Tag Archives: self-patterning

Three Little Hats and a Little Stress

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Wednesday, August 21. 2024

The sun was trying to come out this morning but the clouds seem to be winning. It’s cooler and less hazy this morning. We had our coffee out on the porch this morning and will until the cold makes it so the coffee cools more quickly than we do.

I’m on a mission this week. I’ve knitted three little baby caps and have two pairs of mittens and one book to add to make three baby gifts for new babies in my life. I have combined a couple of baby hat patterns to make a warmer, slightly smaller hat for a young baby. I hope they work. I am laughing once again because I made three hats, same yarn, same needles, and same pattern and they are all slightly different … my gauge got smaller each time as my stress got higher. What’s a girl to do?

Three little hats
Three different sizes

I love this yarn for baby garments and accessories. It’s so soft, perfect for against the skin of a baby and the colors are super fun. I am going to add a couple of pairs of mittens for the northern babies and a book for the western baby but I’m laughing at myself and how noticeable the gauge difference is. As I got more stressed this week my knitting obviously got tighter! (I lined up the other side and they’re almost 1/2 inch smaller as they go up.) Lucky the first one is going to a bigger baby and the other two aren’t born yet.

Now I’m focusing on the mittens and then one Christmas stocking and I’m off into my Christmas knitting. Two hats, a couple of little sweaters, a pair of socks and some toddler mittens among others. Thank goodness it’s only August and I’m planning ahead. I have a bunch of stash waiting to be worked in after that … a couple of sweaters and some other fun stuff. I am especially wanting to start another Lane’s Island Pullover in a pink Berroco Remix Light. I so love my white(ish) one that I am, for the first time, knitting a second sweater. There are a lot of sweaters I want to knit and I’m going to have to focus on sweaters this coming year, after the holiday season, to get some done. I know I have at least five sweaters worth of yarn and my boss just told us to take a sweater quantity of yarn for all the extra work we’ve been doing in the shop in her absence.

I’d better stop writing and knit! The sun sort of came out this afternoon, yay! Gone knitting!

Regia Pairfect Tips & Tricks

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IMG_3277.jpgI have never really worried about having socks (that I have knit) match. I have been working on a sock drawer full of handknitted socks for me and out of them all, only two or three match. Maybe only one. Anyway, Regia has a great new sock yarn that sets you up for success when you want to knit two socks that match! Regia Pairfect.

I’ve been looking at this sock yarn for quite a long time and I’ve had a lot of questions from our customers about how it works. The knitting instructions, if you can call them that, are inside the ball band so they’re difficult to read unless you buy the yarn. Even when you read them, they’re not very detailed and I did make a mistake when I was starting sock number two.

I used the Yankee Knitter Socks for the Family pattern as a basis for my Pairfect socks. I cast on 60 stitches on a US2 DPN. Because of the self-patterning yarn, it’s not necessary to do anything but knit the majority of the sock. The directions tell you to make a K1, P1 rib until the green yarn is used up and then start the leg, knitting until the blue yarn appears. I’ll suggest that you follow your favorite sock pattern, one that you know fits you.

So, here are a couple of tips and tricks that I discovered while I was knitting my matching socks with Pairfect yarn.

First, at the end of the yellow yarn, measure how far along the green yarn you start your cast on. Write it down so you remember it when you’re ready to start sock #2.

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My first short row heel!

Next, I’d suggest checking out the short row heel that Arne and Carlos use. This way they’ll look like the ones on the yarn label. There’s no surprise. Their short row heel is a quick and easy way to knit a heel. I think mine fits quite well. (Mine are going to be a gift for a friend who shares my size 9 foot size. I hope the socks fit her as well as they do me.)

Third, I misunderstood the directions on starting sock two. What you need to do (not what I originally did) is to finish the toe of the first sock and then start winding off the yarn beginning at the same place you just cut the yarn. Your yarn ball will be green and then yellow and THEN when you see the green again, you can start sock two.

I hope you took tip #1 and wrote down how many inches it was to where you started your cast on!

IMG_3278.jpgHere’s what my socks look like all finished. I hope you enjoy knitting a pair of matching socks (the easy way!)

Gone knitting!