The Sweatshop of Love Blog

So I’ve had this finished for ages, but with the Vintage Inspired Baseball Knits launch, and the fact that I’m up to my ears in the Holla Knits Spring Collection, this post got buried.

Chevron Stripe Infinity Scarf

But I totally finished my Chevron Stripe Infinity Scarf! According to my Ravelry project page, I finished in on February 10th. So yeah, it has been a while!

Color-splosion!

Way back at the beginning of February I chatted about how I was using this project as a Knit Picks Palette stashbuster, and stashbust I did! When my main colors ran out I traded in white or black.

White and Black Color Subs

You can see in this picture how it all worked out – I started with the first yellow and blue section next to the all black section, and worked around. When colors ran out I’d just start the pattern up again with white or black. I ran out of white at the end and tried to get the length of the scarf with black, but ran out of black about 20 rows from the end of the chart. I kept pretty diligent notes about color changes on my project page.

Infinity Scarf LOVE!

I love it! I’ve worn it out a few times and have gotten pretty hilarious and amazing reaction to it. It will be even better when it’s finally warm out and I can just wear it like it ain’t no thang, instead of wearing it for actual warmth from the freezing, freezing cold. It’s a sunshiney cowl! It needs some damn sun!

Pattern: Chevron Stripe by Jill Zielinski

Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in 6 colors

Needles: Size 5 16″ circulars

Ravelry Project Page

The Fibre Company just came out with their Kelbourne Woolens Volume 1, and it’s FULL of super snugly, cozy knits. And they were kind enough to ask me to be a part of the blog tour from this collection! The fun part? I was asked to pick my favorite piece and style it. Any excuse to use polyvore, right?!

Hawthorn Sweater by Courtney Kelley

There were TONS of favorites to choose from, but I loved the classic simplicity of Courtney Kelley’s Hawthorn Sweater.

I thought it would be fun to work with the pretty grey of The Fibre Company Road to China Light yarn, and add a few simple very colorful accents with the tank and tights. Can you tell I’m ready for spring?!

It’s easy to fall in love with this collection, and work these classic pieces into your everyday wardrobe. Convinced?! Leave a comment on this blog post for your chance to win a signed copy of Kelbourne Woolens Volume 1! I’ll be choosing a winner this Thursday, Feb 14th at midnight. Good luck!

And be sure to follow the Kelbourne Woolens Volume 1 blog tour! The next stop is Fibre Space on Thursday.

I’m always on the look out for a cute baby toy pattern, because everyone is constantly having babies.

Uh-Ohs by Anna Hrachovec

I ran across this fun pattern by Mochimochi Land designer Anna Hrachovec while on the search for a tiny narwhal pattern, which I couldn’t find, but these Uh-Ohs were a perfect consolation prize.

Flip that Shit

My friends Chris and Anne are having a baby in April, so I knew I had some time to search for a fun project for their first baby, but I pounded these out over New Years weekend. The pattern is really fun, and despite needing to make 8 pretty annoying tiny feet/ears, were a pretty quick knit!

PERFECT Toy Circle

And they were a stash project! I used Knit Picks Palette, which I’ve got a ton of, and each little Ohs took probably 1/4th a skein. So I’ve got a lot more laying around for future Ohs! Which I will absolutely be making very soon.

Pattern: Uh-Ohs by Anna Hrachovec

Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in Whirlpool and Edamame

Needles: Size 4 DPNs

Ravelry Project Page

Sometimes you just have to dig through your stash and bust out an amazing pattern that has been sitting in your ravelry queue for a while.

Houndstooth Bandana by Jocelyn Tunney

For me that project was this fun Houndstooth Bandana by Jocelyn Tunney. I’ve been really into houndstooth lately, and you guys know how much I love mixing patterns! So before I left Minneapolis for Michigan over Christmas I dug around in my stash and found a fun mix of yarns to cook this guy up with.

Knit Picks Mish Mash

The yellow is Knit Picks Brava Sport in Canary, the grey is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Mist, and the white is Knit Picks Swish Worsted in White. I used about half of the skein of Brava, and two skeins of the WotA and Swish.

Houndstooth LOVE!

This is a pattern that totally tricked me. I’m pretty good at looking at something and figuring out how it was knit and what is going on where, but Jocelyn Tunney had me fooled with this one! I really loved knitting this project, but it has a lot of pretty annoying elements. For some reason they didn’t bother me in the least, but when I tell other knitters about it they all freak. It’s many inches of a short amount of ribbing, it’s a LOT of picking up stitches. A lot. So much so that my 36″ circulars couldn’t handle them all and SNAPPED! It was intense.

Slight Modification

It is probably because I used worsted weight grey and white yarn and sport weight yellow, but I had to use more of the top band to pick up the correct number of stitches, so instead of having the long strips of yellow at the end, I’ve got kind of squatty ends. But other than that I followed this pattern to a T and loved every second of it.

And I’ve been wearing it pretty nonstop since I finished it!

Pattern: Houndstooth Bandana by Jocelyn Tunney

Yarn: Knit Picks Brava Sport, Knit Picks Swish Worsted, Knit Picks Wool of the Andes

Needles: Size 4 36″ circs

 Ravelry Project Page

I don’t often get knitted presents from people. I guess they probably figure I could make anything I’d want myself – and I know my mom doesn’t knit for me because she is worried I’ll find and point out any mistakes she has made!

Beautiful Stranded Mittens!

So when I got these beautiful stranded mittens from my friend Katie, I was blown away! She blogged about them here – Falling Leaves Mittens.

Mitten Fronts

When I got them I thought she was using some really gradually variegated yarn, but it’s actually 6 different colors of Knit Picks Palette, used a couple rows at a time. Amazing right?!

I’m pretty scared to wear them out. I’m SO scared I’m going to leave them on the bus, or drop one somewhere. I need like, mitten clips or something! But so far so good, and I wear them EVERYWHERE! I love them, and everyone freaks out when they see them, too!