Finished Projects – Page 2 – The Knitting Doctor

Another Hitchhiker

Project Details:

Pattern: Hitchhiker, by Martini Behm. As of today there are more than 35,000 of these either finished or in progress on Ravelry. That is sort of moderately insane.
Yarn: Arcane Fibre Works 80/20 fingering yarn. The color name is Who’s A Good Boy. Though this is technically sock yarn, it’s pretty soft. I’m not sure how it would hold up in socks. It’s divine as a little neck accessory though!
Started: January 2023
Finished: August 31, 2023
For: ?? This is going in the gift basket for someone.
Needle: 3.25 mm
Yarn/Pattern rating: *****/*****. This may be the perfect knitting pattern. You can use a wide variety of yarns, you can change it up by adding eyelet rows or lace inserts, or it can just be a terrific easy TV knitting project. You just knit along until you have just enough to finish the last repeat and bind off.

Hank likes it!

I also never got around to posting the last sock pair I finished.

Those were for John. The yarn is one of the Regia Design Lines by Arne & Carlos. The color number is3879. It’s a sock, what can I say. This is my usual cobbled-together sock-pattern-in-my-head.

One last Hank photo, just because he is so goofy.

Et voilà!

It’s finished! Well, it’s been finished for awhile, I’ve just been too busy to get it photographed.

You can tell by the socks and Birkies that it’s not that hot here. We’ve had a few warm days, up into the low 90’s, but that’s it. Yes, I’m extremely grateful that the awful weather around the world seems to have bypassed us for now. Today it was in the mid-70’s, dry, and with a light little breeze.

Now, on to the SHAWL!

Project Details:

Pattern: Cathedral Stole, by Birgit Freyer
Yarn: Tajik Kid Mohair. This was marketed and sold by Peace Fleece. It is handspun mohair made by a woman in Afghanistan. There is a cooperative of women spinners there and in Tajikistan that spin and sell their yarn. You can buy similar yarn by them now at Port Fiber, though she doesn’t have it in this put-up. The color is a deep, glowing scarlet. I used about 240 grams of this, which is called lace weight, but i’st more of a light fingering. It reminds me of shiny Ruby Slippers.
Started: Embarrassingly, February 2016. 🙄
Finished: June 12, 2023
Needle: 3.25 mm
What I Learned: Eventually, all projects can be finished. I have no idea why this took so long, since it is lovely yarn, and a lovely pattern. The pattern is knit entirely from charts, and I added a bit of length to each end of the stole to use up more yarn. I also love big shawls that I can wrap up in.
Yarn/Pattern rating: *****/*****. The pattern is probably not for beginners, though it doesn’t have any exotic techniques. It’s just…brief. You get a few terse paragraphs of instructions (short paragraphs!), and the charts. The yarn is gorgeous, though as handspun, there was an occasional bit of unevenness, and the odd splice/knot. I wish I’d bought more of this when it was available.

Here is a photo of the woman that spun this particular yarn. Her name is Maliknoz, her bio is here.

Here is one more photo:

I am beyond happy with this one. I also have some newly finished socks to show you, and a couple of new projects, but I’ll save that for another day.

Four Months later…

Holy moly. I’ve never taken such a long blog vacation previously. I have been knitting, though very slowly. Hank (remember him??) loves to steal yarn balls and run around the house like a demon with them. So there are only two kinds of knitting around here: One kind, where Hank is sleeping, and the other kind, which involves a lot of yelling and dog spit-soaked yarn.

Here’s a recent photo of the yarn destroyer.

I HAVE finally finished something though! It’s PINK and it’s PRETTY!

