Tuesday, June 30, 2015

End of Year of Projects

Year of Projects is over, and I managed quite nicely :) I wanted to knit 4-6 larger projects knit solely from yarn I already had in my stash as of July 1st, 2014 and 12 pairs of socks knit from any odd yarn :) I managed 14 pairs of socks and 5 "larger" (~700 meters or more) projects, so not too shabby at all :-)

I've decided against participating again next year though. I'm not a fan of planning out my knitting that far in advance, but prefer to just go where the mood takes me. Besides, I already have my yearly goals (knit from stash + knit from my books), and that'll suit me fine for now. I may come back to revisit YoP in January though, so I can let it overlap with my yearly goals.

But it was fun while it lasted, so thank you to my fellow participants for that :)


And now, on to the knitting! I have another FO to show you today :) Like I wrote last week, my Adjoin Socks wouldn't stay WIPs much longer, and I was right :) Saturday evening I could cast off the last stitch and weave in the ends.
Definitely not my last time knitting with Koigu!

But of course I can't NOT have any socks on my needles, so I've cast on a pair for Eva (my 'sister-in-law'). She was very touched that I'd be interested in knitting a pair for her, but as Lars laughingly commented (after we got home!), I'd be knitting the socks anyway, now they just wouldn't take up room in my sock drawer! And he's right, of course, but it's still nice to knit for somebody else on purpose ;)
I've only just started these though, so not too much to see yet.

But speaking of my sock drawer... I am running out of room! So far my homeknit and store-bought socks have shared a drawer, but it's getting awfully crowded in there...
Love it! :D

I've also done a bit of work on both the Seabrook Vest, the slippers for Liz and Miriam's snail, but too little on any of them for it to really show up in photos, so I guess I'll keep this short and sweet for once :)

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

WIP Wednesday - Knit all the things!

Feels like I've gotten a lot of knitting done this past week, so let's see what it amounts too now that I actually sit down to write it all up.

First of all I've been working on the Seabrook Vest for my sister. It's slooooow going because of all the seed stitch, but I've just finished the first armhole now, so it's coming along nicely. I'm aiming to finish this by the time I see Nina next, which should be end July.

I've also been working on my Adjoin socks, and have just reached the heel of the second one. Still love the yarn, the pattern and the needles (my first Addi Turbo needles - won't be the last!), so I don't see these being WIPs much longer.

Sunday I started on a pair of One Step Ahead slippers for my best friend :) A friend of mine had posted a link with these slippers to my Facebook page, and Liz commented, saying she wished she could knit, as she'd love a pair. Naturally I offered to knit them for her :) They'll make lovely hostess gifts come November ;) And it's a sign of my love for her, that despite SO many of the projects on Ravelry compaining about the pattern, I never hesitated, but sat down to knit them for her straight away ;) And you know what? They were easy! Simplest DROPS pattern yet! Not entirely sure what all those other knitters were complaining about - but of course, the pattern may have been modified since they knit theirs.

Anyway, I finished the knitting of the first one yesterday, and got it all seamed up this morning, so now it's all done but for the buttons. I'll have to go shopping for those soon.

I've started a new crochet project... as you do, when you already have 5 other things on the needles ;) My niece asked if I'd make her a snail, so of course I had to cast that on. Not very far yet though, but at least I've started!

And finally, I have another FO :D Yes, I've been stocking them up, so I could finish all the things for StashDash. This is the Avery Pullover by Nikki Van de Car. I absolutely LOVE the yarn! It is so amazingly soft :) And since this was my second time knitting with it, I knew exactly how much it stretched when wet, so could plan accordingly :) I don't have any special plans for the pullover though. It's size 2-3T, so a lot too big for all the new babies in my family, so I may put it aside for later, or I may just give it to somebody else. We'll see.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

WIP Wednesday - To new FOs!

Two new FOs today! :)

One of them you could probably guess. Since my Spot Checked Socks only missed a single toe last week, it would have been weird if I hadn't managed to finish by now :) Blocking helped a lot, and while they're still a bit tight, it's not too bad. And while the toe look weird, it fits nicely when I put it on.

The other FO is my Thirty Valentine's Shawl!!! I got stubborn and pretty much knit on this exclusively all last week! Saturday I finally bound off the last stitch (using a crochet cast off which I haven't tried before, so it took me longer than it would have otherwise), and Sunday I blocked it to within an inch of its life! It never ceases to amaze me what blocking does to lace! It went from this:
to this!
Final measurements are 170cm x 80cm. I ended up with just 10 grams of yarn left over - enough for another ~6 rows, so I'm calling that a succes :) The yarn is still strangely stiff, even after washing (I believe Lars compared it to steel wool!), but since I won't be wearing it next to my skin, I don't mind too much.

With those off the needles, I've managed 3000meters for StashDash! Since my goal is 5K, I should be juuuust fine :D

Since Sunday, I've had time for some other projects, so I've the first Adjoin sock :)
Unfortunately I tried to guess at the placing of the heel, so it's slightly too big. Ah well. C'est la vie.

