Saturday, December 19, 2009

Lace knitting

Springtime Bandit 
After a recent knitting class where I learned to read charts in lace patterns, I'm making good progress on Kate Gagnon Osborn's Springtime Bandit I'm using slightly lighter weight yarn so it will probably turn out to be a scarf rather than a shawl.
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Monday, November 30, 2009

Souvenir of Maine

When in Maine earlier in November I got some fluffy cotton yarn--Colinette Fandango, purchased at Heavenly Socks in Belfast:
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Here is the resulting improvised scarf:

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Thursday, November 26, 2009

More sock yarn

I've fallen behind on posting the lovely recent additions to my Whimzypinzy sock yarn collection. Here they are:
Peacock-inspired:
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The photo doesn't do justice to the subtle colors in this one, inspired by my photos of ferns, asters, butterfly, leaves:
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Shades of green (had a name but I don't remember it)
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I'm well stashed in preparation for my knitting group's planned "stash down" knitalong--no danger of a yarn shortage here!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Baby stuff

In spite of traveling,m and in spite of my many knitting mistakes, I finished my little garter yoke baby cardi (using Jennifer Hoel's pattern but with ties instead of buttons)

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just in time for a get together with some of my knitting pals celebrating one fine knitter's baby to be.
It was a fun afternoon, with many baby knits to admire, and plenty of tasty treats, including some charming knitting-themed springerle cookies about the size of a silver dollar:


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Monday, November 2, 2009

My yarn idea

It was my turn to suggest a color scheme for Whimzypinzy's Cotton Club, and in the end she used all 4 of the photos I considered.
I can't wait to see the result!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Oh, yes, about the yarn...

Here's the latest cotton sock yarn from Whimzypinzy:

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This should work up into something fun!
Last month brought a peacock-based skein with brilliant blues and greens but I haven't taken a picture yet.

More knitting, more yarn

September left me with a bunch of unfinished knitting, but I needed a fun, portable project, so I started some toe-up socks using the Watermelon Sangria yarn I got earlier in the summer (see 7/3/entry):

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I am making each foot before starting either heel.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Stashtastic

It started small, as these things do--just a little idea for a corner of one shelf in a book case. One little lunchtime trip to Bed Bath and Beyond just to look at any storage boxes that might fit that shelf. Somehow it turned into this:

Yarn Stash

As it turns out, the top two shelves hold 16 boxes nicely. And each box holds roughly a project's worth of yarn (except for the sock yarn, of course.) Not that it's all of my yarrn, but it's almost all of the yarn I bought myself, as opposed to the yarn I got in the great wool-free-forever swap.

I figure I've already covered the cost of the boxes just by talking myself out of buying a bunch more yarn.

What's next? Well, I do have a little stack of books to reorganize...

Sunday, August 2, 2009

I needed more yarn

This month's surprise from Whimsy Pinzy's hand dyed cotton yarn club is called Mystic Topaz and it's gorgeous:

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I really do need to learn how to finish socks!

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Distracted

I've been working along on my Pioneer, but needed some dpns for the sleeves, so off I went to Knit & Stitch, where some Filatura di Crosa Carioca in pleasingly bright and tweedy variegations of purply blue and lime-to-turquoise caught my eye. Now I'm mulling a striped tee.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Updates coming soon

I've been working on a better update cycle with both blogs and plan to make some improvements such as showing the feed of each in the other's sidebar.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Tending to my knitting

I have project updates and yarn updates, and the yarn is growing faster than I can knit!
In the project department:
1. I have finished my scarf:
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2. I have started and made good progress on a sweater/top for myself. It's a modified version of Pioneer (from Knitty.com), using TLC cotton plus:
Pioneer in progress
The photo is a bit blurred, sorry.

In the yarn department:
1. I got some fabulous Flock Bransonas cotton-bamboo yarn in a swap package from a Ravelry pal:
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Yarn detail:
Swap yarn Flock Bransonas
2. I signed up for Whimsy Pinzy's hand dyed cotton yarn club and have 2 yarns so far:
"A Night In"
cotton sock yarn 1a
and Watermelon Sangria:
cotton sock yarn 2b
Every month is a fun surprise!

Monday, May 25, 2009

Lots of progress

The knitting marches on (that scarf photo showed 2.5 repeats and now I've done 5!) in spite of the call of the yard, and even (after the electric hedge trimmer literally went up in smoke) the hardware store. A late afternoon thunderstorm helped me carve out some more knitting time. Could I possibly turn into a lace knitter?

