Summer Catch Up

So I've taken a little blogging break here.  Maybe it's a summer thing, maybe I need a better direction here.  Really, a lot of the reason is that all my projects have been knitting ones so they get documented, photographed, noted, cataloged, linked, and oohed and aahed over on Ravelry.  Much of my purpose for the blog was just to have a great record of what I've made in one place.  For knitting Ravelry handles that perfectly.  For sewing, there's just nothing like it. 

So now it's time for a big catch up!  First here are my shawls & shrugs.  From top to bottom: Summer Flies in Handmaiden's Lady Godiva, Hibiscus in Kelpie Fiber's superwash sock, a Saroyan shrug in Sanguine Gryphon's Codex, and my second Daybreak in Sanguine Gryphon's Bugga.  The Saroyan shrug is a project I copied with a leaf lace edging from the Saroyan shawl.  All details are on my Ravelry project pages. 

I think I need a break from shawls.  I feel like making sweaters to my great surprise!

A few weeks ago I finished my last Loved Crown for the year.  Eight crowns for eight 4th birthdays!!  What a fun pattern.  I had so much fun coming up with different color combinations for all the kids.  All eight were made with Knitpick's Comfy Bulky. 

This last one was a birthday present for my niece who was turning 6. It's a combination of three patterns by Susan B. Anderson.  In her "Itty Bitty Toys" book she has a section of reversible toys.  I took the frog, sister, and the free Ribbit pattern frog and combined elements of each to make a Princess & the Frog reversible, like the Disney movie.  I think it came out pretty good!  I love the little details.
Made with Knitpick's Comfy Worsted.  My go-to yarn for toys, I have a ton of colors on hand.

 

Finishing time - Daybreak shawl

Daybreak shawl is done! I made it to match my raincoat above and of course it's finished just in time for it to be too warm to wear. Ah well, I'm sure I'll enjoy it in the fall. This is another of of the WIPs I've posted about previously. I started so many projects at once but now I'm finishing them all up in a hurry.

The pattern is Daybreak by Stephen West. The yarn is KnitPick's new Stroll Tonal in the Springtime and Kindling colors. I love tonals, I don't think I want to knit with solids ever again! Since I had a generous 462 yards of each, I was aiming for the medium size shawl but along the way I grew bored and cut out rows here and there and it ended up between a small and a medium. Since I really wanted to use it as a scarf with my raincoat I'm not sure what I was thinking aiming for it to be so big! Small would have been fine.

Raveled here

As usual, I couldn't help myself and I blocked the daylights out of it! I started out thinking I would just "lightly block" it to straighten out the edges, but then once I get out my blocking wires all that goes flying out the window.

Ochre Echo

A few weeks ago I posted about a ton of knitting projects I had in progress, all at once. I call that start-it-itis where you just feel like starting project after project, when the beginning is more fun than slogging through to the end. Well now I'm feeling a huge bout of finish-it-up-itis!

My latest finish is the Echo Flower Shawl (free pattern on Ravelry) that I made in Malabrigo Sock yarn in the Ochre colorway.
I LOVE this pattern. It has several traditional Estonian elements and I loved learning the new stitches for it. Raveled here

Some closeups...
Here is the flower repeat. It uses 2-into-9 and 3-into-9 stitches. Basically you turn 2 or 3 stitches into 9 by knitting into them extra times. It's different but not hard, and creates an interesting effect. It's the little circle holes with all the stitches radiating out from the center of the "flower".


Here is a closeup of the border. I do love a detailed border and this definitely qualifies! The little yarn blobs are called "nupps" and they add a neat textural element to the pattern. The nupps are made by turning 1 stitch into 9, then turning the 9 back into 1 on the next row. Voila - yarn blob!


I need to learn to weave the ends in before taking pictures so I don't have silly threads like in this one. But here is how I wear my shawls usually.


Here is how important blocking is for lace. This is exactly how it looks after coming off the needles. Not anything I would call lace quite yet!


