Yarn Projects – Page 4 – Bead Yarn & Spatula

The Runaround Knit Cowl

It’s my first project of the New Year and it’s a simple and versatile one! It’s called The Runaround Cowl and I came across it on a Lion Brand Yarn Facebook post. Originally it came from a blog known as Smashed Peas and Carrots and can be found here: Smashed Peas and Carrots: The Runaround Cowl

As for supplies, all you need is one skein of Lion Brand Homespun Yarn and Size 15 knitting needles. While Homespun yarn does come in an array of colors I am not too fond of the heather and striping colors so I chose to stick with something neutral – Cream.

At first I was a bit unsure of how the end product was going to look. I started and wasn’t too happy with how it was working up and it took some getting used to working with the yarn. Sometimes my tension is a bit too tight and that can make working with this yarn a little frustrating.

Unfortunately once I got on a roll I somehow ended up with an extra stitch and instead of trying to correct the problem I opted to just start over. This is one of the reasons I prefer crocheting over knitting, it’s much easier to correct any errors. The second time around I was much happier with how it was looking and after a few hours of knitting I reached my desired length of 55 inches – I decided to make mine a few inches longer than the directions said. I will also note that while the directions state to bind off in pattern I decided to bind off by knitting my last row, I just find it easier to do that and I figured it wouldn’t alter the look of the cowl since I was going to stitch the two ends together.

I then weaved in the ends of my yarn, created a twist and stitched the ends together. And voila I had a new cowl! Once the weather gets a little warmer I’m sure this will become one of my go-to scarves.

Runaround Cowl

Courtesy: www.smashedpeasandcarrots.blogspot.com

Cast of 25 stitches

Row 1: *K1 P1, Repeat from * across, K1

Continue with this pattern until cowl measures 50 inches or your desired length.

Bind off loosely in pattern.

Weave in tails.

Sew short ends together with a yarn needle making sure that you have made one twist in the cowl before sewing ends.

Knitting for the Holidays

I wasn’t intending on knitting or crocheting any Christmas gifts this year except for the toddler hat and scarf set I had finished a month or two ago for a friend’s daughter, but, when another friend sent me a pic of cowl neck scarf she liked with button closures I decided that I would have time to finish this one item. Every year I find myself racing to finish things a day or two before Christmas because at times I can be such a procrastinator and as we all know the Christmas holiday just sort of sneaks up on you regardless of how early you start your shopping and/or crafting. There was actually one year that I was up until 2am Christmas morning finishing up scarves… Not fun!

While I did start this project about two weeks prior to the holiday I knew I would be able to get it done since I opted to use Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick Yarn. This is probably my favorite yarn to knit with since as its name suggests it does work up quite quickly. I did crochet a scarf with it once and for me personally I find it too thick to crochet with. I opted to use neutral colors – Black and Grey Marble – this way the scarf could match with anything. As for the buttons, I spent a good amount of time at my local JoAnn’s trying to find the right ones. I really wanted wooden ones but, the only wooden cylinder shaped ones were on the small side so I decided to go with simple black ones.

As for a pattern, I sort of followed one that I found on the Lion Brand Yarn website – the Buttoned Cowl – but, modified it a bit this way my finished product would be bulkier. Essentially I just casted on more stitches than the original pattern called for, forty-one vs. twenty-seven. Since the pattern just called for a straightforward garter stitch – knitting every row – I knew this was going to be a piece of cake. I really wanted to knit this in a rib pattern, but, was having a hard time adjusting the pattern into one that would still incorporate the stitches to create the buttonholes. Speaking of buttonholes, it took a few tries before I was able to get them right. I kept missing one and would end up with only three as opposed to four. After about five tries though I finally got it right and I was on my way. If by any chance you are wondering, I decided to start with the grey marble yarn as opposed to the black yarn this way the black buttons would stand out on it.

I wanted the finished cowl to be approximately twenty-four inches so I worked in garter stitch for about twelve inches, which equates to about fifty-eight rows and then I switched to the black yarn.

After knitting another fifty-eight rows with the black yarn and binding off this is what I ended up with. Admittedly it doesn’t look like much and I was a little concerned that I wasn’t going to be happy with it.

But, once I sewed the two buttons on – for buttonholes one and three – and tried it on I was happy with how it looked. And while this picture makes it seem like it’s on the small side it actually has a considerable amount of stretch to it.

And although my mannequin isn’t doing it justice, its intended recipient was very happy with it and it fit her perfectly.

And finally, here’s a pic of the toddler-sized hat and scarf set I made. She was ecstatic with it, especially since it matched her new pink coat so well. Making a pom-pom and adding fringe to a scarf was a first for me with this set but it definitely added that fun factor that little kids accessories always need.

Knitted Flower Headband

I’ve seen knitted headbands practically everywhere this season that I got inspired to make one.

