skein

The long and winding row cowl

I finished this a few weeks ago, but just haven't gotten around to taking any photos.

It's another cowl for the Stitchnerds KAL for January, cowls. The Long and Winding Row, and is a super easy pattern, which I reckon would look good in a semi solid or a lightly variegated yarn. (I'm sure it might look good in a wildly variegated yarn, just haven't checked out ravelry!). 

Knitted in Malabrigo, it's cheerful, warm and cosy.  This is my umpteenth attempt at this pattern.  It's a very easy stitch pattern, but I kept making mistakes and geyting the slipped stitches out of sync!

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• Now I have one more cowl on the needles, but I'm knitting a double looped cowl and am less than halfway done, so it might not be finished by tomorrow, so this is my weekend knitting.  I will not get distracted!!

Belgian Waffles Boomerang

Here's something which I finished last year!  OK,  only last month.

It's the Belgian Waffles Boomerang.  These are like shallow, asymmetrical scarves/  Well, mine's asymmetical.  I like this shape, easy to wear  wrapped around your neck, with long tails. 

It's a super way of using up every last bit of a yarn.  You cast on, increase one edge, decrease the other edge (at a slower rate) and then cast off when you are done or about to run out of yarn. 

This yarn's anonymous, wound up alrady and no label of course.  it feels like a dk/aran wegiht and has lovely greeny blue jewel tones. Antoher lovely, simple pattern from Stitchnerd. Thank you again, Yvonne!

Smock and Roll cowl

I'm the Cowl lady, I think!  Here's Smock and Roll.   Knitted in stashed Malabrigo Merino Wosted, it's warm and snuggly.

(Another selfie, which is why it's an odd angle!)

I went for a double loop this time. I have only knitted single loops before now, and I must say, if it's cold you can't really beat a double loop wrapped around your neck twice,  Love the texture too.

 

When I'm knitting on a circular, with stitches all squashed up, I tend to knit at a tighter tnesion, I suppose because I'm knitting nearer to the tips and being more conomical with the way I wrap the yarn around the needle, so this is a few inches shorter than I thought it would be.  but still wearable and snug!

Mikado Cowl

As part of the January Stitchnerd's KAL, here's another cowl.  This time it's the Mikaodo Cowl.  Knitted in stashed Artesano Aran, I originally worked two repeats.  Washed and laid it out to dry (which took ages!)

On Saturday I went outsdie to take some photos and really didn't like it much. It was wider than I'd expected (that Artesano is quite a thick aran) and the two pattern repeats, which looked plenty long enough on the needles, looked rather short.

So I clipped a cast off sttich and put it back on the needles to knit another repeat.  I've a few skeins of this yarn which are red, but brigher. I found a wond up ball (no label!) which looked the same as the Artesano and the same shade of red (indoor lighting!).

I now have a long cowl, and its super war,m I can pull it right up if we ever have any arctic weather down here, or fold it down for regular wear.

(sorreeee this was a selfie and I couldn't get my, ahem, selfie stick to work, so it's a bit off centre!)

It's just a shame that my camera has completely failed to capture the red. It's not as yellow, more blue, and a deeper colour.  The pattern's great, very simple,with one row every repeat where you pull a slipped stitch over TEN STITCHES.

 

Mr C's Christmas socks

These are his Christmas socks, started on the Monday and finished on the Wednesday, Christmas Eve! 

The yarn is a sport weight, so I went right down in stitch count. They're a snug fit!  I can't believe that I managed to make them out of 100g ball. Good job Mr C has slender feet and ankles!

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  After Christmas he popped into a trainer store and bought some super-reduced trainers - all of £13! And they match!
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Tofino Cowl

Cowl knitting is fun! And fast!  I'm on my fourth cowl now. This time I'm going for a double loop, so it's taking a little bit longer.

Here's the last one off the needles. I've decided not to block it, I love the light and drapey feel of it.

It's Tofino, by Stitchnerd. The yarn's Faery Wings, which I see is hard to find now. What a shame, it's gorgeous to knit with. It's the one kid mohair yarn which I seem able to wear next to skin.  In a lovely golden yellow.  Love. Wish I could share the gorgeous feel of the yarn, but this isn't Brave New World!

The pattern knits itself. It's a simple four row repeat. I I used hald a skein so can knit another yellow cowl if I want to!

December knitting and 2015 knitting goals

No January plans :) though I do have a 2015 plan instead.

December flew by. I really should have managed more knitting, but sometimes ravelry and pattern browsing sucked me in!

Right, now for December

Blog

1) Jacobs Ladder scarf.  Done!

Finish

2) mum's cardigan.  Done! 

3) Crossing Paths Fingerless Mitts - done!

Start and finish

4) Mr C's Christmas socks - done!  No photo yet though. I started these on 22nd December and they were finished Christmas Eve!  The yarn is a sport weight and really skinny socks. 

5) More mitts.  Done!  I chose Pinto Mitts, another

worsted weight pattern.

6) Stitchnerd's new pattern, Brain Frieze - done!  LOVE this pattern!

Start

7) Stitchnerd's December MKAL.  This has been deferred, so instead I knitted a Zen Lattice cowl.

8) Me knitting.  Fail!  I spent too long looking at patterns and trying to match patterns and yarns! 

But overall a good knitting month.

 

Now for 2015

I want to continue using oddball stash and getting a grip on my pattern library on ravelry.  Ihave another Sigma15 plan!

15 patterns from my ravelry library

14 knitted gifts

13 ravelry KALs

12 cowls

11 under-appreciated patterns (ones which have less than 25 projects on ravelry)

10 challenges from the skd (stash knit down) group on ravelry. These might be a monthly challenge, or a basket dash. They have LOTS of ways to get you knitting from stash!

9)  small shawls or scarves (thinking one skein projects)

8 projects from older stash - let's say older than two years,

7 projects in hard to give up skeins. Those ones which mean something to me - maybe they're discontinued or expensive, or luxurious fibre or beautiful colour. The ones we all save for a rainy day.

6 pairs of mitts or mittens

5 pairs of socks

 4 hats

3 adult garments

2 baby garments

1 largre shawl (over 500m.  let's not get over excited!

It's a steep list, but there's lots of oerlap too.  In total, I can knit 42 items and double up with the KALs or libarry patterns.  In fact, I have two cowls blocking. And a scarf which I think I may have forgotten to add to ravelry!

Better get the needles knitting!

2014 knitting round up. part two

And now we're onto the cowls and shawls!

Thanks to Yvonne telling  me about the Stitchnerds group on ravelry I seem to have knitted a lot of these patterns!  Most shawls are one skein so fairly quick knits, though I was thinking, t hat if I totted up the yardage for these shawls I could do the 52 pairs of socks in a year!

First the cowls.

6 cowls

1 hat (forgot to tag this one and have ust found it!)

1 scarf (though some of the smaller shawls could fall into this category, too)

15 shawls (one not photographed yet)

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  That's 45 FOs for 2014, not bad.  I can see where I'm a bit addicted to shawls... a great way to sue up single skeins of 4ply!
• Happy New Year!

   



 shawls