I think at some points during May I've had 6 projects I was working on, or ignoring, but I really feel like getting them all out of the way before starting new ones.
Some recent progress:
- finished two knitted crowns (three more to make this summer!)
- I'm going to end my striped Daybreak shawl earlier than planned. I intend to use it as a scarf with my raincoat so no need to make it enormous. So suddenly it's almost done! :)
- almost done with one super secret project
- Two other knitted projects will be worked on once I clear out the two above, a scarf in SeaSilk and a second Calais shawl
- My ducks in a row pull toy really just needs the wheels and ties assembled
- and on the sewing front, my place mats were finally quilted and just need the hand stitching of the binding.

Stephen West knitting

This great yarn shop here, Loop, is constantly having great knit designers in for events. They are often book signings, classes, trunk shows, casual knit-and-greets or even all of the above. I really look forward to seeing what classes the guests are offering particularly since they tend to be more specialized or advanced. The problem is that I can never make it to them! I was out of town for Jared Flood's (aka Brooklyn Tweed) classes, had my son's 4th birthday parties during Anne Hanson's (of Knitspot) advanced lace knitting class (I nearly cried over this one!) and on and on. So I was happily surprised when I saw that Stephen West was coming to Loop and I actually can make his advanced shawl workshop!

I've been working on two of his shawl pattern now and just finished one this week.

Herbivore

I knit this one with Malabrigo sock in the Impressionist Sky colorway. I had such a hard time picking which yarn to use for this pattern. It looks great in really varied colors too, but in the end I wanted to highlight the texture of the twist rib stitches and went with a semi-solid.

Raveled here

The Malabrigo is so light and soft, it drapes so well. I'm with my son here enjoying an outdoor lunch in the city.

Daybreak

Another one that is incredibly hard to pick yarn for! It seems to look great in just about every yarn combination - colors that are similar, light/dark, contrasting solids, semi-solids, one solid and one high variegated.... Options overload! The combination I finally decided on is made to match my raincoat.

I'm a bit further in now than when I took this picture, but still about half way to go.

I actually did my first of Stephen West's patterns back in February -- the Colonnade shawl, another fun design.

I'm looking forward to the class!

Garden of Alla Shawl

On one of my mom's trips out to Philadelphia she became enamored of my Koigu Feather & Fan scarf and was determined to make one just like it. She even bought 4 skeins to make two scarves. Well... I think she'll finish one of them someday but in the meantime I thought I'd make her something she could wear now. :)

I chose the yarn first. I was looking for purple but didn't want either a solid or a handpainted look. I found this Mini Mochi yarn with long color changes. Kind of like Noro but it's actually soft!
After knitting with it I'm undecided on whether I like the yarn. It's very soft, but a bit fuzzy and very splitty. The colors were gorgeous though each skeins had the color changes a bit different.


Next I needed a pattern that wouldn't conflict too much with the color changes, a basic repeating geometric pattern I thought would be best, but I also wanted something interesting to knit! I chose a free pattern called Garden of Alla. It turned out to be pretty challenging, I wasn't able to memorize it until the final repeat. But I do like how it looks!
Raveled here


Pre Blocking. One thing I love about these slow color-changing yarns is watching the color emerge as you knit. It keeps you motivated to just do a few more rows each day!


I finished this way back in January, gave it to my mom in late February and finally am sorting the pictures out now. Here is my mum modeling her new shawl -- doesn't she look lovely!

Ravelympics 2010

Did you have fun watching the Winter Olympics? I had fun knitting along too.
Over on Ravelry.com they held another Ravelympics event. The idea is to challenge yourself and finish your project(s) during the Olympics - opening ceremony to closing - 17 days.
Here are my medals I "won" :)


For my project, I knew I wanted to knit a shawl in a new shape so I chose a pattern that is knit side to side. The pattern is called Argante. It has some interesting features - a lace edging knit as you go, short row shaping, and the cast on and off are just a few stitches. But I have to admit, I didn't entirely love knitting it. There is a lot of garter stitch and I found myself trying to race through it. I guess I missed the long purl rows of a stockinette shawl!
Raveled here


The yarn is a lovely hank from my favorite Etsy dyer, Kelpie Fibers. I have one more delicious hank from there to knit up sometime soon.



I also had a vacation during this 17-day-stretch and I wasn't sure how much knitting I'd get to do during it (turned out to be plenty) so I brought along yarn and a pattern for a second shawl, just in case.
And to my surprise, I finished it too!


