Knitting

A Year of Projects 2015, Weeks 27 & 28

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I didn’t write a Year of Projects post last Sunday, so this post covers the last week and a half of progress.  Saturday, July 4 was Independence Day in the United States.  My husband had Friday and Monday off, and we planned to go to the beach at least one day.  We didn’t go because I wasn’t feeling well on Sunday and Monday.  On Friday, my family got together for lunch:

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Chris and I hung out around the house for the rest of the long weekend.  The rest of this week was our usual routine.  Today we did some yard work.  The aloe plants in our backyard are blooming.  I love their flowers!

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I’m also happy to report that while Tiger seemed suspicious of his cat bed when I first made it, he’s decided he quite likes it.  It is now his favorite place to sleep — if no human lap is available, that is!

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Let’s review the goals I set when last I wrote a Year of Projects post:

Goals for July 1 to 5, 2015

  • Knit at least 1/2 of the Sweet Summer Shawl
  • Cast on Miranda Shawl
  • Swatch and Cast on Bubbles Baby Blanket
  • Swatch and Cast on Liquid Silver Shawl
  • Finish spinning and plying the Cormo I’ve been working on since February
  • Start spinning the 3 Feet of Sheep (8 ounces BFL) on July 4 for Tour de Fleece

I finished the Sweet Summer Shawl on July 8.

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I cast on the Miranda Shawl, knit 8 rows, discovered that my mistake on the cast on row was going to be a problem, ripped it all the way out, and cast on again.  I only cast on again yesterday and I’m now making excellent progress.

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Since I’m working on the Cormo as part of Tour de Fleece, I’ve been writing regular updates about it (Stage 1, Stage 3, Stage 6, Stage 7).  Today I finally finished plying it!  The bobbin on top is the one I finished plying for Stage 7.  I finished the other two bobbins today.

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I have not started the baby blanket, Liquid Silver Shawl, or spun any of the BFL.  I didn’t include anything about the Master Hand Knitting swatches on my goal list, but it is an ever-present goal.  I knit one more swatch in the last week:

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Goals for July 13 to 19, 2015

The next two weeks I will be very busy.  My cousin is in town next weekend.  I’m also taking a three-day weaving workshop from the 17th through the 19th.  On the 21st, I head to San Diego for The Knitting Guild Association Annual Conference, and I won’t be home until the 26th.  I have a long list of things to do and little hope that everything will get done!  I’m trying to write a modest list of goals, and it’s taking every bit of restraint I have to keep it short.

  • Finish the Miranda Shawl
  • Knit all the homework swatches for TKGA classes
  • Finish knitting the MHK1 swatches
  • Spin 1 color of the BFL / day (there’s 10 colors / 8 ounces total in Three Feet of Sheep)

On Deck:

  • Mittens for MHK1
  • Liquid Silver Shawl
  • Bubble Baby Blanket
  • Weaving with VCR tape
  • Color and Weave Study scarves
  • Begonia Swirl Shawl

Updated List of Goals for 2015

Knitting

  • Knit myself a sweater
  • Improve my finishing techniques
  • Finish MHK Level 1
    • First 3 swatches finished by June 24, 2015
    • Swatch #14 finished July 11, 2015
  • Dishcloth Advent Calendar
    • Tribbles, finished January 18, 2015
    • Leaves, finished March 30, 2015 but never blogged
    • Heart Illusion Dishcloths (in progress)
  • Charity Knits
  • Do some test knits
    • Sand Tracks Scarf, finished June 16, 2015
    • Grisou Scarf, finished June 24, 2015
    • Raindrops on Roses Shawlette, finished June 27, 2015
    • Miranda Shawl (in progress)
  • Finish or frog all UFOs
    • Traveling Scarf
    • Bigger on the Inside Hat
    • Evenstar
    • Quinn Bag
    • Baby Blue Monster
  • Socks
  • Other Projects
  • Design at least one project from scratch

Crochet

  • Learn to read crochet patterns
  • Learn all the basic crochet stitches.
  • Make at least one non-granny square crochet project
  • Dishcloth Advent Calendar
    • Diagonal Crochet Dishcloths (in progress)

Spinning

  • Breed Specific Spinning
    • Cormo (in progress)
  • Learn to spin on a drop spindle

Weaving

  • Continue playing with color and weave drafts
  • Learn pick up stick drafts
  • Learn Inkle Weaving
  • Learn Kumihimo braiding
  • Explore Twill weaves on the floor loom
  • Make items for the Guild Sale
  • Other

Dyeing

  • Finish dyeing the MAPLE LEAF Shawls
  • pH / water source experiment
  • Return to dye triangles project

Sweet Summer Shawl

I finished this shawl yesterday, and I’m super excited because it’s the first time I’ve knit with my handspun!