Project Details:

Pattern: Quatrefoil, by Janina Kallio
Yarn: Cream Silk, from DyeForYarn, in the color Baby Unicorn. This is fingering weight, I used two skeins, 800 meters worth.
Needle: 3.00 mm Chiaogoo bamboo interchangeable
Started: Dec 22, 2022
Finished: May 31, 2023
What I learned: I like PINK! I don’t think I have much of anything PINK in my wardrobe, certainly not in my shawl collection. I bought it for the color name, because who doesn’t love baby unicorns?? I also learned that knitting silk on metal needles is guaranteed to result in tears. Once I switched to the bamboo, I was one happy camper.
Yarn/Pattern rating: *****/****. This CreamSilk stuff is like crack. The colors are gorgeous, and it knits up beautifully, other than being slippery. The pattern is a simple triangle shawl, started at the bottom point with just a few stitches and increasing on each side. It makes a weird, really pointy triangle shape that isn’t my favorite, but I tend to wear shawls wrapped around my neck anyway, so it doesn’t matter. The pattern itself is well-written.

Those are my peonies in the background. I moved them to this location two years ago, and they apparently love it, and are blooming like crazy.

That’s all for now, I’ll try not to take such a long break next time!

Bandwagon

I think I’m the last person on Ravelry to finish one of these hats. There are over 10,000 projects for the Musselburgh hat pattern, by Ysolda Teague.

That is just the best hat pattern on earth. Here are the details:

Project Details:

Pattern: Musselburgh, by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Beaverslide 2-ply Sport/Sock weight, 80% merino, 20% kid mohair, color Mink Heather.
Needles: 3.25 mm Chiaogoo bamboo double points
Started: Sometime in the past year?
Finished: December 22, 2022
What I Learned: This is an interesting pattern construction, starting at the top of the head with a few stitches, casting on until it’s big enough around, then knitting straight for a really long time, then decrease. See below, the photo explains this better than I can. It leaves you with a double-layer hat that is very cozy.
Yarn/Pattern rating: *****/*****. Clearly written pattern, can be used for a wide range of yarn weights and hat sizes. This yarn is just divine. It is soft and lofty, but also durable. The kid mohair gives it a nice sheen.

Here’s a photo of the whole hat:

I do have a few more colors of this yarn in the stash. This hat is for me, but John tried it on, and he’s picked out his color.

Last but not least is Hank! He’s growing, learning, and in general being a whole lot of fun.

Hyrna Hap, and Arlo

I finally got around to blocking this shawl. Don’t judge me, I have a 14 week old puppy to wrangle.

No apologies for the photos in the bathroom mirror. John isn’t home right now, and I just needed to get this posted.

Project Details:

Pattern: Pattern? I made it up. It’s a plain garter triangle shawl, increases at each end and along the center spine every right side row. I just knit each color until it was gone and attached the next one.
Yarn: This is Icelandic wool, from an Etsy shop, Hespa. I’m pretty sure this is Istex Einband that is hand dyed. She dyes her skeins with plant dyes local to Iceland. I bought all but that last light brown stripe as a kit from her Etsy shop. The last color I bought on our trip through Iceland. It’s the same wool, from the same dyer, and matches the color scheme well.
Needle: Oh, holy hell. I didn’t record that. I’m pretty sure I used a 3.25 mm Chiaogoo bamboo circular, as it is sitting on my desk still instead of being in the case.
Started: June 12, 2022
Finished: Oh, who knows. I apparently didn’t record that either. Let’s just say sometime since the end of July.
What I learned: Great yarn doesn’t always need a fancy pattern. Just cast on and knit. This was a perfect travel project, and I LOVE the colors.

I still haven’t gotten around to doing a remodel post. I will tell you the Arlo story that goes with it though. The last day of the major work was the day the plumbers came to drop the tub in and get the plumbing hooked up for it. It was sort of an all-day project. They built a plywood platform under the tub, with an opening to access the plumbing works. When they were ready to put the tub in, I sort of joked that they should make sure that all the cats were accounted for.

You can guess where this is going, right? They finished up late in the day and left. I hadn’t seen Arlo all day, and was beginning to get a bit suspicious. After the noise of the construction was done, I could clearly hear him in the dining room. Coming from the ceiling, where he was trapped between the subfloor of the tub and the dining room ceiling.

Our neighbor came over with power tools to help. This is a small hole he drilled in the ceiling to make sure we were in the right crawl space. Then the fun began.

