Quick update

I finished Mom's Autumn Leaves Stole and  completely spazzed out and forgot to take a picture before wrapping it up. I knit a cute little owl hat for one of my nieces and now I'm just down to finishing a sock. I may get all of my Christmas knitting done in time after all!

On another note, I can't seem to leave comments for anyone. It never shows me as logged in when looking at other blogs and I can't comment with my google account. So...um, everything you're doing is wonderful! Hopefully I'll get this issue resolved soon!

Christmas Knitting the OMG I'm RUNNING OUT OF TIME EDITION!

So we are 2 weeks away from Christmas and I have a little under half a shawl, 2 hats and 1 sock left to complete. It didn't sound like a lot when I had almost 2 months to knit all of my presents but somehow, time has gotten away from me and I've only managed to complete one sock and a pair of mittens. Hats are quick, so I'm not terribly concerned about them (plus I have one hanging around that I'm not attached to and can gift if I do run out of time) but the shawl concerns me. I'm getting tired of it, the pattern is very repetitive and not terribly interesting so right now I fee like it's a slough to get through. It will be lovely, but I don't anticipiate doing this pattern more than once. Also, there's no way I'm going to finish the second owl sock before Christmas. Those socks just take way too long to knit (I'm a slow cabler). 

Since these are all presents I'll keep pictures under wraps until they are gifted. I know this isn't much of an update but I just wanted to let y'all know I am at least still knitting. I'm really excited about the patterns I can start in January but I'll share more on that later.

Thrummed Mittens V 3.0

I finished up the second thrummed mitten this morning after taking a break to knit Hedera No. 2, start Mom's Autumn Leaves stole and read the Hunger Games (which BTW is excellent).

I knit the bulk of this mitten in 2 days. They're not terribly interesting to make but it goes quickly so making them repeatedly isn't so bad. I might try to knock out one more pair before Thanksgiving if I can get through Manda's present quickly enough. The yarn for her present finally came but I need to get some beads before I can start working on it.

So far progress on the Autumn Leaves stole has been going well. I'm through the first chart and it's simple and easy to follow. Definitely one of those 'looks way more complicated than it actually is' projects. I'm not even all that fussed about having to graft together two pieces. After knitting so many socks grafting is a piece of cake (though I STILL have to look up the steps and follow them, I just can't memorize the process). I like the color for it too. I went with a neutral cream yarn (Cascade 220 Heathers) and it will go with a lot so hopefully it will see a lot of use.

So far Christmas knitting 2011 is going well. Let's hope this trend continues.

Finished Hederas

So I finished the first Hedera over a year ago (last August to be exact) and I wasn't quite in love with the pattern so I shelved the second sock unable to face all of those purls and knits and yos. But when I was trying to figure out what to make for Kevin's Mom for Christmas I found the first Hedera and decided that they would make a great present for Laura. The second sock went much quicker and more smoothly than the first. I'm not sure what made me dislike the pattern to begin with but it really wasn't so bad.



The sock on the left is the second sock and the sock on the right is the first. I can't remember if I blocked the first sock but the stitches on it seem much smoother and more even. I'll block them both to see if that makes them match a little better. Over all though they're nice and squishy and stretchy. Very comfortable socks and they're basically red sox blue so I hope Laura approves.

October knitting round up

So far in October I've knit the honey cowl, finished up a Koolhass, started a pair of thrummed mittens (1 down, 1 to go), knit up a quick baby hat for a friend's baby that should be making an appearance shortly and decided to finally knit the second sock from the Hedera pattern I started like...2 years ago? Whenever the winter Olympics were going on in Canada. Or was it summer Olympics? Who knows.

