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Once again, I have multiple works in progress on the needles. I usually prefer to only have one at a time, but one will take a while and is less than thrilling to knit (the super secret project), one is almost done, and one I started (once again) so I’d have something to knit at Busch Gardens.
I can’t show you pictures of the super secret project, but here are the other two:
A pair of shorts because I felt like knitting shorts. I have very few shorts beause I can never find any that fit. : ( These are almost done.
I also started a light weight lace scarf in a yummy alpaca yarn in a lovely maroon color. I bought it at the Knitting Corner, another yarn store in Virginia Beach that I hadn’t been to before this summer.
Like I said, the shorts are almost done, so look for an FO post about that soon. I also have inchies and a swap coming up, so stay tuned!
Pattern: My own! A stockinette triangle with a wave lace pattern and a simple edging. I’d love to share it, but I fudged most of the numbers to make the lace fit, so it would be difficult to write directions.
Yarn: Red Heart Heart and Sole, about a ball and a half in “Spring Stripes”
Needles: US 7/4.5 mm Knit Picks Options circ
(It’s really not wonky, I just arranged it oddly on Elizabeth. It’s not crooked, I promise.)
I LOVE this shawl. It’s light but still warm, perfect for overzealous air conditioning. The colors and bright and lovely. I LOVE how the lace came out. It’s a simple pattern but because of the stripes in the yarn, it makes the colors pop and they don’t obscure the pattern tooooo much. The points didn’t block out as much as I’d hoped, but they’re pointy enough. All in all, the shawl came out almost exactly as I wanted it to.
Here are some more pictures (I really like macro mode):
Currently being crafty: Inchie swap. Soon to be another swap. A cool knitting project. And a super secret project that I won’t be able to talk about in detail until December. Don’t worry though, I’ll have plenty of other things to show you until then. Stay tuned!
Pattern: My own! This is my first sweater I designed myself! I based it on Lillie, but I didn’t want to do it in pieces and I wanted to make some mods anyway, so I just made it up as I went. It’s top-down, raglan style.
Yarn: Knit Picks Comfy in “Marlin”, fourish skeins
Needles: Knit Picks Options US 8/5 mm circ and some Clover dpn’s
I LOVE this sweater. It doesn’t much resemble my original sketches for the sweater, but I love how it came out. The fit is perfect, I love the angle of the fronts, and the cotton makes it perfect for layering over tanks in fall/spring. Perfect for back to school! I could probably wear it on cool summer nights too… Immediately after I finished it, I put it on over a short red dress I had on, and it looked fantastic, so I’ll definitely have to put it in rotation.
The buttons came from a swap (the Craft my Wish Swap, if you recall), and I used four of I think the five i was given. I think they fit quite well. And the yarn? The YARN. I’m in love with this yarn. It’s kitten-soft thanks to the microfiber acrylic and cool and pretty sturdy thanks to the cotton content. Did I mention it’s soft? Plus the color I used, Marlin, is such a lovely deep blue. And slightly shimmery. Amazing. AND, as a bonus, I only used four of the eight skeins I ordered, so I have enough to make something substantial. WIN. No idea what I’m going to make with the left overs, but I am quite happy to have it in the stash. I would definitely order this yarn again, and I probably will with my next Knit Picks order (whenever that will be).
Also: This marks number 12 in my dodecathon of sweater knitting! Since I finished in July, I may well go ahead and make 24 sweaters this year. Maybe. Right now, I’m in the mood for lace. Complicated lace, after the seemingly endless miles of stockinette in this sweater. And I did just buy some yummy alpaca lace in a lovely maroon color…
For my latest spinning adventure, I intended to spin enough to actually make something with. Here’s what I came up with:
I estimated the yardage at about 80 at a worsted weight, so enough to make something small, like a hat or a cowl. I say it’s perfect for winter: something to keep me warm while adding a bright splash of color to my usually dark winter wardrobe. Which is why I called the yarn/color “A Splash of Citrus”.
