Manos del Uruguay's Alegria

In Spanish Alegria means Joy.  I have to say when you knit with this hand-painted sock yarn from Manos del Uruguay all you feel is joy!  The colors alone are enough to brighten any grey day, then there is the softness of the superwash merino.  Alegria is the perfect choice for any fingering weight project, from socks to shawls and even baby projects.  I've knit a couple shawls and love them, I've seen socks knit with it and they are amazing!  If you are not into the super bights above, you can try a more subdue palette like the skeins below, which I think are perfect Autumn colors!

New Books That Are Must Haves!

I'm in love with these books!  Huge Huggable Mochimochi is filled with 20 super sized lovable projects perfect for gift giving.  If supersized sounds a like too much to knit, check out 50 Yards of Fun you can knit a colony of delightful critters using only 50 yarns of  yarn, can you say stash buster!  Make a mini version of yourself, your friends, and celebrities too with AmiguruMe.  You will learn everything you need to depict the face of the person you are designing to getting the clothes, hair, and accessories just perfect!  The possibilities are endless!  Monster Knits for Little Monsters is seriously about the cutest book I have ever seen.  You will be knitting little critter hats for kiddos everywhere!  There are patterns for cute cuddly bears, owl, dinosaurs, aliens and more, there are patterns to make matching mitten paws and socks too!  Put a bird on it!  Knits of a Feather has 20 beautiful hat, cowl, shawl, sweater, and household patterns inspired by birds in nature.  Mollie Makes Crochet is full of 20 cute projects for the home plus tips and tricks for crochet.  If you ever wanted an excuse to learn to crochet, this is it!  Projects include blankets, placemats, napkins, potholders and coasters, and toys and gifts.

Free Hat and Mitts patterns!

Big Chunky Comfy Hat

Chunky Lova Mitts

Super fun brights are everywhere this year.  The are perfect for fun accessories like this hat and fingerless mitts combo!  It's all about fast, chunky, and funky knits.

This yarn is part of the My Mountain collection from Schachenmayr Yarns.  Go to the My Mountain web site for tons of free hat patterns using all the yarns in the collection.  They are fun to knit and crochet!

Find the FREE Big Chunky Comfy Hat pattern on Ravelry.com.  This hat takes one skein for most, but took me a little over one skein, I needed just enough to finish the last three rows!  So I came up with the matching fingerless mitts pattern, and used up every little bit of yarn.  That's right NO left over yarn!

Here is the pattern for the Chunky Lova Mitts:

Needles:  US 11 DPN's

CO 20 sts, join for working in the round, careful not to twist the stitches!

Cuff: K2, P2 ribbing for 5 rows

Hand: K 10 rows even

Thumb opening:   Row 1: purl  Row 2: Knit.  Repeat last two rows three more times

Top of hand: K 2 rows

Finish: K2, P2 ribbing for 5 rows

BO loosely and enjoy!