FO: Holden

Holden was one of the first patterns I fell in love with. Sometime during my first year knitting, I stumbled across this little shawlette, and I fell hard. But as hard as I fell, I never got around to knitting it up. Even when I bought this yarn, for the express purpose of knitting a Holden, I continued to push it back in the queue.

It was sometime in January, when I was hitting a bit of a knitting slump, that I finally started this. I needed something easy, with no expectations whatsoever. I didn't know how long it would take to knit, I didn't know what I was going to do with it once it was done (still don't), but I needed to knit it.

I love how this yarn knit up-I knew as soon as I saw it in the store that it wanted to be this shawl, and look how right I was! It was so nice to work on something with no strings attached-I abandoned it on my bookshelf for over a month, I knit on it sporadically, and I didn't end up finishing it until I had those rough couple of weeks the end of March and needed to take some time to slow down and refocus. And since I had no plan for it, I didn't mind leaving the blocking for a while. But now it's a good little shawl, and I'm really glad I finally got around to it.

Ravelry Page: Holden

Pattern: Holden by Mindy Wilkes

Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Sock, "863 Zarzamora"

FO: Come Along, Pond!

Okay, we've already gone over the fact that I'm a ginormous Doctor Who nerd, right? Good. Because I'm probably going to nerd out a little again. But seriously, I've worn this shawl twice already this week, and it's definitely on the short list of my favorite shawls ever.

I queued this pattern as soon as it came out. In the 5th season of the revised series, the Doctor's companion Amy wears this fantastic red-orange lace scarf. And I really considered knitting that scarf, except I don't love knitting scarves, and I don't really wear lightweight or skinny scarves very much.
But then THIS pattern came out, with the same lace pattern, but in a shawl, not a scarf. I WEAR SHAWLS, YO. So into the queue it went, until I found the right yarn.

I've had this yarn for a while, but I only matched it up with this pattern back in November. I had initially picked up this yarn to make Bigger on the Inside, but there wasn't enough yarn in the skein for that. I wanted something Dr. Who-inspired for it, though-this yarn is the perfect, brightest, TARDIS blue, and there's enough variegation to make it really interesting. So it was kind of an "Aha" moment when I paired the two together.

Funny story: I didn't realize this shawl was knit from the bottom-up until I was about 8 rows into it (I will never learn to read a pattern before starting a project, will I?). But the knitting went very smoothly, and I really enjoyed myself. And then I finished it and I was so proud of myself that I promptly threw it in the blocking box and ignored it for a month. C'est la vie.

Ravelry Page: Come Along, Pond!

Pattern: Come Along, Pond! by Teri B.

Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug, "Lapis"

The First FO of the Year

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and are staying warm wherever you are! The temperatures have dipped here again, and we are hovering right below zero. But I still braved the cold to get pictures of this beauty:

 Yes, I know it's hard to see, all tucked into my coat like that. But I want you to appreciate that it felt like -13 with the wind chill when I took these pictures. And now for real pictures:

I'm really pleased with how this came out. I knocked out pretty much the whole second half of it over New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, with just a few rows of the border left for Friday evening. I blocked it on the futon over the weekend (oof-blocking giant circles is a real test of stamina and character!) I was hoping it would get just a teensy bit bigger when I blocked it, but I'm actually pretty pleased with its final dimensions (final size is 47" across-not too shabby).

Now that it's off the needles, I'm really pleased with how all the colors play together. The fabric is just light and ruffly enough to be feminine, but the colors still feel minimalistic and neutral. I think the effect is pretty cool, and I've been enjoying wearing it so far (since it's -13 out and there's no such thing as too many layers).

Ravelry Page: Pi Shawl

Pattern: from my head, courtesy of Elizabeth Zimmerman and Glenna C

Yarn: Misti Alpaca Handpaint Sock, "Maple Grey"

WIP: Pi Shawl

Disclosure time: sometimes I go on a kick and pick an old favorite knitting blog and read through all the archives in like a week. A couple of weeks ago, Glenna C was the victim of my binge-reading (but her blog really is fantastic and I love her work) and I got to read about all of her pi shawls again. I love them, I really do. I think they're charming, and cozy, and straightforward, and easy to knit, and perfect for when I'm sitting watching tv or reading and don't want to think too hard about what I'm doing.

