A time of Firsts ...

Knitwise, I feel like it's been a bit off the hook, insane busy. Mind you, it's all self-inflicted, but I wouldn't have it any other way LOL. When I'm busy knitwise, I'm learning and challenging myself, and that's my preferred way.  There is so much going on that I've had to write it down to make sure I don't forget something, and I feel like I am forgetting something - as always LOL

I was working diligently on my shawl, I've had to rip it back several times as in my infinite wisdom, I decided to do bed knitting and dropped a few stitches ... several times and then the hunt was on!   LOL  I get the chart details now - at least until I start the edging.  I understood the basics of reading a chart - but as always there is so much more to learn, and learn I did.  It's for the intermediate knitter (which I am) and is heavily charted.  Heavily charted took on a whole new meaning LOL  It's written okay, but not all intermediate knitters are ones that are chart readers.  Yes I love a challenge LOL

I've had to vow not to do this shawl if my eyes are a bit fuzzy or my ability to focus is not what it should be.  This pattern requires my 100% attention and sharp eyes.  With all the gorgeous lace in this shawl, if you drop a stitch it's having itself a wonderful little journey.  I got almost to the end of chart B (main body shaping) when I realized that I had some holes that didn't belong.  All I gotta say is Thank God for lifelines!!!  They have saved me a few times.  I have also discovered that sharp lace needles would be better for this project.  I have some Addi Turbo Lace Needles ordered and they are enroute.  They should be here hopefully by the end of the week.  I just might frog back the entire shawl and start again with my new needles.  I'm not sure.  The yarn I'm using is #Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud Fingering yarn and this stuff is amazing!  It is handling the abuse of being frogged back several times and maintains it's integrity.  No untwisting, no breaking, no knotting up and getting super fuzzy and unworkable.  It's 100% alapaca - I can't say enough good things about this yarn!

I've also volunteered to do two test knits for Elizabeth Ravenwood Designs and I'm super excited about these.  One is a pair of socks and the other a handkerchief / doily.  

The socks have a deadline of June 30, and I should get the pattern in the next few weeks.  She wanted us to get our scraps together from previous sock / fingering weight projects and use them.  As I was looking at these bright bits from my knitting, I realized that nothing in my stash was telling me it wanted to be the main colour.  I remembered that I bought some yarn back in January I think that I wanted to try my hand at dyeing yarn.  I've dyed miles of fabric, so yarn should be a somewhat similar process.  I love to learn and I love a challenge so .. I decided to dye the fabric for the test knit :D  And I just love the result.  I wanted a tonal pink and with the content of the wool along with the fabric dye I was using reacted exactly the way I expected.  They yarn is 50% wool, ,25% rayon from Bamboo, and 25% nylon.  The nylon wouldn't take the full colour of the dye, while the wool would take 100% and I wasn't to sure about the rayon - the manufacturer said it would take the full dye, but since I hadn't used it before, I was hedging my bets LOL   

This picture here does not do the colour justice.  It's  much brighter and a deeper pink.  I'm very pleased with the way it turned out and canNOT wait to knit with it.  

I know there's a lot more to learn about dyeing yarn.  There's quite a bit of information out there on the web and youtube videos.

I love a tonal yarn, and a variegated yarn.  With this yarn I got lucky with the tonal effect as the nylon wouldn't take 100% of the dye and it would give me a tonal effect.  A wool / nylon blend is a cheat with this particular dye.  That isn't going to work very well for a yarn that is 100% wool LOL

The other test knit is for a handkerchief as I mentioned that could double as a doily.  This will be done in lace weight and I think the deadline for that is July 15.  I picked up the yarn for that already.  A gorgeous pink Malabrigo - it was the last one she had in the shop and it was on sale, Of course I got it LOL

This is going to be my first lace weight knit and my first Malabrigo.  I'm super excited about this one too!  I am also on her test knit for a cabled hat test knit for the Olympics next year :)

I've gotten back to my Stash Killer Blanket and it's now my bedtime knitting project.  That way I can knit in bed, and it will get some work done on it.  I don't make a lot of progress, but more than it just sitting in my bag in the dark, all alone - it now lives in the project tote, next to my bed  :)

