Dream Weaver Baby Blanket

Looking for an easy and fast to knit baby blanket that looks spectacular? How about this one?

When I saw this stitch in a stitch dictionary I knew I had to make it into a baby blanket. :)

Dream Weaver is a reversible baby blanket knit in a woven ribbon pattern with a garter stitch border. The pattern repeat is easy to knit and easy to remember.

You'll need about 500 yards of worsted weight yarn and size 7 (4.5 mm) and 8 (5 mm) knitting needles for this project. I used Lion Brand Pound of Love in blue for mine. It measured 27" x 27". (I include instructions on how to make it bigger if you want a bigger blanket.)

This stitch pattern draws in a bit on the sides. I compensated for that by knitting the beginning and ending border with a smaller size needle than I used for the body of the blanket.

The pattern sells for $3.00 through my Ravelry patter store.

 Pattern prices subject to change without notice. Check my Ravelry Store for current pattern prices.

Kitty Cuddler & Pet Snuggler

The Kitty Cuddler is a comfy bed to crochet for your favorite feline. I used a total of 5 oz (about 300 yards) of acrylic worsted weight yarn and a size H (5 mm) hook for the bed. You'll need a main color for the bottom and 3 or more contrasting colors for the sides. The bottom is worked as a hexagon and the sides in an interlocking stitch. Crochet the sides twice as tall as you want the finished cuddler to be and fold them down to form a tube. You can stuff the tube with an old T-shirt, polar fleece, or quilt batting if you like. Mine measured 15" across and 2" tall with the sides folded down. It is sized for kittens and small cats. You can easily enlarge it by working more rows on the bottom before you begin the sides. The pattern is a free download on Ravelry. Click the bolded pattern name above to download a copy of this free pattern.

The Pet Snuggler is a pet bed knit using 3 strands of acrylic worsted weight yarn (or one strand of bulky) on size 11 (8 mm) circular knitting needles. (10 oz/about 530 yards of worsted weight or 176 yards of bulky weight.) Begin by knitting a garter stitch square. Pick up stitches around the edge of the square. Join and knit the sides in the round. End with a little ribbing or I-cord. The bed should fit a cat or a little dog. Make the bottom bigger for a larger bed. I tried to get Solitaire to sit down in the bed for a picture. She wouldn't cooperate. So here's one of her standing up in the bed. She's a timid little beastie even at the ripe old age of 17! Click the bolded pattern name above to download a free copy of this pattern from Ravelry.


© August 2010 Vicki Mikulak
For personal, non-commercial use only. All rights reserved.

Winter Wonderland

Snow, snow, and more snow is all we've been getting lately. That doesn't make us special. They said on TV last night that 49 out of 50 U.S. states have snow on the ground (even Hawaii!). I feel for places that aren't used to snow/ice and don't have the equipment to deal with it. It's bad enough here where it is our usual wintertime condition.

Our normal snowfall is about 68" for the season. We were just a few inches short of that figure by last weekend and before more snow fell this week. We will no doubt have record January snowfall.

Less than 2 weeks ago there was no snow on the ground and the roads were clear. Since then we've been hit by record snowfall and lots of lake effect snow. If you're not familiar with lake effect snow you're lucky. A cold wind coming across warmer lake water can dump massive amounts of snow on the unlucky recipients. I live east and south of Lake Michigan. When the wind is from the right direction as it has been lately we get SNOW!

South Bend, just east of me, received almost 40 inches of snow over the past weekend. Most of that was actually received within a 24 hour period. We had 18" on the ground by Saturday afternoon. It takes that much snow to really slow traffic down and close schools and churches here.

We've had some welcome sunshine this week that has melted the roads a bit. Though every time they start to get bare tire tracks it snows again. :( As you might expect, I'm not leaving the house much. Such is January in this part of the world.