I wasn’t nearly as cheerful about this as I look in this photo. My little worrier brain had already traveled the distance between “cat trapped in the ceiling” to “dead cat in the ceiling, we’ll never see Arlo again”.

It took a bit of coaxing, but we got him out. The guys came back the next day and patched the hole in the ceiling. And Arlo promises to never do anything like that again.

A little neck thing

I have so much yarn, a significant portion of which is single skeins of the “my precious” variety. A lot of it is sock yarn, which will become socks if I ever get to all of it. I also have a bunch of non-sock single skeins, including impulse purchases, or “souvenir” yarn.

Enter “little neck things”. Little scarves, cowls, etc. This one seems to be the latest thing on Ravelry.

Isn’t that pretty? It’s just the right size to grab and go when it’s chilly out. Here’s another photo.

It’s an idiotically simple pattern, but the i-cord edging jazzes it up and makes it look like something more than a plain garter stitch scarf.

Project Details:

Pattern: Sophie Scarf, by PetiteKnit
Yarn: Shilasdair Aran merino, I bought this on a trip to Scotland in 2011. The color is Sandstone. Their yarns are dyed with natural dye materials; this skein was dyed with madder root and onion skin. I used one skein of this, 175 yards. I have a tiny little ball of yarn left over.
Needles:5.5mm/US 9
Started: November 2
Finished: November 4. That’s right, people. I started and finished a knitting project in less than a week. The fact that it was finished in the same decade in which it was started is newsworthy around here.
What I learned: Knitting from stash is delightful. Knitting something useful from stash is even better. This is a dead-easy pattern, and though it is written for DK-weight yarn, it could be knit from a skein of almost anything. Just weigh your yarn, knit the increase section until you’ve used half the yarn, then do the decrease part.

In other news, our sunny fall is finally over here in the Pacific Northwest. We’re being hit by an “atmospheric river” today and this weekend. This basically means we are going to get a shitload of rain. And apparently, severe winds, though that hasn’t hit yet. Thankfully, our generator has been serviced and fueled up so we’re ready if the lights go out.

We’re also nearing the end of our bathroom remodel. I’ll save photos of that for the next post.

New socks

New socks! I started these in August, finished last night.

The yarn is Stocainn sock yarn, from Shilasdair yarns in Scotland. They don’t have this in their online store currently, but I cleverly bought a few skeins of this for the stash when they did have it. Their yarn is dyed with natural botanicals. I didn’t record it, but I’m pretty sure this was dyed with madder root.

I used 2.00 mm needles, and the same old jerry-rigged pattern. These are for me.

And of course there are new socks on the needles.

More about those later.

Sharon Air

Good lord. I decided to do a blog post about my latest project completion. That was about an hour ago. For some reason, something happened under the hood, and the directory where the photos were supposed to upload got changed to a non-existent directory name. It took me over an hour to figure that out and fix it. So here we are. I have a finished project, and I’m not quite as excited about it as I was an hour ago.

Project Details:

Pattern: Sharon Air, by Casapinka
Yarn: Plucky Knitter Lodge Fingering
Started: August 12, 2022
Finished: October 1, 2022
Needles: US 5
For: Me
Modifications: None that were intentional. I forgot a whole section on one of the side ”wings”. I just did it out of order when I figured out why my shawl was a lot shorter on one side. I added a few rows on the second wing since they weren’t quite the same number of rows on each side.
Rating (Pattern/yarn) *****/*****
What I Learned: I had to change colors MANY times, on this, so got pretty good at that. This also taught me to dig around in the stash before I go buy new stuff. There is some pretty fine yarn in that stash of mine.

I really love wearing shawls like this. I tend to always be cold in the non-summer months (and sometimes in our summer months). It’s nice having something to wrap around my neck to keep warm.

I also really like this yarn. It’s a linen/wool/silk/cotton blend, and is very light and drapey. I bought a single skein of four different colors, and this was the perfect project for it.

