January

It's almost the end of January, can you believe it? You know, January is usually a time for reflection throughout the blogosphere. For crafters they go over projects from the previous year and think about what they've learned, and in general there is reflection about the previous year and the events therein. Some big changes happened for me last year, the biggest that I moved to Arizona, half way across the country. I also lost my craft mojo for a while , but as I'm sure you noticed, it's been back for a while. I think it's just hard to knit when it's 110* outside.

And, lucky for you, that's about all I have for reflection. I'm more about the future, or at least living in the moment.

Now for the real reason that I started writing today, my January sweater. It is not, as the name may imply, finished, but I have gotten a big portion of it done. I'm very pleased with the progress, especially since it involved cabling pretty much every right side row. It's based on the September sweater tutorial [Ravel it!]. I've already made some big changes, but those are partially because of the significant size difference. The cable patterns that I'm using are different from the original sweater as well. The main cable (the encased cable) has a different number of knits/purls so that it flowed better with the 2x2 ribbing. I also used a braided cable pattern from The Complete Book of Traditional Aran Knitting by Shelagh Hollingworth. First printed in 1982 this version is probably from 1989. I picked it up for $6 at a Half Price Books. It has some great cable patterns in it as well as some great traditional aran sweaters.

I almost have the top half finished. =)

This is the Briar Rose yarn I got a Rhinebeck that was a different failed project a while back (almost a year ago exactly, huh). The color is really difficult to photograph, it always comes out too red. With a little tweaking I got this picture to be more or less the right color.

Also this month I finished a pair of worsted weight socks for my dad and I started Volna by Grumperina. I knew as soon as I saw the pattern I wanted to knit it, and when my dad came to town earlier this month giving us a reason to drive to San Diego (also to visit my Aunt & Uncle where I turned my Aunt into a budding knitter and yarn snob ;-] ) I needed a more portable project. I'm making it out of Noro Kirameki in, incidently, the same colorway as Grumperina, although I didn't do it on purpose per-se. It just happened to match the Noro slouchy hat that I made!

Anyhow, that's all for now, folks. =)

A Tale of Two (Slouchy) Hats

There once was a spinner who made some great yarn.

That spinner had a great boyfriend who really loved said yarn and told her "I want you to make me something out of this."

The spinner (also a knitter) said "Okay, what do you want?"

The boyfriend said "I don't know, a hat?"

The spinner said "But that will take a long time and I spent a lot of time making the yarn so there was a lot of yardage so I could make something interesting!"

The boyfriend said "Pleeeeease?"

And so the spinner agreed, although they didn't agree on a time frame or anything. So, in secret she knit (And knit and knit!). Keeping it a secret was no mean feat! For the boyfriend and the spinner dwell in the same place. And when she finished the requested object she almost burst at the seams, for this was exactly perfect. She wanted to give it to her boyfriend immediately, but soon the green eyed monster reared its head.

Alas, being one to keep her promises, she wrapped the hat and put it under their tiny Christmas tree to be opened on Christmas and received with much glee! On Christmas morning the boyfriend was glad to have the hat that he requested not so long ago.

 He smiled and thanked the spinner, and in return she said, "Finally! Now I can make one for myself!" And she did. And they both were really happy. The end.

Pattern Specs:
Yarn: Hat 1- Handspun BFL Hat 2-Noro Silk Garden Sock (Seen also here)
Needles: Sizes 3 & 4 (Size 3 for the ribbing)
Pattern: Felicity by Wanett Clyde [Rav only], the sock yarn version [Rav only] Mods by Bluebutton
Mods: I knit about 2" of ribbing instead of a rolled brim. I used larger needles than the sock yarn version. I started the increases sooner, and I increased less with more rows inbetween the increases. 1st increase: *k12, m1*, to the last one which was *k18, m1*. I knit 4 or 5 rows inbetween increases. I also knit straight for a few rows before the decreases which I started out with at *k8, k2tog*.
Thoughts: I really like the end results! If I were to make another hat, I think I would start the increases sooner, as now it kind of just folds in the back instead of slouching. I would also do more rows inbetween the increases to make up for the length. I would maybe also try some less slouchy decreases, just for fun.

Can you believe it's less than a week to Christmas?