I've realized that honey cowl and thrummed mittens are the two patterns I've knit the most at 3 times  each. There's something about them that seem to appeal to people and I don't mind terribly knitting them multiple times, they're quick, easy and great for tv knitting. I decided I did need a break after finishing the first mitten this time around though and started working on that second Hedera sock again. Kevin's mom did ask for a pair of socks (or mittens!) so I decided that the Hederas could find a nice home with her at Christmas. And because I already have one done it won't take long to finish and I could probably still throw in another pair of mittens for her too since I'll probably have the time. I'm actually not even hating the pattern as much as I did when I made the first sock. I've become immune to the yos before purls. (That sounds like it should be a slogan on a tshirt or something! It could be a knitting solidarity thing, Yos before Bros! Ha!)

The present I'm most concerned about right now is Mom's Autumn Leaves stole. In theory it really shouldn't take that long to knit, it is knit with worsted weight after all but also it's a stole and quite a large one at that. I want to start on it no later than Thanksgiving so I can give myself at least a good month of knitting time on it before Christmas finally hits.

I sure have come a long way with my knitting since my first year of giving knitted gifts. I still cringe at some of those early scarves and too small hats. I kind of wish I could ask for all of those gifts back so I can rip them out and redo them. At least I can make up for it now with super awesome stuff that people actually ask for.  

Honeycowl the 3rd

Honeycowl the 3rd is finished now. I cast on last Saturday, realized I was knitting a mobius and recast on Sunday, cast off last night. It's in Malabrigo teal something or another. It is absolutely gorgeous and oh so cozy. I'm a little sad that I have to give it away but I think it will be appreciated by the recipient. I got a little bored with the pattern so I didn't make it a full 12 inches wide but the pattern is flexible and it's plenty wide and long enough to double up.

I think for my next project I want to knock out a quick baby knit this weekend. We have friends that have a baby due by the end of the month and I do like welcoming a new baby with a hand knit gift. After that I'll work on more thrummed mittens for Kevin's Mom and her friend and then I'll be starting on Mom's Autumn Leaves Stole. I'm certainly not lacking for projects to keep me busy until Christmas.

Koolhass

So I finally finished the Koolhass last night.



It's certainly a cute hat but it was a total pain in the ass to knit. I've decided I am not a fan of constant cable crosses at all so this will probably be the only time I knit this hat. It will probably get set aside to my christmas stock pile in case I need a present.

In other Christmas knitting related news, I will be making Mom an Autumn Leaves Stole and my MIL has requested another pair of Thrummed mittens for one of her co-workers to give as a gift. Slowly but surely I will make sure everyone in the South Shore area of MA will have thrummed mittens!

Manda has requested a teal honeycowl for her birthday so once that yarn comes in that will be my next project. In the meantime I'm finally working on the Noro Striped Scarf with Knit Picks Chroma. The Chroma is so soft and will make for a very cozy scarf. This will be my inbetween project to work on when I'm waiting on yarn like I am now. I still need to decide what I will knit for Laura for Christmas and I would like to work in a pair of socks for my niece Kaitlyn since Jessica hijacked the pair I was going to give to her. They might have to be ankle socks though, we'll see how long Autumn leaves takes.

Wedding Shawl

Here are a few pictures from my wedding of my wearing my Hanami. There's also a shot of Manda wearing her Something Lacey. It had to be pinned in the back to make it stay put. I'm glad I made it. It wound up being quite chilly on our wedding day and it was absolutely freezing during pictures! It was so nice to wear and I got loads of compliments on it so it made all those hours of knitting lace well worth it. :)

Cables without Needles

Assignment number 1. Learn to knit Koolhaas without the cable needle = Success. It still isn't fun, but it's much less annoying.

New Yarn from the honeymoon

My sock from the airplane has suffered a terrible fate. I tried picking up the stitches again but I'm awful at that when yarn overs and decreases are involved with a lace pattern. That combined with I wasn't taking great notes so I couldn't remembered where I was in the pattern I ripped it out to the toe. That sucked but it was just a project I was knitting just because. It wasn't meant for anybody so that made it suck less. I can go back to it later.

