Turtleneck With a Capital "T"

The past few days have me cruising along on my Banded Turtleneck sweater by Kathy Merrick.  And, when I say turtleneck I mean TURTLENECK!  Wow, did it come out big!  Even when I made it a whole two inches shorter than specified in the pattern.  What do you think?  Is it too much?  I'll definitely be warm wearing it and with the sub zero Fahrenheit temps we've been having in Minnesota I better hurry up and finish it.  The body and neck are completed and I only have the arms left to knit.  Will see how it goes, but so far it's slow as increasing while keeping in pattern I find a bit difficult. 

I noticed something while knitting the arms that I find dismaying and humorous at the same time.  Look at the above swatch and see if you can see it.  In the first row of blue there are squares of the oatmeal colored yarn and on the top blue band there are dashes.  Now, the first is correct and the second is not.  So, which row style did I knit the whole sweater in so far?  The dashes of course!  Yup, I just glazed over that row in the chart over and over and over again.  There is really nothing wrong with changing the pattern, but I do prefer the look of the squares to the dashes. With so much already completed though, the dashes with continue on the arms as well.

My son and I finished the Blackwell Pages' last book Thor's Serpents by K.L. Armstrong and have moved on from the Norse Gods too reading about the Greek Gods in the hugely popular Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan.  We are on book 1 The Lightning Thief and enjoying it thus far.  It's a bit sillier, faster paced and more humorous than the Blackwell series which I think I preferred, but it's a bit too early to judge.  I gave my son the DVD of the movie based on this book as a treat to watch after we finish reading the book.  What books are you reading now?

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On and Ginny for Yarn Along

Endings and New Beginnings

Ringing in the new year with a new knitting project!  Banded Turtleneck by Kathy Merrick from Vogue Knitting Magazine Fall 2010.  Using Jamieson's Shetland Aran and Clara Yarn Shetland 1.0 yarn and loving it!

This time of year has many of us acessing of how the previous year went and how the new year will move forward.  Which got me thinking I'd do a little recap here on my knitting in 2015 while sharing my vision for future knitting in 2016.

Year of 2015

Knitting Projects - 42

Yards Knitted - 19,734

Yards Spun - 1564

Ending Stash Yardage - 27,566

It was quite the bonny year for finishing knitting projects.  The Knit Girllls Stash Dash really motivated me to finish/fix a couple of my husbands' vests while also getting a lot of my gift knitting done for Christmas.  Stash Dash 2015 ran from the middle of May until the middle of August.  I completed 19 projects during that time.  It was a fun challenge, although I didn't get a lot of gardening and house projects done last summer since I was pretty much solely focused on knitting.  That really was the only downside.  

I toyed with not buying yarn and didn't do too well at that, but I did do a lot of yarn stash assessment.  After attending this retreat run by Stephanie Pearl - McPhee (I know I keep mentioning it, but it was such a game changing event for me) I learned a lot more about yarn, and figured out what qualities are most important to me.  My number 1 quality I want my yarn to possess is durability as I really want what I knit to have a long life.  Now, lots of things factor in durability, twist, strength of fiber, length of fiber etc. etc.  But basically yarn marked "wool" and not a specific brand of wool such as "merino" are usually more durable as they are a mix of many wool fibers.  Shetland and other long wool breeds are also more durable and less likely to pill as the fiber has more twists per staple length than a short hair cashmere would.  So, I really looked at my stash and sold off what wasn't durable to my standards and added in more yarn that was, namely a lot of Shetland found it's way into my stash.  I'm feeling a lot more content with what I have and since softer less durable yarns are what is popular now their siren call isn't affecting me as it once would have. 

Year of 2016

My main goal for this coming year is to be more mindful.  More mindful of what pattern I am knitting, what yarn I am using, and the when and during time that I am knitting.  Sometimes I switch to auto pilot or get too caught up in what is coming next to really enjoy the current moment.  So, I'm going to slow down and focus more on quality versus quantity this year.

My project goals for the year 2016 are to knit another sweater for my mom, a vest for my husband, and 2 sweaters for me.  Anything more will be grand, but I'm not going to plan so extensively this year as I feel it pushes me along at too fast a pace.

My stash goals for the year 2016 are to make it smaller.  That's why I thought I'd keep track of yards in the stash which I can track through my stash page on Ravelry.  I have all of the yarn for the above projects so I don't need to purchase more, but I won't come down on myself if I do add in a few skeins.  Knowing myself as I do, I think another idea to help me not purchase more yarn is to not go to any festivals this year.  I get wrapped up in the moment and can't help buying.  And really, I still have un-knit yarn from the last few festivals I went to last year.  So, a year off seems prudent as I am the type of knitter that when I have too mush stash gets overwhelmed and bogged down.  I like some stash, but too large a stash and guilt overtakes the fun.

