WIP Wednesday: Mitten Ho and some yarn Déjà vu

Hi there. Not much to say on today's topic, honestly.

If you'll remember back a few weeks ago, I talked about the Irish Moss Toque I completed using Gale Woods Farm Finn yarn. Although I loved it and it was a lovely hat, I couldn't quite get it to fit right (it ended up slightly too short). That, combined with having another 110 yard ball of yarn left over and not being sure what to do with it, led me to thinking about possibly trying to make something else with it, a cowl or else a hat/mitten set.

Since my shawl was getting really big and I wanted to have something more portable to knit in airports for my trip last week (I ended up not actually knitting since the knitting didn't fit in my carry on bag anyway, so the point is moot, but whatever), I decided to try to find a hat/mitten set that I could use to knit this yarn. I finally settled on the High Peaks Mittens and Hat by Anne Hanson. It was published as part of Knitspot. It looked like it would work well with this thicker, more roughspun yarn and I figured I could make the yardage work out.

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I didn't swatch since the gauge was the same as the one I ended up with for the previous hat. That said, it turns out that either I should have or else the pattern is written for someone with hands bigger than mine since this one mitten is slightly too big for me. The reason the picture doesn't look the best is that (a) it's MN fall so it's basically always kind of dark outside and (b) the mitten is wet because I wanted to see how big it would be after blocking. I think I either need to take out stitches and cast back on or I need to use smaller needles. The idea of knitting what is essentially aran weight yarn on 3.5mm needles is laughable, but I actually do think the fabric on the 3.75mm needles is too open (at least pre-washing.) I'm trying to decide if I want to just go ahead and cast on the second mitten on the 3.5mm needles or cast on the hat or move on to the next project and decide what to do about the mittens once the first mitten dries.

I'm also trying to decide if I actually like these mittens. The pattern is easy and is made with all purl and knit stitches and no cables or anything, but it's really puffy and it seems to look okay in all the project photos I looked at, but I don't know if I actually like it in my yarn. Fortunately, as with the hat project in this yarn, I managed to knit one mitten in like 3 hours, so if I want to keep changing my mind at least I'm not ripping out days of knitting.

Thoughts? Do you like it? Try to find something else and find another yarn for this? The pattern was, in my opinion, rather expensive for what you actually get. It's very much a beginner pattern and while it's well written, it's bare bones and definitely something I feel like I could have just made up on my own instead of paying $8 for. I'm not against paying designers, of course, but I don't at all believe this was an $8 pattern so now I feel like I'm obligated to try to knit this with SOMETHING for SOME reason. I just...don't love it in this yarn at all.

FO Friday: In Which It's Actually Sunday

I honestly meant to write this post on Friday, but all of a sudden it was 10pm and I really didn't feel like getting off the couch.

Besides, this thing took FOREVER to dry. As far as I know it's *still* not dry, I haven't looked at it recently. Apparently "real wool" as I called it when Jonas commented that it was taking forever to dry (don't ask me, I hadn't been caffeinated yet) takes about eight years to dry out once thoroughly saturated. More likely it's that I had two layers of cabled worsted weight knitting laying flat on top of itself on a rubberised surface, but we'll pretend that it's just because the rusticness of handspun heritage sheep means it retains water better.

As you may have guessed by now, I have finished my Irish Moss Toque. I actually finished it Wednesday night after writing the WIP post (and then finishing up some casings on a project bag). The top decreases look way better this time, and although it doesn't fold over on the bottom like the pattern calls for, I think it fits me remarkably well. I think it not folding over will ultimately be okay as it's super heavy pure wool knit on needles that are a few sizes down than I would usually use in order to maintain a denser fabric. I also don't think the fact that there are only two repeats instead of three makes it look weird, but I can't see all the sides of my head at the same time so I may not be the best judge.

In just a few minutes when I put these pictures I'm including below into my Ravelry page this will be finished, finished, finished. It's a super quick knit, and like I said on Wednesday the cable pattern is, to me at least, really intuitive. I do have some of the yarn the pattern actually calls for, so I may give this a go and knit it in that yarn to see how it does with a thinner yarn and possibly all the pattern repeats. As it stands now I only used 1 skein of just under 100 grams (116 yds/106 metres) for this one, which means I have another skein to make myself some other fantabulous winter accessories. I highly recommend this yarn if you can get your hands on it as it's lovely to knit and washes up lovely and soft and plump, but retains its rusticness. I think this is the perfect yarn for some rustic but stylish winter outerwear.

Pattern: Irish Moss Toque by Alexandra Charlotte Defoe

Yarn: Gale Woods Farm 100% Finn Wool

WIP Wednesday: Worsted Weight Hats on Big Needles are So Gratifying

Hi all,

Insert that part where I apologise for falling off the blogosphere for a while. I just needed to get through August. I now have a sudden explosion of free time (which is AMAZING), so the only trick to posting more now will be actually remembering to do it (not as easy as it seems).

