Give me a pile of wool, and I’m a happy girl. There are days I think I need nothing more. Then along comes a yarn like Baby Alpaca Grande.

Have you knit with this yarn yet? It’s butter, and that’s all there is to say. Absolute butter. The Heartless Hat and Wristers are knit with Baby Alpaca Grande. They feature many, many bobbles.

The hat has bobbles over half of the brim, with garter stitch along the other half. The decreases are centered double decreases, which produce pleasing straight lines to the tip-top of the hat.

You can knit this hat as long or as short as you like. I knit this one to fit my model, but I might knit it longer (and with GREEN) when I make one for myself.

The wristers are so cool, you wanna know why? They fit like a dream and they have no thumbs and there are bobbles. There is shaping and ribbing to give these bobble-adorned babies a snug fit.

I’ve heard from a few test knitters that at first, these wristers seem like they’ll take forever with all those bobbles. But they knit up surprisingly fast.  And the texture! Oh, the texture.

There’s a backside view of the shaping and ribbing. You wear the wide part closest to your fingers so it can snug over part of your hand to keep you toasty. Old CB radio optional.

Learn more about the Heartless Hat & Wristers:
Heartless pattern details on my blog.
Heartless pattern page on Ravelry.

About The Red Collection

The Red Collection has 12 patterns for hats and matching mittens (or mitts, or wristers). This is a self-published book and I’ve been working on these patterns, photographs, book design, and marketing for the last year!

The Print Edition of the book can be pre-ordered now, and will ship in October.

Please note: The Print Edition includes special sections on yarn, gauge, and finishing, and also has a special techniques section to help you knit the projects from the book. These sections are not included in digital versions of the patterns.

Ways to Get The Red Collection

For the best price per pattern, please consider purchasing the complete collection of patterns. The digital versions of the patterns are available for instant download (click the links below for more details).

The Red Collection: Print Edition – $20 + shipping
The Red Collection: Print Edition + Complete Digital Pattern Pack – $23 + shipping
The Red Collection: Complete Digital Pattern Pack – $20
Single Pattern or 2-Pattern Pack – from $6

Just want Heartless? Use these links:

Pattern Pack: $9	Heartless Hat: $6	Heartless Wristers: $6

We’ll get to the rest of The Red Collection soon!

I hate to admit it, but I’m terrible at naming my patterns. I swear, any time I see a new pattern, it ALWAYS has a name that I think is fabulous and I am envious of the clever person who came up with it.  I went through literally millions of ideas for pattern names for the Red Collection.

Anyway, Holly Jean is actually my sister. We just call her Holly, but her middle name is Jean and, well, that is the whole story.

Okay, it’s not the whole story. Holly needed a pattern named after her because she is one of the people who told me I could write a book. She is also the person who knew how to knit before I knew how to knit. She brought me big long aluminum needles and balls of wool and tried to teach me. She is also my big sister (I’m taller), she is successful and driven, an inspiration to me, and that is the whole story.

The Holly Jean set uses Cascade 220 Wool, one of my favorite yarns. For these patterns, you’ll need three colors, and you can use just a small bit of Color C (the red in my photos) so it’s perfect to use up a remnant you probably already have laying around. The hat is reversible and because it is stranded, there are four layers of wool there! Suitable for very, very cold climates.

If you’re feeling like maybe you don’t need a four layer hat, you can simply add a garter stitch or ribbed border to one half of the hat.

The mittens feature a looong cuff. Tuckable under winter coats for ultimate wind protection. Or because that splash of color is so fun, you could leave the cuff outside your sweater, wear a fur stole with a black leather belt, and make a fashion statement with your mittens. You’ll probably need stilettos, too. Because wool mittens and stilettos match perfectly.

Learn more about the Holly Jean Hat & Mittens:
Holly Jean pattern details on my blog.
Holly Jean pattern page on Ravelry.

About The Red Collection

The Red Collection has 12 patterns for hats and matching mittens (or mitts, or wristers). This is a self-published book and I’ve been working on these patterns, photographs, book design, and marketing for the last year!

The Print Edition of the book can be pre-ordered now, and will ship in October.

Please note: The Print Edition includes special sections on yarn, gauge, and finishing, and also has a special techniques section to help you knit the projects from the book. These sections are not included in digital versions of the patterns.

Ways to Get The Red Collection

For the best price per pattern, please consider purchasing the complete collection of patterns. The digital versions of the patterns are available for instant download (click the links below for more details).

