It grows ...

I have been pretty obsessed with the new Aurinko shawl I started after attending the Woodstock Fleece Festival. I can NOT put that Red Sock Blue Sock Yarn down!

I just started on part 2 ... such a fun and easy knit!

I'm taking it with me on a trip to Arizona, so hopefully some major progress will happen.

Never forget. Thank you.

I Couldn't Help Myself

New yarn, it makes me do crazy things!! Like start a new shawl project ... a big one.

I just couldn't stop petting and fondling my new yarn from Red Sock Blue Sock Yarns in the Gotham colourway, so I caked it up ...

Picked a pattern that makes my crafty heart flutter: Aurinko. And started:

To say I'm enjoying knitting it is an understatement. I think about it at work constantly and it's all I want to do once I get home:

Sadly I can't devote as much time as I'd like to it, but it's still getting a lot of love right now!

It's soft and squishy, and so lovely!

A Yarn A Long

Thanks to my friend Caroline over at Off The Grid Needlearts inspiring me with her fabulous knitting and photos, I've decided to join in the Yarn A Long hosted by Ginny at Small Things.

While I was in school full-time for the past 7 years, I rarely did any fun reading because I had so much school-related (often dry and boring) reading to do. I'm one of those readers who tends to devour books in single marathon sessions and that is not conducive to getting essays written.

Now that I'm done school, I (kind of) have the time to slow down and read. I know I'm a little behind the times in my choice of books at the moment (Game of Thrones), but seeing them wrapped in plastic on my shelf waiting for me to be done school was a pretty good motivator. Over the summer I had a lot of free time while waiting for my PhD defense, so I read a lot (though I managed to avoid too many marathon sessions ... I'm getting too old for that!) and got through the first 4 books in less than 2 months.

I started working again at the end of August, and my reading time has dwindled considerably, but I'm still plugging along with Dance with Dragons!

I've just recently picked up this project again. It's the Vortex shawl knit in Knitpicks Stroll Tonal in Summer Blooms. This was my first in-the-round project and I'm not even halfway done, but loving every stitch. It's a wonderfully relaxing knit.

A Mighty Scare

This happened in mid-August:

In the days leading up to my PhD defense, there was much knitting being done. Partly I was trying to make a deadline so I could give the shawl to my advisor as a thank you gift, but mostly it was to give me something to focus on to manage my nerves. Apparently I didn't focus enough, because I ended up with a stray eyelet.

I was 4-5 rows past the mistake when I noticed it, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to fix it without ripping back that far. I took it in to my LYS and they tried to fix it, but once I was back home and looking at it, I wasn't satisfied with the fix.

So I did this:

I have never been so scared. I pulled my needles out and ripped back 4 rows. I had more than 250 live stitches just a hair's breadth away unravelling into the last eyelet section ... something I was sure I couldn't recover from if it happened. Without a care for direction, I carefully slipped every stitch back on my needle, holding my breath the entire time (which also helped me not throw up). It was nerve wracking.

I managed to pick them up without missing any, and the next row I knit was slow going as I had to reorient every stitch properly. But I did it!!! (I'm a pretty novice knitter, and this is probably the biggest fix I've ever had to do.)

I successfully defended my PhD, but did not get the shawl done in time. I'm working on the last 4-5 rows now and hope to have it done and blocked by the end of September.

Ardent by Janina Kallio
Hazel Knits Entice in Indigo

This has been a project of firsts ... first major lace project, first major error, first major fix, and first of my big projects almost done!

Pink Progress

Picked up the pink vortex shawl again. It's gotten boring to knit, mostly because it's so simple and straightforward. (And it's 384 stitches per round right now.)

The shawl is almost 20" across. Not even close to being done the first skein of yarn, so this project will be around for a while yet.

Plan for 2015 - The Year of 3s

2014 was a disappointing crafting year.

I gave up papercrafting and donated all of my supplies to a friend's mother and her crafting cronies.

