Newer Knits and their story-Alpaca Sweater and Indigo Dandy

Thanks for the yarn, Black Tulip Farms!

Pattern:: 122-41 Knitted Jumper with Short Ragland Sleeves and Norwegian Pattern in "Alpaca" by DROPS design
Size:Small (34 5/8" bust)
Yarn:Black Tulip Farms Alpaca Fingering Grace (grey), Athos (blue) and Adrian (white)
Yardage:~1200 yds
Needle:US1 & 2 Circ
Date started: Dec 13, 2010
Mods:The original pattern is a short sleeve sweater, which will never be worn unless the weather is perfect. I continued on the sleeves and decreased every 7 rows or so. I also added more short rows because I slouch and need a lower neckline.

This sweater has a fun story: The grey yarn came home with me when my knitting group visited Black Tulip Farms for the Alpaca open house in 2009. I remember one knitter laughing really hard because I jumped when another knitter claimed that she was getting ALL of the lovely grey yarn. The yarn was all lovely, but Grace the grey alpaca made my heart skip a beat. We also got to meet the alpacas. The yarn always mean a lot to me when I get to meet the animals that the fiber came from.

About a year later, I had gotten to know Ms. R at the farm; we took a spinning class together. I had the honor to redesign their new logo. We bartered her yarn for my graphic services and received the lovely blue wool/alpaca blend and the white pure alpaca yarn.

Knitting it was an adventure because it called for tiny needles. I love the fabric though, it's really soft and drapey. It's also very comfortable.

Also useful for hiding identities

Pattern:: Indigo Dandy by Hannah Ingalls
Size:one size
Yarn:Imperial Stock Ranch Columbia in Heathered Teal
Yardage:~120 yds
Needle:US6 Circ
Date started: Mar 21, 2011
Mods: None, except I went down two needle sizes because this woollen yarn is very fluffy.

This yarn came from my first swap I ever. My swap partner is a wonderful mother to three in Oregon. She took time to pick out wonderful yarn and fiber from Oregon. It was such a great experience. I feel like my gift to her didn't measure up to what she had given to me. I know now what to get for her next year, since we're ravelry twins and share the same birthday.

The simple pattern shows off the subtle colorways in the yarn, and it's really warm. The pattern is brilliant because it combines the easy-wear of a cowl and a dressy look of a lace shawl/scarf.

She also gave me 2 oz of lovely fiber to spin, and that's being worked on right now!

Sock yarn blanket update

I'm officially over halfway done!

This blanket is virtually "gratuit" because all these squares are made of leftover yarn from sockweight projects. Some squares are made of just one type of yarn, and others are combinations of different yarn.

My latest square (unblocked) on the bottom right corner is from my newest FO socks blogged here.

I'm liking the way it's turning out. I thought some squares would stick out like a sore thumb, but the squares are all mingling quite well with one another.

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I'm done with sister's malabrigo hat, and I casted on for grandmother's stay-put shawl. I'm very lucky to have people in my life who I can knit for. Photos later.

Selfless month

After knitting 3 projects for myself during Knitting Olympics, I felt rather guilty.

Here is my original plan before yarn for my sweater showed up:

What did I make? MY Norwegian mittens (#5 in above photo).

Therefore I declare March to be my selfless knitting month. I'll knit for others before I knit something for myself.

Here's selfless project the first: Grandpa's computer wristwarmers.

Pattern: Susie's Reading Mitts
Yarn: Rowan Purewook DK in brown and Cascade 220 in forest green
Total yardage: 145 yds
Needles: US5 DPN
Mods: Although my granddad sleeps on a pink futon, I thought I'd make the pattern more masculine.
I CO 40, then knit the first 4 rows as follows: PKKK. No picot edges for him!
Then I knit the lace in contrast yarn.
Stockinette st for 29 rows gave me the right length, so that's where I began the gusset.
After dividing for thumb, K 4 rows then begin lace again. Do one more set of garter stitch, BO. No mods to thumb.

