My Projects | The Finish Line

The Marbius Cowl

August 4, 2015

This is an easy-to-knit moebius cowl that takes only 1/2 skein of Marble Chunky. Knit it flat and seam it with a quick whip-stitch seam. You will have enough left over yarn to make a 2nd cowl or a hat.

Size:
53 inches around (knit flat and seamed)

Materials:
James C. Brett Marble Chunky color MC27, about 170 yards (155 meters). You can make two cowls from a single skein, or a cowl and a hat.
Size US 10 (6 mm) needles or size to obtain gauge

Gauge:
13 stitches to 4 inches in garter stitch

Directions:
Cast on 172 sts
Row 1: *Knit 2 together (K2tog), yo. Repeat from * until 2 sts remain: K2tog.
Rows 2-30: Knit
Row 31: repeat row 1
Bind off loosely. Cut yarn, leaving a 12″ tail.
Bring the two short ends together, then flip one end of the scarf over. Whip stitch the ends together. This will result in a loop with a half twist – there is one continuous edge and one surface. Weave in yarn ends.

For personal, non-commercial use. Please do not sell items made from this pattern without written permission. Please do not copy and distribute this pattern.

Leave a Comment » | Cowls, Garment, Turtleknits Free Patterns | Permalink
Posted by Ordinary Dolls

New-England-Warm Hat

February 20, 2013

So much knitting and crocheting, but so little blogging! Here is a hat I made for my dad using the technique of thrumming. I took a mitten class at Metaphor Yarns, but once you know the technique, it can be applied to anything.

Here’s the inside, showing all the bits of wool roving which makes it so warm.

The pattern is made up out of my head with a fold-up brim for extra warmth. The grey is Cascade 220.

The report from Eastern Mass. is that it is warm. Mission Accomplished.

Leave a Comment » | FO, Gifts, Hats, My Projects | Permalink
Posted by Ordinary Dolls

2 Pairs of Gloves Update

January 8, 2012

I just received this wonderful picture of my gloves being worn. That is a knitter’s favorite kind of picture — or, at least, this knitter’s favorite kind of picture:

3 Comments | FO, Gifts, Gloves & Mittens, My Projects | Permalink
Posted by Ordinary Dolls

2 Pairs of Gloves

December 17, 2011

2 of my friends are young men who have trouble buying gloves that fit well. I had a lot of fun knitting these unique gloves, even if I did need to do quite a bit of rework to get them right. (Well, I hope they are right – I haven’t seen them worn yet.)

The first pair is for a student who’s high school colors are orange and black (the Panthers).

The second student’s school colors are red and white – the Wildcats.

Leave a Comment » | FO, Gloves & Mittens, My Projects | Permalink
Posted by jill

Occupy Wool Street

December 12, 2011

My dear friend Aimee of Compassionate Conversations told me about Occupy Wool Street, an effort to provide warm clothing for the Occupy Protestors. Occupy Wool Street started in Chicago, but I decided that I’d rather keep my items a little closer to home, so I sent these things to Occupy Boston. After a bunch of research, I found there’s a Ravelry group for Occupy Boston AND a Facebook group for knitters who support them.

I mailed them a warm wool scarf I made

as well as 2 headbands / earwarmers that were in my UFO pile and really needed to be finished and donated to someone with cold ears:

The Occupy encampment in Dewey Square was broken up on Saturday morning, but I am hoping someone picked them up from the OB PO box a couple of weeks ago and someone got some good use of them. A little support from a couch potato [wink].

Leave a Comment » | Community, Headbands, My Projects, Scarves | Permalink
Posted by Ordinary Dolls

Designer Knows Best

December 10, 2011

Well, I found a cowl that I really liked and wanted to make. As usual, I made a few “tweaks” to the pattern, and by “tweaks” I mean I COMPLETELY CHANGED IT. It’s the Amanda Cowl and it’s knit in the round with a lovely stitch pattern.

