Finished Scarf

I finished my Diamonds on the Diagonal Scarf, and when I laid out my towel to take a picture of it Stella sat down and would not budge... I I had to take a picture of the scarf on Stella. She cooperated for once and I really like the photo! She almost looks like a statue. Very cute.

She did eventually get up and give me back my scarf, then I was able to take a close-up shot of where the diagonal lines meet and change directions. Lovely. 

The scarf was a really quick knit. Only took me three days. I forgot to weigh the yarn before I began, I wanted to use up all the yarn in this project, so if I had weighed it I would have known exactly when to switch the direction of the diagonal lines and then used up maximum yardage. But because I forgot to weigh the skein and I didn't totally trust the weight given on the label, I opted on the conservative side and ended up with 12g of yarn left in the end. I could have done 1 more repeat in each direction, I'm a little ticked about that, but I'll deal. The next time I knit this scarf I'll know to weigh the yarn first. I'm still planning on dyeing the whole thing a light/bright shade of orange to cover up the unsightly white blotches while keeping the darker orange and red tones. But I don't have any immediate plans for when that will happen yet. It's 3o degrees here today! I have no urgent need for a scarf!

As soon as I finished the Diamonds on the diagonal scarf I was struck by the need to cast on the Gathered Pullover. I saw this great finished project over on the Team Knit blog, had yarn in my stash that I've been itching to use, felt that the pattern and yarn were compatible, and the rest is history! Here's where I'm at so far:

The body is knit in the round, so it's an entire body and two top fronts in 2 days of knitting. This is shaping up to be the fastest knit ever! I'm really happy with it so far. The pattern is great and the yarn I'm using (Elann Peruvian Pure Alpaca Worsted in Hyacinth Heather) is sooo soft and gorgeous. I know that purple isn't for everyone, but I love this shade. It has bits of pink and teal that occasionally pop up upon closer inspection. It's really lovely, and did I mention sooo soft! It's not the sport weight yarn that was recommended in the pattern, but I've seen that others have knit this sweater in worsted with good results, so since I got gauge I'm going to hope all works out. The bottom is curling WAY too much though, so I think I'll end up turning it under to make a hem rather then just letting it do it's thing. The way it is now it's a bit ridiculous. Tonight I hope to finish the back, then work on the sleeves, and hopefully I'll have a sweater by the end of the week! Fastest sweater ever! And so far, I think it might be in the running for the award of favorite sweater ever too!  

Stella's first sweater

For the past week I've been working on making my first dog sweater. It's actually very complicated! Stella is a whippet, and whippet's have very peculiar body shapes. She has a tiny little head, a long muscular neck, a deep chest with big lungs to support her 63km/h sprints, and then a teeny, tiny little waist, not to mention her long skinny stick legs. Don't get me wrong, I think she's beautiful, but she's got a tough body to knit for. I decided to follow the Original Custom-Fit Dog Sweater pattern by Esther Smith Bozak. The thing I liked about this particular pattern is that it's just a guideline. It tells you how and where to measure your specific dog, then tells you to pick a yarn and figure out a gauge, then gives you percentages that you apply to your gauge and your dog's measurements to end up with a perfect garment for your dog. And it worked great! This is the sweater from the top:

It's plain and simple with just a tiny bit of detail to add character. The underside looks funnier!

And then here's a photo of the finished object modeled by the recipient in a super awkward and uncomfortable stance. She doesn't mind the sweater, she's just always weird around camera's. She doesn't get why I'm squatting as if to pet her yet at the same time telling her to stay away from me... And she's squinting! Why do dog's and kids always have to close their eyes in pictures!?

This was my first attempt at knitting for her. I'm pleased with the result, but mostly this sweater is just the prototype. I knit it using Dale of Norway/Dalegarn Falk yarn in a heather grey that I think suits her well. It took just about a week from start to finish, but the next one will be much quicker since I have all the proper measurements and have worked out all the kinks on this one. I won't have to be trying it on her every couple of inches to make sure I'm on the right track. The yarn was leftover in my stash. It was knit on 3.25mm needles. 