If I were to make this again, I would pick up 3 sts from the hand to avoid holes in the thumb gore. All in all, a fun and quick pattern to knit.

Did I mention I really like the quality of the wool? When I have extra money to spend on yarn, I think Rowan yarn will be worth the extra oomph.

Next up: Sister's cap (#6 in above photo). I wound malabrigo into a cake. mmmm.

Knitting Olympics!

The Winter Olympics are starting today. Very exciting! I always liked the skiing events, and looking forward to speed skating too. I have decided to do a challenge myself (along with thousands of other knitters). I was going to knit a sweater version of the Mickey hat in 17 days--start at the opening ceremonies and finish before the end of the closing ceremonies.

I have ordered yarn online, even did a little swatch, and was all ready to go! but the yarn has not come to my door yet. In fact, this is what it's showing:

The package didn't get sent until the 9th, and the yarn is in West Virginia. OK. So we're looking at a week delay on this. boo.

However, it must be noted that just because I ordered some yarn does not mean I don't have any yarn at home. In fact, my drawer is more than full of yarn. I pulled out some skeins and decided to work on some of these until the sweater yarn showed up. Then I can be an extreme knitter and finish the sweater in 9 days. Ha.

1. Grandmother's capelet

2. Grandfather's bed shoes

3. Recycle yarn + handspun vest

4. Asher's birthday socks

5. Norwegian mittens

6. Hitomi's hat

...but before Casting on for new projects, I'm going to finish Melissa's socks and the long neglected white shawl first. Discipline! I'll be posting my progress on these insane amounts of yarn and fun goodness.

update Oct 2009

Here's what I said boldly at the end of August. Let's see how I did:

My overall goals:

• Knit half that amount by New Years. (4893 yards)
  
• Knit one-fourth of the amount to go to Southeast Animal Fiber Festival in October. (2446 yards)

My Primary Goals to Finish:

• Mandala Lace shawl by Renee Leverington (1500 yards) ---->aaaagh I started another chart on Oct 27 to make it bigger. 75% done.
• Lace Cable Poncho (rav link) in Vogue Knitting on the Go (1000 yards) ---->Oh yeah that one deep in the box.
• DK Classic Mens Vest (rav link) in Retro Knits (1070 yards)---->done! (642yds actual yardage)
• Grun ist die Hoffnung socks (rav link)(437 yards)------>done!(327yds actual)

Secondary Goals:

• Elefante (100 yards)---->changed to Jean Greenhowe's elephant. (rav link) done!
• Charity hats or Mother Bear Project---->I've been baaad
• Pomatomus socks by Cookie A. (360 yards)--->changed to Fox Face Mysteries (rav link) by Nancy Bush (270 yds actual)
• Swallowtail Shawl in fingering weight (440 yards)--->done! (400 yds actual)
• Wisp Shawl in cobweb (500 yards)---->started Oct 19, about 80% done
• 
  
• Aeolian Shawl in fingering weight (440) yards---->done (400 yds actual)
• Total yardage used: 2040 yards. The goal was 2446, so not too far behind. :) I also knitted other items not on the list, so will talk about that soon.

Big Knits

I've been working on big stuff for about a month now, and they are finally all done, just in time for a fancy birthday dinner!

So here's a bag of yarn I got from WEBS when they had a spring sale in April:

yarn: Jo Sharp Classic DK Colorway:smoke

I picked out a retro waistcoat which didn't have any yarn suggestions, it just said 1000 yards of DK weight yarn for the size I'm making. (34 chest). So I got 1090 yards of yarn total. I did the back.

All 1x1 ribbing with some shaping. argh. I used 250 yards.

I did the front and back: 350 yards. Here they are blocking. The stitch is linen stitch and the buttonholes are sort of worked in about every 2 inches on the WS.

Then I did a single crochet edging, which annoyed me to great extent. Usually when you pick up and knit an edging, you pick up 2 sts every 3 rows, right? Well, I did that, and it was giving me waaay too many stitches. I ended up picking up 1 st every 2 rows (1 st from each selvege st) and it was still on the too-much side.