On top of the snow, temperatures have been below average. Our normal daytime high is about 32 degrees or right at the freezing mark. We're lucky if the daytime high gets into the 20s and our night time lows have been in the teens or single digits. Even in the house bundled up with wool socks, long sleeves, a wool shawl, and fingerless mitts, I am not truly warm unless I am snuggled into bed or in a hot shower. This time of year our bed is made up with flannel sheets and a down comforter. Heavenly warmth! Getting out of bed in the morning and leaving all that heat is not an easy thing to do.

Over the holiday break, hubby began a new remodeling project. Our half bathroom is now an empty room. Destruction has occurred and shopping has been done for a new pedestal sink, faucets, and a dual flush toilet. (That was before the snow started again.) The paint and wall cabinets we already had on hand. The plumber has been here to put in new shut off valves for the water, move the sink pipe for the new sink, and install a new toilet flange where the toilet goes. He'll come back and install the sink and toilet after we get the wall repaired, the walls painted, and the flooring installed. It's always this has to happen before this can be done type of scenario. And nothing has happened in a week mostly due to all the snow we've received. Hubby's free time has gone to keeping the driveway clear so we can get out of our drive. If the snow doesn't take a break soon, I don't when the bathroom will be finished. Thank goodness, we do have a second bathroom!

On the design front, I have a new crocheted lace shawl that is currently in testing. I hope to have it available before the end of January.

I'm also in the process of revising and uploading all 19 patterns I donated to the Holiday Mystery Group in 2010. The Quinto Beret, Double Diamonds Scarf, and the Archer scarf have already debuted here on my blog from HMG. I've posted several more patterns to Ravelry but haven't blogged about them yet. New freebies on Ravelry are: Heady Stuff (headbands/earwarmers), Green Grocer Bag (crochet), Hobo Bag, a Kitty Cuddler (crochet), and a Pet Snuggler. Two that are up for sale are the Dream Weaver Baby Blanket and Nerdle the Turtle cloth and coaster set (crochet). There's a few more to come as I have time to finalize them. I'll post descriptions, pictures, and links here on my blog soon.

As I promised in an earlier post, I can show you a picture of the gifts I knit for family and friends. The men got striped hats made from my Hip to Be Square hat pattern and a solar flashlight. I revised my hat pattern for Lion Brand Chunky yarn and bigger needles (not the worsted weight it's written for). I called them my 58 row hats. (grin) They knit up really fast! In the lower left corner, are two helmet style hats in blue and rust. Those were for my nephews. I used the same hat pattern bur resized it for smaller heads and with an ear flap that goes all the way around of the back of the hat. This can be flipped up if not in use. Much less fiddly than knitting little earflaps on either side of the hat.

The pink and blue half circle scarf/shawlettes were for my nieces. They were each made with one ball of Red Heart Shimmer using Pi shaping. I made a larger version in black/white for my hairdresser using one ball of Patons Lace. I love how these turned out!

The upper part of the picture shows all the hanging dishtowels and scrubbies that I made for the ladies. Paired with a bottle of scented pump soap, they made a nice, but inexpensive, gift. You could add a button to the dishtowel if you like. I crocheted a loop for hanging it up. The scrubbies may look like other ones you've seen but the construction is different than any that I've tried out in the past.

Let me know if you'd like to see me post any of these patterns. (grin)

A busy season

Sorry, I haven't posted in some time. Things are busy here as usual. Does it ever slow down enough to catch your breath anymore? I don't think so.

My fingers have been flying knitting Christmas goodies for friends and family. No pictures yet until they have been distributed. I want them to be a surprise for the recipients.

Here's a picture I took recently of Pookie (left) and Boo (right). Do you see how much larger Pookie is than Boo? Our vet sure noticed. When we took him in for his checkup, the scale showed he had gained 1-1/2 pounds over the past year. He's too heavy and at risk for developing kitty diabetes. Our vet told us to put him on a diet. The dry food he (and Boo) now eat is high protein, low carb, and contains little if any grain. Boo loved the new food. Pookie was very vocal about how much he disliked it. (We suspect he was addicted to the corn based dry food and also may have had an allergy to it.) He complained loudly that we were starving him. Don't worry, he wasn't. He gets some canned food each day. We also caught him eating the dry food when he thought no one was watching. LOL! He likes it now and has trimmed down a bit and is much more active. The vet should be pleased with him.

