Finish Weekends!

I have been so busy with knitting for our monthly craft shows, gifts for other people or special orders and then a few MUST HAVE NOW items for me (currently a new bath mat and a cotton/linen top that I want to wear on my trip 4th of July weekend) that I have a ton of UFO's sitting around not being knit.  In the past, I've tried dedicating an hour or two on fridays to working on projects and I keep a pair of deep stash socks in my desk drawer to work on at lunch but the weather's been so nice lately that I've been walking at lunch instead of knitting most days and my fridays have been so busy that I haven't had time to do much knitting.  So last weekend I tried something different.  I carried a project around with me all weekend and knit whenever I could; in the car or when I had a free moment.  I didn't get a ton of knitting done, but here are the results:

I'm knitting the Onion Market Wrist Warmers.  I think the pattern is cute and will go well with my Cloudy Day Beret and Cladonia Shawlette that are made out of the same Mad Tosh Merino Light in Silver Fox that I overdyed more silvery (I'm starting to wonder if I bought magical yarn that never gets used up.) I decided I wanted to make them more like fingerless mitts and add a purled thumb gusset and I tried adding a bit of ribbing at the cuff.  I didn't like how the ribbing looked and the purled thumb gusset bugged me so I ripped it out and started over.  This time I left out the ribbing and I'm going to do another thumb gusst, but in st st instead and I'll increase every 4th row instead of every 3rd.  This is how much I had when I started:

And at the end so the weekend, this is what I had gotten done:

Not a TON, but I got through a full pattern repeat at least.  I put that aside for now because I won't be needing those for several months.  Instead, I want to focus this weekend on the socks that I keep wishing were done because I want to be wearing them!  I'm knitting Concentric in a 716Knit self-striping colourway called "Sire Whipped".  Jenna, the creator of 716Knit, is a local dyer and knitterly friend who makes awesome yarns in super bright colours.  And all her yarn names are hilarious quotes from Buffy.  What's not to love??  This is one of those projects where the yarn and pattern are working perfectly together and I WANT to be knitting them, but I put them aside to knit socks for my sister and then got busy with other things.  :(

So here is where I am this morning:

I know it looks weird, but it fits perfectly!

I marked my spot so I can see my progress.  Wish me knitting luck!! 

Long Tail vs. Knitted Cast On

I'm currently on the third sleeve of the cap sleeved t-shirt I'm knitting.  The third, of course, because I had to rip out the first one and reknit it.  Why? Because I realized after I finished it that I'd used a knitted cast on and since there's no ribbing at the beginning (it starts with 2 purl rows before going into stockinette), it had zero give.  It would be tight around my bicep and probably cut into my arm if I dared to move my arm at all (You know, because of my huge muscles.  Yeah.)  Grr!  I broke the cardinal rule of casting on. Which is, of course, to match the cast on to the project!  I started the second one with long-tail and am reknitting the first one the same way.  These sleeves have give, the cast on edge doesn't draw in AND, I know I'll get even a bit more room once I block.  Just what I wanted!

So, a refresher for anyone out there who is wondering about different cast ons:  The knitted cast on is a great all purpose cast on.  You can use it for just about anything.  BUT, if you want your cast on edge to be super stretchy, like for the edge of a hat or sock cuffs or, in my case, a ribless sleeve edge, you want to go with something more like the long tail. 

Now, there are tons more cast ons out there, and everyone has their favourite, but the key thing to remember is to take a moment to consider which one is best for your project. Pattern writers rarely recommend a cast on. They leave it up to you to figure out which one to use. And, trust me on this, there is nothing more frustrating than to get to the end of your project and realize it is all wrong because of how you started!

Knittinghelp.com was a fantastic resource for me in my earlier years of knitting, and I still go there first when I have a knitting related problem.  She has a long list of cast ons, descriptions of them and videos teaching you how to do them.  AND she records all her techniques in continental AND English.  (If only she also did them in mirror!) It's just one in a huge array of websites offering knitting help (you know, apart from Ravelry, which is the be all, end all of everything knitting), so if you have questions about cast ons, want to try a new one just for kicks or want to make sure you're picking the right one for your next project, I encourage you to do a bit or research.  Learn from my mistake!