I think her next sweater will be knit out of TFA worsted weight superwash merino in Royal Flush. I think she'd look great in red. And for all those people who think that dog's in sweaters are ridiculous, I ask you not to make fun of my skinny little whippet. She'll get cold in the fall since she has so little body fat. I'm doing it out of necessity, not vanity, but I still think she's going to look great in red!

Knitting Stuff

Lately I've been pretty preoccupied with trying to come up with patterns that would really highlight my hand dyed yarns. My intent is to design my own original patterns for my yarns, but I'm not quite a designer yet, I'm working on it. Right now though I'm practicing by knitting other people's designs. This is Ilga Leja's Diamonds on the Diagonal Scarf. I'm knitting it in Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 in the Tangerine colourway. I know it doesn't make any sense that I'm knitting it in Fleece Artist since the whole point is that I'm looking for way's to highlight MY YARN, but I had this skein of Tangerine, and I've never actually knit with Fleece Artist before, and I lost focus and on impulse cast on with it. I love the pattern! It's simple and crisp and clean and exactly the kind of thing that would suit my tonal colourways. I'm not nuts about this Tangerine though, first of all, since when am I so in to orange? I think that I just try so hard to branch out and expand my colour spectrum that I've ended up going way too far in the opposite direction from what I naturally gravitate towards. Typically, I would always chose blues, but because I'm trying to diversify I'm doing a total 180 and knitting with orange. Go figure. When I knit this pattern with my own yarn I'll have to chose a blue. Besides the colour, I've also noticed that this skein contains quite a few un-dyed spots, can you see the white spaces creating a sort of "V" on the top of the photo? I'm not a big fan of that, I may end up over-dyeing the whole thing when I'm done.

Today my best friend Lydia and I decided that it was about time that I teach her how to knit! She's almost 25 for crying out loud! All those years she could have been knitting but didn't know how! I really hope she gets addicted! I think that this scarf pattern would make a great second or third project for her, it's simple, but impressive, and teaches a lot of knitting basics. 

So, speaking of me trying to become a knitwear designer, I'm working on my first original fair-isle mitt pattern. The work in progress is pictured bellow. I've worked out a lot of the kinks and by the time it's done it will most probably look completely different (I'm now not sure about the colours or the pattern!) but at least I've worked out guage, length, width and thumb placement, which are all big things. I'm going to rip the whole mitten out and start again, hopefully it'll only take one more try.

last but not least, here are some pictures of my rovings! Remember how I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to become a spinner? Well, I've taken the first step and started a fiber stash! I still don't have a spinning wheel, or a particularly firm grasp on how to turn fiber into actual yarn, but I'm heading in that general direction.

I bought this lovely 1/4 lb roving at London-Wul in Lakeburn, NB on a recent rip to the maritimes. It doesn't have a name, but it's got lovely tones of navy, purple, rose and even a hint of shimmery turquoise that doesn't really come through in the photo. (Those are the types of colours I usually chose, no orange in sight!)

Then in a moment of weakness I logged on to Coloursongs yarn and pruchased these six 50g Fleece Artist slivers. Just enough of each to hopefully make a bit of pretty yarn to stripe a hat or add detail to a scarf project. From left to right we have Silk Merino sliver in Cosmic Dawn, Peridot and Hercules, Wenleydale Teeswater Sliver in Mermaid and Blue Face Leicester Sliver in Seashore and Peridot (Notice how different Peridot looks in Silk Merino versus Blue Face Leicester!) I'm very excited to work with all these fibers. The silk merino feels like a dream and confirms to me that the next yarn I add to Tanis Fiber Arts collection (after the worsted weight merino that's coming any day now) has got to have silk in it! Or at least something luxurious and shiny like bamboo or soy. I'd better learn how to spin soon!