I have no spinning goals for the coming year as I haven't really been in the mood to spin for a while now.  Thus, I'll just wait and see how the year pans out.

General goals for the year are to get more home improvement projects completed, focus more on my son's homeschooling and focus more on doing things together as a family.  I'm really looking forward to the year ahead of me and I hope you are too.  

Wishing you all a healthy and happy 2016!

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On.

Still Learning

 My mistake fix on the inside of my Fair Isle Vest (second crochet reinforcement and weaving ends still need to be done.  With slippery yarn you can never be too careful right?)

My mistake fix from the outside of my Fair Isle Vest.

I was having one of "those" moments with my son.  We were doing a simple writing exercise to work on his printing and he made a mistake.  I said not to worry there are erasers for such moments and that is why we use pencils.  He was angry at himself, me, the situation.  I got frustrated and angry myself at what I thought was blowing out of proportion a minor slip of the pencil.  He rewrote the lowercase "a" over a dozen times never quite happy with it.  I sat losing my patience until I realized he was having a perfectionist moment.  You know those moments when you can see in your mind what you want to happen and just can't seem to make your body do it the "right" way?  Well, I have had quite a few of those in my time.  In fact, they used to completely immobilize me until I learned that not doing something you wanted was worse than trying.  I needed to help him learn that lesson too.  So after calming myself down and finding my reasonable voice again I told him a story.  I asked him if he could remember a time when I didn't knit.  He said he couldn't.  I said you would think with all that time and practice knitting I would no longer make mistakes right?  He said yes.  And I followed with the following example of a big mistake I just made.  

My Fair Isle Vest that I am knitting is too big in circumference.  I did all the right things.  My substitute yarn weighed the same as the original for the same amount of yardage.  I knit a swatch in the round as I would be knitting the sweater.  I carefully measured over a large area and averaged the stitch count.  I got gauge.  But the gauge my sweater was coming out as was a 1/2 a stitch off.  How much difference can half a stitch make?  Try 5 inches difference.  Yup, too big by a lot.  What to do?  Well, I contemplated the options of 1) frogging it all and starting over.  2) finishing it as is and give it to someone.  3) cutting out the extra inches and seaming to the right size.  I chose option number three.  I went through the cast on stitch amounts for each size dividing by my gauge of 6 stitches to the inch to see which one was closest to my chest size.  I then took the difference between the stitches I cast on and the stitches for the size that would fit at my gauge and marked off the 32 stitches that I needed to remove.  By consulting the charts for this new size I would be knitting I was able to pick where to take these stitches out so the patterning would match up.  I then did a crocheted steek, cut out the extra inches and used a mattress stitch to seam the two sides back together.  On the right side of the vest it is very hard to see the seam, but on the inside it's a bit bulky with the steek salvages on each side of the seam.  So, it's a trade off, but tearing out all that knitting would have been just too difficult emotionally for me, not to mention the fact that I diligently wove in all the ends already.  

So, I closed my story with saying that by making the mistake I learned something new.  I learned how to make a repair in my knitting that I've never done before, and that maybe a "quick" in the round swatch is not the same as a true in the round swatch, at least for me.  That really I needed to slow down even more.  I needed to knit the tube swatch or hat , measure gauge, wash it, measure gauge, repeat if adjustments are needed and finally start my project.  I told my son slowing down is ok, there is no deadline and rushing is not necessary.  Mistakes will happen, but what we do with our mistakes is what's important, not the mistake itself.  As always, I don't know what he will take from this little exchange, but hopefully he'll stop worrying about being perfect and simply try.  

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On and Ginny for Yarn Along.

Anniversary

Last night we marked our 15th wedding anniversary at my favorite Greek restaurant for a family dinner.  It was a very enjoyable meal with joking around and our "Would you rather be this or that" game.  Pretty mellow on the whole.  When we returned home, I went to my knitting while my husband and son did a little computer gaming.  Then right before bed I said "Oops I almost forgot" rushing downstairs to find my husband's gift - a pair of wool socks for winter.  He opened them and gave me a hug, but I felt a bit of something extra under his shirt.  He reached under his t-shirt to give my the yarn you see above.  He's tricky that husband of mine and oh so fun!  It's a pair of matched self striping sock yarn from Turtlepurl in the colorway called "OM".  Of course, I had to quick wind it into cakes, cast on and knit to see how the stripes would play out.  Really a fun rainbow progression.  The violet and indigo are a bit hard to tell apart, but other than that I just love it.  I am a pretty big rainbow fan growing up in the 1970-80's I had many a rainbow shirt and sweater.  I'm knitting the socks toe up as you can see, in a 3x1 rib and will be using a afterthought heel for these to keep the stripes nice and even.  So,that's all I have for you today.  See ya all next week! 