While I do have a decent stash of leftover yarn from previous projects that would have sufficed for this small one, I ended up buying a new skein of yarn after coming across it on sale at my local Michaels store. I am partial to most shades of blue and this basic navy blue yarn from Loops & Threads Charisma caught my eye. The one downfall about this yarn is that it fuzzes a great deal so I doubt I’ll be using it again.

I opted to semi-follow the Seed Stitch Headband pattern from Lion Brand modifying it a bit to get my desired length and width. Using size 9 knitting needles I casted on 13 stitches (which gave me a width of 4 1/4 inches) and then simply followed a pattern of Slip 1, *P1, K1 (repeat from * to end of row) and continuing it for each row until I reached a length of 20 inches.

I decided I wanted to spruce up this basic headband so I crocheted a simple flower to attach to it. Once again I followed a Lion Brand Yarn pattern – the Six-Petal Flower Motif – using Red Heart yarn that I had leftover from my Easy Slouchy Beret Hat. This actually wasn’t my first yarn choice to make the flower. I wanted to incorporate a sparkle yarn with the navy blue yarn but unfortunately the navy yarn was just too thick to work with.

Now that I had all of my pieces it was time to put this headband together.

I first stitched the two ends of the headband together and then attached the flower and was quite pleased with the final product. I’m sure I’ll make a few more of these, if anything, just for fun.

Gearing Up For Winter

One of my favorite things about the temperatures dropping is the opportunity to wear scarves. I’ve always viewed scarves as shoes. Shoes can make or break an outfit and a cool scarf can dress up even the most basic black coat. Once I learned how to knit and crochet scarves were the one thing I was looking forward to making – they are also the easiest things to make when you are just starting out. While I am usually partial to working with Lion Brand Yarn I came across yarn from Red Heart that I couldn’t resist.
Using Red Heart’s Boutique Magical Yarn in Wizard – which is actually four yarns in one – I created a scarf following a pattern called Spectrum. While the pattern said that only one skein of yarn was necessary to complete the scarf I actually used half of a second skein to get my desired length. One thing I learned quickly while using this yarn is that one section of it is not meant to be pulled apart in the unfortunate event you make a mistake while using it. That happened a few times to me and I ended up ripping the yarn when I tried to pull out the stitches – probably why I needed that second skein of yarn.

Next up I followed the Flights of Fancy scarf pattern from Lion Brand Yarn’s website while using Red Heart’s Boutique Midnight Yarn in Whisper – a yarn that has subtle changes in color with a metallic thread weaved throughout it. It’s a quick and simple pattern mainly comprised of double-crochet stitches.

And for the final scarf I used Red Heart’s Boutique Treasure Yarn in Tapestry – which again is a yarn that has subtle gradations in color – and followed the Snapdragon Stitch which is made up of double-crochet stitches and the V-Stitch. This was definitely my favorite of the three scarves because of the yarn color and the overlook look of the stitches. And while most scarves are made with at most two skeins of yarn this one actually took three. I initially only bought two but was lucky enough to find a third one with the same dye lot.

My winter accessory collection wouldn’t be complete without a good hat to keep me warm but I have always avoided wearing one. I have curly hair so hats tend to flatten down my curls… Not good. But, I have wanted to get a slouchy beret which seems to have enough room in it to allow my curls to stay intact. Before buying one though I decided to try and make one. First the search was on to find a pattern that would be simple enough to follow. I haven’t made a hat since I learned how to crochet a few years ago so I figured I should stick with something somewhat simple. With a Google search of “slouchy beret crochet pattern” I found a pattern from Donna Rutledge-Okoro appropriately titled Easy Slouchy Beret Hat Crochet. It was simple to follow and suggested using another Red Heart Yarn, their Supersaver Yarn which comes in a variety of colors but I chose Gray Heather. I was able to work this up in just a few hours and just in time too because it snowed the following day!

Ruffle Scarves

I came across Red Heart’s Boutique Sashay yarn at my local Michael’s store and thought it looked pretty cool, but, I had no idea how to use it – it’s a fishnet yarn that creates ruffles as you knit or crochet with it. So, after watching a few video tutorials and finding a pattern for a scarf I was ready to try out this new yarn.

With my first attempt at making the scarf I started by casting on 10 stitches, but, as I was going along I soon realized that the scarf was going to be a bit too puffy for my liking.

So, I started over by casting on only 8 stitches and was much happier with the final result. Using only one ball of yarn and knitting every row I ended up with a pretty cool looking scarf.

I’ve actually made a few more in different colors after a friend saw mine and requested I make her some. Once I realized that it was quicker and easier to work with the yarn by winding it into a ball before knitting, making these additional scarves was a piece of cake.

And in turn she showed hers to someone and they requested I make some for them to give as Christmas gifts. So I have a few colors all wound up and ready to be knitted.

