Team Spirit Hats

I've been having so much fun with colorwork these days! I've been inspired to create team spirit hats. You saw from my previous post the Pittsburgh Steelers team color inspired hat - my son was crazy about it, so I had a thought - what if I made more of these kinds of hats?  My son gives me the ideas and I try to create a hat from the color scheme of the team.

For instance I came up with my own colored chart to create a hat for the UW Huskies:

Go Huskies!!!

Reminiscent of the early football helmets of the 1900's
Earflaps are knitted double-stranded for warmth

Made with Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Oxford Grey,
Violet, and Gold 

Learning colorwork has been challenging yet fun and its opening up more design ideas. Also, now when I come across colored charts I'm not so intimidated. In the past I have steered away from patterns that require me to read a chart and especially any that had colorwork designs!  Now that I've designed a few of my own colorwork patterns, I say, "bring on the colored charts - I'm not afraid of you!!!"

I am currently working on of course UW's rival team - Washington State University Cougars, for which I have also designed a colorwork pattern for and of course I can't leave out the Seattle Seahawks - I designed a really cool pattern for the team color scheme for them. I will post pictures of the hats when I'm done, but in the meantime here is a sneak peek at the design I created for the Seahawks team spirit hat: 

Have you started your holiday knitting?  Have you decided on patterns and designs for the colder weather yet?  Would love to hear from you, come on and drop me a comment.  Happy knitting!!

Update: Finished September 28, 2011

As promised here is the women's WSU beanie with pom pom that I designed and below is the colorwork pattern for it:

Model: Vanessa, a friend at work

Update: Finished September 30, 2011

Seahawks, Sounders FC, or Thunderbirds Team Spirit Beanie

Close-up of colorwork design



Trying my hand at colorwork

I've been trying out different designs of colorwork. I mostly stay with two colors and I design my own colorwork patterns. I figure I should learn how to design them to understand them better if I'm going to try out other written pattern. My post New Hats on the Horizon have some simple designs I created on my own, but this one is a more elaborate design I created this weekend:

As you can see here the beginning design is stretched out - I knitted too
tightly and the design loses its look

From this angle you can see that the top design came out better, once I
loosened my hold on the secondary yarn

I realized when I started the next section of the design (the red strip) that I did the first section too tight and the hat is really snug and the design is being stretched out.  I learned to let up on the secondary yarn and weave it along loosely so the design doesn't get stretched when you put it on.  I'm thinking of frogging this and doing it again. Not sure yet. But I'm really happy with my first attempt at my own design and the results.  Will be trying it again and again, until it I can do it without thinking!

What are some of your colorwork designs?  Have you designed  your own? Would love to hear from you other knitters out there with some tips and tricks on how to make this easier for a knitter who knits too tight?

Happy knitting!

Update: Just finished September 19, 2011:

Pittsburgh Steelers inspired earflap hat

I did a little better with this tri-color earflap hat.  Colorwork is getting a bit easier the more I do it.  I'm no expert but I figure practice makes perfect!

Finishing some long awaited UFOs

I was kind of at loose ends last night. I was really happy that I finished quite a few hats over the weekend and even tried my hand at a tri-color beanie on Monday night, but last night I was kind of lost and frustrated. I didn't want to start a new project or work on the current projects I have going right now.  You see, I have what one of my fellow knitters calls Knitter ADD - I start projects that I find interesting and then quickly lose interest in them when the knitting gets too boring. So I was afraid if I started a new project I was going to get bored with it before I could finish it and would be consigned to the WIPs bag sitting in the corner, which is already overflowing with UFOs.

I know many of you also suffer from this terrible affliction and I'd like for you to join me in stopping this debilitating problem - repeat after me: I [state your name] will spend the remainder of this month as well as the month of October diving into that seemingly bottomless WIPs bag to finish all those long-awaited UFOs that I have put off for far too long!

Now doesn't that feel better?  You have committed yourself to getting those UFOs finished and who knows, that shawl you'd been meaning to finish may make a wonderful gift this holiday season for your mother-in-law or that one sock who still needs its match could be a nice gift for your husband who has been waiting patiently for you to finish for him!

