a ribbon which I'll use to tie all three pieces together.


This is all the yarn I had left when I was done.


I've added it to my jar of scraps which I'll be putting out for the birds soon.


And how lucky am I that this was a leap year and I was able to finish the February sweater on the last day of February!

Simple Lacy Hat

Needles: size 4 circular needle and size 4 dpns
Yarn: Malabrigo Silky Merino. Colorway: #414, Cloudy Sky.
Pattern:
Cast on 90 stitches, join. k1,p1 for 6 rounds
Rnd 1:*k2tog,yo* one round
Rnd2-4 knit
Continue until 7" from cast on.

Shawls for Chickens

I know. I thought it was silly at first too. But look at this photo!

Isn't she beautiful? It was posted on Facebook.

And yes, a free pattern is available. You can find it here. I do have chickens, six of them. And they are spoiled. The Rhodies are Roxie, Rosie, and Rhonda and the Barred Rocks are Spreckles, Freckles, and Henrietta. I talk to them every day and give them kitchen scrap treats. But shawls? I don't think they'd like them. They'd have trouble flying off and on their perches and getting into their nests. They'd probably be jealous of another one's shawls and peck at them. So, no.

I still love that photo, though.