FO Fridays - It's time to play the music

Two finished objects this week, and especially one I'm really thrilled about having finished :)

But let's start with the other one - my Facade socks. I finally finished the second one, and they fit me perfectly :)
They did turn out slightly more fraternal than I had expected though... I thought the colourway ran dark red-pink-dark red-pink-.... Turns out it runs dark red-pink-dark red-orange-dark red-pink... I do have enough yarn for another sock, but I'm not entirely sure I feel up to knitting it ;) At least not just yet. It's a lovely pattern, and looks awesome, but it's rather complex and difficult to learn off by heart. Not to mention it's knit on 2.25mm needles, and I kept worrying I'd break them when attempting to do the occasional k3tog!!!

But they do look awesome :)
Pattern: Facade Socks
Yarn: Schoppel Wolle Zauberball 100, 100% merino
Mods: None.


For my second FO, I finally finished another project that had been in hibernation for almost all of 2013. My piano scarf!!!

Once again, I'm not sure why I put it into hibernation, because once I picked it back up it only took a couple of days to finish, but on the other hand, once again I'm kinda glad I put it into hibernation, because my purling has gotten SO much more even in the year that has passed since I knit on it last, so the last few octaves are a lot prettier than the first ones. It evened out nicely after blocking though, so I'm not too fussed :)
Now I need to get around to the yarn shop where I bought the yarn for it, as the owner asked to see it once it was done ;) Not sure if she'll still remember, but I'll give it a shot.
Pattern: Piano Scarf
Yarn: Hjertegarn Woolcott. A wool-cotton blend.
Mods: I decided not to make it the full 8 octaves, as that would make it too long for me to wear, so stopped after 6 :)

For once two FOs both for me! Totally unheard of! ;)

WIP Wednesday: It's all in the details

Just a few small things this week. My biggest projects are both done and will feature in my FO post on Friday :)

When I visited my sister last month and brought her the newest pair of socks I'd knit, my nephew asked me to please knit him a pair as well. My sister and I weren't quite sure whether he really meant it, or it was just the novelty of it, but as it was brought up again a month later, and he'd still like a pair, I figured I'd be the doting aunt and knit some for him :) He picked out the yarn himself, and it's definitely very much him :) I started the socks last weekend, and am about one third through the second one.

They're my own design, just plain-vanilla with an afterthought heel.
It's my first attempt at knitting a pair of socks without having the recipient try it on as I knit to make adjustments, so I HOPE they fit. However, they're more likely to be too big rather than too small, and fortunately socks are forgiving like that ;)

Not entirely happy with the toes - should probably have started the decreases every row instead of every second to make them less "steep", but I realized that too late to want to rip back and start over again.

The only question now is whether it'll get cold enough again this winter to wear them! ;)

My other WIP is my Hitchhikers, where I've gotten another 5 tips done.
It's going to be very colourful indeed! ;)

I've also been knitting some more puzzle pieces for the Ravellenic Games, but haven't gotten around to adding them to the blanket yet.

FO Friday - Haruni

I love most everything I knit, but once in a blue moon I end up with an FO where I can't believe that my hands made something that turned out that awesome :)

I first started the Haruni in September 2012. I'd bought some amazing yarn and wanted to use it for an amazing project. I knew that the Haruni would probably be a bit of a challenge, but decided to give it a go.

Honestly, it wasn't as difficult as I had feared, but the move came up and I got sidetracked. For some reason I didn't pick it up at all in all of 2013. So this year - with the Ravellenics and the Clean Slate Challenge coinciding, I decided to go ahead and get it done.

To my great surprise it took less than a week to finish! I had thought I had ages to go yet, but obviously the fact that I now have quite a bit of experience with lace made a significant difference, and last Monday - I was done!
I blocked it out that same evening (and sent off photos to Nina to brag ;) )
Extreme close up
And last night it was finally dry and I could take my final FO photos :)
(less accurate colour rendition than the other photos)
I LOVE it! Too bad I never go places where this would be suitable to wear ;) I'll pretend I do and wear it anyway.

I forgot to take meassurements of the pre-blocking wingspan unfortunately, but post-blocking measurments put it at 127cm x 67cm.

