Italian Dish Knits

Pea Pod Baby Sweater and Hat

April 4, 2011

I just found out a short time ago that a food blogger I know, Maria, who writes “Two Peas and Their Pod” is having her first baby. I knew I would get to visit her in Utah on spring break, so how could I resist knitting her a little baby gift? No way! I love this cute little baby sweater from the Knitter’s Book of Yarn and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to make it.

I sewed a little hat to match from this pattern on Ravelry. I’ve made it before in different colors and I thought in greens it would look adorable and keeping with the “pea pod” theme:

I knit the sweater in a “pea green” color – how appropriate – and it’s good because it’s gender neutral. I used Berroco Vintage, which is a great blend that is machine washable and very soft.

I sewed a little label into the sweater. I got these cute little labels at this Etsy shop.

There is errata for this pattern, which I didn’t learn about until after I had knit for a while. For the smallest size, you need to cast on 36 stitches instead of 38. It didn’t seem to make much difference for me – I just took in the back seams a little when I assembled the sweater.

Pattern: Baby Soft Cardigan
Pattern for Hat: Berry Baby Hat
Needle for Sweater: US#9
Needles for Hat: US#8
Yarn: Berroco Vintage Fennel & Douglas Fir
Ravelry Pages: Sweater, Hat

Posted in baby stuff, finished objects, gifts, knitting | 9 Comments »

Nola Slippers

April 2, 2011

I just finished knitting these slippers on the plane on our way to Utah. The guys will be skiing, but my bad knees and I will be having our own fun off the hill. I will be driving into Salt Lake City one day to hang out at Blazing Needles and then I am excited to be meeting up with my food blogger friend, Maria, from Two Peas and Their Pod for lunch one day.

I read a post where Adrian Bizilia, one of my favorite knitting designers, wrote about these slippers and I wanted to make some. I thought they were so cute. They are written for a man’s size so I thought I would go ahead and knit a pair for one of the men in my family (Barry has claimed them) and see how they measured out. I could then adapt them later to make a pair for myself, possibly.

The pattern calls for these to be knitted in a worsted weight, held double, which is what I did (although I saw a few people on Ravelry knit these with bulky weight yarn, single). I used Ecolana, a beautiful alpaca/wool blend from AslanTrends. I did change the pattern a little – I did stockinette stitch on the top, the tongue part, instead of garter stitch. I just thought it looked nicer.

The slippers are knit flat, on a circular needle, in one piece and then sewn up at the end to make the slipper. I used kitchener stitch on the bottom to knit up the sole and that created a nice flat seam that is comfortable.

They were so fun and a very quick knit. It was fun to use #9 needles with big yarn after all the fingering weight yarns I’ve been using and tiny needles. I can see in the future if I knit these again it would be fun to knit the tongue in a completely different color – I’m definitely going to do that! Maybe even a variegated yarn. Oooh…. the possibilities.

Pattern: Nola’s Slippers
Yarn: Ecolana by AslanTrends
Needle: US#9 Circular
Ravelry Page

This is what I’m doing in the condo while the guys are skiing and I am a very happy camper.

Posted in guy stuff, socks/footwear | 16 Comments »

Duplicate Stitch

March 31, 2011

Sometimes if I want to add a little color to my knitting, but I don’t want to introduce a new yarn just for a few stitches, I will use duplicate stitch when the knitting is finished to add the color. It’s easy and quick and your little bits of color actually show up better, I think, than when they are knitted in. I’m using this technique on the Andalus Mittens that I am knitting right now.

Thread a tapestry needle with the color you wish to introduce.

Step #1: Insert your needle from the wrong side of the work into the bottom of the “V” of the stitch you want to color:

Thread tapestry needle through the middle of the stitches of the stitch above the stitch you want to color:

Bring needle through:

Insert tip back down into the bottom of the “V” of your designated stitch and then bring it up at the bottom of the “V” in the next stitch you want to color:

Finished Duplicate Stitch:

Knowing this technique allows you to add any little bits of color on your knitting anywhere you want! In a future post, I’ll show you how to correct color mistakes using duplicate stitch.

Posted in knitting, techniques | Tagged duplicate stitch | 1 Comment »

More Magic Loop

March 30, 2011

Work continues on the Andalus Mittens for my MIL. I had frogged the first lining, the Brushed Suri, because it was too thick and bought some Rowan Kidsilk Haze, which is working out great. I love the apple green color. I’m not holding it double, and it’s working out to be a fine lining.