The Holiday Mystery Group is winding down for the 2010 season. Nineteen of my patterns were part of this year's fun. They were a variety of knit and crochet designs ranging from small to large. You'll some of these designs posted in the near future. I've already begun to work on designs for 2011. :)

On a sad note, I report that Threadbear in Lansing, Michigan closed near the end of September. It was my favorite yarn shop to visit. I heard about this sometime in October through postings on Ravelry. I was shocked! Evidently, Rob, the owner had had financial problems for the past couple of years. In 2008 or 2009, the shop had been seized for non payment of a loan. The loan was repaid and the shop reopened. This year he was months behind on rent when the landlord took him to court. The court seized the shop ten days after judgment and the contents were sold to pay the landlord. (Leaving TB employees with no jobs). ;( There's even more to this sad story. Any designers or companies who had models on loan in the shop or were otherwise owed money for teaching classes or for yarn or patterns did not get their merchandise back and/or will not be paid. The same goes for customers who had gift certificates, held vouchers from the recent customer yarn garage sale held at the shop, or those who had placed special orders that had been paid for in advance. Count me amongst those hurt by this shop closing. Not only did I have a $30 gift certificate, I also have an unpaid bill for patterns ordered shortly before the shop closed. :(

In early November a new yarn shop opened in Lansing called Sticks & Strings. The owners are Sabrina (a former Threadbear employee) and her friend Kathy. You'll find their yarn shop at 1107 N. Washington Avenue in Lansing. I highly encourage a trip to their delightful yarn shop. Tell them Simple Knits sent you. :)

Quinto Beret & Double Diamonds Scarf

Quinto is a quick-to-knit beret for adults, featuring 5 leaf lace motifs at the crown. Here's a picture of the top of the beret so you can see the leaf pattern and another one of me modeling the beret. Cast on with dpns (or two circs) to start for an I-cord stem and knit down. Increases are concealed in the lace pattern. Change to a circular needle as the stitch count increases. I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease Solid in red for my beret. It will take about 120-140 yards of worsted weight yarn on size 7 (4.5 mm) knitting needles (dpns and circular). Block your beret over a dinner plate to open up the lace and create a sharp edge or leave it unblocked. The pattern has written instructions and a lace chart.

The Quinto Beret pattern is available in my Ravelry pattern store


Double Diamonds Scarf is a garter stitch lace scarf. Garter stitch lace is fast to knit. Once it's blocked, it's hard to tell the difference from stockinette lace. This scarf is a great way to try out lace knitting. I created this pattern to use in my intro to lace knitting class. My sample scarf was knit with one skein of Malabrigo Silky Merino in the Pink Panther colorway. My scarf blocked to 7” x 51”. You'll need 150 yards of a DK or light worsted weight yarn and a pair of size 7 (4.5 mm) knitting needles. Use 200 yards if you want a longer scarf. The pattern includes written instructions and a lace chart.

The Double Diamonds Scarf pattern can be found in my Ravelry pattern store.

For more information, visit my Ravelry pattern store to see all my available designs, current pricing information, and purchase pattern downloads.

S-N-O-W!!

This is the view from the sunroom this morning. Yep, it's our first measurable snowfall of the season. Temps dropped into the mid 20's last night. There were reports on the late news of frozen and icy overpasses and roads. Also pictures of high school football teams slipping and sliding around as they attempted to play. :)

It's late afternoon as I write this and it's warmed up into the 40s and the snow has completely disappeared. By mid-week they're predicting we could hit 60 degrees again. We're roller coastering our way to winter. That's ok, the past couple of years it has gotten really cold in October and never warmed up much until spring. A more gradual coasting into colder weather is much easier to take than going from 6o down to freezing and staying there.

