Luckily, I have someone who benefits from my mistakes.

My sister, Holly! Every time she visits I give her something handknit. I don’t plan it, but she always leaves with something! Last time she got the Northman Mittens. She is a knitter herself, and she lives in Alaska where it is cold, so she deserves these things.

I asked her to try the hat on and when I realized it fit her perfectly, I said, “Oh good! I just have to make a quick pompom and it’ll be finished!” And you know what? She didn’t want the pompom. Blasphemy!

Not everyone loves a pompom, and I’m coming to terms with that. I don’t understand it, but at least I can try to accept it.

Pattern: Talkeetna, free on Petite Purls, or download the free PDF here.
Yarn: Lanaloft Sports Weight
To knit the adult size, work at a gauge of 6 sts per inch, instead of the gauge shown in the pattern.

Last night, after spending the day attempting to clean up my room and fill up my new filing cabinet (not a hard task, but a big one I’ll tell you), I sat down to the computer to find a tweet and forum post alerting me to some awesome news.

Knitty is live!

In the new issue is my Undergrowth pattern, a color stranded hat with a double! braid! The hat is worked in Nature Spun Sport, and you achieve different sizes (18.5, 20, 21.5″) by adjusting your needles. Best of all, because this is Knitty, it’s free! I hope you enjoy it.

I’m headed out to Durham for my book signing soon, so I won’t be updating my pattern shop until later today. In the mean time, you can find more details about Undergrowth on Ravelry or head over to Knitty to print out the pattern.

In this issue of Knitty, you’ll also find a pretty rockin’ review of The Red Collection by the editorial staff. So cool! Here’s a snapshot of the review, if you’re interested.

I must thank my gorgeous model, Mallory. She really knows how to show off the handknits.

And my favorite part of the hat, the top:

Isn’t she just gorgeous?

I’m sewing the ends in this version, which is why the sweater is inside out, and that got me to thinking about something I always think about when sewing in ends.

Have you ever watched the DVD of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Workshop (much scrolling required)? She spends a bit of time talking about finishing your sweater very neatly in order to be able to wear it inside out.

Are you kidding me?!?!?

No, she’s not kidding. I’ve never done it*, and I think I have a long way to go before my finishing would be so good to flip a finished sweater to the wrong side.  But seriously, if you get it out of your head that it’s the wrong side the other side is just as fascinating. Maybe even prettier than the right side.  That is, if you can get over it being the wrong side.

Marinate on that for a bit. I’ll be over here full of hearts for the foreseeable future.

*I knit a stripey hat that I wear inside out; reverse stockinette in stripes is just about the easiest way to make knitting look more complicated than it is. Not brave enough yet to wear a whole sweater inside out.

After much consideration (and math), I have decided to make the I Heart You sweater for child sizes only.  I apologize if I told you otherwise, but the design would have needed to be altered so much to be flattering for women. Thank you, Anne, for helping me see the light. I would have been writing two separate patterns.

The sizes will range from age 2 to 16.  Or, since kids vary so much, for a chest circumference of 20″ to 32″.

I’m working on an alternate version with some Lanaloft Sports Weight (sleeves first).  The red white & blue (tempered a bit with some Carolina Blue – Go Heels!) is so very patriotic and I so love it.  Lanaloft and Nature Spun are both awesome sport weight yarns from Brown Sheep.  Have you tried them yet?  I’m in the middle of deep infatuation with them both – even more so because they are made right here in the USA.  Lanaloft is a singles and the Nature Spun is plied.  Both knit up wonderfully.

You’d think I work for Brown Sheep.  But in fact, I do not.

After I snapped this picture, I crocheted the steeks, cut the tiny neck steek in order for the whole thing to lay flat, and blocked it.  Yesterday was rainy, today is rainy/icy/snowy/all around wet, and so I will have to wait (and wait and wait) for it to dry before I get back to it.  Sad.

I do not have high hopes that it will be worn very much.  In that sense, this is  a process sweater; the fun comes in designing and executing.  And what fun it is!

I’m making it big so it may have a chance next winter.  I’m making it will skulls, which increases it’s wearability potential.  I am even duplicate stitching green skull eyes (at the boy’s request), to up the ante even more.

The design is my own. I started with a swatch.

The first design looked good on paper (the large silly bottom skulls) and looked horrible once knitted.  Then I took a break from it for a few weeks and came back with the new, argyle-insprired skulls at the top.  I like it a lot.

I have a feeling Jerry will like it, too. He has a thing for skulls:

Even if he wears it only once, how could I NOT knit this cutie pie a sweater?