I did a little bit of English paper piecing, but no major progress and I haven't touched it in 4 months.

I barely cross stitched. I had one finish at the beginning of February and nothing else is even close to being done.

I taught myself to knit in March and got terribly, horribly, irrevocably addicted. :)  My stash went from 0 to 60 in less than 9 months. I have finished 3 wash cloths, a doggie blanket, a cowl, and 2 hitchhiker shawlettes. Okay -- so this area of my crafting wasn't so disappointing after all.

I tried to get back into SALs and blog events this past year to encourage and motivate progress. It didn't work so well.

I've decided to try a new approach. Since I have a billion and one WIPs and am always itching to have even more starts, I need to find a way to concentrate and have a few finishes. So I proclaim 2015 to be

THE YEAR OF 3s. 

What this means is that I will only have 3 projects on the go in each of my crafty areas (cross stitching, knitting, and English paper piecing). Once I finish a project, then I can add in either a WIP or a new start in that crafty area.

Below are the projects I plan to work on and a pic of where they currently are at progress-wise.


My cross stitch projects for 2015 are:

Elizabeth (Mirabilia)

32 ct Silvery Skies lugana (Enchanting Lair), 2 over 2

DMC thread and Mill Hill beads

Started: Jan 9, 2012

Finished: ?

Stitchin' Pretty Waffles (Pattie Bennett)

18 ct eggshell monocanvas

DMC perle #5 in 311, 472, 3052, and Watercolours by Caron in 244 Olive Grove 

Started: Nov 2014

Finished: ?

Welcome (Kincavel Krosses)

18 ct white aida

Carrie's Creations in Pizzazz (silk) and DMC 3810

Started: Jan 14, 2012

Finished: ?

My knitting projects for 2015 are:

2x2 Ribbed for Pleasure Hat

Cascade Heritage Silk Paints in 9789 (green)

Needles: US size 2.5 (3.00 mm)

Started: September 14, 2014

Finished: ?

Toe-up stockinette sock with afterthought heel (no pattern)

String Theory Colorworks' Continuum (MCN) in Atom

Needles: US size 1 (2.25 mm)

Started: December 27, 2014

Finished: ?

Vortex Shawl

Knit Pick's Stroll Tonal in Summer Blooms

Needles: US size 6 (4.00 mm)

Started: December 12, 2014

Finished: ?

My English paper piecing projects for 2015 are:

Grandma's Garden Throw (variation)

 

Select fabrics from Batik Paradise collection by ConnectingThreads.com and 

random white and white-on-white fabric

Expected blanket size: 63" x 61"

hexie size: 1 1/4"

diamond size: 1 1/4"

triangle size: 1 1/4"

Started: June 14, 2013

Restarted: June 1, 2014

Finished: ?

6-point Stars Blanket

Fusions Mist by Robert Kaufman in Pear, Forest, Sable, & Ivory

Expected star size: 24" x 24"

Expected blanket size: 5' x 5'

 diamond size: 2"

Started: July 29, 2013

Finished: ?

Arrowtail Quilt

Indigo Patchwork collection by ConnectingThreads.com

Expected blanket size: 72" x 78"

45 degree diamond size: 4"

Started: (still cutting fabric)

Finished: ?

I'm planning to do a monthly review of Yo3 progress every month on the 20th. If you want to join in, let me know and I'll add a linky thingy on those posts, if not, I'll do it on my own.

I think a narrower focus will allow me to make more significant progress. Honestly though -- I freaking love my crafty time in whatever shape, size, or amount it comes in. Here's to a great crafty year in 2015!!

Knitting Skills

I'm a novice knitter. I taught myself from YouTube videos last March, and have been horribly addicted ever since.

I started a lace shawl in September and have been struggling with (and ignoring) it for several months. I gave up, ripped it out, and tried another shawl. That one didn't wow me (it is pretty but it's just plain stockinette and reverse stockinette). I needed something with more ... pizzazz.

