Spring Knitting

I was able to finish up several projects last week that I'd started this spring. I'm very excited to use all of them. The first was this cowl that I've been working on FOREVER. The knitting of it actually didn't take all that terribly long, but it I couldn't motivate myself to do the kitchener stitch to finish it off until recently.

Good view of the lattice stitch. Project page on Ravelry here.

What it looks like on.

The color is a bit washed out in these photos. The blue-green is a bit brighter. The yarn I used is the Herriot yarn from Juniper Moon Farm in Iceplant Green. The pattern is a JMF free pattern that can be found here. Because the Herriot is baby alpaca, the cowl is unbelievable warm and soft. It almost makes the prospect of cold weather exciting, because then I can start wearing it!

The second project that I finished was this fun (and of course slouchy) hat:

Front view. Project page on Ravelry can be found here.

Side view to show off the lace pattern better.

This was something I decided to whip up after I had a ton of trouble trying to start another cowl. The yarn is the Zooey yarn from Juniper Moon Farm in Toasted Coconut. It is a cotton linen blend which makes it nice and cool to wear, as well as quite soft. It's the perfect yarn for a spring-summer hat. I'm actually wearing it right now! I'm glad I made the hat with the Zooey, because the yarn is a bit unusual to work with, so it was nice doing something easy with it before I jumped into the cowl. I got the pattern off Ravelry, but you can get it directly from the blog here. I did add in a few repeats of the lace pattern to make it a bit slouchier, and I'm glad I did because I love the end result.

The final project that I finished last week was something that I didn't have a pattern for but sort of just cobbled together a few different stitches. I wanted a small little clutch purse that would fit my phone and card case, for when I didn't want to carry around my whole backpack, purse, or even wallet. The idea being that I can just throw my phone, credit card, ID, and a chapstick in it and go.

My phone clutch. The project page on Ravelry is here.

Anyways, I couldn't find a pattern that was exactly what I wanted, so I decided to practice a few techniques. I used this Peacock Tail stitch for the detail on the bottom, then I did stockinette for the rest. To make the holes for the ribbon, I did a simple yo, k2tog interspersed amongst the knit stitches. To do the back, I picked up a row of stitches after the Peacock Tail stitch on the wrong side and then knit from there. After that, all that was left to do was seam up the sides. I used my US size 2 DPNs and the Findley Dappled yarn from Juniper Moon Farm in Springtime. (Yes, all these were made with JMF yarn!)

I've started another project since I was a good girl and finished all my works in progress. Maybe I'll blog a sneak peak of it soon!