Official Stats

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About This Project

I loved knitting this project.  I’m happy to finally knit with my handspun.  This yarn is a massive improvement over my prior handspun, but it still has some anomalies.  The Sweet Summer Shawl pattern is forgiving of yarn anomalies, since it is mostly garter stitch.  The shawl is knit from end to end not top down or bottom up.  I was looking for a pattern knit in this manner to maximize the yarn I had.  I managed to use all but 6.9 grams of the yarn.

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The pattern suggests knitting 10 repeats of the increase section then 10 repeats of the decrease section.  I started weighing my yarn after the 8th repeat and every repeat after that.  I ended up with 11 repeats.  I knew I didn’t have enough yarn to knit a 12th increase repeat plus a 12th decrease repeat.  Now that I finished the pattern, I wish I’d knit one repeat without either increasing or decreasing.  I had enough yarn to do so, and I think I would have been happier with an odd number of points.  Since there’s not a central point in the pattern, it ends up slightly asymmetrical and I would have preferred symmetry.  In the grand scheme of things, this is a minor quibble.  It’s a fun, easy pattern to knit and I KNIT WITH MY HANDSPUN!!!

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WIP Wednesday: July 8, 2015

I wasn’t sure if I would have anything for WIP Wednesday this week.  I’ve been knitting a shawl, which I finished and blocked today.  I do have an update on my Tour de Fleece spinning and I cast on a new project!

Tour de Fleece, Day 5

I really, really, really wanted to finish the cormo today.  I didn’t quite make it.  I have 0.09 ounces left to spin.  That’s not a lot, but at the rate I’m spinning it’ll take at least 1/2 hour and it’s already 1 am.  I’m throwing in the towel.  I’ll finish it tomorrow.

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Miranda Shawl

I cast on and knit the first 4 rows of a new shawl.  This one is another test knit.  Since it’s knit from the bottom up, I had to cast on 418 stitches!

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Grisou Scarf

This is the third test knit that I finished in June.

Official Stats

  • Date Started: June 17, 2015
  • Date Finished: June 24, 2015
  • Pattern: Grisou Scarf by Solène La Roux (website, Ravelry)
  • Yarn: 181 yards Gynx Yarns (website, Ravelry) Gynx Aran in Ocean
  • Needles: US 10.5 / 6.5 mm
  • Finished Dimensions: 13″ x 19″
  • Made for: test knit
  • Ravelry Project Page
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About this Project

This is a quick little project.  It’s called a scarf, but it’s intended to be worn like a neckerchief.  The designer used Cascade Eco yarn when designing.  I used yarn from my stash.  I had a hard time matching gauge.  I actually knit 3 swatches — something I never do, and probably wouldn’t have done if this wasn’t a test knit — and chose the largest of the three sizes as that was the closest to the designer’s gauge.

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I ended up cannibalizing all three swatches to finish the scarf; I used every inch of the skein.  Despite using all the yarn I had in the skein and pinning the scarf out to the designer’s intended dimensions of 14″ x 22″, my scarf was too short.  When I unpinned it, it shrank down to 13″ by 19″.  This proved to be too small for me to wear.  In order to take pictures wearing the scarf, I pinned it with one of the shawl pins I got at the Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival.  It is really tight on my neck!  Since it doesn’t fit me well, I’ll gift it to someone else, but I’m not sure who yet.

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It’s a well-written pattern.  The cables look fancy, as they always do, but they are very straightforward cables.  This pattern is a good choice for someone new to cables.  I worked from the written instructions, as I always do for cables, but the pattern also includes charts.

As I mentioned in the Sand Tracks Scarf post, I almost always form cables without using a cable needle.  I use a cable needle if the yarn is very slippery, e.g. the Cascade Pinwheel I used for the Palindrome Scarf, Palindrome Hat, and Irish Hiking Mittens last year.  I might use a cable needle for something like the Sand Tracks Scarf, which had purl stitches in the cable, since it’s easier to drop those stitches.

