FO Cover Song

Here is my second go at the Chelsea Market Hat.  This one was done up in US6 and US9 needles using Malabrigo RIOS. SO YUMMY.





I did run in to one tiny little problem. I was so excited to cast on that I didn't block my swatch, so when I finished the hat and it was a lovely fitting beanie, I suddenly became afraid of blocking it. What if it grew too big during blocking?

I did some time lord swatching, blocked it, seemed OK. Just to be safe, I wove some crochet thread around the brim and cinched it as tight as possible during blocking.

The hat turned out perfect! I think the crochet thread was the key to success in this project, I'm very happy with how it turned out, but I'm pretty sure the brim would have stretched too much without the reinforcement!



As always, check out Tami's for more FOs.

WIP all the things

Hey blog!

How are you? I'm doing good. My weekend was FULL of crafty goodness, I went to my first ever Spinning group meeting on Sunday, and then on Monday I spent a whole evening sewing a corset! It's my first ever project on my new sewing machine and (knock on wood) it's going well so far, I think I'm about halfway done!

Anyway, Lots going on in the knitting world too. I finished the Rikke Hat

I'm a little nervous about it. If it were for me it would be fine, but it is for a coworker and he hasn't been around to try the hat on - nerve racking. This is a heavy modification of the pattern which calls for DK weight, I had to drop down to size 4 needles and cast on 88 stitches instead of 96 and I STILL think it turned out a little slouchier than the original.... hope he likes it because I've already woven in all the ends. Lolz.

This is my second finished challenge for Nerd Wars!  I haven't posted it yet because.... It's going into the discovery challenge; something related to the atmosphere. That's easy, I'm gonna say the colors remind me of a stormy sky. The hard part is tying in both team spirit AND the Team unity project - that's a lot of writing that I don't feel like doing today XD

It's ok. I've already started on a project for my next challenge

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out Tami's for more WIPs!

FO Friday 13th

  

Hey guys, how are you? Hope you are enjoying this lovely Friday the 13 ^^;;

My FO for you is the Chelsea Market Hat 

Knit with size 6 and 9 US needles, using 1 skein of Vanna’s choice solid.

I think I’m going to be doing an acrylic yarn review post soonish. I’ve knit with this yarn in the past without any problem and thought it was decent, but this color/skein has a very visible fluff on it that makes me worry it will pill very quickly :/ Even worse it was knit for another person (They chose the yarn). I hope they aren’t disappointed with the quality.

The Hat Pattern, however, is lovely. I will most definitely be making this pattern again (with a nice wool next time. )

Cheers! Don’t forget to visit Tami’s for more FOs J  

Gray Day

More than the usual amount of knitting got done last week. Here's another sample!

I'm participating in a MKAL that starts September first (That's next week!! ), and the yarn that I've picked for it is this lovely merino/silk blend in grey. Went ahead and swatched for it to determine if I would need to go buy needles or not. I'm not sure how, but I've managed to collect 3 pairs of US6 knit picks interchangeable tips, but I don't have a single one in US 5??

Incidentally, I'll be knitting with the 6's.

Work tends to be pretty slow on Saturdays, so I've started bringing my knitting in. (Waaay too busy for me to knit at work the rest of the week. ) Last week I did an epic 7 rows on my Damask shawl. Although that was a lot of progress, it was a bit demoralizing to spend a WHOLE DAY knitting something without any visual sign of progress, so this past Saturday I cast on a hat instead.

This is the Chelsea Market Hat. And I love it! I've actually had it favorited for awhile, so its a bit of a lucky coincidence that the person I'm knitting this for picked it out!
This is a "commissioned" project in the sense that my coworker asked me what I wanted from him to knit him a hat. My standard reply is "Well if you bring me yarn I'll knit you something with it" because in my experience that usually is too much work for the requester and it spares me from actually having to say 'no, I wont knit you something.' however this guy is super cool. Not only did he bring yarn, he asked all sorts of questions about what type of yarn to get AND he knew exactly what kind of hat he wanted. He spent at least on hour on ravelry looking at patterns and asking me if I could mix and match design elements. The kind of recipient that every knitter dreams of, right?  I managed to get more than half way done with the hat at work, finished up the pattern repeats last night, and am now just waiting to do the decreases. I'll take it in next week and let him check out the fit and see if it has the correct amount of slouch before decreasing and binding off!

