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At my January 2008 knitting guild meeting, I won one of our monthly raffle prizes: a book teaching basic Tunisian Crochet patterns and some hooks.

Armed with that and a tutorial on stitchdiva.com, I started making a scarf using the basic Tunisian Crochet stitch, alternating three different colored yarns (all of which were left over from a few other projects)

For those who aren’t familiar, Tunisian Crochet–also called Afghan Stitch–is like the fiber love child of knitting and crochet. You use a hook (like crochet) but you work rows of stitches (like knitting). You don’t turn your work, but rather create rows by picking up stitches right to left, then “casting off” left to right. It’s an interesting hybrid craft.

It produces a nice thick fabric, which almost looks woven. The wrong side looks like striped garter stitch.

I started using the three color yarns because I thought the combination looked pretty, but it had the side benefit of making it much easier to identify the vertical bars you pick up on your right-to-left passes–great for a newbie like myself. My tension is pretty uneven, but the stitch is very forgiving and still looks great.

This one’s a scarf for Ted, but I think it would make a fabulous pillow, tote bag or purse as well.

I started this as a travel project–something to do during our journey eastward to visit family over the holidays in 2007. I’d seen the pattern on Knitty and thought it I’d make a fun hat for my nephew, so I picked the black and army green as colors he might like.

This pattern is fun to knit. It’s simple enough that you can knit while distracted or in social situations, but keeps your attention with all the short-rows. And because it’s knitted in segments, you psychologically feel a little sense of closure after each one.

It’s a quick knit, too–great if you need a little something for a last-minute gift. Although my time for completion seems long, this is largely because there were big spans of time in-between my knitting sessions. I’m kind of a pokey knitter, but I think I could probably complete this in a few days.

The hat is a little pointy at the top, but it is less noticeable when being worn and I’m pleased with the way it turned out. I’ve now looked at other examples of the hat on Ravelry and find I like the more subtle color combinations (the original pattern on Knitty features a very high contrast combos).

ESSS Charity square – basketweave
Recipient: Royalwood Care Center
Completed: July, 2007
100% acrylic
Needles: US 7

While on my road trip to Texas, Ted and I shared the driving responsibilities. While he drove, I knit.

Since we would be driving all day, I wanted to work on patterns that were easy to memorize and do in spurts. I’m still a bit behind on charity squares, so I decided to bring one of my giant balls of acrylic yarn and work on them during my passenger legs.

This is a 4 x 4 basketweave stitch pattern, started earlier this morning and finished before dark. Woot!

ESSS Charity square – herringbone
Recipient: Royalwood Care Center
Completed: June, 2007
TLC ultra soft / 100% acrylic
Needles: US 11

Square #4 in the charity project, the second square from this skein of multi-colored TLC. I may be able to get one more square out of it; we’ll see.

This is a very simple two-line pattern that’s scarcely more complicated than straight knitting and purling. And yet the slanted stitches just look so cool… it almost feels like cheating.

The resulting fabric is quite dense: I bumped up from size 7 to size 11 needles for this worsted weight yarn and it’s still a bit thick. This stitch would be great to use for a bag handle or a nice warm scarf.

Recipient: TBD
Completed: May, 2007
Noro / Kureyon
100% wool
Needles: US 8

I first saw this pattern somewhere on-line quite a while ago. I liked the shape, envisioned lining it and using it as a lunch sack, thought about trying it…but for whatever reason it did not happen.

I first heard of Allison when I joined the Stitch n’Bitch-LA Yahoo group (she was one of the moderators). There were a few other brief encounters along the way: I made a little SnB logo for the site and she was my contact; we met at a SnB meetup; I attended a UCLA hockey/knit event that she and her husband organized… We were members of the same local knitting community, but I really didn’t know much about her personally until I read this post in January over at Crazy Aunt Purl‘s.

Here was a knitter who needed help, and the response from the community was strong. The word spread via e-mails and blog postings, and new customers flocked to Allison’s on-line store, supercrafty.com, contributing much-needed funds for her son’s surgery. I purchased this Booga Bag kit. Since she lives quite close, I arranged to pick up my purchase directly from her and got to meet Mr. Evan in person. He is as charming and delightful as he looks.

Five months passed and I finally got around to knitting the bag. The pattern was simple and easy to follow and the classic lunch bag shape is, well, cute. It’s Noro, so of course the colors are amazing and the yarn felted up beautifully. Blocking was easy, too, as the bag fit perfectly over a plastic-wrapped photo box (a squat shoe box would probably work, too).

Also during the past five months, Evan and his parents have been working to find a way for him to get the treatment he needs. With a very rare condition like his and surgery that is still considered “experimental,” it is not an easy road they tread. Allison also runs a business that comes to a standstill in the summer and her husband is a student at UCLA, so they could really use some positive cash flow around now. Here are a few ways you can help:

• Make a donation to Evan’s Brain Surgery fund
• Do some shopping at SuperCrafty.com
• Use Evan’s Search (www.auctionartists.com) to perform your Google searches
• Purchasing something at Amazon.com? Go to Allison’s blog and use the link in the sidebar
• Spread the word about Evan and forward these links to your friends

Looks like it’s time to pick up some more yarn for the Lizard Ridge project. How about you?

ESSS Charity square – miter
Recipient: Royalwood Care Center
Completed: June, 2007
TLC ultra soft / 100% acrylic
Needles: US 7

Square #3. Finally, a break from the giant ball of pink yarn. This was made from some yarn I had left over from my Latifa Scarf project (when I apparently bought enough yarn for two full scarves but only made one).