The sock wasn't the only project I had with me so I still had some airplane knitting. I've got a Koolhass going right now. It's kind of an annoying knit with the constant cable crosses. Today I'm giving myself the assignment of figuring out how to cable without a cable needle. Hopefully that will make it less annoying to knit.

My only knitting related souvenir I picked up was this yarn in Bruges.




It is Cashwool 150, 100% wool. Each ball is 50grams or about 150 meters. (164 yards) The yellow is a mustard yellow and the darker ball is a real dark burgundy/almost brown. I'm thinking together I could make a really cute color work hat or pair of mittens. Maybe something similar to this. I would say it might be a christmas gift but since it's the only yarn from my honeymoon I think whatever I make I will keep for myself.

Along with my learn to cable without cable needles assignment today I also need to start considering Christmas knitting. This year will definitely be the year someone gets a pair of glittens.

I'm back!

I'm back! Finally! I got married! I went on a honeymoon! I didn't get as much knitting done as I expected! Security made me ruin my sock by trying to steal my needles (but they gave them back)! I have a new last name! And a great appreciation for waffles! And Belgian beer!

There may be knitting related content to come in the future but for now I will be obsessing over wedding pictures and trying to decide which one will be my new facebook profile picture.

In the meantime there's a metric crapload of honeymoon pictures in case anyone is interested.

Honeymoon!

2011-09-27 Honeymoon 2011

A few things

I finished up Manda's Something Lacy shrug. I actually finished it up on Labor day. I still need to weave the ends in though. I don't know why I keep putting that off.  It isn't like it's some ginormous project with a million ends to weave in but I just keep putting it off. She'll be here tomorrow so I guess I better get to it tonight. In the mean time I've been working on a pair of socks from the toe up book. That pattern is fun and interesting and it seems like a toe up sock works up quicker than top down. I still love the way Lorna's Laces feels too. So soft!

I think I'm going to take the socks and yarn for one other project with me for airplane knitting. I'm debating between the summer flies shawl and a koolhass hat. I'm thinking a hat would be easier to keep track of, but I don't want to run out of knitting and not have anything to do on the flight back. Then again, I'm not really that fast of a knitter.

In other news, I'm getting married Saturday. OMG.

Something Lacy progress

I finished up the back of Something Lacy last night and blocked it out.





It looks much bigger than it is. I seamed up the sleeves tonight and have started the ribbing around the body. I had to try it on after seaming the sleeves to make sure it fit. At first I seamed up the sleeves too much and couldn't squeeze into it. I took out a few inches on each sleeve and tried it on again and it fit. They're almost elbow length and cover the worst portion of my arms so I think that's probably mission accomplished. Hopefully I'll find the time this weekend to finish up the body ribbing and get the sleeve ribbing started by Monday. That won't take but a minute since the sleeves are already plenty long enough.

You better like this Manda, it's the only one you're getting! :)

There's nothing magic about Judy.

This my friends, is a picture of success.

/

This is my first successful attempt at using Judy's Not-So-Magical Cast on. I picked up a copy of Socks from the Top Up today at Barnes and Noble (I had a gift card to use up). I had every intention of buying New England Knits but I talked myself out of it because realistically, it's going to be months before I work up the gumption to knit up that gorgeous sweater on the cover. But socks? I can do socks now and they would make great airplane knitting. And toe up would be a nice new challenge. I liked the look of most of the socks in the book so I went with it instead.  Well after spending most of the day working on Manda's Something Lacy I wanted something new (I'm still working on the lace back and after 4.5 repeats I'm a little bored with it) so I decided to try one of the toe up socks from the book. I wound up 2 balls of Lorna's Laces in Clara's Garden and picked out a pattern.

That was the easy part. The pattern calls for casting on either with the Turkish Cast On, Figure Eight or Judy's Magic cast on. None of them looked appealing to me but I decided to try Judy's Magic Cast On since it seemed to be the easiest and most useful to know. I do long tail cast on all of the time, this should be a piece of cake! Right?

