Posted in Completed Projects, Current Projects

Saroyan FO and Current Projects

It’s Friday and I have an FO to share! 🙂

This may be the fastest scarf I’ve ever knit. Three days and it was done! It was an enjoyable knit, too.

Saroyan (Full)

Pattern: Saroyan (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: March 11, 2011
Completed: March 13, 2011
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Rodecian, 2 skeins
Needles: US 9 bamboo circular
Notes: I initially did the entire increase section wrong. I did the increases every right side row of the pattern repeat, but it shouldn’t be done on rows 3 or 11. Oops. I ripped it out and started over on March 11. After I restarted it, I couldn’t put it down! I did change the part worked when you first cast on and before the first pattern repeat and the last part after the last pattern repeat and the cast off. I followed the notes here (Ravelry link). I did the decreases differently then written so that they better matched the increase section. I followed the notes here (Ravelry link). I have a total of 28 leaves – 6 for the increase section, 16 for the straight section, and 6 for the decrease section. I’m happy with how this project turned out!

Saroyan (Scarf)
Saroyan Worn as a Scarf

In addition to wearing it as a scarf, it could also be worn as a wrap!

Saroyan (Wrap)
Saroyan Worn as a Wrap

Saroyan (Back)
Saroyan Worn as a Wrap

After finishing Saroyan, I started on High Road. I had a bit of trouble with it at first because I had a hard time keeping count of what row I was on, but I finally got smart and put a row counter on my work to help me keep track. The yarn, Metamorphasis from A Verb for Keeping Warm, is 70% merino, 30% silk blend and it’s very nice to work with. I like the colors and the fabric it’s making.

High Road
High Road

I’ve still been working away on Cassis. It hasn’t seen much progress this week. I managed to spill tea on the collar of it when I got to work one day, did my best to wash it out, then it took about a day and a half to dry out completely. You can still see some of the brown tea stain on it. It’s not too noticeable, but when I look at it, I definitely see it. Just like mistakes in your knitting – it’s probably not as noticeable to someone else as it is to me! Not sure what, if anything, I’ll do about it, so right now I’m just continuing on and not worrying about the stains.

I have a stripey sock I’ve been working on since December (often setting it aside for other projects). The yarn is Perfect Day Yarns self striping in the She Woos Me colorway. I like the colors and the yarn, but for some reason, stripey socks sometimes get sent to the back burner when other things are more interesting. They’re good to keep around for something portable and easy to pick up, though, so I pretty much always have some type of plain sock on the needles. Anyhow, I was finally at the point where I finished the heel on Wednesday.

PDY Sock
PDY Stripey Sock

Then I tried it on and it was too tight. There weren’t enough stitches around and while it fit alright, the stitches were really stretched around the instep area of the sock. I knew it needed to be frogged and more stitches added. I frogged it completely and started over. The first time I had 60 stitches around, this time I have 66. So far it seems to be fitting, but then the other sock fit at this point, too. I’m just hoping it fits once I’ve done all the instep increases! Here’s where I’ve knit back to since frogging it.

Sock!
PDY Stripey Sock

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny and warm day. Today is rather gloomy and rainy. This weekend is promising warmth and sun, though, and I’m looking forward to that! This winter seems like it’s been a long one. It’s nice to see warmer days here and there. Not much in way of plans this weekend. We’re going to see the new movie Paul with some friends tomorrow and I do hope we get out and enjoy the nice weather at some point. I’ve got Monday off and I’ll be hanging out with my mom for the day! Should be fun. 🙂

Have a good weekend everyone!

Posted in Current Projects

Cassis, Saroyan, and High Road

Last week I did take pictures of my current projects as promised. I was even going to post on Friday, but I just didn’t feel up to it with everything going on in Japan with the earthquake and tsunami. I just felt like anything I said would have been insignificant compared, so I decided to put it off until this week. Then, I knit so much on one project, it needed a new picture! Oops! (The pictures aren’t my best, but in an effort to blog more and keep my projects updated, I’ve been using my point and shoot more often lately.)

