New month, new progress

I actually have some FOs to show off again.

First and most exciting (for me anyway) - the sample pair of mittens for my pattern!

I had wanted a picture of them in the snow, but then it rained all through the night after I finished them. I think I might almost like this picture better than what I had planned though. The leaves peeking through kind of set off the cream and brown.

Now I just need to finish knitting the grey and red pair, so I can add my photos to the pattern. I still have to wait until my testers are done before I call it complete, but I'm one step closer!

 

Also finished - the cowl I knit for the Ravellenic games. I got imaginary awards for cross cowling, lace luge, single skein speed skate, and stash skeleton. First 'real' project I've done using yarn I spun, and I love it.

Here it is all laid out for blocking-

 

My other project photo was an awful awkward angled selfie, since I didn't have anyone handy to take it for me. Instead of sharing that I'll hold out and hope for better future pics!

 

I also attempted a rainbow of hexis for my Beekeeper's blanket, but finished just after the cutoff time (darn it)

 

 

Still, this was enough to push me to nearly 60 hexis (let's not talk about how many I have left to go, alright?)

 

So that's me for this month. Looking forward to finishing a couple things before next post...and hopefully casting on one new project. I've been good, I think I deserve it :)

 

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Working on getting stuff done - including my pattern!

Just last month, I posted about talking myself into some bravery and submitting my mitten pattern to Knit picks for the independent designer program (IDP). Well I did it, and heard back incredibly quickly with an acceptance. So exciting!

I am still finishing up on knitting the sample for pattern photography, but once I got my yarn support from KP I almost immediately cast on for the sample pair. The yarn was so gorgeous, I couldn't help it.

 

So now I have one and a half mittens in the original yarn, and a thumb shy of a full mitten in the new yarn. Since I can't resist showing off a little bit, here is a quick peek at the back of the mitten -

(Just pretend the lighting caught the colors as nicely as the pic above, please - it was the best I could do with the weather today!)

 

 

Right now the pattern itself is going through testing with some helpful knitter friends, and I'm pretty excited to see how it looks with the different yarn choices.

As scary as it is to 'put myself out there' the process is pretty fun too. I'm glad that, after holding on to this idea for over year, I'm finally doing it.

 

Other things I'm finally getting to? That big list of WIPs of course!

The washcloth is done -

Nice and big, I think this will be a repeated pattern.

 

The cotton double knit trivet didn't fair as well though. After a year if letting it sit in the basket, I decided to frog it. It was going to be too small anyway and I wasn't liking the design much either.

 

My Sherlock blanket is coming along nicely, and has three new squares.

Two of them are inspired by the latest season's first episode

An underground square, using a chart from Jennie Claver

 

And a bonfire square, which was a pattern I wrote up (and added to the other ones I had already posted here)

 

The other is more book-related (although there's been a bee reference thrown in the bbc series too) it's the bee square from Rav user ambrrr modified from the Apis Dorsata pattern

 

With all the squares I still want to knit (plus the ones I'm sure will be designed by others in the future) I'm thinking this blanket may be king sized before I'm ready to call it done!

 

For a while though, I'm going to be pretty busy with the mitten knitting. Between them and the cowl I'm starting for the Rav games tomorrow, there probably be much progress in the other WIPs until next month.

 

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Any post is better than no post, right?

And the winner for most inconsistent and unreliable posting schedule goes to ... Drumroll please ... Me!

Probably.

If procrastination earned you a trophy, I'm pretty sure I'd have a cabinet full of them. Then again, maybe not. I'd have to get my act together and pick them up from procrastination headquarters, and when would I ever find the time with all my bouts of ... not really doing anything?

 

 

Instead of giving a project by project accounting of all I've been doing in the past four months - Has it been that long? Really self?? Really??? - I decided to go with a quick stat rundown of projects since my last post

Existing WIPs finished - ummmmm ... none. And I had been doing so well!

BUT

Existing WIPs worked on (which is half the battle!) - 4 - most happy that my Sherlock blanket has one new square and I'm halfway through a pattern I worked up for another.

WIPs frogged - 1 - one of the secret bag projects. It was a sock with a really cool looking beaded pattern, but when I finished knitting the first one I realized it was just Not Comfortable. I may adapt the pattern for a hat band or something though.

New projects started AND finished - 5 - it really helped that Christmas fell during my blog silence. Even with only knitting for a handful of special people, it did give me a firm deadline for those projects.

New projects started and then wandered off from - 1 - and I don't reeeeally count it. It's just a washcloth, and I needed something to grab and work on while sitting around waiting. It'll be there next time I need to sit around and wait to. Washcloths are good that way, they don't judge.

