July Projects

Hi friends!

How's your Summer going? I've been spending most of my time working in my tiny garden and perfecting my custard based Ice Cream recipe. I'm still working on publishing some new original patterns but it's slow going, so I picked up a few July commissions to keep me busy while I'm plugging away. 

The first commission I took on was a Fourth of July themed baby hat and bootie set. 

I'm definitely more of a knitter than a crocheter so this set was more challenging than expected. I used Knit Picks Swish in the colorways Serrano, White and Dusk. Swish is my favorite commission yarn, it's soft, durable, machine washable and most importantly; inexpensive!

For the hat I used the pattern Snow Drops Beanie by Castle Handmade. I definitely recommend this pattern, it comes in lots of sizes and is very well written. I modified the band by switching to a single crochet and making it double length so it could be folded over, that way the woven in ends from the star pattern would be hidden inside the cuff. 

​For the booties I used the pattern Baby Sneakers by Angela Bergeron. This pattern was such a life saver, I had spent 3 days trying to get through a  poorly written shoe pattern before I found Angela's pattern and she saved the day! I added a band of red around the outside edge of the sole, white stars on the sides and made a set of shoelaces from fingering weight cotton to make the booties extra adorable. Not gonna lie, these guys took me forever! I am not the best at crochet and def had to look some stuff up; which stitch is your BOR? how do I weave in these ends? etc. It was a learning journey. I think they turned out pretty cute though.
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My next July commission was a set of Luna Lovegood themed leg warmers. 

These guys were commissioned for a Cosplay. Again, I used Knit Picks Swish, this time in the colorways Black, Dusk, Marine Heather, Gulfstream and Marina. 

I improvised the pattern for these by measuring a pair of leg warmers I have that fit well and casting on a pair in roughly the same size. I used this great tutorial by Love Crafts for knitting stripes in the round to get rid of any unsightly jogs. I used the Traveling Stripes method. These leg warmers knitted up really quickly and should be arriving at their forever home by the end of the week!

That's it for my July commissions!

As far as non-commissioned work goes, right now I'm working on a new pair of socks from my Silk Road Socks book. The pattern is titled Mood, so far it's pretty cut and dry, my only issue was gauge since it's written for a fingering weight OR a sport weight. I ended up making many a swatch before I was sure which sock size and needle size would combine for the perfect mens sock. (I went with 2.5 needles and the 80 stitch CO.)

I'm making these in Knit Picks Hawthorn Kettle Dye in the colorway Conifer. Hawthorn is a Peruvian Highland Wool blend so it's not as soft as a merino but it makes a hard wearing pair of socks. I take forever to knit socks so these guys will probably be done just in time for the cold weather to hit!

I'm also working on the pattern Nora Baby Blanket by Lucia Ruiz de Aguirre. I'm making this blanket for my partners office which is icy cold all year round. 

I'm knitting this project in Black Trillium Fiber Co. Quadra in the colorway Space Odyssey. It's a Super Bulky 90% SW Merino, 10% Cultivated Silk. I love the yarn but, since it's hand dyed, there's quite a variance in the coloration of each skein. I've been alternating skeins off and on but I still think it will have noticeable different panels of color once it's blocked. 

I had a little trouble mastering the I-cord cast on because I'd never done one before. I also started noticing gaps between where the vertical I-cord and the stockinette panels met on each side of the blanket. To fix this, I added an extra stitch to each side of the blanket so the I-cord is always tied to the work with a garter stitch=no gaps. 

I think I have three more skeins of yarn left on this guy before he's done. I'm pretty excited to finish this project, I should know better than to start a heavy weight wool blanket in the Summer!

As far as original patterns go, I should have my Dandelion Cowl finished soon and up on the Ravelry. Follow me on Instagram if you want to know the second it's available! @ashweather_fa

Thanks for reading!

Comment below what you're working on this July!

​-Ashley