Vested
A few days before Christmas, I finished the main knitting of the big gray blob. It was so big I had to be very careful when picking it up and carrying it, lest it get stretched out. For extra peace of mind, I waited to take a pre-felting picture until I had basted together most of the openings. The picture isn’t the greatest, but should give an idea of just how big this thing was! more »
Somewhat Plain
Whee! These are the last pair of socks I needed to finish for holiday knitting. The original plan was to incorporate the leftovers from the other Italian series with this last colorway. That didn’t work out because I used up all of the yarn with the Broadripple and Yarrow socks. Nevertheless, these turned out well with the backup coordinating yarn (Patons Kroy in Newport Tan).
Broadripple
Broadripples were all the craze two or three years ago. I have so many sock patterns I would like to knit that I either forget what’s available, or have a hard time choosing. Ravelry helped me remember the Broadripple pattern, which has been sitting at number two in my queue since I signed up. Hooray!
Very Warm Hat
Here’s a Finished Object that I’m very late blogging. It’s also my very first EZ project. FuzzyBritches’ Warm Up the Winter gave me the perfect opportunity to knit a Very Warm Hat, which I’ve wanted to knit for quite a while now.
The yarn was left over from the Triple Patterned hat you’ve already seen. more »
Triple-patterned
As I finished up the baby items back in September, I was really craving stimulation; I wanted to knit something a bit complicated, something that required a lot of attention. I knew stranded colorwork was exactly what I needed.
This is only my second stranded project (and fourth where I’ve used my left hand). It was a perfect opportunity for me to practice knitting with both hands. I’m sure you will be able to pick out a few problem areas in the pictures, but overall, I’m happy with the hat. (I’m not happy with how my left hand tensions yarn, however.)
I had the most trouble with the bullseye pattern and tinked quite a few times. I thought I was vigilant enough to have avoided any mistakes, but nope! I found two mistakes in the color patterning after washing and blocking the hat, rats! While knitting, I often paused to admire the floats, they’re such fun!
I love the cuff, but honestly, it seems too big and obscures much of the bullseye underneath. On the other hand, the cuff adds an extra layer for warmth. I’d recommend skipping the colorwork on the cuff, knitting a few rows of plain stockinette (or perhaps just a small motif), and then incorporating another twined herringbone to balance with the one at the cuff top. The twined herringbone is a really nice detail and reminds me of the vikkel braid used in Estonian folk knitting.
This hat is huge–I knit the largest size (22″ circumference), but it blocked out a bit bigger than that. I’ll be sending it to FuzzyBritches for her Warm up the Winter campaign.
Gauging Felt
Before I began work on the two big gifts due later this year, I realized I needed to knit and then full at least one swatch. Normally I don’t worry about gauge and size for felted items since the fulling process controls the end result. These two gifts I’m making are a bit more complicated than a simple bag, slipper, or hat. They need to fit reasonably well, and it would be awful if I went through all the knitting and oh-so-permanent felting to end up with too-small garments.
The designer of the pattern I’m using, Bev Galeskas (of Fiber Trends fame) gives two gauges, one pre- and one post-felting. My first swatch with the recommended needles (US 10 or 6 mm) was way too small for the pre-felting gauge. So, I swatched again, and then a third time and finally achieved gauge with US 11 (8 mm) needles. (Why doesn’t the US include 7 and 7.5 mm in the standard sizes?)
You can see how different the swatch sizes are; the gray was my original, too-small swatch, and the green one is much better. After centering the swatch, I marked off both pre- and post-felting stitch and row counts. It’s only necessary to mark the post-felting gauge, but I did both for my peace of mind. Also, cotton (or another non-felting) yarn must be used as markers.
Another reason I wanted to test swatch is that this project has an edging that is knit-on after felting. I read through the directions and had a vague sense of how it worked. I thought about trying applied i-cord or an edging similar to what is used in the pattern to see how it would felt. In the end, I decided not to do this because I liked the subtly different textures of the felted and un-felted fabrics in the pattern photographs. more »
Still cursed, but…
Quick question! Is anyone doing a Stash Flash on April 1 again this year?
I’m still battling the sock curse. Meanwhile, I’ve got an almost FO and a FO to show you all!!
Socknitting Curse
Quick reminder! Just a few hours left to leave a comment for a chance to win some lovely Socks That Rock. Oh, and I want to clarify something—it’s my first blogiversary. I used this domain for something else during the first 3-4 years. : )
I started new Project Spectrum socks with the Fortissima I bought earlier this year. I love the striping and colors. The gray, white and blues are very ‘wintery.’
Secret Gift Revealed
I finally got a picture of the completed project, so now I can post about it.
First, here’s a another peek that I meant to share before I got bogged down with the holiday knitting rush.
