Monday, January 31, 2011

FO - Marsh

I finally finished my Marsh sweater that I blogged about here. I wore it on Saturday and now today at work, so far it's holding up to normal life.



A few notes and mods:

I wasn't sure if I'd like the length, I thought maybe it was too long, but I do like it. 26 inches maybe a bit more.

I have realized now after knitting 2 such sweaters that I don't like boat necks. I think this would be even more flattering if it were a v-neck.

I'm glad I added the 3 inches of extra stockinette over the bust and dropped the lace to just under.

If I were to knit this again I would also knit the smallest size. I'm shocked by how much it grew after soaking. I guess I should start washing my swatches. Lesson learned. Not that I like my garments to be skin tight but I think the bust is a bit too roomy, and  unfortunately I'm not amply endowed in the bust area.

So overall I'm calling this a success and I'll be wearing it often over the next few months with a long sleeve t-shirt. I'm hoping in the spring and early summer I can wear a tank top under it and take advantage of the short sleeves.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Saturday Update

Thought I'd give you all a peek at my Rootbeer Hoodie. I finished it last night, seaming and all. I also wove in the ends on my Marsh, and got a little Apple Hat finished for my swap partner. Friday was a good day!

Now if only the weather would cooperate and I could get some decent FO pictures...

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Very Cabley Mittens

Well here is my 2nd FO for 2011. I knit up these little mittens this past weekend after I got a email reminder that I had committed to knitting something for a raffle basket. The items are due for the end of the month and I had completely forgotten, so in a mad panic I raced to my binder of patterns (where almost all the patterns I queue end up) and pulled out this beauty.



I found this pattern by Kelly Porpiglia and it's free on Ravelry! Love those free patterns! About 478 people have projects listed on Ravelry and on Sunday, I added mine.

Very Cabley Mittens are knit on 4.5mm dpns (or magic loop) with worsted weight yarn. The cable pattern is super simple and the pattern itself is well written and clear. I was able to use some acrylic I had and that makes me very happy. Usually I wouldn't use acrylic (I'm a bit of a snob) but when it comes to donation knitting, machine wash and dry is the way to go.



I'd actually use this yarn again to knit mittens. They turned out super cute. I love how roomy they are! I'd knit a nice alpaca liner for added warmth and softness, and voila! The perfect winter mitten!




Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Queue Revue


photo by Ciriliarose

Oh this sweater is haunting my dreams right now!

Aidez is a free pattern by Berroco. I've admired it from afar ever since it came out on Ravelry.

Especially since Julie over on knittedbliss made this stunning version.

photo by knittedbliss

I even went out and bought 2 skeins of Ecological Wool in cream.

They are sitting in my knitting basket waiting.

Impatiently.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Rootbeer

      
Who doesn't love this stuff? I may have to indulge while I knit this cute little hooded vest this month.


photo by FrznExtremities

I've had this pattern queued for almost 2 years now and I even bought the yarn for it last summer. I thought it might languish in the depths of my queue for a few more years but Susan B Anderson over on the Spud and Chloe Blog decided to start a knit-a-long (KAL) for exactly this pattern. It seemed like a golden opportunity, and who am I to pass up one of those?! It's not like I need to knit anything else right now, I mean I have a ton of projects on my needles and a few that are about to start. Oh well... It's not like I don't like to knit or anything.

This is how far I got a few nights ago while watching Yellowstone on Netflix.

sorry for the sad picture, I lost the light rather quickly

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Queue Review

Today we're taking a sneak peak into my never ending queue!

Hi there, today I thought I'd look at one of the toys in my queue. I love knitting toys. Especially ones created by Susan B Anderson! She does the most fun detailed little toys imaginable. I haven't knit one for awhile so I'm really feeling the need to cast on but I want to finish some items in my wip pile first!



photo by Susan B Anderson


This little elephant is super popular on Ravelry and a free pattern too! Elephante is knit with worsted weight yarn on 3.5mm needles. It's a great pattern to use up little bits of stash as it doesn't take much to knit one up.  