I spun the singles, then dyed them, and then plied them. I probably should have dyed the roving as I ended up with a bunch of the yellow left over, but I may use that to practice chain plying. I won’t be able to make anything out of it, which is unfortunate, but maybe I can over-dye it and add it to some other yarn.
The pictures came out lovely, don’t you think? Perfect for summer.
(Obviously it’s big and awkward on Mr. Frog. Go with it.)
Pattern: Green Zebra Baby Sweater at Dove Knits
Yarn: Nameless sport weight acrylic my grandmother gave me ages ago.
Needles: US 8/5 mm Knit Picks Options circ.
Mods: None, really. Accidentally knit the sleeves on US 6/4mm needles cause I forgot what needle size I was supposed to be using. *shrug*
A good pattern, I say, though it’s basically just a bottom-up raglan cardigan. I like the knit-on button bands, though keeping track of three balls of yarn in order to do it was a little fiddly. I didn’t bother with button holes cause I hate to keep track of them, so I just sewed on little loops for the buttons. It came out great though, and I’ll definitely keep this pattern on my list of knits if I should need another baby sweater any time soon.
It helps that this pattern has a bunch of sizes. I used the 24 month size cause the recipient, my cousin Colin, is just under a year and already in 18 month clothes. Hopefully this will fit for fall/winter! Regardless, it was pretty fun to knit.
Unfortunately, there are no modeled shots cause it’s July and I’m not going to stick a baby in a hot sweater in July for a photo shoot. Also, it’s too big cause he’s not quite in 24 months clothes yet. Maybe come winter I’ll get some from the parents.
In other knitting news: I finished the Razor Cami, pics to come soon. I also started a sweater and I’m halfway through a spinning/dyeing project. Stay tuned!
Here’s a bunch of non-knitting things I’ve been working on lately:
I made a couple of notecards (the first one of which I sent off to the boyfriend) out of stuff around the house. I love cardmaking but sadly have few occasions to use them. At least I’ll have lots of lovely ones for including in swaps.
A little notebook out of a pad of post its and some cardboard. If anyone’s interested in a tutorial for this, let me know! It was pretty simple but I know I would have appreciated a tut for notebook making that didn’t require sewing or making signatures.
I made yarn! It’s about 30 yards, according to my rudimentary measuring system (find book about a foot tall, wind yarn around book, count strands on one side, multiply by two, divide by three). Two ply, pretty thick and thin but loads better than my previous attempts. It goes between a fingering weight to a bulky weight, though it mostly sticks to worsted-ish. I think I’m going to try to make a calorimetry or some sort of headband/earwarmer type thing.
I made more yarn! I dyed this with kool-aid as roving, then spun it as a fingering weight-ish single. It’s overspun, but that’ll get better the more I practice.
I’ve found I really enjoy spinning, so I will definitely be doing more of it. Now I just need to find a good place (probably online) to get roving, preferably already dyed and for a reasonable (read: cheap) price. Or maybe I’ll just dye it myself. Knit Picks has some nice dyes available…
It does, actually. I think this might be my last claim for a while (though not the last post–there’s this one and then what I got from the person that claimed me). I want to do some regular swaps and maybe even organize one. Or perhaps just get started on my Christmas knitting. Anyway.
I claimed lapoli for a cowl and acrylic yarn. Here’s what I came up with for the cowl:
(Modeled by my sister)
Pattern: A Noble Cowl, available as a free Ravelry download
Yarn: Almost a skein and a half of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes (left over from Climbing Vines)
Needles: Knit Picks 16″ US 7/4.5 mm circ.
Modifications: Only cast on 105 (though that was still waaaay too big), only did two repeats of the pattern instead of 2.5.
I think this came out rather nicely, actually. It’s big but still warm and it can always be pinned with a shawl pin or something similar. And in any case, she loved the drape of it. Turns out she hates things that are tight around her neck. Win.