I have many such projects myself and I made mention of two of them in a July post, Heat Wave?! Not So Much in the Puget Sound. In this post I had finished The Big Bag that had been sitting around for about six months waiting for the handles to be finished and sewn on as well as sew in the lining. I also mentioned Cecil the Sockless Monkey, who has been sitting around only half-done for over a year.  Last night I was feeling really sorry for poor Cecil because he'd been waiting for me to finish his head and arms for so long!  I pulled poor Cecil from the WIPs bag and I worked on him while watching Ringer [new show on the CW with Sarah Michelle Gellar].

The pattern is stockinette stitch all the way, which is probably why I got bored with him, but I have gotten as far as the decreasing for the head.  If you don't remember from that previous post, this is what he looked like before:

I have to stuff him some more before I start decreasing for the head and once I have, I will have another photo after his head is complete.

Another UFO that I will be finishing this month will be the Men's Crew Neck Pullover (Rav link) I started last year. It was going to be a Christmas gift, but because I ran out of time, I just stuffed it in my bag to finish at a later date.  Now, almost a whole year has gone by and the size is all wrong for the intended recipient and I'm not sure if I should frog it and start all over again in the right size, or finish it and just add it to my Etsy Shop for someone else to purchase for their little one!  This is how far I've gotten with it:

As you can see I'm just past the point of separating front and back for the armholes and almost to the shoulders and neck.  It would be a shame to frog it, but its too small for my four year old nephew - who will be turning five right before Christmas. Hmmm....decisions, decisions!  I may have to come back to this one because it is a lot of work completed to have to start all over again.

Then there is the Basketcase Jacket (Rav link) that hasn't gotten very far and could very well be frogged and the yarn used for something else:

Would love to hear from all of you who took the oath to finish up their UFOs this month and October!  Happy knitting!!!

Update: Finished body and head of Cecil:

Cecil is almost complete, he still needs his arms, face and tail!

New Hats on the Horizon

I'm knitting away once again this weekend.  Finished a few hats I'd like to share:

A few of the above hats are now available in my Etsy shop - Handmade Knits by Knitter Mama.  Drop on by and check them out.

Update: September 13, 2011: Finished this hat after dinner on Monday night!

Trying my hand at colorwork - combining more than just two colors!

Labor Day Weekend...what did I do? What else, knit of course!

As the summer comes to a close, I have been diligently working on projects for the upcoming holidays, as well as for my Etsy shop.

But before I can do that, I had to finish a charity knitting quota I volunteered to finish.  I read an article about Willow's Place, an organization that helps feed the homeless in my local city of Kent, Washington and contacted one of the sponsors to ask how, as a knitter, could I help. I was asked to see if my Wednesday night knit group would be willing to knit 100 hats and scarves by October 1st.  My group has gladly accepted the challenge and are all knitting away.

Here are my finished contributions:

Earflap Hat from Lion Brand, 2x2 Ribbed Hat from Fiber Trends,
and Skull Hat for Service Members from Knitting on the Net
My designs: Single crochet scarf and 2x2 ribbed scarf

Reverie Beret from Knitty and Garter stitch scarf

Design adapted from The Question Bag pattern:

Row 15: P2, S1, K2, PSSO, P2, S1, K2, PSSO, P2, (K1,P1) 7 times,

P2, S1,K2, PSSO, P2,S1, K2, PSSO, P2, SM, K to end.

Row 16: P2, K1, YO, K1, P2, K1, YO, K1, P2, (K1, P1) 7 times,
P2, K1, YO, K1, P2, K1, YO,K1,P2, SM, K to end.
Row 17: P2, K3, P2, K3, P2, (P1, K1) 7 times,
P2, K3, P2, K3, P2, SM, K to end.
Row 18: Repeat Row 17.

Two-color Earflap Hat with pom pom made for my son

The blue hat with the red and white band above and the red and black hat are my first attempts at knitting two or more colors at once. Now that I've tried it I found that it isn't as hard as I first thought it would be.

Knitting and enjoying the sunny weather was how I spent my holiday weekend. Love to hear from all of you how you spent this glorious weekend, drop in and leave me a comment, tell me what's on your needles!

It's that time again...back to school!!!