So I'm shamelessly ripping her off. I am ashamed to admit that I don't own Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac, and I haven't ever requested it through inter-library loan, so I haven't actually read the pattern (considering how rarely I read the patterns I'm using anyway, this shouldn't make me feel as bad as it does). Basically, I took EZ's pi shawl shaping rules, which I'm familiar with thanks to the wonders of the internet, and Glenna C's note that she did the eyelet rounds every 6th round, and making it up from those pieces of information. I also plan to make up the garter stitch border that Glenna C used too, because I think it's cozy and charming.

I'm using Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Sock, in Maple Grey, but it doesn't look like this color is still available. I bought this stuff from Athena Fibers back in 2010 or 2011, and I've been holding onto it because I never really knew what to knit with it. It's not really colors that I wear a lot of (I totally just bought it because I wanted some of all the colors they had in stock-I love this yarn so much). However, they are really good neutrals, and I know they'll match several of my outfits-I just usually prefer my accessories to have a bit more color-and these colors will go great with my green corduroy jacket, so I decided to go ahead and take the plunge (I'm also not technically breaking my xmas-and-design-only rule, since I technically started this before that rule was in effect).

A Knit-Filled Vacation

I am officially on vacation right now. For the next week, I don't have to even think about my day job. This is my first proper week off since college, probably, and I intend to enjoy every minute of it.

So far, my vacation is off to a pretty good start with two things blocking right now.  However, I may be foiled in my attempt at one FO for want of decent buttons. But at least I can go to the yarn store this week, and they may have buttons (if not, the project will end up in a bag in my closet for a few years, buttonless). At least I have one definite FO coming:

My Havina shawl, and it is gorgeous. I took pictures to see just how big this blocked out to, and it grew a lot, considering it's mostly stockinette. Can't wait to get FO pics of this one.

On a different note entirely, it turns out that while I have no problem writing a cable chart, I am apparently incapable of reading a cable chart. I was hoping just to tear back the center 15 stitches, but I ended up tearing out all the cables.  Knitting surgery is going well so far, and I should have an up-to-date progress photo on this bad boy soon.

When Will I Ever Learn

My birthday was pretty swell, if I say so myself, and I promise I'll do a post to show you the haul (it's pretty good), but apparently one of my presents is delayed, so I'm going to wait until my birthday is really complete before telling you all about it.  Besides, who wants to hear about boring things like birthdays when I have a fantastic gauge disaster to share?

I rarely swatch. I know, I know. I tell everyone to Always Swatch Every Time Ever, but I really don't. I swatch for designs, and I swatch for really fitted sweaters, but most of what I wear is loose and drapey, so I figure that swatching is mostly optional.

I didn't swatch for Havina because it's a shawl. Seriously, how off can my gauge be? (Hint: really off.) Anyway, I loved the pattern and cast on willy nilly. Loved every second of it. Then when I got through 18 of the 25 body repeats I had a niggling thought. "This isn't going to be as big as the sample," I said to myself. I tried to convince myself that it would be fine, but as fortune had it, my gauge measure was right next to me and I checked quick.

As written, Havina should have 20 stitches to 4 inches, or 5 stitches to 1 inch. I had 7.5.  Seven and a half. If I kept going, my shawl would have been way smaller than the sample, and I really wanted a nice big shawl that I could wrap twice around me. I knew right away that I had to frog it, that it was too big a discrepancy to let go, but I tried to convince myself I was wrong. I measured at least 10 times, and I rinsed a corner of the shawl to see if it grew at all. No dice. I poured myself a drink, to see if that changed anything. Nope.

I frogged it, no tears. Then I re-skeined it and set it to soak to get the kinks out. Fortunately, the pattern calls for two balls, and I had the second one all wound and ready to go, so I could start again right away.

But it still hurts.

 

(So far it's much better this time around.  Lovely and  squishy-before it was too dense to really drape the way a shawl ought to.)

