Tag Archive | crafting

Knitting in the new year

When I sat down to think about my knitting for the new year, I had two options. 1: I could focus on my five current WIPs, which include one review project with a deadline. Or 2: I could cast on new project(s)! I really thought I was going to focus on the current ones, that adding more to the mix would just be overwhelming. But then I was sitting in my craft room and I started playing with my pretty yarn and before I knew it, I was winding four skeins of yarn. By the end of the day on January 1st, I had three new projects on my needles. (The fourth is a paid pattern so I’m waiting until payday to start that one.)

First up is a basic ribbed beanie which will get a beautiful furry purple pompom. But I’ve got nine inches of ribbing to knit, so this will be a good carry-around project. Yarn is Jasper from Primrose Yarn Co. in the color Mischief Managed, and the pattern is Standing Rock Hat.

Then I had to cast on a sock with my amazing 80s yarn from Show Me Yarn, called Hit Me With Your Best Shot. OMG I love this so much, and I love that the stripes are different widths and that they change so often. This is crazy addictive. I kind of made up a pattern, with a 1×1 ribbed cuff and a 3×1 ribbed leg.

Finally, this is my favorite of the three, even as much as I love the new sock. This yarn is Manos del Uruguay Alegria (I told you I love their yarn) and the color is Locura Fluo. It is STUNNING. I chose a lacy shawl pattern called Wave and it’s also very addictive. It alternates between lace and garter stripes so it hasn’t gotten boring yet.

Now, it will be interesting to see if/when I can make myself go back to my old WIPs! Who else has cast on new projects already?

Happy New Year!

Jan1

Did you all have a wonderful time last night? We did, with our excessive amounts of junk food and multiple board games, even if I did lose at both Trivial Pursuit AND Scrabble. What can I say? It just wasn’t my night to be smart. And I didn’t knit at all, which was a little weird. But we laughed a lot and enjoyed each other’s company and it was the perfect way to wind up one year and start another.

This morning I got off to a good start too. If New Year’s Day is supposed to be an indicator of how your year will go, then I will be finishing projects this year! I’ve got the first Hedgehog Fibres Gossip sock off the needles.

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While I was weaving in ends, I noticed how fun the reverse of the leg was, and I think I need to do this on purpose with my next pair of socks.

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I love those little ridges! This is my modified Vanilla Latte pattern, of course. I modified the foot a tiny bit this time, making it a quarter-inch shorter, to see if I like the snugger fit better. I guess I should finish this pair and wear them to test that out before I make another pair. Hm. And here I was wanting to cast on another sock today!

2019: Knit from stash!

Dec31

I confess, I am one of those people going into the new year pledging “No new yarn! Knit from stash!” And I know it’s terrible for LYSs who count on our business, and I do want them to thrive, but alas, it’s time for me to be responsible about other things. I kind of added up how much I’d spent on yarn this year and it was…eye-opening, shall we say? I got lazy about our budget, lazy with my will-power, and it led to more yarn spending than I’m comfortable with. And really, I bought so much gorgeous yarn this year that why wouldn’t I want to knit with it soon? That’s why I bought it, right? So, I’m sorry, my dear LYS, but you won’t be seeing as much of me this year. I’m not going to say I won’t buy any new yarn in 2019, but I definitely will be buying MUCH less and making a concerted effort to knit from stash.

Okay. So how do you make that happen? When the urge for new yarn arises, how do you fight it? When you get invited on a trip to a yarn store, do you say no, or go and try to resist purchasing anything?

For me, being involved with my stash will be critical. I need to go into it regularly and find lost treasures, remind myself of a beautiful skein I bought six months ago, or two years ago. When I feel the itch for something new and fresh, I can dive deep into my stash to scratch it.

My new knitting journal will help as well, I hope. I’ve got a section for projects I want to make, so I can visit that and pair those ideas with yarn in my stash. Oooh, maybe I should make a section for yarns I want to knit next!!

And if I end up at a yarn store, then maybe sometimes I let myself buy ONE skein, instead of two or four or six plus a pompom plus an enamel pin and hey, do I need some of those needles?

With all that said, I think I’ve found my word for 2019: Balance.

Wishing you all a happy and safe New Year’s Eve!

