Tag Archive | knitting

Sun Glitter Shawl

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!

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.

Now 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

Colorado Yarn Stores

Aug15

I really only meant to go to one yarn store during our Colorado vacation. Looking back, I’m not sure why I thought that was reasonable, or even feasible for me. But that was my plan, and since I’d gotten in trouble at the Loopy Ewe the past two years, I was going to avoid them. Instead, I chose LambShoppe in Denver. It was in a cute but busy part of town, and the boys weren’t interested in joining us, so they dropped me and the girl off at the curb. The store was small but had lots of fun yarns, both big names and small. The saleswoman immediately asked how she could help me, and I cheerfully said, “Just let me look at the yarn!” I try to focus on local dyers when I’m buying vacation yarn, and I found quite a few choices. Unfortunately, the saleswoman was one of those who thinks she needs to engage every shopper frequently, and that bugs the crap out of me. Still, I found some good stuff.

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But then! As I was pondering my choices on the table there, that same woman walked by and said, “Oh, you need to get out of your box and try something new!” She’d already annoyed me enough that I replied, “How about I do what I want?” I mean, seriously. Let a knitter pick her own damn yarn, am I right? Anyway, beautiful yarns, if not all local. The woman’s one saving grace was that she found me a second skein of the Manos Locura Fluo (the crazy neon one in the middle). I’m collecting skeins for a sweater!

I thought I was good and happy but then we went to Colorado Springs, and we had some extra time, and darned if we didn’t end up at another yarn store. Ewe and Me was a little hard to find, and the font is hard to read on the sign outside, but I’m so glad I found it! It was a BIG store, with a huge table down the middle with comfy chairs for the boys to sit in. The women chatted with me at first but then let me browse at my own pace. And the yarn! So much local yarn, so much gorgeous yarn!

I saw small dyers I’d only followed on Instagram, like The Lemonade Shop and Artistic Yarns by Abi, plus ones I’d never heard of. I bought six skeins, I think, plus that fabulous mug. And another size 5 circular needle for shawls. And maybe an enamel pin.

That was plenty, right? It really was! I would have been happy to leave it at that. Except on Sunday the boy and I were on our own, and we went to Longmont to check out a guitar store. And there happened to be a yarn store a few doors down. Sigh. Three more skeins went in my bag. But one of them was Dragon Hoard Yarn, who I’d just started following on Instagram! She was doing a trunk show there so of course I had to grab a skein.

That’s how I ended up with this beautiful, extravagant assortment of yarns to feed my stash!

Now, let’s see if I can restrain from buying more new yarn for a while!

Back at it

Aug14

The girl is settled in at college, the boy is off to his junior year of high school, the husband is driving himself to and from work in the rental car, and I’m back at work after a week’s vacation. I’m trying to get back in my groove but it’s been hard. Of course I picked up a summer cold while we were gone, so I don’t feel 100% which makes me grumpy, but I’m sure things will smooth back into a routine quickly.

We had a lovely vacation and hiked around Garden of the Gods, drove to the top of Pikes Peak, walked through the Manitou Cliff Dwellings, and spent a day shopping on Pearl Street in Boulder. I saw lots of mountains and wish I could live closer to them.

We ended up renting an SUV for the trip through our insurance claim on the wrecked car, and that worked out well. The girl’s apartment is small and lacks WiFi and A/C, but is cute and cozy, and since she’s in Colorado, the temperatures will cool off very soon. Oh, and her new landlords are a perfectly charming British couple! We showed up to get the key from them, and when they found out we’d gotten in town only fifteen minutes earlier, the woman exclaimed, “Oh my goodness, would you like a cuppa tea? English tea, of course.” That made me love them so much. And YES, of course I had the English tea made properly in a teapot with the milk added to the cup first.

I did very little knitting, despite taking six WIPs. But I visited three yarn stores and bought a lot of marvelous yarn! I’ll save the shop photos for another day. Can’t wait to show off my treasures though!

