Year End Stats

In December, I finished two shawls. Both were sample knits, so I didn't use any of my own stash.

That means no stash was used in December.

Overall the year was incredibly busy and I didn't get around to knitting as much as I would like. I already know that next year will be even busier and crazier.

In 2013, I knit up 30.72 skeins of yarn/ 11,534.20 yards. I hope to knit up something similar to that next year.

Next year, I don't plan on purchasing or acquiring too much new yarn. I would like to try to knit more yarn than I buy/acquire.

Happy New Year! I'm very much looking forward to 2014! A new year of tackling the stash!

Les Abeilles

Pattern: Les Abeilles from Knitspot

Yarn: Bare Naked Wools Kent DK in White Sand

Needles: US Size 8

Started on: Dec. 19th

Finished on: Dec 23rd

Comments: This is another sample knit for Knitspot. This one knit up so quickly I didn't even have a chance to take progress pictures. Kent DK is my favorite Bare Naked Wools yarn. It comes in beautiful colors and the yarn is so soft and scrumptious. The pattern was very addicting to knit.

FO Friday - Cluaranach

Pattern: Cluaranach from Knitspot

Yarn: Bare Naked Wools in Ghillie in Cream

Needles: US Size 7

Started On: Dec. 3rd

Finished on: Dec. 18th

Comments:  I finished the first of the twelve projects I want to complete! This is a sample knit for Knitspot. I really enjoyed knitting this stole. The yarn color reminds me of snow, which is perfect for this time of year. The yarn softens up a lot after a soak. This was an enjoyable knit. After a couple of repeats, it's easy to get into a rhythm. The pattern becomes intuitive and soothing to knit. Overall, the pattern and yarn go well together. I want to knit another one with the same pattern and yarn combination for myself.

WIP Wednesday: Lost and Found

Okay, it wasn't lost exactly more like misplaced. I found my entrelac scarf. I can't even remember when I made it, but for sure it was some time before we moved into this house. That means it's more than a year old. It may look finished, but it's actually not. I mean the knitting is finished, but it still needs to be felted and then blocked. I'm not sure why I put this off, but as soon as my MIL laid eyes on it, she had claimed it. That means I better get this finished for real, so I can give it to her.

WIP Wednesday: Cluaranach

I'm still chugging away on the Cluaranach Stole. I've finished four repeats of the Thistle Leaf Chart, so I'm about 40% done. This white yarn is so pretty and reminds me of snow. I'm really enjoying working on this project. I think Anne is right this pattern and yarn combination is going to be really lovely.

Six Months of Knitting

I have planned out my next six months of knitting. The goal will be to finish two projects per month.

In total there are 12 projects. Everything fits nicely into two boxes and one bag. Hopefully all of these projects will be completed by May 2014.

1) Test knit for Knitspot

2) Test Knit for Knitspot

3) Baby blanket

4) Celes scarf - Briar

5) Celes scarf - Blue Gingham

6) Cathedral - My C for the Lace A-Z Challenge

7) Dracula Stole - My D for the Lace A-Z Challenge

8) Crooked Little Scarf

9) Elizabeth Shawl - My E for the Lace A-Z Challenge

10) Morning Glory Wrap

11) Fountain Pen Shawl - My F for the Lace A-Z Challenge

12) Sparrow Song Scarf

Progress Thursday

I'd say let's pretend it's Wednesday so I won't be late for WIP Wednesday; but really Thursdays are so much better since it's closer to the weekend. I put my two Celes scarves aside, to work on the new sample I'm knitting for Knitspot. It's Cluaranach Wrap in Ghillie Sock Yarn. This cream color is so beautiful and feels perfect for this time of year, since it reminds me of snow. It also smells nice. I'm not weird, I smell yarn. Actually, I can smell the yarn as I'm knitting it. This knits up quickly on size 7 needles. I've only been working on it a few days and am already done with the first chart.