New hobbies picked up - 1 - got a pin loom for Christmas (to me, from me, with all the love in the world - me) I wanted to play at weaving and make some placemats/coasters whatever, but not get as serious as Actual Weaving with the giant loom and all. It's pretty fun, and like those washcloths is easy to pick up and put down so that's always nice to have waiting for you.

 

 

And that's basically it. I'm afraid I haven't been all that exciting lately, which made updating here easier and easier to push off. In keeping with the whole procrastination deal, I have made a couple craft related resolutions. A couple weeks late, of course.

First - to update here at least once a month. Even if no one is reading, it helps keep me on track. Plus, how hard can it be to find a little time once a month, right?

Second - to actually finish the giant playmat that I had hoped to this year. It is soooo far from done. This might be a strain, but I really would like to have it done for my nieces before they are grown and have kids of their own

Third - and this is more me being brave and putting myself out there, than actually being difficult - remember the mittens I made for a swap over a year ago? This year I am going to actually finish writing up that pattern with the tweaks I still want to make, and submit it to the Knit picks IDP program. Washington's screwy sales tax laws make it confusing to try and sell a pattern on my own, but if I go through KP they deal with that bit. I don't know if they'll take it, but it can't hurt to try.

Forth and final - end the year with under a dozen WIPs. You'd think this would be easy for me. You'd be wrong. Yes a dozen is a lot, but I am almost always above that. Even now - with the fourteen I have going right now - there are still a handful of patterns I am having to work really hard to resist casting on immediately.

So there are my, hopefully attainable, resolutions for the year. Wish me luck!

 

 

And it feels weird to have a post with no pictures, so I'll share one of the Christmas presents. The one I. Was most happy with - the dinosaur picked out by BFs nephew (pattern from Huge and Hugable Mochimochi)

 

As you can see, I had a little fun playing around with and posing with this guy before gifting. Even made him that pretend library book to go along with his look of terror -

 

 

Don't worry, he doesn't always look that scared! When his tongue sticks out he looks positively silly, and he can even smile a little -

 

And look at his funny fat tail, cute as can be

 

The first picture has been uploaded to the designers flickr group, so with any luck I'll be back here linking and asking for votes in next year's photo contest. Hopefully - I think he's cute enough to have a chance!

 

 

 

 

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Three for three!

That's right, I have managed to make it three weeks running with a finished project to show and tell. And I didn't even have to cheat and wait until like Thursday or Friday to post - IT'S MONDAY PEOPLE! I'm a day earlier than last week, go me!

 

My FO of the week is the first of two Ripley hats that I'm making for a coworker's daughter. This one is the slouchier version knit with Tosh Chunky in Cousteau -

Admittedly not the best shot, being a crappy cell phone selfie (and the fact my head is a smidge bigger than hers is thought to be) BUT proof positive I managed to start and finish something all in the same week.

I'm happy with the hat too, and am confident it'll be well appreciated by its new owner (and maybe I can get a much better picture of it then) The only issue with finishing a project so far ahead of the holiday deadline, is that I have to wait all that time for her to see it. Patience is not my best quality these days. Still, I'm very proud of myself that I actually accomplished something, and didn't end up adding to my pile of WIPs. A nice change from usual!

 

I like when I get to use nice yarn, but this is also a little dangerous because now I want more of the nice yarn for myself! My first Mad Tosh yarn was what I used for those pink armwarmers, and is one of my favorite things I've knit. The fingering weight yarn was great to work with, and the heavier weight yarn I picked for this hat didn't disappoint either. You see, the catch to me making the hats was that I got to pick the kind of yarn and then I just had to run the colors by her. I LOVED the blue/ green variations in this color. The pic above doesn't do it justice, but this gets a bit closer -

Beautiful yarn

I have a little yarn left over, maybe just enough for that cup cozy I'm always promising to knit for myself. I also will definitely be keeping this yarn in mind for next time I want to splurge on an actual project for myself.

 

My other accomplishment of the week was adding a good amount of knitting onto my (Green) Blue Day Socks. I'm almost to the heel now, but here's another one of those crappy cell pics from a little bit further back when I stopped to check the fit -

Unlike my picture, the sock itself is perfect. These are going to be super comfortable, I can already tell.

 

So that was my week, and now it's time to head back to my knitting.

Four for four in my next week's post? Maybe? A girl can dream!

 

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Fabulous Flow-y Lace Scarf DONE!