Well, that's ok because the recipient loved it. He even actively pursued shopping for buttons. He picked out the buttons himself.

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Pattern: Men's waistcoat by Woolcrest from Retro Knits

Needles: US 3 and US 6 and D hook

Yarn: Jo Sharp Classic DK ~640 yards

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I was sort of disappointed in big erratas like wrong needle size requirement for gauge and vague and plain instructions. I suppose that's how patterns were written, but they advertised that the patterns were rewritten for modern knitters. Oh well. All's well that ends well. :)

But what about the 4 balls of yarn left! I only used ~640 yards for the vest (which is a fair amount for vests. I usually use about 1000-1200 yards for a sweater)

He requested matching socks, but I suggested a better suggestion: matching hat.

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Pattern: Morgan from Knitty.com (spring 2008)

Needle: US 5

Yarn: Jo Sharp Classic DK ~220 yards

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This pattern is not intuitive. I'm not all that familiar with hat terminology, so I was quite lost for the entire thing until I grafted the brim and voila! a hat emerged! It was a short-row party from beginning to end. For the brim I used plastic canvases which was really easy to use to secure the edges and then to sew on the snap-ons between the brim and the top portion of the hat. He LOVES this hat. He even wore it to school the next day. and the next, and the next.

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And now something completely different!

I won some yarn by placing 2nd place in the great hat race hosted through ravelry in the spring of this year. I recommend it to anyone who likes making hats. It's lots of fun and a great way to give back to the community.

Anyway, I got ~450 yards of cream colored yarn. I was quite impressed by the gradated colorways in Miriam Felton's Andromeda Shawl in ravelry and wanted to make one for myself. I'll write about how to go about dying this later.

Yarn: Knit Picks Palette Cream, 2 skeins

Beads: Miyuki Delicas-8 Dark amber Lined AB from Rare Earth Beads in Durham, NC

I always admired the Aeolian Shawl, and this yarn wanted to be it. So after few days of knitting away with beads (it gets fun with practice I promise), here she is:

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Pattern: Aeolian Shoulderette with Narrow Edging

Needle: US 5

Yarn: Knit Picks Palette 2 skeins (~400 yards)

Beads: Miyuki Delicas-8 Dark amber Lined AB (about 750)

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I love it! This is the first shawl I made using fingering weight yarn. I like the balance between the size (shoulderette) and the weight. It's not too heavy, and boy the edging looks fancy! I think I like the narrow edging better than the original pattern. I'm entering this into the state fair!

yardage used from stash: 640 + 220 + 400 = 1260!

Little Knits

Little knit #1: Elephant by Jean Greenhowe
Yarn: Dale Falk, Lion Brand Wool-Ease Heather Grey and Tweed Red
Needle: #2 circular and #2dpn

mods: By the time I got to the arms, I was tired of sewing up seams, so the arms are in the round. It is possible to do body and head in the round. For feet and ears I recommend knitting them flat since the seam is minimal in feet and the seam helps the shape of the ears. When sewing on parts together, use lots of pins to secure parts in place. Otherwise they look real silly.

I forgot how fun these little guys are! For the first time the eyes went well...it's sewn on for a little toddler neighbor. His name starts with an E. Maybe I'll make another.



Saartje's booties by Saartje Bruin
Needles: US#2 dpn
Buttons: 7/16 La Mode buttons from JoAnn
Yarn: Mystery acrylic baby yarn from Eatonton, GA

Aww these are SO cute! I had the booties knitted up a few weeks ago, but finally broke down and got buttons. You know, babies can't wait forever. And they probably will outgrow them super-fast anyway.

With all the notions, I forgot to weigh the yarn before assembling. I guess these won't go towards the stash-busting yardage count, but they make me happy every time I look at them.

Stashdown FO#1 : Socks

Here is my first finished object: socks!

This pattern is sort of curious...neither toe-up nor top-down. You start with a beautiful lace panel like shown below, and knit a short-row heel from one of the edges. Then you pick up the side stitches as you knit up the foot, then proceed to finish as any toe-up sock.

