Even More Rainbowy

I finished another quarter panel of my Hue Shift Afghan, last night.  Where the first panel only used half of the colours of the design, this one incorporates all 10 colours in it, which makes it a lot more fun and interesting.  The third panel will be the same idea, but in a different order, and then the final panel is just the blues/greens.  I am still loving every minute of this one.

A Knitting Rainbow

Quite a while ago, I saw a pattern on Knit Picks for a mitred-square afghan.  To be honest, mitred square projects haven't really appealed to me very much, in the past, but the colours and design of this afghan really drew me in, and I was immediately determined to make it.

Also good news - the website allows you to put together a kit for this project that uses their acrylic blend yarn, which means the yarn only costs around $35, which is pretty awesome for an afghan.  This is the first time I've used this yarn, and while it was a bit squeaky on my acrylic needles, once I switched to wooden needles, it's not squeaky at all and more like just any soft synthetic yarn.  Of course if I had my druthers (why oh why do I so rarely have my druthers) I'd be making it in wool, but obviously that would be both more expensive and not machine washable (or even more expensive, to get machine washable wool.)

I ordered this kit thinking that I would knit it up in the end of May, when my mom & my sisters & I are taking a little girls' vacation to the mountains, but when I realized that each square will take about an hour to knit, I had to face the sad fact that I won't be able to fit 100+ hours of knitting into a 5-day trip.  So I decided to start it early, and leave myself the last panel of 25 squares, plus the sewing and the border, for the trip.  That's pretty reasonable, I'm sure.  I might even have to bring a pair of socks, just to make sure I don't run out of knitting.  Or two.

Two Friends are Better Than One

One of my most awesome work friends (hi Kate!) is super fun and crazy and always makes me laugh.  She isn't a fiber-crafty lady, but she good-naturedly puts up with my own craft insanity.  Recently she pointed me toward a cool crafty blog by another friend of hers from BC, Fig Cottage.  Turns out the lovely lady who writes this blog recently posted her first published pattern, a cute little toque called Kitimat.  I decided it might be a neat idea for me to knit one for myself (newbie knitwear designers gotta look out for each other, after all) but then I had an even more brilliant idea: why not knit one for Kate, then it's like a crazy mashup of two of her fibery friends, one who designed it and one who knit it.

I used Patons Classic Wool - when I saw this fantastic greeny yellow colour (called Lemongrass) I couldn't say no to it, and I thought it looked pretty awesome (dare I say "modern"?) with the dark grey mix.  Of course a huge pom pom is a must.

What matters most is that Kate loved it.

Serenity Now!

So I've had this Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn for probably four or five years.  I used other skeins of this yarn for other socks, and had some issues with pooling and flashing, so I was waiting to imagine the perfect design that would make some beautiful socks.

However, since I've started my new pledge to find peace with the random designs made by a bunch of stockingette socks in variegated yarn, I pulled these skeins out and just knit 'em up to see what would happen.

Turns out that 68 stitches on 2.25 mm needles makes some pretty cool stripes.  Once I did a few increases to accomodate my large instep and calf, all hell broke loose.  There were some definite blobs, some fat ol' stripes, and they definitely ended up more fraternal than identical.

The name I chose for these socks is Serenity, partly because the sock colourway is called "River" which makes me think of River Tam on Firefly, and also because of the crazy way they turned out, which makes me think of the Costanzas.

Working Girl

I am not a monogamous knitter.  I like to have several different projects on the go at all times, so that I have something to work on, no matter my mood.  Cables or lace for a challenge, simple little stockingette socks for more mindless moments.  Instant gratification projects like hats can begin and be finished at a moment's notice, no matter what else is in the queue.

The last thing I showed you was a cabled pullover I've been working on.  Although I am tantalizingly close to finishing it, I was still lured in by the siren song of a knitalong over at Celtic Cast On.  This particular knitalong is using a free pattern by Tanis Fiber Arts, Business Casual, which I've been coveting for a long time, and since I had a skein of Tanis' Blue Label in Pink Grapefruit just sitting around waiting to be made into something lovely, how could I resist?

Somehow my sweater (and yeah, that other sweater and some socks and... well... let's not think about all the rest, shall we?) sat bereft in its knitting bag while I was monogamous with these lovely little socks, for a whole week.  It's true: since the pattern is really mostly stockingette, these adorable little things only took a week (and a day) to finish.  Which means that, if you wanted to, there's still lots of time for you to join the knitalong and finish your own pair by the March 25th deadline.  I dare you.

Cabley Goodness

Things are progressing slowly, Chez Crafty, since I have a few big projects on the go, right now.  I have gotten out of the habit of showing off WIPs, and just putting up photos of my finished projects, so I thought today I'd take the opportunity to show off some squishy wooly cables on my latest sweater project.

