Scrunchable Scarf

Deck the halls with handknit gifts, I say! Here’s one I CAN show you, as it is for O’s teacher:

This is the Scrunchable Scarf, which is a free pattern found on-line. It’s the second one of these I’ve knit, and this time I seemed to figure out the selvage stitches. I slipped the first stitch of every row, and made the last stitch a knit stitch. To accomplish this, I added two stitches to the total number cast on.

I used a whole skein of Mmmmmmmalabrigo worsted, & I think the scarf could stand to be a little longer. But it’s soft, squishy & very scrunchable. Yummmmmy.

Herbivore

Herbivore is my first WestKnits FO, and I love it. It’s also my first Malabrigo Sock FO, & I love that too. The colorway is Rayon Vert.

The pattern is very intuitive after a few rows, and I love the way it naturaly curves around your shoulders. It’s an easy knit, and it can be very easily lengthened or shortened depending on how much yarn you have. I added a few repeats and a garter ridge at the end, and still had some yarn left.

What can I say about Malabrigo? Really? It’s da bomb. Period. My only regret is that I don’t have blocking wires. I think that would have improved the final result, but I’m still a very satisifed customer.

Cilla’s Shawl

Cilla started treatments this week for amyloidosis, a rare condition related to mylenoma. While it is not a form of cancer, treatment will include chemo and a stem cell transplant. As my family has been down this treatment road before, we very sadly can relate. All too well.

When I got this news about our family friend of 30 years, I jumped into action one of the only ways I know how – I knit her a shawl.

It’s Laura Chau’s Simple Yet Effective Shawl, knit from Adiago – a wool sock yarn from Yarn Place. It’s self-striping, which I thought went well with this simple pattern. The color reminds me of sunshine.  She was so thankful to receive it, and I am thankful for the ability to make this small gesture of love and support.

A Wonderful Wallaby for……..Who?

It’s done! And it flew, by the way. I can’t say for sure why, but I finished it in about 5 weeks with much work on many other projects in between. Here’s the rav link. And here’s the sweater:

C,mon.  How damn cute is that. It was knit as a size 10 for C, & it came out as a size 5/6. Annoying, but it all worked out – lucky O. I used Cascade 220 from the stash and love how the color combo and rugby striping came out. Fun.

Let’s see if I can remember the few mods I made………I used the YO pouch-start mod discussed here. I also did a classic hood increase up the back, every other row, for about 16-20 rows – don’t remember. The patterns has you add all the sts evenly across the first row of the hood, which I did do as instructed for the sleeves and waist. I closed off the hood using kitchener stitch…..the pattern might call for that.

So that’s 2 Wallabies down, & more in the future! But next time, I’ll size up.

An Easter Miracle

See my banner above? That was sock #1. And I was so happy with sock #1 that I made it my banner. Sock #2? DONE! They’re both done! It was an Easter miracle! After nine months, a pair of socks was born on Sunday.

{Flat-enough feet?}

I love this yarn (see Navajo Sky) and I love the pattern. Why nine months, you ask? No reason, really. Part of it was that it was night-only knitting (that is, kid-free, I-must-concentrate knitting). The yarn is local and gorgeous and soft, and I love these colors. The pattern was easy to memorize and recognize, providing just enough interest without burning the few brain cells I have left. It’s a great pattern for handdyed or varigated yarns – it really shakes up the coloring. Fun stuff!

FO: My First Magic Loop Socks

The socks are done and in record time for me – 20 days from start to finish with lots of Wallaby work in there too. Granted – they’re in stockinette stitch, which helped too. But I think I’m sold on magic loop!

This shot here shows the colors more truthfully:

It seems to flow more smoothly than socks on double pointed needles, and maybe even more than socks on 2 circulars, although I can see now how that technique and magic loops really are pretty similar. I used this pattern and turned to my magic loop booklet when I needed a little heel help.

The yarn was excellent! I won it from Knitting Mama, & then proceeded to beat the living hell out of it while attempting to wind it. What a clusterfuck. But all’s well that ends well, and I have maybe a quarter to a third of the skein left! It’s soft merino in fun colors, dyed by a group of Ohio mommies. Love it.

Next up on the sock front – my first attempt at 2-at-a-time with DH as the guinea pig. Here’s the yarn, here’s the pattern. Squueeee!

Silk Ruffled Scarf……with Beads!