Wrong. 1 hour and 3 you tube videos later (including one very annoying Cat Bordhi clip) and I was incredibly annoyed and baffled. No matter how many times I replayed the videos and went through it step by step all I wound up with was a series of unknittable yos on both needles. I never have this much trouble trying to learn knitting trick with videos to follow but for some reason this cast on baffled me.

I finally stumbled upon this blog post with a slightly different version of the cast on  and after 2 tries it finally clicked! Turning it upside down and following her clearly written out instructions made all of the difference in the world. I highly recommend this technique if you have any trouble learning Judy's Magic Cast On. I still don't quite understand what was going wrong before but as long as I can memorize this method I could be fine for knitting socks toe up.

On another note, Lorna's Laces is so incredibly soft. I cannot wait to put these socks on my feet.

Sale Alert!

The 2009 Interweave Knits Accessories digital copy is going for $.10 right now. This magazine has the Koolhass pattern in it so that alone makes it worth it. There are several other patterns I could see myself knitting from it too (especially now that we're approaching winter season knitting and I do shawls!). That's $.10 well spent!

Also, my Something Lacy is coming along nicely. I cast on about...40? Extra stitches to make up for using fingering weight instead of worsted. I did do a gauge swatch but honestly, I don't even really know what it means other than I think I hit the gauge that was listed on the yarn spot on but I wasn't sure how to convert that to my pattern so I just started casting on  in multiples of 10 until it looked like it might be wide enough. So now it looks wide enough and I haven't had any major hiccups in knitting the lace so far, though I did do one extra row yesterday when I wasn't paying close attention while knitting and watching Kick Ass (I know I'm late to the party but that movie is a lot of fun!). No biggie, the leaves in one row will be slightly longer than the others. If anything, I think I might be flirting with longer sleeves that are almost down to my elbows but that's much better than having too short sleeves since the whole point of this thing is to cover arms.

It's also going fairly quickly. I've done 2.5 repeats of the lace so far and I think I can get through the whole lace section by the end of the week. So that would leave blocking this weekend then starting the ribbing on the arms and body. I think I can knock this bad boy out in 2 weeks.

Goodies to share.

I've got a couple of goodies to share. I ordered a shawl pin on etsy earlier this week with a gift card I won at work. I thought maybe it might come in handy for wearing my shawl at the wedding. It's really lovely and was shipped quickly. I'd definitely go back to the seller DonnaJs for future pins.

It came all pretty wrapped up.



So pretty I almost didn't want to unwrap it. But I'm glad I did. It's gorgeous!




In action on the Orchid Thief (I think I might be daring and wear it to work tomorrow!)




I also knit another braided necklace. These are so quick to knock out. This one was some leftover berroco alpaca I think. I'll probably be making another one of these tonight. I'm avoiding large projects until this weekend. Manda requested a shrug for the wedding so I'm going to attempt to make her  Something Lacy. I'm going to stop by the new yarn shop that just opened up tomorrow to see if I can find some yarn for it and cast on for it this weekend.

Braided necklace

I found a new quick project that will be perfect for gifts for people. It is the Cable Braided Necklace from OlgaJazzy. Manda found the pattern and asked for one so I knocked one out yesterday/today to see how they work. I used some leftover sock yarn to make this one.







I love how versatile this is. It can be a headband (this one is too long for that) a bracelet or a necklace worn with the button in the front or the back. I can see myself making a ton of these to give out.

My shoes

Today's photo challenge is shoes.

I love my toms. They are so incredibly comfortable.

Orchid Thief FO Pictures

I'm still amazed at how quickly I got through this pattern. But I guess after spending time with 1,000 yards of lace weight anything would feel like a breeze.



I ALMOST had enough yarn with one skein. I ran out 3/4 of the way through the last pattern row. So I basically used the second for the bind off and that was it. Somebody is getting some magenta colored socks soon.