Green

I finally received my FIFC November Club Yarn. It's a very pretty and Christmas-y green. It's Yarn Hollow in Superior which is a fingering weight yarn. It's a BFL wool, Silk, and Cashmere blend. The pattern it came with is a shawl pattern. This kit came with an extra little measuring tape, which is also green.

November Stats

I knit up one shawl this month (Cheviot Hills).

I used a total of 2 skeins/ 855 yards of yarn.

Next month will probably also be a dismal month in terms of yardage used up because I will be doing more test knitting. Test knitting is fun and exciting, but it doesn't do much for my stash downing. 

WIP Wednesday - Celes x 2

I started Celes in Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in Briar. (In the photo, it's the one on the left) I like it, but was afraid the pattern would get lost in the yarn. Then I found the original yarn and colorway I wanted to knit Celes in (Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in Blue Gingham) (In the photo, it's the one on the right. So I started a second Celes scarf. I debated whether I should keep) both scarves and in the end I think I do like them both. So will continue knitting on both. Whichever of the two I finish first will end up being my C for my Lace A-Z challenge.

Cheviot Hills

 Pattern: Cheviot Hills from Bare Naked Knitspot Club May 2013

Yarn: Bare Naked Wools Breakfast Blend in Oatmeal

Needles: US Size 4 and 5

Started on: Sept. 21st

Finished on: Nov. 11th

Comments/Modification: I used different yarn than what was from the club kit. I knit the medium size. I started with a little less than two full skeins of yarn, and I ended up running short of yarn. I only did seven out of the twelve rows for the ruffle edging. Despite running short of yarn, I am still quite pleased with the size it turned out to be. This was an enjoyable comfort knit that can be done pretty mindlessly.

WIP Wednesday - Scarves

Yesterday, I started two new scarves.

Celes - This will be my "C" for my Lace A-Z Challenge. So far I really am enjoying the pattern and yarn combination. I'm using Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in Briar. This is one of my go to yarns. I think Briar is one of my favorite Madelinetosh color ways.

Crooked Little Scarf - I've knit two repeats so far. I'm using Pigeonroof Studios Sock Yarn in White Rabbit. I got this yarn from the Alice In Wonderland Series kits from Woolgirl a few years back. I'm finding the yarn to be a bit splitty, so I have to be careful with it. Otherwise, the  yarn is really lovely. It's soft and springy and this silvery color is really beautiful.

Hazard - test knit

Pattern: Hazard Wrap- test knit for Knitspot

Yarn: Bare Naked Wool Breakfast Blend fingering in Bakery Rye

Needles: US 5 and 6

Started on: Oct. 18th

Finished on: Nov. 2nd

Comments: This was the test knit I did for Knitspot. I only managed to snap one finished photo of it before getting it out the door into the mail. The pattern was very intuitive and addicting to knit. I love the texture and the way it turned out. If I were to knit this again, I would make the blanket version. The yarn was soft and lovely to work with. The yarn got even softer after I blocked the finished wrap.

WIP Wednesday - Cheviot Hills

I'm chugging away on my Cheviot Hills shawl. I'm in the middle of Chart E. The rows are getting longer. I'm using Bare Naked Wools Yarn Breakfast Blend in Oatmeal. The yarn is soft and I love the color. I can't wait to get this shawl finished so I can wear it.

October Stats

Happy Halloween!

I knit up one stole this month (Birnam Woods Stole).

I used a total of 2.5 skeins/ 1,090 yards of yarn. The yarn I knit for the test knit doesn't count, since it's not from my stash. So technically I did knit more than what the numbers show. 

WIP Wednesday - Spit Splice

Okay, confession time. I think it's hard for me to push myself to step out of my comfort zone and try new things or learn new techniques. Even though I have been knitting for several years now, I have not learned how to properly join a new ball of yarn to an existing project. Up till now I have been **gasp in horror** tying a knot in order to join a new ball of yarn. I am aware that this is really awful and I shouldn't do this, but I do it anyway. I did try spit splicing, one of the proper techniques to join a ball of yarn, a couple of times to no success. And I have to admit it was probably only a half-hearted attempt once a couple years ago.

