Finished: Inspira Cowl

I finished my Inspira Cowl this week.  Monday night the knitting was completed and then on Thursday I weaved in the ends and gave it a light soak to soften it up a bit.

I really liked knitting this cowl.  It has great texture and I am pleased with how the two different Noro Kureyon colorways worked together.  I had plenty in my stash to use up and it worked with just the two colors — no need to use some Silk Garden to fill in as I had worried about before.

It’s so colorful and I love it.  I was reading comments on some of the project pages for this pattern and one person said it looked like clown collar and didn’t like it.  I get it, I do.  But it totally works for me.

Here is a very poor photograph of me wearing it to prove that it doesn’t look that weird on.

 

Knitting in Color

After I finished my Augustine Shawlette this week, I knew I had to knit with more color.  I love the results but if you look at my Ravelry project page, you can see knitting with a creamy white is not typical for me.

I looked at my knitting goals for the year and I probably could have made a commitment to finishing that Fishtail Lace Scarf because that has plenty of color. But instead, I did what every crazy knitter does and started a new project with even more color.  And it’s making me so happy.

I decided to cast on for an Inspira Cowl.

I cast on using some Noro Kureyon from my stash. I’m knitting the Mesa Rock version and cast on 180 stitches on US 10.5 needles.  I want it to be big and cozy and fit around my shoulders.  I suspect I might run out of the 154 colorway partially through but I have some bits of Silk Garden laying around that might look okay. Or I guess if I have to I’ll buy another skein of a similarly bright colorway of Kureyon because it doesn’t look like I’ll find any 154.  But I really want to avoid buying any because the point is to use up yarn.

I already love the way it looks.  It’s totally filling my need for color.

Finished: Augustine Shawlette

I finished the knitting portion of my Augustine Shawlette on Sunday and by Tuesday it was blocking and finally today I took some pictures.  I love the way this turned out.

When it came off of the needles, it was all curly and the dropped stitches were tight.

It blocked beautifully.

And here it is finished.  I ended up doing ten full repeats because I was worried that if I did an eleventh, I’d run out of yarn.  I was weighing it the entire time, but somehow, I wound up with a quarter of my skein left at the end!  I think that some of the yarn might have been a bit thinner in parts of the skein.  Could I be making that up?

I really loved this pattern.  I really love dropping stitches and seeing the results like this.  This yarn, Kraemer Yarns Sterling Silk & Silver, was nice to work with and I love the sparkly result.

WIP: Augustine Shawlette

It seems like I haven’t been knitting as much as I usually like to recently. But I’ve made a lot of progress on my Augustine Shawlette.

The other night I started the decrease section and dropped my first stitch!  This shawl is going to be fabulous.

It’s only going to go faster from here!

 

Knitted Reading Glasses Lanyard

On Friday afternoon, my parents arrived early so I took the afternoon off so we could walk around the People’s Choice Festival.

One of the things we tend to joke about when we’re walking around arts festivals is that we see something and say, “Oh, I could do that!” The reality is that while we could possibly do some of the things, we probably wouldn’t and that’s why we just buy stuff to support the artists.

But, one thing we saw was a lanyard type of thing to hold reading glasses that my mom thought would be perfect for work. It was made of some kind of novelty yarn and we thought it might have been crocheted. It wasn’t really her style or we would have bought that one. She wanted something more simple. Regardless, we were serious when we said that we really could make something like that and it turned out great.

Friday night we went through my leftover yarn and came up with a plan. We selected leftover yarn from my honey cowl. Here’s what you need to do what we did.

Yarn: Fleece Artist Blue Face Leicester DK (scrap amount)

Needle: 2 US 6 DPNs, F crochet hook

1 inch round, plastic stitch marker

Cast on 4 stitches to knit an i-cord. (I started it and my mom finished knitting it when it got to the length she desired, so that it would go to about the middle of her stomach.)

Once at the desired length, on next row: k1, k2tog, k1 (3 stitches remain)

Following row: k1, k2tog (2 stitches remain)

Last row: k2tog (1 stitch remains)

Slide that stitch off your needle and use it to begin a single crochet around the stitch marker so that it is tight and you can’t see any of the stitch marker. Use the crochet hook to secure the cast on end to the crocheted stitch marker and then weave in your ends.

