Quick Beanie Break

I decided to take a break from another project so that I could make a hat for Mike.  I was beginning to worry that by the time I finally had time to make a hat to match his fingerless mitts that it’d be too warm.

Also I knew that knitting up a hat in the middle of the other projects that are on my needles would be quick and satisfying. I chose the Regular Guy Beanie because I knew I needed something simple for the yarn.

It turned out great.

I cast on 8 extra stitches because after reading some notes on Ravelry.  Knowing what I do now, I’d probably do 12 although it fits Mike perfectly.  It would have made the decreases make more sense even though I think it turned out good.

I’m pretty pleased with this project.  It only took a couple nights and Mike already wore it today.

 

Lehigh Valley Yarn Stores

This past week I was traveling around the Lehigh Valley area in Pennsylvania and got to visit two different yarn stores.

First I went to The Knitter’s Edge in Bethlehem.

This was a really big store and it was so crowded with people knitting together and buying yarn and other supplies. The selection was amazing and I can see why it was so busy.  The staff was also very helpful.  I was excited to find they were having a sale on Noro and bought myself some Taiyo Sock and Kureyon.

My next visit was to the shop at the Kraemer Yarns factory in Nazareth.

I’ve bought and used Kraemer yarns for other projects and knew it was made in this town in Pennsylvania and on a whim I googled to see if they had a store since I was going to be there.  Their store isn’t huge but it is packed with their yarns.  I ended up getting some of their Perfection Worsted with the plan to crochet it into a granny square blanket.

Update on two finished projects

I recently finished two projects that I’ve not yet posted pictures of here.

The first was a Sunday Market Shawl for the Secret Santa with my Bring Your Own Craft friends.

This pattern is awesome and I will probably use it again and again.  You get so much bang for your buck and it’s quick.  One skein of worsted weight Araucania Nature Wool and two weeks later it was done.  And it might have gone even faster if during those two weeks we weren’t traveling for Thanksgiving and our trip to Charleston and Savannah.  I just can’t say enough about this pattern.

The second finished project is my Lady Godiva Cowl made from yarn I got in Charleston. The pictures aren’t great but it is a nice, festive looking cowl.

By the way, I am never buying novelty yarn ever again.  Or at least not for a very long time.

Yarn from Charleston and Savannah

On our trip a couple weeks ago, I made sure that there were some local yarn store visits as a part of our plans.

In Charleston, we stopped at Knit. While I shopped around, Mike sat down and spent some time with the Schnauzers that were in the store.

They had a huge selection of yarns and everything was organized by weight.  Usually I try to buy something local to commemorate the visit but they didn’t have that much in the store while we were there. I looked at some of the store samples and decided to buy something completely out of the ordinary for me.

Alp Exquisite is a novelty yarn made with 30% cotton, 30% polyamid, 14% merino, 10% cashmere, 6% baby alpaca, and 5% kid mohair.

The pattern that came with the yarn is for a cowl that changes stitches every time the yarn changes.  I thought this would be pretty to wear for Christmas and decided to get it.  Knitting with it is kind of weird.  I’m not so sure I’ll be getting any more yarn like this any time soon, but I am loving the results.  If today goes as planned, I should have it finished tonight.

In Savannah we went to The Frayed Knot.

This store was much smaller than the one in Charleston but I loved it.  The people working inside were really friendly and pointed us to yarns from The Copper Corgi Fiber Studio made in Savannah.  Mike selected this colorway of a worsted weight yarn called Bloody ‘ell and has requested fingerless gloves.

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.

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.

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.