Erin Go Bragh

Finally! My Erin Go Bragh shawl is finished!!!! Actually, it’s been finished for a long time. I think I finished it in August last year – or maybe June? I know that my plan was to finish the project during the Summer Olympics, but I’m not sure if I managed. That’s the problem with not writing down pattern notes. But, I know the project has been lingering for a long time since the pictures are from August 2012.

The pattern is Veera Välimäki Color Affection shawl. I jumped on the Color Affection bandwagon, planning to make a green and grey version. The lighter green was so bright, it made me think of Ireland. Hence, the Erin Go Bragh title. But, I wanted the shawl to be a bit bigger to max out the use of the yarn, so I added a few extra wrap & turn sections. Unfortunately I don’t remember the details since I didn’t write down any pattern notes. Apart from that I made the final green border a bit wider, and then finished with an I-cord bindoff. I like the clean look of that bindoff and I made sure to avoid any puckering along the bindoff by using a 4.5mm needle (compared to the 4.0mm needle for the rest of the shawl).

I really like the finished shawl, although it’s a really big now. Oh, the irony – it’s my own fault after all. The question now is who will get it? It’ll probably end up a gift since I want to give a handknit gift to a friend of mine, and I don’t think I’ll be able to whip one up before I meet up with her next week.

These KALs (knit-alongs, for all you non-knitters out there) are a lot of fun, but they’re mostly fun when you knit at about the same pace as most other people. It’s fun to see how everybody’s projects move along with their different color section. But if you’re really way behind, well, then the temptation to knit something else is just too great. At least for me. Which is why it took me almost 4 months to finish the project, and why I’m only now putting up this post. But now this monkey is off my back. Yay!

Source: etsy.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Starry

So. Lace. A lace shawl. If you’ve never knit one, it’s seriously intimidating. I looked at a chart and was confused, and a bit scared. I mean, how would that all make sense? How on earth were those instructions going to turn into something light and lacy?

I’d been knitting for, oh, nine months when I decided to challenge myself, and knit a lace shawl. I had already knit an Ysolda Teague pattern – an Urchin hat – and when she put up previews of her Whimsical Little Knits collection, I signed up. The booklet included a pattern for a lacy shawl, Ishbel. It consists of a stockingette section, followed by a lace edge. I figured I could tackle that – that would be easier than a completely lacy shawl.

Ishbel shawl knit in Dream in Color Starry, colorway In Vino Veritas

And, that’s when I discovered something that no one tells you beforehand: You’re going to purl a lot when knitting lace. For more ‘simple’ shawls you’ll purl the entire back of the lace, unless a pattern is charted on the backside, or unless it’s a garter stitch shawl. Sigh. Still, the result is gorgeous. Ultimately, lace is not as scary as you think. I’m fine with both written and charted directions, but I do highlight my rows. Lifelines really help – basically, you run a thread through a pattern row, or at the end of a section. That way, it’s easy to frog back if you’ve made errors, or dropped a stitch, without undoing the entire thing. I find it really really difficult to pick up dropped stitches in lace.

The yarn is Dream in Color Starry, which contains 2% silver fibers. That’s what gives the yarn that sparkly effect. It looks gorgeous in the finished object, and it dresses up the shawl. I think it’ll be great with more formal clothing, too. Love it! The colorway is In Vino Veritas, and I think the subtle colorshifts really look inspired by the colors of wine. It really is a great gift for my sister.

Silver sparkles, and gorgeous subtle color shifts

Improving Your Skillset

Day 6: April 28, 2012. Improving Your Skillset
How far down the road to learning your craft do you believe yourself to be? Are you comfortable with what you know or are you always striving to learn new skills and add to your knowledge base? Take a look at a few knitting or crochet books and have a look at some of the skills mentioned in the patterns. Can you start your amigurumi pieces with a magic circle, have you ever tried double knitting, how’s your intarsia? If you are feeling brave, make a list of some of the skills which you have not yet tried but would like to have a go at, and perhaps even set yourself a deadline of when you’d like to have tried them by.

Phew! After the amount of work that was Day 5, Day 6 should be comparatively easy. I mean, I don’t have to hunch over my photo setup, making minute adjustments – I shot at least 1400 frames, plus a few still, plus all that time music editing – so I ‘just’ have to take a few pictures, and write. I first thought that blogging really takes a lot of time, particularly blogging about a specific topic. I tend to take a lot of time taking photographs and crafting my posts… but this, this has been the most challenging part of any blog post that I’ve put up since I’ve had this blog (granted, this blog is just over a year old, but still)…

So, today talks about skills. I kind of talked about skills I’d like to acquire in last year’s post, so lets review how my goals measure up to my actual achievements. Hmmmm…..

