I Knitted!

Yay! That was the word heard throughout my house this past week, as I finally got back into the groove with my knitting. The craziness is starting to subside in life, and some time opened up over the weekend to catch up on back episodes of Battlestar Galactica with the DH. We're still back in season 2.5, so Netflix has been coming fast and furious as we race to get caught up without hearing spoilers. But, back to the knitting. This week, I finished two projects and busted through two skeins of stash. Below are the One Row Scarf by the Yarn Harlot and Calorimetry (minus the button, which is coming) and both are knit on size 8s with Mountain Colors Mountain Goat in Big Sky. I loooooooove this colorway. It was a gift from last year, and I finally found two patterns to suit it. I still have enough left over to make another Calorimetry for my sister. We'll both use them to run together this winter. I also made the 100 stitch cast-on modification for the Calorimtery, after a failed attempt at 80. I'll cast on tonight for the second one. Glad to have my groove back!





-B

Long Time, No Blog

Well, I still exist out here in the world, although there has been very little knitting to report this month. Work has been exceptionally crazy, and the hours that I used to spend going for a run and knitting have been swallowed up. But, I did enjoy a stress free Saturday yesterday and pulled out the One Row Scarf (Raveled here) and got through to the second skein of the Mountain Colors yarn that I have been using. My poor Serendipity Sock continues to languish in my crafts room, but I am doing well with it. After snapping a very expensive Lantern Moon DPN (they are pretty, but I knit too tight for them), I ordered the stainless steel version from Knit Picks. I love them! They are durable and move very smoothly. No pics to speak of on this post. But, once I get through next Friday, there will be knitting and pictures again. Wish me luck!

-B

New Knitting Basket

Two postings in a relatively short period of time for me. I'm not sure what's going on with the world, other than I'm in a holding pattern on some things and I spend a lot of time waiting and hence need mindless patterns to entertain me while watching tv...what can I say I like multi-tasking.

French Market Bag

I wasn't sure about this, but I really like it now that it's finished. And actually holds a surprisingly large amount of stuff. I think there are 4 skeins of malabrigo and 2 of summer tweed in there plus the first half of a shifting sands and the remaining part of that skein. Not sure what exactly I'm going to use the bag for. Originally, I thought it would make a good chairside knitting basket/bag. I'm contemplating using it for the farmer's market or a guest room basket to hold towels or other random things.

I realize now that it probably could have felted a little longer, but I actually don't mind it being a bit floppy and while there are a few stitches taht are visible, I'm okay with its imperfections.

Any ideas on what I should do with the remaining 1.5 skeins of cascade in the same colors? I was contemplating the felted potholders from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. We'll see.

S

S's My So Called Scarf

I've been plugging along on something like four scarves. And I finally finished one. B inspired me to try the My So Called Scarf. And I have been trying to find a scarf that would work with my new purple coat, and I haven't had much luck with it. So I found the Manos 100% wool that I thought I'd try. Unfortunately it's a lot pricklier than I want to wear. And I had some user errors. That madeit be one of my least favorite non-thought requiring project. So I put it down for a bit. I offered one of my classmates to make her a scarf as she is moving north of the Mason-Dixon line in the fall. Her oe request was that it was purple. So luckily a half done purple scarf is now a complete purple scarf ready to gift to my classmate.

S

Rusted Root part 2

This is Round 2 of the Rusted Root sweater. Used the yarn from another sweater that just wasn't the right size (the arms were too long). so I don't know how much yarn I used just less than that sweater. I'm thinking of attempting a mini version of this for a child, and hopefully use up some of the yarn I have left over.
- E

Pattern: Rusted Root, modified to take out the leaf pattern, added extra decrease under the bust, extra rows on th edging, and a short row along the back neck edge
Yarn: knitpicks Worsted Shine - silver sage
Needle: size 6 circular and a set of double pointed to pick up the edges.

Honeymoon Yarn Expedition

Well, not much knitting has been happening in my household this month as DH and I took our two week honeymoon to Italy. We had a wonderful time, and even got to visit a couple of yarn shops in Florence. I had earned a free day from Stashalong for completing the afghan square back in February, so I saved it for our trip. First, we went to Campolmi, which is in the center of the city. This shop is huge! The staff was lovely, but spoke limited English, so we negotiated our way through business and I ended up with the skein below.

The prices were great (1,50 Euro/$3 for the skein). It's not going to become any knitted item, but instead will be one of our momentos from the trip.

Next up, we went to Beatrice Galli.

Beatrice and her husband were there, and they were lovely too. I took my time and looked at the products that were made in Italy, since that meant more than buying a yarn that wasn't local. I came away with some Filatura di Crosa Cashmere/Seta (Gray and Orange), and some Mondial Giada (3 skeins in a Smoky Blue). Lovely yarns, and hopefully, Ravelry will help me figure out what to make them with.

I keep working on the Minimalist Cardigan and almost have the right front done! I also started the Yarn Harlot's One Row Scarf in some Mountain Colors yarn that I had in the stash. It's back to work tomorrow for us, so knitting in the evenings while watching the Yankees in spring training and the start of the regular season will begin again.

-B

Felted Yoga Bag

So finally an unfrogged finished project to show. I got some Cascade 220 for Christmas that I wasn't sure was the right hat and scarf color for me. So I needed to figure out something to do with it. I realized I didn't want one bag that was all one color so I found another heathered Cascade 220 that I thought would look nice with the aqua color. You can't really see it in the picture but the aqua has a fairly blue heather to it. I'd been thinking about knitting the Felted Yoga Bag out of Last Minute Knitted gifts (a book that I am realizing their estimated times are way off and take nowhere near their suggested times, or maybe I'm just really slow, but I'm going with the idea they are way off and not me). And I've never felted anything before, so I thought it might be entertaining. So preblocking here is my new yoga bag.

And now for the bag post-felting.

The aqua felted a little faster than the navy apparently. And the strap is a little longer than it

needed to be, but it'll still work and is honestly a lot easier to package up after a yoga class, if I can get myself going again. But at least I have a cute bag to carry the mat.

S