Each year, our knitting group votes on something we call our “house color”; we then all knit something, anything, in that color, and wear it to that year’s fiber festival. The color for 2011 was orange, and I knit Cadence in a Malabrigo called Sunset, which I then debuted at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival this past October.

Our color for 2012 is red, so I decided to whip up something that I would be able to wear at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival just a couple weekends ago. What you see here is my result.

I wanted something lacy and summery, that I could throw on over sleeveless dresses, but could also work well in the fall over a long sleeved shirt. I’d been meaning, for a while, to knit something with Hempathy; using Ravelry’s advanced pattern search, I narrowed my pattern down to a DK-weight knit cardigan, with a lacy stitch and short sleeves.

The Marigold Sweater had everything I was looking for! I was immediately drawn to the wide ribbing at the hem, which would look great over the dresses I have in my wardrobe. I usually prefer to knit my sweaters from the top down, with raglan sleeves, but figured I’d give this one a try.

The pattern is pretty easy to understand, especially if you’ve knit sweaters before. A beginner may be intimidated, but I suggest just diving right in and figuring it out. It’s separated into sections—back, right front, left front, sleeves, neckline, and buttonbands—which are then seamed up when everything is finished.

I wanted a more cropped sweater, and since I’m short-waisted, I shortened the sweater length to 5″ for the ribbed hem, and 12″ from the cast-on to the start of the armhole.

The seaming of the pieces was completed the night before we went to the festival, but I didn’t have enough time to finish knitting the buttonbands. Instead, I wore it to the festival open-front; no one knew there were supposed to be buttons! I finally finished the buttonbands this week.

My first attempt at the buttonbands left me with a too-tight bind-off. I ripped it out, reknit the band, and used Jeny’s surprisingly stretchy bind off to finish the band. Excellent! I’d used this bind-off on toe-up socks before, but this was the first time I’d used it on a sweater. It worked perfectly.

I had to do a bit of math (awesome!) to figure out how to evenly space my buttonholes; this may turn off beginner knitters. The pattern only instructs the knitter to evenly space buttons on one band, and to “[continuing] in patt, work a 3-st one-row buttonhole at each [marked button]“. I watched the buttonhole video at KnittingHelp.com several times before creating my own, and it was very helpful.

Another thing I should have kept in mind while knitting was shoulder width. I’ve written before about the importance of knowing your measurements, but completely forgot to take this into account. The consequence is a sweater with droopy shoulders. It’s noticeable here, mostly because the cardigan is designed to have puffed sleeves. I don’t want to rip the sweater back and seam the sleeves again, so at some point I’ll just sew the sleeves a little tighter.

Overall, I am very pleased with my finished project, especially considering I didn’t like the stitch pattern in the beginning! If you find yourself in the same boat, give it more than a few inches before calling it quits. The stitch pattern looks much better in the completed sweater.

You can view my Red Marigolds project on Ravelry. You can also purchase the Marigold Sweater pattern for download at Interweave Store or find it in the Summer 2010 issue of Interweave Knits.

They have a retreat center and walking paths. It was very pretty and I was thinking of suggesting it for a Social Knitworking retreat.

This past weekend, I attended the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival with several knitting friends from back home in Philadelphia, including two other SK contributors. Wool festival, you say? Well, if you ever wonder why I attend fiber festivals, just look at those little guys above. How can you not get all blubbery when swooning over a baby sheepie named Abe Lincoln?

There were six of us staying the weekend with Matt (my partner) at his house, and I even woke up before 8am on a Saturday so we could get to the festival in time. It was a warm spring day, leaving me with a little sunspot on my chest in spite of the sunscreen. I drank a giant birch beer and was inundated with stall after stall of lamb sandwiches, lamb curry, and lamb on a stick. I ate a grilled cheese instead.

