I knit a bowtie for my favorite little old man.
It was a half day project, and a ton of fun. And he seemed to like it well enough. But not as well as he likes his booties.
Month: February 2014
Not that new
I’ve been working on an open knit laceweight cowl of a textured variety for quite some time now. I just devote time to it when I get the opportunity. It is for a friend of mine and she picked out the colors and textures. The yarns are sweet georgia cashsilk and shibui silk cloud. It is pretty much the softest thing I’ve ever knit.
The colors are pretty fabulous as well! I am just going to keep knitting on it as long as I can to make it quite wide. It is also nice and long. Should be a great wardrobe addition once it is complete.
Still Working
I may have been an absentee blogger lately but it hasn’t been for a lack of content. I’ve been knitting up a storm. And when not knitting, I’ve been doing a bit more weaving. It’s been lovely. I did take some pictures the other day, so now that I’ve got a free moment, I can show them off. One at a time though!
I’ve been working on a citron shawl for myself. My plan is to make this bigger, so though I am currently at the point where I would be putting the ruffle on it and calling it done, instead I am doing the math for additional sections. The yarn I picked up at our local yarn shop during their sale. I just really loved the colors and I can honestly say I don’t love them less now that it is knit, even though it may be a bit heavier on the yellow than I expected.
Pixie Hats for ALL!
Yeah I knit some adult size pixie hats because I couldn’t stand how cute they were. I used a handspun single paired with a coordinating handspun 2 ply. I’d purchased the fiber to go together originally, but then I’d just spun them separately. This was a great chance to put them back together. I got two hats out of them and then the ear warmer I posted yesterday.
And, I also took a better snapshot of the ear warmer since yesterday’s photo was pretty, but didn’t really show off the knit.
Warm Ears
I’ve been working on some bulky handspun knits. I did two hats which I will show off later, but are still drying. I then had some leftover yarn, so I knit an ear warmer. I will need to get better pictures, as the sun interfered with this one, but you can get the idea.
At least the sun is shining and the weather warm!
This and That
I’ve been spinning up small batts I’d purchased awhile back from dyeabolical yarns. They’ve been a fun little thing to work on since they don’t take terribly long to finish. A bit like spinning candy.
I don’t know the yardages on these, but they are all two ply. I’ve got some thinner stuff spun but it needs to be plied. Then I suppose I’ll need to get back to spinning some larger projects!
More handspun neck gaiters
Because the last two clearly were not enough, I decided to knit two more. These are just the most lovely things. Handspun is 2 ply, the wool from enchanted knoll farms.
I rather quickly gave away the last two, so at least one of these is going to be mine. All mine.
The month of waiting
This February is the month of waiting. The month of waiting for babies. I have a nephew expected at some point this month and a long awaited and much longed for baby happening in the life of a dear friend. Of course, baby hats must be knit. I picked the Pixie Baby hat pattern as it was simple, used precisely the amount of yarn I wanted to use, and was just about as cute as could be. I actually knit two of these.
They are both exactly the same, I used the same yarn for both of them. One went to the local recipient yesterday and the other I’ll mail out sometime this week. And then we shall continue to wait.
Bozeman
I agreed to do a couple knit pieces in return for some baby sitting recently. One of the yarns picked out for a cowl was mountain colors bozeman. I’ve never worked with it before, but it is thick and thin, super bulky, and dyed in the most amazing colors.
I settled on a brioche stitch because I figured it would show off the thick and thin nature of the yarn best. I think it worked pretty well. The cowl itself is rather bulky but it is so warm and beautiful!
I’d have to give this yarn a 2 thumbs up. I really love it!
Gaiters
I had this lovely 3 ply yarn from dyeabolical’s golden afternoon colorway. I wanted to do something with it because it is just about the nicest yarn I’ve ever made. It is a technically correct yarn. As close to perfection as I’ve ever achieved.
It is also yarn that has a good memory attached, I created it while on vacation visiting my parents.
I found a neck gaiter pattern that looked like it would work. As I knit, I realized I could probably manage to get 2 gaiters out of the one skein, so I gave that a try. It worked. I fell about 2 rows short on the second gaiter, which is a bit shorter than the first. But it is sill quite serviceable.
I’ll just admit it
I do NOT understand the second part of the magrathea pattern. Man, I’ve never really had any pattern get me down this way! I might have to just rip the entire thing and start on a different pattern because I think I am so done.
More Weaving
I finished the second scarf in the same pattern as the one I posted yesterday. This time, however, I used commercial yarns. The warp is a plain brown alpaca 2 ply, a light fingering weight yarn. The weft is a silk single, probably more along the lines of a sport or DK. The resulting scarf looks completely different, but still beautiful. And what I like most of all is that it is insanely soft.
I had been thinking that I planned to leave the loom alone for a bit. However, we are to get our first potentially bigger snow this year, and if we get a snow day….all bets are off.
Handspun Handwoven
My adventures in weaving have continued. I decided I wanted to try a pattern this go around. And I wanted to use my blue gradient with my gold handspun.
The blue gradient is handspun 2 ply from dyeabolical batts. The gold is a handspun 2 ply yarn made from corgi hill farms lush batts. I like the vertical gradient for the warp. When I was weaving this, I was quite upset because it was hard to see the pattern in the lighter blue.
I was also upset with my edges, unhappy with it feeling like there was too much space between the weft, and I felt that the weft ends were too visible.
I can’t manage to give myself much of a break even when I am learning apparently. But, once it was off the loom and I gave it a good washing, which fulled it a bit, my edges became magically acceptable, the weft was perfect, and it became clear that the eye, when looking at the gradient, fades from seeing the blue in the darker blue areas to seeing the gold in the lighter blue areas, which is kind of cool. So all in all, a success.
I decided to do another scarf in the same pattern. I used the current warp to attach the new warp and pull it through. The new warp is commercial yarn, alpaca, and the weft is commercial yarn as well, a silk single. It looks completely different, and yet still absolutely lovely. And it will end up being the softest scarf around I do believe. I hope to have that one done mid week, and I can’t wait to show it off.
Suzy Sells Sea Shells 