Tag Archive | KALs

FO Friday: Dissent Cowl

Oct16

This project was SO fun. I LOVED knitting it and I think I finished it in four or five days. Now I want to do more mosaic knitting! I kept going each round just to see how it looked with the lighter yarn peeking through, and the way she designed the “jewels” is so cool.

The pattern is the Dissent Cowl by Carissa Browning and it’s available on LoveCrafts and Ravelry. Though it looks complicated, it’s actually easy enough for adventurous beginners on up. I mentioned before that I talked one of my work knitting friends into trying it too, and after a little hiccup at the beginning, she’s sailing along and loving it. So don’t be scared of it!

I knit this as part of a knit-along run by my favorite LYS, Yarn Social, so of course I got my yarn there. The dark purple is Neighborhood Fiber Co. Studio DK in Park Heights, and the lighter speckled one is Primrose Yarn’s Jasper in Milky Way. They were perfect, exactly what I wanted. The Primrose had just enough of the dark purple speckles to blend but still pop. And they were both great to knit with, thick and squishy. The mosaic knitting, since it’s all slipped stitches, makes a really dense fabric. I don’t think the wind will get through this!

Now I just have to decide whether to wear this cowl or my Empower People cowl on voting day!

Dissent Cowl, plus yarn

Oct5

I know, it’s Monday in Blogville which means I’m supposed to be writing about socks, but I can’t do that. A) I have no sock progress to share and B) I want to share today’s upcoming cast-on. My favorite LYS, Yarn Social, is partnering with another LYS to host a Dissent Cowl KAL/CAL. Since I wanted to make the cowl anyway, this seemed perfect! I’d already bought the pattern, but to participate I needed to buy at least one skein from either store. (Haha, “at least one skein”! Like it’s ever just one!)

Saturday found me at the yarn store along with a fellow knitter buddy, a poor soul I convinced to knit along with me. I’m excited about my choices!

I got a new jumbo winder for my birthday, so I used that to wind the yarn last night. The KAL starts today and I’ll be casting on as soon as my work day is done. But of course that’s not all I came home with. They had a new (to me, at least) color of WYS Christmas sock yarn, so that plus the green had to be mine as well.

Oh hey, look at that: there’s a bit of sock in here after all!

Also, this is my 1,000th post on this blog! Who knew I’d be hanging around so long? Happy Monday, friends!

Sun Glitter Shawl

Aug18

Way back in June, I cast on a shawl for a knit-along that Under the Olive Tree Knits was hosting. It was a summer-long KAL and she’s offering the pattern free through the end of August, and there are prizes if you follow the rules found on her blog (among other places). I’d been wanting to knit this shawl anyway, and I had the prettiest skein of yarn for it, and I thought I’d have no problem finishing a one-skein shawl in two months. Well. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I’ve had an eventful summer, and my knitting mojo hasn’t always been present, plus other things have taken precedence to this project. But I’m happy to report that after returning from vacation, I committed to this shawl and finished it yesterday!

img_8449

This was a fun, meditative knit. I love how she designed those lace triangle sections, and once I got the hang of the pattern, it was easy to take it with me anywhere. And the yarn is gorgeous! I love the hints of purple and yellow.

I do wish I’d checked my yardage more carefully before picking my yarn. The skein I chose was 100 grams but only 400 yards, and I ran out of yarn on the last right-side row of the lace pattern. Instead of doing several rows of garter before binding off, I just did two rows of garter and the bind-off in a complementary yarn, and I don’t even notice the slight color difference. Still, if I make it again, I’ll make sure to find a more generously sized skein.

img_8453Now I’ve got a case of finish-itis — I’m ready to pull out another shawl WIP before I cast on something new!

Pattern: Sun Glitter Shawl by Under the Olive Tree Knits

Yarn: Concorde by Less Traveled Yarn in color Lagoon

A Summer KAL

Jul3

Ever since I finished my Fade shawl, I’ve had a marvelous time knitting on other things. I’ve got a pair of socks almost done, I made some progress on my Pride shawl, and I’ve cast on two new shawls. One of them is a fun summer KAL for Under the Olive Tree Knits, a one-skein shawl pattern named the Sun Glitter Shawl. I picked out some new-ish yarn from my stash, Less Traveled Concorde in Lagoon, and have been loving this pattern!

img_4592It’s going smoothly and quickly and I think blocking is going to make a huge difference, opening up the mesh triangles a lot. You need around 400 yards of fingering weight, and the pattern is free through August, so check it out if you want to play along!