The week that was

Or, Out of Covid Jail

After John tested positive on Sunday, I did the same on Monday. We were restricted to our cabin for 5 days each, so John was out yesterday, me this morning. I felt pretty lousy for a couple of days, but have no symptoms now other than reduced sense of smell.
We missed four ports in Norway, though did get a few photos from our veranda. The prettiest day so far was Geirangar fjord, which was spectacular, with many stunning waterfalls.

Our cabin attendant, Mohammed, took good care of us for the week. He made sure our window and veranda wall were kept clean so we had a good view at all times.

We arrived in Bergen yesterday, and today is the midpoint of the cruise. Many passengers are staying on for the full trip to Stockholm, though there is also a lot of turnover from people only doing the two week portions. We did a tour in Bergen today, here’s one of the highlights.

Some fine Norwegian wool, and a sheep-themed bag to put it in.

And I finished a pair of socks.

The wool is from deep stash, Elliebelly 100% BFL. Same old pattern. These are for me.

Stay tuned for more adventure now that we are able to explore!

Mine Hill Cardigan

Oh my!! Another finished project!

Project Details

Pattern: Mine Hill Cardigan. This is another CustomFit design; you choose the basic pattern, which then uses your specific gauge and body measurements that you’ve entered.
Yarn: John Arbon Appledore DK, color Sheep’s Nose
Needles: 3.25 mm
Started/Finished: July 28, 2021/June 16/2022
For: Me
Rating: *****/***** for yarn and pattern. The yarn is wonderful. It’s a sheepy, slightly rustic yarn, which knit up into a nice, drapey fabric. The Custom Fit patterns are no-nonsense, no-handholding, but clear and straightforward. I’m also amazed at the fit of the sweaters that I’ve made using this method. I always tend to knit sweaters that are too big for me. The whole time I was knitting this, I was quite sure that it wasn’t going to fit, but there you are.
What I Learned: I’m learning more about sweater fit with each of these sweaters that I make. Baggy sweaters aren’t flattering for most people. I’m also learning how to be more particular about my finishing work. My seams aren’t perfect, but they are getting better. I’m also getting more selective about choosing patterns that I will actually wear. This will be one of those closet staples that will get a lot of use.

This is a tough color to photograph, especially since my corner of western Washington apparently didn’t get the memo that it is summertime. It’s in the mid-50’s and overcast here today, which makes taking pictures chancy. If we ever see sunshine again, I’ll get a photo outdoors so you can see the true color. Here it is still skeined up, which shows the color better:

And a close up of the front stitch pattern:

One last photo. We might be going somewhere next week.

Stay tuned!

Hansel Hap

Finally, the mystery project has been gifted, so I can show you what I’ve been up to.

It’s a baby blanket!

Project Details

Pattern: Hansel, by Gudrun Johnston

Yarn: Miss Babs Yummy 2ply, various colors

Started/Finished: February 2022/June 2022

For: Steph and Paraj’s baby girl

This is the medium size, and is plenty big for a baby blanket. I didn’t add the lace border, since it was big enough without, and I was running short on time. This is a straightforward, easy pattern, really only basic knitting skills required. The pattern was easy to follow. This would make a nice shawl also, there might be yarn in my stash for another one.
The baby isn’t here yet, but I’ve done my part.

Here’s one more photo.

New socks!

I did finish the Ukrainian flag socks last night. As usual, they are a welcome addition to my collection. Though my sock drawer runneth over, some of those pairs are perilously close to wearing through at the heels, and I have way too much sock yarn in the stash to spend time darning socks. I’d much rather cast on a new pair. I do have a pair of John’s socks on my desk that need a new toe, but that’s just reknitting, not mending, so that is acceptable.

Here are the finished new ones:

The color in photos looks a little bumblebee-ish, but it is really blue and sunflower yellow, not black and yellow.