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On and Ginny for Yarn Along.

Here and Gone

I was happily knitting along on the colorwork section of my mom's Blathin sweater when it happened.  I made it through two rows of flowers and two decrease rows when I decided to turn it right side out (I was knitting it inside out to stretch out the floats so they wouldn't get too tight) to measure it and try it on.  Well, it was flippin' huge!  HUGE!  The colorwork was lovely - not too tight or too loose, just plain old too big.  In all honesty I was devastated.  The thought of taking a picture of all the work I had completed that I would then be ripping out was too much so I have nothing to show you.  I frogged it all, wound the yarn back into balls and put it all away in my knitting basket to sit.  I know it seems a bit dramatic of me, it can be knit again and there is no real harm except loss of time, but it felt like a huge setback that shouldn't have happened.  Having taking all these precautions so that the colorwork would come out right gave me a false sense of security, but I guess I've changed enough in the two years since the first time I knit this sweater that they were unnecessary to begin with.  That and my gauge lied to me. 

The sweater will stay in time out until we get back from our little trip to WI.  When we return I am going to start over using the same US size 8 needles I used to knit the body.  Then after the first decrease row I am going to go down a needle size to US 7's.  If the neck still seems too wide after the 2nd decrease I am going to fit in another decrease row after the last section of flowers like I've read from other Raveler's project notes.  Hopefully, all this will work out in creating a fabulous fitting sweater.  Time will tell.

In the meantime, I thought I could use some more stranded colorwork practice and am now back knitting on my Oluffa Doorstop.  The pattern is part of a great collection in the book Northern Knits Gifts by Lucinda Guy.  I'm using yarn leftover from my toy making business - a white angora, indigo dyed Lamb's Pride and madder/weld dyed Lamb's Pride for the orange accents.  It will be a pillow instead of a doorstop as we have no need for a doorstop, or a pillow for that matter, but I simply love the pattern so it must be knit.  Since my yarn is worsted weight I went up to US size 6 needles which I thought would give me a nice dense fabric.  So far so good.  They don't mention blocking it, but I think I will do so before I stuff it to help the colorwork relax and the yarn bloom.  This will be my car knitting for our trip.  It's small enough to stay neatly in my lap, interesting but not too hard and there's a good chance I'll finish knitting it by the time we return.  Honestly, I've spent more time trying to figure out what knitting to take with me on this trip then planning or packing for it.

I hope all your knitting projects are coming along swimmingly as they say and I'll see you all next week!

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On and Ginny for Yarn Along.

A Thing About Turtlenecks

It drives my husband nuts that I have a thing for turtlenecks.  Make that a deep resounding love of turtlenecks.  Cowls are a close second, as they almost do the same job, but turtlenecks oh they snuggle my neck, take away some of my chin and keep me pleasantly warm.  My husband though, likes to sneak up behind me while I'm busy in the kitchen to give me a ticklish kiss on the neck (which always makes me jump and give a little shriek), but with turtlenecks he's instantly thwarted.  Ha! So, now that you know how much I adore turtlenecks it won't be a big surprise that I am currently working on two turtleneck knitting projects.

The first is the lovely Hugo turtleneck poncho I talked about last time.  He has since been put in time out for the moment.  His issue, because of course it couldn't be my fault, is that the purl, ktbl, ktbl, purl detail I used to replace the cable pattern is looking rather wonky.  The increases occur on either side of this "seam" and as you can clearly see the one side is nice and tight and the other is all gaping.  I knew this for some time, but kept on knitting thinking it would go away if I knit fast enough, but alas it's here to stay.  Since it really irks me I will indeed be frogging back to the collar section to begin again, probably to use the original cable patterning.   With there being quite a bit knitting to frog back I need to steel myself to do it hence, the time out he's taking in his project bag.