I have so much yarn in my stash that would work for this toy. I may have to make a little army of Elephantes to use some of it up! How cute would that be!?!


*Snort! Sorry about the over use of italics in this post. It seems Blogger won't let me unstick the italics button!



Friday, January 14, 2011

WIPs - Marsh



Here's a project that I started on November 1st, 2010. I got about 40% of it knit, and then I remembered that christmas was around the corner and I had lots left to do so I put it aside. The pattern is called the Castle Pullover by Cecily Glowik MacDonald (I blogged about another Cecily pattern back in the fall ).

I picked it back up this week, and I'm determined to finish it by the end of the weekend. I've made a few mods, mainly that I ripped back the lace portion that I had started. I'm pretty sure I won't like the way the lace starts right across the bosom when you follow the pattern, so I knit about 3 more inches of plain stockinette. This way the lace will start right under my bust instead.

I was surprised how much trouble the lace was giving me when I was knitting it. I honestly ripped back 3 or 4 times because apparently I can't follow a 9 stitch repeat to save my soul. I decided to put stitch markers every repeat and that has solved the problem. It looks a bit goofy though!



I ordered six skeins of yarn from Quince and Co. called Lark in a lovely green they call Marsh. I'm still as much in love with this yarn as I was when I bought it. It's soft and sproingy (not a real word I know, but oddly descriptive enough), and the the green is wonderful. I've been a fan of deep mossy olive green for a long time.



Being -29C with the wind today (and all weekend) I anticipate much progress on the Marsh front. Hooray for blustery cold winter weekends!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Uke-Mochi Shawlette

Remember this post? And this one?



I took some pictures of this project when we went camping last summer at Crooked Lake. Can you guess what pattern this is?

This is the lovely and very popular shawl/scarf pattern from Alana Dakos (aka Nevernotknitting) called the Cedar Leaf Shawlette. I bought it shortly after it came out and knew I had the perfect yarn in my stash. Because the yarn was intended for a mitten project (ha ha) for my mother in-law, I decided to knit this scarf for her. It made a great christmas gift!

I had so much fun knitting this shawlette! I'd love to knit it again in the reccomended weight (DK) and with some Madelinetosh yarn.



Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Queue Revue

Today we're taking a sneak peak into my never ending queue!

Here is another shawl pattern that's floating my boat lately. Shaelyn is a light airy triangular shawl that is knit on 5.5mm needles with a DK weight yarn. I'll bet it will be fast knitting and that makes it an almost instant gratification kind of project. I love that!



photo by EraLunaris

This is another shawl that lends itself to darker colours (or maybe that's just me). I've seen some projects on Ravelry that are bright and vibrant, and some are soft and pastel. I tend to like the heathered greys and darker jewel tones.

I really love the lace sections in this pattern. I also like how easy it is to customize the size.

So what's in your queue?

Thursday, January 6, 2011

WIPs

Oh WIPs (works in progress), do I ever have a few of you! 8 at last count! I'm a bit of a starter and unfortunately not much of a finisher, but I'm working on that.

I have two that I'm working on pretty much everyday. The first is my new mittens for 2011. I shared some details in this post. I cast on a few days ago on 2.0mm dpns with some lovely yarn from my stash. Naturally Haven 4 Ply is a fingering weight yarn from New Zealand in a bold raspberry red. It's very soft, a bit splitty, but that could just be me knitting on tiny needles.


I'm a bit further along than this now and still loving every minute of knitting this. Now that I've separated for the thumb I think the rest will fly by. I was surprised by how much attention this pattern required from me to set up. The lace and cable combo isn't difficult but you need to keep track of how many rows you knit (every 7 rows you cross the cable) and the lace pattern is a 5 row repeat and the thumb gusset increases every third row. So lots going on at the same time. I love the challenge!

The second project is for B. He has only ever asked me to knit him 2 things, a neck warmer (done and at his work somewhere, sadly with no picture) and a scarf. Well this scarf has been on the needles for a long time in some incarnation or another. He wanted black, well, how boring and so I frogged that.