I definitely want to want to try my hand at colorwork (I’m thinking of Spillyjane’s Swedish socks here), improve my sweater fitting skills, try beaded lace knitting, and maybe even dare to tackle my first steek (yikes!).

Well, I have certainly knit  a whole bunch of projects since last year – 39 to be exact. That includes 11 hats, 8 shawls, 4 pairs of baby booties and 5 different children’s toys. There are three items of clothing in there:

• a cardigan for a little girl,
  
• a dress for another little girl,
  

  

• and a cardigan for a baby. 

  

Yup, all three items of clothing are for kids. Not a one for an adult. But apart from the cardigan for a girl, they were already in the planning last year – I had already ordered the buttons and showed them off in last year Knitting and Crochet Blog Week’s embellishment’s post. I did make a few modifications to the dress and the baby cardigan – you’ll find more information on those on the individual pattern pages.

See? I did do some shaping work! I’m planning to knit a cardigan for my Mom, and for my sister (both Connie Chang Chinchio patterns), so there are two opportunities for garment shaping right there (plus I can knit a matching baby Austin hoodie for my sister’s kiddo!).

As for colorwork – well, I still haven’t knit the Swedish Fish socks – yet. Maybe I’ll knit them during this summer’s Ravelympics. For all of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m talking about the 2012 Ravelympics games where people knit/crochet simultaneously along to the Olympics, competing in our own categories. Really, it’s lots of fun. Anyway, I’ve seen awesome versions of the Swedish Fish socks where the fish charts are used to make awesome versions as sweaters or vests, too. So that’s on my to do list, but I have made a pair of fingerless mitts that have been well received.

On to the next goal: Beaded lace knitting. Yeah, that hasn’t happened. It’s in the plans, but other wips have been intruding. You know, people having babies. People needing birthday gifts. People getting married. That kind of stuff that interfers with your wip list. Plus the occasional knitalong, and if there’s a pattern that catches your attention and you just HAVE to knit it right then and there yes, Color Affection, I’m looking at you!) I do have beads, and the matching yarn, plus the pattern – Haruni - or maybe Simurgh? – already planned out…

Steeking. Eeek!!!! Yeah, I haven’t yet done that yet. I mean, who would feel good about cutting their knitting? But it’s such a great skill – makes it way easier to knit cardigans, or you can steek armholes and so on and on. It’s a skill I definitely want to acquire, and I think I have a good idea how to acquire it. I came across this awesome Missoni inspired chevron blanket pattern. Well, I’d originally bought Wollmeise Lace in a few different shades of red to create an ombre effect blanket, but now I’m thinking I’ll make the blanket with those different shades of red, plus black and white and grey thrown in too. And to make my life easier, I think I’ll knit the blanket in the round, and then just steek it in the end. That way I’ll hopefully be finished this decade. Now I just have to decide whether to hold the lace single or double….

Given that I have enough on my plate – my queue is 43 pages long – I really don’t need to add other goals. Sooner or later I’ll come across a pattern or design that requires a new skill or a new technique, and I guess I’ll have to decide whether to sink or swim.

So that’s it for today. It’s almost tomorrow, and then I’ll have a post on my crafting balance. And then this year’s Knitting and Crochet Blog Week will be over. Wow, this week has flown by!

A Knitter or Crocheter For All Seasons?

Day 4: April 26, 2012. A Knitter or Crocheter For All Seasons?
As spring is in the air in the northern hemisphere and those in the southern hemisphere start setting their sights for the arrival of winter, a lot of crocheters and knitters find that their crafting changes along with their wardrobe. Have a look through your finished projects and explain the seasonality of your craft to your readers. Do you make warm woollens the whole year through in preparation for the colder months, or do you live somewhere that never feels the chill and so invest your time in beautiful homewares and delicate lace items. How does your local seasonal weather affect your craft?

I’m glad I’m living in an area where you have actual seasons – winter is cold, summer is warm, spring and fall fit in somewhere inbetween. Ok, that’s simplifying things – we might not get snow in winter at all, or we might get a snowpocalypse, spring and fall sometimes are very cold, totally rained out, or unseasonably warm, and summer can be anything from pleasant to stiflingly humid. But still, we have seasons. I can’t quite imagine not living in a place with seasons. Actually, that’s not true. I spent half a year in Tanzania, which has its own weather rhythms. The weather was everything between pleasantly warm to increadibly hot, rainy season with monsoon like rains or short showers, and sometimes the evenings and nights were pretty darn cold. We camped at the edge of the Ngorongoro Crater once and boy, we were wearing plenty layers in our sleeping bags and we were still cold. But the sunrise totally made up for it.