So many beauties! I love them all! I’ll share more details next time, I swear!

The Sunny Side of the Street

Aug6

It may be Monday but things are looking up, guys! We found an apartment for the girl to share with two other girls, with cheaper rent even, and they’ve got furniture so she just needs stuff for her bedroom. And we were able to rent an SUV for the week through the insurance claim on the damaged car, so we’ll have room to move everything without having to drive a U-haul. I’m breathing so much easier now, and I think we might be able to relax and enjoy our vacation, as soon as we get her moved in anyway.

I finished my stress project, my Comfort Me Cowl, and I love it! The pattern was so simple and fun, and the yarn is gorgeous. Now I just need some cooler weather to wear it. But honestly, I’m not in a hurry for that.

I AM in a hurry for vacation though — Mountains here I come! We’ve got someone coming to stay with the dogs, so they’ll be happy-ish. I know they’ll miss us but I hate having to board them. At least this way they get to stay in their happy home.

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Guess I better start planning my vacation knitting!

100 T-pins Later

Aug3

My Imagine When shawl is blocking right now, with all the little picots pinned out nicely. It’s not a full 100 pins, but it’s about 96, so that’s pretty close. It’s not as long as I’d expected, so I hope it’s still wearable. We’re leaving very soon to take the girl to college so I doubt I’ll get good photos taken before then. But eventually I’ll show you nice photos where you can actually see the pretty yarn (Manos del Uruguay Alma)!

The girl’s furnished apartment for the coming school year fell through five days before we were scheduled to leave, so the past few days have been frantic and stressful. We’ve got an apartment lined up, but need to get a roommate finalized. We got a couch and chair from family, and she can take some furniture from home. Since we don’t have our bigger vehicle (thanks to Car Accident Sunday), we’re renting a U-haul to get out there and then a smaller car to get home. We’ll get a cheap bed from IKEA in Denver. I mean, I think we’ve got the biggest things sorted, but it’s been a bit of a nightmare. We’re all stressed and anxious and snapping at each other, and I’m really hoping that once we get her stuff moved in, we can have a few days to relax and enjoy Colorado!

Stress = a new project

Aug2

Yesterday was Not a Good Day. Not as bad as Car Accident Day on Sunday, but not great. It was more stress piled on to to all the other things we’ve dealt with this summer, and my nerves are just about at their breaking point. I needed some serious comfort knitting, so I pulled out some colorful worsted and cast on for a new cowl.

The pattern is simple and easily memorized, so I can just sit and knit without having to think too hard. The needles are bigger, so I’m not gripping them as tightly as I’ve been doing with my fingering weight WIPs. And the yarn, oh, it’s so pretty! It’s mystery yarn from a destash, so I have no idea of the brand. But it makes me happy to knit with it, and it’ll make me happy to wear it!

Happy Friday, friends. Hope your week’s been better than mine!

There is knitting happening

Jul31

I have gotten a lot of sock knitting done in the last couple of days. Thanks to a careless, speeding, idiot driver, we are currently a one-car couple. Everyone but the car is fine, thank goodness, but since the idiot did not have a current insurance policy, it’s all being covered by our policy, so we’re trying to save a little bit of money by carpooling for now rather than renting a car. Especially since we’ll have to rent a vehicle soon to take the girl’s belongings to college. (My car Edward just won’t hold as many boxes as the smushed car would have, alas.) Anyway, like I said, I am grateful that we are all unhurt and we have good insurance that will help us get it all sorted out. Eventually. Until then, I am knitting in the car while the husband drives me to and from work!

I’m loving these Apothefaery socks and who knows, by the end of the week, I might have a completed sock!

I also have a completed shawl as of last night. I bound off my Imagine When shawl and used up almost all the skein, hooray. Unless something else unexpected comes up, (and considering how the rest of this summer has gone, it might) I should have it blocked by the end of the weekend and have pretty photos to share soon! Until then, here are cute dogs.