Pullover Progress

Dec29

I got some wonderful comments on my journal post yesterday, as well as some on Instagram, and I’m excited to get started today! I do want to get some Christmas decorations put away first, and then I’ll journal as my reward.

Last night and this morning, I spent some time with my Clarke pullover, which has been sadly neglected for far too long. Though it took me a few minutes to figure out where I’d left off, I have now managed to separate the sleeves!

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It’s looking more like a sweater-type object! I’m now ready to knit ’round and ’round on the body for many inches, making this perfect mindless knitting. It will be great for game time on New Year’s Eve, as well as lunch break knitting at work. Can’t wait to have a new handknit sweater in the rotation!

Back to socks

Dec27

After a brief affair with super bulky yarn, I went back to my sock yarn over the holiday. And wonder of wonders, I finally finished the second Paddington Station sock! (The Ott light I got for Christmas made a huge difference in the knitting experience, I have to admit.)

I need to remember that I don’t like knitting with plain dark yarn. I liked the pattern and I liked the yarn, but I never wanted to knit on these. So I’m delighted they’re done and the boy stole them before I could get a better photo. Now I can move on to my new sock yarn!!

I got three skeins of sock yarn from Show Me Yarn from the husband and I’m totally going to cast on that self-striping 80s colorway first (the neon pink/blue/green, called Hit Me With Your Best Shot). BUT. I’m going to be good and try to finish the socks on my needles first, the hot pink Hedgehog Fibres Gossip socks. I’m zipping along now that I’ve got the black socks done.

I’m not doing the #MakeNine challenge that’s so popular right now. It’s overwhelming for me to think of that many ambitious projects at once. Instead, I’m challenging myself to start a knitting journal this year to plan/make notes/dream etc. It can be whatever I need it to be, and right now, I need it to be a list of ideas for my next super bulky project!

I hope you all had a peaceful and fun holiday and have fun new yarny things to play with!

New yarn from Manos!

Dec26

Manos del Uruguay is one of my favorite brands, has been for a while now. I’ve used the Maxima and Alegria with great success. Their colors are gorgeous, the yarn is soft and wears well, and it’s all certified Fair Trade. Plus the yarns are made by artisans in cooperatives located throughout Uruguay, and each skein is signed, so you know who made your yarn and which village it came from. That makes it so much more personal for me, and I feel like I’m doing a good deed just by buying yarn.

So, when given the opportunity to review a new yarn from Manos, of course I jumped at the chance. Feliz is 70% superwash merino, 30% modal. Modal is a man-made fiber from vegetal pulp, and I was familiar with it from my past life in retail: I knew it was smooth and had fantastic drape. I could only imagine it would be equally delightful in yarn. It’s available in several of the gorgeous Manos hand-dyed colorways; I chose Wildflowers.

Doesn’t it make you swoon? Yum, it does me! I cast on almost as soon as they sent it to me! It’s listed as DK on Ravelry, and has about 350 yards per 100g skein. Fairmount Fibers, their North American distributor, was generous enough to send me two skeins. I selected a pattern called Late Harvest, which was written for a different sport weight Manos yarn. It has a really unusual slip stitch pattern.

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Guys, I love this yarn. It felt like premium merino, all bouncy and supple, but even smoother, almost silky. There’s almost a hint of a sheen to the yarn. I didn’t have any issues with splitting, and it tinked back nicely when I made the inevitable mistake.

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It was a happy yarn for me, a happy knit. It felt soft and comforting in my hands, it slid smoothly on the needles, and the colors were perfect for the pattern. I keep coming back to the smoothness, because honestly, I prefer that to the fuzziness you get with some yarns. I can’t wait to see how it wears long-term, because if it doesn’t fuzz and pill as much as all-merino yarns, it will make some truly fantastic sweaters! Plus, I’m sensitive to some wools against my skin, and this feels like a yarn I might be able to wear without a layer underneath.

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Even though it’s mostly superwash merino, it does say to hand wash, which I did. It blocked out beautifully without much work, and the water was still clear after the soak, so the dyes didn’t bleed. I didn’t even pin it, just laid it out and nudged the edges into the shape I wanted, and now I’ve got a big, gorgeous shawl that will go with so many things. You can see my Ravelry project page here.