Summer is coming to a close and school will be back in session in just a few days!  I'm so glad school is starting back up - I won't have to hear about how bored my son is anymore.  He'll have plenty to keep him busy once those assignments start coming due. I can't believe my son is already a junior in high school - one more year and then its college time.  There is so much for him to do before then, PSAT's, SAT's, college applications, Senior project, and the list goes on and on. I think I need to make him some fun back-to-school items, maybe a hat in his school colors.  I need some ideas so I'm hitting the web to see what I can find.

Have you noticed probably about a month ago, that the summer supplies were being replaced with school supplies? Where did summer go? It seems that summer was here for only a couple of days, here in the Puget Sound - we barely had any real summer days to speak of and we are already getting ready for school. I am a little behind on my back-to-school shopping this year, but luckily Aiden can wear quite a bit of his clothes from last year and we will go shopping in a couple of weeks. What I've found over the last few years is that when I shop for school supplies before school, I always have to do it again after school starts, because of course, the teachers want their students to have very specific items and what I already bought won't do. 

The other thing I've noticed in my LYS are the lovely fall colors that are gracing the shelves. Yep, back to school also means fall knitting and after hitting the web, I found some cool ideas for some back-to-school projects, like from this article on Knitting Daily by Kathleen Cubley on Back-to-School Knitting where she talks about a couple of great patterns for the kids going back to school and I really liked the Isobel Skirt (Rav link) by Cia Abbott Bullemer (Rav link).


Photo courtesy of Knitting Daily - Back-to-School Knitting

Wouldn't your daugher look fabulous in this adorable skirt?  Its such a great looking pattern, I might just give it a try for one of my nieces.

Some more back-to-school ideas I found are from Sarah E. White at About.com Guide. Her Knit Pencil Bag is easy to knit accessory for kids of all ages, and on Lion Brand's website there are some cute ideas for your favorite teacher at 4 Back to School Teacher Gifts to Craft, Knit, and Crochet. These four gifts are a great way to say thank you to your favorite teacher or a nice welcome back to your new teacher in the coming year. Or how about the giant pencil pencil-case shown here, which the pattern can be bought on Ravelry or as part of an e-book purchase with 13 other great knitting projects at Duo Fiberworks:

Photo courtesy of Ravelry
Pencil case (Rav link) by Katie Startzman

Or how about a new machine washable Yummy Lunch (Rav link) bag, designed by Nora J. Bellows (Rav link) ...designed with the environment in mind and are the perfect solution to unworkable lunch bags that are hard to clean and way too small for a complete lunch with a full-sized drink.

Its still a little warm for sweaters, but its not too warm for a nice short-sleeved sweater for him and her in their school colors. Maybe a v-neck vest for him and a pull-over for her.  There are plenty of patterns out there to choose from, so go out there and get knitting.

Here are some links to some more Back-to-School knitting project ideas:
The Schoolkid Jacket by Amy Polcyn
Robot Backpacks by Brenda Anderson
Adjustable Strap Backpack by Yvonne Boucher
Crochet Laptop Cover by Sarah Blalock
Back-to-School Pouch by Barbara Venishnick
School Colors Hat from Lion Brand
School Colors Felted Laptop Sleeve from Lion Brand
Back to School Pullover by Melissa Leapman

All of the above are really great back-to-school knitting projects, so why not make a run to your favorite LYS and check out all the wonderful fall colors that have come in already and get started on those fall projects you've been thinking about or maybe a back-to-school project for your returning to school student.

P.S. Some projects I finished this weekend:

Knitted Baby Onesie (Rav link) with lion applique along with Stay-on booties (Rav link)
Made with Frog Tree Pima Cotton/Silk

Little Sister's Dress with red apple buttons
Made with Cascade Pima Cotton

Close-up of apple buttons

Close-up of Stay-on Booties

Finished Project - The Beaded Question Bag

I really love the Burien Yarn Stash's Question Bag, by Bonnie Moore (Rav link), so much I had to make another one, but this time I added beads to the pattern design along the edges. I'm very happy with the results:

Made with Cascade Ultra Pima Cotton in Color #3704 (I call it eggplant).
Dimensions: 6.5" w x 7.5" h

Close-up of the bead work

In the pattern there is a yarn over in the center of each of the circles that are created and that is where I placed the beads, so instead of a little hole, there is a bead instead. This one could be used as a an evening bag - the beads give it a little elegance or it could be used as a gift bag - the receiver would get two gifts in one!