It's so crazy to think that Christmas is 6 days away. Tomorrow I'll be mailing out several Christmas gifts, although not all of them. Luckily my dad is coming out in January and we'll be exchanging gifts then. This week I'll be working (in secret) on BF's gifts and afterwards on my dad's.

Last weekend the BF and I drove up to South Mountain in part for a photo shoot and I got some great shots of my FOs. I'll start out with one that's long overdue, my Whisper Cardigan finished back in... October! Talk about lag.

 

Specs:
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace in "Oceanos" generously gifted by Sara
Needles: Sizes 4, 6, and 7
Pattern: Whisper [Ravel it!] by Hannah Fettig
Mods: I used a smaller needle on the arms & body. I also knit the sleeves shorter and added ribbing to them to eliminate curling. I put ribbing along the bottom but not quite enough. I have enough yarn, I probably just should have continued knitting until I ran out but I was ready to be done!
Thoughts: Easy pattern, interesting construction.

As you can see in the last photo there I was also modeling the scarf I made for my aunt. The last time you saw it it looked like this...

 

However I wasn't overly fond of that patterns and I really feel that there shouldn't be a "wrong side" to scarves since you're going to be seeing both sides, so I ripped it out and started Reversible Lace Ladders (Which I knit once before, also as a gift! Last time it was a worsted weight yarn, though). It's a remarkably quick and easy knit, perfect for a gift. And it wasn't too much of a struggle to knit it long enough, which is saying something because I have knitting ADD. This time I added fringe for extra length!

 

Specs:
Yarn: Cascade Yarns Heritage Solids (fingering weight)
Needles: Size 5
Pattern: Reversible Lace Ladders [Ravel it!] by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer
Mods: I added fringe, but that's it!
Thoughts: As I said earlier it's easy and quite quick to knit. Even with the fringe I didn't use an entire skein of yarn and this scarf is as tall as I am (5' 7" w/o the fringe). Highly recommended!

I have some more FOs to show you. One is even a sewing FO! Hopefully I can talk about ti sooner rather than later, but my internet connection continues to be spotty. I'm actually kind of amazed that it's stayed connected while I've been writing this.

Until next time!

New Endeavors...

Shalom!

It's been snowing like crazy here and we've gotten at least 10" in the past day or so. Soooo the BF and I took a snow day today. It's irresponsible and I'll be getting an occurrence at job #2 but it feels so right! ;-) I'm getting pretty burnt out on the 2 job thing and I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be doing it.

Anywho, I took advantage of the both of us being together in the daylight and had the BF take some FO pictures of my Shalom! Complete with Buttons!

Specs:
Yarn: Cascade Ecological Wool
Needles: US Size 10
Pattern: Shalom Cardigan [Ravel it!] by Meghan McFarlane
Mods: Lots...

• Different Gauge so I had to account for that. I cast on 97 sts for the neckline and I changed the increases to: 1st round of increases [kfb, k1, kfb] all the way around on the WS. 2nd round of increases [kfb, k2] all the way around on the WS. 3rd round of increades [kfb, k6] all the way around. If they didn't line up exactly so the ribbing ended on a ktbl I used a m1 at the end of the round.
• I also ended up thinking that the neck line was too big/it felt like it was sliding off my shoulders so I crocheted a chain around the neckline for some added stability.
  
• After the last tier of the yoke I knit 3 rows of garter and then 3 rows of stockinette before splitting for the sleeves. Sleeves go as follows: 42 sts on each front and 40 sts on waste yarn for the sleeves. I cast on 10 sts after putting the 40 sleeve stitches on waste yarn for the under arms.*
• I did short row shaping for the bust.**
• I added button holes on every 14th garter ridge. (I would put them closer together it I knit this again.)
• For the long sleeves I did 14 rows of twisted rib for the cuffs and then bound off knit wise to give it a ridge similar to the yoke.
• I slipped the stitches on the garter button band as follows: slip the last st of the row p wise with yarn in front. Knit this stitch on the next row.
  

Thoughts: Lovely pattern, ingenious really. I would definitely recommend it!

Things I would do differently if I knit it again:
1) I would cast on fewer stitches, which would mean I would need more increases so for the 3rd tier I would probably do [kfb, k5] all the way around.
2) Knit 2 more rows of garter stitch at the neckline (I only did 6 before the 1st increase)
3) For the ribbing on the sleeves I would purl one round, knit one round before the ribbing and then maybe knit one round, purl one round, and bind off to make it match the yoke a more.
4) Make the button bands maybe 1 stitch bigger so the button holes would have 3 stitches to the end of the row instead of 2.

