I finally finished the Winter Solstice shawl today. It’s still drying on the blocking mats, but I couldn’t wait to show photos.
Well, actually, I did have to wait. I wasn’t able to log into the dashboard for my blog to get going with a post. It took me much of the afternoon, but I finally was able to fix the damned thing, which involved going into the actual wordpress file manager and renaming and deleting some things. NOT what I really planned to do with my afternoon.
Anyway.
This is pre-blocking. It got a good soak in the sink, and then blocked.
And I needn’t have worried about running out of yarn. 14 grams left.
And sort of a blog fail. I finally finished all the Euroflax linen gift somethings yesterday. I had this grand idea to knit a bunch of them, finished four.
Now that they’re (mostly) gifted, I can tell what they are. Don’t be too excited, I spent all of December knitting garter stitch linen face cloths.
I know, right? Those shouldn’t be too hard. They are just big garter stitch squares. And I forgot to take photos of the first three (the green, pink, and lavender ones) before I mailed them off. These are for my sisters, I packaged them with some nice bath soap. Linda just got one, the yellow one was finished yesterday so I’ll get it in the mail when we figure that the crush at the post office is over.
I’m not doing a whole finished project thing for those. It’s Euroflax linen, sport weight. I used this pattern. It starts with 3 stitches, increases every row until it’s wide enough, then decreases back to 3 stitches. “Wide enough” for me was 89 stitches.
You would think that with as few things that I finish around here, that I’d remember to take pictures. Oh well.
I organized all my knitting projects today and got them out of the jumble that they’d turned into.
That is 4 lace shawls, 2 pairs of socks, 2 sweaters, a Hitchhiker, and another linen washcloth. And Ripley. My plan is to finish one of the sock pairs, one of the sweaters, and one of the lace shawls next. We’ll see how that goes. Ripley said she’d help.
That right there is a Finished Project. I finished this one on the plane ride home from Poland, I just haven’t gotten around to posting about it officially.
Project Notes:
Yarn: Wollmeise Pure, 100% fingering weight merino. Delightful to work with and to wear.
Needles: 3.25mm. I started on straights, but transferred it to a circular for travel.
Pattern: Hitchhiker, by Martina Behm. As of today, there are 31.7K projects on Ravelry using this pattern. It is the most commonly knit pattern! This is the second one of these I’ve made.
Modifications: None
What I learned/love about this: This is such a versatile “little neck thing”. It’s an easy pattern, perfect for meetings or TV watching. I have no doubt that I’ll make more of these.
Pattern/yarn rating: ***** on both. The pattern is clear, and the yarn has the most vibrant colors. I have a bunch more of this in the stash, I just might start another one for those times that I need to pay attention to something but still want to knit.
I was a bit tempted by that Wollmeise link up there. I checked my stash, though. I have another eight hanks of this in some mighty lovely colors. I think I’ll go dig one of those out the boxes and cast on!
I finished a hat today for yet another friend going through chemo. I enjoy knitting for friends, but I hate the reason behind this. Cancer sucks. But the hat is cute.
Modifications: The body of the hat has a k2tog/yo row every 12th row. I substituted a plain knit row for that, since you don’t want a hat full of holes if you are losing your hair.
Project rating: Love it. The yarn is a little splitty, but the color is rich, and the yarn is very soft. The pattern is very well written and easy to follow. John and I both might need one of these in a wooly winter yarn.
Yarn: Blacker Swan 4-ply. The color is Tussac. This is just the most divinely soft merino. I’m not sure how well it would wear in a sweater, but it is lovely wrapped around my neck. The shawl took 6 balls, a little over 1100 yards. The yarn comes from a small farm in the Falkland Islands, and they get one shipment a year. I have my credit card at the ready for the next shearing.
Needles: 4 mm for the main section and the border, 4.5 for the lace edging.
For: Me
Started/Finished: 6/3/18–6/9/19
Modifications: None
What I learned: Technically, I learned a new bind off, the suspended bind off. It looks very tidy, and is nice and stretchy without being sloppy.
The construction of this was fun. You start with a few stitches, then knit a big garter stitch triangle. About the time you are about to stab yourself to death with the needles out of boredom, you cast off the top edge, pick up stitches along the sides of the triangle, and knit the lace border. The edging is knit on sideways (applied edging).
Pattern Rating: ***** This is well written, the charts for the lace are very clear, and no errors that I could find. And it’s free. Of course that free pattern likely will lead you to Blacker’s shop online, which is a dangerous place.
I love knitting and wearing shawls. Even in the summer around here it is often cool enough to have something snuggly and pretty around my shoulders. This will keep me warm during cocktail hour on cool evenings.