Forty-Two Squares

I recently finished a baby blanket for a friend of mine whose baby girl is due later this summer. While I started back in April, which did give me plenty of time to finish it before her baby shower, I of course got sidetracked while working on it and was working feverishly the week before her shower to finish it up. I basically had all of the squares done; I just needed to stitch them all together.

I used the crochet pattern Beginner Crochet Baby Afghan from the Lion Brand wesbsite as a basis for the blanket but made a few tweaks. Instead of using the yarn they suggested – Lion Brand Jamie Yarn – I opted to use Bernat Softee Baby Yarn which was the same weight as the Jamie yarn and available at my local craft store. Also, instead of each square being 13 rows I opted to make them 17 rows.

The colors I used were Mango, Soft Peach, Soft Red, Soft Fern and Antique White.

While the pattern called for only 20 squares after crocheting up the initial 20 I felt that the blanket would be too small so I opted to add more. In total I had 42 squares to stitch together. Before beginning to stitch them together I laid out the squares to ensure that I would be following the pattern correctly.

After a few hours on a few days the blanket came together.

I was happy with how it came out and with the tweaks that I made. Maybe one day I will follow a pattern perfectly but sometimes throwing in a few changes can make such a difference.

Tangerine Lacy Scarf

Scarves are one of my favorite things to crochet (or knit). They work up fast and I view them as shoes, you can never have too many of them. I usually gravitate towards the same colors when I make scarves – shades of blue, green, purple and gray – so when I was asked to knit a scarf in orange it was a nice break from the ordinary. At first I had my doubts that orange would look nice but a shade of orange called tangerine from Red Heart produced a scarf that will definitely be an eye-catcher.

I used two skeins of yarn and an I-9 size crochet hook and followed the Crochet Lacy Scarf pattern from Lion Brand.

After using up one of the skeins of yarn I had about 48 inches of the scarf completed, which is definitely too short for any adult to wear.

I used about half of the second skein of yarn and ended up with a scarf that was approximately 66 inches long, definitely long enough for an adult to wrap around their neck to keep them warm during the winter months.

The best part, the intended recipient was very happy with the finished product!

Crochet Lacy Scarf (from Lion Brand Yarn; www.lionbrand.com)

Ch. 19

Row 1: Dc in 5th ch from hook (first 4 skipped chs make turning ch-sp), dc in next ch, *(dc, ch 3, dc) in next ch, skip next ch, dc in next 2 ch; rep from * across to last ch, dc in last ch – 3 pattern reps at the end of this row

Row 2: Ch 4 (for turning ch-sp), turn *(3 dc, ch 3, dc) in next ch-3 sp; rep from * across to turning ch-sp, 3 dc in turning ch-sp.

Repeat last row until almost all yarn has been used. Scarf should measure about 76 inches. Fasten off and weave in ends.

Abbreviations:

Ch(s): Chain(s), Dc: Double-crochet, Sp(s): Space(s), Ch-sp: Space previously made, Rep: Repeat

*Please note that this pattern is written for 2 skeins of Lion Brand Hometown USA yarn, since I used Red Heart Soft Yarn which is thinner in weight (Super Bulky (6) vs. Medium (4)) I started the scarf by chaining 27 as opposed to 19 to obtain my desired width.

Quick and Simple Fingerless Mittens

Not too long ago I came across a pattern to make fingerless mittens in a Martha Stewart magazine. I made myself a pair using Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick Yarn and size 13 knitting needles. I was very happy with the result and recently made another pair as a gift.

I decided not to use such a thick yarn the second time around and opted to use Patons Shetland Chunky Yarn and size 10 knitting needles.

I knitted two of these rectangles by casting on 36 stitches and working in garter stitch (knitting every row) for 8 inches (59 rows for this specific yarn).

Once the rectangles were done it was time to sew them up – create a seam – so these blocks of knitted yarn could actually become mittens. I folded them vertically so you would still be able to see the garter stich pattern running horizontally along the mittens and started sewing from the wrist part towards the fingers, making sure that I left a space for the thumb. One thing to note, when you sew make sure you are sewing on the side that would be considered the inside (wrong side), if not, you will end up with a finished product with a visible seam. But, if you do like the look of a visible seam try something different and create the seam using a contrasting yarn color to the one you chose for the mittens for a different look.

And they’re done!

Overall I was happy with how they came out. One thing though, since I did use a thinner yarn they were a tad bit bigger than the ones I originally made for myself. But, since the person I gave them to has a larger hand than me they were perfect fit for them. If I were to make myself a pair using this type of yarn I would definitely cast on less than 36 stitches to start the rectangles. I would probably go with something like 30 stiches to get a more snug fit.

You can find the specific pattern on the Martha Stewart website – while the title does stipulate Child’s Knit Hand Warmer, the description has the modifications for the adult size.

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