I finally decided on the Vortex Shawl. I love it, but it required me to develop a new skill: knitting on double-pointed needles (dpns). Add to that I needed to learn how to make i-cords and figure out the "belly button/umbiblical cord" cast-on.

A few tries very late at night (midnight - 3am), resulted in a decent umbiblical cord to start from:

After a few rounds of the pattern, I switched from 2 dpns to 4 dpns, and I started to really struggle. It was just too much for me to handle. Finally, it occurred to me that I could go back down to 3 dpns, and that was much more successful. More rounds have been done and progress is being made! The pattern is super easy but looks far more complicated when knit.

It is lace (kind of), so looks pretty terrible as it is being knit. It won't look amazing till after it is finished, washed, and blocked.

I love that I'm getting used to knitting with dpns. I'm going to need this skill when I start knitting socks (maybe Christmas Day?) and other little finicky projects.

However, I am very much looking forward to being able to transfer the Vortex Shawl to a circular needle -- progress will be MUCH faster.

I love knitting.

Restarting a restarted new start

I haven't had the time to block and take pics of my Hitchhiker yet, but it is finished. All 42 beautiful teeth of it!

Since then, I've started two new projects. (It's amazing that I kept it to only two new starts.) The first is a toque for my brother. I'm using a pattern by Tinksdarkerside called Ribbed for his pleasure… It's a free pattern, and while the name is funny and describes the pattern well, it's kinda weird to knit it for my brother. Anywho … it's a simple 2x2 ribbed hat in fingering weight yarn. I'm using Cascade Heritage Silk Paints (an 85% superwash merino, 15% silk blend) in green. I particularly like the crown design. It's so pretty! I've read that it makes a pointy tip right at the top, so I might try doing the decreases on 5 needles instead of 4. I'll let you know how that goes.

It's great travel knitting, though I find it very slow going. I'm not very proficient at purling and switching between knit and purl slows me down too. However, I think it looks great.

The other new start is another Hitchhiker. This time though, I'm doing it in a worsted weight yarn - Cascade 220 Superwash Paints in Iris Garden. It goes fast and is getting big quickly. I have 2 skeins, so I'll just keep going till I'm out of yarn.

Now the title of this post is a little cryptic. I started my first lace shawl (Haruni by Emily Ross) in mid-September at a mentoring session at my LYS. I brought it home and screwed it up almost immediately. Hence the restart. I made it much further this time, all the way to row 30, and I even put in a lifeline a few rows before that.

My lifeline didn't work (or I couldn't make it work might be more accurate), and so I had to rip out everything. All the way back to the beginning. I'm restarting my restart. At least I'm getting practice with doing garter tab cast ons:

Le sigh. I'll get the hang of lace someday.

On the Knitting Front

The last time I talked about my knitting, I was 12-14 points into my Hitchhiker Shawl. As a novice knitter, it was inevitable that I would screw uo somehow, and I had to put it down for a few days before I could take it in to my LYS for a little help. Dropping stitches at the end of a row = bad idea.

So what does a knitter do when a project is put on hold? Start another, of course!!  I started the Honey Cowl by Ann Maria at Madelinetosh. I used Misti Alpaca Chunky in gray and cast on the small version. It is SO soft and squishy!! Oh my gosh!

The colour is totally off in this pic - sorry!

It didn't look like much at first, but it got prettier as I went.

After my screw up with the Hitchhiker was fixed, I kept working on that and made great progress. I'm not quite done yet, but here it is at just over 39 teeth.

As motivation for working hard on my schoolwork, I bought some mentoring sessions at my LYS and today was my first one. I decided to start my very first lace shawl - Haruni by Emily Ross using Knitpicks Stroll Tonal sock yarn in Summer Blooms. Look!! You can see two leaves (kinda). Yay lace!

Once I got home, I felt a smidge guilty for having so many projects on the needles, so I hustled a little and finished my Honey Cowl.

Now I just need to wait for winter!