Before:
After:
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
14: Nebula Pashmina Cowl
this was a quick knit - this shawl collared cowl from Alana Dakos. I knit it in Madtosh Pashmina held doubled colour is Nebula - a lovely teal colour.
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Sunday, December 25, 2011
70% is the magic number..
I just realized that I knit to about 70% of a project then seem to stall out. I either get stuck, bored, or end up at some fixing point.
Project 6 - this was my last december's hot-to-trot pattern that I couldn't wait to cast-on. I was sur e I was going to finish it in the month of December. It's the Kelmscott cardi. A lovely thing knit in a lovely yarn. Blue Sky Alpaca Suri Merino - I'm swooning just thinking about it. sadly, I forgot to read ahead on this one, and missed decreasing at the neck AT THE SAME TIME (the knitter's blasted words I say!) as I was doing the armhole decreases and had to rip back.
Once I was in the mood and had ripped it back, I went back to the pattern. It's still hibernating because the designer doesn't say how to adjust the lace as the decreases are eating up the lace pattern.
Also, I think the post-it note I was using to keep track of rows on multiple charts may have fallen off (after a year, it just doesn't keep it's stick), so I have to go back and read my knitting.
I think the neck decreases will anyway be hidden by the shawl collar anyway..so even though I say i'm at 70%, I'm probably really just at 50% because there's this huge shawl collar also in lace that still needs to be knit once the fronts are done. ::sigh:: this one could be a 2012 project.
Do you see a pattern here?
Fortunately, the first one, the cardi is kicking right along - I'm at about 70% because the body is done, and i'm working on the sleeves. I've modified it, but that's normal for me. The only thing potentially holding me back on this is that I hope I won't be too bothered by the color change on this beast. The one that my camera detects, that the cardigan's top is more brown gray than the bottom which is a chocolate brown with more chestnut brown highlights. I know, it's not hair, but it's the best description I can give at the moment. I've started the decreases on the sleeve, and have been trying it on as I go. I did knit about 2" longer so that the cardi matches the one I normally wear.
Project 2 - Dahlia Cardi is only at 15% - that's because i'm about 70% done with the chart (there's that "70" number again - hmmmm...) and think I might have to frog back..not sure. my stitches are a bit off on one of the repeats and tempted to keep going, just to be going on this so-called Knit-a-long (KAL).
The rest of the pattern is stockinette so it should be peasy.
Project 3 is a actually a simple shawl..one of the first patterns I ever made "Branching Out" in a cashmere that is to just to dye die for knitting pleasure on my hands. but I put it down..and am working on Project 1 full out now.
Project 4 is Spectra - also stalled at 70%. I knit this when we were at Cornerstone Cafe and it was pretty smoky there. I got tired of having to block and re-block this baby. Now, I'm at 56 wedges of 80 and thinking of binding off earlier rather than later - before I really lose interest (bwaaahaha).
I wound it around my neck to just get an idea if I could bind off and looks like it'll be at least another 6 or 7 wedges before I can do that..just to get the length I want after it coils around my neck. Pretty close though. Could be a 2011 project, after all.
I wound it around my neck to just get an idea if I could bind off and looks like it'll be at least another 6 or 7 wedges before I can do that..just to get the length I want after it coils around my neck. Pretty close though. Could be a 2011 project, after all.
Project 5 - Watershed cardi - this was supposed to be an easy cardi that I just whipped out last January. Hah! right. I ended up totally ignoring the designer's intention with the pattern and doing my own thing. (sometimes my hands become possessed while holding the needles)
Even though my gauge was fine, my row gauge was way off, and I ended up having to do some major math. Then, I misplaced the pattern most of the summer, and had Juanita help me re-do the major math in late August with intentions to fix it all. I frogged back, and was all ready to finish this off by joining the parts to make one long big back and forth, AAAAAND here we go again, realized that the left front had some fudging that I have to go back and fix..so, time to rip this one back, and then, re-join yarn. Neither quick nor easy for me apparently. So, it's somewhat on hold, and not hibernating because that would put it so far down on my project page, I'd forget I was making it.