Because this girl can't go without knitting for more than a few minutes I grabbed the nearest project and volia! another turtleneck found it's way into my hands.  This is Thea Coleman's White Russian pattern which I last knit and blogged about this past June.  I have only progressed about 3 pattern repeats since last time, but I'm only 5 more repeats away from separating the sleeves from the body.  That will be an exciting moment dropping those extra 160 stitches.  It should make the body rounds feel like they just fly by right?  Since this project and I are getting along well I think it will become my project for our upcoming road trip to Madison, WI.  Five wonderful hours of car knitting there and then another five coming home - yay!  We're going to the WI Sheep and Wool Festival which is about a 1/2 hour to the east of Madison.  My husband and I both went to UW Madison for college so it will be fun to show our old haunts to our son.  I'm taking an all day class on natural dyeing at the Fairgrounds while the boys go exploring in Madison.  Then we will spend the next day at the Festival and round it off with a night in a hotel in town (we're camping for the first 2 nights.)  Leaving us a final day with all three of us together in Mad town.  I hoping it's lots of fun for everyone and not just this the fiber enthusiast.

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On and Ginny for Yarn Along.

What to Say...

Even working diligently away on my distraction shawl I have very little new to report.  I'm about 2/3 way through the 3rd section (out of 5) and according to my pattern notes that means the shawl is at  60% completion.  In the beginning of a triangle shawl you progress so quickly, as the rows are short, that it pushes you to knit on, but as those rows lengthen it gets to become a bit of a slog.  We are now in that very slow section of the shawl.  I really want to finish it though, so I am going to try and be a monogamous knitter until it's done.  We'll see how that goes...

I usually don't put down what I'm reading for Yarn Along, because frankly after reading aloud to my son each day I'm kinda done reading and would rather knit with my free time.  But, then I got to thinking you might be curious as to what books a nine year old boy finds interesting so here goes.  We have just started Gergor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins.  It's a fantasy series where a boy falls through a grate in his apartment building's laundry room and finds himself in a new world filled with giant bugs, bats and rats.  He learns he is part of a prophecy which might be the key to finding his missing father.  Thus far, it's good and engaging with a little bit of gross humor thrown in for good measure (seriously all you have to say is poop and my son starts rolling with laughter - I so don't get it.)

I'm leaving you today with a photo of my son taken at the MN Landscape Arboretum where we visited this week.  The butterfly sculpture in the background is not pixelated but instead is composed entirely of Legos as were 12 other sculptures on display throughout the gardens.  They are part of a traveling show and if they come through your area they are definitely worth viewing.  Each one lists how many Legos were used along with how many hours to complete - it was fascinating and so fun for kids.

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On and Ginny for Yarn Along.

Slow Progress

The thing about knitting a sweater is it takes a fair amount of time and while progress is definitely made it seems slow due to the size of the project.  My mom's Blaithin sweater is coming along nicely, but it's the slow stockinette "things don't look too different" phase and I'm a bit discouraged.  To help alleviate this feeling, I decided to take a break from the sweater body and start a sleeve as that is the next step in this sweater's construction.  And since I still have troubles knitting with double pointed needles (I discovered my pulling the yarn too tight is what is causing the ladder effect), I purchased a 12 inch circular needle from Chiaogoo so I could seamlessly knit in the round.  Well, let me tell you it's awesome!  I knit the above 10 inches of sleeve yesterday with ease and their are no ladders to be seen.  Yay!  I've tried 9 inch circulars for sock knitting in the past and my fingers cramped up quickly, but the 12 inch seem to be fine in that regard.  So, I think I am a convert and will be knitting my in the round sweater sleeves like this in the future.  Ah, more needles to collect :) 

I'm not reading anything presently, but I'm thinking of getting this book to help conquer the mess which is my house.  It has pretty good reviews and being from Japan with their small housing spaces (small by western standards) I think it might be a good match to our own tiny home.  Many western De-cluttering books have solutions for your home office, but not your home office/dining room/computer gaming room which is how our house functions.  It's not our living room.  It's our living room/ craft room/ exercise dance space/ music room.  See where I'm going with this?  Well, I feel it's at least good enough to download to my ipad for a read as the wait at the library is some 600 requests long and I certainly don't want to buy another book to add to the clutter ;)

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On and Ginny for Yarn Along.

Another Gift Bites the Dust

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Yup, I'm in a good mood this morning.  I finished my husband's wool socks last night before bed, which means another gift gets crossed off the list.  Happy dance!  The toe up sock pattern is one I used many times before so not much new there.  Cast on with Judy's Magic Cast on 24 stitches, followed the pattern for the large size, and cast off using Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off.  The only bummer about this project is the socks don't totally match color wise.  Not a big deal when you think they will be stuffed into boots while my husband shovels snow this winter and no one will see them.  But, as I've said before, I'm kinda a matchy-matchy gal so it irks me a little.  Probably couldn't be helped when I was working with 1 full skein and 2 partial skeins to create these socks.  Of course the last word on the matter will be my husband's and I already know he won't mind one little bit.  So that's that.