The sun was shining until well into the afternoon! I should have brought my umbrella with me, but I was worried about smacking into other people with it—Jenn had no such reservations. I bought a good amount of yarn, an insane amount of honey, and a few odds and ends. I picked up a few skeins of yummy gorgeousness from Maple Creek Farm; I always pick up something of theirs at Rhinebeck, and was glad to see them at Maryland.

My one complaint about the festival, as with most fests and cons I attend, is the people. There are certains vendors that always attract a crowd, like Miss Babs, Spirit Trail, The Verdant Gryphon, and while the staff at those booths try hard to keep the peace, certain bad apples ruin it for everyone. I found myself pushed out of stalls or smacked around with bags too many times to count, and due to my tendency to get a little panicky in those situations, I steered clear of a few booths I would otherwise have liked to peruse.

Having attended just the New York State and the Maryland festivals, I must say my preference is for the former. I like fall and winter over spring and summer, so even forgetting the crowds, it’s obvious which one I would choose. I am counting down the days to October!

What’s a more fun gift than something to keep your fun safe? Discreet enough to keep on your nightstand or dresser, large enough to hold your favorite dildo or mini-vibe or anything in between.

Materials

• 1 skein Artful Yarns Candy Sweet Tart
• 1 skein Lion Brand Yarn Fun Fur Violet (optional)
• 1 set US size 8 double-pointed knitting needles

Sizing

Gauge: 20 sts + 32 rows = 4″ on size 8 needles
Dimensions: 4″ x 10″ without fun fur

Directions

CO 42 st, divide evenly across 3 DPN (14 sts on each).

Rnd 1: P
Rnd 2: K
Rnd 3: P
Rnd 4: K
Rnd 5: K
Rnd 6: [K5 YO K2Tog] to end
Knit next 70 rounds.

Begin decrease

Rnd 1: [K4 SSK K2 K2Tog K4] to end
Rnd 2: [K3 SSK K2 K2Tog K3] to end
Rnd 3: [K2 SSK K2 K2Tog K2] to end
Rnd 4: [K1 SSK K2 K2Tog K1] to end
Rnd 5: [SSK K2 K2Tog] to end
Rnd 6: K2Tog to end

Finishing

Pull yarn through remaining stitches. Turn inside-out and weave in ends. Turn right-side-out and thread a ribbon through the YOs.

To add fun fur, pick up all stitches on the cast-on edge. K 1 round, BO and weave in ends.

It’s too hot to worry about getting sweat dripping into your eyes during rock shows. So… no sweat!

Materials

1 ball Cascade Fixation 2706
1 ball Cascade Fixation 3794
set of 4 US size 5 DPN (or 40″ circ for magic loop)
Note: I used about half the blue, and way less of the red. I’m sorry I didn’t figure out exact yardage.

Gauge

Approximately 5 sts + 10 rows = 1″ relaxed (unstretched) on US size 5 needles

I had a bit of a time with gauge on this project, because I’d never worked with yarn so stretchy before, all that elastic in the Fixation. I’m a tight knitter, so keeping the yarn slack and relaxed was quite a chore.

If you knit this pattern, find your gauge and use this pattern as a guide. Work with the guage that works for you, remembering to not tighten up your yarn.

Sizes

Stretchy enough to fit one medium sized head—mine is 21″ around.

Directions

Cast on very loosely 75 stitches and join in round.

Knit all arounds in the following color pattern:
Rnd 1-12: Color A
Rnd 13-14: Color B
Rnd 15: Color A
Rnd 16-17: Color B
Rnd 18-23: Color A
Rnd 24-25: Color B
Rnd 26: Color A
Rnd 27-28: Color B
Rnd 29-40: Color A

Finishing

BO all stitches very loosely; I followed Wendy’s variation on a Russian bind off. Weave in ends. Leave a very long tail, about 6-8 times the length of the band, to use to seam the piece. Your piece should look something like this:

Now fold the cast-on and bind-off ends together, and seam together:

Adjust the folds on the band so the seam is in the middle of the inside, and the stripes at the top and bottom of the front/outside:

Wear proudly and worry-free!