Duncan & Grace love each other!

I hope your week is going better than mine, and that you are also getting lots of knitting done!

FO: Bobble Hat

Jul28

For all my talk yesterday about selfish knitting and making what I want to make, I spent my knitting time yesterday and this morning making a bobble hat. I’ve made maybe eight or ten of these already, for my former co-workers. They’re meant to represent the pombe yeast tetrads that they study in their research lab, and even though I’ve left that team, my former boss still asks me to make a hat for each new member. As annoying as I find bobbles to be, I’m happy to do it because A) I adore her and B) I love it when people ASK for handknit items. I had the yarn in my stash and I hadn’t made a hat in ages, so it was kind of a nice treat.

It’s based on this pattern but I made modifications to make an adult size and to adjust the placement of the bobbles, so you can see the details on the Ravelry project page. And now it’s done and I can go back to my previously scheduled fun knitting! Happy Sunday!

A Tale of Two Socks

Jul27

I always have a sock on my needles. Ever since I started sock knitting two years ago, I have at least one sock going. They’re great travel knitting, they’re useful, they’re small, I don’t need a pattern for my favorites, and I get to use fun sock yarn. But I’ve discovered that the yarn is a key part of this equation. Maybe not surprising to you — I mean, yarn is one of the best parts of this knitting obsession, right? — but it always surprises me. I have this sock I’ve been working on for a while. I don’t even know how long because I didn’t start a project in Ravelry, but maybe a couple of months? And this is what I have so far:

It’s not very much, given my usual sock-knitting rate. And I realized it’s because I don’t love the yarn. It’s a Zauberball and while I think the colors are fun, I don’t like how it feels. It’s a rougher yarn than I prefer, and I’m afraid it will be scratchy on my feet. (Yes, I know feet aren’t as sensitive as necks or foreheads or arms, but believe me, I’ve had some problem socks.) The girl has asked for a reprieve from new socks for a while. Who else would want possibly itchy purple-ish socks? I don’t know. So while I’m tempted to frog, I’ve set them aside into hibernation and last night I cast on a new, fun sock.

Much better: fun colors and SOFT yarn! This is Apothefaery Fabrications Middle of the Road Sock yarn that I got at my LYS and it’s going to be Beautiful Socks. Yes, capitals!

I just need my knitting to get back to bringing me comfort again. I’ve struggled with my knitting mojo this summer, my everything mojo if I’m being honest, and I need my knitting to be where I succeed and do what feels good for me. After the big Fade project and then the dog sweater test knit, I need selfish knitting. And not even just knitting for me; I need knitting that is driven by my creativity and my inspiration and my ideas. I have one more review project on my needles that’s almost done, and after that I might take a little break. We’ll see. There’s been a lot on my mind this summer and I’m looking ahead to taking the girl back to college and our looming house renovation project, so I might not have the mental energy for much more than comfort knitting.

A Dog Sweater

Jul24

I made a sweater. For my dog. I never thought I would be the type of person to dress up my dog, let alone to make a sweater for my dog, but there you have it. Really, the only reason I did it is because I was asked to test knit a pattern, and they wanted people with bigger dogs and they’ve seen my Instagram and I definitely fit the bill. It was a complicated pattern with a lot of math but the actual knitting went quickly and soon Jack had a handsome sweater.

As you can see, there’s a lot of fabric bunched up in front, so either my measurements were off or my knitting was off. I don’t even know. And it’s fine, it goes on and comes off and he was very patient with me during the entire ordeal.

Every time I had to measure him, he dutifully got up and stood still, for a short time anyway. When I had to try it on him, he let me manhandle him to get it on. I also tried it on Duncan, our big horse of a dog to see if it would fit him as well.

It looked better on Jack. And I have to confess, I found him quite enchanting in the sweater and for a brief moment thought I would make another one in hopes of getting a better fit.

Then I woke up the next day and had come to my senses. Jack is fine with one sweater!