skein

Multnomah Shawl in Camelspin

This is my second shawl for 10 Shawls in 2010.  A very simple knit, this was my carry around knitting last week.

Pattern:  Multnomah Shawl (ravelry link here)

Started: 11th January

Finished: 24th January (that's the blocking as well)

Needles: 3,25mm

Yarn: Handmaiden Camelspin, Renaissance.

Hands up all of you who,, like me, fall in love with pretty variegated yarns in the skein, then they sit and mature in my stash, because any patterning would be lost in the colours?  Well I'm determined to use these yarns up and I know that the Multnomah pattern is great for these yarns - garter stitch and feather and fan. It's free, and it's easy.

Unblocked:

 

Blocking:

 

Blocked

 

It was rather cold to be outside in a t-shirt!

 

I haven't decided on shawl '3, but I think I'll knit a solid colour one for a change!

1980s revisited

aka Intarsia!

Wow.  I don't do intarsia anymore. In the eighties it was all the rage, and I didn't know better.  It was also the era of oversized, shapeless jumpers, even more intarsia to knit!   I had a stack of jumpers knitted throughout the eighties, all Rowan, in Rowan yarns. Now I've started Foolish Virgins, in Rowan Scottish Tweed 4ply. The ends are making me cringe.  These are the yarn lengths for the start of the second chart, a 98 row nightmare!

 

Here they are in action!

 

and the back!

 

Gross, isn't it?

Here's the progress after a whole afternoon's knitting two Sundays ago, slow going!

 

That's 32 rows of chart 2.

This Sunday past I've managed 45 rows!  Only 13 more to go on this chart. It's a nightmare to knit under artificial light, really I ought to get up early Sunday and use the morning sun to knit by. Usually it's more like mid afternoon when I settle down to knit.

 

Still enjoying it, and trying not to stress out about the rest of the knitting, I'll take it Sunday by Sunday. The ends are looking rather gross ...

Trellis Mosaic Socks

As part of my plan to knit from stash as much as possible, I pulled out this sock kit at the end of last year and have finally knitted it up, several years later.  I thought it would be a super quick knit, it's dk yarn, but it still took me as long as 4 ply socks!  I think it's the mosaic knitting, where you're knitting each row twice, with each of the colours.  This particular pattern has you knitting two rows with colour A then two rows of colour B.  I think I much prefer stranded knitting!

Pattern: Trellis Mosaic Socks (ravely link here)

Started: 31st December,

Finished: 20th January

Yarn: Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed

Needles: 3.25mm

You can't tell from this photo, but for the second sock I used a circular, much easier than pointy dpns getting entangled in the yarn.  And my tension changed, the second sock is a little narrower (I stretched it out for the photo!)  I'm wearing them now, as oversocks and I can't tell at all.  Far too thick for wearing with my boots, but will do for the house, the yarn's lovely and squashy.

I've been a busy girl today.  Multnomah is finished, washed and is blocking.  I've started my second garment, up to the armhole shaping on the back, and I've knitted another 45 rows of Foolish Virgins (and am again fully intarsiad out).  I have 13 more rows of chart 2, which I think is the killer chart, that's next Sunday's job!

Koigu Gypsy Shawl

Pattern: Koigu Gypsy Shawl

Started 1st January, finished 10th January, as part of 10 shawls in 2010 - shawl '1!

Yarn: Koigu 5 skeins

Needles: 3mm

 

Um, we took a shot of me wearing the shawl...

 

and I took a few photos of Chris holding the shawl

 

(The things he has to do in the name of knitting.)

The pattern is dreadful!  Poorly printed charts, with the ends missing (and those are the vital start and finish of row stitches).  Instructions are poor.  If I hadn't bought the yarn and seen the shawl in person I wouldn't have bothered.

The lace patterns themselves are super easy, so it's a case of keeping count of stitches and fitting the lace pattern into those stitches. 

 

and another one

 

the fringe nearoly finished me off, until someone reminded me about winding the yarn around a book to cut it!  The knitting and crocheting part took exactly 165g of yarn, and the fringe took the rest - 85g!

Vine Yoke Cardigan

At last!  I put buttons on it!

 

I have no idea why this is so overexposed!

Pattern: Vine Yoke Caridigan

Cast on:17th November 09

Cast off: 28th November 09

Buttons sewn on: 15yh January 10!

Yarn: DIC Classy,  Bermuda Teal - this photo in no way represents the beautiful colour of the yarn. It's not blue!  I didn't make notes about number of skeins, but I think it was four.