All of these seasons make it possible to knit up all kinds of projects in various yarn weights. I’ll get good use out of blankets as well as lacy shawls. I love my Girasole blanket which I knit out of 1500+ yards of worsted weight. And despite its laciness it’s very warm and cuddly – I originally thought that it wouldn’t be that warm due to the lace pattern but I was totally wrong. Normally I like to knit those kinds of projects when it’s colder outside so I don’t have a huge pile of worsted weight yarn on my lap while the weather is in the 90s Fahrenheit (above 30 Celsius). But this was a KAL project so I knit this in July – but thankfully I had airconditioning or this would not have been pleasant.

But really, I choose my projects depending on who needs what and when – especially when it comes to Christmas gifts! I always have a few projects that I try to knit up last minute, and sometimes I succeed, and sometimes not. Oh, and I’ve learned the hard way that handknit gifts should only go to people who will really appreciate them. Otherwise I feel like an idiot when I put so much hard work into something that they really don’t care for. People who craft themselves seem to be the people who appreciate handmade things most – they really know how much work goes into making something yourself.

I don't think this Ishbel ever made it out of the closet... And I even used Wollmeise for it!

So, my crafting seems to be more of a reflection of my knitting skills rather than seasonal changes. I’ve enjoyed knitting most of my projects – there are a few that I just couldn’t wait to finish them, but mostly, I’ve enjoyed creating them.  I’ve knit a bunch of shawls, scarves and cowls, and bunch of baby items – both toys and garments. I’m pretty new to knitting garments – I’ve knit a sweater and two cardigans, and there are a bunch more in my queue. But I’ll talk about my knitting skills on Saturday, in the “Improving Your Skillset” post. Until then I’ll leave you with (another) collage of seasonal knitting projects. The seasons are (per row): winter, spring, summer, fall. Then you’ll have more unsual ‘seasons’ – the individual pictures are: monsoon season, anytime season, rainy season, Easter, soccer season, and Christmas.

The projects are:

• Koolhaas; Merino Scarflet; Shades of Grey wurm
• cardigan for a girl; Winter Thaw; Bloooo 
• Ghostly whisper; Trillian; Spun Gold
• Sunrise scarf; Red Rose Lintilla; Monkey Business
• Monsoon wedding; grey lovs red; cuore impavido [Braveheart]
• Chick and Egg basket; Spice Man; Gingerbread Man

That’s it from my end for today. Check out some of the other awesome posts on today’s topic by googling for today’s code, 3KCBWDAY4. Or even better, join in! It really is a lot of fun. I’ll see you tomorrow – I’m still figuring out what my creative post will be, but I’ll do my very best. Til then!

It’s just another manic Wednesday

Ok, the original song is about a Manic Monday, but still, live has suddenly turned rather manic. Where has all my time gone? I feel like I’m juggling too many things at the same time. I wish there were more hours in the day.

Apart from all that’s been going on, I’ve been knitting like a speed demon. I’ve gotten a little groove on my index finger where the tensioned yarn runs over my finger. And it’s not going away; in fact, I have broken the skin, and I’ll have to hunt down a band aid. I think I really need to practice my english knitting. I just don’t want to change to my other hand in the middle of the project – I’m concerned that my gauge might change.

But enough rambling. It’s Wednesday, so that means it’s time for another Yarn Along! My current wip is a Color Affection shawl. Mmmm, lovely squishy garter stitch, what more could you want? Plus colorful stripes, and a interesting pattern – perfect! I decided on the combination of grey and shades of green. I need to supplement my scarf/shawl wardrobe – I already have two in blue, but I gave my red shawl away, and I haven’t knit a green one, so this is the perfect opportunity. There are a few modifications, to make the most out of my yarn, so this will be huge and extra squishy. This is my April project for the 12 Wollmeise skeins in 12 months goals – once this one is done, then I’ll get back to the pea soup blanket. I’ll see my cousin and his fiancee next month, so I really want to finish this one. That way I can give it to them before the wedding – there’s just no way I’d give it to them during the wedding, they’ll be just too busy.

That’s it for my part for today. I’m participating in this week’s Yarn Along – there are links to other great Yarn Along posts there, with information on how to participate yourself. You can also find a link to this post through Tami’s Amis, through Ambassador Crochet’s Wip Wednesday and Frontier Dreams’ Keep Calm and Craft on (KCCO) series.