I decided I wanted it knit flat, with buttons, instead of being over-the-head. Which means I needed to convert every other row. Usually very easy, in this case, I made a couple of mis-steps, and had to restart it twice. Normal for me. OK, so here I am:

and it is biasing like crazy. Guess I should have kept this particular stitch pattern in the round. Guess the designer knew what she was doing when she wrote the pattern, eh?

Will it block into a rectangle? We’ll see…

It’s intended for a gift. If it doesn’t block well, I can always sacrifice (cough-cough) and keep it for myself.

Leave a Comment » | Cowls, My Projects, WIP | Permalink
Posted by Ordinary Dolls

Warm the Children

December 8, 2011

Here is a collection of hats I made for the local Warm the Children.

The boys’ school has a “mitten tree” every year to collect warm items. I can’t believe how many of the items this year (other than mine) were handmade!

This is Cascade 200 Superwash Handpaint from Metaphor Yarns (random pattern out of my head).

This is an earflap hat made of Wool-Ease, a free pattern on the Lion Brand Yarn site.

Here’s another Wool-Ease hat, this one made out of “Thick & Quick” left over from my mom’s sweater (another random pattern).

The third random hat is made from Wool of the Andes Bulky.

This isn’t a great picture, but the hat is quite cute. It is made from Luisa Harding Kashmir Aran using the pattern A Hat Fit for a Fella (AKA Men’s Cabled Hat). This is one of my favorite yarns, very soft and sqooshy and extrememly warm.

In case you are wondering, the tags are care tags. All are machine washable except the Wool of the Andes hat.

Leave a Comment » | Community, FO, Hats | Permalink
Posted by Ordinary Dolls

Sock Monkey for My Favorite Monkey

March 1, 2011

I made this hat for my favorite little monkey, to keep his head warm this winter:

The pattern was the Sock Monkey Earflap hat from Trappings and Trinkets.

The brown and cream yarn was Cascade 220 Superwash; the red is Minnow Merino Superwash.

The only modification I made was to crochet round eyes and sew them on instead of using buttons.

This was a fun and fast knit and I may just have to make another one in my size!

Leave a Comment » | Baby, FO, Gifts, Hats, My Projects | Permalink
Posted by Ordinary Dolls

My 15 Minutes of “Fame”

December 3, 2010

I just happened to be at knitting circle at Metaphor Yarns yesterday, when a photographer from The Recorder came in. He had noticed that there were a lot of cars in the parking lot, and he asked permission to take photos of us knitting.

And, I made it into the paper!

That is my sweetie’s lovely Malabrigo sock I’m working on. The pattern is Jules (Ravelry link). Of course, you can’t really see how pretty the yarn or the pattern is in this picture. You can see the waste yarn from my sloppy provisional cast-on (the provisional cast-on is not in the pattern – I did it that way so I can make the cuff longer if I have enough yarn).

I think it is ironic that the knitter who is newest to the area is the one who made the paper. I think some of the other members of the group should have also been photographed, but since they weren’t working on socks, I guess they would not have fit the “punny” headline.

Leave a Comment » | My Projects, Socks, WIP | Permalink
Posted by Ordinary Dolls

Go Mohawk!

October 3, 2010

Ray at Knitivity shared a lovely but simple mosaic pattern called “Dots on the Half Drop.” I wanted to try it, and I wanted a break from my other projects. I picked these colors because I had forgotten to pack them with the rest of my yarn, therefore they are the only 2 colors of cotton that aren’t in our storage unit.

Partway through the dishcloth I realized they are Adidas’ school colors – Go Mohawk!
My selvages are a little wonky, but it’s just a dishcloth for us to use so I didn’t bother to fix them. Love the pattern. It would make a great wool hat because of the extra thickness due to the slipped stitches.

Leave a Comment » | FO, Home | Permalink
Posted by Ordinary Dolls

The Finish Line