Now, I should go to my YOP list and see what I want to knit next, but I went looking at the new patterns on Ravelry the other day and heard the siren call (think mythology not ambulance.)  Yes, a new Thea Colman Baby Cocktails pattern called Mezcal jumped off the screen and shouted "KNIT ME!!!!"  There is even appropriate yarn in the stash to begin knitting it right away.  Thus, I swatched last night, and yes, I make skimpy swatches and leave them attached to the ball so I can reuse the yarn as I'm pretty frugal (or at least that's what I call it) and got gauge.  Now, I just need to decide whether or not to start a completely new unplanned for project or knit something off my list.  Not quite sure which way I'm going to go yet.  The other main contender is the Blathin sweater for my mother.  If I knit that sweater I would only have 1 more Christmas gift to knit (a vest for my husband) and could do selfish knitting all Fall and most of Winter.  That has an awesome appeal as I have never been that prepared for Christmas.  Maybe another cup of tea will help me decide.

I thought I'd leave you with a picture of my son Sam who turned 9 this past Sunday.  He wanted to go to Bryant Lake Beach with his Dad and me on his birthday to celebrate.  Dad usually only makes it to the beach once during the summer on the 4th of July for the family celebration his mom throws every year.  But, this year Sam had a really bad biking accident the night before the 4th tearing up his knee, hands and spraining an ankle so needless to say there was no swimming the next day.  Of course his wish was fulfilled this Sunday and we all had a great time.  Sam and Dan went swimming, we all played in the sand and the boys finished off the afternoon with a paddle boat ride while mama packed up.  Then later that night we had a Nerf gun battle with a couple of neighbor boys in the park, ate some cookies and took turns swinging on the swing in the backyard.  All in all a pretty great day. 

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On and Ginny for Yarn Along.

The Frenzy Continues...

The felting frenzy continues at my house with another pair of felted mittens that are earmarked for my mother for Christmas, or maybe her birthday in October so she has them before the weather gets really cold.  I used this same pattern as I did for the pink pair with a few modifications:  I cast on only 38 stitches instead of 44 and made the child size for the inner cuff instead of the adult which seemed like it would be too loose.  My hopes were that having fewer stitches would prevent the belling out that happened on the cuff of my first pair, but alas it did not.  The purl rows I think are to blame and if I were to make a yet another pair I would omit them.  The yarn used for this set was leftover from a sweater I made my mom about 2 years ago and I have been meaning to make matching mittens for her ever since.  It's Jamieson's Soft Shetland, which, you guessed it, is 100% Shetland wool.  It felted quite differently from the Lamb's Pride used for the pink mittens.  It ended up being not as thick making it  easier to bend your hand and less clumsy, and oddly lots of fiber came off loose in the washer during the felting, which unfortunately clogged our washing machine.  Thus, if you felt yourself putting your items into a tied pillowcase would be a safeguard against this happening, which I knew but didn't heed - sigh.  The mittens were very fuzzy when I took them out of the washer so I gave them a judicious trimming for the smooth look you see above. 

This marks the end of the all the felting I think.  Now, I'm onto making a matching hat for the mittens as I still have more yarn leftover.  This is the pattern I'm using (the less slouchy version), but I will be knitting it with some mods that I used previously for this hat.  Namely, I'm lining the brim with angora yarn so it's double thick over the ears and then continuing with only the Shetland yarn for the crown.  I figured the hat should be just as warm as the mittens don't you think?

Now, I haven't forgotten about casting on for my sweater vest that I'm really excited about, but I'm equally as excited to finish my Christmas gifts by the end of Summer.  It's a bit of a push pull between the two.   But, I think the Christmas gifts are winning.

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On and Ginny for Yarn Along.

Knitting Baby Gifts

Oh, what fun I have been having this week knitting up some baby gifts for a friend who is pregnant.  I mean what's not great about knitting baby items?  They are small and quick to knit, they are so so cute and they are for a sweet little new babe.  Also, I used stash yarn for these projects making the experience even better.  As you can see I'm not quite finished with the stuffed Elephant who is presently armless and the sweater needs buttons, but that's all that's left to do - oh and maybe some booties as I can't seem to stop.

The yarn I used is some lovely natural grey angora from here, and the pale yellow is a mix of two strands:  Malabrigo Merino Lace in the butter colorway and Tilli Tomas Raw Silk Warmth which is now discontinued (on a cool aside note Ravelry used my picture of the yarn on that page.)  Funny thing is my friend who is having the baby gave me the silk yarn, so it seems only fitting to use it for a gift for her.  I'm really loving the grey/yellow combo, but I have used it before as you can see here.  I was hoping to make angora booties, but I ran out of that yarn while knitting the hat (which looks a bit big to me.)  On the other hand, I do have lots of the yellow silk and merino leftover.  Maybe I'll double/triple up the lace weight merino and make these or these.