I made this scarf in my brother’s high school colors. Go team!

Materials

2 skeins Color A: Red Heart Super Saver Economy Gold (321)
1 skein Color B: Red Heart Super Saver Economy Black (312)
1 skein Color C: Red Heart Super Saver Economy White (311)
1 16-inch circular US size 8 knitting needle

Sizing

Gauge: 5 sts + 6 rows = 1″ on size 8 needles
Dimensions: 8″ x 84″ without fringe

Patterns for Each Block

Pattern for Block 1

Rnds 1-36: Knit all rows with Color A.

Pattern for Block 2

Rnds 1-3: Knit all rows with Color B.
Rnds 4-9: Knit all rows with Color C.
Rnds 10-12: Knit all rows with Color B.

Pattern for Block 3

Rnds 1-3: Knit all rows with Color B.
Rnds 4-9: Knit all rows with Color C.
Rnds 10-12: Knit all rows with Color B.
Rnds 13-18: Knit all rows with Color C.
Rnds 19-21: Knit all rows with Color B.

Directions

With Color A, cast on 80 stitches.

Follow the rounds for each block in this order:
Block 1, [Block 2, Block 1, Block 3, Block 1] x4, Block 2, Block 1

(Note: To make the scarf longer than the length listed here, repeat the section between [ ].)

Finishing

BO all stitches. Turn inside-out and weave in ends. Turn right-side-out, wash, and block.

To add tassels to the edges of the scarf, follow this article at eHow for a great explanation of creating fringe for tassels. Make enough fringe for 9 tassels on each edge of the scarf, 5 in Color B and 4 in Color C.

At the bind-off edge, attach one Color B tassel to the middle of the scarf, through both layers of knitting. Then attach two more Color B tassels on each end. Using the middle and ends as a guide, eyeball the locations of the remaining tassels.

Repeat this on the cast-on edge. Wear!

I had some extra Swish left over from another project, and I thought: hey! What could I made with this? Something fast and simple, but also very useful. Coffee cozy time! This is a very simple pattern, and easy to customize with your favorite stripes or colorwork.

Materials

KnitPicks Swish Lemongrass Heather
set of 4 US size 6 DPN (or 40″ circ for magic loop)

Gauge

6 sts + 9 rows = 1″ on US size 6 needles

Stitch Notes

K1P1: [Knit 1, Purl 1], repeat for ribbing
K2tog: Knit 2 stitches together, as one
SSK: Slip 2 stitches as if to knit, return them to the left needle, and knit those 2 st together through the back loops

Sizes

Stretchy enough to fit one to-go coffee/tea cup

Directions

Cast on 46 stitches and join in round.
Knit 4 rounds in K1P1 rib.
Knit 2 rounds.

Round 1: Knit to last 3, K2tog, Knit 1
Round 2: Knit 1, SSK, Knit to end
Round 3: Knit
Round 4: Knit

Repeat the above 4 rounds 4 more times.
(There should now be 36 stitches on the needles.)
Knit 1 more round.
Knit 4 rounds in K1P1 rib.

Finishing

BO all stitches and weave in ends. Enjoy your coffee!

Argh!

In the past two weeks, our site has been hacked twice. It’s quite a blow to the ego, let me tell you, but it had definitely made me realize that my awesome front-end web developer skills are of no use to me on the back-end (snicker) server part.

To combat this issue, we’ve moved our site from a self-hosted blog on my own server to a WordPress.com hosted blog. Unfortunately, our database was hit along with the site, leaving our backup rather fucked. I’m piecing together our old posts and articles from a collection of Google Docs, emails, and web archives. In the next couple weeks, you should be able to at least access the patterns we’d posted.

While we don’t often record new podcasts or vidcasts, we’ll keep them accessible on the blog, you know, for history. Or to remind ourselves that when we get together with a camera or a mini-recorder, we actually do have a lot of fun.

tl;dr: Stay tuned for old and new content!

Photo credit “500 – Internal Server Error” from girliemac