Mods: Cast on 8 extra stitches for sleeves and body (it's knitted sideways).

The buttons are actually a greyish shell button, nbot as white as in the photos.

Back view:

 

and another front view.

 

This should have been garment number 14 for NaKniSweMoDo09, but alas wasn't finished in time!  

What's on the needles catch-up

For most of last year I kept the number of WIPs down to a minimum; maybe some socks, a garment, another small thing.  Suddenly, this month, I've increased my number of WIPs to five!  That's excluding stuff which is nearly finished, needs sewing up and buttons.

Sunday evening I finished the Koigu Gypsy shawl. Photos to come. First of the 10 shawls in 2010.

Monday evening I finished the knitting on Otello, a chunky Louisa Harding cardigan.  This is the first of the 12 garments I intend knitting in 2010.

 

It's a rich brown, not as faded as shown.  I'll be seaming this afternoon!  No buttons yet though. There's a collar which is knitted then sewn on. I've knitted it, but I may re-do it by picking up stitches. Not sure why this has to be sewn on, but it may become obvious when I do.

That left just my Mosaic socks (which I am not enjoying knitting)  One done, the other cast on, and down to the heel.

So, what's a knitter to do but cast on more projects to tide me over?

1) Second shawl.  It's another Multnomah, (ravelry projects here) which I think is a good pattern for variegated yarns. I tend to be suckered into buying variegated yarn, it looks so good in the skein, but then I have problems finding patterns to knit. This is Camelspin, either Vintage or Renaissance. Very busy yarn. I've just started the feather and fan pattern. 38 more rows to go!

In lieu of knitting another mystery blanket this year, I've decided to do a couple of projects, working on them for a short period each month.

2) The first of these is the Foolish Virgins Scarf (ravelry link here) - a 4ply intarsia lover's dream!  Not my idea of great knitting, (intarsia) but I love the colours and pattern, so I shall do a little each month, in the style of the Mystery blanket.  I've knitted the first chart (but it was a very, very simple pattern, and only 16 rows) and am about to embark on chart #2, which is a huge 96 row intarsia nightmare!  I thought I'd do this last night, but the indoor lighting is a bit dim, so this may become a weekend/daylight project. 

3) The second is not difficult, and may not take as long as I think it would - it's a Rambling Rows blanket,(ravelry link to the Noro blankets here)  in Noro.  I calculated that this might take about 21 balls of NOro, and in my stash I have enough. Problem is that one whole pack is mainly pinks, then I have odd balls - about five - which will probably go quite well with the pink, BUT the other five balls will be from an autumnal colours pack - oranges and greens!  I don't care, it's stashbusting, and I'm fed up with keeping packs of yarn which I think will make a wonderul Noro type garment. They never do, you know.  I used to buy the Noro booklets, and the designers Noro booklets, and have knitted just one garment from them all.   It's very addictive!

4) Garment #2 - Charm by Kim Hargreaves (ravelry here) .  Love this design, and it looks easy.  Rather than using the pinkish felted tweed I've dug out of stash, I went stashbusting for some older felted tweed, shade 149, Blaze, a wonderful red colour.   Not cast on yet, but will be, soon.

I have carefully hidden all other yarn and patterns from my knitting area, I'm finding five WIPs on the go is more than than enough for me now.  Last night I flitted between Foolish Virgins, the Mosaic socks and Rambling Rows - and even contemplated casting on Charm (but I ran out of time, every knitter needs to sleep!). I'm going to have to Plan. 

Koigu Gypsy Shawl progress

I caught the Koigu bug after knitting the Hoarfrost cowl!   I bought this yarn a while ago to knit this shawl.  It's progressing well, no thanks to the poorly written pattern. Whoever heard of a chart which goes off the page, only includes the edge of the pattern (i.e. start of the row!) when the shawl is small?  The various lace patterns are easy enough, you just have to keep an eye on the stitch count, only increasing 2 stitches each side on the right side rows.  The chart is also practically unuseable, mine was so poorly printed that some of the symbols/row numbers were illegible. 

I love the shawl though! 

Friday evening I cast off the main body of the shawl. Instructions have you blocking it, then crocheting a little bottom border, then adding tassels. 

Saturday morning:

 

Urgh, just cannot get the camera to cooperate with a snowy background!

Saturday I blocked the thing and crocheted the border.  And started the tassels.  What can I say about tassels?  They are mindblowingly boring.

