Archive | October 2016

Silverleaf Complete

I just finished it this morning and had to share it right away because I’m so excited!

It’s nice and long, and the garter stitch sections are squishy and soft.

The leaf pattern is gorgeous. It amazes me how people can take a relatively simple lace pattern and make something so beautiful. I love knitting designers.

The color is also perfect for me. It looks predominantly gray, so it should be nicely versatile, but in person it’s got a hint of purple.

This might be my very favoritest knit of all time. So much love for my Silverleaf! If you don’t have it already, go buy it and make it. You won’t regret it.

Progress on the WIPs

Oct21

Yes, it is Friday, and here I am blogging! Thanks to a dentist appointment today and a book event this evening (I get to see JODI PICOULT!!! SQUEE!) I decided to just take the day off. I’ve got errands to run too, of course, but thought I’d take advantage of my rare quiet morning at home to slip in a quick new post. So: lots of knitting time this week! My beautiful new Color Block Wrap is coming along nicely. I’d forgotten what a fast knit it is. I decided to just go with the size 10 needles because I liked the resulting gauge. I figure I’ll do the first three sections, see how long it is, and decide then whether I need to add another skein or two. I don’t have more dark pink but I’ve got a light pink and more grays, so I could easily add more yardage.

And I was a winner this week! We went to a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra and there was a silent auction, and I won a new knitting tote! Yes, I totally DID need another bag, thank you for asking. Isn’t it cute?

I also won a gift certificate so I’m ordering another bag and I think I’m even going to splurge and get it personalized!

Look at this: I also managed to work on Silverleaf this week:

Yep, that’s the leaf section! I made it through half of the leaf lace pattern, so just the other half and the final boarder left to do. I’m still loving this project. It’s just perfect. But I’ll love wearing it too!

This weekend promises to be quite busy. Another band competition (the last of the season) will give me plenty more knitting time, so look for a FO on the blog soon!

I Love Yarn Day

Oct17

This past Saturday was I Love Yarn Day. Did you celebrate? You bet I did! I made an impromptu trip to my LYS, Yarn Mercantile (which is actually two stores: Knitcraft, and Angelica’s) and found some treasure!

I already had the grays, but I found the dark pink at Knitcraft, and knew immediately I needed them so I could make this Color Block Bias Wrap. I have the original version and adore it. I keep it my desk at work and it keeps me warm and I get so many compliments on it. Why not make another version, right? I immediately wound the yarn and cast on.

My only complaint with the original (and it’s very very minor) is that the bigger needles give it a very loose gauge, and it stretched out a bit with blocking and wear. So for this one, I’m trying smaller needles. I started with 10s and it’s much tighter gauge, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to get it as wide as I want. It might just be an awkwardly wide scarf, not big enough to be a wrap. I can’t decide if I should see how wide I get with this (I’ll be able to tell when I reach the end of this pink) or if I should go ahead and frog and start over with 11s. I’m pondering. What do you think?

I also managed to work on Silverleaf this weekend! We went to a band competition for the girl (they got second, WOOHOO) that was about 90 minutes away. Yep, that’s prime knitting time.

I have two rows left of the last garter stitch section and then I get to start the leaf section! I’m really hoping to get there in the next few days, if I don’t get distracted by my other WIPs.

Here’s my other purchase, this one from Angelica’s. It’s Frolicking Feet in Anemone Wildflower and I think it’s STUNNING. I’m pretty sure this will become a narrow asymmetrical triangular scarf. (Hm, Martina Behm pattern, maybe??)

I know many of you probably celebrated at Rhinebeck, and I am very jealous and also can’t wait to hear about your adventures and new yarns!

Fast Yoda Hat

Oct16

Well, I was reminded that I have an Etsy shop this week. I’ve kind of ignored it since I went back to work, and let it slide. I’ve had a couple of small orders for stitch markers (like these) but haven’t done much else. Then I got an order for a Yoda hat. An adult Yoda hat. I’d created the listing as “Made to Order” when I was staying home and had plenty of knitting time to whip one up when I got an order. But that’s not really the case anymore! I’d sorted through my inventory recently enough that I knew I didn’t have one on hand, so I got to knitting.

I knit in the car while in standstill traffic.

I knit at a meeting at work, I knit at lunch breaks, I knit in the evenings, I knit at the football game.

After two full days of knitting, the hat was done and ready to ship.

Not too bad for someone working full-time, right? Of course the listing said it would ship in 1-2 business days and it actually shipped on the 3rd, but I’m still calling it a win. And yep, I went into Etsy immediately and made sure there weren’t any other items listed that weren’t ready to ship!

Another FO: my mom’s blanket! Ages ago she asked for a larger, warmer blanket, and picked out the yarn, and I started crocheting. It got set aside during the heat of summer, and then I picked it back up a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday I got to deliver it!

