men’s knits – Yards of Happiness

FO: Rye Tie for Ayo

A good friend our mine has always been impressed with my knitting but the first time he saw me post about knitting a tie he immediately responded that he wanted one. Every time he’s seen me knit one he asks, ‘When can I get one? What do I have to do?’ So when he told me his family was coming up for the Easter holiday/spring break I decided it was time to knit him his own Rye tie.
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The Rye tie is a simple (and free) pattern, you can knit with a worsted weight yarn. I’ve always used one that has a bit of silk in it, Cascade Venezia Worsted. I like the drape the tie has after you finish it and the colors are very saturated. You can knit this over a weekend. And since Ayo is a tall guy he asked if I could make it a little longer than the average tie and that’s easy to do. When I made a Rye tie for my friend Steven he suggested I add a keeper loop to the back to hold the tie in place.
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Since then whenever I knit one I either pick up stitches on the edge and knit a slim bar or like with this one I just knit a garter stitch bar and attached it to the back. An easy solution so that you ensure they want to wear your knitted gift.

Cher was extremely helpful while I was trying to block his tie. And by helpful I mean she kept standing directly on the tie while I was trying to pin it to my blocking boards. Sigh…gotta love knitting with dogs.
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But I knew the tie was a hit because I gave it to Ayo on Friday and he wore it to church on Sunday for Easter. It’s always good to know your hand knits will get a good home.

FO: Shades of Blue Sweater (2x)

It was a glorious snowy weekend in Maryland. I was able to cook earlier in the week so I had lots of good food and didn’t have to worry about cooking all weekend. So that meant I was able to spend all day on the couch bundled up with the dogs finishing my husband’s shades of blue sweater. YAY!
Holiday 2017
I think he really likes it, the fit was spot on but he got hit with some sudden sickness Saturday afternoon so this was about all the enthusiasm he could give me. Wait until you see our holiday photo. LOL I told him to save his energy to try to give me a smile…I got some smirks but it was still a good pic (I’ll share it later this week). If you need a reminder of the sweater he asked for you can see it on this post. This was a simple top down raglan sweater pattern by Joji. I know I could’ve done the math and figured it all out myself but I just didn’t want to do all that work. I intentionally picked dk weight so that it would like nicer and despite the 300 stitches I had to knit for that body I love how clean and nice it came out. I used Berroco Vintage DK that I bought from Little Knits on super sale and I’ve still got a skein of each color leftover…I may have a cardigan in shades of blue in my future. And on Sunday morning I whipped up this version to match for Cher.
Cher’s shades of blue sweater
I love her sweet face. She always looks like she doesn’t care but she’s the most loved dog you’ll ever find. I didn’t tell my husband I was making Cher a matching sweater with his because I just wanted to surprise him. I figured if Jellybean and I wore our matching Angelina sweaters for our holiday photos he and Cher should match too. I was right, it was super cute and now he and his favorite furry girl can coordinate this winter. My holiday photos are done, cards for the new year have been ordered and my holiday shopping has been completed. Now to just finish grading final papers and entering grades and I can have a little breathing room before things really get crazy in the new year. How’s your holiday planning going?

December 11, 2017December 11, 2017 by IamDWJ Categories: Berroco, blue, Cher, Color, FO: Finished Object, For Dogs, Knitting, Men's Knits, My Dogs, Sweaters, YarnTags: #yardsofhappiness, Berroco Vintage DK, holiday knits, holiday photos, knitting, men's knits, men's sweaters, Yarn 24 Comments

Stitching Status: Shades of Blue Sweater

I’ve made good progress this week! I finally stopped feeling like I was going to pass out on the couch every night at 8:30pm and have gotten in some good knitting on my husband’s sweater.
Kendell’s sweater
I started the second to last shade of blue last night! You can’t see it as well here since it’s barely an inch but it’s a deeper shade of the bright blue with flecks of red in it and the next color is an inky dark navy blue. At dk weight on size 6 needles I’ve got about 300 stitches and am just knitting plain stockinette in the round. Sometimes that’s great because I can knit blindly without looking at it but sometimes I feel like it’s lulling me to sleep.
Jellybean and Kendell’s sweater
In addition to taking breaks because it can get a bit monotonous, Jellybean loves to stand on/lay on this sweater.

It has so much dog hair on it and I don’t even bother trying to rub it off because I know inevitably she’s going to hop in my lap and lay across it and demand a bit of attention. She’s definitely a tiny diva at times.