I've got knitters block right now. I want to knit more and I want to knit another shawl(lette) but I can't decide on a pattern or what yarn to use. I cast on for my second Hedera (I never did start that second sock) but as soon as I got to the pattern portion of it I remembered how much I disliked knitting it. I hate yoing before/after purling. I don't know if I'll keep knitting that. I need to knit something though. I'm open to suggestions! Especially one skein projects that use fingering/lace weight.

Orchid Thief the Blocking Edition

Orchid Thief is blocking. I actually knit that bad boy in less than a month. Once I figured out the chart repeats thanks to many posts on Ravelry it was a piece of cake. It was also really fun to knit. Pictures will be forth coming once the weather is nicer outside and she's done blocking.

Something Fun

Today's photo post is something fun. Obvs. I totally wanted to do a knitting related photo since I consider knitting to be my main form of happy fun time.



She's coming along quite nicely. My new skein of Absolute Magenta came in today (super fast shipping, thanks Eat Sleep Knit!) so I can take it with me with no worries of running out of yarn this weekend while I'm out of town. It even seems to be the same dye lot as the original skein. At first I thought the new yarn looked darker/richer than what I have on the needles but when I held the two strands next to one another I couldn't really tell a difference. So yay for that. I think with the left over yarn I might knit up some mittens or glittens or fingerless mitts to go along with the shawl.

Something I made

This seems to be turning into an every other day photo challenge. But that's ok. At least I'm sort of sticking with it. Today is something I made. And today I made...bird nests. The idea is to make them into cute little bobby pins. I followed this tutorial. They're super easy to make but I think I still need to work on my wrapping technique some more. But so far they look cute. I need to find some bobby pins that have the flat bits on them so I can glue them on. I think that will make them more secure.


I started with the lighter wire with the pearls but the pearls didn't fit in that wire so I had to go out today to buy thinner gauge wire and I picked up some blue pearls to see how they look. I like both looks.

Orchid Thief - The I Really Need to Learn to do a Gauge Swatch Edition

So I broke down at ordered another skein of my DIC Absolute Magenta last night. It wasn't instock at my beloved Loopy Ewe so I wound up ordering it from Eat Sleep Knit. This is my first time ordering anything from them but I'm really pleased so far. The price was good, I actually found a 10% off coupon code so it was cheaper than getting it from Loopy Ewe or Jimmy Beans and even though I ordered late last night I had an email waiting for me this morning saying that it had been shipped. Which is awesome because I am so close to finishing this shawl and I don't want to wait forever to get my yarn. I thought I was doing well with the yarn after I finished the last repeat of chart 3 but I didn't count on how much yarn was going to get eaten up doing chart 4. I'm not out yet but it's precarious looking now. I'm on row like 104 and there are 114 pattern rows, so like 20 left to knit and my ball has gotten considerably smaller than it was when I started this chart. I just didn't want to risk running out and I really want to see one all the way through. I probably won't use much of the new skein so there should at least be enough left over for a pair of socks or perhaps some matching mittens or fingerless gloves.

Waiting for the new yarn to come in before finishing will be killer though. I'm so close I can taste it! I can't wait to see this one all blocked out.

Something New

I missed yesterday's photo of childhood memory. That's ok, I don't really have anything around here that is from my childhood or reminds me of it.


Today's is something new and these are the newest purchases in the house. Our wedding bands.:) One step closer to getting married.

Someone I love

Here's my photo for day 5 of the challenge. None other than Mr. Kevin.

My favorite color

My friend Manda pointed out a challenge on another blog. 30 days of pictures in the month of August. Obviously I missed the first few days but it looks like fun so I'm gonna try to pick it up from today. This is my favorite color. I love most shades of blue so I gathered up what I could find in my stash and took a photo.



In other news, I decided to fudge it with the Orchid Thief. The extra stitches seemed to only be between the first and second spine stitches and once I got past the second spine with my fudging everything was hunky dory. So I'll trudge along and hope it looks ok when I'm done!

Orchid Thief Now with More Kitteh!