 As I mentioned in the last blog post, I'm doing a test knit for Anne (AKA Knitspot), my knitting idol. Seriously, I want to be her when I grow up. I know it's totally unacceptable to tie a knot to join a ball of yarn. I would die of embarrassment before giving Anne a finished piece of knitting that had a a knot that I had tied in the middle of it. Hopefully, she's not reading this.

I decided to watch a couple of youtube videos on the technique. After watching it, I attempted to spit splice my yarn. It worked! Yay! I learned a new way to join a new ball of yarn to an existing project. Give me any two skeins of yarn that are 100% natural animal fiber and I can join them! Okay, I realize I should take it down a notch. The knitting gods have a way of hearing overconfidence and tend to silence it with humility.

WIP Wednesday - Test Knit

I am working on a test knit for Knitspot. I'm using one of the new Knitspot colorways in Bare Naked Wools Breakfast Blend Fingering Weight. The yarn is soft, springy and lovely to work with. The pattern is really intuitive and quite addicting to knit. I really like the texture and depth of this wrap.

Purple

I received my FIFC October Club yarn this week. It's Briar Rose Stella. It's a Merino Silk Blend. I love how beautiful the color is. The kit also comes with a lovely semi circular shawl named Zinfandel. I want to use that shawl as part of my Lace A-Z challenge. Unfortunately, because the shawl name begins with Z, it will be a long while before I get to knit this shawl up.

WIP Wednesday

Cluaranach - This is my "C" for my Lace A-Z Challenge. I finished the first repeat of the Thistle Flower Section.

Pea Vines - I started a new shawl for Oct LKA challenge. This is challenging because it starts with 300 + stitches on the needles. Each row takes over half an hour to knit. Plus the dark green color makes it hard to see at night. 

Birnam Woods Stole

Pattern: Birnam Woods Stole from Knitspot

Yarn: The Woolen Rabbit Opulence in Blue Moon

Needles: US Size 4 and US Size 6

Started on: Oct. 1st

Finished on: Oct. 8th

Comments/Modifications: The only reason that this project got finished so quickly was because I was sick with a cold and took a few days off of work. In between napping, I was working on this stole. This is my my October LKA Challenge.

I knit a custom size. I knit the tall width and I knit 9 repeats of Section A, 1 repeat of Section B, and 5 repeats of Section C per side. The pattern was straightforward. However, there were a couple of tricky parts (the hem construction and the grafting of the center) that required careful attention.

The yarn I used was The Woolen Rabbit Opulence in Blue Moon. I love the color of this yarn. It has a really beautiful shine to it. It is really addicting to knit with. The yarn is soft like butter and so luxuriously wonderful. I have a few more skeins of this yarn in my stash. Even so, I really want more of it.

Overall, I really enjoyed knitting the pattern. I think the pattern and yarn really complimented each other and the results is wonderfully beautiful. I am keeping this stole for myself.

WIP Wednesday - Cheviot Hills

I've been and am continuing to fight a cold. This has given me some more knitting time than usual. I actually finished up my Birnam Woods Stole last night! I'll blog more about that later this week.

All I have to share today is my Cheviot Hills Shawl. I'm using Bare Naked Wools in Breakfast Blend Fingering Weight. I really love how soft the yarn is and how beautiful the color is.

This project is my mindless knitting. I only work a few rows here and there.

September Stats

September was a good knitting month. I knit up three shawls (Snowflakes in Cedarwood, Artichaut and Gray Garden).

I used a total of 2.5 skeins/ 2,420 yards of yarn

WIP Wednesday - New Beginning

 Birnam Woods - This is my B for my Lace A-Z Challenge. It's also my October LKA (Lace Knitter's Anonymous) project. I just started it yesterday.