It’s Wednesday

so that means it’s time for another Yarn Along post! I’m once again participating in this week’s Yarn Along – there are links to other great Yarn Along posts there, with information on how to participate yourself. You can also find a link to this post through Tami’s Amis, and through Ambassador Crochet’s Wip Wednesday. Oh, and then there’s Frontier Dreams’ Keep Calm and Craft on (KCCO) series too.

This week I’m working on my new WIPs, since some of my old WIPs are knit up. Yeah! The two wips that I have going are the same as last week: my Melody shawl wip, and my orange Fernfrost scarf. Both are really making progress. The Melody shawl travels in my bag whenever I’m out and about and likely to have  something around 10 quiet minutes where I can knit – at the doctor’s office, on the tram, on the Metro, in the car… I didn’t think I’d see this much progress by now. I thought that this would turn into one of these endless projects that linger for months, and only rarely makes progress. But I think this one will be finished up this month. Which is pretty good for me, given that I have a bunch of other things going on right now. Sorry, not the best picture – the lovely purple looks rather muddied.

I do have new pictures of the orange scarf. I was steam blocking my mystery KAL shawl (Yes, it’s finished!) and I decided to steam block part of the scarf to see how the lace pattern will look in the end, and I’m really happy with the project so far. The lace opens beautifully, and I can see that this will be a lovely long scarf. Personally, I like broader shawlish scarfs and I worked hard to convince my Mom otherwise, but Mom wanted the skinny one, like her Haruha scarf. Sigh.

Oh, and as to the reading material – it never hurts to take another look at all the camera functions. As you can see, my SLR is a Canon EOS 20D. Not the newest camera out there, but I’m pretty happy with it. The one major thing that I don’t like is that it requires CompactFlash cards. Grrr. I can’t just pop mine in the card reading slit in my camera. I usually end up taking a bunch of pictures and then I hook up an external card reader to upload the pictures. Which means that I’m usually behind with posting pictures. I then have to get my act together and organize my pictures after the fact – and that’s why there haven’t been any food pictures lately, even though I’ve been cooking quite a bit.

Btw, as to the mystery KAL – it’s finished! It didn’t have any lace components, so it was super easy to steam block it – no pinning and so on. Just easy peasy steam blocking. I only had to make sure that I didn’t stretch the edges too much and avoid uneven length/width sides. Tuesday’s post shows a bit of the finished object. Once I’ve figured out how the buttons work – i.e. what the different wear options are – I’ll do a mini photo shoot and will put up better pictures. Until then, here’s another picture of the finished project (too much sunshine, so the colors don’t look as saturated as they are):

  

(Y)arrrrrrrrrn along!

Another Wednesday, another day to check in and see what I’m knitting and reading. My current read is Winnie the Pooh, which I read for my nephew over Skype. We both love Winnie the Pooh. We have a few other books in that series, but the Honey Cake mix-up is by far his favorite. It’s a really cute story – I must have read it to him a hundred times already, but he still enjoys it. I think there’s something really comforting for kids (especially the young ones) to reread a story, and to know what will happen. Oh, and for all of you Winnie the Pooh lovers, there’s a great series of YouTube videos about “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.” It’s a real treat for my nephew, even though he’s only allowed to watch a bit.  He’s kind of scared by Owl, and that funny mole, and Tigger is a bit too hyper – he’s too fast for him to understand, but he loves the songs. I have them memorized by now, too – and I keep thinking of the “Up, down” song when I’m sweating on the elliptical.

As for my knitting, well, I have finished one of my wips, the pleated scarf, I just don’t have a picture of the finished object. And the mystery KAL shawl is almost done – I’m waiting on clue#6, the last clue, and then I’ll have another FO for March. It looks really pretty so far, so I’m curious to see what the finished project will be like. And we’ll apparently need buttons – I guess for optional sleeves?

Now, why did I cast on for another project even though I already have two other wips on the needles, including last week’s project? Well, last week’s melody shawl is going to be my mindless project, the one that I work on while I’m in the car (not while I’m driving!), or waiting anywhere where I’ll likely only be able to knit just a bit at a time, and where I don’t want to worry about keeping track of where I am in the pattern. I’ve made a bit of progress, so this will probably turn into another endless project (and it easily fits into my handbag, as you can see).

The other project is for my cousin and his fiancee – the better than better than pea soup blanket. I really do need to get cracking on that one since I’m probably headed to San Francisco in May or early June, and I’d love to take it with me at the time. It would be rather inconvenient to bring it to the wedding. Plus, I really want to finish this up before it gets too warm.