Then I found a rather nice Malabrigo Sock yarn in a lovely deep green that works for me so much better. The pictures are a bit misleading. The true colour is deeper but there are hints of blue and brown in all that dark green. The pattern is called Thierry by Celeste Glassel (same lady who came up with the Wandering the Moor Shawl I blogged about here). It's simple to knit and creates a very nice texture that looks stunning on both sides.

Unfortunately I'm knitting it with a sock yarn and it's taking a long time to knit up. B's Scarf  became the traveling project that I took on our holidays and knit on exclusively. I finished the first skein so half the scarf is done.

I wonder how long it will take me to finish the second half?

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Queue Revue

Today we're taking a sneak peak into my never ending queue!


 
I thought  I'd share one of the many shawl/wrap patterns I'm planning on making this year. This is a great pattern called Wandering the Moor. Every time I look at it I wish I was in Scotland wandering the moor.


photo by Celestial
  
I'm thinking of knitting this shawl with a rather rustic yarn in a dark colour. Maybe brown like the photo or maybe something shot with a bit of burgundy or purple. I always think of pictures like this...


got this off the web here http://www.google.ca/images?rlz=1T4RNWI_enCA266CA267&q=scottish+moors&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=nGQKTfWdMpCjnQfRqd35Dg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQsAQwAA
  
when I think of the moors. I'm not sure how accurate that is but I sure hope to find out one day!
 
So what's in your queue?

Monday, January 3, 2011

Manly Mittens

I thought I'd share the mittens I made for the men in my family this holiday. The pattern is called Basic Men's Mittens by Katherine Vaughan. I love how easy this pattern is!

I knit all these mittens out of Diamond Luxury Pilar by Diamond Yarn. This yarn is an aran weight and is made of 90% Llama and 10% silk. I love how it feels. It's so soft and thick, perfect for mittens! I used metal 3.75mm dpns, a few stitch markers, some scrap wool (to hold the thumb stitches) and my yarn needle.

The first pair I knit were finished back in the summer and I knit them for my Dad. I took them along on this hike and did a bit of a photo shoot. I think they turned out really well. I blocked all the mittens for a medium large man's hand. So I hope they all fit!



The second pair I knit were for my father in-law. He has blue eyes and so I picked a colour to match.


Then I knit a pair for my brother...


These were probably my favorite. I love the brown, it reminds me of chocolate! Hard to take good pictures of though.

Then I knit the last pair for B. They are a lovely soft grey that just really appeals to me.

****add picture here.***

I'd use this pattern again for mittens. Like I said, it was easy to knock off a pair in a weekend. Next time though I'll add a liner. I'm finding that it's just too cold here. We need that nice soft inner layer to keep fingers warm.

I love knitting mittens!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Something like a Phenomenon

Remember this song?





I love retro (hard to believe L. L. Cool J is retro now!) you tube videos!
 
I was in the mood to knit mittens (big surprise, I know) when I found this Bella type pattern. It's called Phenomenon by Carine Ancel. I loved it! I love the detail on the palms, the cross cables are great. A bit of a pain to knit but so worth it! I had some Cascade 220 wool in my stash in a really vibrant teal colour that I still think is perfect for dreary winter days!




I started these in the spring and left them for 4 months with just the thumbs to do. Crazy! What is it with thumbs? I knit them on 6.5mm wooden dpns, yarn held double. 

I thought I'd run out of yarn, but I had just enough left over to make the Eclipse Hat. I started the hat in the summer and finished it in a day. I enjoy whipping up hats. They are usually quick and fun. This hat was knit on my 4.5mm 16 inch addi turbo circular needles. These are my favorite needles for hat knitting.





Together the hat and mittens made a great gift for my future sister in law. I'll be making the mittens again sometime soon as they are such an instant gratification kind of project, and they look slick too!


Little Sheep Virtues

Happy Friday! I'm pretty excited to be sharing this cross stitch project with you all. Pattern: Little Sheep Virtues 1-12 by Litt...