Another finished project to report, the gypsy lace scarf I started just after Christmas.

I've wanted a scarf like this almost since I started knitting, so it's about time I made one for myself!

 

While I can't deny that I love the magic of blocking - taking a rumpled mess of stitches and transforming it to a fancy-pants wearable item - the process itself is not one of my favorites. Sure, blocking doilies, the blanket squares and small things like that are no big deal, but this scarf? Much larger than I wanted to tackle with my mats and a billionty pins!

Here it was, preblocking -

Pretty, flowy and colorful. The lace already surprisingly open, but it was still more rumpled than I wanted.

Since I don't have blocking wires (yet) I decided to tackle it with the help of some string. I threaded a some crochet cotton string through the bottom along both sides.

After a quick soak, it was time for the blocking mats. I put pins in each of the four corners, and into the points on the short sides. Then I pulled the strings as tightly as I could and anchored them around extra pins at the corners.

Extra pins were placed inside the string line to try and keep the edges as straight as possible.

 

 

Not exactly perfect, but enough to make me happy ... Well I did figit with the edges a little more (okay a lot more) after this photo, but you get the basic idea. The string blocking did work out in a pinch but I fully intend to DIY a set of blocking wires before I have to do this again.

If I could have anchored the strings better, then the edges would have been straighter. I'm not too worried though, because I am very happy with the end result. Here it is close-up -

 

Finished well before the cool fall days get here, so I am a happy knitter.

 

Current WIP getting some love are my (green) Blue Day Socks, and I'm happy to report they're coming along wonderfully (well the first sock anyway, no two at a time for this girl!) -

 

The pattern is playing nicely with my yarn (Cascade Heritage Paints), and I'm loving that the pattern has an easy to remember repeat, without being monotonous. This is a Very Good Thing, especially when dealing with issues staying focused and wanting a good portable project.

The fact I got perfect gauge with needles I already had free was just icing on the cake. You might look at my giant needle collection and laugh when I say that, but with my habit of collecting WIPs, having the needles I want free is not always a sure thing!

While I don't expect that I'll go three for three weeks and have these as finished objects by next time I post, I do expect that I'll have some good progress to show for them.

 

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Look - I actually can remember how to finish knitting things!

I just finished the Baby Merry Jane Booties for Scott and Ry's baby girl. Like I said in my last post, there really wasn't a rush because in addition to being a surprise gift, they also turned out much larger than expected. I ended up with what works out to be a size 4 (9-12 months) and so it's going to be a little while for she's rocking her new kicks!

No denying that they are cute though -

(Sneaky photo trick - stuffing with plastic sacks helps shape them, even if it is a bit more uneven than if they were being worn)

 

It seems that I wasn't the only one having a little trouble on the size, despite getting gauge. In fact, one knitter commented they must be designed for a baby Sasquatch. Maybe they aren't quite that bad, but still...I knit the smaller of the sizes AND went down a needle size on the shoe portion, and ended up with a definitely non-newborn size.

No matter, I strongly expect this and the other two patterns in the set will be my new go to baby gifts. They are just too cute! The only thing I plan to change for next time is that I will either knit it all with fingering weight or use the mods from Rav user evajae to try and make them actual newborn size.

I could have frogged and reknit as soon as I realized the sizing issues, but in this case I finished and am giving as is. I know the mom has a bunch of cute baby things already, and this will give the baby something cute for when she's starting to outgrow all of that.

 

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End of the Tour Wrapup

This year was a good Tour De Fleece, even with the bit of stressing at the end. I got a lot done and found some new fun fibery people to chat with.

Here's my final photo with what I finished

 

I'm going to practice my Navajo plying on the little bit of Corriedale single left over, I am just starting playing around with my new spindle, and I have a ways to go on spinning that grey Potluck Roving.

All in all though, I am happy with what I accomplished. Almost 900 yards in just the 2ply alone, and that's pretty good! Maybe next year instead of focusing on the weight of a particular fiber, I'll just shoot for 1000 yards of whatever finished yarn I want?

 

I feel like I can't possibly say enough about the generosity of the team sponsors, and in some cases just the moderators or members. The "official" teams and many of the "wild card" teams have drawings or prizes based on the spinning, all donated which is awesome. An exciting bonus to spinning with your team, and showing off to people who understand what you're doing since they do it too. In addition, two of the sponsered teams I participated with really went above and beyond this year.

Edgewood Garden Studios had daily drawings for things like gift certificates, and natural or dyed braids of fiber. In the end there were a couple more members than days of drawings, but she made sure they weren't left out either. I would already have continued using this shop because their fibers are beautiful and the prices can't be beat, but for an independent dyer to give so much to her fans really earns some major loyalty points.

