Happy Belated Mother's Day

Oh, the things you can do with a crochet hook and some string!  For Mother's Day I made a wrap for my mom with Noro Silk Garden (colour 84, one of my faves), a 5mm crochet hook, and a Simple Crochet Ripple Baby Blanket pattern (start with a chain 58).  I used 8 skeins of yarn, but for each I cut out one shade from the colourway (black, it just didn't work the way I wanted) - so lets estimate about 755m were used (the finished wrap weighs 376g). 

It relaxed quite a bit after blocking. I washed it in Eucalan, gave it a tug widthwise, and hung it on a laundry rack to dry. When i finished crocheting it was a bit tight, but now it has a really lovely drape. If you don't want as much drape, try washing in Soak instead of Eucalan.

For a more spring/summery version, try using Noro Taiyo (4 skeins). They don't make the Noro in the same  fiery colourway, but they have some great options:

• 20: "Stylin' Autumn" - brown, black, teal, grey, green, wheat, rust
• 30: "Girlie Fantasy" - pinks, purples, fuchisa, teal, wheat, navy
• 24: "Autumn in Paris" - yellows, greens, magenta, cream, rust, wine
• 1: "Neutral in Pink" - pink, black, brown, grey, cream
• 31: "Double Rainbow" - yellow, moss green, pink, fuchsia, magenta, sky blue, apple green, orange, cream, grey, royal blue
• 23: "Starry Night" - blues, greens, brown, touch of mauve
• 29: "Fiesty Fire" - pinks, oranges, peach, fuchsia, violet, brown, black

For a lighter version, try using 4 skeins of Noro Silk Garden Sock  (or when it arrives, Noro Taiyo Sock), and a 3.5mm hook, and more sts (like a number from the actual pattern):

• 269: "Au natural" - cream, beige, grey
• 241: "Purple Fantasy" - purples, olives, browns
• 313: "North by Northwest" - spruce, azure, rust, yellow, black, brown
• 322: "Lake Tahoe" - greens, black, bronze, turquoise, white
• 264: "Spring Cleaning" - turquoise, blue, apple green, purple,  aqua, pink, brown, dark blue

As always, you can find us at Knitomatic.com!

Ripple Wrap

Oh curse you transitional weather!  My attention span has been all over the place lately. Some days I'm gung ho on making another sweater, the next a wrap is a moral imperative, new yarn comes in and it needs to become a blanket, the weekend beckons socks, and the next week I want a whole new accessory set for spring. 

Above is a simple crochet wrap I'm winging in Noro Silk Garden. This colourway is so beautiful, I've been sitting across from it all winter and I finally relented and allowed myself to remove some from the shelf. The colours are especially nice because they have a low contrast and blend - except for a bit of black that stood out too much and has hence been removed.  If I really like this wrap I'll consider making a Lady Eleanor with Noro Silk Garden. 

• Red: Colour no. 84 looks nice, but I suspect that it is not really my colour. 
• White: My old favourite colour no. 269 is another good option and a serious contender. On the upside, it is completely neutral, on the downside, I would match my brother's afghan. It would match my black coat, possibly my red coat, probably not my purple coat. Additionally, I currently have enough left on the shelf, but I don't know if the colour has been discontinued (aka - if you are smitten with the idea of something in this colour, you'd better pop over here and pick it up0.
• Rust: Colour no. 221 is a maybe. It would match my purple coat, but probably not the red. 
• Bronze: Colour no. 279 might work with the red and the purple coats, as long as it looks good on me.
•  Noro Kochoran in colour no. 75 might also be elegant, and it would knit up faster :-)

I'm having a very hard time chosing. I've been browsing through the finished Noro Eleanors on Ravelry, but so many colours have been discontinued over the years. :-(  

As always, you can find us at knitomatic.com!

Cotton Cardie Wrap

I started work this week on a most basic of Cardie Wraps. So far the pattern and the knitting are both easy and it is flying along!  Do you like the Grover blue yarn? ;-)