The pattern is Beatnik, a freebie from the incomparable Norah Gaughan, and when I saw a customer at my work wearing a lovely grass green one, it inspired me to pull my bag of Cascade 220 out of the closet and wind it up to make my own.  The sleeves are done to the underarm, and I've nearly got the body (in one piece, not separates) up to the bustline, so if I keep at it, I'll be wearing it before the snow melts.  Of course, that gives me plenty of time, in Edmonton.

Oooh just look at those cables... I can't wait to see them once they're blocked!

Green Apple Fossoways

I mentioned previously that I'm starting to purposefully knit my way through the last of my variegated sock yarn stash.  I've decided to do it the easy way and just make the simplest stockingette socks from them all.  Not only will it be a quick and mindless batch of projects, but it's also an exercise in Letting Go of the Outcome.  My tendency is to be an über-planner and a bit of a perfectionist and I do like to challenge that tendency by just doing, sometimes, and learning that I can still fall in love with unpredictable results.

My latest simple sock project from the yarn stash was this pair of bright and happy green and yellow Koigu KPPPM socks.  The stunning beauty of a skein of handpainted KPPPM is definitely one of the hardest temptations for me to resist, though it is also a yarn for which it can be difficult to find an appropriate knitting design.  I've been hoarding this Koigu for the better part of a decade, so it's a nice feeling to finally use it.  The socks even ended up being pretty cute - the effect is mostly stripey, which is the most I could have hoped for.

p.s. George RR Martin fans will perhaps recognize the name of these socks - but only from the books, not from HBO!

Striation Socks

The last installment of Cookie A's 2012 sock club included some lovely dark purple cashmere-blend sock yarn from Stricken Smitten.  Of the two patterns offered, the pattern I chose was an open lace diamond design.  I started with the Large size, but quickly realized that the lace pattern has so much stretch to it that I ripped them back and restarted with the Medium.  It feels so good for a girl with huge hobbit feet to make a pair of size Medium socks!  They knit up very quickly (in just two days for the second sock) and fit perfectly.

I have made a difficult decision this year to not join the sock club again.  I really loved doing it for the last two years, maybe even more than I loved the Blue Moon Fiber Arts sock club the two years prior, but I think it's time for me to start making a dent in the sock yarn I already have, rather than continuing to add to it.  I'm currently working on making a bunch of stockingette socks from the variegated yarns I have left over from years past, and I'm also mentally pairing up fancier designs with the semisolids I've been buying more recently.  It's going to be a good year for socks.

Greynbow Socks

It's a while ago that I started these socks (and mentioned having to restart them a few times.)  I was halfway through the second sock when I left them to hibernate a bit, while I started and completed the Umaro blanket and started another pullover.

I recently picked them up again (mostly because I had another pair of socks I wanted to start, and self-imposed a rule that I had to finish this pair to start another pair.)  Having finally memorized the stitch pattern helped to get them finished.  Taking them to work a couple of times to knit during breaks didn't hurt, either.

The yarn was a gift from a kind knitterly friend, some time ago.  It's a lovely greyed-out rainbow of colours from Dream in Color.  The pattern is from the AntiCraft, also some time ago.  I didn't follow the pattern exactly, but rather decided to use my own sock recipe, more or less, with the Vinnland pattern on the instep, and simple ribbing on the back of the leg.

I also elected to try a new type of heel, this time, rather than the simple and reliable afterthought heels that I've been relying on, lately.  I used Cat Bordhi's YouTube tutorial for her Sweet Tomato heel, and tried it out.  I actually had to rip it back a time or two to make it fit my heel just right, but in the end it's pretty comfy and smooth, and looks cool, too.

Umaro

Anyone who follows this blog knows how much I love Brooklyn Tweed patterns.  By last count, I've made eight of them (some more than once) including most of his blanket designs.

A year or two ago, I decided to make this blanket as a gift for someone special.  I bought the yarn and left it to sit in my closet until the right moment came along.  About a month ago, I was struck with a case of finishitis and decided to finish a knitted bag that's been waiting for handles and lining.  While I was searching my closet for the bag handles, I ran across this yarn, along with some yarn that I'd set aside for a cabled pullover.  I haven't found the handles, but I have cast on for two more projects.  I guess sometimes finishitis leads to startitis, too.

While making good progress on the cabled sweater and a couple of pairs of socks, I still managed to make this bulky blanket in a little less than a month.  I used elann's Highland Bulky wool to knit it, with huuuuge needles (10.0 mm, aka US 15.)  The single-ply wool yarn isn't my favourite to knit with, since it's a bit splitty, but it did knit up nicely.  The end result is a warm bulky blanket, albeit a bit fuzzy and prone to picking up lint.  If I did this blanket again (and let's face it, that's not unlikely) I wouldn't use a wool single again, but probably do something with multiple plies, and machine-washable, since I think that would make it more practical.