Panda's Knitt Knacks

Hey its been a while! We are moving and have been in a transition faze and staying with family while looking at securing housing. I'm casting on a hat for a dear friend this week and thought I would share my favorite CO method for hats with a ribbed brim.

Amanda Santee on Instagram: "Hey its been a while! We are moving and have been in a transition faze and staying with family while looking at securing housing. I'm casting on a hat for a dear friend this week and thought I would share my favorite...

Finally was a sunny day! The color really pops in the sunshine. Can't wait to send it to probably the sweetest human I have ever met.

Lost track of time today! Current project I want to feature for is this top down circular shawl.

Things I'm discovering with this project:

Don't use pen when working out stitches or for anything really unless you want to use a lot of paper.

I am a crazy perfectionist who just needs to trust the process and stop over analyzing. I don't have a time limit to meet so I can relax and take this as fast or as slow as I want. No need to pressure myself.

Happy everyone! I am so excited to have officially finished the Nautile Shawl!

When I was casting off this project I was really glad I had planned to block it because it became clear pretty quickly that it would need it to drape how I wanted it to.

It truly is amazing the difference makes. So glad I remembered to take a before picture. I made use of my wires to really get a smooth round edge that I was looking for.

I had quite a journey with this project and I have some yarn left over and I'm thinking of surprising the person with a matching hat if I have enough left!

Hoping for sunshine and clear sky's tomorrow so I can got out and get pictures of this beautiful shawl in natural light!

Yarn : pearlescent worsted in color red velvet rose by

Designer :

On the mats! Hours later and I'm so happy with it. It's going to be sooooo hard to wait to take it off.

Getting ready to spool my last skein of so that I can finish off the last bit of my Nautile Shawl. This project has had its ups and downs and I am so ready to finish this beauty and get it on the blocking mats.

One day I hope to have a designated space where I can work so I don't have to use the dining chair and sit on the floor. A nice quiet place just for knitting where I can work and sprawl as needed without fear of children hands all over.

I have a few pattern ideas in the works right now that are all mine and I can't wait to see where the creative process takes me. Definitely gonna take a break after this project though, it's been a doozy.

Happy !

I had a major setback with this project by way of toddlers climbing up where they shouldn't be and completely tearing up not only the project but the yarn itself. But I got through it with no major break downs. As upset as I was it has worked out. Luckily I was in a spot where I could order a replacement skein of yarn and start from the beginning.

I am 80 rows in and counting. This is a great project to do in little sports of time. I have about 14 ish hours of work in on this beauty now and am loving how it's turning out.

Lesson learned: don't leave projects out where kiddos roam. Even if you put it up where you think they can't get it: they will find a way.

Happy ! I'm about 34 rows into this beautiful Nautile pattern from designed by Monica Westley.

I really like that it is an easy to follow and memorize 4 row repeat. I'm also a big fan of patterns that are reverable. Pictured is the right side of the shawl. The wrong side is equally as beautiful.

I enjoy working in unusual shapes (not squares). Looking into investing in some workshops to expand my knowledge constructing unusual shapes so that one day I can design a project that is in line with my favorite kind of work.

Did some work on this on the drive home from the beach this morning. I found it was a great fit for car knitting.

All the shawls were a joy to work on. For this one I used the same 100% acrylic yarn bee soft secret as the blue that I made for the girls mom.

Definitely not as much stretch and not as easy to manipulate as the other in the sister set but it still turned out great!

Pulled a discontinued color out from my stash for this one.

Absolutely in love with how this turned out! This yarn is a 60/40 blend of acrylic and polyester. I really enjoyed working with it and it had lots of stretch to it.

Hope the little girl it's going to loves it.

Yarn: yarn bee glowing color purple multi

My phone just can't do justice to how truly pretty this red velvet rose yarn is!

May or may not have had a fight with my needles slipping out of the loops. I swear I spent an hour just trying to do the building rows of the pattern.

Here's the purple sister shawl! So excited to get both off the and ready to go to their new homes.

Finished the last step for my set of sister shawls today! This is the rainbow laid out on my .

Also pictured is a close up of the pattern of the knit and it's time dipped in a bath before . Also hit it with my steamer for extra sanitization.

Can't wait to pull it off in a few days.

It's been a long and rough week but I wanted to get this up for Almost done with this beauty then I'll be pulling out the blocking mats!

The little one it's going to said "it looks like a unicorns tail!!" when she saw a progres picture of it.

Really digging how this yarn is looking knit in a project!

Panda's Knitt Knacks updated their address.

Making a daughter set to go with the blue that I made last week. Unicorns are this little girl's favorite and I am so in love with how this is turning out! I have a purple one ready to hit the blocking mats this weekend for her other little one.

It's been a stressful week and I love being able to stretch my creative muscles. Had to share the love before heading off to bed.

Panda's Knitt Knacks now takes appointments on their Page.