Thanks for reading, be sure to see what other people are working on at Tami's!

FO : Wurm

Hello everyone,

Today I have an extra special FO to show you all. It started with a Christmas present from my sister

5.2 oz of BFL that got spun up on my drop spindle.  This braid contained most of my favorite colors. Purples, blues, grays... It was gorgeous. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to N-ply it, because that's the only way I know how to easily preserve the color transition with plying, and I didn't want it to be all barber-pole like. Those yarns are pretty to look at but I'm never sure what to knit with them. Besides I thought it would mute out the colors and make them all look muddy. 

I wanted to spin fingering weight - and parts of the finished yarn ARE fingering weight - but over all it's a solid worsted yarn. WPI varies between 8-12, and it ended up surprisingly even all things considered. Not that there weren't patches of too-thick or too-thin spots. But over all, I'm very proud of how the whole project turned out. 

Normally for spinners, I guess this would be the "end" of the "finished" spinning project. But of course I'm still mostly a knitter, so I couldn't wait to make something with the yarn. I cast on the Wurm hat with US6 needles, and did almost 5 repeats of the rib pattern before being forced to decrease and bind off - used all put a small bit of the yarn. Love the pattern, love the hat. Love everything. 

My favorite part of the pattern is that the brim is doubled. You knit 21 rows, with a purl row in the middle, fold it up, and knit around picking up and knitting together 1 live stitch with 1 stitch from the CO edge. Brilliant, and supper warm, without having to knit the whole thing doubled or with bulky weight ^__^

 

Don't stop here, you know you want to see more FOs

WIP to the dregs

Good morning!

I'm experimenting a little today with blogging from my phone... 

Good afternoon. That experiment failed the moment I tried to add photos to the equation. So much for being tech-savvy.

Just an observation, but I might be turning into a single-project knitter. I was going to post about progress on my wurm hat, But


Spoiler Alert: 




I may have finished it yesterday




That leaves me with only the endpapers mitts to talk about today. I'm halfway through the first mitt but it doesn't really look any different from the last time I blogged about it. So there are no new pictures. It's hard to feel motivated to knit something that never seems to get any bigger.

Still haven't restarted the interim mitts after frogging them for the 2nd time, so I'm spending a lot of time looking at my queue longingly. There's a lace shawl I've been looking forward to...

Don't forget to check out more WIPs at Tami's

FO : Frosting Hat

Hi again,

As you can tell blogging and I are not getting along. I've been finding it really difficult to find the time to blog. I even tried writing blogs ahead of schedule when I had time, saving them as drafts, which is how I managed to forget to post the Zombie Vixen FO.

Even harder than finding time to write (Aaron is always on my computer!) Is getting decent photos of finished objects. I finally just gave up on trying to get anything decent for the hat, so bare with me. So here it is, My 3rd go at the Frosted pattern.

Funnily enough, even though everything was stacked against this pattern, it turned out just how I wanted it! Using the wrong size yarn with an incorrect gauge paid off against all odds. True it's tighter and less slouchy than the other two versions of this pattern that I've knit, but in this case that turns out not to be such a bad thing after all ^^:;

Don't forget to check out Tami's for more FO post!

FO Friday - Hat

Hello all. I promise to get back to the knitting soon, but for now, I finished a hat. It's Crochet.

The pattern is a slouchy beanie and it was very simple, quick, and fun to do.
I knit it using various leftover DK weight from some baby-blanket projects I did last year. The purple bits are peaches N Cream cotton which worked surprisingly well, considering.

I found the puff stitch very relaxing and slouchy hats are extraordinarily forgiving of newbie crochet mistakes ^__^ 

I'm also *practically* done with the Zombie Vixen mitts.... Just 7 rows of ribbing and a thumb remain!

See more FO's at Tami's!

Crochet or Die

Hello all, Today's WIPW post needs a bit of an introduction.
I am a knitter. I've been knitting for a long time and I love knitting. I'm also a dabbler. I can't stand seeing someone do something crafty without at least finding out the basics of how it works. So I've had an on and off again affair with crochet. One of my BFF's Crochets, she's bought me a few crochet books and patterns, and occasionally, due to her influence, I've knit masses of random unrelated granny squares, and once, even a hat.

I want to get better, but unlike with knitting, every time I start a crochet project I have to re-learn all the stitches. And the patterns in the book I have are all knit with difficult types of yarn, like lace weight, or ribbon yarn. So I want to make sure I really have stuff down before I start. Plus it's all charted in that book, and crochet charts still look like black magic to me!


