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.

Icicle Dream Stole

Pattern: Icicle Dream Stole from Twist Collective


Yarn: Dream in Color Baby in Some Summer Sky

Needles: US Size 4 and US Size 6

Started on: April 19th

Finished on: August 28th

Modifications/Comments: I knit the tall version of this stole. I really enjoyed knitting this project as with all Knitspot/Anne Hanson patterns. It got addicting towards the end. There were enough different motifs in this design to hold my interest.

Dream in Color is one of my favorite brands of yarn. Baby is not the typical lace weight yarn, it's a bit thicker. It feels sturdier and bouncier. It also grows more during blocking. I really love the colors that it comes in and that it's semi-solid. The only downsides of the yarn is depending on the color of the yarn sometimes it bleeds as you are knitting it. Also there are times where the yarn lacks consistency in thickness. It can go from thick to thin to thick again. Overall, the good out weights the bad. And this is one of my go - to yarns.