Got some of the yarn I needed for a commission today! Costomer wanted a burgundy shawl and after looking around the options she decided this beautiful Red Velvet Rose Pearlescent Worsted yarn from was the perfect fit for her. What a great surprise for I wasn't expecting delivery so soon.

I may just be a little bit obsessed with the work Chandi does. All of the yarn I have ordered over the last year has blown me away. This particular yarn is sooooo soft and smooshy. The 50/50 blend of Superwash Merino wool and Mulberry silk in this burgandy color is absolutely stunning.

Also let me just gush about how amazing the Costomer service was! I needed more than what was available for this project and sent a message on the off chance they may have an oopsy skein available or a similar color and I heard back within a day. I was told they may be able to dye another batch and that they would alert me if the color became available again. By the next day I was able to order more! This next batch won't be ready until March but the fact that they added it into the rotation for dying is above and beyond what I expected!

I can't wait to get this project started!

Its been about a year since I finished this shawl. It was the largest project that I had made at that time and the first time I used blocking mats. Sooooo much trial and error in this project.

Lessons learned included it is not the end of the world if you have to start over in the middle of a project, go ahead and cry or get frustrated, and not to let a failure diswade me from finishing.

Did it turn out exactly how I wanted it to? Not necessarily. I am a perfectionist by nature so I don't know if I will ever be completely happy with the things I make. However I am learning that doesn't mean that they aren't beautiful and unique or that someone won't love to have it.

The satisfaction that I felt when I was able to gift this beauty to my SIL made all the doubts I was feeling seem inconsequential.

Pattern: Anuket by Janica York Carter

Yarn: yarn bee authentic hand-dyed tonal in dark denim, lavender dusk, and hasil basil

I've been working off and on on this project for a few months now. I try to spend at least 30 minutes on it a day when I'm not working on other projects or being driven crazy by children. What better piece to show off for my first

I absolutely love lace patterns. I decided to increase the number of lace repeats so that it would be more of a wrap then the original scarf design.

There was a great new skill that I learned working with this pattern: adding beads. I could have worked the pattern without that element but the added shimmer really appealed to me.

Another skill I have been working on is planning the pacing of a project. I have a bad habit of losing tack of time and over working my hands. I just get lost in the work and have such a desire to see it finished that I will sit and work for 10 hours or more in a sitting. Pacing has been really important for the health of my hands.

With this pattern it is a 12 row repeat so I have been limiting myself to just one repeat a day which equals to about 45 minutes to an hour. If I stick to that every day I should finish this piece in a month and a half. But if I get off schedule it isn't a big deal. It doesn't have a home yet so there is no need to rush. Can't wait to get it on the blocking mats though.

Pattern: Arden by Anne Robinson

Yarn: Vintage Charm Luster Sport

Both from

Panda's Knitt Knacks updated their business hours.

The powers of blocking your work truly are amazing! The first shawl I made I thought "you know why not try blocking? Almost all YouTube knitting videos say something about how it really can change the shape and look of the work."

I spent about 4ish hours just getting just the way I wanted it on the mat then had to wait for 2 days to see the result. Of course I forgot to take before pictures. I almost always forget. But this time I did and WOW what a difference!

I used both wet and dry blocking techniques for this one because it is acrylic yarn and through research found that synthetic fibers don't like to change how they rest. So I soaked it and we blocked it then pulled out my steamer and hit it with some hot steam for like 15 minutes. I'm hopeful that it will continue to lay how I want it to after its first wash.

Synthetic fibers are cheaper but I'm finding I prefer to work with natural fibers.

Also learning that I will always be sore after blocking a project unless it is really small.

I am so excited! I finished my first commission piece! The request was for a scarf type item in her daughter's favorite color blue that she could wap around her neck.

Found the pattern for free on ravelry! It's called Winter Sea and was designed by Liz Abinante. It calls for worsted weight yarn and is one of those patterns that you can keep going until you run out of yarn. So it can be as long as you want.

I worked on it off and on for about a week. Sooo happy with how it turned out. I am excited for the day I feel confident enough to design the commissions myself. I still have a lot of learning to do and I really appreciate all those creators that put work out for free so people like me have access to different types of work so they can expand their knowledge.

I am so in love with how the mother daughter shawl set turned out! I love that I had enough yarn left over that I could make this beauty for one of the sassiest girls I've ever met. They are going to look so cute together and I can't wait to see how they look!

I used twisted tweed yarn and the result is so beautiful. They give such a gorgeous drape and flow to the finished product.

This pattern is called Rudaba designed by Chivon Bell. I loved expanding my stich knowledge while also finding the pattern fairly easy to work. I could put on an audio book and just enjoy a few hours of quiet creativity.

I started knitting as a way to unplug from my phone and try and help manage some symptoms of anxiety. I absolutely fell in love with using needles and yarn to create beautiful works of yarn art. I am so excited to be sending out this absolutely beautiful heart shaped shawl to one my best friends today with a compainon piece I made for her daughter! I'm just a little obsessed with how it turned out!

Yarn and pattern from