Year End Knitting Stats

For December I finished a cowl and a shawl. In total I used up 3 balls of yarn/ 966 yards.

For the 2014 in total, I knit up 52.5 balls of yarn/ 15,480 yards. I've knit up more this year than I have in the past few years. I hope I can keep it up and knit a similar amount next year.

Golden Orchids

Pattern: Golden Orchids from Aino Haikala

Yarn: Neeley's Knits in The Big Bang Theory inspired Blue Russian Kitty

Started on: Dec. 9th

Finished on: Dec. 23rd

Comments: This was a fairly quick knit. My SIL was gracious enough to model the shawl for me.

The yarn was suer soft to work with. I think the pattern and yarn combination worked out well.

WIP Wednesday

Things are hectic with the holidays. I think this also reflects in my knitting. It's the time of year where we try to decide our resolutions what we want to tackle in the new year. It also makes me want to cast on and knit ALL THE THINGS. So I started a bunch of projects, only to find that many of them aren't feeling quite right.

I then decided to go back to the focus of knitting down my stash. So I pulled out some yarn I bought in 2006 and started a scarf. This is one of my oldest yarns. I've saved this yarn for so long because I never felt any project was worthy of it. It's Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in Black Purl. This is one of my favorite Lorna's Laces Color ways. So far I really like how this yarn looks in this scarf pattern. I have already memorized this scarf pattern.

I'm still working on my Golden Orchids Scarf. As I said before the holidays are hectic. I have a feeling that I won't finish either of these  projects until the new year.

Holiday Stockings

I can't resist posting a photo of the three stockings I finished this year. It puts me in the Holiday mood! They were so much fun to make! I still need to stitch names on them, but that can wait.

WIP Wednesday

 Golden Orchid - I just started this yesterday, but this is my primary focus right now. It's my "G" in my Lace A-Z project. The yarn is Neeley's Knits Silk Wool Blend in The Big Bang Theory Inspired Blue Russian Kitty.

Morning Glory Wrap - I just started this wrap. I'm using Kent DK which is my favorite lines in the Bare Naked Wools yarns. It's so soft and comes in beautiful colors. After using such luxurious yarns, it will be hard to go back to regular yarns.

Garter Rib Baby Blanket - No new photo of this. It looks the same just longer. I'm almost finished with the second ball of yarn. I have five balls of yarn dedicated to this project so there's still a ways to go on this one. 

FO Friday: Honey Cowl

Pattern: Honey Cowl from Madelinetosh

Yarn: Lamb and Wolf in Lamb DK Pastel Party

Needles: US Size 8

Started on: Nov. 29th

Finished on: Dec. 3rd

Comments: I realize that this never made it onto my blog as a WIP, because it knit up so quickly.

I started out casting on the small size. Then when I was 2/3rds done, it occurred to me that I hadn't even used up half of the ball of yarn. I love the yarn and colors and knew I wanted to use as much of it as possible.

So I frogged the cowl and re-started it, knitting the large size. I love how it turned out! The size is perfect and used almost the entire ball of yarn.

I was extremely motivated to finish this project, since it's been raining all week. This cowl is a nice way to help keep warm and add a bit of color to my wardrobe.

Timeouts, not just for kids

Last night, I picked up my sock to start working on it when I noticed something. There was a hole around where the gusset decreases start. So I held it up to look closer to examine it. See that green stitch marker? It is now holding a single stitch that apparently was dropped or somehow came loose during a gusset decrease round. UGH.

I must have been getting too confident in my sock knitting abilities or something. That's when stuff like this happens and humbles you. Anyway I'm so annoyed, I can't deal with this sock right now.  It's in timeout until further notice. Onwards with other knitting....

WIP Wednesday

Now that it's December, I'm really feeling the end of the year coming on fast. It reminds me that I want to knit all the things before the end of the year. And I know it's not possible. I'm fighting the urge to cast on all the things.  

Here's where I am working on:

1) Baby Blanket - I'm using 5 skeins of yarn for this. It came in two different dye lots. They are quite different, so I'm using two skeins at once and alternating skeins every few rows. I think it's turning out well so far. This is a relaxing mindless knit. I can't wait for this one to be done.