This stole has an interesting construction for the hem. The hem is knit sideways (see first photo).









Then it is turned 90 degrees and the stitches are picked up along the side (see second photo).






After I've picked up all the stitches, I'm ready to start Section A of the stole (see third photo).

I'm using yarn from The Woolen Rabbit in Opulence. This yarn is really luxurious and so soft. It knits up beautifully.

Orange

Last week, I received the yarn for my September installment of the FIFC Club. It's Shalimar Yarns Paullie in Orange is the New Black. This is a fingering weight yarn in Merino, Camel, Silk and Cashemere blend. This month also came with a nice FIFC project bag.

Orange is not a color I particularly like, wear or knit with often. However, it is one of the school colors from my University. It also is the color of my beloved SF Giants baseball team. So I am happy to receive it and knit something with it.

There are several patterns that came with this month's yarn. It's always nice to have choices. The patterns are for leg warmers, arm warmers, or a cowl.

Gray Garden

 Pattern: Gray Garden from Knitspot

Yarn: Briar Rose Sea Pearl in 556

Needles: US Size 3 and 4

Started on: March 18th

Finished on: Sept. 25th

Comments/Modifications:  I finished this up late last night. I knit a hybrid in between size.  I did the tall for the body of the shawl and an in between size of the hem chart. I used the same yarn that was used for the Artichaut shawl. I ended up having just enough yarn to finish 1.5 repeats of the hem.

This was not a difficult pattern. Most of the shawl had rest rows. I really like the hem motif.  I think it turned out great.

WIP Wednesday: Lifeline

Gray Garden - I started this in March and even finished knitting on the body of this shawl. This got pulled out of hibernation because I needed the yarn to finish up my Artichaut shawl. I figure I don't have too much left on this shawl, so I really should knit it up and finish it. All I have left is to knit up the hem section. Because of my yarn shortage issue with the last shawl, I'm paranoid I won't have enough yarn to finish the tall version of this shawl.

So I put in a lifeline after I finished the first repeat of the hem. The lifeline will help insure that I use up as much of the yarn as possible. If I run out of yarn I can just frog it back to where my lifeline is and call it done. It's hard to see in the photo, but the lifeline is the blue yarn in the shawl.

FO Friday: Artichaut

 Pattern: Artichaut from Anne Hanson and Twist Collective

Yarn: Briar Rose Sea Pearl in Colorway 556

Needles: US Size 7

Started on: Aug. 30th

Finished on: Sept. 18th

Comments/Modifications: I did end up running out of yarn with two rows left to knit. I have another skein of this yarn in the same color way that I'm using for another project. I ended up using some of that yarn to finish up this shawl. There are no dye lots for this yarn, but I think it ended up matching up very well.

This is my first project for the Lace A-Z Challenge. Due to shortage of yarn, I ended up knitting 5.5 repeats of the main body - which is an in-between size. It still turned out way bigger than I expected.

The Briar Rose Sea Pearl yarn is very luxurious, shiny and soft. On the other hand, I found the yarn to be a bit splitty and slippery especially because I used metal needles. Overall, the yarn's good qualities outweigh the bad.



This pattern was challenging because there was patterning on the wrong side. I had to concentrate and refer to the chart often during knitting. There was a good number of p2tog through the back loops. Also I chose to knit this in a dark color, which made it slow and difficult to see and knit with at night. I am pleased with how it turned out. I think the yarn and pattern compliment each other very well.

WIP Wednesday: Cutting it Close

I've been working monogamously on my Artichaut Shawl. As you can see in the photo, there's not a lot of yarn left. I have six more rows to knit and I'm starting to get concerned that I'm going to run out of yarn before I finish the pattern.

This kind of predicament happens to me more often then I would like. For some reason when I realize that I'm going to be cutting it close, it makes me knit faster; as if I can out race my yarn. If I knit fast enough, maybe the yarn won't run out.