May all your cast ons be the right ones,

SereKnitty

This is What 400 Hexipuffs Looks Like!

(Warning: If you don't have the hexipox, read with caution. It is VERY contagious!!)

My bedroom has terrible lighting, but you get the idea.  I'm very proud of myself as one of my goals this year is to knit a hexipuff a day and as of this picture taken last week, I'd knit 100!  I've knit at least 10 more since, so I'm well on my way to meeting my goal this year.  I love my Beekeeper's Quilt. It's fun to make, easy to do on the go since you're making small little hexipuffs to sew together later (I never leave the house without at least a small ball of yarn and 3 needles), and a great way to use up leftover bits of sock yarn.  Oh, and it's warm and cozy, too. My cat loves to sleep on it and the weight of all those little puffs is quite comforting on cold nights.  I can't wait to see how big it is at the end of the year! My end goal is to make it the size of the comforter under it.

Anybody else have the hexipox?  Are you sewing as you go like me and Lolo (she caught the pox from me-cough cough), or are you saving them up till you have them all made?  How many do you have?  I love seeing pictures of what other people are doing with theirs. 

Happy Knitting!

SereKnitty

Mending Monday

I had a hole in one of my very favourite pairs of socks.  They are Monkey by Cookie A.  which nearly all of us have knit at least once. I think I've made at least 3 pairs. But this pair is MINE. I knit them toe up in Koigu and I love love love them. I probably wear them at least once a week.  So, the hole was devastating!

I put them in a drawer and vowed to fix it and they've been sitting there for several months.  But I MISS them (and I'm low on laundry!) so it was time to mend. 
I keep small amounts of all my sock yarns for just such an occasion in a ziplock bag in my stash, so I dug that out and then picked up the stitches above and below the hole on two small needles. I think I used  my 000's.  Then I grafted them together just as if I was kitchenering a toe of a sock.  Then, I reinforced the areas around the hole with the ends.  I wove them through the rows following the stitches themselves in the places where the yarn looked a bit worn.  Then I weaved the ends inside the sock.  It took all of 5 minutes, and look!

You can barely tell there was ever a hole! Hopefully this will hold up for many more wears, but if it doesn't, I have plenty more scrap yarn for mending.  I'm just annoyed at myself for taking so long to fix it!!

Don't procrastinate like me!  Today's lesson: a fixed sock is a wearable sock!  :)

Happy Knitting!

SereKnitty

Cloudy Day and Alana Dakos Love

I finished my Cloudy Day Beret this week!

It was a lot of fun to do, and turned out oh, so pretty.

I did it in fingering weight instead of sport weight like the pattern calls for because I have a tiny head.  It worked out really well. I just added one pattern repeat before decreasing at the top and it worked fine. The ribbing was still a bit loose, but I added some elastic and it fits great.  This is what I always do for hats and it's working out pretty well for me.

I love Alana Dakos' patterns and have been a long time listener of her Never Not Knitting podcast.  I love the organic elements in her patterns. She often draws inspiration from nature and uses lots of leaves, vines and interesting cables.  And she picks such lush rich yarns to knit her patterns in!  This hat has a fun raindrop motif, each raindrop has a bobble in the middle to give it a fun 3D texture.  Lolo did her Autumn Vines Beret in a gorgeous rust colour (which I was totally going to post a picture of, but she doesn't have one up on Ravelry. Boo!) and one day I am definitely doing the Cedar Leaves Shawlette and the Shawl Collared Cowl.  I even have the yarn in my stash for the cowl, I just need to get around to it!! 

She has patterns for women and children, and if that wasn't enough, Alana has a new pattern book out: Botanical Knits!  There are so many patterns in here I'm excited about, I want to knit the whole book RIGHT NOW!  So, if anyone was looking for a gift idea for me, this book (and yarns to knit ALL the patterns!) would be a great idea.  :)

So, back to my beret!  I started with 2 skeins of MadTosh Sock in Silver Fox, which I overdyed to make more silvery. I knit my Cladonia Shawlette...