I have pulled out my wool socks to wear and am wearing the two sweaters I've made lately. Taking a break from lace for the moment. Though I have ideas for a few new projects one of these days. :)

You've seen the crocheted Bella Donna Cardi that I translated. I had a little yarn leftover so I added a bit of a sleeve to it. I will make it again with longer sleeves. It's gotten too cold to wear this short sleeve version.

The second sweater I've finished is Liesl by Isoda Teague. Haven't had a chance to get someone to take a pic of me wearing it so you'll have to settle for this awful one. It's not easy trying to take a picture of yourself. :) It also points out that I still need to lose some weight. Sigh, and the holidays are coming. :(

Liesl is an easy sweater to knit in a feather and fan lace. It's knit on big needles with worsted weight yarn (up to chunky). Mine was knit with 576 yards of Aran weight yarn on size 10.75 mm needles I got from Knit Picks. For this sweater, you cast on at the top neckline and knit down. Cast off and cast on again to leave openings for the sleeves. Pick up stitches around the armholes for the sleeves. When you're done knitting, there are no seams to sew. Only a few yarns tails to darn in. I love this sweater and will definitely knit it again. The next time I will add the buttonholes. It's my fault for not reading all the instructions before I began knitting. The buttonhole directions are not in the line-by-line instructions so I didn't see them. They're in a call out box to one side. This I think is not a good way to handle this. I checked on Ravelry and I'm not the only one who missed them. I've also made a note to decrease needle sizes as I the sleeves get longer. They're a little wide at the elbow and don't want to fit inside coat sleeves.

Someone asked for a closer look at the sweater. Here's a picture of it on the blocking board. You can see the lace pattern in it.

The third sweater is still in progress---a crocheted Pinwheel Sweater by Amy Depew. This pattern is more of a recipe for a sweater and not detailed instructions. That's great though since you can make it with any weight of yarn you like. I'm using a size G crochet hook and over 1,000 yards of fingering weight handspun from my stash in various shades of blues, pinks, and purples. The sweater starts as a circle at the middle back and is worked in the round. You leave openings for the sleeves as the circle gets larger. After finishing a few rounds after the sleeve openings, I've started on the sleeves. I'm not sure I'll have enough yarn so I want to add any contrasting colors at the outside edge of the body of the sweater and the sleeves. Worse case scenario, I will be spinning a little more yarn to finish this. It would take a long time to knit a pinwheel sweater like this. I'll post pictures of it when I get it finished.

I'm getting the urge to knit some thicker winter socks to wear around the house or inside boots. They'll be toe up and start with a rectangle at the toe. (Much easier to do than most toe up starts.) And I'm thinking about using a short row garter stitch heel. I have a skein of Yarn Bee Snowflake from Hobby Lobby that I may use. It's rated as a DK weight yarn. I bought the yarn on sale because I liked the color. I do not like the strand of thin bumpy, scratchy thread they've plied with it. Ruins a very nice yarn in my opinion. I'm nutty, so I pulled the thread out of it in short sections and cut it off. I now how a nice ball of machine washable wool yarn for thick socks. Now to figure out what size needles to use and how many stitches I need to cast on to start them. :)

Archer Scarf

Here's my newest pattern -- the Archer Scarf.

This is a garter stitch scarf that's completely reversible --- no right or wrong sides. It's an easy and fast project to knit! The pattern contains full written instructions and a lace chart.

I knit this sample scarf with size 9 (5.5 mm) knitting needles and a ball of Trendsetter Tonalita Fusion. The long color runs in this yarn really show off this easy lace design.

With one ball (109 yards) of worsted weight, my blocked scarf measured 6" wide x 46" long. If you want a longer scarf, use 150-200 yards of yarn. Want a wider scarf, add a few more stitches on each side of the lace design.

I've been thinking that this would look great as a stole or a cowl too. :)

Knit it in light or bright colors for women and teens or dark and masculine colorways for guys. Yes, this lace pattern is subtle enough that some men would be happy to wear it.

For more information, visit my Ravelry pattern store to see all my available designs, current pricing information, and purchase pattern downloads.