All that being said, I promised myself I would try to knit crochet This Hat after I finished Aaron's socks. (Finished, btw, photos on friday. )

But I wanted to practice the stitches first, which meant granny squares. Last week on WIPW I read about a bunch of crochet projects that other people were doing that inspired my granny square choices.

Yarnknitreadlit got me started with granny square CALS and a cool plaid crochet blanket
Little Bird knits  is doing a weekly granny square pattern. So is
8th Gem
Mixedmartialarts introduced me to this pattern, which I am now obsessed with!


So, to make a long story short. I've been making Granny Squares using leftover sock yarn and a 3.50 MM crochet hook.




I also finished the band for the hat :

The puff stitch is so relaxing I can't put the thing down!

 


For more WIPW posts visit Tami's Blog!

WIP Wonderland

Dear blog,

I continued to chug along on all of my WIP projects this past week. The completion rate has slowed slightly due to the sudden transcription workload I've had lately. I am sorry to confess that I still have not mastered the art of typing and knitting simultaneously. However progress is still being made. I finished the base hat for Monster last week and made a pit stop at Hobby Lobby on Saturday for supplies.

Only one earflap and some glue keeps this hat from being an FO.







WIP Progress:

- The Frosted Glow hat is growing steadily. About two inches into the stockinette portion
- BO first Nereid glove, CO for second.

Queuing up :

Zombie Vixen Mitts
Turn a square hat.

Frosted FO

Dear Blog,


I started knitting Frosted on Sunday. And let me just say this first: I've only knit one, but it's my new favorite hat pattern and I've already got it memorized.

Went to the Big Yarn store on Saturday and got some last minute acrylics. My favorite being Red Heart's Shimmer. Worsted acrylic with shiny tinsel mixed in. It's surprisingly soft and held up well to frogging.

Had to frog the headband part because I was tragically misreading the instructions for the spiral rib.  I was reading the part that said:

K2TG But do not drop stitches from left needle knit first stitch again 2X

So I was knitting the first stitch a total of three times, creating an increase, when instead your supposed to knit it just the once, and then do the whole thing again starting with the K2TG. DOH.

Tuesday I knit the 5 inches of stockinette and today I did the decreases and bound off!





Yay, this is a spur of the moment totally un-planned x-mas knitting thing. ^^;;

I also finished a second pair of the good time mitts for my boyfriend, so now we both have gloves we can get away with wearing in uniform.

WIP progress :
- Getting ready to start the thumb gusset for Nereid
- Casting on a new hat
- Swatched the Tanis blue fingering for the zombie vixen mitts

Hibernating :

Endpaper mitts due to sudden x-mas knitting

The beaded lace cowl, because lets face it, I should probably frog it and join without twisting.

FO : Rose Hat

The Rosebud hat was my guilty pleasure knit during Christmas break. I knit it with SHELTER, and it was amazing to work with ^^;; I like hat patterns because they are quick no muss-no-fuss projects on circular needles. It's pretty hard to mess them up, and when you do, it's pretty easy to fix. Also, you can never have too many hats!

And I have to say, I'm in love with SHELTER. It's got this intoxicating crunchiness that I just love. I wont say that it's soft - and some people have told me it feels like steal wool- But I really like the feel of it and enjoyed knitting it up. I probably wouldn't knit a sweater out of it, but hats and maybe a cardigan or something? Sure. I've got a second skien of this in the same color, so we'll have to see if I can cook up a matching something or other.

Pattern : Rosebud

Yarn : SHELTER color Thistle, 140 yards.

Needles: US 4, US 7

CO : December 20

BO: December 26

FO Triple threat!

Dear blog, The last month sort of went by in a whirlwind. All sorts of crazy stuff going on what with class starting and me moving rooms, and it all boils down to me finishing three epic projects without having the time or the sense to blog about them. So here we go!

FO: Evangeline

Yay! I love this pattern. Easy to knit, fun to wear, who could say no?

Knit with loops & threads impeccable (my current acrylic of choice ) and while ravelry doesn't know what size needles I used, I'm guessing it was probably US7's. Those are the DPNS that get the most use from me! (tho now that I think about it, it could easily have been the US3s, my 2nd most used set... This is why we document things as they happen ppl...)