The yarn is Biscotte Bis-sock, color Minions. I knit these with my in-my-head top down-flap & gusset heel pattern. I used Hiya Hiya bamboo double pointed needles, size 2.00mm. I’ve played around with different brands of dpn’s over the years, often claiming that “these are my very favorites”, but these really are among the best. They are lightweight, with very sharp tips, and seem durable. The current pair has lasted through at least a half dozen pairs of socks, and don’t seem to be particularly fragile. And there has been no fraying of the tips. I also love my Lykke dpns and will keep those in rotation as well.

And no, it absolutely does not bug me that my socks are usually fraternal twins. There isn’t enough time in the day for me to try to match stripes exactly.

So there you are. I’ve already started the next pair. The yarn is from deep stash, you’ll just have to wait until I have a few rounds done to see what’s next.

Tits Up!

Finished socks! The yarn is Adorn sock yarn, from Three Irish Girls. The color name is Tits Up!, which is from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel tv series. I love the show, so I had to buy the yarn.

I used the same pattern-in-my-head that I always use. 2.00 mm needles, as usual. Nothing fancy, just plain socks.

Here is where I am on the Get Out of Ukraine Socks.

The colors are more Ukraine Flag by Starlight than the real flag colors, but I like it.

And here’s a blast from the past.

Pretty exciting, eh? The really exciting part is that is the beginning of a sweater sleeve. Here are the rest of the sweater pieces.

Fronts and back done. I just have the sleeves and the front bands to do and this will be a finished sweater. This has been marinating a bit, but I’m determined to finish it soon. It will be a nice in-between-seasons piece to wear in the spring.

That’s what the finished sweater will look like, although I’m making the sleeves longer. And I still haven’t decided on the pockets. I think I’d like the line of the sweater better without the pockets right over my hips, which certainly don’t need any accentuating.

I do love this yarn. It is Appledore DK, by John Arbon Textiles. It is one of those yarns that would work knit up into a wide gauge range. I’m trying to restrain myself from buying more of this in some other colors. I think it would make a lovely shawl. Or two.

Stay tuned!

The banjos have stopped*

Wintergrass is wrapped for another year. It was a great festival, with a nice variety of music styles, and a diverse cast of performers. It’s tough to pick a favorite, so I won’t. This is the first time in two years we’ve been out doing much of anything other than with our close family and friend ”pods”. It was REALLY nice to be in a concert venue with live music. The festival is in Bellevue, which is in King County to the north of us, and they are still requiring masks and proof of vaccination for indoor spaces. They also sold only about the half the usual number of tickets (intentionally), so we felt pretty safe, especially since the Covid numbers have dropped pretty dramatically here.

I did get some knitting done. Here’s the sock in progress.

I started the long weekend with just the cuff of that second sock started, so got about half a sock knit. I also worked on a secret project that will be a gift, so I can’t show it to you. That sock yarn is from Three Irish Girls, it is their Adorn sock yarn, color name ”Tits Up!” (reference to a character in Mrs. Maisel).

I realized while uploading that photo that I completely missed posting a finished project.

Those are socks for John. The yarn is John Arbon Exmoor Sock yarn, colors Mackerel Sky and Mizzle. It’s the same ”pattern” I always use for socks.

I really am going to try to be a better blogger. Really.

*That could be the first line in a banjo haiku.

Done, done, and started

I’m apparently better at knitting and finishing things than I am about blogging about them. I have two finished pairs of socks to show.

I finished these about a month ago.

Those are for John. The yarn is Zen Yarn Garden Squooshy Sock, color Anna Grace. This is lovely yarn, though the color is one of those that is difficult to photograph accurately. It’s a summer sky blue, but looks more aqua in some of the photos.

I finished the second pair over the weekend. These are for me.

I love, love, love these. This is Opal sock yarn, the color is from their 25 years of Opal Jubilee Collection (#11047 if you are looking for it). Those colors will brighten up the gloomiest day.

Both pairs are my own basic pattern, top down, 72 stitches, heel flap and gusset, knit on 2.00 mm double point needles.

Here is the newly started pair.

The yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners Signature Sparkle sock yarn, color Vintage Tinsel. It’s much sparklier in real life.

Those will be quite festive for the Christmas season!