*When I went to knit the sleeves I picked up a total of 14 stitches for the underarms. 2 before the 10 cast on stitches and 2 after.
**For the Short row shaping I did the same shaping on both of the fronts:
1) Knit 40 sts, wrap and turn
2) All even rows purl to last 6 sts, knit 5 sts, bring yarn to the front, slip last st
3) Knit 38 sts, wrap and turn
5) Knit 36 sts, wrap and turn
7) Knit to button band, picking up wrapped stitches

For the left front you have to wrap on the purl side. You pick up these wraps and then ptbl to get rid of the holes.

Waiting Game

It snowed about a foot on Friday. It didn't stop snowing until Saturday around noon. It almost hurts to look outside because everything is white. That in mind, it's the perfect weather for sitting and knitting. =) I finished my Shalom sweater yesterday. Now I'm just waiting for the buttons to arrive so I can attach them and wear it.

I decided the neck line is a bit too wide. When I tried it on it felt like it was going to slide off my shoulders a little. I'm going to see how it wears with buttons. If it's not much better I'm going to crochet around the neckline (like this) for some added stability.

Also on my last post I talked about working on a design idea for the Ravelympics. HOWEVER! My friend is getting married on the 26th and I need a shawl to wear. Does that seem like more of a challenge? Of course it does. I'm thinking I'm going to know the smallest size of the Aeolian Shawl in fingering weight yarn without the beads (Beads are annoying and time consuming.) I figure if I knit the smallest size it will give me a good chance of being done in time (I'll actually need to be finished on the 25th, not the 28th so it will be blocked and ready to go on Friday night) and the fingering weight (Probably on size 3 needles) will give me a decent sized shawl and not just a shawlette.

I have a black dress picked out with some blue accents, so I'm thinking I need some blue yarn! Of course nothing I have in the stash will fit my needs so unfortunately (HA!) I'll need to buy something to suit my purposes!

To the Finish Line!

I've been diligently working on my Shalom Cardigan. This morning I finished the first sleeve and I am currently ready to pick up stitches for the second. It is nearly impossible to get a good shot of this thing indoors, and it's cold outside so I wasn't exactly in the mood for an outside photo shoot...

In any case I will definitely be finished with it this weekend! I'm so excited! I love it already. I purchased some hand made wooden buttons on Etsy yesterday for the sweater. I think this will be my new favorite clothing item. =D


In other knitting related news, the Winter Knitting Olympics are coming up! I sort of decided to do this again. I participated in the Ravelympics last summer (I think it was last summer, anyway). This time I'm going to do something a little bit more challenging! I have a design in the works with the blue Malabrigo that I purchased from Eat.Sleep.Knit. I'll be attempting to finish that during the Winter Olympics. It actually shouldn't be too hard to finish in the time allotted, but that's only assuming I don't have to rip anything out!

New Year

Okay so how bad is it that I'm almost breaking one of my resolutions already? I resolved to post at least once a week this year. Since the 1st was on a Friday I'm counting this as the first post in the first week.

I've been very absent in my online life lately. I really just blame it on one thing... I bought The Sims 3 the day after Christmas. I. Am. Addicted. It's a great knitting game, as long as you're not doing anything too complicated. I've knit 2 wash cloths (in a great bright blue for the BF they were supposed to be for Christmas, but we won't talk about that) and most of a mitten so far.

I seriously considered doing a Sims 3 blog, but I think that's just way too much work. There's all the screen captures, uploading and editing the photos, so The Sims are just for me, and I'm okay with that. =)

The mittens I'm knitting are Snap Dragon Flip Tops by (who else) Ysolda. It's a really great pattern, and I've actually probably knit the cuff at least 2.5 times by now because A) The yarn I used originally, I think I'm allergic to. That made me really sad because it's from the Hope Spinnery, which uses natural dyes and wind energy to spin the yarn. That was the yarn I chose exclusively for the mitten/hat set. B) I kept not paying attention the charts and having to tink back. Usually I can just get the jist of a chart and be on my way, but the cable charts don't go exactly how you'd think so I kept making little mistakes.