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You can see Feliz in all the pretty colors on their website, including their special 50th anniversary color, Cincuenta. It looks like Feliz sells for around $26 a skein, which seems perfectly reasonable to me. I’m happy to pay that for yarn that looks good, feels good, and helps women support their families!

Many thanks to Stitchcraft Marketing and Fairmount Fibers, who generously sent me two skeins of Manos del Uruguay Feliz (retail value $52) for free. I received no other compensation for this review. All opinions and photos are my own.

So Much Super Bulky

Dec23

You may remember my Star Stuff super bulky cowl from the other day, the one made from that gorgeous LB Art Yarn yarn? After that, I became obsessed with super bulky yarn. I immediately pulled out some Berroco Brio from a cowl I’d frogged a couple of months ago. After nearly an hour on Ravelry, I’d settled on…the same pattern I’d used the first time around. But this time I used smaller needles and cast on fewer stitches and ended up with a cowl I like much better.

That wasn’t the end of my love affair with super bulky. I was forced to go back to Yarn Social on Wednesday, and what fell into my hands but a beautiful skein of Malabrigo Rasta and a purple fur pompom? They said they needed to become a hat, ASAP. I obliged.

But now, though the bulky continues to call to me, I must return my focus to previously scheduled knitting, as I do have some deadlines to meet. I did enjoy my super bulky interlude, though!

Two-Hour Cowl

Dec18

Yes, you read that right: two hours. I’m home sick with strep throat (thanks to the brother whom I saw at a birthday party on Saturday) so I spent the morning watching West Side Story and knitting a simple cowl with my new LB Art Yarn. I tried a pattern with a dropped-stitch pattern but it was making me irritated and I wanted to just enjoy this yarn, so a plain stockinette cowl was what I needed.

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I cast on 56 on size 15 needles, did 4 rows of 2×2 rib, and knit until it felt right. Somehow I guessed perfectly because I ended up with less than a yard left over! And I love my new cowl…but now I need more of this yarn! It’s LB Art Yarn on Etsy and this color is called Star Stuff. She doesn’t have any of that color right now, but I’m hoping for more in the future. What’s your favorite sick-day project?

More new projects?

Dec14

Well, clearly I don’t respect my own limits. Or maybe subconsciously I do and they’re not as low as I thought they were. Despite my whining about feeling overwhelmed by WIPs the other day, I have added more to my queue. One is a sock but that’s totally justifiable: I needed a simple travel project for car/concert knitting. And I had beautiful new sock yarn calling my name.

This is Hedgehog Fibres Sock in the color Gossip. Love it! After the boy’s band concert, I have a good two inches of leg past the cuff, but it got too dark to take another photo.

Okay, the sock is understandable. But apparently I have also agreed to make two cowls…before Christmas…as gifts…for a friend to give. But hear me out: I like this person a lot, and I like to help my friends, and I like it when people like my knitting enough to ask me to make things for them. Plus, I like it when they’re willing to pay me to make said things!! So, two cowls are on the list. They’re bulky weight and it’s baby alpaca which means they’ll be fast, fun knits for me. Right? Right. Thank goodness it’s Friday so I can get to knitting ASAP! Anyone else taking on last-minute gift knitting?

What’s that yarn??

Dec13

I’ve had a lot of questions about the new project I shared in an earlier post. I wasn’t thinking clearly, or else I would have included the details of course! Both yarns are from Manos del Uruguay, and they’re my newest review project.

The solid is Fino in the color Peacock Plume, and it’s an extrafine merino/silk blend. I’ve used it once before and it’s heavenly. It’s paired with Cabrito, a laceweight kid mohair blend, in the color Locura Fluo. Now imagine merino, silk, and mohair all in one project, and you know why I’m obsessed with this project right now!

The Cabrito is 230 yards and Fino is 490, but I really wanted to knit them together for maximum coziness. I decided the two held together could be close to a DK, so I chose a simple shawl pattern called Orbit. I’ve made one before and wear it all the time, so I knew it was a good pattern choice. I’ve been tired in the evenings so I’m not getting a ton of knitting done but here’s where I am so far.

This one’s not going to linger on my needles, I can tell already!