My name came up fairly early, so I had already received my prize before the Tour was even over. I was given a gift certificate, which I used to get this Gray Masham Wool in the Gentle Breeze colorway. I wanted to try a new fiber but in colors I already know I love. You can see it on my spindle in the picture above, but here is a close up showing the variations in color. I am loving it.

 

 

And for another business earning those bonus loyalty points (even though they already have my business as much as I can afford...and then some) was Paradise Fibers. They gave everyone that participated and showed off those spinning pics a free months shipment of their fiber club. The shipment gets mailed at the end of this month, and I am super excited about this one. It's one of those things I have always been interested in but never had the spare cash.

 

As much fun as the Tour was, I have to admit that I'm taking advantage of the down time after. Sorting through the knitting WIPs I set aside, remembering where I left off and even finishing some of them.

My fingerless gloves - remember them from the June KAL? - they were down to only needing the thumbs knit, and I finished them last night

 

Super comfy and the twisted stitches make for some beautiful detail. I can't wait for it to actually get cool enough to wear them. Unfortunately with today having a high of 100, it looks like I'm going to have quite the wait!

 

This morning before work I did the finish work on a Swiffer cover I started 3 months ago. How to I let myself drag these quick little projects out for so long?!?

Anyhow it is now in use, and already looks a little less new than it did when I snapped these pictures.

What can I say? I also neglected the housework a bit during all those days spent spinning.

 

I'm planning on getting the rest of that spinning done and finishing up another project or two, BUT I'm not ruling out a new project before too long.

Next post will likely be off the crafting topic and be about my day trip to Seattle though. Had a great time, saw some cool stuff and if I can only get the pics off my phone I'll be sharing them here.

 

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Tour de Fleece, Week One

The Tour De Fleece is in full swing, and I haven't missed a day. Good thing too, because I've got a lot of spinning to do. And unlike last year, where I was posting pics of each day's progress here, I've been spending less time doing updates and more actually spinning. I figure a weekly update shouldn't slow me down too much though.

My original goal was just to spin the 8oz ball o'fluff I bought at Paradise fibers, the Potluck Roving from Ferndale Fibers. When I saw how smoothly it was spinning - and it is a dream to spin, almost as easy as the Shetland and sooo soft - I added a second goal. I am also spinning the 4oz braid of Corriedale I got from Edgewood Garden Studio.

The Steel Potluck Roving is going to be 2 ply, and so far I've spun one bobbin full of a single and started the second. Progress so far -

I'm not positive what I'll knit with it, depends on what kind of yardage and yarn weight I end up with. I'm not a consistent enough spinner (yet) to know exactly what I'll end up with ahead of time.

 

Similar thing with the Brisk Autumn Corriedale, except with that I know that I want some sort of cowl for fall. The style is up in the air, but I've narrowed it down to about a half dozen patterns (subject to change each time I log on Ravelry!)

 

I spun the first ply of that between plys of the other fiber. I figure mixing it up keeps me interested. No matter how pretty that grey is, looking at it non stop for weeks on end is a sure fire way to end up burned out!

Anyhow - here is the first ply of the Corriedale-

I really love the range of colors in it. Hard to tell when it's wound up like this, but they range from a pale cream, to shocks of bright red and yellow, with a beautiful almost wood grained tonal brown running through it. I can't wait to see what the finished yarn looks like. I'm doing fractal spinning, so I should end up with a beautiful "barber pole" effect with the colors.

 

The only real knitting I've done lately is on my fingerless gloves. Technically the KAL ended last week, but I'm one of the stragglers who needs more than a month to actually finish anything.

First one is done, except for the thumb. The second is almost to the thumb opening. Shouldn't be too much longer though, and then I'll have a pretty FO to show off. I promise that picture won't have an irritating sun reflection in the corner like this one!

 

Right now the closest I can come to a new finished object is this Baby Surprise Jacket. You know, the one I finished knitting in March? I finally sewed on the buttons on, using pink and cream ones I had in my stash.

We already found out (a while ago) the momma-to-be is going to be having a girl and since she is due in August, I figured I better get it done! Here's the whole sweater. It should fit right around winter time, hopefully.

A nice surprise today was the half dozen back issues of knitting magazines a customer brought in for me. All Interweave Knits, except for one Vogue Knitting.

Some I have digital copies of, but flipping through them is more fun sometimes. I predict my queue will get even longer before I'm done. Especially since she said there is probably more issues to come. Yay! I have the best customers!

