Category: Knitting

TGIF

Wednesday is really my “Friday” since I started working part time. I do still enjoy Fridays though. I can sleep in, I’ve gotten most of the to-do things off my list on Thursday, and best of all, I have my weekly Friday knitting group.

I realized as I started writing today that I’ve not posted about many things that have happened over the past few months. My life is sort of an open book on Facebook, so if you follow me there, this will mostly be old news.

First off, we lost our kitty Zoe earlier this spring. She just disappeared one day and never came back. I suspect one of the eagles got her, or perhaps the occasional coyote that is seen around here.

Ripley started getting mopey and clingy after Zoe was gone, so we ended up adopting this little boy.

His name is Arlo, and he’s probably about 8-9 months old. After a few days of hissing the two cats are getting along just fine.

They both are going to be indoor cats, if I have anything to say about it. There is less decimation of the bird and bunny population that way, and the cats have a better life span. Our departed kitty Will announced his intent to be an outside cat early on, and tore holes in all our screen doors to prove it, and Zoe just followed in his footsteps. Ripley has been out, so knows the way to get back in if she escapes, but doesn’t really show any interest in being outside except on our enclosed decks. So far Arlo hasn’t made any escape attempts.

The other big event of the past several months is that I joined the Episcopal Church (and left the Catholic Church). There were a lot of reasons behind this decision, but I’ve really found my spiritual home. I was received into the church at Pentecost, along with several other adults, and a baby and older child who were baptized at the service.

I found some knitters among the congregation, and we started a Friday knitting group!

We celebrated July 4th holiday with family and friends.

No, it wasn’t all that cold. My California relatives just aren’t used to 70 degree temps in July.

I got a great sticky note from one of my clinic nurses last week. I didn’t think I’d done anything all that awesome, but she evidently thought so. It made me smile, and I saved it on my bulletin board.

On the knitting front, John’s sock (first of the pair) is almost done.

Last but not least, I started yet another knitting project, because, why not? It’s a Patty Lyons summer sweater KAL, and I love the pattern. The first clue just dropped this week, so it’s not too late to join.

I just got my yarn in the mail yesterday, so haven’t cast on yet. I haven’t washed that swatch yet, but the prewash measurement matches the pattern gauge perfectly.

I have a few more of those to-dos to get off my list today, then I get to knit with friends and go out for pizza with the neighbors this evening. Happy Friday to all of you!

493

That’s how many stitches I have on the needles for this shawl right now. I have about 100 rows left. Every other row increases this by 4 more stitches. The ending stitch count is 693 stitches to bind off.

Here’s the stitch pattern for the current chart.

This is going to be gorgeous once it is done, and don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying every stitch of it, but OMG this is taking forever.

And yes, I’m almost out of the first hank of yarn, I do have the second hank wound and at the ready.

Balvraid Hap

There is a finished shawl at Chez Knitting Doctor!

Project Details:

Pattern: Balvraid Hap

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.

Finally!

Or,

Go Green Bay Packers Socks for Sissie!

I finally finished these last night.

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).

Progress!

I’ve been knitting this shawl forever. It starts out with a big garter stitch triangle, then you pick up stitches on two sides and knit a wide lace border. I finally finished that part this morning.

The last section is a knitted-on lace edging, which is knit perpendicular to the shawl body, knitting the last stitch of every other row together with a shawl border stitch to attach it. It’s easier to do than to describe it.

Here’s another photo.

This yarn is so squishy soft that I want to keep knitting it forever. It’s from Blacker Yarns.

I might have a few more colors of this in the stash. It also comes in a DK weight, I’d love a sweater out of this.

In other shopping news, I’ve been coveting this bag forever. I finally broke down and bought it. It amuses me that it’s the same color as my Subaru. Army Blanket Green!

It’s Not My Fault

I’ve generally tried to keep the knitting projects down to three or four things. Usually it’s a sock, a sweater, a lace thing, and maybe a simple accessory item.

As of this morning, I had a sock, a sweater, 4 lace things, and 2 accessory items.

I bought a bunch of yarn a couple of weeks ago. I took photos of it today and got it entered into my Ravelry database. When I was closing the lid on the storage box, one skein hopped right out, rolled over to the yarn winder, then jumped onto the needles. So now I have TWO socks in progress.

IMG_7036 IMG_7032

The yarn is Signature 4 ply self striping, from West Yorkshire Spinners. It’s a BFL/wool/nylon blend that will make fine socks. The color is Owl.

John took one look at that and claimed it. Here’s where I got it, in case you need more sock yarn.

New Project Tuesday!

It was actually New Project Thursday, but I’m way behind.