The Red Collection: Print Edition – $20 + shipping
The Red Collection: Print Edition + Complete Digital Pattern Pack – $23 + shipping
The Red Collection: Complete Digital Pattern Pack – $20
Single Pattern or 2-Pattern Pack – from $6

Just want Holly Jean? Use these links:

Pattern Pack: $9	Holly Jean Hat: $6	Holly Jean Mittens: $6

More of The Red Collection coming soon!

The Red Collection is now in the pre-order phase! I listed all the patterns on Ravelry on Monday evening and I’m so excited to start sharing them all with you.

First up is the Drifty Hat.  A dash of whimsical, with a healthy serving of wool, and you’ve got a very fun design. The shape of the hat is simple – rolled brim with spiral shaping at the top.  Knit with Lamb’s Pride Bulky, this is a very quick knit.

The pattern also includes instructions to work the hat in a solid color (or a variegated yarn, or you could even try stripes!), because I think this basic shape works for so many people, even if they don’t want a fence around their noggin.

As with all the patterns in the book, the hat is paired with a matching pair of mittens.

The cuff on the Drifty Mittens is flared and like the hat, has a rolled edge. These are warm mittens, and they would make a great addition to any winter wardrobe.

The solid-colored version is also included in the pattern:

If you’re looking for a quick knit – maybe you’re beginning to think of holiday knitting? – then you’ll love this pattern.

Learn more about the Drifty Hat & Mittens:
Drifty pattern details on my blog.
Drifty pattern page on Ravelry.

About The Red Collection

The Red Collection has 12 patterns for hats and matching mittens (or mitts, or wristers). This is a self-published book and I’ve been working on these patterns, photographs, book design, and marketing for the last year!

The Print Edition of the book can be pre-ordered now, and will ship in October.

Please note: The Print Edition includes special sections on yarn, gauge, and finishing, and also has a special techniques section to help you knit the projects from the book. These sections are not included in digital versions of the patterns.

Ways to Get The Red Collection

For the best price per pattern, please consider purchasing the complete collection of patterns. The digital versions of the patterns are available for instant download (click the links below for more details).

The Red Collection: Print Edition – $20 + shipping
The Red Collection: Print Edition + Complete Digital Pattern Pack – $23 + shipping
The Red Collection: Complete Digital Pattern Pack – $20
Single Pattern or 2-Pattern Pack – from $6

Just want Drifty? Use these links:

Pattern Pack: $9	Drifty Hat: $6	Drifty Mittens: $6

Stay tuned over the next few days for more of The Red Collection!

1) I’ve made an eBook of the End of May Hat and Mittens patterns. Individually, each pattern costs you $6, but you can buy both together for $10.  What a deal! You can see the End of May eBook on Ravelry, or if you’re not hip to that ubiquitous website, you can order the set from my patterns page.

The eBook idea was suggested by Kirsten, yes that Kirsten, who I was lucky enough to meet up with a few weeks ago. It was my first real life meetup with a knitblogger! We could have talked knitting and business all day. It was fun.

2) Kirsten also suggested I start a Zigzagstitch Ravelry group. I’d been thinking about it for a while, and finally took the plunge! It felt sort of silly, starting a group for fans of myself. But I suppose it’s really more for fans of my designs, and that’s pretty cool.  Especially with the upcoming simultaneous release of twelve new patterns, folks might want a place to congregate for discussion and whatnot. If you’re interested, you can join the group here! We’ll probably do knit-alongs from The Red Collection, and perhaps even giveaways!

3) Kate of needled asked me for pictures of some of my sock darning, and (OMG this is so cool!) my picture is in the current issue of The Knitter!  I haven’t seen the actual issue yet, but I’ve read the article and, as usual, Kate has written a really cool piece. You must check it out!

(click for big, and to see my family above the barcode!)

4) I have not received my copy of 1,000 Fabulous Knit Hats yet, but it’s listed on Ravelry and Amazon. There are some negative reviews on Amazon, mostly because folks assumed there would be 1,000 PATTERNS for knit hats (really?), when in fact there are only 10 patterns and 1,000 pictures of hats. According to some of the reviewers, the 10 patterns included (one of which is my End of May hat) are just ho-hum. Well, when I receive my copy of the book, I’ll let you what I think.

5) School is in session!

Seeing the fine merits of the shawl, what with the shape of it, and the interesting stitches, you decide to forgo the Very Fancy Novelty Yarn and use Very Plain Wool to give the pattern a little test run.

You are pleased with the results.

Very pleased indeed.