Quick update...I finished the Daenerys shawl I had been working on and I've worn it a few times and everyone LOVES it (I'm knitting one for a friend, so you'll get to see the progress on that one coming up starting next week). I also spent the Olympics dyeing some cashmere in one of my favourite new colourways and then designing my first ever actual design project (minus intarsia hats) to go with it. I'm trying to figure out how to chart the pattern now and hopefully it will get published soon. I have no idea how to go about finding test knitters, so it might go up untested, which I don't want to do, but I don't exactly have connections who want to test knit a thing. Jonas would do it, but it's a bit above his level (it's not hard, but he's never done cables before). It's fingerless mitts inspired by my new favourite fandom (The Raven Cycle). Let me know if you think you might want to test knit for me!

I also dyed some yarn for Kaity of the Knerd Girl Knits podcast so she could design some colourwork mittens. I'll be sure to share any updates on that with you here as well.

Finally, if you want to win a skein of my yarn (the new colourway I mentioned above!) or you just want a 10% discount to my shop, visit my good friend Mrs. Shoo at the Cultivate and Create podcast, listen to her episodes (you can just listen to the most recent one if you want, but I recommend a back listen. There are only 20 episodes and they all tend to be about 15-30 minutes, so it's manageable), and enter the contest she's got going on.

Okay.... quick general updates out of the way, let's talk WIP.

Random number generator landed on some Gale Woods Farm Finn Wool (worsted weight, spun from sheep raised at Gale Woods Farm right here in Minnesota) in a sort of natural tan colour with a grey undertone. It's a lovely, sheepy, rustic yarn, so I wanted to knit something lovely and rustic and classic, but also warm. I only had 232 yds (212 metres), so it wasn't going to be a big something. At first I thought cowl, but I ended up finding a lovely cabled hat pattern instead.

It actually took me longer to swatch for the hat than it did to actually knit the hat, I think. I just couldn't get the gauge right (it still isn't) and also make a fabric I liked. The pattern is a 38 or 42 stitch repeat, so it wasn't like I could fudge the stitch count overmuch. Thankfully, I ended up in a situation where I had the right gauge so I could only do 2 pattern repeats instead of 3 (it probably won't look balanced when it's on, but I guess I'll deal with that when I get there). I also knew it was going to take a weird amount of my yarn. Sure enough, I knit most of it (putting in extra ribbing so I could fold it over and still make the hat long enough while being able to start the decreases in the place called for by the pattern) and then ended up switching to the second ball just before the crown decreases, which would have left me with an awkward amount of yarn (which I hate). It only took me about 2 days of knitting to finish the hat, but the decreases aren't charted, so you're sort of left on your own to figure out how to maintain the cable pattern while decreasing, and I definitely did it wrong. That, combined with not wanting an awkward amount of yarn left, made me rip it back. I also dropped down a needle size since (as usual) the hat was too long for my tiny head. 

So I've basically already knit this once, but I'm reknitting it with smaller needles and I've not added any lengthening to the ribbing. Hopefully the crown decreases will go better this time and the hat will fit right. It's still a fun, quick knit; the cable pattern is really intuitive; and the yarn is lovely and rustic and has a delightful hand to it. I can't wait to wear it once winter starts, since I think it will be fantastically warm.

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 Pattern: Irish Moss Toque by Alexandra Charlotte Defoe

Yarn: Gale Woods Farm 100% Finn Wool

WIP Wednesday: Big Damn Heroes

As part of both Stash Dash AND trying to use up super old stash, I am apparently continuing to knit scarves/shawls even though I still don't understand how to wear them without looking like something is trying to eat my head. In this case, I did a bit of a stash sort to find which things in my stash had the greatest yardage and then went with what was oldest(ish....I fudged it a little). After trying several patterns that were supposed to use up all 1300yds of this yarn that I have (including crochet lace???), I was forced to abandon in favour of a project that is supposed to use up two of the three skeins and then hopefully I will not be tired of the yarn (or I will and I'll save it for later so I can knit it again, I guess) and knit another thing with the other skein. The kicker is that since this is specifically geek-themed yarn, I wanted to keep the pattern in the same fandom.

 

First, photos.

So, I get that it's nearly impossible to see unblocked lace knitting on a circular needle even with the zoom in on the pattern, but hopefully you can get some idea. Essentially this will end up being a poncho/coverup thing (which, again, I don't usually wear, but I am determined to make the styling on this one work without me looking clownish... I'll keep you posted on that.)

Yarn is one of the Nerd Alert yarns that my lys carries. This one is Wild Hare Fibre Studio Pinnacle Sock in the "Browncoat" colourway (SW merino/nylon). Sort of a story about how this yarn and I came to be together... A long time ago (3 years, maybe 4) I was working on my still in progress epic novel series that will perhaps be finished someday if I can figure out how to balance my hobbies now that I have reclaimed my free time. As motivation, I set myself reward levels for hitting word counts. At 50,000 (I.e. "winning" NaNoWriMo) Jonas promised to buy me this yarn. And somehow I ended up with three skeins because at the time I didn't know how to knit socks. Fast forward to now and I have learned that I don't really like highly variegated yarn in straight up sweaters because I don't like pooling or striping, so I had to find an appropriately named/themed pattern to keep it in the fandom (Firefly, for those who don't know the reference).