I've used a bit of math to make sure that my yarn is going to be enough for the blocks.  I weighed out each block and took an average of what they needed, ,then I balled up and weighed my yarn and that way if I don't have a full skein, I know what blocks I can do with the yarn I have left.  While a good game of yarn chicken can get the blood flowing, your nerves singing and your toes curled,, it's not something I want to do for every bit of yarn and block I do.  I already saved myself time with the lighter coloured yarn I'm using now.  I would have had to rip 2 blocks and switch the order I had done them.  Glad I avoided that.  My OCD does come in handy somedays LOL

I've discovered ArneCarlos tutorials on Youtube and I'm just totally in love with these guys.  I want them to adopt me, or let me be a roommate or a neighbour.  These guys totally inspire me and motivate me - I could listen to them for hours.  I just love them.  My LYS has a bit of their Regia line and the Pairfect.  I didn't particularly care if I got the Pairfect because I'd rather have a pair of socks that doesn't exactly match, but you know they go together.  So I treated myself to a skein of their sock yarn.  My LYS isn't getting these right now so her supply was limited to 4 skeins, and I grabbed the one that the colours most appealed to me.

And with all this going on, my April socks are waiting for me to cast them on.  I'm going to use my Hawthorne kettledyed fingering yarn for these.  And these I am planning to do toe up, two at a time on 40" needles.

I was doing my socks on US 2 / 2.75mm with 64 stitches, but that's just a bit loose.  My options are to drop down a needle size or go to 60 stitches.  First I'm going to try on US 1 2.5mm needles.  I've a set of ChiaoGoo I'm itching to use

I tried to do them before with casting on my toe and then transfering them to my circulars, but that didn't end well - so I did them one at a time.  I'll try again using these videos.  I use her heel and its just awesome!  Her whole process is awesome.

So yes, I'm overloaded with a lot of first's and I couldn't be happier.  I'm also doing a design challenge and am having a blast with that.  My muse has been kicked awake.  I think I'll do my homework on my blog that way I can think out loud while talking to you.  It really does help!  With all that's been going on, I've not put many stitches on the needles expect for my blanket.  I am happy to be working on that again :)

Well I've homework to do for my design challenge.  Off I go!

Green done!

I'm just two blocks shy of being halfway through the blocks needed as per the pattern.   I'm still thinking bout doing more blocks to make the blanket bigger - that's a huge we'll see

I started doing the brown ones and kept messing up the first two rows and ripping it out, and decided me thinks I need to take a wee bit of a break on these.  Block 3 (bottom left) took me maybe 2 days to do and that's the easiest and quickest one - that was a bit of a hint for me to do a quick change up and do something else for a change.

I've got skeins of sock yarn so I think it's time do socks .. I just have to decide on whether I want to do ankle socks or something that goes higher,  I usually wear ankle socks, so I'm most comfortable in those, but would be nice to have something in winter that goes at least as high as the top of my boots LOL  Damn snow!

So off to pick out what socks I want and \which yarn to use :D

On the Green

It was a wee bit strange to suddenly be knitting a darker yarn, but a nice break and welcome change.   I can honestly say it was awesome to leave the pink, dusty pink and peach behind.  I'll have to work with them one more time when it comes to finishing.

According to the directions, I've a choice of I-cord or 3 needle bind off - As I've done the 3 needle before with socks and hats, I'll of course be using that method.  I've wanted to take a break and put the coloured blocks together, but knowing me, I'll change my mind on how they'll be put together LOL  sooooo ya - not going to do that yet, no matter how much I want to start playing with it.  I'm not even halfway done yet - I'll need to get 4 more blocks done before I can say 'halfway'

While I'm working on this, I am thinking about how I'll put it all together - light to dark or light and dark alternating, or just toss them all in.  I'll have to lay them out like I do with quilt blocks and see how it all looks.

I am really enjoying this pattern.  The few mistakes that are in the pattern are easy to work through as they not only provide the written pattern, but a chart as well (Thank God for the chart) so it makes it easy to figure it out  The worst mistake is the lack of what LC and RC in the pattern instructions - I was able to figure it out due to the chart!!  Definite A++ for that.