The yarn I'm using now is from a local Alpaca farm named Buckeye Alpaca and it's soft and lovely. The mittens are going to be super warm and I'm pretty happy with them. There's only one problem. The color. It's a natural brown color and it's lovely. However, I fell in love with the eye popping orangey yellow of Ysolda's originals. I'm actually considering making another pair with the exact yarn that she used... There's just something about the color of it that I absolutely love.

Anywho, one of my Christmas presents was a new camera (Yay!). It's a Nikon (YAY!). It's not like an SLR or anything but it has 12 megapixel resolution, where my other camera only has 7. So you can look forward (hopefully) to some new and improved photos!

One Month (and 2 days)

That's how long it's been since my last post! Holy geeze! It's not like I haven't been doing anything. I've started a couple of new projects. One of which is a scarf of my own design that I may actually write a pattern for. (I also worked on a pattern for the felted bag I tried, but more on that later) I have all of these design ideas flying around in my head but I don't actually get a lot of time to work them out with the sticks and string. That will probably change here in a couple of days, though when the holiday season is over.

Yeah, remember all of my "I started early and I'm finishing everything, I'm so relaxed..." blah blah blah last month? Well I was all of that. Until I decided (like last year) that I needed to make a bunch more Christmas presents last minute (Ala Yarn Harlot). *sigh*

I don't know what was up with the lack of blogging. I think I just don't really like to blog unless I have a picture or two for you all and so I kept putting it off and putting it off... although I was on a roll there for a while with all of those posts every 2 days.

Ah well, I just wanted to let you all know I'm still alive. ;-)

I really would like to blog regularly. Maybe I'll make it my New Year's resolution...

Garter Stitch Handspun Mitts

So here's FO #1. I knit these up in about a day for my boyfriend's birthday.

Stats:
Yarn: Cosy Spins 2-ply falkland wool about 1/2 of the skein
Pattern: There wasn't actually a pattern, so I'll just give you some notes:
I provisionally cast on 24 sts with size 10 needles and knit until the rectangle fit around my hand. I also put in 2 sets of short rows for hand shaping. After I finished, I grafted the cast on edge and the live stitches, switched to a sewn bindoff for the thumb hole, and grafted the top of the mitt. Et voila, handspun mitts.

You know I love him because I gave a present made out of my only handspun! Luckily I think there's enough for a hat for me.

Another FO soon! I took some shots yesterday but they were pretty washed out so I'm going to try and get a couple that capture the color better.

Fresh Start

So, here I am. It's the first day of me being completely moved out of my apartment that I lived in for 2 years. My BF says he won't miss it, but I will. I liked our little apartment. I liked being on my own, most of the time. Well I wasn't completely alone, was I? The BF was there.

Moving out sucked. We packed most of the apartment in one night. We also had to do the dished that night. I went a little nuts while it was happening. Last week I was here at my mom's 2 days in a row, painting the room we're in now. It looks really nice. Two of the walls are an off white, and the other two are a lovely shade of green, like sage without the gray. Saturday my mom and brother helped us move the majority of stuff out of the apartment. It's amazing how much stuff one can accumulate. Monday and Tuesday were spent packing the rest of the stuff and cleaning. Oh, and painting some more.

Lesson: Never paint an apartment. Even if you're going to live there for 2 years.

Sunday, you ask? I graduated. Yep. College graduate here, writing this. Writing a blog. I don't have any career type jobs line up right now. I start another part time job curtosy of one of my good friends on Monday. For now I get to enjoy being done for a while. I opted to go to graduation for a couple of reasons, because it would be a small graduation ceremony comparatively speaking (there were 8000 at Spring graduation) so it didn't take as long, I didn't turn in the form 2 weeks ahead of time saying I wanted my diploma mailed to me, and because, well, why not? It was a memory making moment. I enjoyed it for the most part. The ceremony was 2.5 hours long, just as they said it would be. So, finally, 2 hours into the ceremony it's time for me to walk across the stage (they don't call your name you just get to walk). I approach the place where they're handing out diplomas. Tell them my name. And...

It's not there.

Nope.

Not.

Long story short they had marked it to be mailed (remember how I said I didn't turn that paper in?) and it was in a different building. So after graduation (where I didn't get the thing I went for) I drove to another building and tried to be nice to the very nice people who did give me my diploma.