Enter the pattern:

Big Damn Heroes by Kimberly Golynskiy

 

For those not in the know, "Big Damn Heroes" is a line from the show (which one of the browncoat characters says to another), so it's basically a perfect fandom match. We'll see if it's a perfect garment or not. The rows are getting REALLY long and even though I have the pattern memorised, I can't seem to get through a lace row without having to tink and fix, so it may be done soon or it may take another lifetime. We shall see.

FO "Friday": It's Bigger Than I Am

First things first, I'm aware it's not Friday. I meant to do this yesterday, but I have a 20-point 3-page paper due tomorrow and a 30-point 2-page paper due Monday so priorities sort of necessitated a re-sort. I'm actually only posting now because I've turned in the former paper and I thought I owed myself 30 minutes of not doing schoolwork for a change. Plus I'm super happy with my FO and needed to tell everyone about it.

Second. It's true. This thing is bigger than me. Granted, I'm not that big, but still. I knit a thing for myself to wear that is both longer and wider than my actual self. Yikes.

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See. Bigger than I am. It's 90" long by 20" wide. I am probably 20-ish" wide at the widest point and 63" long.

For those who haven't been following along, this item is the Cocoon wrap by Anne Kuo Lukito. I knit it out of local Minnesota yarn that I'm very sure is not being made/sold anymore by a company called After the Sheep. It's 100% sport weight alpaca and it's soft and warm and cuddly as a wrap (it was formerly all these things as a sweater, but it's much happier being a wrap). Even though it wasn't cold in my house in the least after I finished weaving in the ends, I wrapped it around myself and then promptly declared I was never going to come out of it. Cocoon indeed.

Here are some photos of it so you can (hopefully) get a better idea of the stitch pattern. Sorry there aren't any photos of me wearing it, but by the time we got this all done it was dark outside and the inside lighting was horrible. I could model it now in the few hours of daylight we get up here during deep winter in the frozen north, but I'm not in the least presentable right now. I'll try to get a few on my project page and/or twitter and instagram in the next few weeks.

It's done and it's warm and it's snuggly and it's pretty and the lace blocked out wonderfully. Now if only I'd finished this while it was -10000 outside and not a perfectly reasonable 30F.

FO Friday: It's Still Not the Thing I Wanted to Have Done

Hi all,

The blue wrap is still not done, but I have good faith that you will not see it again here until it's done. I have finished tinking back all the extra pattern repeats I wrote and hope to start the final edging piece tonight. It should be done soon. Then it has to block, which as I mentioned before has its own set of challenges.

So what is done? A project bag. It doesn't seem like much, and it isn't really, especially when you consider that I did all the cutting, sewing, and putting a drawstring in it last Wednesday and all I had to do was put on a snap and take photos, but it's what I've got. It's my first non-fandom-specific project bag, but it's out of some pretty geeky fabric anyway (which a friend made me a skirt out of!). I made this with the intention of it being the bag I offered up for the Prairie Girls Knit and Spin Legendprairie 2016 contest, and perhaps it will be, but I'm thinking I'll let the recipient choose their own bag at this point. Still, contest drawings were released today so I figured I'd better have something to show for it. It's now available in the shop if anyone loves it enough to buy it.

 

Also done (and really it was supposed to just be a thing I did for me because I needed it to knit socks for the KGK CAL), is a new yarn colourway. I needed a basic grey yarn to knit the body of socks (more explanation on that later), so I pulled a few skeins and dropped them in a dyepot with grey dye, not really intending anything to come of it. And then when I was skeining it yesterday I realised it was basically amazing and I immediately listed it in the shop. It's called "Lonely Mountain" after the dwarven home of Erebor in The Hobbit because the kettle-dyed grey reminded me of all the establishing shots of a lone mountain in the distance that you see in all the Hobbit films. It's not flashy or anything, but if you want a good grey yarn I think this colour is pretty fantastic.

 

Stash Confessional: Minnesota Knitters Guild Yarnover 2015

So...I acquired some yarn this weekend. I was so proud of myself for knitting a whole sweater out of worsted weight and using up yardage this month, and now I've more than negated all of that for another net gain of yarn. Although, admittedly, the bulk of it wasn't really my fault.

Here's the situation:

Looks pretty bad, right? It is, but I can explain.

Stash Confessional: Minnesota Yarn Shop Hop 2015

Well, you know how I was saying that I had a new way to keep the stashdown resolution and how I was going to do better? Well... I am doing better with knitting. I'm doing less well with not buying yarn.

So, every year several of the local yarn stores get together for what we call "Minnesota Yarn Shop Hop" over one weekend in April. The ultimate goal is for people to go around to all of the stores on the list (there are 17 this year) and there's a free pattern and an exclusive yarn and perks for donating to a local food shelf and prize entries and a grand prize entry for people who go to all the stores. It's good exposure for the stores and the indie dyers they work with and it's a good cause and it's a lot of fun. This was my first year participating. I wasn't going to really go all out, just have Jonas drive me to some of the stores that are closer to us, but one of my knitter friends ended up having Friday off and wanted to go, so I took the day off and went along, foolishly telling myself I wasn't going to buy things no matter what.

And then it ended like this: