Colorwork Knitting

Finished with the first chart

I recently finished my first colorwork project! Woohoo! I have always shied away from colorwork knitting because I've never been comfortable with knitting charts but this project, and a couple recent sock projects, have helped me with learning to read them.

One of the groups I'm in on Ravelry was having a colorwork KAL which is what finally gave me the kick to make something like this. I decided on the Edith the Hat (Ravelry link - must have an account to view) pattern. 

After I was done knitting the hat I picked up stitches around the inner band and knit a lining. No worries about pulling on the floats now! I have to admit, I was a bit stressed about the fit before blocking, it seemed way too tight, but it fits fantastically after blocking. 

So, the reason I sat down to write this post was because the menu post might be a little late this week. Or maybe I won't do one, it's Thanksgiving week, I'll probably only cook a couple days. ;) 

Siren Sleeves

I'm always getting cold hands/arms, doesn't matter what time of year it is or what the AC is set at. I wanted to make a pair of cozy fingerless gloves to wear while I'm at the computer and I loved the fit of these sleeves. 

If I had it to do over I would make the sleeves a few inches longer, so they would be long enough to cover my elbows. Other than that I love them. I had to fight with myself over the yarn I used, it's a discontinued Knit Picks colors, but I'm glad I ended up using it instead of saving it for the ever elusive "perfect project."

Java Socks

These are the Java Socks pattern off Knitty.com.  I wish I could say they were quick to knit but they're for my husband - I haven't come across a "quick" pair of socks for guys feet yet.

These socks were fun to knit, lots and lots cables but that gave me the opportunity and inspiration to learn how to cable without a needle. Which was, actually, quite easy with Grumperina's tutorial.

I used Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine yarn... I can't say enough good things about this yarn. It was wound for a year (closer to two) and I soaked it, dried it, rewound it and it still knit up beautifully and quite stretchy. I was very worried that having been stretched that long it wouldn't have much bounce left but I was wrong. The color is just perfect for these socks!

Little Fat Robin

I knit this Fat Robin (Ravelry link) as a swap gift but I might end making a second one. Sylvester loved that the eggs tucked up under the "wings." He couldn't get enough of taking them out and putting them back while yelling "BIRD! BIRD!"

I think the nest was the neatest part to knit - you started with a few stitches and increased, knit even for a few rounds and then knit the fringe by adding loops and later cutting them, then decreasing back down. The fringe was kind of nerve wracking! I had never purposely cut my knitting before. Haha. You do tie knits in each loop, though, so it's not like it's going to go anywhere.

This yarn took five different colors but it took so little of each color you could easily make other projects from the same skeins. I love a project that gives me a reason to buy yarn and then have left overs. ;)

Small Business Saturday

Sly, Sylvester and I went to visit my Dad for Thanksgiving and we had a great time. We got up before the sun and did some shopping on Black Friday. My Dads wife Elaine stayed at home with Sylvester and, being the champ that he is, he slept from 630pm until 9am! I love that kid. (... when he sleeps.) ;)

Today Mom and I went out for "Small Business Saturday." If you haven't heard of it it's a promotion to encourage people to buy from their local small businesses. Small businesses don't (and can't) run the specials that big box stores run but there were a still a ton of local stores having sales through the weekend. 

We went to our LYS and I made out like a bandit. I picked up several skeins of sock yarn for $3.50ish or about half price and also found some sock yarn to make Sly a new pair. I haven't figured out which pattern I will use yet but I got sport weight yarn. I made him a pair of fingering weight socks and he said he'd like a thicker pair next time. Do you have a favorite sport weight mens sock pattern?

I'm considering using the Wildfoote Red and and the Cascade there together. I would use the red as a accent color, maybe some stripes at the cuff.

When WIPs Become FOs.

I wanted to talk about the Monks Travel Satchel, it was my first "big" project and it really shows how little I knew about knitting. I started this project October 1st of 2006 and finished it August 5th of 2012 - which I think qualifies it as a serious WIP.

When I picked this project back up I started to notice all the mistakes I'd made! Nothing that made it unusable, except that I used Acrylic yarn for a bag. Acrylic is way too stretchy for something like this unless you plan to line it. I still haven't figure out how I'm going to line the bag and strap, yet.

I picked this back up after years of not touching it and it took me a while to figure out which piece I was working on and then I ended up knitting about 3 inches too much on it! That's why the flap covers post of the front of the back. Whoooops!

Sock Knitting

I truly love sock knitting. They're, generally, quick to knit and fairly straight forward. I usually knit my socks cuff down on DPN's, but I wanted to learn to knit socks toe up. Around the same time a friend needed a pattern tested so I decided to do that, figuring that if someone who had never knit socks toe up could figure it out anyone could. Hah! They were much easier to knit than I thought they would be.

 I'm not very good at the short row heel, though. I think I'll either switch it out for another heel or pay more attention to the wrapped stitches. I ended up having giant holes that I had to sew up after I finished.

Knitted Fall Hat

I made Sylvester a fall hat that hopefully he'll be okay with wearing by then. There's about a 50/50 chance he'll wear a hat when I ask, but I'm hoping that once it gets colder it will be easier to keep one on him.

I plan on adding ties to it because it's a little bit big right now. When I made these Mom wanted a shorter cuff, so I used the scraps from her Sugar Maple Socks.

This was my first pair of TAAT sock knitting. These were made cuff down, so I can't speak for toe up TAAT sock knitting... But, that being said, I wasn't impressed. Maybe I'm just too attached to my DPN's. I found it very awkward to work and had some minor issues with ladders. 

