It's my first finished object for this year's Malabrigo March Knitalong. Or does it count as two? Tardis Blue mittens, knit from Malabrigo's Bulky weight Rasta yarn.
This is a great last minute gift project, as they knit up in just a few hours at this weight. The yarn is so soft! This is the kind of project that makes you glad you're a knitter.
We are twelve days into the source of knitting inspiration known on Ravelry as Malabrigo March — a month set aside for casting on projects to get you through several months, if not a year's, worth of knitting. Seeing everyone's projects has been motivating and fun. Without further ado, here are the projects I have been working on this month.
My first cast on was a Deux Hat, knit from Malabrigo's Rasta yarn in Stitch Red. This pattern has been in my queue for a long time. It was a good quick knit and using Rasta for it means this hat is going to be soft and warm.
Next up was Veera Välimäki's Shimmer in Blue, knit in Malabrigo Mecha in the Pocion colorway. Mecha is a newer yarn base for Malabrigo. It is a single-ply yarn, somewhere between a worsted and an aran weight. I used it previously and fell instantly in love. Mecha was perfect for this pattern, knit mostly in garter stitch with four traveling cables. I finished this cowl up earlier this week and still need to get a picture of it in action, but the bottom line is that this is a clever and very warm pattern that I wouldn't hesitate to knit again.
I've been working on a Barn Raising Quilt for my daughter for a looooong time, knitting a square a month with some long droughts. I need to kick this project back into gear this year, as I'd like to have the finished quilt by the end of 2015 and I want to knit 20 or so more squares. This one, in Malabrigo Sock in the Piedras colorway, is coming along nicely.
In addition to being Malabrigo March, this has apparently been a month of Veera's patterns for me. This is another one, Modern Garden. Modern Garden is a cardigan, knit all in one piece from the bottom up. The sleeves are knit separately and then knit in once you reach the yoke á la Elizabeth Zimmerman. The shaping is cleverly incorporated into othe leaf design.
This pattern has been a challenge for me for two reasons. First, I needed a different size on the bottom of the sweater than the top, so I've worked math magic — never my strong suit — to make that change around the waist. The verdict is still out on that one. I also had a bad encounter with a buttonhole. I forgot to make the second one and was less than thrilled about ripping back six rounds to insert it. With the encouragement of a couple of very kind knitters on Ravelry, I laddered down and inserted the buttonhole over three stitches in the proper place. To my surprise, the surgery was a great success. Although I have used laddering in the past to fix a stitch, this was a fix of a different magnitude and I was delighted that it worked. I'll devote a future post to documenting the method, as I was so grateful to receive help in accomplishing this fix.
Douglas Fir is a hat with a special brim. It has an intriguing twisted rib stitch that took some effort to figure out but turned out to be well worth the time. I'm into the upper part of the hat now and hoping to have it finished for my youngest to wear on spring break, since green is his color.
The last project I cast on is a simple gray cowl in Rasta. The colorway is Plomo. This is the same pattern I used to make a blue cowl last month. The pattern is a 3×1 rib with a twisted purl stitch that. This one is a tighter fit around the neck than the blue cowl and will be taller — more of a cowl and less of a scarf.
As these projects zing along, I've got several others planned. I have two trips planned towards the end of the month, so I'm thinking about portable knitting. In addition to finishing the quilt square, I'm going to cast on some bedroom slippers in Mecha.
Time permitting, I also have plans to cast on an Underwater Garden Shawl in Malagrigo Worsted, a Metallurgy Cowl in a beautiful pewter gray Malabrigo Silky Merino colorway called Smoke, and a Fuego Hat in Worsted. I've been tickled by all of the Malabrigo March knitters with mottos like "Go Big or Go Home" and "Cast On All Things." A little bit of sillyness in life is a good thing. I like my knitting with a side-helping of laughter and Malabrigo March has been great in that regard.
I have been obsessively occupied with the idea of knitting "Big Lace" for quite some time now. I date it pretty much to the time I discovered Malabrigo's Rasta, a bulky and extraorinarily soft Merino yarn. It's a pleasure to knit with, and very pretty in a simple cabled scarf. But I was longing to see it knit up as big, chunky lace.
Although I couldn't find a pattern that was exactly as I envisioned, there were a few brave big lace knitters on Ravelry. Armed with their wisdom, I cast on and knit me some B.I.G. L.A.C.E. And, it was big and quick, because about 24 rows into it, I was done.
Although I want to play around with the shape a little bit, I love the idea, and I love how this gently variegated yarn looks knit up in this way. This one needs a good blocking before you get a final show and tell, but I think I'm ready to call it a success.
I finished the Reversible Cable Scarf, that I started earlier this week, last night. There was just a bit of the second skein left — enough to add a small pair of fingerless mitts. The mitts are short and bulky, and altogether wonderful.
The yarn, which continues to be onf of my all time favorites, is Malabrigo's Rasta. This is the Indecita colorway. It is really, really soft.
The scarf is completely reversible, which is accomplished through the simple device of knitting through out, including the 12 stitch cable, in a 1×1 rib. The yarn is lovely and bulky, and this makes for a very warm scarf, with a lot of visual interest. The cable is simple enough that it doesn't compete with the colorway, but it does make the scarf fun to knit.
Pattern note on the mitts: I cast on 16 stitches and knit 6 rows in a 2×2 rib. Then I knit 10 rows in stockinette before doing a stretchy cast off. I liked the rib so much I decided to use it up on the fingers. Here's what you should probably do differently if you knit something like this: The rib really does need to be at the wrists for a better fit (I will probably rip the seams and turn these around, although I do love how the poufy part looks on my fingers). If I knit another pair of these, I think I will try either a 1×1 rib, or two knit stitches to one purl as the rib. I'm tempted to do the entire mitt in 1×1 and do a total of 30 rows, which would put these just at my elbow. Also, I think they would be greatly enhanced by a decrease of 2-4 stitches around row 13 where the hand begins to narrow into the wrist. Finally, these would be lovely with a silk ribbon woven through the wrist as I did on Ellie's Victorian Gauntlets, so I think an eyelet row in that area would be a nice addition.
I've fallen. Fallen hard.
It hasn't happened for a very long time.
But this yarn. This.
Irresistible in every colorway I've seen it dyed in.
It's Malabrigo's Rasta. And did I tell you I fell hard?
Laguna Negra.
Oxido.
And Zarzamora.
And more Piedras, the colorway that started it all with the scarf up at the top.
Joining, already in my stash, Arco de Iris and Indecita. Yes, fallen hard.
If I can convince myself to move beyond just petting it — lovely, soft, Merino — this is the start of my holiday knitting. I have plans for a couple of hats, a shawl or two in a large chunky lace, and perhaps another scarf. The colors are so pretty, with each skein its own unique mixture of the colors and shades used for its colorway. There is a certain element of indefinable and unpredictable difference that makes what would already be an exceptional yarn a mystical experience to knit with.
You can't overestimate the the qualities of a really fine yarn. Love. Yes, it's definitely love.
I have a new favorite yarn — Malabrigo's Rasta. It's extra bulky, single plied (or unplied, depending on your point of view), and extraordinarily soft.
Knit up in the Mirror, Mirror Reversible scarf pattern.
I liked both the pattern, a simple, wide cable, and the yarn so much that I'm contemplating a Meathead Hat from it, and perhaps a sweater for Ollie to wear this fall. This is definitely knitting nirvana.