FO: Firmaments

Wow.  This thing really is gorgeous.  There are a couple of weak spots, but overall I am thrilled with it.  It is a soft squishy alpaca cloud.  I was a bit worried about the shape, and how difficult it might be to wear, but it turns out that I like circle shawls a lot.  

It's deceptively warm too, thanks to the alpaca.  I'm pleasantly surprised with how quickly the last part of this went.  The Starlight Lace chart took me over a month last summer, but I did the whole Elongated Fountain Lace and Diamond Edging in just about the same amount of time.  So that was nice. 

I usually do my blocking on a futon in the basement, but it was covered in stuff, so this time I pulled out the sleeper sofa.  It took about an hour to pin it out all the way, and I actually ran out of pins!  I started by pinning each of the diamonds in the center, then I put a pin in the center opening, tied a string to it, and worked my way around the final border, pinning at each diamond. 

I could have pinned it more aggressively, but the alpaca doesn't hold it's shape as well as wool would have, so I'm pleased with it.  It's still got a generous stretch, which is perfect for wrapping around my shoulders.

Now onto the imperfections.  There are only two things I'm less than pleased with, but they're not too bad and they reflect my abilities.  Above you'll see some laddering that didn't block out as much as I'd hoped.  I had to do that whole first section on DPNs, way back when I was still in college and a relatively new knitter.  It's a reflection of how I knit at that time, and you can see my progress as a knitter as you move out from the center.  I think that's really cool.

I honestly don't know why I'm drawing attention to this one, since even I can't find it most of the time.  But you can see where I grafted the ends of the lace border together.  This was my first time grafting lace, and I had a pretty terrible provisional cast-on that I didn't take the time to fix up.  I like seeing how I progress as a knitter, so these two rough spots join such classics in my knitting history as the inside-out kitchener stitch in my first few pairs of socks.

WIP: Firmaments

 

I started this shawl my junior year in college, but forgot the plain knit rounds in between every pattern round.  Disappointed in myself, I frogged it and then let it languish for a few months.  Then I cast on again, and I've worked on it intermittently since then. 

This shawl is slow going.  Now I'm at the final chart before the edge, so every round is 576 stitches.  So not only does every pattern repeat take 5,184 stitches, but since the whole shawl is scrunched up on a circular needle, progress shots don't really show a whole lot of progress.  (Translated: This looks exactly the same as it did 9,000 stitches ago.  So I've had to get a little creative while photographing it.  For my own sanity.)

There's a crazy part of me that thinks it's reasonable to try to get this done by Easter.  Which is totally doable.  There's only, like, 44,339 stitches left.  So, no problem there.  (That's a lie.  There's a bit of a problem there, in the fact that that's a buttload of stitches, and I have my day job to consider, and I have design projects to work on, and I still can't knit in my sleep but I know I'm getting close to that point,)  Worst of all, progress photos are usually my motivation, and all of my pictures of this look the same as they did two weeks ago.

But at least I have a cute gnome. (His name is Rosencrantz.  I got him at a charity sale last Xmas for $1.)

Stash Love: Jade Sapphire Mongolian Cashmere

I love this stuff.  This is deep stash; it's almost as deep as you can go.  There is yarn even older than this, but this stuff comes from my very first year of knitting.  I've held onto it for years because I didn't feel worthy of knitting it, and I was terrified of ruining it.

I originally had intended to use it to make Haruni, by Emily Ross, which is a pattern I fell in love with the second I saw it.  But that pattern really does look best in a solid or only slightly variegated yarn, which this definitely is not.  Given how nice this yarn is, I didn't want to waste it on the wrong pattern.  So back into Deep Stash it went.

Then came along Holly Priestley's Mottled Daydream.   It's everything I wanted for this yarn: plain enough that the yarn won't distract from the pattern and vice versa, and it's just a touch more interesting than a regular triangle shawl. 

The Watermelon Socks are getting close to done, which means the Ball Winder will be here soon, and this is the first thing I'm going to wind and cast on.  I've been holding onto this yarn for long enough.  It's time has come.