Pattern: Haruni
Yarn: Grignasco Champagne, 100% merino
Mods: None.

Fo Fridays - Cowls, Cowls, Cowls, Wonderful Cowls

To be honest, I never really understood the point of cowls. Didn't plain ole scarfs do the trick perfectly well? But then my sister asked me to knit one for her, and I tried it on to model it for the FO photo... and suddenly I got it. Sure, scarfs would work too, but with cowls I wouldn't constantly have to worry about it coming loose and dropping one end in my food or whatever. And besides, they were fun to knit :)

So when my sister asked me to knit her another cowl, I was happy to oblige... Especially when I found the most amazingly soft yarn to use for it :) The colour in the photo is a tad dark - it's more blue IRL. It's a blue/black twist with a silk shine that makes it just gorgeous.
I knit until I ran out of yarn, and then used a plain black for the bind off to make sure I used every inch of the yarn. I actually think it makes for a nice finish - it even looks planned! ;) But binding off took FOREVER! There were 352 stitches to bind off at the end!
Pattern: Mochi Collar Cowl
Yarn: Rowan Silk Twist
Mods: Used another yarn to bind off, but that's about it :)

The second cowl has been much, much, MUCH longer underway! I found the yarn last summer and bought it with no real purpose in mind, but thinking I might use it to knit an afghan of some kind as it was so incredibly soft (yes, I have a weakness for soft yarn ;) ). I bought the pattern for Vivid, but gave up after knitting just one square. The yarn was much too loosely spun, and split like nobody's business. It would be okay for knitting straight, but lace work? Not so much.

So I frogged it, and instead cast on for the Honey Cowl. It went swimmingly to start with, and I really enjoyed the project, but as I got half way through I just got bogged down. It's a pretty straight-forward knit, and just got boring after awhile. I'd do a row here and a row there, but it was taking forever. Finally I realized I probably only had another 3 hours' work to do if I sat down and focused, so I put on a movie and got stubborn.

The result was worth every minute of the fight! The effect of the colours turned out exactly as I had hoped, it's lovely soft against my neck, and I love the way it looks both at full length and folded double. So an annoying WIP turned into a terrific FO :)

... I'm NOT in any rush to be using that yarn again any time soon though!
Pattern: Honey Cowl
Yarn: Serina by Vinnis Colours, 100% bamboo.
Mods: None.

WIP Wednesday - Potato-chip-y scarf

Still have a lot of WIPs on my needles. What can I say? The minute I bind something off, I want to cast on something new... despite the fact that I already have a bunch of active WIPs. At least this clean slate challenge is spurring me on to use old yarn rather than the new I still can't seem to stop myself from buying...

First of all, I cast on for the second Facade sock. Only got 6 rows past the ribbing, but at least now it's started and will hopefully tempt me to pick it up again soon.

However, I was going to a friend's place to play games last Saturday, and didn't really feel like bringing along a WIP where I'd have to stop and look at the pattern all the time, and instead of bringing along the cowl I was already working on (don't ask me why...) I decided to cast on for the hitchhiker! Granted, I HAVE been wanting to knit this for ages, and have even had the specific yarn for several months too, so I figure it was just about time to get started on it. I can fully see how knitting this could get addictive. It's very potato-chip'y.
I absolutely LOVE the way the yarn is pooling right now, but I'm a tad worried that as the rows get longer and longer, it'll stop looking as orderly and start looking... well, just messy! Not quite worried enough to actually rip it out, because it may turn out to be a moot point, but we'll see.

But mostly, I've been knitting on the Wombat blanket that I started this fall. I had all kinds of crazy plans that I wanted to have it ready for this winter, but then put it aside for some reason (can't even remember why any longer) and just never got around to picking it back up again! Well, I decided to remedy that, and am now well past the pouch for my feet and actually probably only have another 30cm or so to go before it'll be long enough. But I do think I'll like it more if rather than going for "long enough" I go for "as long as I can get it before I run out of yarn, so we'll see.

FO Fridays - TADA!!!!