As soon as I finished my Seneca sweater, I knew what sweater I wanted to cast on next: Cassis. I’d been seeing this one around Ravelry for a while and after seeing a number of people knit this, I knew I needed one of my own. One of my goals with knitting 12 sweaters this year is to primarily use stash, so the first thing I did was go stash hunting to see if I had something appropriate for it. The Knit Picks CotLin I bought with the intention of making Jali (then decided the cables didn’t work with the yarn) came to mind and I even had a swatch already knit from my Jali attempt that had the exact right gauge! Seemed like a perfect fit and I cast on as soon as I had Seneca blocking.

I started this February 26th and I’m well into the body. I decided I’m going to make this with longer sleeves and I’m adding waist shaping. I debated about sizing since I’m between the 42″ and 44″ sizes, but went with the 42″ size. Since the fronts are meant to overlap by about 2″ and I don’t plan on wearing it closed all the time, I think it will fit me better overall this way.

Cassis
Cassis

I was on the fence for a while with how I felt about the Textured Shawl I’d started in Malabrigo. Ultimately I decided I didn’t want another triangle shawl and the textured pattern (while nice) was annoying to knit for me. I just had this feeling I wouldn’t wear it much, so I frogged it. After frogging, I went in search of another pattern for this yarn. It was calling me to make it into something, so after some searching I decided to knit Saroyan. I started this on February 27th, but after a week and a half of working on it I found that I’d not read the directions properly and did the increases wrong (they aren’t done on row 3 and 11 of the pattern repeat). I realized this on March 10th when I reached the point where I would work straight. I waited a day to decide what to do since it was late at night when I realized my error. The next day, I frogged it and started over. I’ve worked on it non-stop since then and I’m three repeats away from finishing it!

Saroyan
Saroyan

I should be able to finish it tonight and get it blocking. I’ve already got my eye on the next project I want to knit once it’s finished: High Road. This is from A Verb for Keeping Warm’s 2nd shipment. I’ve wanted to knit this since I got it. The construction is interesting and I love the color of the yarn. It’ll be a good project to work on when I can’t work on Cassis since that sweater is getting rather large and hard to cart around easily.

AVFKW/Pro-verbial Club - Winter 2011
A Verb for Keeping Warm
Yarn: Metamorphosis, Pattern: High Road

I’ve been doing a lot more project planning lately then is usual for me, but that’s not such a bad thing. Sometimes I feel at a loss for what to knit and other times I just know what I want to work on. Just the way things go sometimes!

Since I’m working on planning a trip for some training, I’ll just throw this out there for folks in the DC area: I’ll be visiting in April. If you want to meet up or hang out while I’m there, let me know and we can figure it out! Still not solid on the dates since I’ll be taking personal time as well, so if some days work better then others, I’m sure I could plan my trip accordingly. 🙂

Posted in Completed Projects

February FO’s!

I can’t believe it’s been nearly a month since I last blogged! Where has the time gone? I haven’t felt like I’ve been that busy, but I haven’t been great about taking in-progress shots of my current projects which seems to result in me not blogging.

Since I last posted, I’ve finished 4 things! The first thing I finished was the Wurm hat I was working on.<p.

Wurm (Front)
Wurm

Pattern: Wurm by katushika – Rav link to pattern (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: February 11, 2011
Completed: February 20, 2011
Yarn: Brooks Farm Solo Silk in a light purple, about 1/2 a skein.
Needles: US 2.5 (3.0 mm) Addi Turbo circular, US 4 (3.5 mm) bamboo circular and DPNs
Notes: I did the brim a bit different. I did a provisional cast on to do a turned hem for the hat rather then casting on and knitting the cast on edge with your working row as the pattern states. I think this makes for a brim with more stretch. I started with the US 2.5 needles working the first stockinette portion and the purl row, then switched to US 4’s for the rest of the hat. I did 10 purl sections as the pattern called for, which gave me just the right amount of slouch. If you like really slouchy hats, I’d recommend doing more then that. After that last purl section, the hat gets pulled in VERY fast. Overall, I’m happy with how this hat turned out and it’ll be nice for cold days to help protect my ears.