FO: NGY Hitchhiker

Jul15

Thanks to two weekends of great Wimbledon tennis, I finished my Hitchhiker this morning! I cast on the Hitchhiker Beyond last Saturday and most of the knitting was done over the two weekends, with a few teeth here and there during the week. This was for a Nerd Girl Yarns KAL, and I chose a NGY in her Mutiny base, which is 80/20 merino/silk. Yep, the drape is as amazing as you’d imagine. Perfect with garter stitch on my size 3 needles. I love this one so much!

img_1130

The first section says to use a third of your yarn, or about 20/21 teeth. The first time I made it, I used 30 grams and had 21 teeth, and ran out of yarn too soon, so this time I was conservative and used around 25 grams I think, and only 20 teeth. I had 8 grams leftover and a gorgeous scarf in a very wearable length. I do think I’ll block it out a bit longer, but not so much that I lose the yummy squish of garter stitch.

img_1129

The color is called The Wise Build Bridges, inspired by Black Panther, and these are totally my colors so I’ll be wearing this a lot once the weather cools off.

The KAL is still going on through August 5th, so check out the Nerd Girl Yarns group on Ravelry if you want to join. I’m tempted to do another!

Bulky Cowl Knit-Along

Feb23

Ugh with this day already! It’s 8:40 a.m. and here’s my morning so far: I get up with a stiff neck, make sure kids are awake, warm heating pad. Daughter texts: big project due today not done despite staying up most of the night because she had honor band commitments all weekend, what does she do?? I talk her off the ledge and ask husband to drive her to school so she can get there a few minutes early. I think it’s trash day so I ask son to take dumpsters to curb. He grunts and moans and stomps about. I realize it’s NOT really trash day. Apologize to son. I give son a hug goodbye and somehow manage to knock his glasses off and scratch his eye with my fingernails. He grunts and moans but is relatively receptive to my apologies. Daughter is ready to go, husband is on conference call and needs to check something on computer. I put on shoes and drive daughter to school in my pajamas. The only reason I don’t stop for donuts on the way home is BECAUSE I’m in my pajamas. But finally I was able to have tea, breakfast, and Tylenol, and now I’m catching my breath and enjoying my time with you.

Whew. I already feel better and ready to move on. Shall we? I have something fun to share: I’ve been chatting with Jenna at HardKnitLife and we’ve decided to do a mini Knit-Along! I have a special skein of super bulky yarn, and she has a skein of Malabrigo Rasta (yes, that’s pretty special too) and we’ve decided we’re going to do a cowl knit-along! The (free) pattern we’ve chosen is called Marshmallow Fluff by Sarah Kraly, and it’s wonderfully simple and wonderfully cozy. It should be a fast instant gratification project! Do you want to play along with us?

A fun fact I just discovered this morning: the pattern was written by someone from one of my LYSs, The Studio Knitting and Needlepoint! It may not be terribly cold around here right now, but Jenna and I are midwest girls and know that we could easily get another blast of winter before spring is here to stay. This will absolutely be for me to wear. Look at this gorgeous yarn, all wound and ready to go: IMG_5289This is Well Hello Big Boy by Vice Yarns. I’ll be using the recommended size 19 needles and will cast on tomorrow (Wednesday). It is knit flat and seamed, so skills needed are provisional cast on and either 3-needle bind off or Kitchener stitch to graft the ends together.

Check out my progress here, on Instagram or Twitter (where I’m also bonnyknits), or on Facebook (bonnyknitsforyou). We’ll be using the hashtag #MarshmallowKAL so be sure to tag your photos so we can see all the Fluffy goodness!

This is my first ever KAL so I’m trying to keep it simple and fun. I’d love to hear from any of you who want to knit with us!