Razor Cami

Back to back posts! Who would have ever believed that this could happen! As anyone who has ever tried their hand at blogging, or even journal writing knows, keeping up to date with it on a daily basis is really hard! For me, I think that hardest part is the photo's. I feel like it's important for a knit blog to have images of knitting, and getting good photo's, with good light, and a non professional camera is pretty tough. But, here I finally got some photos of my finished Razor Cami. 

I actually finished this little summer number over a month ago on July 8th. But it's taken me this long just to take the pictures. I like the finished result more than I thought I would. I've never tried a summer knit before and assumed that I wouldn't be pleased with the fit. But I've worn it twice already, and that's a big accomplishment for me seeing as how I have upwards of 60 summer tops to choose from in my wardrobe (and that's a modest estimation, I used to be a bit of a shopaholic... before rent and bills became a real factor in my life!) 

I knit this cami using Garnstudio Muskat #47. It's a very bright shade of orange, I probably would have proffered a slightly lighter tangerine colour, this colour isn't really that "me", but I can certainly live with it. I received compliments on it both times I wore it by people who didn't even know that I made it! I think that there's just something about a hand made object that people are drawn to even if they don't necessarily know why. Something that's been hand made always looks special. So, though I'm pleasantly surprised and pleased with the results of my first summer knitting project, and also my first cotton knitting project, I don't know that I'm going to start making tank tops and camisoles in every colour. I will definitely be knitting with this gorgeous yarn again though. I'm a sucker for shiny things, and this cotton has just the right amount of gleam. I really like it's drape too, I think it would make really nice, flattering v-neck sweaters.

On a totally different note, y'know how most knitters have cats, it's kind of a "thing"? Well, I have a dog, but she's remarkably cat-like! She jumps on, off and over the backs of couches, she lays on window sills in the sun-shine, and she LOVES balls of yarn! She loves them kind of in the same way that knitters do, not in a destructive way, but in a loving way. If a ball or skein of yarn is left unattended on the couch, she will always curl up with it, it's very cute. That's another thing she has in common with cats, she sleeps in an adorable little ball shape... next to knitted things. 

Tonight, I've cast on for my very first dog sweater. I never thought that I would be the type of person to make sweater's for a dog, but whippets have so little body fat that they need clothing to stay warm during our cold Montreal winters. Actually, I had to buy her a doggy parka for the actual winter, I think sweaters will be more appropriate for Fall and Spring. I'm keeping it very respectable though, I'm knitting a simple heather grey sweater with perhaps one cable down the center back, no feathers or glitter or silliness for my elegant Stella.   

Nova Scotia Vacation

Hi Sean, as you know Chris, Stella and I just got back from a weeks vacation at my cottage in beautiful Nova Scotia. Despite the clouds and the rain, we still had a wonderful time. Though it was pretty dreary most days, we did manage to get one sunny afternoon!

Because of the weather we didn't spend much time on the beach unfortunately. We had a couple nice walks and Chris was a real trooper and went swimming everyday (sometimes even in the rain.) Most of our time was spent indoors reading, playing cards and board games (some of my favorite things about my cottage, after the beach.) And of course knitting. Stella got along really well with my parents dogs, it was so cute to see her cuddling with them!

Despite all of the available knitting time due to the weather, I surprisingly only got one completed sock out of the whole week! Here's a dreadful photo of it. It's knit in Tanis Fiber Arts Moss colourway, using the Retro Ribbed Sock pattern from my Favorite Socks: 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave book, and I'm very pleased with it! It's a new colour and it's always exciting to see how new colours look when knitted up into completed objects.

This close-up of the foot shows how the textured pattern really shows off the yarns subtle variations in tones. I think that this once again proves that lace patterns and texture are really well suited for my tonal yarns. I think that my dad will love these socks.