Today was supposed to be my "do nothing" day. I was going to relax, watch a movie, knit, swim in the pool, and generally be lazy. I did all of those things, however I also spent 2-3 hours driving around town. Why, you ask? My step brother rolled his car. He was going too fast on a back road and hit the loose gravel on the side trying to avoid the oncoming cars, over corrected, and rolled twice. He's fine, and I'm pretty sure the car is still drivable. I had to go out to pick him up with my step father and then we drove to the insurance agent and then to 2 rental places, neither of which had cars. I am very glad that he didn't get hurt.

So all in all you can see I've had a pretty busy week or two. I'm glad that it's over. My new life is starting. It should be interesting. And though I've been busy, I have not been too busy to knit...

Vine Yoke Cardigan (Ravel it!)

FOs coming up soon...

Checking In

So I mentioned photo updates, didn't I? I've been a neglectful blogger as of late, posting sparsely. But at least I've had some interesting photos, right? Right? Right. Haha.

Anyway, as far as TdF goes, I've been spinning every day, but not posting pictures to show my progress as much as I should. I spun up a silk sample from Zebisis Designs that I just love. I got it in my Phat Fiber sample box in march. It's gawgus.

I chain plied it!! I was so excited to find out you can do that on a spindle! Go me! =D

I've also been wrestling WIPs, but not as much as I've been spinning. I got through most of the foot on my 2nd Leyburn sock yesterday.


Okay now that I've proven that I've been working on the competitions I want to share with you that I started an amigurumi project. It's actually really easy and I did most of it in one sitting, but it's not finished and I have no idea when it might be. It's a little snow dragon (Ravlink). So cute.


In other news, I was looking through some cardigan patterns since I have 2 sweaters worth of yarn (Cascade Ecological wool and Malabrigo). It was sparked by the fall Knit Simple that I was browsing at work. I liked several cardigans in it and since I'm on a yarn diet until Rhinebeck (Which is going well- I haven't bought any yarn, well, except for a swap but that doesn't count!) I was trying to decide if my yarn would work with it.

Then I was thinking aobut what I really wanted to make with the yarn as I've had several different ideas (If you've been reading for a while then you know that I am a fickle, fickle knitter). The Cascade was originally for the Windowpane Coat, but that was frogged. Then I knit a sleeve of the OWLS sweater (cardigan version for me!) and decided against that. For the Malabrigo I was thinking of maybe that Cabely sweater from Vogue, or something else heavily cabled and came up with Mariah unofficially but now I'm rethinking that again.

The cardigans I really liked in the Knit Simple are the 2nd and 3rd in the 9 to 5 category on the website (There's no Rav links for these yet...!!). I was like Hey, I could make the 3rd sweater out of the Cascade, or better yet the Mal! Or wait, the 2nd would look awesome in the Malabrigo. But Malabrigo pills.. Hmmm...

Anyhow after much searching I am still largely undecided, so I was hoping that you, my dear readers, would have a bit of input. Here are some of the sweaters that I've been contemplating. So for the input, lets make this interesting. How about a contest? I'm going to post my choices and I'd like your opinion on which ones I should go for and what yarn. You can give a thorough reason or just state your choices, whatever I'll be glad of the input. =)

Factors:
Malabrigo Worsted 8-10 skeins "Simply Taupe"


Cascade Ecological Wool 3 skeins (~1300 yds) "8087"



Sweaters/My Combos:

1) Shalom(Ravlink)/Ecowool- I'd put long sleeves on it



2) Oblique(Ravlink)/Ecowool



2) Urban Aran Cardigan(Ravlink)/Either

3)Brompton(Ravlink)/Ecowool

4)Mariah(Ravlink)/Malabrigo

5 & 6) The Knit Simple Sweaters(2nd and 3rd)/Either yarn:

Okay.. that's a lot of sweaters. And yes I know some of them will involve math because of the yarn differences, but I'm okay with that.

The prize! I don't know what it is yet. It's going to involve yummy yarn, though. That I'm sure of. =)

You have until Saturday July 18th to leave a comment and be entered!

