Lilac Canuck

The second of the knitalongs was of course the first one I finished, since it's just a quick little hat.  I love the lilac colour so much, and think it really works with these cables.

The skein of Green Label Aran had plenty of yarn in it to do a third repeat of the cables before closing the top, which makes the hat just a bit longer - long enough to cover my ears in the cold, which was the idea.  I probably could have made it with a bit of a looser gauge, so it wouldn't be so snug around my big ol' head.  It's ok as is, but I feel like a bit more give would be more comfy and give more of a slouchy fit when I don't pull it all the way down.

Either way, I'm happy to have a bright spot of colour to cheer me up on those cold winter walks to work.

Winter Knitalongs

While many knitters are probably tearing their hair out trying to finish all their knitted gifts for the holidays, I'm not one of them.  There are a few reasons for this, including my general assertion that the holidays should not be about gifts so much as about spending time with loved ones, and the fact that I don't knit a lot of things for other people, being quite unabashedly selfish about how I spend my limited knitting time.

The end result, of course, is that I have time right now to join some knitalongs.

The first one I decided to indulge in is one at Hazel Knits (ravelry link) - this one is a Mystery Sock knit, with the option of knitting other patterns by the same designer if you don't want to knit the mystery sock.  I was excited about the mystery, so I started that sock cuff, but decided I didn't love it by the second clue.  I ripped them out and picked another pattern by the designer (called Lambda socks) and began that one instead.  This is the toe of the second sock - it's a really quick knit and the socks are quite lovely, too.  I'm using Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in an old club colourway called Twilight.  It's a very dark teal, nearly black, and very difficult to photograph!

Once I was doing one knitalong, it seemed easier, somehow, to fall into a second one.  This one is over at Tanis Fiber Arts, and is simply a chance to knit some accessories from TFA yarns.   I could always use another hat to brighten up my winter doldrums, so I decided to do Tanis' Cabled Canuck pattern.  Ever since I knit my Colour Affection shawl, I've had a hankering to knit something else with the Lilac colourway, so I used this chance to do it.  The pattern calls for two repeats of the cables before closing the hat at the top, but I think I'll try to squeak three out of this skein.  That will make the hat longer, to cover my ears (the project photos make it look a bit short for that) and also give me a chance to fold the ribbing up to double it up over my ears.  Get the feeling that I'm planning for some cold weather?

There's still time to join either or both of these knitalongs, if you're feeling inspired...

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.

Jester Socks

It was finally cool enough for five minutes yesterday for me to put on these socks for a quick photo shoot.  I finished them a while ago (and in fact am more than halfway through yet another pair of stockingette socks) and really wanted to show them off.

I know I've already shown a couple of photos of these ones, while they were in the making, but I can't help but think they're just the cutest.  The colour combo is pretty wild, and the little zigzag borders just make me smile every time I see them.

There is nothing particularly remarkable to say about these, although the components of them make them great - the leftover TFA cashmere-blend yarn, the aforementioned stranded-knit zigzags, and the simple backdrop of mindless stockingette to show it all off.  Love.

Sunny With A Chance of Lazy

The weather here is pretty unbearably hot, right now.  It's been in the low 30s all week, and without air conditioning, there's been a lot of laying around and sweating, while wearing barely anything.  Luckily I had enough foresight to buy a Fast Pop maker a couple of weeks ago, which actually freezes juice into popsicles in literally 10 minutes.  Instant icy gratification, here I come.

In the meantime, I finished and blocked my stripey sweater, but it's far too hot to put it on, even for a simple photo.  Ugh.

I'm also to the point of putting the binding on my quilt, but I don't relish the idea of sitting with it in my lap while I hand finish it.

Last week I was still in the midst of my finishitis and picked up another old project - a woolen aran baby blanket I designed in the fall - but this week, since I can't stand to have any knitting laying in my lap, I have had to scale down a bit and work exclusively on my latest socks.  These ones are using the leftover Lilac and Royal Flush Purple label yarn from TFA.  I added a few rounds of stranded knitting to make a zigzag between the toe and foot (and then again between the leg and cuff) which I think adds to their overall cuteness.  They're going to be a bit short, since I don't have quite enough of the Lilac to make them the length I generally would, but that's okay.  Right now I can't stand the thought of tall socks on my sweaty ankles, anyway.

Cashmere Affection

Although I've mostly been showing off my quilt progress, lately, I have been steadily knitting on one project or another.  While I had Cashmere Affection on the needles, it was almost exclusively on that, since it is such a fun and easy and lovely project (and since the yarn I was using was so luxurious and breathtaking.)