2) Gilmore Girls socks - This is the simple K3, P1 ribbing. I'm on the gusset decrease of the second sock.

November Stats

In November, I used up 5 balls of yarn/ 1,356 yards of yarn. I finished one pair of socks and one shawl. Overall a pretty good knitting month. December will be busy with the holidays and taking care of end of the year stuff, so I don't anticipate a big knitting month.

Fellowship! The Shawl

Pattern: Fellowship! The Shawl

Yarn: Neeley's Knits Gradient set in The Golden Compass

Needles: US Size 6

Started on: Nov. 18th

Finished on: Nov. 24th

Comments: This is my "F" for my Lace A-Z challenge. The shawl was inspired by the LOTR Fellowship story. The shawl is broken up into 9 sections, each section is designed/named after one of the 9 characters in the Fellowship. I knit on this monogamously. I absolutely loved knitting this project. Knitting each different section and changing yarn color every few sections really helped to keep my interest. I am really pleased with the finished results. It's even more beautiful then I imagined it would be. This is my favorite piece I've knitted in a very long time. Neeley's Knits yarn was a dream to work with. It was so soft and the colors were amazing, it was hard for me to put this shawl down at all.

WIP Wednesday on a Thursday

Somehow Wednesday eluded me, so today I bring you WIP Wednesday on a Thursday.

Fellowship! the shawl - I absolutely love knitting on this shawl. I think this is just what I needed. I've been wanting to get back into shawl knitting again after my brief hiatus. I love the whole concept of this shawl. It  is designed with the inspiration of LOTR. There are nine sections each named/designed after each of the nine characters in the Fellowship of the Rings. I'm also using Neeley's Knits Gradient Yarn The Golden Compass. The shawl doesn't repeat and because I'm using gradient yarns the color changes so I'm not likely to get bored knitting this. I've already finished two sections: Boromir and Legolas. I'm currently working on Gimli.

Gilmore Girls socks - I'm still plugging away on my Gilmore Girls socks. These are coming along slowly, but surely. At least I'm working on the second sock now! K3, P1 is my favorite kind of ribbing.

Garter Rib socks - I just started these socks. This is the first time I've knit socks where I will be using a different yarn for the cuff, heel and toes then the rest of the sock. I really like how sparkly this yarn is.

Cozies

 It's rare, but I have TWO finished projects to share! It was very satisfying to knit a couple of quick projects.

I know conventional wisdom would say that you should knit your primary project out of a new ball of yarn and use the leftover scraps for any small projects. However, I really wanted to knit a phone cozy, so I broke into a brand new skein of yarn to do it. I love the colors of the Neeley's Knits Wicked inspired Galinda yarn. I particularly love the little sparkly bits in this yarn. I think I will definitely cast on for my next pair of socks with this yarn soon.

I was in desperate need of a camera cozy, since I somehow lost/misplaced the cloth baggy thing that I usually keep my camera in. So I grabbed my leftover Neeley's Knits OUAT inspired Evil Queen yarn to knit this up.

Both the phone and camera cozy were knit the same way. I made up my own pattern.

1) Cast on 48 stitches with size 1 DPNs
2) knit in 2 x 2 ribbing until it measured approx 2 - 3 inches
3) One round of *K2, Yo, P2, repeat * to end of round.
4) Knit in stockinette stitch until slightly longer than desired length.
5) Divide stitches in half and kitchener stitch them together.
Weave in ends and you're all done!

I added the one round of *K2, Yo, P2, to increase the stitches of the body, so that the top is tighter and the cell phone or camera won't fall out of the cozy easily. I also did this because I was thinking about making an icord. Then I could use the YO holes to put the icod in that to ensure that the camera or phone wouldn't fall out. Technically you could just cast on 60 stitches to start and eliminate step 3 and have pretty much the same results.

I'm pretty pleased with how the cozies turned out. I love that I can knit up a cozy in one night.It's very rewarding. Now I have to get back to knitting on some socks.