The patterns I used were Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Sweater (which there is a great YouTube video series for), Sweet and Simple Baby Hat by Debbie Bodmer and Elephant Elijah by Ysolda Teague.  Both the sweater and hat are pretty simple, but the Elephant is not for the faint of heart.  There is lots of picking up stitches, directional make 1's and short rows.  The pattern is very clear and very well written, but this is not a knock out in a few hours project and you do need to pay attention most of the time.  I love the way it's shaping up though making all the effort worth it.  I'll finish the arms and give him some eyes today, get the sweater some buttons from my LYS tomorrow when I have a babysitter and give my friend the gifts on Friday when we go out for breakfast.  I love giving a gift right after I finish it when I'm still excited about the project so this is working out perfectly.  

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm and Craft On and Ginny for Yarn Along.

A Felting Frenzy

It's been Christmas in July for me this week as I am busily knitting and felting hot pads to give as gifts this holiday season.  I loved how my oven mitts turned out so it got me to thinking what else could I felt.  Then I ran across this pattern realizing I could get a pair of pads from each skein and thought "Perfect"!  It would be lovely to give everyone a pair of the mitts, but I don't have enough yarn to make a pair for each of my friends (or at least a good looking matching pair.)

The pattern is very simple where you cast on what amounts to the outside edge and knit decreasing towards the center.  I did make a couple of changes though.  I knit them on US 11 needles instead of US 13's as I don't have any that size and wanted to get started right away.  For the hanging loop I knit 18 rows of I-cord instead of the 12 the pattern states, and I'm glad I did as I think it would have been way too small a loop to be useful otherwise.  For felting, I threw them in my washing machine with soap and hot water agitating for about 30 minutes.  Then I let the wash cycle complete rinsing out the soap and wringing out all the excess water.  I tugged them into shape and laid them flat to dry.  

The yarn I used (Lamb's Pride ,held double, and Burly Spun) comes out pretty fuzzy from the mohair content so I do some judicious trimming with my scissors.  It's pretty quick to do and not much of a hassle.  The yarn felts so nice and thick I think it's worth the extra effort.  Since, I did knit them on smaller needles their finished size is a bit smaller at 7 1/2 inches rather than the 8, but still a good size for handling hot pots and pans. 

I've got three pairs done with only 2 to still knit so I couldn't be happier with how quickly it's all going.  I'm knitting a couple of odd ducks too with no matching pair to give away as thank you gifts when needed.  I'm just having so much fun using up all this yarn!  

On a side note, I purchased this lovely book of patterns by Veera Valimaki called Color Wheel Knits and really, really, really want to knit the vest called "Ground".  It looks very wearable with what I actually wear - jeans and t-shirts.  Not like all those sweater patterns you see modeled with that perfect shirt, you know the one you don't own and aren't likely too and would probably not wear because it's not comfy and needs to be dry cleaned?  So, I think I would get a ton of use out of it.  The only hiccup in this scenario is I don't have any sport weight yarn that the pattern calls for.  Meaning I would have to purchase some yarn.  Now I've gone about 67 days (as of writing this post) without buying yarn and am proud of myself as the last time I think I only made it around 30 days.  Thus, I am torn on what to do.  Should I just say no and keep knitting from my stash or do I knit what would be a very useful sweater for myself?  My husband said I should go ahead and purchase the Prussian Blue Malabrigo yarn, but I still don't know.  I feel I should wait some, but then I also like to "ride" these waves of excitement as I can get so much accomplished if I do.  Any thoughts?

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On and Ginny for Yarn Along.

Making My Own Supplies

Thanks for all your comments on my last post!  Looks like a lot of you are interested in plant dyeing yarn so I hope to show you my progress after I assemble all my materials and begin actually dyeing.  Today, I purchased a single electric burner to use outside in the garage for heating up dye baths instead of taking over my kitchen as I did last time around.  When you have a son who likes to snack all day it simply doesn't work to use your kitchen for dyeing.  Even natural dyeing does not mix well with food prep.