I knit the first glove during smart start, and found out that one of my teachers also knits! She came to class wearing several different lovely lace scarfs :) She said the pattern looked really similar to Bella's mitts. Guess if you've seen one cable you've seen them all...

FO : Onerva

Mmmmh. I love this scarf! I only wish I had my personal photographer here to take nicer pictures ;)

Knit on US5 circulars in malabrigo laceweight, this thing is the softest dreamiest thing I've ever knit. I was afraid I'd run out of yarn at the end, and so I did a simple stretchy bind off.... It curls and I'm not the biggest fan. But it's not bad enough to ruin the overall awesomeness.

FO : Pretty Puffs Slouch

So I went absolutely crazy one sunday.... No yarn, no projects... no yarn.... Stubornly refusing the 2 socks worth of sock yarn in my drawer.... no yarn. Is there seriously no yarn? That's when I stumbled upon my back-up skien of impeccable worsted. The one I bought *just incase* I ran out while knitting Evangeline. I realized I had failed miserably in all of my previous attempts to crochet anything, and that I had a whole day ahead of me with nothing to do..... And that's how I got this hat. It only took a day to crochet, but it's taken me years to leap off of the granny-square edge.

So yeah. Wow. Loads of FO's. Hoping I'll be able to bring some WIPS to my next post. I'm expecting a Knitpicks order in the mail, and yes, the sock yarn and I are having a dialogue. But that's a story for another day.

Until then

Cheers

Stalling

Hey blog!

No pictures today, but I wanted to do a quick update:

The brother's treads are finished. My gauge changed again when knitting the second glove, but overall I think they turned out OK.

Progress on Rasberry Twist has stalled because I ran out of yarn. On a different note, this was my first time working with Debbie Stroller's Full O Sheep yarn and I have to say, I'm not really a fan.

The upside to all of this is that I'm (knock on wood) working on swallowtail again. Yay!

I have this super-secret goal of finishing swallowtail before I ship out to boot camp In January, so we'll see how that turns out.

'Cheers

Theo

Violetly WIP-ing

Dear Blog,

It is fall. I know this not because the air has turned crisp and sweet-smelling, or because of the changing colors of leaves, but because of the even more deeply and intuitively derived senses that are common to all knitters. What's on our needles? Hats, scarfs, and mittens. What is the fiber of choice? Wool, or to those not inclined, at least something decently warm and cushy.

Something not universal to knitters, but no less a dead give away to the return of Autumn for me is the color of my knitting. For fall it's undeniable that purple is my preferred color. Purple is definitely to be found in my current WIPs.

First a hat, my second go at a beloved pattern : Laural

Second, some glorious spinning

Spinning progress;

The bad : Validating the drop-spindles' name by ubiquitous dropping, continued irregularity of spinning, difficulty in attaching new bits of fiber

The good : Spinning is slowly but surely becoming more consistent. The thick-and-thin sections are mostly clumped around the places where I have to join new bits of fiber. In my head I've worked out a perfect solution to avoid this problem that involves judicious pre-drafting. Perfect in theory but as-yet to be tried successfully under lab conditions.

FO: Turn a Square

Hey blog.

Whew. I'm beat. Spent all day walking around at the Maryland Renaissance fair, which is always a blast! Anywho, today's FO is another repeat pattern, and a brooklyn tweed design no less, the Turn a Square hat!

I love this hat, I have a dream of someday knitting one in a self-striping yarn. That would rock. For this hat, I used left over yarn from two different projects. The purple is Bernat silky left over from my Treads, and the blueish gray is (I think) Ella Rea left over from the fetching gloves I made back in december....

Notes.... It says in the instructions to knit for 5 inches before doing the decreases.... My head isn't that tall so next time I'll probably just ignore that. Also, I'm clearly doing the jogless jog wrong. But it's not that big a deal, just something else for my list of 'techniques that need polishing'

Huzzah for post that are short & sweet :P

'Cheers

Theo

Two Hats are Better

Yo!

Today, a brief review of my two latest FO's. A Chunky knit beanie using the blue Lion brand yarn, and an Irish Hiking Hat in the teal patons chunky.

The chunky knit beanie was kind of interesting to knit. First of all, the lion brand Hometown USA yarn is super bulky, and I didn't have any needles the right size so I had to go out and buy them..... I was insanely lucky and all of the needles and crochet hooks were on clearance at the Jo-anne fabrics that I stumbled into (more on why I care about crochet hooks in another post). Knit this on US15, knit it flat, and then seamed it up afterwards. I've been scared of seaming for awhile but I managed it without a hitch! You really truly can't see the seam from the right side. And the inside looks pretty cool. Check it.

