WIP Wednesday: October 31st

 

Sorry about the poor quality of WIP Wednesday photos, it is really dark here in the morning.

Last week, I had a few more projects on the needles, but I finished the Pomatomus socks and I decided to hibernate my crocheted stole in preparation for KAL Chaos.

This leaves (from left to right):

•  Thyme – I have made it through the main body and first lace repeat, just three more and a knitted on edge
• Hello Sweetie – This is going to be my purse project for the next little while, these should be quick but they just haven’t been at the top of the to do list.
• Too Cool for My Socks – Finally got the toes knit on these, but they are going into hibernation until I finish my TFA KAL socks and Hello Sweetie.  I would like to have them finished by the end of the year.
• Rockberry Triangle – Through the 3 charts, but really only one section (stitch pattern). As a worsted weight shawl, it really shouldn’t be that much longer. I’m not hibernating it, but maybe lowering it down the list.

So, tomorrow I will be casting on for the TFA KAL projects and then not long after I will be starting the other KAL projects.

 

FO: Kingpurse Sock

Editors Note: Here we go again, I have another batch of FOs to share, these ones start in mid-August and run through mid-October.  I went on a bit of a knitting hiatus in mid-September for some unknown reason, but I am back with a vengeance.

So Kingpurse, has to be the best fitting, most comfortable pair of frankensocks I have made yet. Rather than frankensocks I need to think of them as superband socks, putting together all my favorite sock elements into a single sock. The toe, which uses an shallower toe by spacing the increases differently, the y-shaped garter stitch heel that takes up 60% of the body of the sock, the 3×1 ribbed leg that fits so nicely.

Also, I LOVE the way the stripes worked up on this pair.  Rather than my usual plan of just starting the socks and letting them stripe differently, I tried to make this pair match, however I didn’t notice that the stripes were uneven and the orange ones appeared at a different interval, so when I started knitting all was well and when I got to the first stripe they were the same width by different colors, and I just went with it.  I love the way they are the same but different, kind of like me!

The only thing I don’t like about this sock is the bind-off, I tried a doubled bind off (where you knit one, slip back, then K2tog tbl, and repeat).  It turned out much to sloppy and loose, so I will be going back to Jenny’s Super Stretchy Bind Off.

I think with this I have perfected the sock recipe, I need to put it to further test. I tried it on fingering weight yarn, but I found that with the looser gauge the heel looked funny, so I may just release it as a sport weight pattern, or try to get the gauge on Felici fingering down to what I use for Felici sport.

– Details –

Project Name: Kingpurse Socks

Pattern: My own design

Recipient: Me

Yarn: KnitPicks Felici Sport

Modifications:

• Did my “doubled” short row heel, that increases the amount of space in the heel without loosening the ankle
• I didn’t do Jeny’s Super Stretchy Bind Off, and I regretted it, I will be going back to that for the next pair.

New Skills:

• I’m still refining the design, so I’m still learning about designing.

Feedback:

• Really getting things going on this yarn and design, but I’m still not done yet.

Re-Knit?: Already have my next pair on the go.

I love socks, socky, socks, socks

Much like Ron Burgundy, I feel strongly about scotch, I mean socks.

Here at the end of October, I have made 12 pairs of socks already this year, the goal I set for myself back in January.

Now, I’m not one to give up when I’m ahead, so I’m going to keep going with the sock knitting pace I have set so I’m planning to make at least 3 more pairs (two patterned, one plain) before the end of the year.

I think my eyes might be bigger than my stomach …

Yarns I have wound for this insanity, (L to R) TFA Orange Label in Frost, Shalimar Yarns Homage in Loden, TFA Blue Label in Truffle and TFA Red Label in Dove

So, right now on the go I have five projects in various stages of completion (one just got off the needles since Wednesday), and pretty soon I am going to have 4 more on the go.

Why, yes I am insane!

I’m participating in a second Tanis Fiber Arts KAL over in the Ravelry group. This time we are using TFA Accessories patterns or using TFA yarn for a gift project.

I’m able to enter one project in both categories, Tanis’s Business Casual socks, that I will be making out of the Year in Color club color Truffle. This one is a gift for someone who is tech savy enough to be a reader so I will show them off and hopefully they don’t deduce that they are the one getting them.

Photo by Tanis Lavallee

Also, I’m going to try to finish the Suncrest Shawl by Tanis in some spectacular TFA Red Label in Dove that I picked up at the Kitchener Waterloo Knitter’s Fair (which I never blogged about, but short version, it was fun and I met the Yarn Harlot). The pattern is part of the Stella Collection which Tanis and Julie (Crawford of Knitted Bliss) released last summer. You may recall that I tested for Julie last spring and she and Tanis thanked me for my help with the full pattern collection.

Photo by Tanis Lavallee

So, after making this plan I discovered two more KALs that I wanted to jump on board with, first off Melissa Thompson of Sweet Fiber Yarns & Design released a new pattern Autumn Bloom, and announced an accompanying KAL and I had to get in on it.