And depending on the size when I get the blocks done, I might actually make it bigger - i do want to kill off all my 1 and 2 orphan skeins of yarn.  They do need to be in the same colour family of course or maybe I might even do them as lights or mediums or darks.  I'll just have to see what's left and what I need.  I'm am very pleased and excited about this project!!

Ravelry link - KAL Stash Killer

Peaches picked!

Knitterhappydance!! Third colour all done! I was pretty worried about the yarn I had to choose for the last block - it didn't feel as thick and it was less WPI as it's more a cotton yarn than fuzzy acrylic, but it did come out at the size needed - so I'm pretty pleased with it!

What is sort of freaking me out is how the cable block and the diamond block seem so much 'taller' than the other two.  I'm not as worried about the diamond block, it's the cable block that's going to be 'interesting'.  I think that it even has more rows than the other blocks, but I could be wrong - it's been known to happen LOL.  I think that the blocking will be my friend or total disaster But I'm game to try for sure!  No guts no glory

I'm sitting here looking at my box of yarn that I've put aside for this project and debating between the spruce green or the totally un matchy matchy browns LOL  I guess putting it that way, I think I'll do the spruce green and deal with the no matchy matchy for the next set haha

Ravelry Link - KAL Stash Killer

Two Colours Done

I've been making some progress without much thought.  This pattern is so easy and mindless to work on.  A few challenging stitches, but there are video tutorials to help with the tricky ones.  I've the full set for the pink and the dusty pink and half way through the peach.

I'm working on Block 3  It's knit in a circle using circs or DPNs.  Since I couldn't find my DPNs, I was using 2 DPNs and 2 circs.  Since I'm working with acrylic, the block was looking circular by the time I got done with it.  I did find a tutorial on how to block acrylic.  There is definitely two opposing camps regarding blocking acrylic.  I've never blocked it before as I can't get it to stay blocked when I do, but I've not tried this method before.  I definitely need to do something to get them the same size or else I'll be doing a battle and a half when I start to put this together.  The sizes definitely are NOT uniform.

The new DPNs are shorter than I would like, but I can smoosh it together when it gets bigger, but it no longer looks like a circle while I'm knitting it.  This makes me smile :)  And I'm no longer fighting with having two sections of this pattern on one circ and rounding it out.

The next block is what's going to make this a true 'scrap' yarn project - it's not the same wool and the colour is definitively a different hue and a different texture.

I created a page for the blocks for this project  rather than post each and every single block .. that would be a LOT of pics LOL.

I'm feeling great about this project and am definitely getting more excited about seeing how this will look when I put it together

Ravelry link - KAL Stash Killer

Pinky Pink to Dusty Rose

My needles have been a bit busy :) I've managed to finish off all the pink blocks - that was a struggle because my second skein of yarn was just AWFUL.  It felt coarse and nubby.  I actually felt hard parts slipping across my fingers as I knit - it wasn't flexible so the P3TOG and K3TOG were a struggle as the yarn had no give and wasn't forgiving at all.



I moved onto the dusty rose yarn and have finished blocks 1 and 4 of the pattern.  This yarn is so much nicer to knit with and the blocks are making up quicker with way less mistakes.  I think I only had to deal with the odd dropped stitch through my knitting as it slipped off the needles during P3TOG or K3TOG.

I had the most fun with the block on the right (Block 4) It's an easy texture, mindless sort of knit with a simple repeating pattern.  So I'm trying to decide on either the cable pattern or the circular pattern.  Decisions decisions LOL.  It's supposed to look like chevrons, but I'n not quite seeing it as there's a lot of other texture to this pattern - no complaints here - it's a fabulous looking block.

A girlfriend and myself are starting to get together again to have a biweekly knatter night.  We did these in the past and they got rather huge and popular.  This time we'll keep it small - just 2 friends hanging out knitting, drawing or doing whatever.  Just enjoying each other's company and having girl therapy time which we both desperately need!

Block 3 - Cables in Pink

Normally I adore doing cables and working them. This was really no exception except for one part - the pattern has 8 distinct cable pattern parts but only listed directions for 6.  So one part of my cable looks a bit wonky, but I figured it out .. eventually LOL

It really helped that they included written pattern AND chart pattern for all the blocks.  It made it easier to figure out what the missing pattern stitches were for - now whether they were to be knitted or purled is anyone's guess, but I knit it and it seems to have worked out.

