Category Archives: cable projects

New Pattern: Anahi Hat

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It has been ages since I published a pattern and what better way to make a comeback than with Knotions magazine. Jody is a pleasure to work with and the working model which Knotions follows is so convenient for international designers like me. I see many collaborations with Knotions in the future for myself.

© Edsger Studio for Knotions Magazine

Anahi Hat is a beautifully textured hat, with cables all over. The meandering cables make this hat look way more complicated than it actually is. It is knit in round, from the brim up and is a quick knit, owing to the use of worsted weight yarn and the addictive cables.

The pattern comes in one size, which should give you a finished circumference of 20″.

© Edsger Studio for Knotions Magazine

 

Link to Free Pattern: Anahi Hat on Knotions
Ravelry Pattern: Anahi Hat
Yarn Suggested: Cascade 220, Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Worsted

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And the set is complete!

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After I made the pretty, little sweater and was still left with a good half ball of yarn, I decided to make a hat to go with the sweater. I wanted one which would go with the sweater – with similar cables. Luckily, I found just the right pattern: Cable Baby Hat. I tried looking for a pattern with earflaps, but when my search didn’t turn up a good one (with cables similar to the one in Sunnyside cardigan), I gave up and settled for this one. I could have used a plain, earflap hat pattern and added this cable myself, but that wouldn’t be mindless knitting, would it?

The hat was a quick and easy knit. I liked how the designer blended in the decreases with the cables. By the look of it, I feel the hat is too long, but that should be okay. Long hats can be worn with folded brims, short ones are a problem.

Like the sweater, the hat is warm and soft. Cables are much better on the hat, but still not sharp enough for my liking. That cute little pom-pom is husband’s contribution. He is the resident pom-pom expert.

Next came the booties. I didn’t bother searching for a pattern for booties with cables, because I knew what pattern I would follow. I have made Ruth’s Perfect Baby Booties atleast a dozen times now and they have never failed me.

They are seamed, which I can live with, but what I love about these booties are they stay on little baby feet. I made 3-4 pairs for my own baby and never once have I seen the booties slide down.

I did think of incorporating cables into the booties, but dropped the idea as I was aiming for mindless knitting.

With the booties done, the set is now complete.

My hands are itching to cast on for a baby blanket, but my mind likes to remind them that there is no way I can knit up a baby blanket in two month’s time. Not with all the things going around right now.

New Pattern: Texo Shawl

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This blog post is way too late, but better late than never, eh?

I was on cloud nine the whole of last week. My feet were barely touching the ground. And with good reason. I had a pattern published by Quince. drumroll. At this point in my designing career, this comes as a much needed opportunity to reach a wider audience and also to know how publishing works.

Quince and team (special mention to Jerusha for putting up with my too frequent mails) were so easy and helpful to work with. I was apprehensive since this was the first time I was working with them, but they never made me feel out of place. Jerusha, the lovely lady she is, always replied cheerfully to my emails, even when she had to give me a bad news.

This was also my first time working with Quince yarn and the experience was equally pleasant. Tern is perfect for texture and the color Quince chose for this design shows off the cable texture very well. Photos are gorgeous, as always with Quince.

Photo © Quince and Co.

Texo Shawl is knit using fingering weight yarn and is knit from the top down, starting from a garter stitch tab. The shawl shown in the photo is 60″ deep with 26″ wingspan. It is perfect for chilly summer evenings. A knitter on Ravelry is knitting this as a nursing cover! You can buy a copy of Texo Shawl on Ravelry or on Quince’s website.

Baby Blanket

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After knitting booties, socks, hats and sweaters, it was time to knit a baby blanket. I started making Tetris blanket but had to frog it. It was time to search for a new pattern again. After scanning through all the patterns on Ravelry (thanks to advanced search feature, it is so so useful), I decided I will have to make up my own. For some reason or the other, I didn’t like any of the readily available patterns. I liked the honeycomb stitch pattern of Sarah’s Honeycomb vest. A swatch turned out well, so the stitch pattern for my blanket was finalized. I decided to do a seed stitch border because I thought it would go well with the honeycomb pattern. Yarn was bought at Surya Emporium, Commercial Street. They have the widest range of 8-ply yarns. A swatch or two, a little bit of math and I had all the stuff required to knit up the blanket.

It took me a month to knit this blanket. I did knit some baby stuff in between, so I knit the blanket on and off. The pattern stitch was easy to remember, only two cable rows in one repeat and most importantly, the cable is easy enough to knit without using cable needles. Knitting Help’s video was really helpful. Now that I finally managed to learn swapping stitches without using cable needles, I don’t want to knit cables in any other way.

Ravelry Project: My Honeycomb Blanket

Pattern: As Sweet As Honey Baby Blanket

The finished blanket measures 29″ x 35″ and it turned out well. I love the texture and the color is perfect for this stitch pattern. There is one small complaint, though. The honeycomb stitch is elastic where as seed stitch is not. So, the blanket is wider at the edges and it looks a bit out of shape. I should have cast on lesser number of stitches for the border and should have increased for the honeycomb pattern. Or else, I should have opted for an elastic border, may be ribbing. I will keep that in mind, but for now I can’t stop ogling at the blanket.

Bamboozled headband

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After thoroughly enjoying Calorimetry, I decided to knit another headband. I wanted to knit something for my nieces-in-law and headband was the best – knits fast and it is useful for girls. I chose Bamboozled because it has cables and I wanted to try knitting cables.

Bamboozled comes with a chart and instructions. I wanted to learn a new skill (reading charts) so I tried that first. For every stitch, I would see the symbol, then see the glossary to see what the symbol means, then figure out whether I am on RS or WS and then knit that stitch. Phew! I tried knitting a few rows using the chart, but I was taking ages to knit a single row. When I realized I am going to be knitting this headband for the rest of the year if I use the chart, I switched to instructions.

Knitting cables is stressful. I would knit a few rows and then realize I goofed up somewhere and start all over again. That’s when I realized the importance of lifelines. They are exactly that – lifelines!  After I started using lifelines, I hardly made any mistake. Isn’t there a Murphy law that says: it doesn’t rain when you take the umbrella with you, but always does when you don’t take it.

In the knitting world, cable and lace projects have high regards. To be considered a real knitter, one has to attempt cables and laces at least once. This headband was my first step into the cable world. If you ask me, I don’t know what is the big deal about cables. Yeah, they are fun to knit, but stressful too. It needs my complete concentration, so I can’t knit cables while watching TV or when I am multitasking. I knit to relieve my stress, but this project actually aggravated it. Also, I didn’t especially like the end product either. When I look at a cable sweater, I don’t go weak in my knees like some knitters do. I don’t mind knitting a cable project again, but I don’t think I like wearing it. I think I am weird!