The pattern is really more of a formula: cast on enough stitches for two sides of your square, decrease two stitches in the middle every other row, and voila–mitered square. Unfortunately, my gauge was off (read: I didn’t check my gauge), so the square ended up being 1/2 inch too large. But it’s a mitered square, so no problem! I just frogged the first few rows (along the long, two-sided edge), then bound off that edge. Easy peasy.

Recipient: Baby Keagan
Completed: April, 2007
Lion Brand Yarn / Baby Soft
60% acrylic, 40% polyamid
Needles: US 6 (4mm)

Earlier this year, two dear friends of ours produced a new child. On the day baby Keagan was born, I began knitting this sweater.

The pattern is A cardigan for Merry by Anny Purls (which is based on the pattern A Cardigan for Arwen by Kate Gilbert in the Winter 2006 issue of Interweave Knits). I really like the beautiful cabling along the edges (it’s reversible, too!), and since the pattern had been shrunk down to toddler size, I thought it would be perfect for the new Irish princess. It will be too big for her now, but I am hoping she’ll be able to wear it this winter.

This was a fun pattern to knit. The long stretches of stockinette stitch were broken up by this lovely intertwining cable pattern, which was thankfully easy to memorize. The cabling is knit at the same time as the left and right front panels (not attached later), from the bottom edges all the way up to the top of the hood where the sides are then grafted together. If I knit this again, I will make sure the cable row number when ending the front panel and beginning the hood matches on both the left and right sides. I didn’t notice this mentioned in the pattern so I sorta had to fudge this at the top.

I especially enjoyed some of the little details in this sweater, like the knit-in, double-thick cuffs and edging. Don’t know exactly what this technique is called, but it is very cool. I also added a couple personal touches: decorative increases on the back of the hood, a trio of sheep(!) buttons, and a small red heart on the inside hem to send Keagan a little love every time she wears it.

ESSS Charity square – eyelets
Recipient: Royalwood Care Center
Completed: May, 2007
All Seasons Yarn / 100% acrylic
Color No. E1-002 – Ice Sherbert
Needles: US 7

Here’s my next contribution to my knitting guild’s charity lap blanket project. Yes, it’s still part of the same huge ball of pink yarn.

The pattern is a staggered YO/K2TOG combination that reminds me of little pink raindrops. Nothing too challenging, but simple and pretty (plus I’m a bit behind on my one-square-per-month goal and this knit up very quickly).

Recipient: me!
Completed: April, 2007
Mission Falls / 1824 Wool
(Merino superwash wool)
Berroco / Suede (100% nylon)
Needles: US 9

I’d first noticed this pattern in a knitting magazine advertisement. I was attracted to the seemingly intricate cabling and liked the shape, and happily the pattern was freely available on-line from Berroco‘s Web site. A serendipitously timed clearance sale at a local yarn shop provided the yarn at a very reasonable price, so away we go…

This is a fun pattern to knit. This is kind of a funny thing to say, since all knitting is intended to be enjoyable (else why do it?), but to me a good pattern has an ebb and flow that is a little like a story. It keeps your attention, includes some surprises along the way, and offers a satisfying conclusion. This pattern was a good story, and a quick read (the actual knitting took place over a single weekend). Each of the two side panels is knit by casting on the long edge and decreasing stitches each row as you approach the center. Your rows go by faster and faster… almost like knitting “downhill.”

The handle was something of an improvisation. Many of the ready-made straps in the store are hard plastic, bamboo or leather. The hard materials were right out, and I wanted to avoid using leather, so I ended up using this suede-like yarn instead. The rings are from a hardware store. The individual strands of yarn were tied to the first ring, grouped and braided, then individually tied to the second ring. Extra yarn was used to wrap around the free ends and neaten up the joins.

When the bag was assembled, I decided it would be better to add a lining for added durability and to help the bag keep its shape when holding items. I went looking through the fabric stash and found some “fur” I used to make a Totoro costume a while back. Pieces were measured out, cut, and sewn together. I even had enough material to add a small interior pocket. The lining was then whip stitched to the purse, a button and loop added for the closure, and voila! A satisfying conclusion to a delightful little story.

Recipient: J
Completed: March, 2007
Jo Sharp / Silkroad Ultra
85% wool, 10% silk and 5% cashmere
Needles: 10.5 (6.5mm)

The recipient of this scarf had been going through a rough patch in his life, and being far away and unsure how to help, I did what any knitter would do: I knit him something. It’s clearly not a solution to the world’s problems—or his—but it does let him know that I’m thinking about him. He lives in a cold part of the country, so I wanted it to be warm. Useful. Something stylish but not too flashy. Something soft and comforting.

I’d been enjoying another project with cables around the same time, so I went hunting for a good celtic cable pattern that might work for this one. Enter The Girl from Auntie and her Simple Celtic Cable, which was perfect. Once I got the pattern memorized, it was smooth sailing.

And the yarn! This yarn is just dreamy and really wonderful to knit. The wool/silk/cashmere blend is soft and cushiony, slides smoothly on the needles, and the stitches look beautiful. Most yarns require at least some blocking to get your stitches to settle down and even out, but this yarn looks fantastic right off the ball. I did block it a teeny bit, but it honestly didn’t need it. I cannot say enough about this yarn and would use it again in a heartbeat.