The shawl was quick to knit. The stitch patterns were so interesting to execute and textural in your Very Plain Wool.

And you were so smart and clever you could hardly stand it.

More info on my Ravelry project page.

I took photos of the original shawl for Cindy to use on the pattern. This one was knit from the yarn that comes in the Great Adirondack Color Pack (check your lys, I can’t find a link for more info about the yarn pack). The novelty yarn is beautiful, but a little too fancy for me. It would be really great for a night out on the town, but I don’t have many of those.

Modeled by Mallory, Cindy’s daughter, who is also the model for The Red Collection!

Same pattern, different yarn!  Isn’t it crazy?
Which yarn would you choose? Very Fancy Novelty Yarn or Very Plain Wool?

I’m a “set of 5″ dpn kinda knitter. When I watch people knit a whole sock on a set of 4 dpns it makes me uneasy.  WHY would you want to do that? But I know it’s just a thing. It’s not wrong, or bad for your health or anything.  I just really, really like 5 dpns.

To my surprise, I recently decided that, although I knit the majority of my toe-up sock on a set of 5 dpns, I would knit the ribbing (or whatever comes above the heel) on a set of 4.  Why?

To save time.

I have not calculated exactly how much time I save by abandoning one of my needles to finish the ribbing on my sock, but it must be at least 45 seconds. On each sock! Thats, like, three minutes of extra knitting time every year!

Yea, a little quirky. What is your knitting quirk?

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

These are the Heartless Wristers from The Red Collection, knit by my friend Lisa out of Cascade Eco Wool. I’ve received a ton of great feedback from all the test knitters, and I’m working hard trying to get this book finished!  I think I’ve passed the “what was I thinking?” phase of the process and moved on to the “it’s really gonna happen” phase. It is a good feeling, I tell you.

But I’m busy as a bee around here! Lots accomplished, lots left to do.

The next step will be pre-orders, and I’ll give you all the details here once I get it all worked out. If you’re itching to knit some of these projects for this winter, do not fear! The book will be ready in plenty of time for cool-weather knitting.

It will get a pocket! As an afterthought (though I planned it ahead of time).

The yarn is Chickadee from the new yarn company Quince & Co. It is so soft, the colors are to die for, and I loved working with it. The yarn is, as far as I can tell, a worsted spun yarn, meaning the fibers are all aligned nicely and it has a very boing-y quality to it. It is very stretchy and delicious and plump.

The trouble with a worsted spun yarn is that it doesn’t have a tendency to stick to itself like a woolen spun (Shetland style) yarn does.  I used steeks, all the while knowing that the yarn isn’t as felty as I like it to be when using steeks.  I reinforced my steek using the crochet method and I’m not too worried about it, but the yarn is not ideal for steeking.

Still, I love this little vest to pieces. I think I’ll make one for Jerry* and write up the pattern.

*Jerry assured me that, while he doesn’t necessarily want a vest, he will “wear it for pictures”. Good boy.

But when my Aunt asked me to knit a sweater for a bear, I just could not say no. People rarely ask me to knit things for them* so I was pretty excited about it. My Aunt made the bear herself (a long time ago it seems, since I had to make some repairs to it) and she wanted to give it to her first great grandbaby, with a personalized sweater.

*Except for the random acquaintance who wants a hat but has absolutely no idea what goes into knitting a hat. You don’t know how many people from my hometown have asked me to knit them a Buffalo Bills hat!  I usually either quote them the fair price of $300 or show them this picture.

Anyway. I knit a vest for a bear!

The name on his belly is “paxtyn”. How cute is that name? I briefly considered doing a proper sweater, but the shape of the bear’s arms seemed better suited to a vest.

I spent a lot of time trying to come up with the design. At first I thought I’d do something stripety in worsted weight yarn, but I thought the vest would be better out of a thinner yarn. I ended up using Ultra Alpaca Light.

There were, ahem, gauge issues. After knitting the “paxtyn” section I took the knitting off the needle and realized it was about 5 inches too wide. Although I thought I’d avoid the use of a steek for such a small sweater, I reinforced the knitting and cut out the extra fabric. That made for some extra finishing work, but I’m really, really pleased with how it came out.

Knitting a vest for a bear for my first cousin twice removed was pretty fun, I’ll have to say. The knitting was quick and the design of it stretched my brain just a little. That’s always good, right? Figuring out all the little parts to make it look just so. I also thought about the new baby and his mom a lot, and that, I realize, is the fun of knitting for others.

I sure hope they love having the old bear and its new vest. I sure loved making it.