This post is brought to you by the letter G, a tummy ache and the prettiest kitty in the land, Gracie. Also, not a insignificant amount of frustration.




Frustration you say? Well yes. Between being completely over the whole wedding planning thing and not at all interested in making any more decisions related to that, the near constant tummy ache I've had for the past few weeks that changes in intensity during the day but hasn't quite gone away completely (I'm starting to think I may have a food intolerance of some sort) and the fact that my Orchid Thief is has 10 extra stitches, I'm a little annoyed and frustrated.



I've made it through the 3 repeats of chart 3. Other than missing a yo here or there that I had to fudge and make up for everything turned out ok. I think it looks the way it should. I'm not spotting any glaring errors and the pattern worked out fine, I didn't come up with anything extra that doesn't seem like it belongs but some how I'm off my stitch count by 10. The book says I should have 283 and I have 293.



I started chart 4 and was following mitchypoo's written instructions for row 86. It started out ok (at least as far as I could tell). The stitches lined up at least through the first ktbl.


k3, ssk, yo, k10, k3tog, yo, k, yo, k, yo, k, yo, sk2p, k10, yo, sk2p, yo, k11, yo, k, yo, ktbl, yo, k, yo, k11, yo, sk2p, yo, k10, k3tog, yo, k, yo, k, yo, k, yo, sk2p, k10, yo, sk2p, yo, k10, k3tog, yo, k, yo, k, yo, k, yo, sk2p, k10, yo, sk2p, yo, k11, yo, k, yo, ktbl, yo, k, yo, k11, yo, sk2p, yo, k10, k3tog, yo, k, yo, k, yo, k, yo, sk2p, k10, yo, sk2p, yo, k10, k3tog, yo, k, yo, k, yo, k, yo, sk2p, k10, yo, sk2p, yo, k11, yo, k, yo, ktbl, yo, k, yo, k11, yo, sk2p, yo, k10, k3tog, yo, k, yo, k, yo, k, yo, sk2p, k10, yo, k2tog, k3

 The bolded line is where I hit problems. I got through the k11 but I didn't have just one stitch left to do a yo k yo before the next ktbl. I had like 15 more stitches before I got to the next spine and now I'm stuck. I'm not sure if I should just fudge a few decreases to make things work out or keep just knitting until I get to the ktbl. The problem with throwing the decreases in is I'm not sure where they should go since the first bit of the row lined up ok. I think It would help if I knew exactly how many stitches should be in each section (between the spines). I'm determined to make this work. I'll be damned if I'm ripping out anything. I think I even have enough yarn to get through it. There's 2.3oz on my needles and I've got 2oz left to knit with.

But until I figure it out, here's some more kitty.

Orchid Thief Progress Picture Edition

So I'm in the middle of the 2nd repeat of chart 3. I can't think about the repeats too much otherwise I just confuse myself . So I just look at the stitches and work them as they come. It's obvious where the decreases should be, where the knits and yos go and the spines let me know when my count is right. I've gotten off by a stitch once or twice (probably by forgetting a yo somewhere) so I just fudge it and trudge on. Good thing nobody pays me to do this and have any expectations of perfection.

So anyway, here it is so far. I really like the color quite a bit. But the yarn isn't quite as soft as my first skein of DIC smooshy that I ever worked with. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll have enough yarn for this (gauge? what?). I went down a needle size just to be on the safe side after what happened with Hanami and my DIC skein had 450 yards when the yarn in the pattern only has 440. But then again, I'm the girl that ran out of yarn with 1,000 friggin yards to work with.

Orchid Thief - WTF Edition

Ok, so remember how I was raving about how simple the Orchid Thief was in my last entry? That was all a damn lie. Ok, it wasn't a complete lie. Casting on and working charts 1 and 2 were pretty simple and intuitive. No issues there whatsoever. And really, the pattern is very clear and distinctive in your yarn so you can really see what you're doing and can easily tell if you get off track. So that's nice and really once you start one row you don't even really need to look at the chart again to see what needs to be done. It's very repetitive.