Corded Rib socks

Pattern: Corded Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks

Yarn: Neeley's Knits Once Upon A Time inspired Fairy Tale

Needles: US Size 1 DPNs

Started on: Oct. 31st

Finished on: Nov. 11th

Comments: I really enjoyed knitting these socks. I love my SKS book. Many of the stitch patterns in it are fun and really speak to me. These socks really seemed to fly off of my needles. The yarn and pattern seemed to be the perfect match.

WIP Wednesday

I started my Gilmore Girls socks, since these colors scream Fall. This is more self striping yarn from Neeley's Knits. (I told you I'm addicted now.) I learned my lesson from last time. I started this first sock by pulling out the yarn to the next color in the yarn and then cutting it. So I know I'm starting at the beginning of a new color. I didn't do this last time with my evil queen socks. I just started knitting at the beginning. So when it came time to start sock # 2, I had to guestimate where I should start in the color. I got it pretty close, but it wasn't exact. Fall is probably my least favorite season, so I'm hoping knitting these socks will get me into better spirits about the season.

The second sock I'm working on is also yarn from Neeley's Knits. This is Once Upon A Time inspired yarn in the Fairy Tale colorway. I can't decide if these are too girly or just the right amount of girly for me. Either way, I think this Corded Rib pattern from my SKS book seems to fit it quite well.

October Stats

In October, I used up 2 skeins of yarn/ 593 yards. I finished two pairs of socks and one stocking.

Baby Cable Rib socks

Pattern: Baby Cable Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks

Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Devon

Needles: US size 1 DPN

Started on: Oct. 10th

Finished on: Oct. 28th

Comments: This is one of my favorite colorways from Lorna's Laces.  The pattern was easily memorized, so I could also carry this project around in my purse. I really love the way these socks turned out.

Moose Xmas Stocking

 Pattern: Moose Xmas Stocking from Annie's Woolens

Yarn: Yarn that came with the kit. 

Needles: US Size 6 and US Size 8

Started on: Oct. 2nd

Finished on: Oct. 21st

Comments: You probably thought I forgot about knitting holiday stockings! Nope! I'm so proud that I was able to take a break from them and then go back to working on them again. It's like I'm an adult and can actually commit to finishing something I started. Yay! I've done three stockings and have one to go! I can't believe I'm ahead of schedule and it seems like I'm going to get all these stockings done before Xmas. 

It really helps that I've made a few now, each additional one I make goes faster (when I'm actually knitting on them and not distracted by other patterns). Something unexpected happened while knitting these stockings. It's sparked a renewed interest in me for knitting socks. I have so much sock yarn, most of which was purchased in the first few years I learned to knit. So it's a great benefit to actually knit up some sock yarns in my stash. 

Another awesome, my mom bought me shoes recently and they are perfect for showing off my hand knit socks! So now I have even more reason to knit socks! 

Retro Rib socks

Pattern: Retro Rib socks from Favorite Socks from Interweave Knits

Yarn: Neeley's Knits Once Upon A Time Inspired Evil Queen self striping sock yarn

Needles: US size 2

Started on: Sept. 28th

Finished on: Oct. 16th

Comments/Modifications: I knit the cuff as written. I used the basic sock construction I always use and have memorized and just used the Retro Rib stitch pattern from this book for the rest of the sock.

I've only knit with self striping yarn one other time that I can remember. I see now how addicting it can be. I love seeing each new color appear (even after discovering the order in which the colors will stripe). I didn't get these socks to match exactly, but it's pretty close. I love these socks so much, I'm still wearing them now!

WIP Wednesday

I started a new sock. I love this sock yarn. It's Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock in Devon. I've had this yarn in my stash forever. It's one of my favorite colorways so I was saving it and saving it...until I found the perfect pattern for it. It seems so silly to keep it in a ball of yarn and not use it, but I didn't want to waste it on the wrong thing. Anyway, I'm very happy with the yarn and pattern combination.

I'm still plugging away on the Evil Queen socks. I know this photo looks fairly similar to the last photo I posted of it, but surely it's different. I'm now on the second sock! I'm a bit further than this photo shows, so hopefully I'll have these finished soon.

WIP Wednesday

I just can't stop with the stockings. I really enjoy making them and will be sad when I finish the fourth and last one. I'm on stocking # 3 right now and this moose is adorable. I can't get over how clever knitting is and am fascinated by how all the sudden I can see the moose emerging from my knitting.

