Tag Archive | fade knitting

FO: Faded Boxy

Six months. Six long months. That’s how long it took me to knit my purple faded Boxy sweater. But you know what that means? IT’S DONE! I wove in a ridiculous number of ends yesterday — it took two and a half episodes of E.R. — and now I just need to block it! But will I wear it once first? YES. Yes I will. I have to wear it to work tomorrow to show it off to my knitting group!

8f3593f5-525e-450e-8d40-e5f1d16578f6 This used up five gorgeous skeins of yarn from stash. Well, I have enough of the solid purple left over to be sock accents for a couple of pairs of socks. And I had to dip into an extra skein for the top when I lost at yarn chicken with the last color. Thank goodness I had two skeins of a variegated purple from my last trip to my own LYS! It wasn’t a perfect match but it blended well enough.

I have slipped it on and I think it’s going to be perfect fit. That might be easier to achieve when it’s a loose, big, boxy sweater like this, but still. I’m quite pleased with it.

I’m sure I’ll share more photos later, with me wearing it and after it’s blocked. Happy Monday, friends! Hope your weekend was productive too.

Boxy Issues

Jan26

Yesterday I turned on the tennis and settled in with my Boxy fade sweater. I was ready both to split for the sleeves and to start fading in the last color. I knit across the stitches for the front half and hit a roadblock: I needed one row per color, but there wasn’t an easy way to do that when you’re knitting back and forth with two colors of yarn. It works perfectly when you’re going round and round, but I didn’t even think about how it would have to switch to back & forth later. So, I was in a pickle. Now, I’m sure there are smarter knitters than I who have a good answer, but my answer seems to be working for me: I knit one color across, then I knit the other color across. Then I purl color one across, then purl color two across. Whatever works, right?

My second issue is one of color. When I chose my five colors for this fade, I alternated variegated with solid. The first solid was at the bottom and it’s fine. But then I have the second solid up here, separated by variegated/fades, and it’s just this stripe of lavender. I can’t decide if it stands out a lot because I’m looking for it, or because it’s obvious.

Maybe it will calm down once I get the rest done. I sure hope so because I am NOT interested in frogging 22 miles of stockinette just to switch the order of the last two colors.

And that’s as far as I got yesterday, because of Issue #3: my elbow. I had a bad case of tendinitis several years ago, and every so often it’ll flare up a bit if I’m not careful. Apparently I’ve been doing a lot of knitting during Duncan’s recovery, and they’re longer stretches of knitting, and now I’ve got this pain in my elbow that says “Hey! Time to take a break!” So instead I caught up on some TV and read a book, like a real book with pages and stuff, and that was nice. I’ll give it a couple more days with limited knitting and all should be fine. Maybe switching to my worsted weight cowl will help too, since I hold the bigger needles more loosely than the smaller ones I use for fingering weight. And really, it will work out all right because I’m getting my purple hair refreshed today, so that’ll be about five hours with little to no knitting time!

Enjoy your Sunday, friends!

Mermaid Sea Swell Shawl

Oct28

Remember months ago I wanted to make a mermaid shawl with five skeins of yarn and I tried to make this lace shawl and it just didn’t work for me? I remembered that yarn today and I might have found the perfect pattern on Ravelry.

Capture

This is the Sea Swell Shawl by Stephen West and it’s a gorgeous fade with five colors, which is exactly what I wanted, and it’s a semi-circular shape, which I wanted, and it even has a wave pattern, which I didn’t even KNOW I wanted! Plus after making my Dotted Rays, I’m excited to make another one of his patterns. That one was so fun and addictive, and so much squishy garter stitch. My only caveat is that for some reason I thought my mermaid shawl should have some delicate lace too. But mostly I think I can’t resist how perfect this is in every other way!

DONE. And I mean it this time.

Jun28

I finished the Find Your Fade shawl last night, for real this time. Like I’m really happy with how it turned out! I did the last section with Color D and even though these aren’t my favorite colors, I think it’s quite attractive.

It’s also super hard to photograph, since it’s so huge! But I got the nice triangular shape I was wanting, and a lovely drape, and now I’m just crossing my fingers that she likes it and that it will keep her warm in her cold office.

Knitting this shawl is kind of like childbirth, for me at least. While you’re doing it, you’re like OMG will this never end this isn’t fun argh! But then it’s done and it’s really cool and you’re proud of what you made, and you want to do it again.

So yeah, I’m pretty sure a purple version is in my future. Someday. Just not yet. I need a few one-skein projects to cleanse my palate first!

Pattern: Find Your Fade by Andrea Mowry.

Yarn: Butter Sock by Bumblebee Acres Farm in a GOT Lannister-themed fade set. (They have some AMAZING Harry Potter yarns now that I’m drooling over!)

So, it’s…done?

Jun24

The good news is: I bound off my commissioned Find Your Fade this weekend! Even got it washed and blocked too! As I mentioned in my last post, I decided to do the last section by fading back to the first color with the leftovers. That didn’t go exactly as expected, as I ran out of Color A with something like 12 rows still to go. At that point, I could have weirdly just picked back up with Color C, or frogged back to where I started fading back and knit longer with Color C. Not surprisingly, I didn’t care for either option. So I figured, what the heck, just bind off early, it won’t matter that much! Well. That’s debatable.

Instead of a nice point on top, I have an interesting edge. I don’t hate it, but in hindsight I would have chosen differently. I’ll unpin it tonight and see how it hangs when I try to wear it. I’m not ruling out the idea of undoing the bindoff and frogging back, but man, I’d love to avoid it.