Grab some coffee

Because this is going to be a big one! First of all, I just returned from my vacation yesterday. It was amazing, I had a great time. I really loved getting to spend quality time with my family, especially since I don't see them nearly as often as I'd like. There were quite a few bonding moments. For example the Pub Crawl in Key West. Haha. Yes, a Pub Crawl. I went with my BF and my Step brother.

Did I survive? Yes and no. The actual crawl was pretty tame, we went to 5 bars in 2.5 hours and had a smallish cocktail at each. Feeling a little jipped and not nearly as drunk as we'd like to be, we headed to a little cowboy bar that had 2 for $5 margaritas and $1 beers. Here I proceeded to imbibe 2 more beers, and well, I was feeling mighty fine on my way back to the boat. We all were. Then we had lunch with the fam where the BF, step brother, and I all had another beer. I also had a huge plate of fries and chicken fingers. Afterward I went back to the cabin and slept for about 3 hours.

Upon waking up, I payed homage to the porcelain goddess. Several times. I was sick all night and throwing up bile, which is something that I've not experienced before. It was not a good night.

Usually I know my limits quite well and I stop before I get there. Unfortunately I did not on that particular day. I'm thinking there were several attributing factors to the entire night of sickness.
1) It was hot and I was sweating and so the alcohol was only contributing to dehydration.
2) I had a big plate of greasy food.
3) Instead of having a big glass of water with lunch I had another beer.

The last one was the biggest mistake, I think. I didn't drink much the rest of the trip, as you can well imagine. ;-)

The other shore excursions went much better. The 3rd day of the cruise we were at Grand Cayman. We did some snorkeling around the barrier reef. It was really amazing. The water is amazingly clear and we saw lots of fish and other sea life. I, for example saw Rainbow Parrot Fish, Blue Parrot Fish, Needle Fish, Brain Coral, Yellow Tube Sponge, Lettuce Coral (I think), Common Sea Fan, Blue Tang (I saw a school of these guys), Beaugregory (I think, it was yellow on the bottom and blue on top), Bluestriped Grunt, Yellowhead Wrasse, etc etc. I saw a couple of Sting Rays at the reef before we even got to "Sting Ray City" (Really just a spot in the ocean not like a sectioned off area, the sting rays are wild), where we got to touch the Rays! They feel like wet mushrooms. It was way cool. There was an enormous ray who bumped into people (Making them scream, which was quite funny. They're very tame, so there's no real dangers unless you go flailing around and impale yourself on the stingy spike on their tail.).


Going from left to right, top row first: 1) A needle fish I saw from the boat, 2) Frisbee the sting ray with no tail 3) A crew member smooching a ray 4) Sally, the GIANT and OLD ray

When we went to the “Sting Ray City” the crew had some food for the sting rays and they came right over. For hundreds of years the fishermen at Grand Cayman would fish on the deep side of the reef and then come back to the safety of the sound to clean the fish. They would dump the entrails and other unwanted bits over the side. The rays eventually learned to associate the sound of a boat anchoring with free food and come racing over.

The next day we went to Jamaica, which was beautiful. Our excursion was climbing Dunn River Falls followed by a beach party with all you can eat/drink food and drink (included in the excursion price). The drinks were Red Stripe, Rum Punch, and Mojitos (Made with pineapple, which I thought were interesting). The food included sweet fry bread, potato wedges, Jamaican rice, jerk chicken, sausage in a yummy bbq sauce, and pasta. It was all very good. We had a good time climbing the falls, even though you are constantly harangued by people trying to sell trinkets. I couldn’t walk 5 feet on the beach without being accosted. As annoying as that is, it only speaks to the poverty level there that the citizens have to make a living that way. But they are quite insistent, and sometimes even quite rude.

The BF and I actually took a lovely picture at the beach party:

And Finally I'll show you a picture of our cruise ship, the Freedom.

Lovely time, I'd recommend taking a cruise to anyone. It's pretty economical, as the food is included (I ate like 4 meals a day, and gained probably about 5 pounds- the food was great), and there's plenty of entertainment on the ship. However, if you're not a people person, this may not be for you as you are on an enclosed space with about 35oo guests and a large staff.

And now for the knitting portion of this entry! I've joined two contests on Ravelry. The first of which is WIPs Wrestling. I'm on the Completely Pointless and Arbitrary Team: Team Team. The purpose of this is to finish as many WIPs as you can in the month of July. My estimate is fairly modest, I'm going to try and finish my Leyburns and also the Parker Cardigan. I hadn't worked on it at all since the last time I showed it to you. I took it with me on the cruise and worked on it a bit. I'm now up to the arm hole shaping on the back piece. I think the other pieces should be a breeze in comparison.