FO Friday: Holly Xmas Stocking

Pattern: Holly Xmas Stocking from Annie's Woolens

Yarn: Bartlettyarns in Light Sheep grey, Spruce Heather and Cranberry that came with the kit

Needles: US Size 6 - 16 in. circulars and US Size 8 - 16 in. circulars

Started on: Sept. 22nd

Finished on: Sept. 26th

Comments/Modifications: I followed the pattern as written. This stocking went a lot faster. I think my tension is a lot better on this one. This one also had no duplicate stitching, although after I finish all four stockings, I will have to duplicate stitch the names at the top.

I really do enjoy making these stockings. Only two more stockings to go! I'm actually still excited about making the last two stockings!

WIP Wednesday: socks

I haven't knit a pair of socks in forever. I thought now was as good of a time as any to start up again. I also realize I have several sock books that have been sitting on my shelves forever barely ever opened. I hope to get through some of those books and knit most of the patterns out of them.

The first book I chose is Favorite Socks from Interweave Knits. While I have made a few socks from this book in the past, there are many more I would like to make. So my plan is to knit all the socks that I like out of this book. Then I'll pick a different sock book and do the same. I'll probably just keep one sock on the needles at all times.

I decided to start with the first sock pattern in this book, the Retro Rib socks. Since Once Upon A Time the TV show started back up again, I chose to use my Neeley's Knits OUAT inspired Evil Queen yarn. I wasn't sure how the yarn and pattern combination would work out, but I'm finding that I like it quite a bit. Even though it's clear now the order the colors will stripe, I still find myself excited about getting to the next color. I never realized how much self-striping yarn can motivate my knitting.

September Stats

In September, I finished a shawl, a scarf, a baby blanket, and two stockings. So all in all pretty successful as far as finished projects go.

In terms of actual skeins and yardage knit up, it was not a successful month at all. In total I knit 2 skeins/ 588 yards. This is the lowest totals I've had all year.

There are two reasons for this. Firstly, I can't figure out how to count my stockings yarn, since there's a lot of partial skeins, so as of right now I'm not counting them at all. Therefore, my totals look less than what I actually knit. Secondly, I kind of lost my knitting mojo sometime in August and it carried over into September. I'm feeling really happy about my knitting now with my stockings projects, but those don't count for my totals as I mentioned above. And sock knitting doesn't make a big dent in the stash. We'll see what next month brings.

Shale Baby Blanket

 Pattern: Shale Baby Blanket from Brooklyn Tweed

Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash 842 Iris

Started on: July 21st

Finished on: Sept. 14th

Comments/Modifications: I finished this awhile ago, but just never got around to taking photos of it until now.

I knit this pattern as written. I knit fewer repeats then the pattern calls for because I got bored knitting this. I like the pattern as it's very pretty and easily memorized, but it's super boring to knit. This totally killed my knitting mojo. I had to just knit a couple more repeats and bind off in order to get myself knitting again.

I know a lot of people love this yarn, but I feel very meh about it. Maybe it's my yarn snobby-ness coming through. It's a yarn that gets the job done and isn't terrible. The yarn is splitty, so even though the pattern was mindless, I had to pay attention to make sure I wasn't splitting the yarn.

FO Friday: Holiday Evergreen Xmas Stocking

Pattern: Holiday Evergreen Xmas Stocking from Annie Woolens

Yarn: Bartlettyarns in Light Sheep grey, Spruce Heather and Cranberry that came with the kit

Needles: US Size 6 - 16 in. circulars and US Size 8 - 16 in. circulars

Started on: Sept. 9th

Finished on: Sept. 20th

Comments/Modifications: I knit this as written. There are two options in the pattern for heels and toes. I chose to do the short heel. This was my first real time doing colorwork and using duplicate stitch. I enjoyed doing colorwork, I don't know why I was so scared about trying it for so long. I did not enjoy doing duplicate stitch as I talked about in a previous post. I'm glad it's finished. When I finish all four of the stockings, I'll duplicate stitch the names on the top over the light sheep grey yarn. That way I can pick which stocking will go to whom, and do all the worst annoying stitching all together at once.