The issue begins with chart three and Ysolda's repeat boxes. You do chart 3 a total of 3? 4? times (I can't remember and I'm at work so I can't reference the pattern). There are 4 pink boxes indicating repeat sections of that chart. And this may be me since I'm still a novice with lace knitting and shawls but when I see a repeat box that says to me 'oh I need to repeat this portion of the chart again immediately'. But if you do that when you first start working chart 3 your whole world will turn to shit because that's not what those little repeat boxes mean at all. At least not for the first time you work the chart. I am so glad Virginia pointed me to the Ysolda group over at ravelry when I mentioned I was going to tackle this shawl.

I found a discussion about the errors and errata for The Orchid Thief and the general madness that lies within the charts. I thought the big issue would be on row 86, the beginning of chart 4 but it seems like quite a few people have gotten confused by chart 3 (including myself). So I saved several versions of the shawl in my favorites where beautiful, lovely ravelers have made detailed notes for making your way through this mess. Little Blue Duck's notes for chart 3 are so helpful! I don't think I'd have figured it out if it weren't for her breaking down how the repeats should go. How in the world does one even figure that out to begin with if it's not clearly mentioned in the book? Ysolda is an evil trickster with her charts. I need my patterns to be simple and easy to follow line by line. So far any pattern I've tried by her has involved entirely too much thinking. But her patterns are incredibly beautiful so I'll probably keep subjecting myself to this kind of mental anguish just so I can have pretty things.

Hanami Photos

So here's the infamous Hanami. Overall I have to say I'm pretty damn happy with it. I can see a few spots where I fudged it up a bit, but you gotta be looking for them to notice the mistakes. I LOVE the color. It's such a beautiful shade of purple. It should probably be longer but that's my fault for running out of yarn but it still works ok. I did get it finished before my fitting for my dress so I can take it with me to see how they'll look together. Yay!

Now on to the pictures. There will be a few of them.

My favorite part of the entire shawl is where the basket weave transitions into the cherry blossoms.

My modified cherry blossom ending with just a few rows of garter.

I love it. I'm so proud of myself for tackling this for my first shawl ever.

Shawl Fever

So I had so much fun knitting Hanami I decided to cast on for another shawl straight away. I was browsing around ravelry's popular shawl/wrap patterns listing and stumbled across The Orchid Thief. It's quite pretty and conveniently enough I have the book Brave New Knits so it was a winner. I'm knitting it with the Dream In Color Smooshy in Absolute Magenta. This shawl is knitting up fast too! Coming from lace weight fingering weight feels like worsted to me right now. I'm through the first chart already and the pattern is really intuitive and fun. And so far it's the easiest to understand Ysolda pattern I've done yet.

Hanami Fin.

I decided to finish up the hanami with a few rows of garter stitch. I didn't want to take the chance of ordering new yarn and it not matching the way it should (plus it was $36! Jeez!). I'm a little sad I didn't get to finish it out the way the pattern calls for since it's just so pretty but I've got it blocking out right now and it seems to still look pretty good. It did bleed quite a bit when I put it in water to soak. When I poured the water out it looked like purple koolaid. Hopefully it won't bleed more after that.

The good news is I really enjoyed knitting Hanami. The pattern was interesting but not difficult once I got the hang of it and it changed often enough to keep it interesting even though it was such a long pattern to knit. I'll probably do another one, maybe not quite as wide as a scarf? I like that idea.

Hanami Part Uh Oh

I've hit a hiccup with my Hanami. I'm out of yarn. And I'm not out of pattern. I didn't think that was possible with 1000 frigging yards of yarn. The pattern doesn't even call for 1000 yards of yarn! I thought I was safe! (And no, of course I didn't check my gauge. When have I ever had that much sense?)

This big pile of purple is my Hanami. Please ignore the terrible photo, I was lazy and took it with my phone.



This is how much yarn I have left.


