Pattern: Twisted & Twining

My Twisted & Twining Cowl pattern is now available for purchase!

Twisted & Twining is made from 130 yards of sportweight yarn (sadly, an often overlooked weight of yarn). This sample was made from one skein of Frog Tree Alpaca Sportweight.

The cowl is quite versatile, with wearing options to keep neck, face and ears warm. The cables and twisted stitch motifs provide a close but comfortable, stretchy fit. The pattern is sized for 13", 14 1/2" and 16" necks, and it includes instructions for traditional cabling technique as well as the steps for doing the cables without a cable needle.

It's only February, and despite what the groundhog said, the 7" of snow that appeared in my  yard overnight tells me that winter isn't quite finished. That means there is plenty of time to get some use from a cowl! Why not spruce up your winter wardrobe with this quick knit?

$3.00

Pulpie

Pulpie, a fun little piece of orange juice pulp, was created in response to my teenage daughter’s ongoing references to her great dislike of pulp in her juice, to which I heartily agreed. Pulp = ick. The other day, however, the vision of this happy little guy popped into my mind, and I decided I must make him!

After knitting Pulpie, I realized his shape would make a wonderful rain droplet (or tear drop) as well as an aptly shaped candy corn, or a very dimensional flower petal. Once stuffed, you can shape him to be rounded or squish him a bit for a flatter appearance. And Pulpie is a great project to make with leftover yarn from other projects.

So, here you go, my first pattern for the new year, and it's a freebie to boot!

Mateirals:

About 20 yards of worsted weight yarn. (Pulpie was made from Plymouth Encore; Val, the Valentine’s Day candy corn, was knit out of Cascade 220 and Cascade 220 Superwash.)

US4 DPNs

Scrap yarn for stitching eyes, mouth, etc. Or, you can use small buttons or plastic eyes that have snap-on backs that hold them in place (usually found in the googly-eye section of craft stores). If knitting this for a young child, I do not recommend using the buttons or plastic eyes, as they could be a choking hazard if they came off.

Polyfil or yarn/fiber scraps suitable for stuffing

One locking stitch marker.

Tapestry needle.

Notes:

Gauge for this project is not essential. You just want to make sure your resulting fabric is snug enough that the stuffing will not poke through the stitches.

Finished size is approximately 4” tall and 7 ½” in circumference at the widest part.

Abbreviations:

K – knit

Kfb – knit front and back

Pfb – purl front and back

K2tog – knit two together
SSK – slip, slip, knit

Directions:

Cast on 2 stitches.

Row 1: Kfb (4 stitches)

Row 2: Kfb (8 stitches)

[Note: This project is mostly worked in the round knitting each row, but these first two rows are just
easier to work flat instead of in the round, I find. Technically, to keep the project all stockinette, Row 2 should be purled, not knitted. However, I do not find the task of purling front and back an enjoyable one. Since this will be on the base of the stuffie, I have no qualms about it being an odd row of garter stitch. If it bothers you, though, feel free to Pfb instead.]

Divide stitches evenly across four DPNs, two per needle. You will now be working in the round. Be careful not to twist your stitches as you join.

Round 1: Knit

Round 2: Kfb (16 stitches, 4 per needle)

Round 3: Knit

Round 4: Kfb (32 stitches, 8 per needle)

Round 5: Knit

Round 6: *[K, Kfb,], repeat from *. (48 stitches, 12 per needle)

Rounds 7 – 14: Knit (this will add approximately 1” from last increase round).

Round 15: [K2tog, K8, SSK], repeat three more times.

Rounds 16 – 19: Knit (this will add approximately ¾” from first decrease round).

(Note: if doing a candy corn, Row 18 is a good place to change to your second color. Overlap your tail yarns with the working yarn on the inside of the stuffie for several stitches, snugging them up as needed, in order to anchor them and not have a visible gap.)

Round 20: [K2tog, K6, SSK], repeat three more times.

Rounds 21 – 24: Knit (this will add approximately ¾” from second decrease round).

At this point, you will want to add your eyes and mouth. Also use your cast on tail to cinch up any hole that might have resulted after you joined to knit in the round. Weave the tail in a bit and then pull it through to the inside of the stuffie where it can stay forever. Add your stuffing to this lower part of the stuffie at this point before continuing. It’s easier to add the stuffing as you go since the stuffie narrows as you go up.