I also needed some potholders in which to handle the hot pots of dye solution which brings me to the above photos.  See, I found some more use for the plant dyed yarn I used for knitting my stuffed toys - felted potholders!  The pattern is called Out of the Frying Pan and it is very, very simple.  The hardest part is waiting for the oven mitt to felt to the proper size.  In my case it took 4 long wash agitation cycles (I would reset the washer each time before it got to rinsing until the mitt was the size I wanted, then I let the full wash cycle run.) in my top loading washing machine.  I mention that my machine is top loading because it is best for felting to have your item submerged in hot water while agitating.  You probably still could felt in a front loading machine, but my guess is it would take a lot longer.

One of the best things about felting is all your knitting mistakes shrink up and disappear as the wool tightens and felts.  My "mistakes" in this case are the "ladders" I always get when knitting with double pointed needles.   Experts all say to tighten up your knitting, but I already knit pretty tightly and get the ladder affect not between the 2 end stitches, but in the middle of the knit V of each end stitch.  Make sense?  The join between is tight but the stitch on either side of it is loose.  I loosen, I tighten it simply doesn't seem to matter - I get ladders.  Thus, now I knit my socks and other small circumference items using the 2 circular method, but I would love to one day conquer the double pointed needle technique. 

The colorway I used on the bottom of the oven mitt was one of Judy's experiments which she gave to me with one of my larger orders as a gift.  It was so sweet, but sadly I didn't really care for it and so it languished in my stash for some years until now.  I didn't have enough for a pair (yes, I am currently knitting the second one) as I wanted so in comes the canary yellow I used for knitting rainbow teething rings.  This mitt is very bright which probably means I won't lose them!   And since they are just going to be for dyeing it simply doesn't matter how they look  They will do their job keeping my hands protected being super thick and just the right size to easily slip on without being too big that they become clumsy.  Hmm, seems I have a lot to say about oven mitts!

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm and Craft On and Ginny for Yarn Along.

I See Rainbows

I love rainbows and what better month to make a rainbow cowl than the one where gay marriage is (finally) legal in every state in the United States.  It's Purl Soho's Classic Cowl knit with my own handspun yarn.  You can see the details here.  It's a pretty fluffy cowl and it makes me want to either cut my hair short or grow it out so I can pull it up.  Seeing this pattern makes me want to knit a pair of matching socks, which makes me want to plant dye the yarn myself and learn to make self striping yarn.  Oh how crafts can build on one another!

Actually, I am planning on doing more in the way of plant dyeing this summer.  Unlike the previous times I've ventured into plant dyes, this time I tend to make many samples trying out different mordants/modifiers and in general learn before I leap.  Last time I leapt into indigo dyeing, accidentally making my vat double strength (which meant I was rinsing the residual indigo out for days upon days) and tying the yarn too tightly (meaning little bits of undyed yarn remained under each tie.)  It took over our tiny kitchen, as I did it in January, and left me with lots of full skeins of not so great looking yarn.  So, this time around I'm making mini sample skeins with this absolutely adorable sample sized niddy noddy, dyeing in summer when I can do it outside, and using superwash wool so I can rinse vigorously without having to worry about felting.  I also plan to document my process better thus I'm sure you will be seeing my results here on the blog.

This cowl puts me at 4391 meters toward my 5K goal for this year's Stash Dash hosted by the Knit Grillls.  I've got until August 14th to knit a mere 609 meters, but to be on the safe side I better get cracking and start a pair of socks or something.  Hmm...

Joining in with:

Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On

Ginny for Yarn Along

Lots of FO's!!!

Hello All!  Well, I have been busy actually finishing projects this week.  It has been amazing.  I am so motivated by participating in The Knit Girllls Stash Dash that I've completed no less than 6 projects this week!  My goal is to knit/spin 5K of yarn by the end of Stash Dash on August 14th.  With finishing the above projects I have only 1075.33 meters to go, which should be no problem with over a month and a half left.  Now on to the projects...

First up is a pair of socks you've seen from an earlier post.  They are Wendy D. Johnson's Gusset Heel Basic Socks with an added 3 x 1 rib and using Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off.  The yarn is some Stroll from Knit Picks in a discontinued colorway that I don't have the name for anymore.  They have been on the needles since last year and I am so happy that they are finished that I am giving them to my mom today instead of being prudent and saving them for her birthday or Christmas.  I have such a hard time waiting to give gifts once they are finished.

Next, is another pair of socks this time using Wendy D. Johnson's Short Row Toe and Heel Basic Socks pattern with no added ribbing and using the same cast off as the previous pair.  What makes these particularly fun is that they are knit using up lots of sock yarn scraps from other projects in 5 different colorways.  I tried to make them match up as best I could and am quite pleased with the results.  The only downside to them is weaving in all the ends.  Next time I make scrappy Frankenstein socks I will make a sock yarn magic ball instead I think.  Really the same amount of work, but it's on the front end of things which I prefer.