This skein of yarn really is awful - it's one of those Love Knit No Dye Lot skeins I got somewhere or from someone.  it's rough and scratchy and sort of tricky to knit with,  This piece sort of feels like knitted kevlar LOL  I'm glad I've decided to take all these orphan skeins and put them to use finally.  I'm looking forward to seeing how all these work together.  I'm trying to figure out how I add a gallery page to my blog without changing the whole layout.  Either I'll figure it out or I won't.

I do like it - it's pretty, and I'm looking forward to finishing the pink part of this blanket.  Just one more block :D

A Good Start

These blocks so far are a nice challenge - and the most important - not frustrating LOL. I changed needle sizes as I found K2togbl to be tricky at best and hard on my hands, but I found a trick and frogged the block for a second time, and I found that things were a lot easier

So far I've 1 whole block done and another half way, This is another one of those where I knit enough to have 4 blocks done and only have 1 ¹/₂

done, but it's a learning process and I am learning a few new tricks which is always in

This block was a bit tricky as it was done as a circle on circulars or DPNs, I had a few issues with stitches dropping off and not discovering them until rows later - with all the KTOG and PTOG in multiple stitches it was pretty tricky to do the drop stitch method to fix. Tinking back was more trouble than it was worth so - ripped it apart and started again. Since it's a small piece it's not that hard of a task :)

So far, I've done almost 3 of the 4 blocks, but I don't have a finished first block anymore as that was the one I frogged as it was done in US8 needless instead of the US7 I decided on

I rather wish I was doing this with a wool or natural fibre blend as acrylic doesn't block well and tends to hold a funky shape if I held it weird while knitting it.  The block done in the round is still rather roundish and normally I could hope to block it into square shape, but acrylic doesn't place nice like that.  I'm sure it'll wiggle into shape when it's put into the blanket and used :)

KAL Blanket up next

It was an awesome day today! My dad turned 80 on the 11th of June and with it being Father's Day tomorrow, a family gathering was in the offing! My brother, his girlfriend, my nephew, the kid and of course Dad headed out to lunch in Detroit near Michigan and Trumbull (which is a place near and dear to all our hearts) and had a great brunch and even greater times.  Dad looked so happy to have his family around him.  I think that was the best present he could ever have.  The contented look on his face said it all :)

I spent half the afternoon after that trying to find a tank / tunic pattern for the 2 skeins of teal that I've got.  Finally settled on one and was doing the swatch when I decided that I really didn't want to do the tank right then, so it's shelved for now.  Instead I decided that a project I could pick up and put down at will (instead of totally losing my spot and train of thought on it)  This way I can do a pair of socks if I feel the need.

It's a KAL that was published by WEBS and calls for 2 100g skeins of 9 colours.  Yes that's a lot of yarn, but I've the stash for it.  My stash is very frustrating as I've a LOT of yarn, but not enough for larger projects, so it sits and does nothing but mock me when I browse through patterns I want to make.  I'm really trying to be good and not buy more yarn unless it's specially for a project. No more impulse skeins unless it's sock yarn.  So this KAL is custom made for me.  I've enough worsted yarn to make this blanket and then some LOL.

I took all my worsted yarn and dumped it on the floor.  Just then the kid decided to come upstairs and sees me sitting in the midst of yarn everywhere!  Looked like a sheep exploded in my loft LOL  Apparently me sitting on the floor buried in fabric or yarn is enough of a thing in this house that all he did was shake his head and keep talking LOL.  So I picked out my yarns and grouped them together and ended up with this.  I'm still not sure of the blue or red for this, but I do have extras that as long as I get one block out of a ball of yarn, I'll be happy with it.  I like scrappy quilts, so why not a scrappy knitted blanket?  As you can see some of these colours are close, but not the same - the 4 balls off to the right are in case I change my mind about the reds and blues.

It's going to be fun putting all the blocks together - almost like quilting which I truly miss.  I'll get to decide on colour groupings, or light to dark groupings or random placements it'll all depend on my mood,, but I'm OCD enough to want the colours grouped - just not sure if light to dark or blended or  or or or LOL  see .. it's gonna be fun!!

Ravelry Link - KAL Stash Killer