...that I adore beyond words and wear nearly every day.  There was a full skein plus leftover so I knit Cloudy Day and I still have 280 yards left!!!!  So, I decided to make a pair of fingerless gloves to go with so I'll be all matchy matchy with my silvery wintery accessories.  The pattern I'm going to try is the Onion Market Wrist Warmers.  I'm going to adapt them a bit, add a thumb and do a bit of ribbing top and bottom and make them shorter.  I'll probably STILL have yarn leftover when I'm done, but that's ok, it'll go to make hexipuffs.  Can't have too much hexipuff yarn!  (I had 379 hexipuffs as of last night!!)

Happy Knitting!

SereKnitty

Knitty Knutty Knotty

Have you ever gotten obsessed with a knitting project? I mean REALLY obsessed.  I mean, before you even start knitting you're thinking about how much you want to knit it and can't enjoy the other projects you're working on.  And when you finally do start it, it's all you want to do.  When you aren't knitting it, you wish you were.  When you are, you don't want to stop.  Not for anything: food, potty breaks, sleep, work.  You just want to keep knitting until you're done.  THAT obsessed.  Been there?

That's how I've been with the socks I'm working on.  The pattern is Knotty, a fun sock pattern that looks like a gnarled tree trunk.  The yarn is Noro Kureyon Sock which I just now learned is discontinued in the US, which makes me very sad. The pattern has been in my Ravelry queue for nearly 3 years, I bought the yarn over 2 years ago specifically for this pattern.  I thought the earthy greens and browns would fit the pattern nicely.  I decided that THIS year I was finally going to knit these socks.  I moved it to #1 in my queue. I told myself I could start it just as soon as I finished the hat I'm knitting for myself, but as the hat ended up needing another pattern repeat and I had to rip back, the need, the hunger to knit these socks grew.  Finally, I could take it no longer. 

On the 3rd I cast on.  I've been using the socks as a reward system:  Do a half hour on the elliptical, get to knit 2 rounds.  Post a new yarn on Etsy, get to knit 2 rounds.  That sort of thing.  It was working at first, but the problem I had was 2 fold:  First, the pattern has a lot of easy repeats that increase and decrease to make the knots in the leg.  It's hard not to keep going until you finish a repeat.  And then there's the yarn:  the wonderful lovely colour changes want you to keep going and going just to see what happens next.  I pretty much have stopped knitting anything else, except my daily hexipuffs and the Nutkin socks I keep at my desk at work to knit on my lunch breaks.  And for those of you who know me know that I'm a NOT a monogamous knitter.  I usually have at least 7 projects on the needles.  So the fact that this is the ONLY thing I've been knitting tells you that it's beyond obsession.  The worst bit is that, to get gauge, I am knitting them on 00's!!!  Have you ever knit socks on 00's?  Teeny tiny little needles I'm terrified of breaking!  It makes my hands hurt after a half an hour or so.  But, the obsession is so bad that I'll carry on, no matter how my hands cramp and ache.  And, all my hard work and late nights have paid off.  I've finished the first sock!

Isn't it fun?  I absolutely love it and I can't wait to start the next one and see how it turns out.  Do you like the nice soft filter on my pictures?  That's because I accidentally left my camera in my car overnight and the lens fogged up.  :)

Finishing the first sock has helped with the obsession.  It's more of a low boil than a raging fire.  I might try picking up my Cloudy Day beret that I am so close to finishing.  Or working on one of the 500 other projects in my oversized knitting bag.  Or maybe I'll just cast on the second sock...

SereKnitty

KnitCore at the Foundry!

We will be selling our hand-knit wares at The Foundry again this Saturday from 12-5!  We really enjoy this venue.  There are unique vendors, interesting demonstrations and yummy treats! Last month the Grilled Cheese Truck was there selling yummy sandwiches. 

We have been working hard knitting and dyeing for this coming weekend.  I'm excited to announce that I will be bringing lots of new yarns, some new colourways AND lace and worsted weights! I'm thrilled to be expanding my line of yarns beyond sock yarns and I've been having lots of fun with my dyeing pots.  Here are a few previews:

We hope you'll stop by and say hi.  This is a fun indoor event and a great way to support local artists and crafts people!  And did I mention the great food?  :)