Wurm (Side)
Wurm – Side

Wurm (Back)
Wurm – Back/Top

Next up is a cute little bunneh made out of my own handspun. I kept seeing these little guys around on Ravelry and got the urge to knit one OMGRIGHTNOW a few weekends ago. I had this handspun sitting at my desk along with needles and I cast on right away. Worked on him only while sitting at my desk, so he took a few days to complete, but I think it would have gone a lot faster had I worked on him more then just at my desk.

Bunny Nugget
Bunny Nugget

Pattern: Bunny Nuggets by Rebecca Danger (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: February 19, 2011
Completed: February 21, 2011
Yarn: Zarzuela’s Fibers Targhee in the Emeralds colorway, handspun by me to fingering weight
Needles: US 1 (2.25 mm) Knit Picks DPNs
Notes: I only used a small amount of yarn. If I had to guess, I’d say roughly 40 or so yards. The pom pom was too big at first, but I cut it down to be smaller. Still a bit big, though I think it adds to the cuteness!

For the pom pom, I tried a new tool, which may now be my favorite knitting related tool ever. I first bought this Clover small pom pom maker from my local Hobby Lobby. I quickly discovered that the smaller one in the package that makes a pom pom 1 3/8 inches big was as big as my bunny nugget! I trimmed it down to size and used it anyway because I was too impatient to wait for the extra small pom pom maker from Clover to arrive. These pom pom makers are FANTASTIC! It makes making pom poms almost painless compared to every other tutorial on how to make them that I’ve ever seen. Totally worth the investment if you make make pom poms at all.

After finishing up Wurm and knitting a Bunny Nugget, I focused on getting Matt’s socks done. With some focus, they were finished pretty quickly!

Matt's Camo Socks
Matt’s Camo Socks

Pattern: Plain Vanilla Top-Down Socks (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: January 1, 2011
Completed: February 23, 2011
Yarn: Zarzuela’s Fibers Merino Sock in the Camo colorway, just over 1/2 a skein (approx. 250 yards)
Needles: US 0 (2.0 mm) Knit Picks circular
Notes: Used my own plain top-down sock pattern for a 68 stitch sock. I really liked working with this yarn and Matt seems to like the finished socks! 🙂

My final FO for February is Seneca. I absolutely LOVE this sweater. It’s probably my favorite of all the sweaters I’ve knit and other then the minor freak out over the skeins not matching (which turns out isn’t an issue at all), I had no problems with the pattern or fit or… well anything! This is my second sweater of the year, so I’m still on track for knitting 12 this year.

Seneca (Front)
Seneca

Pattern: Seneca by Jared Flood (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: February 1, 2011
Completed: February 26, 2011
Yarn: MadelineTosh DK, 5.5 skeins (1231 yards)
Needles: US 7 (4.5 mm) HiyaHiya stainless steel circular
Notes: My gauge was off for this sweater, but I really liked the gage I got with the US 7 needle, so I did some math and decided to knit the 40″ size instead of the 44″ size that I would have knit if I had got the pattern gauge. By my math, I would end up with a 44″ sweater knitting the 40″ size based on my gauge and I did! I did make some notes in my Ravelry project page about some missing information/errors in the pattern. There’s no errata for it that I could find, though these are noted in the comments of the pattern on Ravelry (which I didn’t check until after I’d finished the sweater). I made a mistake in Chart A and added an additional knit row where one shouldn’t be. I don’t think it’s noticeable at all and if I didn’t mention it, I doubt anyone else would notice either! I realized it when I’d reached the cables on the yoke and I knew there was no way I wanted to basically start my entire sweater over to correct it, so I made the decision to keep going and include the error I’d made. I did make the same error through every instance of Chart A that I knit and I even did it for Chart B as well so that at least the mistake is consistent. Overall, even with the error I made, I’m totally in love with this sweater! It fits great, the yarn was fantastic to work with, I love the color, it can be dressed up or down…. what’s not to love? 🙂

Senca (Back)
Seneca – Back

Seneca (Top Cables)
Seneca – Yoke

Seneca (Sleeve Cables)
Seneca – Sleeve Detail

I need to get some updated pictures on the current projects I have going since the two main ones I’ve been working on don’t have ANY in-progress shots yet. Hopefully I can do that today or tomorrow and share what’s on the needles for me later this week!