YOP Update - More Gift Knitting

 

It was a good week for me in the knitting realm.  My baby gifts were finished and given to the recipient to much fanfare and applause.  The last minute knitted stuffed Elephant was the biggest hit as apparently there was an elephant in the movie Inside Out that her kids adored.  I may have to make a couple more for them or at least pass on the pattern to their mom who is a fellow knitter.  

With those projects being crossed off the list (and yes I added the elephant to the list just so I could cross it off as I'm like that) I moved on to finishing more of my Christmas gifts.  In the toy making yarn stash I had a lot of pink colored yarn.  Now, I personally am not one for pink being of a ruddy complexion it only makes me look redder in the face, but I have one friend who is a pink color fan.  I decided to try and make her some felted mittens from this pattern that I've had for some years now.  As you can see they start out huge, but after 40 minutes of felting they are more like actual mittens.  Have you noticed the color change?  The yarn I used for knitting toys was all plant dyed and my guess is that the laundry soap I used to help felt the mittens must of had enzymes in it which changed the color.  Some plant dyed colors are really stable like weld yellow and indigo blue, but others not so much.  I don't care for the resulting shade as much as I did the previous color so I'm going to show them to some friends tonight at my monthly scrapbooking meeting to get their opinions.  What do you think?  

The mittens are also a bit more stiff and clumsy than a traditional knitted pair, but they should be killer warm in the subzero temps we get here in Minnesota.  The inside cuff is knitted in an angora/wool yarn that will keep out the drafts while keeping the mittens from falling off the hand.  I want to knit a pair for my mother, but I'm not sure if I should adjust the pattern and narrow down the wrists some as they bell out a bit. 

In the midst of all this I was breathlessly waiting for the mail to deliver the yarn I ordered from Knit Picks.  It finally arrived on Friday and I wound up a ball and started swatching right away.  After I finish my mom's mittens I believe I will cast on and get chugging away on this sweater.  Who knows maybe I can finish it just in time to use it when Fall hits.

Check out the other Year of Projects participants here.  Have a great week everyone!

YOP Update - All Over the Place

It's Sunday and time for a YOP update.  I finished 1 item on my list, yay!, and added 5 more. What?  Yeah, I was a bit all over the place this week for knitting because of a decision that's been a long time coming.  You see I've had a little knitted toy shop on Etsy for some years now, but I've decided to stop making toys and to change the shop over to something new - plant dyed yarn.  It's not too much of a stretch because all my toys are knit with plant dyed yarn (dyed by the wonderful Judy of Mamajudes also on Etsy) which is a passion of mine.  In my zealousness last Summer I purchased a good quantity of yarn for the shop, but with dwindling sales I have a lot of yarn leftover.  Since I don't want to knit toys anymore, all of it needs a new purpose.  Judy uses Lamb's Pride Worsted yarn for her base yarn which I love for making toys, but not so much for wearing as it's a rather stiff.  The great thing is that I have come up with a bunch of ideas on how to use it up, the bad news is I seem to be trying them out all at once!

So, I added a "Home" category to my YOP knit list with the following patterns: 

For the Home

Sock Yarn Braided Trivets by Martha Lazar 8 of them 

Sock Yarn Braided Rug by Martha Lazar 

My Oluffa Doorstop by Lucinda Guy 

Cozy Coasters by Joelle Hoverson  

Out of the Frying Pan by Amy E. Anderson

 

With the exception of the Cozy Coasters which uses some Frog Tree alpaca yarn (that never seems to run out as seriously I've made 3 sets of 4 coasters using the yarn doubled and still have yarn for more) they are all knit with my toy business yarn.  They Trivets I mentioned in this post, the rug you can see about halfway done above (it's basically a big trivet), the doorstop will be more of a pillow as it will use some other toy knitting yarn that's angora, and last are felted oven mitts which I'm making for use when dyeing and handling the hot pots.  Felted projects are really perfect for this yarn so I'm hoping to come up with a few more ideas along those lines.

Oh, and the finished object for this week was the Classic Cowl I knit with my rainbow handspun yarn which you can see here.  So, as you can see I didn't go with last week's plan to finish spinning my alpaca/angora yarn, but I'm pretty pleased overall.  Now I probably need to tweak my list a bit by removing a couple of items to make up for the additions I made this week.  Decisions, decisions, decisions...

A Year of Projects 2015 - 2016!

   

This is the start of my "A Year of Projects" for July 2015 - June 2016.  What is this all about?  It's a group on Ravelry of bloggers getting together to share progress on their knitting/crocheting/spinning and all around crafting goals throughout the year.  I enjoyed reading others blog posts from last year so this year I decided to get off the bench and join in.  Yay!

Without further adieu here is my proposed list of knitting for this year:

Cowls and Scarves:

Classic Cowl by Purl Soho knit in handspun 

Field of Stars by Amy van de Laar knit in handspun alpaca

Dudester Scarf by Jana Pihota 

Dryad by Jared Flood

For the Home:

Sock Yarn Braided Trivets by Martha Lazar 8 of them

Sock Yarn Braided Rug by Martha Lazar

Socks:

Slip Stitch Heel Basic Sock by Wendy D. Johnson

Simply Elegant Cable Socks by Judy Alexander

Broken Seed Stitch Socks by handepandehttps

Taylor's Orange Toe Up Socks by Jasmyn Cunningham

Sweaters and Vests:

Glen Moir Vest by Luise O'Neill 

White Russian by Thea Colman

Three in One Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmerman

Glenfiddich by Annamária Ötvös

Tops:

Astonish Top by Katy Banks 

Jordan by Wendy Bernard

Mittens and Gloves:

Connnectivity Gloves by Mari Chiba

Nordic Mittens by Beth Brown-Reinsel

Double Knit Mittens by Sue Hedgecock

Hats:

A Family Tam by Beth Brown-Reinsel

Ok, now that I write it all out it looks like an awful lot to accomplish, but some are already WIPS which will help (or at least I'll tell myself that.)  It was really fun to figure out what I wanted to knit over the course of a year and surprisingly easy when things like Christmas, birthdays and anniversaries dictate so much of what "needs" to get done as opposed to all my wishful thinking and wants.

What's on the needles currently is the Basic Cowl by Purl Soho using my own rainbow handspun yarn.  The colored wool is plant dyed by this lovely lady and the white is an angora/wool blend I purchased from here.  It's a very simple pattern, but my yarn makes it a bit tricky to keep track of where I am in the 4 row pattern.  In a solid color this would be a snap I think.  I have only a few rows of yellow and the white angora twisted ribbing left to go, which I hope means I'll finish by tonight.  Cross your fingers for me.  

Next up will be some bobbin clearing as I finish spinning some aplaca/angora three ply yarn.  Then I plan on casting on the Field of Stars cowl.  If I have way too much yardage for it I may have to pick another pattern though.

All these projects (listed in no particular order) will be knit with yarn I already have in my stash as I am trying to cut back on my fiber spending.  Oh course when we go to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival I will be making a few purchases, but then I am holding out until Minnesota's Shepard's Harvest Sheep and Wool Festival in the Spring of 2016.  Well, hopefully I will be too busy finishing knitted objects to mind.

See ya next week!