I have three “regular” sized lacy-lace shawls on the needles, and then that Balvraid Hap thing that is heavier weight, with a big garter stitch center and a bit of lace at the edges. The last thing I needed was another lace project.

Meet Miss Ivory:

I found this on the Knitting In The Loft Ravelry group. They have an annual year long lace project designed by one of the moderators. This one is a sampler scarf that features complex Japanese lace stitch patterns. I couldn’t resist, so went digging in the stash. I found a number of things* that would work just fine, but settled on this yarn.

It is an undyed Bluefaced Leicester/silk blend, fingering weight. I actually bought this to do some plant dyeing, but I like it as it is in the natural color. The yarn base is called Ivoire, from Acme Fibres.

The next chart gets more complicated. The lace is patterned on both sides, and includes a bunch of twisted and cabled stitches that should make me pay attention. This is definitely not cocktail hour knitting.**

I took updated photos of all the projects that are in the (mostly) current rotation. Next time I’ll do a WIP Update post.

*Who am I kidding? I had easily dozens of yarn choices that would work for this. I have more yarn than some yarn shops.

**Someone remind me of this down the road when I get cocky. I am putting lifelines in this one after each pattern section.

RIP

No, nobody died. I am knitting away on the big garter triangle section of my Balvraid Hap.

About two inches back, I noticed a couple of wacky yarn loops, but chose to ignore the better angel on my shoulder. The evil guy on the other shoulder kept saying “oh that will block out”.

This is one of those shawls that increases with every row. I am was almost at the top, and noticed that I missed a yarn over at the beginning of a row two rows back. That had to be fixed, so I finally decided to take it back and get rid of the ugly stitches.

There they are. One of them is actually a tiny knot where one or more of the plies were knotted. The other one is just a weird unspun bit.

So I’ll get it back on the needle and forge ahead. I’m certain that this would have annoyed me forever, so a couple hours of extra knitting is just fine.

By the way, this yarn is just divine. It’s Blacker Yarn Swan 4 ply. I want a whole bathtub of this stuff to wallow around in. You can buy merino wool a lot cheaper, but not as nice as this. If they have any left, go buy some. (I might have cleaned them out.)

New Sweater Friday

I needed another knitting project. I finished my Rogue sweater almost three months ago. I’ve been dithering around, trying to find the perfect yarn/pattern match since then.

Here were my criteria for the perfect Next Sweater. It needed to be stash yarn. I have sweater quantities of yarn for over 20 sweaters. I’m not buying more until I use some of that.

I want a cardigan, shawl collar sweater. It needs to be knit in pieces and seamed, just my personal preference.

After a lot of research, I settled on this yarn.

This is actually from deep stash. We took a trip to Orcas Island in 2005, and I bought this from a farm we found there. It’s a gorgeous natural brown wool alpaca blend. It’s been patiently waiting in the stash for just the right moment.

Here’s the pattern.

Isn’t that lovely?

Here’s the pattern link, it’s Shinsetsu.

And here’s my start.

The pattern uses a new-to-me cast on, a ribbed cable cast on. It’s like a regular cable cast on, except you do every other stitch knit or purl. It makes a nice firm lower edge that works well with knit one/purl one ribbing.

In other news, it’s our anniversary today. John and I were married 24 years ago today. Here we are in a recent photo from our Italy trip.

134 Rows

That’s how many rows I have left to finish this shawl. Of course I currently have 425 stitches on the needles, and that increases to 693 by the end of the shawl.

I have 2 balls of this yarn, about 1700 yards total. The shawl takes about 1600 yards. Plenty, right?

I went looking for the second hank of this just now. It doesn’t appear to be in any of the usual hiding places.

I can see a house tear-apart in my future. This is not helping the migraine that I woke up with today.

Half a pair

I don’t normally have two pairs of socks going at once, but when we left on vacation, the sock that I was working on was on expensive sterling silver needles. I didn’t want to risk losing them to the TSA, so I started this pair on cheap Brittany birch needles. I finished the first of the pair today (during a particularly unsatisfying Seahawks loss). The yarn is Paintbox Sock yarn, which I won from Kim earlier this year in the Knitters’ Hunk contest. This is fairly inexpensive sock yarn, but very nice. I think it will make workhorse socks that wear well, but are soft and comfortable. I’m finding that some of the ridiculously expensive merino sock yarn doesn’t wear so well for socks. This is 25% nylon, which in my sock-knitting experience lasts forever. This isn’t as tightly spun as Opal sock yarn, which is my all-time favorite for long wear, but still should hold up well. I’ll report back in a year or so.

John saw this yarn and immediately claimed it as good “guy sock” yarn. It’s been a bit since I finished a pair for him, so he gets these.