Round 25: [K2tog, K4, SSK], repeat three more times.

Rounds 26 – 30: Knit (this will add approximately 1” from the third decrease round).

(Note: if doing a candy corn, Row 26 is a good place to change to your third color, again overlapping the tails to prevent a hole.)

Round 31: [K2tog, K2, SSK], repeat three more times.

Rounds 32 – 35: Knit

If you haven’t been doing so, add more stuffing now.

Round 36: [K2tog, SSK], repeat three more times.

Round 37: K2tog four times

Last chance to squeeze in some stuffing for the top!

Break yarn, leaving a 10” tail. With tail on tapestry needle, run tail yarn through remaining four stitches and cinch them up. At the back of the top, weave the tail yarn in and out a bit, as inconspicuously as possible. Now, take the needle and run it down through the inside of your stuffie, pulling it out the bottom. Snip the tail yarn off as close to the body as possible, then smoosh it around a bit to let the end pop back inside, never to be seen again.

Name him.

Squish him.

Love him.

Make him a friend.

Hiccup...

I had good intentions of posting a couple more freebie patterns well in time for Christmas knitting. However, I've run into a couple hiccups in them, mainly in sizing, that will require some extra test-knitting time on my part so I can make sure things are accurate. Unfortunately, due to the Christmas knitting that still remains for me, I can't do that just now. So! I do apologize. I will get the patterns out as soon as I can, if not in time for Christmas knitting, then in time for some relaxing, post-holiday, curl-up-with-cocoa-under-an-afghan-and-watch-the-snow-coming-down-outside knitting. I don't know about you, but that's some of my favorite kind of knitting. :)

Here's a little tease, though...a swatch I'm working up in Malabrigo Rios, Sunset colorway...

Have you knit with Rios yet? Oh! My! Goodness! It is sooooo soft and squishy! It is my new favorite superwash worsted weight yarn. Actually, I'm being redundant in saying that, because I already shared one picture of a Christmas gift in progress that I made out of the Playa colorway, and I said the same thing in that post. But honestly? It bears repeating! It's just that good! And in a package from The Loopy Ewe today, I got a third colorway, Lettuce, that I can't wait to knit with. I hope they come out with more colorways for Rios, because I am totally smitten, and at $13.60 per 210 yard skein, I think it's an affordable option for gift knitting when you want to give something that doesn't need to be hand washed but you want it to have a nicer feel than, say, Cascade 220 Superwash (not that I'm bashing C220S...it's often my go-to, non-hand-wash, gift knitting yarn, mainly due to the multitude of colors available).

So, even though I don't have time to polish these last couple patterns right now, they will hopefully be the first of several I plan to publish in 2011. Interestingly, the more I work on writing up these patterns, the more pattern ideas I seem to get. I think that is the way of creativity. I remember that was always the case back when I was working as a freelancer. The more I wrote, the more ideas for writing I'd get, which is a far better problem to have than writer's block or - in this case - designer's block!

In the mean time, I've done a little housekeeping and rearranging here on the blog, including adding icons over there in the right sidebar that link to each of my available patterns. All but the Call Before Digging pattern are free (F), so please enjoy them. Maybe one or two will make the perfect gifts for folks on your list this year!

On another note, remember my nice, neat, new yarn room? Yeah...not so neat right now! Ack!

I put the card table up last weekend, brought all of my Christmas wrapping supplies up from the basement and set up camp for gift wrapping. I must admit, it's really nice to have the option of using this space in here for this task instead of having it spread throughout the whole dining room the entire month of December. Of course, when you supply the universe with a horizontal surface, it will attract matter, as you can see! In addition to my projects that keep landing there, my daughter has been making use of the space as she's worked on some of her own Christmas gift crafts (which I LOVE that she's making gifts, and they're turning out really well, too!). What you can't see is the ironing board she also had up, effectively making it an obstacle course to get to my desk. I tidied up a bit right after I took the picture. ;)

How's your holiday crafting coming along? What all are you making this year?

(ETA: I've needed to turn comment moderation on. If you comment & don't see it post right away, that's why! Sorry for the inconvenience.)