I have been on a role lately, so far this week I have blocked three projects. Now I am just down to one more completed project to block and I am done.

You have seen the hat before here. I wore it for a long time with out blocking but I did not like the ripples and the point at the top of the hat so I finally decided to do something about it.

 The red top is my vacation top. This was a great and quick project to work on.

Now all I have to do is keep up this momentum.

Until next time, Happy Knitting!

~Knitting Chica

Emerald - 2013 Color of the Year

Rejoice Green lovers, Pantone has voted the color Emerald as the 2013 color of the Year.  

Emerald is one of my favorite shades of green but as much as I like it I do not own very much in the color. The dominating color in my closet consists of mostly black and grey, which fits the stereotypical uniform of a New Yorker. Without much success I have tried to introduce color to my pallet. Is not that I do not like color, my favorite color is red, the brighter the red the happier I am and I also love jeweled toned colors which Emerald would fall into the mix is just black is so much easier.

When I was planning out this year's projects I had already decided that I was going to add more color. I have projects that will be made in lime green, yellow, hot pink and other anti-me colors. I think it will be the beginning of a beautiful relationship with color or a total train wreck. 

In order to continue my trip outside of my color zone and in honor of the color Emerald, I will make one of my "2013 Projects" in Emerald Green. Being that I am still in one of my two yarn shopping months of the year, I am still keeping with my yarn diet.

The project that I will be making in the color of the year is Sotherton:

The designer sweater is already in a beautiful green color which sealed the deal for me to make it in the color. I have a few ideas for the yarn to use for this project:

Blue Sky Alpacas Sport Weight in Emerald

Louisa Harding Orielle in Emerald

Patons Fairytale Soft DK in Emerald

Rowan Baby Merino Silk Dk in Emerald

It is amazing the difference in the shades of Emerald from one yarn company to another. My favorite from the 4 above has to be the Louisa Harding Yarn. Not only is it a beautiful color green the gold metallic gives it a pretty sparkle. Not to mention it is 100% Baby Alpaca so you know it is super soft on the skin. 

What do you think of this year's color? Will you be embracing the 2013 Color of the year?

Until next time, Happy Knitting!

~Knitting Chica

From Heaven to Hell and back to Heaven

Pattern: 198 yds. of Heaven
Designer: Christy Verity
Pattern book: N/A
Yarn: Louisa Harding Yarns Kashmir Baby
Needles: Size 8 Circular Auddi Turbo needle
Pattern Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 due to instructions

If you read my previous post on this pattern you already know that it was a test on my patience. I originally started on this pattern to have something green to wear for St. Patrick's day, but after starting this project over 7 times it did not work out that way. There was something about the way this pattern was written that was not computing inside my head. I almost gave up on this pattern, after seven times of frogging and starting over it was driving me nuts and my yarn was starting to suffer.

I decided to give it one more try (7th times the charm, right?) but before I started over I did some digging on Ravelry (Thank god I was not the only duffus that was confused) I found a link to another site where someone wrote out the pattern row by row. I followed the pattern and came up with the shawl above. As you can see, it does not have the same lace finishing  and that is because the lace finishing was added on after one of the designer's 3 updates to the pattern (not sure which update added the lace finish). Now that I have a road map and understand how this pattern is supposed to be knitted I will be making it again. This time with the lace finish.

I must say that I LOVE the finished project. The color is just beautiful and it is super soft. So while the pattern was Hell to knit the finished product is just Heaven.

Do I recommend this pattern? Yes, but t is definitely not a beginner project. Before you start working on it read other people's notes on this project. It can be a pain in the neck but once you get the way the pattern is supposed to go you end up with a beautiful Shawl.

Until next time, Happy Knitting!

~Knitting Chica

Work in Progress Wednesday: 198 Yards of Heaven

This pattern is not a hard pattern but for some reason my brain was not making sense of if it. Made me feel like a total duffus, I had to start it over 7 times to get it right, thus the reason why I am not even half way done with the project. I meant for this to be my road trip project and I was supposed to wear it for St. Patrick's day, that is why I am making it in green. I guess I will just have to wait till next year.

In the mean time, here is a progress picture:

Hopefully I will be done with this by this weekend and I can start on my next project. What are you working on?

Until next time, Happy Knitting!!

~Knitting Chica

New Yarn!!

As much as I say that I will not buy new Yarn when I enter a Yarn Shop, I always some how find a way to come out with at least one skein. These are some of the recent additions to my Yarn stash:

This Yarn I purchased at Nature's Yarn:

This yarn is a very pretty bronze color with shimmer. I tried to capture the color but failed

I will be making a very pretty scarf from the Louisa Harding Queen of Hearts Pattern Book with this Yarn.

This Yarn I purchased at Fibre Space:

Black, White and Gray self striping yarn.

I will be making myself socks with this yarn.

Last but not least, here is the Yarn I purchased from WEBS for my Kate Spades Bardot Sweater:

Soft and squishy!

Have you added new Yarn to your stash? Let's see it! Let me know in the comments below.

Until next time, Happy Knitting!

~Knitting Chica

I am as Mad as a Hatter

Pattern:                Mad Hatter
Designer:             Louisa Harding
Pattern book:      Queen of Hearts
Yarn:                   Zara DK Superwash Extra Fine Merino Wool
Needles:              Size 3 and 5 circular  Addi Turbo needles.

It is only fitting that the very first real post on my blog is about a pattern that gave me more trouble than what it should have. Do not get me wrong, I love the final product and it really was not hard to knit. It was just tiresome. After a while it almost felt like a chore instead of a cool knitting project. But I am sure you guys want to know about the pattern and not read me whine.

The pattern: The pattern is very straight forward and extremely easy to read. The rib row and the start of the chart were written out. The heart pattern was in chart form and that made me really happy. I love it whenever a pattern is charted out, so much easier to follow.

I made the hat in Zara DK superwash. It is one of my favorite inexpensive DK yarns, even though it has it's issues. For example it says it is a superwash but if you put this bad boy in the wash it will felt. So hand washing and flat drying is a must. Another thing that this yarn does is loosen up once you wash it. I do not mind that and is one of the reasons why I love it so much because I am a tight knitter!

Anyway, back to the pattern. This hat took me a week and a half to knit! Now I am not a super fast knitter but I do not consider myself a slow one either. It usually takes me two to three days to knit up a hat. I think it was the amount of cables in this pattern that slowed progress down to a crawl. There are seven cabled hearts in the hat and the rib row has twenty-one cables! Here is a snap shot of some of the cables:

Rib row cables

More cables and the bottom part of the hearts

Another thing about this pattern is that you knit it flat and not in the round. I have noticed that a lot of British hat patterns are this way and I do not understand why. I really do think that the project would have gone a lot faster if it were in the round, since if it were in the round you can see at all times how the pattern is forming up and at the end you do not have to worry about seaming up the project.

At the end of the day it came out very pretty, I got lots of compliments and hat stares when I wore it out. But will I knit this pattern again? HELL NO! There is no way I would put myself through the almost two weeks of hat torture. Would I recommend it to others? Sure, it is pretty, simple to read and if you do not mind knitting it flat and have patience to deal with all the cables, go for it!

Now I am off to figure out what my next project will be. Until next time! 

Happy Knitting, 

Knitting Chica xoxo