Overall, I loved this pattern and am very pleased with the results. I know there are parts where the tension isn't even and it's not perfect by any means, but I think it's pretty darn good for my first attempt at colorwork. I can't wait to get working on the other three stockings. After that I'll most likely return to my regularly scheduled lace knitting.

WIP Wednesday: More Stockings

I started my second stocking. It's going much faster, since I finished the first one. The stockings are all fairly similar just with different patterns. I can feel my knitting mojo coming back to me. Even though, I've already made one, it still amazes me when the pattern emerges from the knitting.

WIP Wednesday

I'm still plugging away on my stocking. This week I worked on two new-to-me techniques.

The first is duplicate stitch which totally kicked my butt. I'm not sure if it was because I''m still figuring out my tension with the colorwork, which made it hard to see the stitches I was trying to duplicate or I just am terrible at it. I'm also not crazy about how it makes the knitted item super heavy. I re-did it a few times to try to make it better. In the end, I decided to just do as best as I can and leave it. It's not going to be perfect, but it's not going to get any better. This is probably the least enjoyable part of knitting this stocking so far. And I still have more duplicate stitching to do at the very end of the project.

The second new-to-me technique was the short row heel. This wasn't difficult to do and was actually quite enjoyable after I got into the rhythm. The first few rows, I had to really concentrate on reading the directions and making sure I was following them correctly. After that, it was smooth sailing.

I think those were the most challenging bits of the pattern, now that I've turned the heel, it should be pretty straightforward from here on out.

FO Friday: Fall Line Scarf

 Pattern: Fall Line Scarf from Knitspot

Yarn: Malabrigo Silky Merino in Madre Perla

Needles: US Size 7

Started on: Feb 27th

Finished on: Sept. 7th

Comments/Modifications: I knit this pattern as written. It only took me a long time to knit because I kept getting distracted by other yarn and patterns out there. I love the way the scarf turned out. I actually didn't block it because I really like the textured look. This yarn is super soft and squishy. This is another scarf that will go in my gift giving bin.

WIP Wednesday: Colorwork

A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to make a few stockings for my family for the Holiday season. I ordered some kits and they arrived this week. I know I'm in way over my head on this project as I've never really done colorwork before. (I did make a couple of super tiny 1 inch animals before, but that doesn't really count, since they were so small and super easy to make.) And instead of doing the reasonable thing and buying one kit to figure out if I truly do enjoy it or not, I bought 4 kits. Ha! This probably also explains why I have a million balls of yarn in my stash. I'm an all or nothing kind of gal.

In my excitement I casted on immediately. It was all smooth sailing until I got to my first row where I needed to use more than one color. I remember learning that my working yarn should always be the yarn on top, so I made sure to do that. In this particular row, my floats spanned five stitches (see first photo). That seems like a lot. I wasn't sure if this was going to affect my tension or if it's normal and I should just knit with whatever color the chart pattern tells me.


I consulted with some rav friends who suggested my floats should span no more than three stitches in order to keep the tension even and help me avoid accidentally pulling on the floats. So I frogged the first set of floats I did and made my floats span two to three stitches (see second photo).

The last photo shows my progress to date. I know these are famous last words, but I think it's smooth sailing again and it seems simple enough. I don't know why I was scared of doing color work for so long. It does seem simpler and more straightforward than lace. And I love knitting lace and do it all the time.

Little Iris

Pattern: Little Iris from Anne Hanson (purchased from Patternfish)

Yarn: Neeley's Knits in Breaking Bad inspired "Hindenburg"

Needle Size: US 3

Started on: Aug. 21st

Finished on: Sept. 1st

Comments/Modifications: I made a modification to the pattern. In the original pattern there is a ridge that separates the two motifs. I didn't like how the ridge looked so I took it out so that it would flow better. I did this by knitting Section A the hem chart. Then I skipped the ridge section. And jumped into Section B the body chart. On the first row of the body chart I decreased 3 stitches on each side of the shawl. Then I knit 11 repeats instead 8 repeats of the body chart. I followed the instructions for the rest of the pattern.

I really love the hem motif, it's so elegant to look at. Overall, I'm very pleased with how this shawl turned out.