And speaking of avoiding, Grace was a very good girl and knew she wasn’t supposed to walk on this big wet smelly thing on the floor of my craft room.

And now it’s Monday and I’m wondering where the heck my weekend went!

Fading Out

Jun22

I have been knitting and knitting on my Fade shawl all month, and I’m very close to the finish line! I’m on section 12 of 13 and still have a fair amount of the third skein left over. Totally didn’t expect that, even though I am using smaller needles. It’s possible that I also messed up on yarnovers and my stitch count isn’t right, but I’m not fretting about that. It’s turning out just fine.

Since I have so much of color 3 left (maybe 20 grams), and at least that much of colors 2 and 1, I’m going to fade back out for the last section, rather than dipping into color 4 just for one section. Then I can use color 4 for something else completely, and I think it’ll look really cool to end back on that lighter yellow. So that’s pretty much my weekend sorted!

Just a quickie

Jun12

I’m about halfway through the Fade now! I started melting in the third color last night and I love how the change is so subtle. This is just a couple of rows but I’m loving how the yarns are playing together. See that bit of red at the top? That’s really the only change from the previous yarn, and it’s just popping up here and there right now. I was so happy to get that color started, too, because this project is fading in enjoyment for me. It’s just not my happy colors. But I have to admit it looks cool and it will be a pretty nifty shawl when it’s done.

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Beyond that, things are looking up, at least today. Sometimes I just need to remember to force myself to get out of my house, out of my head. After resting my strained calf at home on Monday, I went back to work yesterday, even drove myself, and it was good to be around people, good to get my mind off the negative things it’s been dwelling on. The muscle is improving quickly, though I’m still being careful and taking the meds, so that helps my mindset too. I even got a little excited thinking about some new review yarn coming my way, instead of feeling stressed about it. New yarn for the win, as always!

Happy Hump Day, friends! Hope the rest of the week flies by!

When it rains, it pours

Jun10

Because I wasn’t stressed out enough lately, the fates decided I needed another challenge. Yesterday I stepped down weird off a step stool and heard a pop in my calf, then felt extreme pain. SUPER. I am so lucky and grateful to have good health insurance and I was able to go to the ER to get checked out for breaks, tears, and blood clots. They decided it was probably just a bad muscle strain and prescribed an NSAID, rest, ice, and elevation. Plus, since it’s my right calf, no driving for a couple of days to give the muscle time to rest and avoid straining it more. And since I took time off last week for my MIL’s service and some mental health time, now I’ve got the guilt from being home again. The sister pointed out that I had a good reason last week, and I have a good reason today, and of course logically I know she’s right. Yet there’s the guilt, still hovering. WhatEVER. Sometimes I hate my brain.

Let’s distract with some knitting, shall we? Here’s my Fade progress.

I went through so many project pages on Ravelry and didn’t find many helpful notes for a 4-color fade, but I got enough to give me confidence to move on. Rather than frog back to fade in the yellow garter section, I was a rebel and did the color melting in the lace section, and I think it looks fine. I did a longer melt than in the pattern, to use as much yellow as I could, and now I’m halfway through the second skein. This shawl is going to take forever, I think. As much as I love the look, I don’t know if I’ll want to make another one for myself once this one is done.

Hope you all are having a better start to the week than me!

Stupid Fade

May28

This is not going well. My Fade shawl is currently in time-out and maybe you can help me. I’m using 4 colors instead of 7, and I thought I had a good plan for the color switches, but when I got to the first planned switch, I still had half the first skein left. If I switched then, I was afraid I’d run out of the other colors before I got to the end of the shawl. (I have ~1700 yards; it uses anywhere from 1500-1800 depending on which project page you look at.) So right now I’m at the end of section 5, out of 13, with 37 grams of the first skein still left. I have several choices that I can see.

Be risky and frog back about ten rows to fade in the second color as I’d planned. If I run out at the end, I would have to end early or finish with the first color.
Do section 6 (lace) in the yellow and start fading at the beginning of section 7. The downside I can see is that I might end up with a very large yellow section, compared to the other colors.
Start fading in the second color in section 6, even though the pattern recommends doing the color melts in the garter stitch sections and not the lace.

Please help me. I know this really shouldn’t be this difficult, but there are some other things going on that are sapping my capacity for thinking and stuff. Thank goodness I have good dogs to snuggle with.

And look at my new stitch markers! Those are MY DOGS! They’re from Jill’s Beaded Knit Bits. I sent her a photo of my dogs and she made these and I love them so much!

All about that Fade

May23

Somehow I have turned into a monogamous knitter. It’s the weirdest thing. But it means that I’ve been working solely on my Find Your Fade shawl and as of last night, I am in section three. Here’s how it looked at the end of section two:

Weird, right? Like a thong, or a uterus, or ram horns. But I am assured that this is how it looks for everyone and it will grow up to become a normal Find Your Fade shawl. I’ve even planned out my fade sequence, thanks to the little graphic at the end of the pattern.

I had to color it twice to get the sequence I liked best, which is the one on the left that will allow me to use as much yellow as possible. But I have a confession to make: the Fade is a little…boring? I hate to say that because it’s such a popular pattern. Maybe it’s just because it’s not a color I like that much and I’m in a big garter section. Surely it’ll perk up once I get back to lace and start fading in a new color.

And in other news, Duncan has not reached the point of not chewing things up.

In his defense, this bed already had some holes from a few months ago when I tested Duncan the first time, so he might have just expanded on his earlier work. Still, he’s back to his beach towel on the floor for now.