Luckily, I do have another ball of this yarn in the same colorway, but I'm not sure if it's the same dye lot. There's a chance the colors won't match up perfectly. I'm also using that yarn for another project that's already been started. I really hope that little ball of yarn in the photo has enough yarn for my six long remaining rows.

Meadow

I joined the Knitspot 2013 Fall in Full Color Club late this year, so I didn't receive my August yarn until last week.

The August yarn is The Fibre Company in Meadow in Bluebonnet. It's a lace weight yarn in a beautiful bluish gray color. The yarn is a blend of Merino, Llama, Silk and Linen.The club included two patterns. One for a triangular shawl and one for a scarf.

Snowflakes in Cedarwood

Pattern: Snowflakes in Cedarwood from Knitspot

Yarn: Fearless Fibers Lace weight in Hoarfrost

Needles: US Size 3

Started on: July 14, 2012

Finished on: Sept. 9, 2013

Comments/Modifications: I knit this as written. The pattern itself was not difficult. It held my interest because there are many different motifs and it did not repeat. The construction of the project is knit from the center outwards. And it ends with a knitted on border, which for me, was the slowest part and took the longest chunk of knitting time. This is one of my favorite Knitspot patterns. I really hope that one day Anne will design a stole version of this pattern. My favorite motif in this pattern is the snowflakes. The results are fantastic! It also turned out huge. In the photo the shawl/square is laid out on my Queen sized bed.

I learned that when knitting on such a big project, you should use more than one circular knitting needle. I had all the stitches on one knitting needle for awhile and my knitting needle snapped from the pressure of all the stitches on it. It's not fun to try to collect 300 + stitches back onto a knitting needle.

The yarn I used is Fearless Fibers Lace weight. I love this yarn and the colors in comes in. Too bad Deb no longer dyes yarn, so I can't get more of this stuff. Luckily, I have quite a stash of Fearless Fibers yarns. I have enough to last a good long time.

WIP Wednesday: Provisional Cast On

On my Artichaut shawl, I no longer have my provisional cast on. The way the pattern is written, it starts with a provisional cast on and then you knit the body of the shawl. At the end of the pattern, it instructs you to unzip the provisional cast on and split the stitches in half and kitchener stitch the two halves together.

When I'm knitting a pattern with this type of construction, I don't wait till the end of the shawl to unzip the provisional cast on and kitchener the two halves together. I generally will wait until I've knit a few repeats of the main body of the shawl and make sure I have enough give where I won't be stretching out the beginning of the shawl. Once I'm certain I have enough give, then I unzip my provisional cast on and kitchener the two sides together.

The reason I do this earlier than the pattern suggests is because I don't like having loose ends. They get tangled up with the yarn I'm currently working with or they get in the way or accidentally get knit as additional stitches. I like what I'm working on to be clean and neat. It's also kind of ugly to have one string at the beginning in a different color that is unrelated to what you are knitting. The biggest reason I do it is because I fear that somehow my provisional cast on will come undone and I won't notice. Then I'll have these live stitches on the opposite side of where I'm working and they may drop. Then I'll have spent hours and hours of hard work knitting all gone to waste.

WIP Wednesday: Black Hole of Knitting

I am stuck in the black hole of knitting. The two projects I'm working on have the same problem. No matter how much I knit, it still looks the same. It doesn't look or feel like it's growing at all. The skeins of yarn I'm using also never looks any smaller.

 I've been working on the edging of this Snowflakes in Cedarwood square shawl thing for what feels like forever (since Jan 1st). I've had this square shawl on the needles since Summer 2012.

I'm halfway done with the third side edging. I have about 11 more hours of knitting to go. Maybe September will be the month that I finally get this done.

The second project I'm working on is Artichaut. This is my "A" for my lace A-Z challenge. I'm in the middle of the third repeat on Chart B. The yarn is dark and quite slippery which makes this knitting go by slowly.