Here's some partial in progress views.

 

and the 'orrible tassels!

 

:Looking a bit bedraggled but they're not trimmed.  I thought that I'd be doing a few each night and would finish this by the end of the month, but someone on ravelry posted about wrapping yarn around a book to do the tassels, so I sat down Sunday evening and did just that.  They're done!  Trimmed too (though I'd never make a hairdresser,they're pretty uneven).  Just need to get finished photos now, which involves Chris, myself and daylight!

I

Hoarfrost Cowl

Pattern: Hoarfrost Cowl by Anne Hanson ravely link here.

Yarn: Koigu KPM

Needles: 3.25mm (I think, didn't make notes)

Cast on 28th December, cast off 30th December

A lovely pattern.  I had a failed attempt at knitting this a few weeks earlier, but the yarn/pattern didn't gel. This time around it did, and the cowl is gorgeous.  There's an option of two sizes, and I went for the narrower one. I had to break into a second skein but that might be because I;d used some of the first skein; my cowl weighs exactly 50g.

New socks! New shawl! New garment!

Something about it being a new year!

1) New Socks.  Trellis Mosaic socks.

Again, this was a kit from Red Bird Knits.  I had put it on hold as I thought the yarn (Jo Sharp's silkroad dk tweed) could be useful as scarf yarn, and I don't normally wear dk socks.  However I have enough scarf yarn, and I could do with some socks for wearing indoors, so out came the kit again.

Cast on: 31st December.

This is a mosaic knitting, where you knit two rows and slip the second colour rather than carrying it along. Not keen, seems like more knitting. Good job it's dk!

2) New Shawl.  Koigu Gypsy shawl.

Part of the 10 shawls in 2010 knitalong. I originally plumped for the Baltic Sea Stole, using Lorna's Laces Heaven  Big mistake. Two words: mohair and variegated yarn.  The pattern is lost in the variegated colour (mixed berries, pink and blue) and the mohair!  I've only had a few experiences of mohair type yarn since the eighties (Kid Silk Haze, mainly) and that's because I do not like knitting with it!  Although the stole would go quickly, it was like drawing teeth, so it's on hold, or possibly about to be frogged.  I may leave it alone for a few months and then see if I feel the same way.

So it's the Koigu Gypsy shawl.  Cast on 1st January. I'm a little deterred by some ravelry comments about the poorly written pattern.  And  I can see why. The instructions are vague, and the chart is tiny and difficult to read (looks like they drew the lines, they're not parallel!  I think I'll manage it by ignoring the insttructions and just reading the chart, with a good backlight!    The colour is green rather than blue.

So far it's easy peasy, but I haven't reached the second lot of instructions yet!

3) New Garment  Otello, by Louisa Harding, from Vebezia Una Volta.

Yes, I've started the IntSweMoDo2010 - twelve sweaters in 2010! 

This is a fairly easy, chunky sweater.  I don't normally do chunky, but the Ca'd'Oro is quite easy to knit with.  Cast on 31st December and taken to the boat for knitting over New Year's Eve.

Good news: I was prepared for lots of knitting, took an extra four balls of yarn (but it is chunky!)

Bad news: I forgot to take the smaller needles for the body of the garment.

Good news: those four balls of yarn meant that at least I could knit all the bottom borders and sleeve borders!

The sun's washed out the colour, it's chocolate brown.

As if that isn't enough, I am about to embark on a fiddly, large project. Well, not literally large, it's a scarf, but it's 68" of intarisa knitting using a 4ply yarn. A couple of years ago we went to listen to Kaffe Fassett speak, and I bought his new book, Kaffe knits again. Like an idiot I was smitten by the Foolish Virgins Scarf and bought the yarn there and then.  Unfortunately I seem to have lost a few balls so have ordered some more.  I've read that I will run out of one of the colours, a dark navy, but intend to use Midnight for the second half of the scarf. Wish me luck!  

Mexiko socks

I actually finished thiese on 31st December, but we took the photos the next day. 

 

Pattern: top down ribbed socks, 68 stitches, on 2.25mm needles.

Started: 20th December

Finished: 31st December (but I'll include them in the 2010 FOs)

 

These are the third pair of Mexiko socks for Chris!  He wore through his first, 4ply pair, but the dk pair are still going strong. On the second sock I had to use oddments to finish it off, hence the mismatched striping! But the bits that will show are perfectly matched.

 

You can see how sunny (but cold) it was on Friday! Taken on the boat, of course.