And I've got most of chart F, all of chart G plus the ruffle boarder to finish. What do I do? Do I order more $36 yarn that may or may not match perfectly? Do I just say screw it and knit a few rows of garter and bind off? Do I rip it out? Is there absolutely anyway that I can manage to reknit this whole damn thing in the time I have left? I seriously doubt it.

The one  thing that is in my favor is that it's the cherry blossom end so other than being shorter there is no real noticeable difference of where the pattern ends so I could skip the rest of chart F but I probably still need chart G and the wavy border if I want it to look anything like the real thing. But if I just do garter and bind off it'll probably still look fine. It's not like the beginning of the shawl is perfect anyway.

So...what to do? What to do? I have no idea.

Hanami Progress Part 2

Finally made it through all 7 repeats of the basket weave chart. Jesus Christ on a pogo stick that was long. But it went by quicker than expected expect during each repeat I'd get stuck on one row (always a different row) and have to knit and tink and knit and tink when I kept coming up off by one stitch. That's annoying. But I've made it through. It doesn't seem very long yet. I hope blocking fixes that. But aside from getting annoyed by tinking so far I haven't had the urge to put it down yet. I'm not bored with the pattern and so far haven't suffered any major disasters. *knocks on wood*

Hanami Progress

So I'm making progress on the Hanami. I'd say about 6-7 inches into it so far and I've finally hit my stride. I'm not sure what happened but those 2 extra stitches that kept coming up stopped coming up. I must have been missing a decrease here or there without really realizing it because the last repeat I did was spot on for every row and looks super.



The bottom is messy for sure. A more dedicated knitter than myself would probably rip it all out and redo it perfectly but I don't think I could do it perfectly if I wanted it. It'd just be an awful cycle of ripping and redoing until it was right and y'all know how much I hate redoing my work. If I got stuck in that cycle then it'd just never get knit. So I think I'm ok with the first 2-3 inches being messy if the last 67 inches are good. I can't really think of a time where this thing will be all spread out  with every stitch visible other than during blocking anyway so noone will be the wiser. It bothers me a little that the bottom won't be perfect but I don't think I've ever knit anything that is perfect and I'd rather get through this thing and feel accomplished when it's done rather than feel accomplished with a half knit perfect stole. I'm familiar enough with the basket weave now that I can tell if I get off on my stitch count so it shouldn't be an issue anymore.

The yarn is still lovely to work with. So soft and it seems to work up quickly considering it's lace. I love the color (good thing too since my fingers turn purple for hours after knitting with it).  I think this will be my only project for awhile until I'm certain that I'm able to finished it on time. I think if I can get in about an hour of knitting a day on Hanami I can get it finished up in 2 months which is plenty of time before the wedding.

Finished Breeze Socks

I finished my breeze socks on Tuesday. They were a wicked quick knit and the pattern was interesting enough not to get boring (not knitting a leg at all probably helped a lot with that as well).

I probably should have knit them out of a less warm yarn. It's knit picks pallet which is wool I think and therefore they're too warm for summer. Maybe they'll be ok spring/fall socks. But still, the yarn is soft and the socks are comfortable to wear.

I love the heel on them too. So much more fun to knit than the usual boring heel flap. I like that the cable pattern carried through.

Hanami is going well. I'm enjoying knitting it quite a bit. I'm a little iffy on if I'm doing it right. I keep coming up with 2 extra stitches every few rows and I'm not exactly sure where they keep coming from. The first repeat is a little messy, probably from my off counting somewhere, but the second repeat is looking nice so far and since I'm not a perfectionist I'm gonna let it roll until I get a few more inches in and can get a better idea of how it's going to turn out. It's getting easier to read the pattern as I knit it and I can kind of tell how it's supposed to look now. I'm surprised I'm enjoying this as much as I am. I didn't really think I was going to be a lace knitter but so far so good. Then again, I'm only about 5 inches into the thing so I may be singing a different tune by the time I get to charge G.