These are knit using the same white bread sock pattern that I always use. The needles are Brittany double points, size 2.00 mm.
The yarn is Artistic Yarn by Abi, in the colors of, you guessed it, the Green Bay Packers. Although while I was knitting this mostly in the Pacific NW, I had a lot of people that assumed that it was for the Oregon Ducks. That works too. I dare you to go through all of her self-striping sock yarn without buying some.
This is lovely yarn, I’ve knit one other pair of socks in her yarn, The yarn is on the lighter side of sock weight, but seems to be wearing well.
These are for my sister, Linda, who is a delusional Packers fan. Abi also makes this yarn, though it’s sold out at the moment (not my fault).
Pattern: very loosely based on Aesderina. I followed the pattern until after I got past the horizontal ribbing (knit 4 rows, purl 3 rows). The decreases start after that and I didn’t like how they looked so ripped it back and just winged it.
Needles: size 7
The hat is for a friend undergoing chemo for esophageal cancer. I don’t mind knitting hats, but my friends really just need to stop getting cancer.
I started this with a nice wooly wool but decided I needed something softer for a newly bald head. This actually is quite nice for an inexpensive acrylic yarn.
Those of you who follow me on FB know that we’re in Italy at the moment. Today is our last day in Rome, we head to Florence tomorrow. We’re having a wonderful trip, I’ll report back on that later. Ciao!
What I learned: I still love Cotton Ease for baby things. The bonus is that it’s machine washable.
Pattern Rating: This is a really easy pattern, all garter stitch. I made a few modifications. The pattern calls for picking up stitches and knitting the sleeves, I just cast on the right amount of stitches and then sewed them in. I remembered to put in the buttonholes on this one. And I made it just a bit longer than the pattern called for.
Pattern: Rogue, by Jenna Wilson Yarn: Peace Fleece worsted, color Amaranth Needles: 4.0 mm For: Me Started/Finished: Started 10/4/15, Finished 9/8/18 Modifications: None What I Learned: I still adore Peace Fleece wool. I knit this same pattern many years ago in a heavier Aran weight, it was too baggy, though I’ve worn it a million times. This one fits much better. I also love the cables on this. Pattern Rating: ***** Well written, cable charts clear. No major errors. This is perhaps not a “first sweater” kind of pattern, but her directions make it easy to follow.
Here are a few more photos, since it’s not every day that there is a finished sweater around Chez Knitting Doctor!
I’m not doing a whole “finished project” post here. This is a big rectangle with ribbing on either end, then the sides are sewn. I used Cotton Ease in Bubble Gum pink, and 4.5 mm needles. I started this two days ago, and finished today.
It will be a good chemo hat, the yarn doesn’t have a lot of springiness, but it is soft. I think I’m going to do another one a little smaller.
I finished this a few weeks ago, but keep forgetting to post!
Project Details
Pattern: Trillian, by Martina Behm, part of her Hitchhiker series
Yarn: Schaefer Anne, 560 yards
Needles: 3.25 mm
For: Me
Started/Finished: Started 9/15/17, finished 6/3/18
Modifications: none
What I Learned: These little shawls are like potato chips. They are fun to knit, and very versatile to wear. I’ll probably make this pattern again. It uses sock weight yarn, and God knows I have a lot of that.
We are back in our favorite place in Mexico again for a week. So far the weather has been perfect, and we’ve had a terrific relaxing time. I finished my latest socks this morning.
I’m not doing the whole “Finished Project” thing. It’s Opal yarn, the Ladybug color, from deep stash. Knit on size 2 mm needles, usual plain vanilla sock with ribbed cuff. I keep forgetting that Opal has very generous yardage, I could have knit the cuffs quite a bit longer.
Here are a few photos from our trip so far. We came this year with neighbors from home.
You can probably see why we keep coming back here!
I’m finally getting around to posting some “finished” photos of this one. It’s just been too warm to think of wrapping it around my neck even for a photo. We definitely are feeling the early fall weather around here though in the past few days.
Project Details
Pattern: 22 Little Clouds, by Martina Behm. This is the second one of these I’ve made. It is an easy pattern, and very versatile to wear. You also can use any amount of yarn that will give you a wearable size.
Yarn: Cashmere spun by a woman named Maliknoz, from Afghanistan. This was imported and sold by Peace Fleece.
Needles: Oh who knows. For the first time ever, I didn’t bother to write it down anywhere, and it’s already back in the needle case.
For: Me
Started/Finished: Started June 30th this year, finished August 25th
Modifications: none
What I Learned: Cashmere is a dangerous thing. This is divinely soft. I looked at a lot of different pattern options for this precious yarn, and decided simple was the best.