It only took me about two and a half weeks to knit the whole thing up, and I really enjoyed it.  It was a bit fussy for a while, when I had three strands of yarn hanging off it, but even that wasn't enough to annoy me.  While I was knitting, I thought there was no way it was going to end up as huge as some of them I've seen on Ravelry, since it didn't seem that squished up on my needles.  Even when I bound it off and had it off the needles, it didn't seem so big.  Once I wet blocked it, however...  wow.  I tried to lay it on my bed to block, but had a foot or two of length hanging off both the head and foot end of my bed.  I had to lay it out on my living room floor, and even then it barely squeaked into the space I had.  This thing is huge!  I had expected it to have a bit more depth, but it's quite narrow.  I could have stretched out the garter stitch to give it more depth, but that takes away from the squishy-factor of the garter stitch, which I'd rather not do.  If I knit it again, I'll probably make some alterations to add some more depth to it, especially since there is lots of spare yarn to work with.

The colours I chose are pretty bold and perhaps even clashing - in some lights the Royal Flush looks more red than fuchsia, and the whole thing takes on a bit more of a Moulin Rouge feeling.  In other lights it's a bright wild pink and the shawl feels more like a wild bouquet.  In any case, it's super snuggly: garter stitch in the softest cashmere/wool blend is definitely a recipe for success.

And Then There Were Two

When my sisters (bless them) gave me a gift certificate for Tanis Fiber Arts for my birthday, I hemmed and hawed a bit about what to use it for.  I initially planned to put it toward some aran-weight yarn for a Velvet Morning Cardigan, which I've been coveting for a while, but I already have one fair isle cardigan I haven't been working on, so why add another to the pile?  I also thought about getting one of her palettes, to play with some Granny Squares.  Eventually I realized that the best thing to do would be to buy some cashmere for a Color Affection, one of the latest viral knitting patterns (even more so, I'm sure, since the Yarn Harlot threw hers into the ring.)

So I hemmed and hawed a lot more about which three colourways to choose, and eventually just went with the first combo that had appealed to me (which is my usual M.O.)  When I told my sis that I was planning a Color Affection, she asked me if I was doing it for the TFA Colour Knit Along.  I was so absorbed in my planning that I'd completely forgotten that Tanis was doing one!  I checked the dates and decided there was lots of time to join the fun, so when the yarn arrived on Tuesday, I immediately wound up three pretty little yarn cakes and then cast on.

Today I finished the first phase of squishy soft garter stitch (in Lemongrass) and finally added the first pretty little stripe of Lilac.  It's actually taking a lot of self-control to make myself write this post, when I'd rather be working on adding more and more little springtimey stripes to the shawl.  In fact, to heck with this!  (I never had much self-control, anyway.)  I'll show you more when I get that third colour added!

On the Needles

Although time may pass by without me posting, it is usually because I am working on so many projects that I don't take the time to blog. In January, I was pretty monogamous with my TFA knitalong project, the Ombre cardigan (pics soon) but once I finished that, I was anxious to get back to everything I'd put on hold while I worked on it.


First of all, I've been slowly plugging away on this alpaca cardigan for a long time - I've knit a plain brown stockingette body, and finally got to the more exciting bit, at the sleeves. The stranded work turned out pretty well, and I'm sure it will tidy up more with a good blocking. One more sleeve to go and I can knit the matching yoke and finish this up. Doesn't the colour combination make you think of Neapolitan ice cream?


Also in the pink vein (it must've been Valentine's Day) I have started a complicated pair of socks (i.e. my usual) with a lovely soft pink from Tanis Fiber Arts. Well, I started and restarted (and restarted) them, really. It took a few tries to get the fit right. I also finally got a better sense of the pattern by the third try, so now I can knit it without painstakingly following the chart, stitch by stitch. This is still the first sock, so I have a way to go with this pair.


Then there's a hat - not much to see yet, but just look at that fantastic yarn from Madelinetosh. So perfect and round and soft... and what a colourway! It looks so grey in some lighting, and so blue in other lighting. As my eyes also shift a bit from blue to grey, I think it will be a good hat for me. Because I need another hat.


Lastly, not really on the needles, but soon to be on the loom, another scarf. Because I also need another scarf. As you can see, it's going to be all rainbows, offset by navy (because one can't always go with black.) You can't really tell from the warp how complex and awesome the finished scarf will be, but it's going to be pretty cool, once I actually get to it.

Also, I just realized that I also have another cardi and a blanket that I didn't take photos of... so you'll have to imagine those, for now.

In the meantime, photos of finished projects coming!