Even though my gauge was fine, my row gauge was way off, and I ended up having to do some major math. Then, I misplaced the pattern most of the summer, and had Juanita help me re-do the major math in late August with intentions to fix it all. I frogged back, and was all ready to finish this off by joining the parts to make one long big back and forth, AAAAAND here we go again, realized that the left front had some fudging that I have to go back and fix..so, time to rip this one back, and then, re-join yarn. Neither quick nor easy for me apparently. So, it's somewhat on hold, and not hibernating because that would put it so far down on my project page, I'd forget I was making it.
Project 6 - this was my last december's hot-to-trot pattern that I couldn't wait to cast-on. I was sur e I was going to finish it in the month of December. It's the Kelmscott cardi. A lovely thing knit in a lovely yarn. Blue Sky Alpaca Suri Merino - I'm swooning just thinking about it. sadly, I forgot to read ahead on this one, and missed decreasing at the neck AT THE SAME TIME (the knitter's blasted words I say!) as I was doing the armhole decreases and had to rip back.
Once I was in the mood and had ripped it back, I went back to the pattern. It's still hibernating because the designer doesn't say how to adjust the lace as the decreases are eating up the lace pattern.
Also, I think the post-it note I was using to keep track of rows on multiple charts may have fallen off (after a year, it just doesn't keep it's stick), so I have to go back and read my knitting.
I think the neck decreases will anyway be hidden by the shawl collar anyway..so even though I say i'm at 70%, I'm probably really just at 50% because there's this huge shawl collar also in lace that still needs to be knit once the fronts are done. ::sigh:: this one could be a 2012 project.
back to knitting the cardi..oh, and I've cast-on another little neck thing, which I expect (ahem) to be a pretty quick knit. more on that later.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Almost Christmas...
It's almost Christmas..just a few more days.
December has really blown by. I've spent a lot of the last few weeks working, and working more working.
Overtime, staying late, icky stuff.
I'm making good progress on my cardigan. Just lengthening the body, and then, I will do them hem, and knit the button bands.
I'm modifying the pattern again, because I'm not sure I like the whole look of it, and I like doing things my own way. This yarn is so pretty.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
December 10th-woohoo yarn
I have been spending way too much time on work or at work these last couple of weeks and I'm tired. Yesterday, I was off (finally) and I had a pretty good mail day:
(1) A friend from oregon sent me 3 boxes of Candy Cane Jo-jos (for a pic of the box, go to google images and type in "Candy cane joe joe's"). They're basically like oreos but with a whipped peppermint icing filling instead of a regular white icing in the middle. Wonderful to dip in milk at this time of year..and some tea I'd bought from Harney Tea. The box was mailed Wednesday by UPS to arrive Friday - and amazingly it really arrived friday at my door about 5pm. Very fast service.
(2) The December shipment of the Sweet Georgia Yarn Club Arrived - tough love sock in a lovely deep red, dark brown (which I'm still loving right now), and a greyish-light green/blue color. very nice. Looks like I'll be joining Melissa and Andi again for the yarn club in 2012.
(3) A Sanguine Gryphon order from early November arrived with codex I'd ordered from a special update. I had asked them to mail it all together, and it ended up being delayed because they'd over sold one of the yarns.
Very... lovely.
This is SG Codex in Emma Woodhouse (the signatus lacewing equivalent) - gorgeous - and totally Cold..Dead..Hands - so don't even ask.
It was a very limited update - with only 20 skeins each of about 8 rare colours of codex. I originally tried to put 4 in my cart of Emma, but it was saying sold out, I changed the quantity to 2, and checked out immediately. when I went back to refresh the page, it was all sold out. Stalking at its finest.
The only reason I ended up scoring some of this next one, Devil's Dictionary was that everyone who was stalking was focused on the lovely emma Woodhouse and another one that is basically the faithful beauty red on codex, The Devil's dictionary listing was actually sorted further down alphabetically rather than being one of the first listings.
Devil's Dictionary is the Ruby-tailed Wasp equivalent - Black with bits of teal and ruby.