While in Nova Scotia, I visited London Wul Fiber Arts in neighbouring New Brunswick, and I thought that it was really cool. The people there are so nice and they make such beautiful yarns! I was lucky enough to be offered a drop spindle lesson while I was there and since I've been dying to learn how to spin I was super keen. With a little bit of instruction, I managed to convince myself that I could maybe produce some knittable yarn some day and bought a drop spindle kit and three days later this is what I had:

50g of thick-thin, artsy wool yarn (I'm calling it "artsy" because that makes it seem like maybe it was intentional or something.) The kit included 100g of three different colours of wool fibre. I spun half the brown first, because it's my least favorite colour of the bunch and I figured I'd try and work out some of the kinks on it. All in all, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. I also bought 200g of some lovely blue/mauve/grey roving dyed by the folks at London Wul and once I'm all good and practiced on my roving from my kit, I'll move onto the really pretty stuff. I'm hooked. I'm definitely going to buy a spinning wheel this fall! Hopefully more spinning news to come!

The Gift of Socks

I love giving knitted gifts for Christmas, or any other occasion actually, but Christmas, being in winter, is a perfect time weather wise and other wise to give a hand knit item that can be worn and appreciated right away. The thing is, as all knitters know, you really have to plan ahead if you actually want to have the time to knit a gift for a loved one without going mental. So, it's only July, but I've already gotten quite a head start on some Christmas knitting, exhibit A:

Four pairs of socks!

On the left we have a plain stockinette stitch sock knit out of Tanis Fiber Arts "Stormy" Colourway, and on the right is Craftoholic's Springgrass sock knit out of Tanis Fiber Arts in "Marine". 

Next we have simple twisted rib socks knit out of Lorna's Laces in "Bittersweet" and Blue Moon Fiber Arts "Christmas Balls" colourway.  All four are actually pairs, I just decided to model one of each.

And though this has nothing to do with socks or Christmas, here's the newest member of my family, Stella:
She's an 8 month old whippet and is a total angel! I'm sure she'll become proud knitwear model in the months to come. We just love her.

Summer knitting

This whole concept is brand new to me! I've never had the slightest bit of interest in knitting summery things. I tend to dress in pretty form fitting clothes, especially in the summer, so a knit camisole never seemed like the right thing for me, because I didn't think that it would be possible for me to knit something that I'd ever actually end up wearing. But then I fell in love with this lovely cotton yarn. It's so shiny and smooth and just beautiful, and I wanted to find a way that I could knit with it, and actually make something that I'd wear. Then I saw this and this and decided that I could give the razor cami a try.

I'm knitting it in Garnstudio Muskat #47. It's a VERY bright orange, I ordered it online and when it came in the mail even I was a little surprised at it's intensity. But then I figured, if you're going for orange, you might as well go for bold! 

I've actually knit much more then what I've photographed. I've only got the straps left to knit, and I expect to get them done tonight if all goes well, so then it'll just be a bit of light blocking and I'll be ready to model it! It's crazy hot here though, too hot for a knitted cami, even if it is cotton yarn... I'll have to wait for a cooler evening to wear it, but I think it'll be a success. The yarn is awesome. I love the sheen, the stitch definition, the drape. I will definitely be knitting more cotton projects, so even if this knitted cami thing doesn't work out, this project will not have been in vain because I've found a new lovable yarn!

Progress

I'm making progress on my mitered square blanket, I feel a bit weird about it though, kind of how I felt while I was working on my Noro Lizard Ridge Afghan. When I take on a big project like this, invest so much money and time into it, I feel like I really need to milk it for all it's worth! I could work solidly on this blanket for another week or two and probably get it done, but I feel like it really can't be rushed, like I need to just take it slow, do one square at a time and let myself really enjoy it, because if I finish it too quickly, then somehow all the work won't be worth as much or something. That may make me crazy, but I've decided to approach it that way, I knit a square whenever I feel like it, and watch it come together slowly. I've got 3 new squares to share, I've placed them in order of least liked to most liked:

I'm not really fond of the orangy-peachy squares, but I'm working towards a rainbow-like gradation of colour over the finished project, so I need some orange/peach in there somewhere to balance it out. I'm all done with that section though, I've gone through my red, orange and yellow half of the afghan and now I'm working towards the green, blue, indigo and violet section. That's the part I'm really looking forward to, I think I'll like every square I knit from now on. I know it seems weird to be knitting with colours that I don't like, but I think/hope that the overall effect will be worth it. Here's where I'm at so far:

Half done! And I've only been working on it for a year!