Before the Grisou Scarf, I had formed 2-stitch, 3-stitch, and 4-stitch cables without a cable needle.  The Grisou Scarf cables are 6-stitch cables.  I decided to knit the Grisou Scarf without a cable needle, just to see if I could.  For the first 3 pattern repeats, it did not go well.  I dropped stitches on every cable row.  I still don’t know how I was dropping them.  I was carefully counting to make sure that I got them all back on the needles, only to find that I was missing a stitch.  The scarf took many hours longer to knit than usual as a result of my stubborn refusal to use a cable needle and the resulting need to rip back to fix stitches dropped from the middle of cables.  Finally, I decided to record a video demonstrating cables without a cable needle.  Miraculously, I didn’t drop any stitches in the making of the video, or in any of the cable rows after that!  I’m not sure what made the difference.

The video is 18 minutes long because I recorded two full rows of cabling, one with stitches held to the front and one with stitches held to the back.  I planned to edit it down to just a couple of examples, but decided to leave the entire thing so that if you are watching the video while working cables, you don’t have to stop and rewind to watch the demonstration again.  The video starts with stitches held to the back.  After two examples, I added a note in the video telling you the time stamp where stitches held to the front starts, so you can fast forward if you are ready to do so!  I hope you find the video helpful, and I’m happy to answer any questions you have.

Raindrops on Roses Shawlette

I’m going to start with this: I love this shawl.  The pattern is beautiful.  The yarn is beautiful.  This pattern and this yarn were a perfect combination, and the results are spectacular.

Official Stats

  • Date Started: June 3, 2015
  • Date Finished: June 27, 2015
  • Pattern: Raindrops on Roses Shawlette by Assorted Musings (Ravelry, blog)
  • Yarn: 495 yards Nice & Knit Fingering in Peony
  • Needles: U.S. 5 / 3.75 millimeters
  • Finished Dimensions: For blocking, I pinned it out to 19.25” deep at the center and 47” wide at the widest point.  When I took the pins out after it dried, it shrank a little to about 17.5″ deep and 45″ wide.
  • Made for: Test knit; I think I’m going to keep this one 🙂
  • Ravelry Project Page
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About This Project

In early May, I flew from Orlando to Hartford, Connecticut.  From there, I was driving to Vermont to attend my cousin’s college graduation.  This is the cousin for whom I wove the Dr. Who Scarf.  My father also flew into Hartford from Ohio.  His flight didn’t arrive until four hours after mine, so I googled yarn shops near the airport and found Creative Fibers (website, Ravelry).  This is a great yarn shop, located only 10 minutes from the Hartford airport.  If you ever find yourself needing to kill time waiting for a delayed flight, I highly recommend visiting this shop.  When I went into the shop, I asked if they had any local yarns.  The woman working that day directed me to this yarn from Nice & Knit.

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Nice & Knit (website, Ravelry) is yarn hand-dyed by two sisters, not far from the Creative Fibers shop.  They have four yarn weights — fingering, sport, DK, and worsted — all in 100% superwash merino.  The yarn was a dream to knit.  It’s so soft and smooth, with no hint of splitting.  Their colors are amazing.  In addition to the skein of Peony that I used for this project, I bought a skein of fingering in Seagrass, a stunning bright yellow-green.  I haven’t knit anything with that skein yet, but after knitting up the Peony I’m dying to find the right pattern for the Seagrass.  The label says the skein is 490 yards / 100 grams.  My skein of Peony was a little overweight, at 103. 8 grams, and that turned out to be a good thing because I added 1.5 lace repeats to the border.   I used 100.3 grams (495 yards) of yarn.  If my skein had been right on the nose or a little under, I wouldn’t have had enough yarn to make the shawl larger!

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The pattern was well-written and a fun knit.  I followed the charted directions, as I always do with lace, but I did read through the written instructions and found them easy to understand.  I think it would be a great first lace project.  If you look closely at the picture above, you may be able to see that a 2-stitch garter column separates each repeat of the lace pattern.  This feature is helpful in keeping track of the repeat, even if you aren’t using stitch markers.  There’s no lace work on the back, but it’s also not a straight purl across because you knit the stitches for the garter stitch columns.  I found myself automatically counting stitches between the garter stitches as I worked across the back, and this helped me as find any yarn overs I accidentally omitted in the preceding row.  The pattern calls for 3 repeats of the lace.  I wanted to use as much of my skein as I could, so I asked Assorted Musings if it was okay with her if I made the shawl bigger.  She said yes.  I was able to get 1.5 more repeats out of my skein.  It’s a fun pattern, and a relatively quick knit; I knit it in about 30 hours, including the extra lace repeats.  Assorted Musings plans to release the pattern on July 15.  You should get it and knit the shawl!

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