The other contest I entered is the Tour de Fleece. This started yesterday, and spinners everywhere are spinning while the Tour de France is going, which especially difficult challenges on the days were the riders are doing the most difficult stages of the race, the mountains. My goal is simply to spin every day, since I've been neglecting my spinning for a while. I might try and spin a whole batt in one day, maybe. We'll see how that goes.

I believe this post has gone on long enough, so I'll get going and hopefully I'll have some photo updates on the contests soon!

Under the Tree Mitts

Today, dear readers, I will embark on a mission... Okay, not really. I'm flying to Florida today and tomorrow I'm boarding a cruise ship! So exciting!! =D

Okay, now for the knitting. First of all, I just want to say that I LOVE THESE MITTS!! They are quite possibly one of my all time favorite FOs. I don't know what it is exactly, the gray Malabrigo, the cute owl cable, or that they fit perfectly, or something else. I just love them (lets just say to the point where my boyfriend thinks I'm a little obsessed). Too bad it's too warm out to wear them! Oh well, I guess I'll just be prepared when the cold weather rolls around!

The first time I tried to knit these I used the suggested size 6 needles. However since I have wide man-hands, this didn't work out overly well and I ended up ripping and starting on a size 7. Ahh, much better. since my hands are so wide I ended up doing a round of increases after the ribbing as well. I increased 4 because I figured that would be enough so that the ribbing at the top wouldn't be a problem. However I forgot about the column of knit stitches going up the sides of the hand which put the second column at a purl part of the ribbing, interrupting it. It ended up being not so bad, so I didn't do anything tricksy to fix it.

I ripped back quite a few times on these mitts. Just a couple rows at a time, for the increases and I did the cabling wrong once or twice. Mainly just on the first mitt. I did the second mitt (mostly) from memory, using the first one as a guide.

Under the Tree Mitts:


Specs:
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted, "Frost Gray"
Pattern: Under the Tree by Erqsome
Mods:

• I used a size 7 needle
• I did 4 pfb on the second purl round after the ribbing
• I used reverse stockinette on the palm instead of regular
• I tweaked the tree branch cabling different to make up for the extra stitches I added
• I used 2 x 2 ribbing on the thumb
• I used a sewn bind off

Thoughts: It's a really adorable pattern and I am in love with it! It's super easy and it was a quick knit. I started 6/19 and finished 6/22. Lovely. =)

Ishbel Revisited

As I noted in my previous post, I finished my second Ishbel with time to spare. It's a really graet pattern, and when you're not doing the shawl version it doesn't take much time to knit at all.

Unlike my first Ishbel, this one ended up a fairly large size. I used Colinette Jitterbug, which I wasn't completely sure about once I started. The color is absolutely gorgeous, I really love it. However, the yarn is super springy and very dense at 320 yds in 100 g (Normal sock yarn has 400+ yards in 100 g). Using a springy yarn like that, the lace doesn't open as fully as with other yarns. To correct this I ended up blocking the scarf within an inch of its life, using all 64 of my rust proof t-pins. It ended up being a shawlette size, when I was done and so far it's stayed about that size.

It's only outing was to see Ysolda, its designer. It's going to have to be put away for the summer, though. It's way too warm for it. I was thinking about taking it on the cruise with me (Squee!! I leave on Saturday!!) but I'm not sure that I have anything to wear it with.

In the past week I've completed 2 more projects. Just small ones, the sooper seekrit one that I can't reveal right now and also the Under the Tree Mitts (Ravlink) by fellow Raveller and CPaAGer Erqsome, but those are for another post (FYI I'm in love with them).

Ishbel Revisited:



Stats:
Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug, "Salty Dog"
Pattern: Ishbel by Ysolda Teagues
Mods: None, actually
Thoughts: I love this pattern, the lace is really adorable and it's a fast knit. I'd recommend it to anyone. I've heard a few say that the lace isn't easy, but I disagree. The decreases all line up so it's easy to see if you've made a mistake and you're following 8 row charts, with 4 of them being return rows (all purl). It's quick and easy. I love it!