Cabled Yoke Pullover

So, I have actually been doing a lot of knitting lately, but just haven't had the time to document it. Today, it was sunny and beautiful and even though it was definitely NOT sweater weather, I decided that I couldn't pass up this photo-op, and dragged Ceej outside to photograph my new favorite sweater. Voila the Cabled Yoke Pullover from Patons pattern book Cables #500846.

I used the recommended yarn, Patons Decor in Winter White (I'm not sure if that's the recommended colour). They sell Decor at a LYS near my apartment, and I had the pattern book and had been wanting to knit this sweater for months, and then one day in March I was just overwhelmed with the urge to start it right away! I had some grey wool in my stash that I had intending on using for this project, but the more I thought about it the more I felt that this pattern really needed to be knit in ecru. So I marched to my LYS and bought the Decor because I knew it was available and I'd be able to cast-on that same afternoon. If I were to knit this sweater again, I would use a different yarn, maybe Patons Classic merino Wool, as long as it was something not synthetic. Decor is a lovely, soft, pleasant yarn, but I'm really a wool person. Its the only thing I'd change about this sweater.

I made a couple alterations to the pattern. First of all, I made the smallest size, but felt right off the bat that it was going to end up a bit too baggy for my liking, so I made it a couple stitches smaller all over. I'm really happy with the way it fits now. This is one of the first times that I've been disciplined enough to rip and re-knit portions of a project that I wasn't happy with. Usually, I have a really bad habit of not being a perfectionist, I knit things once, and if I don't like it, I'd rather just never wear it then have to undo and re-knit all that hard work, I know it doesn't make that much sense, but I just hate doing things twice! But, this time, I knew that this sweater had potential, so I stuck with it. I didn't like the way the collar fit me, it was very stretchy, kind of stood up and flipped out and looked very victorian or something, so I undid the cables and did a simple 1x3 rib instead and turned in under to make a stiffer, mock turtleneck look. It really suits me better. Here's a close up of the yoke, I didn't get that much of the collar in the shot, but you can see where the cables stop and the ribbing starts.

I also had to undo the whole bottom 6 inches of the sweater. I followed the pattern, but it ended up with a very short stockinette section and the 6 inches of cables and even with that the whole thing fell somewhere just above my belly button and looked really stupid. At this point, I knew that I'd have to rip, but couldn't bare the thought of it, so I set the whole thing aside for about 3 months. When I decided to give it another go I just undid the 6 inches of cables, knit about 5 inches of plain stockinette, then added 4 inches of cables. I think that the proportions work better on me since I'm petite. A taller woman could probably handle all those inches of cables on the bottom, but for me, it was a bit much. Here's a photo of the better, shorter cabled bottom edge (I also did 4 inches of cables on the sleeves). You may also want to notice my gorgeous new shell leaf ring. I just love it!

I think that come fall I'll get a lot of wear out of this cute pullover. It's casual, but a bit special and different because of it's interestingly placed cables. A winner in my books! 

Little Inga Hat

I've taken a big liking to tackling small projects that use up stash, are instantly gratifying and are cute and challenging to boot! The Inga Hat is just such a project. 

The new technique that I learned from this great hat is how to knit a braid. Every time I saw people on other blogs knitting braids, I always thought that they were really pretty, but that they must be quite tricky, or at least finicky, because people always seemed to lament doing them. But then when I saw that Hello Yarn had voluntarily added a second row of knitted braid to her little Inga, I figured they couldn't be that bad. And it wasn't bad at all! Very much worth the effort. It fits really well, I'll definitely wear it next winter, my only complaint is that I wish I had reversed the colours, like I wish that I had done the background in the turquoise and the pattern in white. I like the colours together with a hit of yellow for umph, but in retrospect, and after exploring finished objects on Ravelry, I think that results seem to be better when the darker colour is used as the background. I can see myself knitting this hat again, so next time I'll make do it that way. Also, before this hat is considered totally finished, I plan on using double stitch to make the little dots in the center of the pattern yellow, I think it'll make them stick out more and kind of look like jewels (I stole that from Hello Yarn too). All in all, I love the pattern, and the shorter version is perfect for my little head.