Now these next two projects were really fun.  They are trivets made out of knitted I-cords from this pattern in the latest Summer issue of Interweave KNITS.  I used this little I-cord knitting "machine" which made the actually knitting go pretty fast.  Then you braid the cords together pinning the end bits.  Next, you then sew up the braid as you wind the braid around (braid itself hides the stitching under the I-cords.)  Lastly, you unwind the cords until they are all the same length, tie them together and weave in the ends.  I used the thick plant dyed Lamb's Pride yarn I use to knit my toys instead of the sock yarn recommended in the pattern.  The resulting trivets are thick and stiff and should sufficiently keep hot pots from burning a table.  My guess is I'm going to give these out as Christmas gifts this year so I'll be making a lot more.

The last two are spinning projects that I've been working on and off on for about a month.  I was only planning on making one skein, but being still pretty new to spinning I didn't spin the plies the same thickness and had a lot, 42 grams, of the white leftover.  So, I wound what was left on the bobbin into a center pull ball and plied it to itself plying from both ends of the yarn.  Thus 2 skeins:  one a rainbow gradient from plant dyed wool and angora/romeldale wool and the second all white angora/romedale wool.  The rainbow came out to weigh 181 grams with 410 yards in length and the white 42 grams and 100 yards long.  I'm going to knit this cowl from them.  I am short about a 100 yards according to the pattern so it will be a bit shorter, but still lovely I think. 

I always skip the part of Yarn Along where you tell what it is you are reading as I haven't been reading.  It just cuts into knitting/spinning time which is my first love.  Then it finally dawned on me that I could listen to audio books while I knit or spin.  Yeah, took me a while didn't it?  I've heard lots of buzz about Outlander by Diana Gabaldon from all the knitting patterns, project bags and yarn colorway inspirations that I've started listening to it this week.  I'm mainly of Scots heritage so it's particularly interesting to me being set in Scotland in the mid 1700's.  Some of my ancestor names have come up like Dougal and Duncan (in fact most of my male ancestor names start with the letter "D" or some Gaelic version of John.)  Anyway, it's good so far, a little more on the sexy/romance side than I like being more inclined to historical fiction and mysteries, but it has a lot of those elements too which are keeping me interested.

Well that's what's been keeping me busy this week.  What have you been up to?

Joining in with 

Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On

Ginny for Yarn Along

Beth for Whatcha Workin' On Wednesday

Knit Hair Accessories

 

Hello!  It's officially Summer now here in Minnesota after the Summer Solstice this past Sunday and I find myself wanting to knit small quick items.  Silly really as we have air conditioning so it's a very comfortable 72 degrees Fahrenheit and I could pretty much knit anything I wanted in comfort.  But, still I find myself wanting to knit on smaller items that don't sit in my lap as I knit them.  Thus, in comes in the above projects in a category I've never knit from before - hair accessories.  My summer copy of Interweave's KNITS magazine arrived last week and contained a whole section on headbands, kerchiefs and head scarves of which I loved every single one!  

My favorite by far was the Jubilee Kerchief by Shaina Bilow which you can see in the first two photos.  The original calls for a cotton blend DK weight yarn of which I do not possess, and not buying yarn I wasn't going to go purchase it.  So, into the yarn stash I dove and came up with a very pretty brown sock yarn by Malabrigo, which if I doubled the fingering weight strand turned into about a DK weight - just what I needed.  I did have to buy the navy iris metallic beads from Artbeads, but since I'm not on a bead buying freeze this was fine with me.  It was a very simple knit with the only tedious part being you have to string all 253 beads before you get to begin knitting but in all honesty this really didn't take too long.  This was my first project knitting with beads and I was delighted to find it really easy to do.  In fact I see a beaded shawl in my future...

Next up is a headband called the Wrap and Tie Headband by Jenise Hope.  It calls for Knit Picks Stroll sock yarn, which I happened to have in my stash - yay!  This pattern is written out line by line or you could knit from the included chart.  A very simple pattern in an increasing then decreasing 2 x 2 rib with a wide center section.  It's just long enough, about 27inches blocked, to tie twice with short little ends that my hair hides.  The headband is very lightweight so as to hardly notice it's presence.

While these projects only added about 180 meters to my Stash Dash totals, they were immensely satisfying with the instant gratification of only taking just over a day each to knit.  After I finish these socks, which are oh so close to being completed, I'm going to see what other hair accessories I can knit with my stash yarn.

Joining in with:

Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On

Ginny for Yarn Along

Beth for Whatcha Workin' On?  Wednesday