 

Back to spinning for one more second before I go. After jealously admiring other's Trindles since before last Tour De Fleece, I finally ordered one of my own. I was going to wait and do it as an end of Tour reward, but maybe this way it will actually arrive by the end of the Tour.

My main problem with online ordering is that I want it NOW. I mean, I ordered it this morning so why shouldn't the mailman be able to drop it off this morning...yeah, logical brain is busy telling impatient-new-shiny-obsessed brain to settle down and wait. I'm not sure it's going to work though.

 

One thing I can guarantee is that as soon as it arrives I'll be spinning away and showing it off here :D

 

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...And sometimes my pants are on fire

Quoting from the end of my last post over three weeks ago -

"As busy as I've kept myself, there are still too many neglected WIPs in the basket. The two getting to me the most are my Sherlock blanket (so many awesome squares just begging to be knit) and my nieces' playmat (after such good progress starting out I have totally stalled over the past month)

I'm promising myself to give them both (along with my other WIPs) a little more attention before starting anything else new."

Soooooo that ended up being a lie. Mostly unintentional, but still...

Instead of doing either of those things I started two entirely new things. Whoops?

 

For a done-in-a-day project I sewed a WIP pouch using the easy-peasy idiot-proof tutorial here.

I wanted to make the most of the materials I had stashed, without wasting any or running short. This tutorial shows how to lay things out and where to sew them together, while leaving the exact measurements up to you. It might be a no-brainer for someone who sews a lot, but for a fraidy-cat beginner like me it was perfect! While I feel reasonably confident winging mods on my knitting, I'm not a great sewer and fabric still scares me a little.

I used the fabric leftovers from the two box bags I made a while back - used every bit of the lining, but I still have some of the outer fabric left over. I'm sure I'll find something to do with it (Pinterest is always good for finding ideas, even if it is a major time suck LOL) The zipper had been sitting in a drawer for as long as the fabric. I had bought it because I liked the color, but it was longer than I really wanted for those box bags. This style of pouch has a large opening, so I was able to use it and ended up trimming off only a small amount.

I wanted this pouch to coordinate with that box bag, but wasnt trying to just make a larger duplicate. I didn't make the corners stand up by themselves, but I did round them off to 'fancy it up' a little. I top stitched (I think that's the term?) by the zipper. Still not exactly straight, but I'm getting better!

Here's some pictures, the first including my box bag for size comparison. The new pouch is about 10x15 inches, pretty good sized for an average project.

So now I have a lovely lined project bag that I can use when I start up some of those Sherlock blanket squares like I said I would.

I also started knitting a new project. Not something small either, another short sleeve cardi - the heathered hoodie vest. Well, it might be hooded when I finish, I'm undecided. I've seem some projects where people have replaced the hood with a 2x3 ribbed collar, and I'm considering doing the same.

I've had the pattern and yarn for this project since 2011, so it's not like I started on a whim BUT it definitely doesn't go along with my goal of wrapping up WIPs at all! That said, I'm glad to finally be working on it, and am looking forward to when it's finished and I can wear it. Starting it now means there is absolutely no reason why I shouldn't have it done by fall, right? Right?! As of now I'm 2/3 of the way done with the back panel, moving right along.

The color has been tricky to capture, but is more true (maybe still a little too dark) in the close up here -

Just a warning if you get the pattern from the Best of Knitscene book like I did - There is some very important errata you can find here. Four out of the six cable instructions were wrong, and I had to find out by looking through the comments, because it wasn't on the Rav main pattern page notes. Even though people in the comments had suggested it be added. Yeah, you can probably guess that irritated me a little. Still, I like the cardi so it's not like I'm going to let a few typos keep me down for long.

 

Oh, and then BFs nephew and I put some time into doing this knitting themed puzzle. I say we did it, but once the border was done, he pretty much was too. I couldn't walk by without putting a few pieces in though, so after a couple nights it was done. I developed a sock yarn crush on that green at the top. And the pink towards the middle. Yarn in puzzle form isn't nearly as much fun to pet though.

(Ignore the scrap of material on the gingerbread man bit,

I didn't realize it was there until after the puzzle was taken apart so no chance to resnap a pic)

 

The only attention my WIPs have gotten lately is the 5 inches I added to my gypsy scarf and the few leaves I've done on the embroidery project. Neither one is far enough along to even warrant updating pictures, so instead I'll (once again) close a post by promising myself to do better next time. Who knows, maybe this time I actually mean it!

 

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