It turned out great and took such a little bit of time. It was a great team effort.

Yarn from the Farmers’ Market

I believe it was Monday when I was telling Mike that I was in pretty good shape with yarn and wouldn’t need to buy anymore unless I was making a gift for someone.

Then on Tuesday we got to go to the Boalsburg Farmers’ Market. We normally miss this market since it’s from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM but we’re on vacation this week and had plenty of time that afternoon. We got a lot of great produce and while we were looking around, we noticed one of the vendors had yarn at his table among other great things. So I guess I lied because I needed this yarn.  I’ve not yet found any yarn made right where I live so it would have been wrong to bypass the table.

Tamarack Farm is located in Centre County and they raise Icelandic and Merino Sheep. The yarn I chose is a natural color, a rich chocolatey brown, in a sport weight.  I got a little over 400 yards because in the moment I couldn’t really choose and was trying to match it with a pattern.  But really, if I need more once I choose a pattern, I can get some since they are right here.

Finished: Super Simple Baby Tunic

It’s finished and I think it is so cute.  The Super Simple Baby Tunic that I’ve been working on here and there for a month or so got it’s buttons today and is ready for my friend who I will see tomorrow.

This is made from Plymouth Encore which I like for baby projects because it’s machine washable.  It also knits up nicely and makes a sturdy fabric.

How cute are these buttons?  I found them today at Joann Fabrics and I think they work perfectly for this little baby dress that can evolve into a little tunic as the child grows.

Can’t wait to see this on the new baby who arrives at the end of July.

 

A hat for a peanunt

My friend has a baby on the way and tomorrow I will be seeing her so I thought I would give a her a couple things that I made for the baby.  I just need buttons to finish the one item.  But this two night, quick baby hat is finished.

I mostly followed the pattern which is called Cozy Cap. I did the first increase row wrong because I wasn’t fully paying attention so I wound up with seven stitches on my needles at the end. I’d wanted to do the knotted i-cord on top but instead I did this i-cord decreasing until I had three stitches.  I wasn’t even sure if you could decrease while doing an i-cord, but I like the way it turned out.  It sort of reminds me of the Lullaby League hats in the Wizard of Oz.

The yarn is Louisa Harding Millais and it is so shiny and soft.  It will need hand washing but for such a tiny item for such a little head, I hope that isn’t too big of a deal.  Maybe by the time she grows out of it, it won’t even need to be washed that much.

New Malabrigo

Here’s how it happened.  Earlier this week I needed US 15 DPNs.  I thought maybe I could just go to Michael’s and pick them up. So I decided I should get US 13 DPNs at the same time.  And then I decided that I should just buy the needles for $5 in Paris also since I am going to knit that at some point.

Michael’s was a bust. They had nothing.  I was even considering just buying the Caron Simply Soft that this sweater calls for but their selection was pretty much gone. So I left defeated but I knew I wouldn’t have any free time to make it to my local yarn store to check out their needle selection. I actually started a different project because I had the stuff for it on hand and decided to just wait on the hat that called for the US 15 DPNs.

Then I decided to just order what I needed from WEBS. And since I was already paying for shipping and handling, I decided to treat myself to some yarn that I really didn’t need. And that’s how I wound up with two skeins of Malabrigo Finito.

I first noticed this yarn in my Facebook newsfeed when The Loopy Ewe got it in stock and I was intrigued by the description.

The luxurious Malabrigo Finito comes from the finest Uruguay wool available and only comes to market once a year in limited quantities.

And after knitting up some Malabrigo Chunky for my latest Dolores Park Cowl, I knew I had to take advantage of this once a year opportunity.

I love the feel of this yarn and the colorway I chose, Glitter, isn’t glittery at all but earthy and rich.  I wonder what this might become.

Finished: Another Dolores Park Cowl

I really enjoyed knitting my first Dolores Park Cowl.  But this time I loved it!

I made this one for my friend Abby and used the Malabrigo Chunky recommended in the pattern. I have a few skeins of Malabrigo in my stash but this is the first time I actually knit with it and it is so soft and easy to work with.  I’m so happy with the color I chose and it just knits up so nicely.

I love this cowl so much better than my first one. The pattern is great and I highly recommend it.