Fiddlehead Mittens

This weekend I decided to knit Hello Yarn's Fiddlehead Mittens. I love colourwork patterned mittens like this! In Montreal we get a long, cold winters which are made a slight bit easier to take by the fact that we have months and months where we get to sport cozy mittens. So why not make that essential mitten wearing fun!? The prettier the mittens, the more pleasurable they are to wear, or at least that's how I feel about it. 

I had planned on making these mitts for me. I was totally going to buy a kit off of the Hello Yarn website, but she's taking a break from making them, so I had to find another solution. I loved the pattern and had seen them knit with kureyon as the contrasting colour on Ravelry, and since I have a bag of leftover Kureyon ends from my Lizard Ridge Afghan I thought I'd knit them that way. I still have a bag of Kureyon leftovers under my day-bed, but I'm saving them for more fun projects like this. By adding a bit of kureyon to a project involving other leftover yarns, stash-busting immediately becomes a lot more enjoyable! So, here are the mittens: 

I used Patons Classic Merino Wool in Natural Mix as the background colour. I love that wool in that colour, it's so wool-like, it feels like it would have come off the sheep exactly that colour, so natural and hearty. It's probably one of my favorite yarns ever. I used the leftover's from my Must Have Cardigan, so this was a real economical project. The patterns calls for dk weight yarn, but seeing as how I'd seen it done in worsted on ravelry I thought I'd give it a try. I knit it on 3.25mm needles and followed the size for the smallest version, but because of the gauge of the yarn I suspect I got a much larger result then I had wanted. On me, they fit more like oven mitts!

I prefer my mittens to fit a bit on the snug side, so unfortunately, I've had to gift these mittens over to Chris. He's a great sport and will wear almost any colour in hand-knit gifts from me. He's got purple socks, yellow socks, Blue Moon Fiber Arts multicoloured striped socks, and now, he's got pretty mittens, and while the pattern isn't necessarily un-masculine, the first mitt I knit featured exclusively pink and purple kureyon, but he still loves them. I had intended that the mitts be a fraternal pair, so to compensate for the girly colours of the first mitt, I knit the second one in a decidedly more boyish combination of blues and browns. I think they're both lovely! The pattern was a quick and fun knit, and I'll definitely attempt a second (smaller) pair in a thinner yarn at some point.

The pattern calls for the mittens to be lined, but I've opted not to do that since the heavier yarn makes for a very sturdy and warm mitt as it is. The pattern also calls for an I-cord cast on, which I had never attempted before (I almost exclusively use long-tail cast on, it's how I first learnt.) but I'm now in love with the I-cord cast on! It's so clean looking! And though it takes way longer then my beloved long-tail, it's so worth it because of the beautiful finished look it adds. I'm a convert, for certain projects at least. It was really neat to lear something new. And I realize the middle of a heat wave in June is an odd time to be knitting mittens, but I'm not really in to summer knits, so in the summer, I just suck it up, sweat through the heavy knitting, and rejoice when fall rolls around and I can enjoy all that hard work!

Another Baby Sweater

I've been briefly hooked on making baby sweaters. But I think I've gotten it out of my system for now. Here's my second Tanis Fiber Arts baby sweater. I used the pattern for the blended hues cardigan from Knitty, but while the pattern calls for 3 strands of lace weight yarn held together, I used two strands of fingering weight yarn instead, so my colour transitions aren't as smooth. I still think it's pretty cute though. I LOOOOOVE the little fish buttons. The special recipient of this sweater happens to love fishies, or at least she did the last time I saw her, 2 year olds change their minds a lot, by the time she receives this sweater she may be over fish, but I still think they're cute.