Fortunately my super-bulky hat stopped teasing me, and I managed to finish it Wednesday evening. I ripped back 6 rows, decreased back dow to 58 sts, knit those 6 rows in k1p1 ribbing and on the final row decreased another 3 sts. So guess the 48 sts hat wasn't as "much" too small as I had originally thought. Never mind, I'm really happy with the end result, and like the extra space for my hair.
I think it's super-cute :) Even if DH did photobomb me ;)


Regarding my subject line - I am FINALLY able to show you the finished Red Chocolate!!! The pieces had finished blocking last weekend, so I sat down Saturday evening to try to see if I could figure out how to combine the pieces of the puzzle. Fortunately that turned out to be a LOT easier than I had first feared, and that first evening I managed to finish everything but the second sleeve. Unfortunately at that point I could see I would have to unpick and redo the first sleeve, so I decided to call it a night and continue at a time when I was more awake.

That was Sunday morning, so by the time my husband got home from work, I could get him to take these photos of me modelling it! :) :) :)
Isn't it gorgeous? I just love the colour! Part of me is slightly sad that I won't get to keep this myself, but the largest part of me can't WAIT to hand it over to my friend! She's going to love it! Besides, I'm pretty sure I would never have dared attempt it if it hadn't been for her asking me to, so it's all for the best. (Also, it's a tiiiiny bit too small for me, which would have been SUCH a disappointment! Ought to fit my friend perfectly though).

But I'm definitely happy with my accomplishment :) AND I now know how to make cables without a cable-needle :) All good. I'll be seeing my friend tomorrow and hope to get some shots of her in it then.

Pattern: Chocolate Passion from Drops.
Yarn: Hjertegarn Superwash Vital, 100% wool.
Modifications: Turned two cables the wrong way on the fronts. One by accident, the other as a "design feature" ;) If I were to make this again, I'd make greater use of provisional cast on and three needle bind off in order to limit the amount of seaming necessary.

WIP Wednesday - Lots and lots of accessories!

I'm not quite sure how it's happened, but I ended up working on 5 different WIPs this week! Only took photos of 4 of them, so I'll limit myself to talking about those.

I've finally gotten back to working on the eternal honey cowl. I really loved this when I started it, and would pick it up all the time, but recently it's turned into a real slog. I'm sure I'll love it once it's finished though, so I'm prodding onwards. Only another 30-40 rows to go now, so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but with every row being 220 stitches in very splicey yarn, it still feels a long way away.
I'm about half-way through the blue, and then just have the final green to go :) I should probably just get stubborn and dedicate an evening to finish it off. But it's difficult when I have so many other WIPs I also want to work on ;)

One of those is the Facade Socks. I've finished the first one, which means I've completed the test, so I'm taking a bit of a break before casting on for the second one. Especially as I can't quite make up my mind whether to make them identical or fraternal twins.
I do love the first sock though, so I definitely want the full pair! I'll probably cast on once I've finished one or both of these two next projects.

Saturday I was going to a friend's birthday brunch. She lives quite far away, so that meant a 1+hr train ride each way. I probably should have brought one of my already-in-progress-WIPs, but instead I decided to make headway on the cowl I'd promised to knit my sister, so it could be ready for when she comes over next month. 2 hours made for a LOT of knitting time, and was plenty of time for me to fall completely in love with the yarn.
The yarn is Rowan's silk twist which I got at half-price as it's being discontinued. I wish I had bought more, because it is SO soft and lovely! I sent a photo to Nina and commented that I wish it was possible to send texture as well, because it's yummy! Looks like there may be a bit left over, so hopefully there'll be enough for a headband for myself after all ;)

And finally - something I thought would be an FO but which foiled me at the very end. This last week I've frogged one hat and lost another, so I figured it was time to knit one out of some super-chunky yarn I had left over. Unfortunately I did not have much luck with the patterns I found. I wanted to knit top-down so I could make use of as much yarn as possible. The first pattern had me increase to 48sts - much too small. The second pattern had me increase to 72sts - much too big! Rather than starting all over again, I've decided to rip back 6-8 rows decrease back down to 58sts and then try with a k1p1 brim... hopefully that'll do the trick.
Because I do love the yarn :)