Saturday, May 23, 2009

New Projects

I'm still not quite done with those socks (need to perfect my toe-weaving technique on something heavier than sock yarn) but I have 2 more projects underway.
I'm using the Farmhouse Yarns Bonnie's Bamboo that I bought at Heavenly Socks last month to make a narrower version of Veronik Avery's Lace Ribbons Scarf:


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It's coming along well, thanks to the encouragement of my Ravelry friends.

My other new project is a new pair of socks:


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in Crystal Palace's Panda Cotton from Unique One, using a free CP pattern: Mehehune Cobblestones

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Almost done

Here is my sock progress:


Broken rib socks


The color in the photo is a little off--too pink. The last bit is what I'm dreading: weaving the second toe. The first one is wearable but not something I'd want to show off! I'm getting the point of toe-up sock knitting!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Catching up

I've been slow to take photos and some how I got correspondingly behind on blogging as well.
My latest knitting update is that I've started Anna Bell's Cherry, a short-sleeved cardigan. The pattern calls for Jo Sharp Soho Summer DK Cotton, which means I can actually use the original yarn, and it was on sale! The color I have is called Rockpool, a deep green.
In sock news, I'm struggling along on my second sock using the Berocco Comfort Sock yarn. I like using bamboo or wooden sock needles but was disappointed that one wooden needle broke.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Sox!

The first 3 photos show the Ridged top down pattern from More Sensational Knitted Socks, knitted in Kollage Luscious. Turning the heel was a wonderful revelation of my own three dimensionality in concrete detail. However, the cotton yarn and not-so-stretchy pattern left me with a slightly slack fit around the ankle.

Ridged sock: heel detail


Ridged sock


Ridged sock-side view


This last photo shows my first toe-up sock in progress. It's based on another pattern in More Sensational Knitted Socks, knitted in Cascade Fixation. The stretchy yarn and the use of Heel Stitch on the flap combine to give the heel and ankle a better fit,


Purple Toe-up sock

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Quick update

Travel has kept me away from blogging for a while but not away from knitting. Or shopping. Midcoast Maine's LYS owners are friendly and helpful!
A quick visit to Heavenly Socks Yarns in Belfast got me started on sock knitting, using Charlotte Schurch's lucidly written More Sensational Socks. My first pair used some previously purchased Kollage Luscious, variegated in purple, green, and gold. They are comfy but a bit loose in the heel. I'm not sure I'll use it for socks again, or perhaps it just needs less ease and a ribbier stitch. I've started pair number two using Cascade Fixation in purple, toe up for (I hope) a precise fit.
Circumstances kept me from getting back to Belfast for the remainder of the trip, but I did manage two visits to Camden's Unique One, where on impulse I got 3 skeins of Schaefer's Laurel in the Empress Wu Zhao colorway. I'm hoping to find a comparable yarn in a solid to add structure to the randomness. In addition, still thinking of socks, I got 2 skeins of Berrocco Comfort Sock.
Photos later.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Photos at last

Here is the comfortable and cozy Emerald Cardigan at last:

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I made the collar bigger, added a second button, and skipped the eyelets (yarn overs) along the raglan shaping. The yarn (an unlabeled acrylic as far as I can tell) shaded nicely.

And here is my version of Jared Flood's Turn a Square hat:
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The colors are off. The green is too yellow and the blue is too bright. I used Lion Brand Vanna's Choice Sweet Pea and Dusty Blue. Not Mr. Flood's style as to color or choice of yarn, but fun to knit and nice to wear under the hood of my similarly green parka on extra cold days.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Starting 2009

In the spirit of the little stash down contest going on with some knitting pals, I'm starting the new year on a productive note of projects completed or decisively abandoned. This will be the year of finishing things, I think.
I'm way behind on photos, but here's an update:
  • My Emerald cardigan is finished! I made the collar wider with extra short rows, and I gave it 2 buttons instead of just 1.

  • My turquoise hat (using Creamy) was just too frustrating, so I gave up. It's nice yarn for something--lace, perhaps--but not for a hat. Knitting with it doubled was like knitting with 2 strands of crochet cotton--no give, no loft, and ready to slip off the needles at a moment's notice. It's a nice enough pattern, but not for that yarn.

  • I just finished my take on Jared Flood's Turn a Square hat, only instead of using a classic wool I used Vanna's Choice acrylic in a sort of lime-to-pea-soup green with muted blue stripes.I did it partly to learn how to do the Jogless Join when knitting stripes in the round, so as to be able to apply this approach to my striped pullover, which was not looking the way I had hoped. It worked out well! There was a difficult moment when I realized I had made the hat an inch too long, but by (gasp) cutting off 2 inches, bravely picking up and ribbing down for an inch, I rescued it. It's in the washing machine now so I can see how VC washes before I whip up a baby blanket.