I live in Los Angeles (currently 66°F), where it’s easy to forget that most of the country is experiencing this thing called “winter.” I also don’t realize the special challenges that bundling up under countless layers of clothing presents.

For example: my friend Danielle, a PhD student at the University of Chicago, told me she was getting frustrated with wearing gloves all the time. It’s too cold in Chicago to go bare-handed, especially while walking her dog. But when she gets a call on her iPhone, the gloves get in the way of her answering the phone. The solution?

The iPhone Mittens! (Ravelry) They have a flap to cover your fingers that can be quickly pulled back to answer your phone:

The pattern is my own, yarn is Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran (Ravelry). I used the majority of two skeins, and cut it REALLY close with the black. If I were to re-create this pattern, I’d use the grey on the finger-flap to make sure I wouldn’t run out of yarn.

I’ll write this pattern up if there’s interest — let me know if you’d like to see this pattern online!

I will blog about the process of making this sweater soon, but for now I only have the energy to post the pattern to download!

Download the free Obama-rama pattern!

Check it out on Ravelry

And if you want to learn more about intarsia and get more patterns, buy my book!

Picture Perfect Knits

I am knitting the above into a sweater. See?

I’ll be knitting this tonight while watching the VP debates. Also, I’ll be posting this as a free pattern once I’m done with it! And then we can all wear it on election night and (fingers crossed) inauguration day!

I designed a bamboo motif for the double-knit scarf—appropriate, since the yarn is made of 100% bamboo. I have seven pages of charts altogether (all 460 rows), which means I have to pay attention to each row.

With the double-knitting, it can get a smidge confusing which color to use, but it looks like I haven’t messed up yet! Knock on wood for me! I’m going for the gold!

This pattern is available free on laurabirek.com! Also, you can check it out on Ravelry.

One of my coworkers recently became a dad for the first time, and I had been wanting to knit something for his new arrival but couldn’t figure out what to make. The inspiration came when two things happened on the same day: 1) he told me his daughter’s full name, and 2) my new set of DPNs arrived from Knit Picks. (Special shout out to my awesome roommate, HG, who got me those needles for my birthday!) I wanted to use those shiny new needles and I thought of all the Koigu KPM I had left in my stash. So I got cracking on this pattern, which turned in to the Kaleigh Kap:

In case it’s not clear, the recipient has the initials K.M.B. The size seen here is for the 16″ baby/toddler size. I’ve also written patterns for 14″ (newborn) and 18″ (child) head circumferences. It was very quick to knit—it only took me 3 days or so—and I’ve charted out the whole English alphabet in the pattern so it can be personalized with any three initials.

Download the patten!

Next in my queue: Endpaper Mitts!

I try not to blog from work because, well, it’s just a little too obvious when my posts appear between 9am and 6pm. But I guess I’m letting my guard down. If my boss sees this, I suppose she’ll just have to find something for me to work on.

For now, I wanted to unveil a secret project: Sky Birds!

I made this hat as a special order for my brother’s birthday. He wanted a super-warm, machine washable hat to keep him warm in the wilderness. My brother is a wildlife biologist who has a soft spot for raptors. He spends most of his days getting paid to count and identify hawks and falcons and eagles that fly over his head. His body and, thus, head is often in cold, remote places and needs adequate warmth. And since he’s a mountain man, he can’t mess with fussy fibers that require flat-drying. The birds don’t wait for flat-drying. He takes some really awesome pictures of said birds. Case in point:

(Photo by Jeff. All rights reserved and whatnot.)

It took me a while to come up with the design for the hat. I knew I wanted it to have birds in silhouette, but coming up with the right number of birds in the right shape was harder than expected. I realized that to acheive the warmth Jeff wanted, I should double-knit the hat. Of course, the benefit of doing so is that the hat is then reversible.

I then ordered some Swish DK in Coal and Skyborne (perfect color name, I couldn’t pass it up). (The Swish is such a soft superwash wool, I would definitely recommend it for other projects.) I then charted the project to the right gauge and figured out the length of the hat and how the decreases should be spaced. Anyway, I thought I had patterned the pattern perfectly, until it came out just a smidge too short. Ripping out the double-knitting was out of the question, so the easiest answer was to add earflaps. I had to pick up stitches while maintaining the double-knit fabric, which required more brain-power than usual. Spatial reasoning is not my strongest suit. But the mental gymnastics paid off and the earflaps look almost seamless.

Two more pics:

(Excuse the extra fluff on the hat. I hadn’t washed it yet, and black yarn just picks up all the stray fibers—whether woolen or feline—that linger around the house.)

And the happy customer:

I’ve been told his fellow birders are insanely jealous of the hat and have put in orders for their own Sky Birds, but for now, Jeff’s is one of a kind.

Toddler’s summer dress. Bodice hand-knit from cashmere/cotton blend in “butterfly” stitch with a gathered cotton eyelet skirt sewn on. Original pattern inspired by a design by Melanie Falick. (Note: long-sleeve shirt not part of the pattern.)

Wool baby sweater using fair-isle color-knitting technique. Knit from a pattern in “Knitting For Baby” by Melanie Falick.

Acrylic baby sweater in stockinette stitch with wool remnant embroidery. Original design.

Peruvian-style alpaca baby hat. Knit from a pattern I found in a small yarn store in New Zealand. Note the adorable baby modeling the hat.

Toddler’s sweater using chunky wool in a ladder rib stitch with white mohair trim. Original design.

Test swatch for the Isabella Fiore company. Inspired by Peruvian “Chullo” hats. Approximately 18″ x 36″. Isabella Fiore contracted me to knit this up, and it turned into this bag.

I can’t say it’s my favorite ever. I kind of agree with this person about it.