Photo by Melissa Thompson

Melissa had an injury earlier this month, so she hasn’t been able to keep up with her dyeing (understandably!) and so I think I’m going to use the TFA Orange Label I picked up at Knitter’s Frolic back in April, which is going to make for a totally luxe winter shawl. Depending

Due to my selfish nature, and that you will have to pry this shawl from my cold, dead hands, it won’t be part of the TFA KAL, because if you are using the yarn but not the pattern it has to be a gift and I’m not gifting this baby.

The last KAL I want to get in on is the Cabernet Sauvignon KAL. Monika Sirna of What Dreams Are Made Of is a new designer to me, but I fell hard for her latest design. I may have missed her up till now becuase she has mostly been designing clothes for little girls, adorable girl clothes, but something I just don’t currently knit. I’m going to make it out of some other yarn I picked up at KW, an MCS fingering weight yarn, Homage by Shalimar Yarns who made the trek to the show all the way from Maryland.

Photo by Monika Sirna

My yarn is a little short of the requirements, but I will just remove keep weighing my skeins and remove a repeat in the center, yay for knitting math.

So the TFA KAL deadline is November 30th and the other two have a deadline of December 15th, and I still have 5 projects on the go, I can totally get them all done by the end of the year, right? Right?

 

The next wave approaches …

So earlier this year I was prepping for what is an inevitability of growing up, that  my cohort would start having babies.  I wanted to get a sense of what a person should knit for babies, and used baby Nico as a test run.

I ended up knitting two “sets” a Puerperium Cardigan  Sweater in Tourmaline by Sweet Georgia Yarns and Baby Vertebrae Sweater in Kindling by KnitPicks both by Kelly Booker.

Nico is now six months old (and still wearing the brown sweater) and over Thanksgiving I heard that two of my cousins are expecting babies in April!

I’m really happy for both families, and these are the first babies in several years.

One family is planning on finding out their baby’s gender while the other is  not, so I’m trying to plan out matching/coordinating knits in coordinating and gender neutral colors.  I’m expecting that there will be lots and lots of pictures of these two together (because the mom in one family and the dad in the other are siblings).

Seeing how much love the brown sweater has had I know I want to make ones for the new babies, and the blue sweater was just so cute (and perfect for pictures) so they will each get one of those.  I just need to hear about the gender of one of the babies and then I can pick the yarns.  Of course I have till April to get these done, I do want to get a fresh start on these in the new year.

WIP Wednesday: October 24th

While my blogging has been sparse, my knitting has been a bit better. I had a bit of a WIP-splosion when I moved in early September, and I am still working on those hastily started projects.

From the top we have:
– Pomatomus socks for Carla
– a crocheted stole (I’m about three rows in)
– plain socks that have only been started and have only had 1 row knit on them
– Juneberry shawl in a local wool that is similar to what I think Shelter must be like
– Smile and Wave fingerless mitts
– Flukra shawl in some Tosh Lace that I have been trying to knit for almost 2 years

So I think I need to get knitting, especially if I want to participate in the Tanis Fiber Arts KAL in November.

Happy [Canadian] Thanksgiving

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving everyone!

So far I’ve had a great weekend, specifically today, which has included some knitting,

a hike to Wilson’s Falls in Bracebridge,

a FO photo shoot,

received some exciting news (not mine to share, yet),

and a Thanksgiving dinner for 1 (grocery store rotisserie chicken, green beans, some boxed stuffing and a pumpkin pie).

So, for my very first Thanksgiving away from my family has been really, surprisingly, fun.  I don’t plan to make it a habit of solo holidays, but knowing I can celebrate on my own is a good feeling.

FO: Fling Scarf

Sometimes a project is more than a project, when many hands are on a project it can make things more fun, in this case, this scarf got woven on by quite a few people at indigodragonfly’s Haliburton Highlands Fling back in August.  I brought along my Cricket loom to expose more people to the fun of Rigid Heddle weaving.

As someone who has trouble with knitting stranded colorwork, I find that weaving is my way to play with colors and combinations, and in this case highlighting (and using up) some multi and tonal colorways from a local fiber vendor.

I think this one is going to the gift box, it is really nice, but a girl only needs so many scarves.

– Details –

Project Name: Fling Scarf

Draft: Plain Weave

Recipient: The Box

Yarn: Pondering Rock Farms Bulky in “Eggplant and Grass” and “Ochre” (The colorways are unnamed but these seemed fitting

Modifications: None, just a plain weave scarf (which I love making)

New Skills: I got to teach some people about weaving on a rigid heddle loom, which is new to me!

Feedback:

• Yarn: Its rough and rustic, but I love the way the two colors play together.
• Draft: Oh plain weave, how I love you.

Re-Weave?: Yeppers, pairing a multi with a solid makes for a great looking scarf.