Feb Stats

This month I finished a toddler sized cardigan, two pairs of socks, and one shawl. All in all I used up 3 balls of yarn/ 1,331 yards. (The yarn for the toddler cardigan was counted in January.) Anytime I reach over 1,000 yards in a month is deemed a good knitting month. So I'm pleased with the results.

WIP: Girly Colors

Everything I'm currently knitting seems to be in really girly colors. Sorry the photos turned out a bit on the dark side, but I only had time in the evening to take the pictures.

1) Twinkle Twinkle Blanket - I saw this pattern and fell in love with it. The pattern is for a baby blanket, but I want to make it into a large lap blanket. I'm using The Loopy Ewe in their solid series in the colorway Blush. The first few rows were quite fiddly, but once I got past them, things got much easier. I think it will be even faster after I move them onto circular needles.

2) Flax - I barely started this sweater. I'm knitting the 2-4 year old size. I'm using Cascade 220 superwash yarn in the colorway 842.













3) Twitterpated socks- This is my go to pattern. It's K3, P1 ribbing in Neeley's Knits Sports weight sock yarn in the Twitterpated colorway. These blue, purples and greens are my favorite colors all together.

TGV

 Pattern: TGV designed by Stitchnerd - The pattern is named after the high speed train in France

Yarn: Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball in colorway 1699

Needles: US Size 6

Started on: Feb. 16th

Finished on: Feb. 21st

Comments/Modifications: I knit the pattern as written. I love the way the yarn striped, especially in the border. The pattern was easily memorized and very fast to knit up. I played yarn chicken and lost. I ran out of yarn 50-60 stitches left in the bind off row. I found some Zitron Trekking yarn in my stash that matched closely and finished in that.

WIP Wednesday

TGV - This shawl is named after the high speed train in France because of how fast it knits up.

I'm knitting this shawl in the aptly named Crazy Zauberball in the colorway 1699. I'm really enjoying how low maintenance the shawl is. There's no need to keep track of the number of stitches. When you use up a certain percentage of the yarn, is when you start the edging. It maximizes the ball of yarn, so you can use the most yardage. I'm also really enjoying seeing what new color pops up next.

Elongated Corded rib socks - I'm getting back to knitting more socks out of the SKS book. It's not a difficult pattern, but I do have to keep track of where I am.  These colors are super girly. It's Neeley's Knits Super Sock in My Little Pony inspired Star Song. This stitch pattern reminds me of little frosting decorations that is often seen on cakes. mmmm....cake.....

Galaxy Socks

Pattern: None. These are just stockinette socks over 60 stitches.

Yarn: Neeley's Knits Sock Yarn Blank in the Sparkle Base in Galaxy

Needles: US size 1.5

Started on: Feb. 4th

Finished on: Feb 13th

Comments: I really enjoyed knitting from a sock yarn blank. It was fun to see how the colors were going to knit up. 

WIP Wednesday

I'm knitting a pair of socks out of the Galaxy Ink Blot Blank in Neeley's Knits Sparkle sock yarn base. I love how this looks in the blank.... I wasn't sure exactly how it was going to knit up, but I think it looks consistent enough throughout that it would look good as a pair of socks.

I absolutely love how it looks as a plain vanilla sock. I'm glad it kept it's spacey vibe as a sock. I actually enjoy knitting from a sock blank, because it's so easy to just fold it up and put it away. I don't have to worry about tangling or anything like that and it takes up less space then a ball of yarn.

Blue Gradient socks

 Pattern: None. This is just a basic K3, P1 sock over 48 stitches.

Yarn: Neeley's Knits Sports in Blue Gradient

Needles: US Size 3 DPNs

Started on: Feb. 4th

Finished on: Feb. 7th

Comments: These socks knit up so quickly, I didn't even have a chance to blog about them before they were finished. This is my favorite basic sock. And I love how fast sports weight socks knit up. Self striping is serious potato chip knitting. I can't wait to see each new stripe appear. 

Tulips Cardigan

Pattern: Tulips designed by the Dream in Color Team

Yarn: Neeley's Knits in the Sparkle sock base Reading Rainbow Gradient yarn set and Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Light Grey

Needles: US Size 5

Started on: Jan. 17th

Finished on: Feb. 1st

Comments/Modifications: This is my first sweater! I made a ton of modifications. The pattern calls for using worsted weight yarn and I really wanted to use my fingering weight Rainbow Gradient.

So I knit the 6 year old size - hoping it would end up being a 4 year old size.

The pattern calls for size 7 needles and I used size 5 needles.

I knit my stripes wider. I changed colors every 18 rows.

I didn't particularly care for the border in the pattern, so I did a K2, P2 border.

I've always been intimidated by garment knitting, so this was a good experience. I didn't swatch, but As I knit the first stripe, I could measure it and do the math, because I knew I had seven colors. So I could estimate how long it was  should be overall, and do the math, for how many stripes I needed. It was pretty straightforward. And because the garment is for a toddler, it wasn't a lot of knitting when I had to rip back. Overall, I really enjoyed knitting this. It was fun to knit because of all the stripes. I would get excited every time I hit a new color. I'm really pleased with how it turned out.