The pattern is the popular Traveling Woman and I can't recommend it enough. I'm definitely planning to make another (and another and another?) It was so fast to knit, simple, enjoyable and looks great too. Instead of a traditional triangle shape it increases faster on the sides which gives a softer crescent shape. Perfect.
Raveled here


For this shawl I chose 2 lovely skeins of Koigu KPPPM (yes I've used this a lot and yes I have plenty more!) I only had 350 yards which is pretty skimpy for a shawl, but I probably only used about 320 yards on it. It blocked out plenty wide.

AND to top off an already fabulous experience, the "team" I joined for Ravelympics pulled my name to win a skein of hand-painted yarn! Woohoo!

More Malabrigo - Colonnade Shawl

Can you handle seeing one last project with Malabrigo Burgundy? I promise, this one is the last, I only have tiny scraps left. For this shawl I paired the Burgundy with Malabrigo's Stonechat colorway. An interesting name for an interesting color combination! It's mainly burgundy and olive with some brown and lighter red mixed in.



The pattern is Colonnade by Stephen West and it's free on Knitty.com. I found it pretty quick and easy and I did a few minor modifications - more rows of the burgundy and a few less of the lace pattern just so I could use up all of my yarn. I started this project early in January during a burst of "start-it-itis". I think I cast on a half dozen projects in a couple days and I'm working on several of them now.



Of course I blocked it like crazy!


I like the shaping, 4 sections rather than a traditional triangle's 2 halves. I did add the loop and toggle button too. Raveled here.

Swallowtail Shawl - Lace is Addictive!

Yes, I'm definitely all about knitting lately. And while I'm also working on hats, mittens, warm scarves and potentially useful items I love knitting lace and seeing the beautiful patterns created. I think lace looks much more intimidating and complicated than it is. If you told me at the beginning of the year that I'd be making this, I never would have believed you. Once you get the hang of some tricky bits (reading lace charts, general triangle shawl construction) it's really just the same knit and purl stitches. But that doesn't mean I'm not excessively proud!!

Raveled here.

The pattern is the Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn C. Clark and is a free pattern. The yarn is a sock weight that I bought on Etsy. I was instantly mesmerized by the colors in it - definitely overall green but with some blue and dark gold in the mix also.

This was my first beaded lace project too. I used size 6 beads an the crochet hook method to get them on the yarn. Beading definitely slowed me down, but I am really pleased with how they look in the end.

Getting the beads to show up in photos is tricky!

This is definitely the kind of project that blocking wires were meant for! I got a nice straight top edge and my points are all even too.

Noro Shawlette

What is a shawlette? It's a tiny shawl. Or something that was supposed to be a shawl but the knitter was sick of the thing and decided to quit early. So now instead of keeping shoulders warm, it's just basically a triangular scarf.


This is a lace pattern called Kellokukka that I did intend to make as a full size shawl. However I did not enjoy knittign with the yarn, Noro Kureyon Sock. Ick. It's thick and thin (and I mean blobby, really thick and then thin as thread), it's not soft and I was all done with it. I do love the look of the slow color gradation but I need to find it in a nicer yarn. Did I mention that this Noro isn't cheap either? Definitely not buying it again!


So I had done a decent amount was coming to the end of a repeat. I could have kept going, maybe knit at least one more 18-row repeat but I decided to quit before I hated the whole thing and end it short. At least it's usable as I was able to block it it to 40" wide! In the end I used just over half of the skein. As I said, I just couldn't take it anymore!
Raveled here.

My first finished knitting project - Feather & Fan Shawl

Woohoo! I'm so happy that I finished my shawl! I'm totally hooked on lacy shawls now too. I have few winter things to make and then I'm definitely making another (and another and another...) There are so many amazing lace patterns out there and tons of them are free on Ravelry.com! I think Ravelry is my new home away from home. I'd love to have such a place for sewing too.


This shawl is the Feather and Fan comfort shawl. Yarn is 2 skeins of Lorna's Laces sock yarn. I just went until I almost about ran out of yarn and bound off. Afterwards I found out about a stretchy bind-off which is essential for making those amazing pointy lace edges, but mine looks decent. :)
Raveled here



MMmmmm I love variegated yarn. This picture was during blocking.