It’s very thick and dense and warm and cozy and she seemed to be delighted with it. I’m delighted she’s happy, and that it’s done! It always feels good to finish a long-term WIP. My oldest is from February 2015, a long purple gradient seed stitch cowl. Pretty, but also pretty boring! What’s your oldest WIP, and what’s keeping you from finishing it?

Bad Knitter

Oct8

Well, I kind of sucked as a knitter this past week. And crap, did I forget to blog last weekend? Wait, no, I did, about the hats. Okay, whew, I don’t completely suck. My brain has just been kind of fried lately. I haven’t been sleeping well, so I have enough mental energy for work but not much else. Plus, trying to keep up with all the kids’ activities takes precious brainpower. So sadly, knitting and blogging are getting a little neglected. But not completely! First I’ll show you my super exciting FO, my KC Royals Crackerjack scarf!

I cast on 56 stitches and did 2 rows per game. With 162 games, that’s 324 rows, which makes a perfectly cozy double loop. Yes, it’s too warm for most of the typical baseball season, but it’ll be great when the Royals get back to October baseball next year. Anyway, now that it’s done I love it, but I don’t anticipate ever making another one. I didn’t enjoy having a WIP that by design hung around for six months!

My only other FO is this little pumpkin.

It’s for one of my bosses; her birthday is next week and she loves pumpkin spice stuff, so of course I had to make her a pumpkin. It came out super cute, but I wasn’t sure about it until the very end when I was pulling the yarn around to shape it. It was a pretty quick and easy knit, so I’m tempted to make one for myself. I used this pattern, random worsted weight acrylic leftovers from the stash, and size 6 needles. I also did a plain knit stem instead of the fancy one in the pattern. Fun, huh? And if you’re really clever with duplicate stitch, you could make a pretty awesome jack o’lantern!

And that’s kind of it for knitting. I decided I was tired of looking at my craft show inventory, since I don’t have much time for craft shows anymore, so I’m doing a 50% off sale on my Facebook page. I got several orders for that and processing those took some time. But I was happy to clear out some stuff, and it led to another project too. One of the things I sold was a small Santa hat, and the person who bought it asked for a second one. I don’t have time for many custom orders but this is a work friend, so I agreed. And hats are pretty fast. So this is the extent of my knitting this week:

(The one on the left is the completed one from ages ago. The one on the right is my current project.)

Silverleaf hasn’t been touched this week, so it will be up next as soon as I finish this hat. And when that’s done, I’ll be down to only two WIPs! And they’re both old, long-term WIPs, so they don’t count, so I’ll be free to cast on for a few new projects, hooray! I’m most looking forward to starting this shawl, Ennui, in gray and pink. What project in your queue is calling your name??

Three New Hats

Oct2

Three new hats done! Two are more chemo caps. The first is another Shelbi hat; she liked the white one and requested dark purple. Well, you KNOW I have purple in my stash so that was easy enough. I love how quick and cute this pattern works up.

Yarn: Loops & Threads from Michaels. Hooks: G & H.

The second is another Nottinghamshire. The first one I made came out too big (I think the pattern runs big) but she liked the style enough to ask for one in blue. KC Royals blue, to be exactly. Not surprisingly, I had that in my stash too.

Yarn: Bernat Satin in Loyal Royal. Hooks: G & H. Mods: I stopped at 72 stitches instead of 80, and did the lower portion with an H hook instead of I. It’s still a bit bigger than I’d like, but I’m hoping it’ll work.

The third is my Sockhead hat! I had so much fun knitting this hat. I can’t believe it took me so long to make one. And I LOVE it.

Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Black Velvet. I did the brim in size 2 needles and the body in size 2.5. It came out just a touch bigger than I’d like but it works. I haven’t decided whether to keep it or try to sell it. And if when I make another one, I’ll cast on fewer stitches.

I’ve made much progress on my Silverleaf shawl too: I’m SO CLOSE to the leaf pattern! Just a few more rows and I get to start the fun part. But really, this has been a satisfying knit. I do love knitting garter stitch, and you can’t beat the feel of Malabrigo.

There’s just one project that’s tripping me up, and that’s Here Be Dragons.

I can’t quite visualize the final piece, and right now it looks kind of dumb to me. And then there’s the fact that the yarn isn’t really soft and I don’t think I’ll be able to wear it next to my skin. So I’ll probably frog this, but I still love the colors in the yarn and I have two skeins of it. What do you make with not-soft worsted weight yarn?? Fingerless gloves? Felted bag? Help me find a way to use this yarn!

And Thursday at knitting group, I learned I’ve been discovered: one of the girls said she saw a picture of a really pretty scarf and clicked and ended up on this blog! Of course then a couple of other people asked about it. So, yay, more readers, but crap, now I can’t say bad things about them. Anyway, if you’re reading this, knitting group ladies: *waves* Hello and welcome!

So that’s my knitting round-up for the week! Tune in next week to see if I manage to finish Silverleaf!