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!

Swatch and Frog, Swatch and Frog

I have two skeins of a highly variegated yarn that I'm determined to knit up. But I'm having the hardest time finding a pattern that works with it. Really, I've knit it in six different patterns now and I'm just crossing my fingers that this time it will work. Or I might get a foot into the scarf and decide to frog it yet again. (Frogging is what knitters call ripping out the stitches. Fortunately the yarn is 100% reusable in most cases).



The yarn is Koigu KPPPM. In two skeins there are 350 yards, enough for a long skinny scarf but pretty scant for a triangle shawl. So I'm limiting myself to patterns I can do as a scarf.

I first tried the Woodland Shawl pattern. I thought the yarn was too busy and went with a semi-solid instead (my Rust Woodland which worked wonderfully).


Next up I tried the super popular pattern Clapotis. I got a ways in and confirmed that I really dislike the look of those dropped stitches. The columns of yarn lines just look... unfinished to me.


No picture for this one, but I started and stopped a Lacy Baktus scarf. A narrow triangle, mostly garter stitch worked side to side. The garter stitch made the color variations look even more frenzied and a bit sloppy. Not the one.

Then I started doing little swatches. I tried out a stitch pattern I truly enjoyed knitting, the herringbone in my Herringbone Neck Warmer. Actually, I thought this looked great but the fabric is dense and it wouldn't be a drapey scarf. I needed to go back to a lace pattern.


So I tried my faithful backup - Feather & Fan. Amazingly, this did nothing for the pattern OR the yarn.


Really this was getting ridiculous. I thought of another stitch I enjoyed - the budding lace section of my Swallowtail Shawl. A bit tricky since the pattern is written as a triangle not a rectangle, but with a bit of math I worked out how I could do it. My swatch was sort of promising...

And here it is 37-stitches wide. The rust will be taken out so I can knit on the edging of the Swallowtail pattern. If it works out I think it will be so interesting, if not, frog frog frog.

More Koigu knitting - Woodland Scarf

This is the third scarf I've knit with Koigu yarn and it won't be my last! This time I'm using their KPM yarn which is the mostly-solid version of their sock-weight yarn. It has just enough variation in it to not be a solid.

I had the pattern in mind first and went to yarn shop looking for something that would work well with it. I didn't want it to be too busy or else it would distract from the lace pattern but a completely even solid wasn't want I wanted either. This Koigu was a perfect balance. Plus I loved the rusty color and knew I enjoyed knitting with the yarn.

The pattern is called Woodland Shawl, though I knit the scarf-width version. This was my first time doing a lace pattern that is patterned on both sides. Meaning there weren't those simple "purl each second row" instructions. The wrong side follows the lace pattern too. For the first repeat I thought it all seemed a bit too complicated but then I got to see how interesting the back was turning out. After a few repeats I had the whole thing memorized and could easily put it down and then later pick it up and jump right in. By the end it was truly enjoyable and it's a pattern I could see myself making again, definitely.

These early pictures show the stitch pattern really nicely, even though these were unblocked. Now I'm interested in finding more of these patterned on both sides designs! They are worth the extra work I think.

Raveled here.

Another Koigu Scarf - Berrylicious

It's hard to go wrong with any of the Koigu KPPPM yarn colors. I went to a local yarn shop with the idea of getting some purple Koigu. Oy, there were at least a dozen options! I ended up falling for this more-pink-than-purple colorway. So pretty!



I had a bit of trouble finding a pattern I loved to use it for. I started a drop-stitch pattern but didn't enjoy it. Too fiddly and slow for me. Then I wore my first shawl, the Feather & Fan Comfort Shawl and I was reminded of how much I loved the finished product AND the knitting itself.
I had wanted to avoid repeating patterns since I'm still pretty new to knitting and love learning new techniques and stitches, but the Feather & Fan was calling to me.
This scarf version is a 4 row repeat - knit, purl, pattern, knit. Easy! So I didn't really learn anything new but I did enjoy it thoroughly. :)



Love love love my blocking wires! Really this scarf didn't NEED blocking but it's never a bad thing. It smoothed and shaped the ends and added a whole lot of length.
Raveled here

Autumn Scarf

Yes more knitting. I'm actually doing very little sewing lately as I've found knitting to be so much easier to pick-up-and-put-down. Plus it's fall and there's more to watch on TV so I can knit and watch. But I do have two quilting projects I will finish in November!

This scarf was knit with Koigu's KPPPM yarn and it's lovely to knit with. Plus Koigu comes in every color under the sun - from slightly varigated solids to tonal stripes to wild rainbows! Really, the prettiest part of a yarn store may be the Koigu section - it's a riot of color.
Here's a few skeins of Koigu, including the 2 that created this scarf:


The pattern is called Sock-it-to-me and is from the 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders book. Yes there are definitely some fluff and silly things in there but there is also a ton of good projects you'd actually make. Good book.



I got through this scarf in just two weeks! I was really pushing to finish it though since I wanted to wear it to our family portrait day last weekend. I hope it photographed well!
Raveled here

Mittens and Hats

Brrrr! Suddenly it got very cold here and I had to admit that just throwing on a hoodie on myself and the kids wasn't going to cut it anymore. I dug out our box of mittens/gloves/scarves and then scavenged around to see if coats from last year would fit the boys this winter. It looks like we are OK on coats, but Nate only had one mitten. I found a pair of Nate's old mittens that would be fine for Ben but I have vivid memories of wrestling Nate's fingers into them and thought we could do with a easier pair.
Some new mittens were definitely in order!

Now I've been bitten by the knitting bug but no way could I have finished 2 knit pairs in one evening like I did sewing up these fleece pairs:


Fortunately I still had the mitten pattern pieces I used last year when I made mittens/scarf/hat sets for all the toddlers. The pattern is free, but there is some work involved scaling the pattern to the right size for the user. It was great to just be able to cut and sew! For Ben's I just basically winged it. No thumbs on his. I used up all of the blue making Nate's pair and didn't have a good other color for Ben's. So I ended up using this luscious smooth minkee. I used white fleece for the inside to make sure it would be warm enough. (Of course white wouldn't have stayed clean for long on the outside!) These were pretty quick jobs but definitely functional. :)

Then back to the saga of the pumpkin hat. Sigh. I really had a lot of problems with this. My first hat was too big and stretched even bigger. I also didn't love the rolled edge (especially with the stretchiness.) I ended up taking out some bottom rows and knitting a ribbed bottom instead. However, it is too big for Ben and almost too big for Nate! So it's officially Nate's hat now. I started knitting another, making it a bit smaller, for Ben. I finished it and tried it on him (bad idea to wait to the end to do this!) and it was too small now!! My notes for the first hat were wrong and I knit the 2nd one with a much smaller gauge resulting in too small a hat. Argh! I had to put it away for about a week I was so frustrated with it.

But the cold weather made me determined to pick it up again. I undid the bottom, knitted up more rows, put a nice garter stitch edge on and bound off. I was as usual, so very very close to running out of yarn! But it finally FITS him now. (Of course, he still hates wearing hats!) I have a bit more green yarn (no more orange) that I may use to make ties for this still. We'll see.



I shared this project before but I'm really only calling it complete now that I found the perfect button for my hat!


And this won't really be a cold-weather scarf but the fall colors definitely make me want to get it done NOW! It's knit with lovely Koigu KPPPM yarn which is sock weight meaning it isn't a fast knit, though it is fun and pretty easy. I love love love the colors on display here. Only a few more feet to go! ;)