I also sent her a bunch of acrylic yarn that has been marinating in my stash:
Some Red Heart Super Saver, some Vanna’s Choice, and some unlabeled stuff. She said it’s perfect for her charity knitting. So hopefully it’ll keep someone warm and make someone happy–more than it was doing in my stash.
I’m still working on the baby sweater and the cami. They’re sort of slow-going (well, compared with my usual rate of progress), but hopefully I’ll get Colin’s sweater finished by the time his family gets here. It’s getting there. It’s a bottom-up raglan, and I’m almost at the sleeves. Exciting!
(Modeled by my sister. more pictures can be found on this project’s Ravelry Page.)
Pattern: None, really. I read over Cigar from Knitty, but glove construction is pretty simple. I used my basic mitten pattern for the base, then when I got to the fingers, I used four stitches from the hand for each finger, plus two that I cast on and three that I picked up from the previous finger (more or less). It’s the basic construction used in Cigar, but I did a bunch of things different and I never referred to the pattern.
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool in Purple
Needles: US 7/4.5 mm dpn’s.
I like these a lot, actually. I called them Snowball Fight because they will be perfect for hurling snowballs (if it ever freakin’ snows) at school in Fredericksburg. I had mittens this past winter, but I think gloves will work better (plus they allow for laced fingers with that special someone). They fit quite well too. The gauge is pretty loose, but they’re wool so they should be plenty warm. I don’t find I have a lot of friction when I’m wearing gloves so they shouldn’t wear out too quickly either.
I’m not sure how much I like making gloves though. I much prefer mittens; I know that. Much faster to just go around and around. Knitting the individual fingers is a bit tedious. Regardless, I’m glad I made these because like I said, I think I’ll get a fair bit of use out of them come winter.
Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl Evelyn Clark (free on Knitting Daily)
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette, about a skein and a half in Huckleberry Heather
Needles: Knit Picks Options US 6/4 mm
Modifications: I only did 12 repeats of the bud lace pattern cause I got bored.
For my first major lace project in a fingering weight yarn, I’d say this went pretty smoothly. I messed up the lace a couple of times, but all in all, I’d say it came out well. The color is very pretty and though I don’t really have a HUGE need for shawls, I think I’ll wear it in the fall when it’s cool but not cold enough for a real scarf/cowl. Very pretty. Very drapey. Blocking is like magic. : )
The yarn is also lovely, and I will definitely be ordering from Knit Picks again, as I’ve said. Probably some lace weight. Possibly some chunky-weight wool for a sweater. *shrug* We’ll see.
COMING SOON TO A BLOG NEAR YOU (meaning this one): Stuff from the Ongoing Wish Swap. Another (different swap). A knitted thing. Possibly some in-progress stuff. We shall see.
Pattern: Tank Girl by Vickie Howell, from a summer issue of Knitty
Yarn: NaturallyCaron.com Spa (75% microfiber acrylic, 25% bamboo) in Ocean Spray, about a skein and a half.
Needles: US 6/4 mm Knit Picks Options circular needle
Modifications: Knit in the round, left out the color change and the drop stitches, didn’t continue the ribbing up the back, didn’t bother with the lingerie rings (just did an eye cord and fastened it to the back of the tank). I probably also fiddled with the length– I basically just knit the bottom until I ran out of yarn in that skein then did the other part.
So I’m a huge fan of this tank top. It came out amazingly. It fits perfectly (well, the straps might be a leeeetle long), and I will definitely be making more in other colors. Possibly in other fibers. I like making tank tops cause they’re quick to make and I don’t have to knit sleeves, so that’s fun.
The yarn: I would definitely use this yarn again. The bamboo makes it nice and drapey and soft and lovely, while the acrylic makes it more hard-wearing. It’s hella splitty, so if you don’t like that, stay away, but I only had slight problems with it (splittyness is never really an issue for me). Also, ya know, big box craft store and all that. But I bought the two skeins separately, each with a 40% off coupon so the tank was probably $3.50 total? SCORE.
Coming up: That swap thing, some more knitted things. If you’re good, there might even be a wip post somewhere sometime.
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 