Pattern: Grun ist die hoffnung

Yarn: Cascade Heritage

Needle: US#1 dpn

Yardage: 330 yards

Total stash-busting so far: 330/9786.5= 3.3%

5.56 miles

That's right. There are 5.56 miles worth of yarn in my yarn drawer. That's 9786.5 yards. Wow I haven't even purchased any yarn since Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival and still this amount!?

To make myself feel better, 5247 yards of the total is fingering weight or finer yarn.

My overall goals:

• Knit half that amount by New Years. (4893 yards)
  
• Knit one-fourth of the amount to go to Southeast Animal Fiber Festival in October. (2446 yards)

My Primary Goals to Finish:

• Mandala Lace shawl by Renee Leverington (1500 yards)
• Lace Cable Poncho in Vogue Knitting on the Go (1000 yards)
• DK Classic Mens Vest in Retro Knits (1070 yards)
• Grun ist die Hoffnung socks (437 yards)
• TOTAL: 4007 yards

Secondary Goals:

• Elefante (100 yards)
• Charity hats or Mother Bear Project
• Pomatomus socks by Cookie A. (360 yards)
• Swallowtail Shawl in fingering weight (440 yards)
• Wisp Shawl in cobweb (500 yards)
• Aeolian Shawl in fingering weight (440) yards
• TOTAL: 1840 yards

These projects will take care of about 60% of the stash. phew! Now I just have to knit them... ;)

Great Hat Race 3

I really had a great time knitting hats for the Great Hat Race on Ravelry. They did a wonderful job keeping us updated and everything! I wonder if there is a winner?

Here are the hats I made using more stash yarn (free patterns too!) ...and somehow there is still lots of yarn leftover. Looking forward to the next one!

1. Robin's Egg Blue Hat

Used leftover yarn from Felted Sheep

2. Coronet by Alexandra Virgiel

Used leftover yarn from fisherman's sweater

3. Lace Edged Womens' Hat by Julie M. Hentz

Used leftover yarn from cloche hat

5. Lace Cap by Carissa Browning

Used "new" dk yarn

6. Reflections by LizYvonne (ravelry link)

Used leftover from sweater

6. One Hat Two Hat by AKS

Used yarn given to me by BF's mom

7. Tam by Angela Sixian Wu

Used leftover from battle bonnet, and other scraps of Cascade 220, Noro Kureyon, and Lamb's Pride Worsted

8. Odessa Hat by Grumperina

Used leftover from baby booties that never happened

9. Shedir Hat by Jenna Wilson

Used leftover from Bulldog Sweater

Stash Busting

Business for 2009 has been slow. so far.

So, I decided to see what I can knit with the medium sized stash I have.

1. Great Hat Race Round 3 Hat #1

Pattern: Robin's Egg Blue Hat by Rachel Iufer

Yarn: Crystal Palace Yarns Kaya in blue and cream (leftover from this)

Needles: #10

Notions: 1 big button (1.5-2 inches)

Cute pattern. I was waiting to make the hole for the button and then realized that it's just sewn on.

I was in suspense the entire time, thinking that I would run out of yarn. I had enough, but not by much:

Yikes.

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And some of my blanket squares:

Yarn: leftover Crystal Palace Panda Silk from orange sock mystery

Yarn: Leftover yarn from plain ribbed socks

and from the armwarmers. This is my square #12/42.

2/42

Now I'm hooked.  Here is another leftover yarn square from my lovely gloves I made 2 years ago.  

1/42

I had to leave the apartment today for about an hour.  My landlord is showing the apartment to a prospective tenant.  

I had just received a copy of Knitalong: Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting together by Larissa Brown and Martin Brown.  

What a brilliant little book!  I want to make everything from it.  I even wanted to knit an afghan.  I swore never to knit such a dull thing. 

But this one was different.  It was a quilt made by using leftover sock yarn.  I have those!

So:  Here's my square 1: