Off the Needles – Friday, July 27, 2015

Yes – finally something off the needles to add to my finishes.  Just a little bit ago I bound off the picot edge and cut the yarn tails.  It’s my Therapy shawl I made for summer shawl KAL at Laura’s Workshop on Ravelry.  You had your choice of several of her shawl patterns to make for the KAL.  This one is really easy and great tv watching/bus riding knitting.  I wanted to use up most of my yarns I was using so made it a good bit bigger than the pattern called for. It’s way too humid (and actually raining off an on between bouts of sunshine which just make it feel more humid) to block it now so it will wait until the weather changes but that will open up the mesh knit areas more.

The blue yarn is Malabrigo Finito (so soft!) and the color is 196 Mares.  The other two colors are Tosh Sock in Steam Age (which is a multicolor) and Sugar Plum.  You can see the colors on my Ravelry Page here.   I looked back and the Tosh Sock colors I bought back in April of 2012 so they have finally made it out of the stash pile.

I’ve updated the yarn stash page and I’ve knit so far just slightly more than half of what I’ve purchased (it was my Loopy Legend color that really skewed my numbers) 🙂 Now I need to get back to the four? (I think) sweaters that are in various stages on the needles.  Some are really close to completion.  I need to pull them all out and see where I am at on each of them.

Check out what’s on everyone else’s needles over at Judy’s Patchwork Times.

On the Needles – June 19, 2015

First and most importantly – happy birthday DAD!  and happy birthday to my friend Jennifer! – both of their birthdays are today.

As to what’s on the needles… here’s the progress on my Therapy shawl – a Laura Aylor design.  She’s doing a summer shawl KAL through the end of July and you can choose one of a list of several of her shawl patterns to make.

  My first color – the sort of mauvey pink  – is also contained in my variegated so in some places the little stripes sort of blend.  I really like the section of mesh after the first stripes.  There’s more mesh coming up after I complete the solid section of the second color I’m working on right now.  It has little picots at the outside edge of the shawl but they are sort of hard to see right now and should show up more after block.  It’s one of those good “tv watching” (or bus riding) patterns since you can easily memorize each section.  There’s a darker blue that eventually gets added in at the other end of the shawl — and all of the yarn came out of the stash.

I’ve been knitting on this taking a bit of a break from my red sweater but that is still progressing too.  I’ve gotten past the bind of for the front scoop neckline and am working on the  shoulder sections so should be able to finish off the right side of it tonight and cast on  the left front — or maybe a sleeve first to break up the monotony of one sleeve right after the other.

My fabrics arrived earlier this week for  my July project for Camp Loopy Fabric Safari and I’m really excited to get to that project but will try to patiently wait – or not so patiently wait……

The pastel fabrics on the left are a little washed out from the flash – the top two have light pinks, blues and yellows in them – lighter shades of those colors in the fabric with the black cross hatches on it at the top of the right stack.  That one at the top of the right stack (top in the photo but bottom layer of that stack) is my absolutely favorite. It has all kinds of great colors in it.

And the special treat in the BOF, the goodie for finishing Freshman Year of Loopy Academy — an Academy book bag knitting project bag.  The bag’s look is like old comfy jeans – double stitched  seams and frayed edges.  I really like the way they attached the handles with hook hardware and grommets  — I may have to try that on a bag myself.

Check out what everyone else has on their needles at the Patchworktimes.com

On the Needles – Friday – June 12

Yep – it’s the sweater that refuses to be photographed as it’s true color! 🙂      I’ve gotten this far on one of the fronts.  I’m not sure if I’ll add any of the lace that is on the back yoke onto the front.  If I do it would  be in sort of the front yoke area but I think it would drive me crazy trying to do the neck and armhole shaping and still maintain the lace pattern.

I am thinking I might need a project other than sweaters to work on — okay  — or maybe I saw a project I just love and realize I have yarn in the stash that just might be perfect for it — yep – actually in the stash.  And it might make a great gift for someone so those are all my excuses for needing to cast on a new project even tho I have several sweaters in various stages of “not done-ness”. 😉

I really like the combination of mohair and other yarn in  Non Troppo  and while I have several colors of mohair I don’t think I have enough of any of them but I might be able to combine two of them – need to think on that one.  I also love the simplicity of A New Slant  and also Laura Aylor’s Therapy.  I think Therapy will win because I believe I actually know what storage container the yarn is in that I would want to use for that.  And since I need to wind more yarn for my red sweater tonight – why not wind a bit more while I’ at it.

I am hoping to get at least one sweater blocked this weekend so I can start the seaming on it and get it finished off.  That is if I don’t just twiddle the day away like today.

Although I haven’t gotten yet to the machine quilting I planned to do today, I did look at a bunch of patterns on Ravelry, check out the various TLE ravelry forums to see what is being planned for the next Camp Loopy project.  Although I am not doing the knitting Camp, I do check out the photos in those groups from time to time – it’s a great way to see patterns I may not have found on my own.

My fabric Camp Loopy package is off in the mail to me today and will include the “reward” for finish Freshman Year of Loopy Academy.  I won’t say what it is yet  – I’ve seen it in a spoilers thread – but will post a photo when it arrives.

Well since it’s been rainy all day and I never did make it out to the grocery store – I think I’ll give up on that plan for today and let my friendly pizza guy bring me dinner.    Enough rambling – time to order dinner.

 

 

 

On the Needles

First – on the needles – I’m still working on my Customfit Cardipalooza sweater.  The back and now

finally the fronts are done but they don’t look like a whole lot tossed on the floor there but I cast on one of the sleeves yesterday so am working on that.  I won’t get finished by the end of the Cardipalooza but that’s just because I have way too many things going at once. 🙂

The last two nights, rather than my usual knitting, I’ve been hand appliquing on baby Onesie quilt blocks.  I used to hand applique so much and haven’t done much of it in quite a while and my fingers/wrists are now rebelling.  But look at this cute fabric I found in the stash — it looks like a hand knit Onesie. I just love it.

I’ve decided not to do knitting Camp Loopy this year – I want to finish this sweater and several other sweaters on the needles so rather than knitting Camp, I’ll just  be going on a Fabric Safari but that’s another blog post…..

 

On the Needles Report and Saturday plans

 My CF Cardipalooza sweater is moving along.   Back is done, right front is done, and as you can see the left front is on the needles.   I’m a little concerned I may run out of yarn — but then with every sweater I’m always a bit concerned with that and so far I’ve always had extra.  So we’ll see what  happens.  This one if I remember right had 3/4 sleeves so they won’t use up as much yarn as the sleeves of my prior sweaters have so I think I’ll be all right because I don’t like playing a game of yarn chicken to find out that I lose. 🙂

 

It’s a windy, cold, dreary day (much like yesterday except it’s not raining yet) so I think a good day to spending the sewing room.

  I want to get the rest of these Tiny Dancer block sections made out of the jelly roll I’m using, and then I’ll decide if it needs to be any bigger.  I may have a few fabrics in the stash that would go well with these.  I really like that these are made has half hexagon blocks and then you simply sew the rows.  The half hexies along the outside (at top and bottom in this photo) will be replaced with something from the stash so I an put those blocks together with their made to make full hexies out of them.

These are the strips I pulled out of the jelly roll that I don’t plan to use in these blocks — except I may try the red and blue diagonal striped one to see if it stands out enough against my background fabric.  The other prints are too large for this project and the one smallest print would fade into my background fabric.  The large stripe/border fabric type strips remind me of kitchen curtains. 🙂

They’ll be put to use on the backing or in some other project since I still have these  left over — After cutting out the pieces for one block, these sections are left (they are folded in half so twice as long).  So I’ll mix the larger prints back in with these for a second project.

After I finish those few hexies I already have cut tho, I need to get back to work on this

Yes – this wedding quilt needs to be finished!!!  If I remember right I have the most putzy part done – quilting 1/4″ I from all the block framing strips – lots of stopping and starting.  So the rest should move along a little more quickly (I hope)

On the Needles – Friday, April 17, 2015

I’ve made great progress this week.  Last week I had just cast on one of the fronts of my CF Cardipalooza KAL project and I’m about halfway through the armhole on it.   It’s sideways in this photo – the lace section runs along the button band.

And this week there just might have been some yarn that came to my house.  There was a post about some yarn and it was knit in to some gorgeous socks.  But I’ve been wanting to pull out my loom and start something on it and when I saw the yarn – well it was meant to be.

 My photo does not do this yarn justice at all.  You can see it knit up into socks at the top of Sheri’s post here.   I can’t wait to see how it looks woven into a scarf.

Now here’s the really important question — if I’m trying to “knit the stash” does it count if I buy yarn specifically to weave????   I knew you’d agree with me that it didn’t!! 😉

Okay – I’ll add it into the “stash added” numbers but hopefully I’ll get it on the loom this week so it will soon appear in the “stash used” column.

 

Don’t forget those of you who are doing the PatchKats BOM.  April’s installment will go up tomorrow so that means the March installment will no longer be available.  Be sure to get it before it is gone.

And even more snow, which led to extra knitting time……

After having to trudge to work without my boots after the 7″ snowfall (which really wasn’t bad because sidewalks were fairly clear around the apartment – someone had been through about mid storm – and I knew the sidewalks around the Capitol would at least have a clear path if not be mostly clear), that day was  not bad compared to the following day.   This time – yes I had my boots – and although we only got maybe 4 inches (I never really pay attention to how much snow we’re getting unless it’s approaching 10 or 12″ and my buses may get pulled off the roads temporarily – which does not happen often), this storm was worse in my opinion since it started at noon and didn’t stop snowing until the time I got off the bus at home that night.  The annoying part was my 40 minute bus ride turned into and hour and a half.   But, on the up side, I got a whole lot of knitting done waiting to get home!

 So – as for my On The Needles report for this week:

Last week the right front of my Deep Winter CF KAL sweater, Stonington,  looked similar to this – however, the right front is finished (thanks to that long bus ride) and this is the left front now.  I’m just about to the last shaping decrease.  Hopefully by the end of the week I’ll have this done and be working on sleeves.

Last week’s photo showed my Luau vest.  I have now finished the other front piece so that is awaiting blocking and then I can do the neckband and armhole trim.  I plan to get that on the blocking boards today.

MY CF Featherweight hasn’t made any progress since last week – it still needs one armhole/side seam seamed before I move on to the next trim.  I may tackle all those stitches later today.  That one is so close to finished, even if it does have a really wide next trim to add.

My yarn arrived the beginning of he week for my first Loopy Academy project of  Semester Two.   I was going to tackle the  “felted project” assignment first.  My original plan – a felted bowl.  But then I came across this pattern:

Hobbit Shoes!  I love them.  I had looked at lots of felted slippers but they came up low on your foot, maybe mid ankle.  Those to me would slide off too easily.  If I put my feet up on the footstool, I don’t want my slippers sliding off my feet.  These look like they will stay put a bit better and keep my ankles warm.  So I got started on them and have half the first slipper done when I realized, just because I was going to make mine all one yarn and not two toned like the photo, doesn’t mean I don’t need the additional yardage from the other color.  Not sure where my brain was when I was thinking about this.  So today the mailman should be coming to my door with a Box of Fun containing the additional yarn I need.  I need to rip back part of this one I was working on.  The upper (cuffed) part of mine will be this multicolor yarn and the main foot will be a goldy, greenish color hopefully similar to the gold/green in the multicolor.  The multicolor was on Last Call sale so there weren’t any colors of the same yarn left that would match to use with this one so I ordered some Cascade for the foot.  Hopefully they will felt at about the same rate.  Time will tell.  A quick knit on those size 11 needles tho with yarn held doubled.

Today – much cleaning needs to be done.  Laundry is already in the works. I’m trying to avoid having to run to the grocery store – maybe if it gets a bit warmer later. Just not feeling like waiting for a bus in the cold today.  But that ruins my plan for meatloaf and baked potato tonight (favorite cold day comfort food) since I just checked and  at some point I used the last of the oatmeal. Dagnabbit!  Can’t make the meatloaf without it.  Dang – if only the cook would make a list of those things when she used the last of them! 🙂  Actually, I know myself well, even if I made a list, I would still walk out without picking it up.  And oatmeal is one of those things that lasts a long time in my cupboard since I only use it for  baking  (cookies, bread, etc) or in my meatloaf – I can’t eat it as breakfast cereal – so I don’t need to buy it often.

Speaking of breakfast – I need some! Then on to the cleaning (or…. just a thought… brave the cold and go to the grocery store to put the cleaning off a bit longer…..hmmmmmmmm…..)

Anyway – check out all the other On (or off) the Needles reports at Judy’s        and oh yes, I need to add this yarn to my stash report but I’m going to wait until the rest of it arrives today.

On the Needles – 1-9-15

 Well it’s a very bad photo but this color does not want to photo graph well today.   Here’s the actual color of this yarn – a pretty dark purple

But, it’s the back of my Deep Winter KAL Sweater – a CF Stonington.  It’s progressing nicely – much quicker than my fingering weight featherweight sweater but I still work on a few rows of the sleeves for that sweater then go back to this one.  Pretty good progress for five days of knitting around work.

I had ordered some buttons for this sweater but in my hopping back and forth looking at various buttons, I messed up and ordered the wrong size buttons (but aren’t these “winter tree” buttons cute).  But they are very pretty buttons and will go on a different sweater.  So I ordered different buttons from the same Etsy store and now have these lovely pinecone buttons, which will be so perfect for this sweater style.    If you’re looking for buttons – I highly recommend that Etsy shop — excellent customer service and wonderful buttons.  In both orders I received a free button of another style – when I got the trees,  I had also been contemplating the pinecones and that happened to be the button Mr. Gilmore included free — which clinched the deal that I needed to order those for this sweater.  When I got the pine cones, I got another wonderful button – Three Daffodils – so pretty – I will be needing more of those in the future.  So I’ve found my new button source for my hand knits – I’m a very happy customer.

On the Needles – Friday, December 19, 2014

Let’s start with what’s off the needles

The shawl collared cowl is done and I just finished sewing the buttons on tonight.  Now you may think the choice of buttons a bit odd – no I didn’t run out of the dark green buttons but the center one is a special one I’ve been saving for something — a great find in Granny’s button box — and the recipient will know why I added it to this cowl for her.  Besides – buttons don’t really have to match in my world. 😉

I’m still knitting knitting knitting along on my Featherweight cardigan.  I’ve got one sleeve about half done again- yes again, I wasn’t paying attention and grabbed the wrong pattern page and was half way done with a sleeve and realized it was not the sleeve to that sweater. LOL So ripped it back, restarted and am on the right track now.

And, because knitting on fingerweight yarn is so slow, I decided I needed to plan my next project – which will be in a heavier weight yarn – so I started swatching.

 I love this yarn – just wish I had a bit more of it so it may be tricky trying to figure out what to make once I get my finished swatch.  This one is a bit “tight” – I’m doing a second one and went up a needle size or maybe two and I think I’m liking that one better than this.  But it will be a CustomFit pattern so I can put in yardage and change things about to see how much long sleeves will take versus 3/4, etc. to see if I can come up with a design that will work with the yardage I have.

The flash is making the colors pop a bit brighter than they are in real life. It will be interesting to see how this yarn looks knit up into longer rows than the swatch contains.

On the Needles – Friday 12/12/14

  I’m still knitting along on the Wiggle Wrap.  Last time I showed it I think I was at the red/orange (before the dark purple/black) on the right hand side.  That’s how far the first balls of Kauni took me.  I’ve added on the next ones and knit about 6 or 8 inches so far this week.

The Shawl Collared Cowl – which I showed earlier this week

will get blocked this weekend and I’ll hunt through the button bin.  It’s a gift for a friend and should be snuggly warm.

 

But check out these cool bowls I found tonight.  I had to buy them!

Love the knit/cable designs on them and the bright red insides.  The larger one is the perfect size to hold a large half grapefruit so I think that will be my grapefruit eating bowl. 🙂  They are just to fun.

 

Unlike friend Judy who was very good not buying yarn this week….yep, I’ll have a couple packages arriving.  The Wollmeise I ordered a couple days ago should arrive Monday.  Plus, I was looking at the projects I want to make in the not too distant future and one of them is Spring Kerchief which is made with two colors of lace weight yarn. I happened to find a lovely combination in the Last Call section of discounted yarns at TLE so those will be arriving as well next week.

This weekend may see the new Christmas tree removed from its box and set up and maybe even decorated but I really need to spend some quality time in my sewing room getting the borders on the wedding quilt so I can start quilting on it.

And the big news here today – an early baby arrival this a.m.  I’m now officially a “Great Aunt” to a new little girl.  Which also means there’s a baby quilt that needs to be quilted too. 🙂