I gotta admit – I love it when family & friends make knitting requests. Whenever I give someone a knitted gift, I can’t be totally sure they like it…………unless they requested it! Here is a recent FO for my mom, per her request:

It’s a pattern from In the Loop yarn store that came along with the yarn. This shop is really cute & they carry a lot of unique yarns and patterns, like MadTosh, Rowan & Ysolda. This is a super-easy pattern they wrote for this yarn called All About Ruffles, & my mom was drawn to the shop sample. She ponied up for the 2 skeins the scarf needs and handed them over! Weee!

The yarn is Tilli Tomas Beaded Lace and it was my very first experience knitting with laceweight yarn OR with beads! Scary. At first, the scarf was coming out kinda uneven and I was getting all anal/OCD about it. Which got me to thinking about how the hell I would block something like this. Which sent me to the phone, callin’ up good old In the Loop. Gotta love that LYS service. The answer was DO NOT BLOCK 100% silk. The scarf will even out its shape as it gains length & hangs for a bit. They were right.

The beads are so pretty, but were a little challenging for me to knit with. I think a lot of my knitting problems come down to tension – I just knit too damn tight. So the string carrying the beads wasn’t getting knit along at the same tension as the strand of silk yarn. I would start to get a bump of string & would have to knit through it………not catastrophic, but annoying. Still worth it in the end!

Mum gets her scarf this weekend, rumor has it. Yay!

Hungry Stitch

I just finished my 4th Baby Pullover from Knitting Pure & Simple.  Obviously, I love the pattern. But I tried to shake it up for myself this time around with a couple of new things. First is the yarn. This was my first experience knitting with Dream in Color yarn. I give it two thumbs up! Soft, washable wool in a gorgeous varigated green – seems like a perfect baby yarn! I would definitely use it again.

Here are some unblocked pics:

The other new-to-me thing about this sweater is Cat Bordhi’s “hungry stitch”. I assume I’m not only knitter out there annoyed by the loose slip-slip-knit decreases (SSKs)? Well, I finally went for it and did one sleeve in regular SSKs and the other using Cat’s hungry stitch method for acheiving trim and slim SSKs.

The unblocked photo below shows the regular SSK sleeve on top and the hungry stitch SSKs on the bottom:

You can clearly see the SSK slant stitches above. Below, while kinda bumpy, the SSKs are much harder to find. Since this was my first attempt at the hungry stitch, I’m thinking I might have done them too tight. I’m wondering if that’s why they’re so bumpy. I’m hoping a good block will help.

The technique was really easy – definitely more to remember than a regular SSK, but I plan to try to work it into my normal SSK routine. In the meantime, I’m thinking I might try to kill this skein with a cute little baby hat. Stay tuned.

FO: Wicked

Wah. Yet another garment for me that’s not quite right. First, it was a short-sleeve top in Berroco Comfort that a) pooled weirdly, & b) is a little small. Then it was the beloved FLS, which I love but the sleeves annoy me slightly b/c they’re just the wrong length, KWIM?

Now, it’s Wicked, knit up out of Ella Rae Amity:

It was a fun knit, but the fit is a little off in a couple ways. One, it’s a little too short. I wanted it 1/2″ or so longer but was afraid of running out of yarn. Two, the neckline is a little wonky. I didn’t want it to be so wide, but it ended up cutting a little bit across the front of my neck. It’s OK, but not great.

I opted for very few decreases after the bust and for extra increases at the hips. Good call. And I definitely would have preferred better yarn. But I had this in my stash – right amount, nice color, washable. It was originally purchased with the boys in mind………..maybe shoulda kept it that way.

I think the pattern is great – I think my execution of it was slightly less good. I still need to try wearing it around. Maybe I’ll actually rework the neck a little bit. We shall see.

FO: Kai

I’ve had this little sweater in my mental queue for a long time. Now that DH’s co-worker’s wife is about to have her 3rd boy (join the club, honey!), I took the opportunity to knit up Kai (rav link) in some leftover Berroco Vintage from the stash. I went with the 6 month size.

I’m pleased with the final result, although it was a little bit of a rocky road. There’s a split built into the neck right in the middle of the cable, but mine ended up on the side. I think that was mostly due to me second-guessing the pattern, dammit. But it’s fine as is. I also somehow grandly screwed up the sleeve width, or upper body length, and had to rip back and widen the sleeve circumference quite a bit. But I love the simple, single cable & the splits on the sides at the waist. I think I’d knit it again.

The yarn? I’m still loving the Vintage & have used it quite a bit. The one think I’ve had trouble with is keeping those ends woven in. The yarn is so smooth and soft it’s almost slippery. However, that could also just be my bad weaving skills.

Who doesn’t love little, tiny clothing? Right?