Unfortunately, not as well-matched as the photo. 2 of the skeins are a deep black, and 2 of the skeins are more of a smoky gray as the silver pastel highlights took over. I had planned to possibly use these for a cardi, but I think I'll have to ponder further given the color differences.
Current knitting - focussed on a cardigan using the sweater club shipment which arrived last month. My magnolia society shipments arrived about a month ago, and I swatched and cast-on quickly - this fall forest cardi. I'm calling it that because the yarn is a lovely rich dark chocolate brown with bits of chestnut brown/red and dark hunter green. The color is called Bitter Root. The base is Madtosh MCN Worsted, a merino-cashmere nylon blend.
As for the project, I'm making good headway on this - having started the decreases below the armhole.
As usual, I'm making a few small mods..knitting in stockinette instead of reverse stockinette, and probably will lengthen at the waist. On the hunt for 7- 1-1/4" buttons which sounds pretty large..and they are large. will see what I find.
Also, about that Dahlia KAL I was doing with Jen, Natalie and Melissa ? somewhat reserved for quiet time when I can sit and focus on the lace pattern. I'm about 5 rows from finishing the end of the lace pattern. Here's a couple of progress photos:
and earlier:
(1) A friend from oregon sent me 3 boxes of Candy Cane Jo-jos (for a pic of the box, go to google images and type in "Candy cane joe joe's"). They're basically like oreos but with a whipped peppermint icing filling instead of a regular white icing in the middle. Wonderful to dip in milk at this time of year..and some tea I'd bought from Harney Tea. The box was mailed Wednesday by UPS to arrive Friday - and amazingly it really arrived friday at my door about 5pm. Very fast service.
(2) The December shipment of the Sweet Georgia Yarn Club Arrived - tough love sock in a lovely deep red, dark brown (which I'm still loving right now), and a greyish-light green/blue color. very nice. Looks like I'll be joining Melissa and Andi again for the yarn club in 2012.
(3) A Sanguine Gryphon order from early November arrived with codex I'd ordered from a special update. I had asked them to mail it all together, and it ended up being delayed because they'd over sold one of the yarns.
Very... lovely.
This is SG Codex in Emma Woodhouse (the signatus lacewing equivalent) - gorgeous - and totally Cold..Dead..Hands - so don't even ask.
It was a very limited update - with only 20 skeins each of about 8 rare colours of codex. I originally tried to put 4 in my cart of Emma, but it was saying sold out, I changed the quantity to 2, and checked out immediately. when I went back to refresh the page, it was all sold out. Stalking at its finest.
The only reason I ended up scoring some of this next one, Devil's Dictionary was that everyone who was stalking was focused on the lovely emma Woodhouse and another one that is basically the faithful beauty red on codex, The Devil's dictionary listing was actually sorted further down alphabetically rather than being one of the first listings.
Devil's Dictionary is the Ruby-tailed Wasp equivalent - Black with bits of teal and ruby.
Unfortunately, not as well-matched as the photo. 2 of the skeins are a deep black, and 2 of the skeins are more of a smoky gray as the silver pastel highlights took over. I had planned to possibly use these for a cardi, but I think I'll have to ponder further given the color differences.
Current knitting - focussed on a cardigan using the sweater club shipment which arrived last month. My magnolia society shipments arrived about a month ago, and I swatched and cast-on quickly - this fall forest cardi. I'm calling it that because the yarn is a lovely rich dark chocolate brown with bits of chestnut brown/red and dark hunter green. The color is called Bitter Root. The base is Madtosh MCN Worsted, a merino-cashmere nylon blend.
As for the project, I'm making good headway on this - having started the decreases below the armhole.
As usual, I'm making a few small mods..knitting in stockinette instead of reverse stockinette, and probably will lengthen at the waist. On the hunt for 7- 1-1/4" buttons which sounds pretty large..and they are large. will see what I find.
Also, about that Dahlia KAL I was doing with Jen, Natalie and Melissa ? somewhat reserved for quiet time when I can sit and focus on the lace pattern. I'm about 5 rows from finishing the end of the lace pattern. Here's a couple of progress photos:
and earlier:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)