The pattern is the usual cobbled together one in my head. The yarn is Ty-Dye sock yarn from Knit One Crochet Too. Knit on double point needles, 2.00 mm. I started these back in October, before I got the bright idea to get a puppy. Here’s the puppy!
He is growing up fast! John and I both are having a blast watching him grow up. He’s right in the middle of the terrible twos, but is cute enough that we forget the willfulness, and laugh a LOT. That’s it for now. I’m off to pick up more dog poop, and to referee the impending Hank/Arlo wrestling match.
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.
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.
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.
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! 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.
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.
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.
I am actually going to finish this* one of these days. Ravelry says I started this in 2018. Of course, I haven’t been working on it all that time. Even I’m not THAT slow. I have about 50 rows left, then a single crochet edge along the long sides, then blocking. It’s not really a complex lace pattern, but does require that I pay attention to the chart, so it isn’t TV knitting.
Here’s another photo. It’s a bit hard to get a good picture of unblocked lace, especially red unblocked lace. Most of the photos I’ve taken inside suggest that it’s tomato-red, when it is really a deep ruby-red color.
I’m off to knit a few more of those 50 rows. I’m ready to finish this thing and wear it.
Oof. Again. I keep waiting to post until I have time to catch up, but I never seem to make that time. So I’m just going to start where I am.
Two new projects, both “knit-alongs”. the first is Casapinka’s Sharon Air shawl, which started a week ago. Here is where I am.
I’m a few rows into Clue 2. The yarn is from stash*, Plucky Knitter’s Lodge fingering, which is a wool/linen blend. I’m not sure what I was thinking** when I bought four skeins of this in different colors, since one skein isn’t enough to make much of anything that I’d ordinarily knit. It will work perfectly for this though. Here’s a closer view of the stitch patterns.
As usual with a Casapinka pattern, there is lots of fun and goofiness that accompanies the knit-along.
The next is a sweater.
I know, it doesn’t look like much. The pattern is Vanilla Sweater; it’s a top down raglan, knit with Rauma Finullgarn at a relatively loose gauge. Here’s a photo from the pattern.
So far I really like how the Rauma knits up. I think this will be a terrific between-seasons layering piece.
That’s all for now. I have lots more going on, but I’ll save it for next time.
*Because I have SO MUCH STASH yarn.
**Thinking? There is no thinking when it comes to yarn-buying at Chez Knitting Doctor.
Our excursion Sunday was to a nearby village that was the site of a small knitting factory that opened in the 19th century. The factory unfortunately closed in 1989, but it has been converted into a museum, keeping most of the old spinning and knitting machinery in working order. The original factory primarily made machine-knit (and hand-finished) clothing, especially woolen long underwear.
That is just some of the old equipment on display.
That is a bin of single ply thread ready to be made into either cloth for garments, or finished yarn for knitting.
The museum shop was lovely, with a nice collection of knit items, books, and other souvenirs. You know I was there for the yarn, right?
Some of that did come home with me.
That little guy didn’t end up in my shopping bag, though he sure is cute.
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!
And that’s likely all we will see of Norway for the next five days.
John had a scratchy throat yesterday so we retested. He popped up positive. I didn’t, but have the same symptoms this morning. We are waiting on PCR confirmation, but we’re in quarantine. Neither of us feels very sick, which is good. The ship staff couldn’t be any better. We are able to order food from the main dining room menus, as well as from the specialty restaurants. They are crediting us for any shore excursions that we will miss.
And of course, I have enough knitting and reading material so I can’t possibly run out of things to do.
Speaking of knitting, I did manage to find some yarn. This was from Orkney island, the guide on the tour we took was a knitter and gave me directions to a little shop selling yarn.
Who knows what that all will be, but it is awfully pretty.
We are having a blast so far. Our wifi is a bit spotty, so this will be short. We have a tour this afternoon of Orkney Island. I hear there may be wool shopping opportunities there.
The project up there is a simple garter shawl; no pattern, just garter stitch with increases to make a triangle shawl. I’ll change colors when each yarn runs out. The wool is Icelandic light fingering, dyed with various plants. As we’ll end our trip with a few days in Iceland, I thought it was appropriate.
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.
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.
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.