The Irish Hiking Hat.... Not much to say there. It's an awesome pattern, doubly so if you're infatuated with cables, and this is my third go at the pattern. Yeah. Go knit one.

Anyway, don't have much else to say, except I'm almost done with the sweater! (I know, OMG, right? ) I've started the increases for the hips and it's only one stripe, some ribbing and two sleeves between me and a wearable FO!

'Cheers

Theo

Super Bulky

Dear Blog.

Remember that trip to AC Moore? The one where I went crazy and decided to start a sweater project? Well, I bought more than just sweater yarn. Two additional skeins. One, Paton's Shetland Chunky, in a very romantic shade of soft teal. The other, Lion Brand Hometown USA In a Super Bulky Charlotte Blue. I love these two skeins of yarn, and the fact that I bought them is absolute proof of my ironclad self-control. Twice, two times I went to AC Moore and petted, fawned over, and drooled on these skeins. I wanted them, Oh how I wanted them. But I knew I was on a yarn budget and supposedly working out my differences with my Swallowtail shawl. It was only on that third fateful visit that I finally bought them. If that isn't self-denial I don't know what is!

I absolutely love the color of the Patons yarn.... But the Hometown is so perfectly squishy! it makes me so happy, just squishing and squashing it. I wish I could meld the two skeins together and make one perfectly colored happy, squishy, shetland skein of pure bliss.

If I have my way, they will both become hats. One, full of cabled goodness, and the other a simple stockinette slouch with a seed stitch brim. (Yes, I love this yarn so much I'm even willing to knit seed stitch for it. That's true dedication)

I've got my hands full with other things *chough*sweaters,lace,cursedscarf*cough* but expect to see these two beauties hitting the WIP list very soon.

Cheers!

Theo

FO : Laurel

Hello blog,

I'm very tired today and the sky is rather dark and dreary. The majority of my family has left on vacation and I'm here in the house all alone, with nothing but job applications, knitting, and Rob Inglis for company. (He's the reader for the fellowship of the ring audio book that recently came into my possession.)

Anyway, it sounds crazy to say but all this quiet is making me feel rather listless and dull. I'm glad I've been able to visit with my girlfriends this week, otherwise I might be bouncing off the walls by friday!

But enough about me! Today is an FO post. Finished the Laurel hat, and glad to say it fits perfectly and is so lovely that I'm wearing it around the house, despite the heat.

Pattern : Laurel

Yarn : Cascade 220 superwash

Needles : US3, US7

Cast on : May 26

Cast off : June 14

Some notes about this pattern...

Knitting this was a joy, really. The chart is just a pleasure to knit off of, and the cables are so charming and clever, not only did I never get bored knitting this hat, but I also never felt bogged down, even while knitting the fiddly bits. The bobbles, specifically, weren't nearly as horrible as I had anticipated and I actually quiet enjoyed them!

My only complaint is the special rows where your supposed to move the stitch marker. The directions for them didn't make much sense, especially rows 32 & 34, and the errata page didn't really help either. I'm not convinced that it's actually a mistake in the pattern, but *I* couldn't figure out what was meant by them and I ended up completely ignoring the written instructions and just shifting the stitches around until they lined up the way the chart said, and that worked well enough. It didn't turn out to be that big a deal, in the end, but it was a bit confusing/frustrating at first.

Anyway, look forward to another post from me rather soonish as I've already cast on for another project. That's 2 projects on the needles and I generally like to have 3 going at all times, so I'll have to look into making that happen today ^^;;

Cheer's

Theo

Pool side knitting

Dear blog,

Today I'm writing to you from a blissful dreamy fog, after a wonderful day that consisted of the best things summer and life can offer; Sunshine, fresh air, good company, and poolside knitting. A friend who has recently started knitting invited me to come knit with her by the pool, an idea that in my opinion, was clearly inspired.

Here I am working on my hat

I'm still not sure if this hat is 'too big' or 'just about right for my big hair' yet. News bulletins will update as new information comes in.

Garter Stitch Scarf and Laurel. Just two BFF's chill'in in the sun.

This could easily become a habit. Summer is AWESOME.