Friday, February 22, 2013

... and now she knits

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Small dream come true!  This gal's got her gauge on!  Previous to these blogging years, I was completely satisfied being very good with the crochet hook and believed my gauge was just too tight to knit well.  How times change!  Reading Purl Bee and watching so many bloggers whip off gorgeous items, my favorites are baby bonnets and top-down cardigans, created quite the desire to get my gauge under control and cast on.  Plus, I'm crazy to use the artisan variegated dyed yarns available, and I think they are best used for knit items.  After a little lesson with friend who helped with the casting on and proper form as well as watching a number of YouTube tutorials, I started a 40-stitch swatch/scarf on #10 circulars to practice keeping it all even and changing colors.  
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As usual, one project isn't enough, so I searched around Ravelry and have so many favorites but decided on this LTK Pilot Cap because I can use worsted weight yarn and reasonably sized needles.  This pattern calls for using markers (tied pieces of yarn for me), increasing with kfb, slip stitches, and soon decreasing.  Can you see the pretty shaping in the photo at the top?  The increases create that pretty V to contour to a sweet baby head.  I hope it fits a sweet baby head properly; that will be gratifying as this is my first adventure in following a knitting pattern.  If I get this one right, I will drop needle size and yarn weight and knit a fine little bonnet.