Only Two Yards Left...

I've been knitting for years, off and on, but I've always had sweater knitting anxiety. I only know a few people locally who knit and they always talked about sweater knitting like it was the holy grail. You either ended up with an ugly Christmas sweater or a crop top.

I finally decided to face my anxiety and joined a KAL and make my first sweater. I used the Atelier pattern and Elsebeth Lavold Wools. This pattern is very easy. I knit long sleeves instead of 3/4 using the modifications found here. The thing I liked most about this sweater is that it's seamless. Yes! I hate seaming with a passion. You did have to seam the pockets, but that was pretty easy once I got started.

I finished my first sweater with only two yards left in the 6 skeins I had planned on using. I still have two more, I bought them as a bundle, but I've got no idea what I'm going to do with them.

Sky Scarf Week: 20, 21 and 22

I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted pictures of this scarf, oops!

See all that blue and white? Yep, summer has arrived.

And just because I'm always curious about where people knit, here's where I usually do my knitting. Lovely, isn't it?

Sky Scarf: Week 19

Happy Mother's Day!

I wish I could convey how soft and squishy this scarf is. I can't wait until it's done.

Sky Scarf: Week 17 & 18

I didn't get a chance to post this last weekend, it's been a crazy couple of weeks, but things are settling down now. Sly is out of that review course and graduated, yay!

Here's a picture of the last couple of weeks.

And a little something else I've been working on today.

My first pair of toe up socks. The pattern is easy to read so far. I'm a little nervous about the heel, but I'm sure it'll work out. It was my first time using the Judy's Magic Cast-On method, and it's definitely not my best knitting, but it'll keep my toes warm none the less. Once you've read the the directions for the cast on it's surprisingly easy to do, knitting the first row on DPN's was awkward but not undoable. 

Sky Scarf: Week 16

My scarf is 1/3 done! Yipee! This year is creeping by and flying by all at the same time. The first week of May is going to be crazy, hopefully I can still keep up with all this.

It has been a cloudy, but mostly rain-less week. We finally got a bit of rain (and some thunder) last night. Hoping for a bit more rain today, my plants could use it. Plus, it cools it down, which is lovely!

Sly has Tuesday off, which happens to be both his Birthday and probably the last day off before he graduates May 5th. I'm hoping the weather will be pretty so we can do something fun.

Sky Scarf: Week 15

Quick post today, we're having a no nap day. Yay.
I decided to measure my scarf and it's about 16.5 inches, unblocked.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Sky Scarf: Week 14

It got cold this weekend! I'm not sure who said it could do that, but I don't much appreciate it. Other then not having to run the AC, anyway. ;)

We had beautiful blue skies last week, then we had some cloudy skies and then it down right poured one day, all day long and through the night. This last weekend it was somewhat cloudy and then we'd have blue skies again.

Sylvester didn't get to play outside for a couple days because it was way too wet, so when he went out yesterday he was like a freed prisoner, LOL. He had sand behind his ears, in his hair, in his socks, it was great.

I hope everyone has had a fantastic Easter Weekend!

Sky Scarf: Week 13

Have you played Hanging with Friends? The reason I ask is the animation happens to be floating in the sky as  you play. I'll warn you, this game is highly addictive. Sly and I sat for two hours the other night, watched TV and played this... sitting across the room from each other.

This last week has been a week of pretty blue skies! It brought some very warm weather with it too, but that's okay. Yesterday was a little greyer, but the days before that were all blue. Kind of boring for this kind of knitting, but it meant less untangling of all the other yarns.

Do you ever notice something you'd change one you can see the pictures on your computer? I would have pushed the center down so you could see the stitches evenly.

P.S. Happy April Fool's day! ;)

Button Band Hat

... In pink. These hats are so easy to make. This one literally took me 2.5 hours, while watching TV. Sadly I didn't make Sylvester model this one for me. ;)

The two of them together.

I used seed stitch for the band of the first hat and just garter stitch for the pink one. I highly recommend this pattern if you need a quick gift. The pattern says that two skeins will make 3 hats and I can easily see that. A pretty button, 3 hours and you're done.

Sky Scarf: Week 12

I was really bad this week. I sat down yesterday and caught up with all my days. I hadn't knit on this in 4 days. It didn't take long to catch up, but that's beside the point. It's not that I didn't stop to enjoy the sky, it's that I spent too much time enjoying it and not enough time knitting!

Quick picture taken as the sun was going down. It was pretty stormy weather yesterday, more then a little scary. Hoping for sunny skies so Sylvester can play outside on his new toys!

Button Band Hat

Day before yesterday I saw this pattern on Ravelry and decided I'd make one (or two). This has got to be the quickest hat I've ever knit. It's done with a size 6 (bulky) yarn and I ended up using size 15 needles. Here's a full view of the finished hat.

Hat modeled by Sylvester.

I was going to start on the pink one last night but I decided to paint my nails instead. I used the China Glaze Hunger Games collection in Harvest Moon. (also the title of my favorite video game series.)

The Amazon picture doesn't do this polish justice, at all. It's probably the prettiest gold polish I've ever seen. And Amazon's price on this polish is great! I wear Fast Track from the same collection for a few days too, Sly really liked that one. 

Can't beat that price either! $1.95? That half of what I paid for it and it was on sale when I got it.

Sky Scarf: Week 11

A week of beautiful weather! Thankfully while Sly was on spring break. Couldn't have asked for more.

I need to measure this soon, so how long it is so far. I'll do that next Saturday, that will be 3 months in, that will give me a clue how long it will be when it's done.