I've also finally started the Seabrook vest for my sister. It doesn't look like much yet, but since it's knit on size 8mm needles, I'm expecting it to move fast :)

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

WIP Wednesday - Woohoo! :)

I've been very dilligent this past week and have a lot of progress on a lot of different things! I even have a finished object! But let's start at the beginning, because my very oldest WIP is d-o-n-e DONE!!

I first started the Puzzle Piece Blanket back in August 2012 and quickly realized that this would take forever, so once I started my Cozy Memories blanket, I decided to downgrade the PPB severly, and turn it into a runner instead. I determined how many more pieces I needed to knit, and set myself the goal of finishing in 2015. Stashdash seemed as good a time as any for it, and this weekend I sewed the last seam, weaved in the last end, and yesterday I could finally take it off the blocking mats!
I. LOVE. It!!! It looks SO awesome :D Mind you, I've also discovered all the things I should have done differently, but find it highly unlikely that I'll ever care to do this again, so oh well.


I've cast on a new pair of socks! Because obviously I didn't have enough projects on the needles as it were. But I have a good excuse - I need some mindless knitting for next weekend, and my other socks were too close to being done. So what's a girl to do? She casts on a new pair, of course!

And I'm glad I did, because I'm totally in love with both the pattern, the yarn and the needles. I'm knitting the Adjoin Socks by Lara Neel (although I'm totally substituting the fish-lips-kiss heel!) with some Koigu yarn I bought in London. This is my first time knitting with Koigu, but it definitely won't be the last. It's SUCH a treat to knit with :)
In fact, I kinda have to limit myself, so I don't finish these prior to Saturday!


Fortunately that's not too much of a sacrifice, as I have plenty of other projects on the go. I had hoped to have my Spot Check socks finished by today, but forgot to bring my purse along yesterday, so I had no train knitting to and from work. Kicking myself for that, I assure you! I only have one toe left to knit though, so I'll definitely finish today!
I tried a new toe and don't altogether like how it looks. It feels alright on though, so I'm not bothered enough by it that I'm going to rip back and reknit it. It's a bit too tight as feared, but I'm blocking them more rigoursly than I usually do with socks, so I'm hoping that'll get the yarn to relax somewhat. Otherwise I've been told of several people who have small feet ;)


My 30 Valentines shawl is coming along nicely :) I'm at row 124 of the original 140 and have PLENTY of yarn left, so I've been driving myself crazy trying to figure out how many extra rows I can do, how to fit that with the repeats, and how on earth to calculate the rate of increase of yardage used per row, when I'm adding 4 extra stitches each row! No matter what I did, I couldn't seem to make it give me a useful result.

Then today it suddenly struck me - I should try counting stitches instead of trying to measure how much yarn I used per row, since that was changing constantly anyway! Excel to the rescue, and I quickly figured out that after 16226 stitches (the first 123 rows) I'd used up half the yarn! Adding the 40 rows of a full repeat would take me an extra 17416 stitches - not counting the bind off. No matter how I twist and turn it, I can't make that math work! So I have to find a way to fudge it and only add a half repeat. I don't have a lot of experience tweaking lace patterns, so that'll be fun :-P And it does make me kinda depressed to know I'm only 51% of the way through instead of almost done! But I tell myself that it'll be worth it in the end, having the much larger shawl and a lot more yardage for stashdash! ;)
Besides, as much hassle as it is for me to knit - I do think it's looking pretty awesome :) (IRL - doesn't really show up that well on the photo. Lace is impossible to show off until after it's been blocked!)

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

WIP Wednesday - another 258 meters for StashDash!

My Spot Check Socks are coming along nicely :) I'm a tad worried that they may be a bit too tight after all, but if that's the case, I'm sure I can find somebody else to pass them on to ;) I'm cruising down the foot and will soon only have the toes left on both of them.
I'm almost out of the varigated yarn - another 3-4 rounds I think. I'd hoped it would get me further down the foot, but so be it. I should have enough of the dark blue left for the toe either way.

I'm way ahead of schedule on the 30 Valentines Shawl, but as the rows are only going to get longer from here on, I don't see that as continuing to be the case. I've just finished row 92* of 140 (incl. bind-off, which I forgot last week ;) ), so a fair bit to go yet. Once I get closer to the end I need to start weighing the yarn I have left, because the pattern calls for 500-600 meters, and I have more than 700 in my skein, so I want to see if I'll have enough to add an extra repeat.
No clue what's up with the weird stripes... I hope it blocks out.

I've finally finished the Conjunction Cowl! I am SO happy with how it turned out! The homespun gradient worked out exactly as I'd hoped :) It's quite obviously thicker than the other yarn, but I think that's only noticeable when you're up close and really personal. From a distance you can't tell at all :)
I'll get a modelled shot and put it on Instagram as soon as it's dry :) (I'm kiwiria there as well) I'm almost sad I said one of my friends could have it ;) But only almost, as I know she'll use it :)