Ok, so back to the topic at hand. The German Wollmeise group (on Ravelry) is hosting a knit along called 12 Wollmeise in 12 months, with the goal to knit some of your treasured skeins instead of letting them linger in your stash, unknit. You pick out the skeins beforehand, give them a number and each month one number is drawn, and that skein is to be knit up. I’ve knit up January and February’s skeins, but I was late in working on my March project since my time was sucked up by my other Wips. So I’m a bit late to the party, knitting up this beautiful skein of Campari Orange light. It matches my mother’s hat really well, and she’s pretty excited to get this scarf.

The pattern is Anne Hanson’s Fernfrost, a really pretty pattern that shows of the colors beautifully. I thought that this would be a labor of love (well, more or less) since I was all scarfed out after that darn pleated scarf. But this one is flying of the needles, it’s so much fun to knit. I have till Saturday, so I’m hoping I’ll make it. And this time I’ll cast on for my April project right after that so I won’t be under such time pressure at the end of the month. Btw, I’m making this scarf narrower with only two rather than three pattern repeats, as per request, even though I tried to convince her otherwise. And now I’m wishing I had another skein in the color, to knit up a spring-inspired Windward for myself.

Phew, this was a long post. I’m participating in this week’s Yarn Along – there are links to other great Yarn Along posts there, with information on how to participate yourself. You can also find a link to this post through Tami’s Amis, and through Ambassador Crochet’s Wip Wednesday. Oh, and then there’s Frontier Dreams’ Keep Calm and Craft on (KCCO) series too!

Yarn Along

Another Wednesday, another Yarn Along post. I’m currently still working on the same Wips as last week, but I’ve added a new Wip: a Melody shawl for myself. I cast on for it since I wanted (another) mindless knitting project. One of my friends knits while at the movies, so I thought I’d try that myself. But first I was busy with my bucket of popcorn, and then I was so engrossed in the movie that I never brought out my little Melody shawl loop. Oh well. (Btw, sweet popcorn at the movies = win!) It doesn’t look like much right now, but it sure is fun! The yarn is Sundara fingering silky merino: ridiculously soft, and so very gorgeous. I don’t wear much purple, but this, this I’ll wear. A lot.

(Btw, the movie was ‘The Iron Lady” – very very interesting. And what a tour de force performance by Meryl Streep! No wonder she won the Oscar for her performance. Her body of work really is amazing, and I am always amazed how she can portray these characters, some of them very iconic, so well that you absolutely forget that it’s her.)

The book is a good book on Pilates. It explains a lot of the background of Pilates, and really creates a good system to build your skills. I used to go to Pilates to build back and abdominal strength – I used to get really bad back pains, and Pilates helped a lot. I went to Pilates ‘machine’ classes, and haven’t tried mat classes so far, so this will be an interesting exercise. I sure can use more core strength, plus flexibility.

If you’d like to Yarn Along too, just visit Ginny’s Yarn Along post where you’ll find more information. Happy Wednesday everybody!

 

A Wednesday wip

A wip* a day, keeps the doctor away. No?

I’ve tried to keep to avoid alliteration blog posts, like Wednesday wips etc. Not that I don’t like them – a lot of my favorite blogs use these kinds of posts. It’s just that I would fail – badly – at putting up certain types of posts on certain days. I tend to blog whenever I think I have something interesting to say (I hope!), and I’d unfailingly forget to up a post on topic, and then I’d start running behind and so on and on. (Even though it would give me some blogging discipline).

Of course I wouldn’t be surprised to find myself doing exactly that down the road…

/rambling

Anyway, Ginny from Small Things runs a Yarn Along on Wednesdays, where you reflect on your current knitting and/or reading. So, this is a good opportunity to take a look as to what I’m currently working on. Especially since I’m trying to reduce my number of wips.

First wip is this one:

“Pleated” is a lovely squishy scarf knitting in Madeline Tosh Pashmina. This merino-cashmere-silk blend is so soft and gorgeous. The pattern is Olga Buraya-Kefelian’s Issey scarf, a pattern that’s inspired by Issey Miyake’s Pleats Please collection. And the scarf really is pleated – you can stretch it out and becomes quite a bit wider, but when released, it bounces back into the pleats shape. It really and truly is gorgeous, and my Dad will love it. Although he’ll probably only wear it come fall – it’s just too warm now. Oops. (More information on the project page, and in the blog post about the finished project).

And then there’s this wip:

This one is a mystery KAL, so no pattern page or project link for now. This is a gorgeous project. I can’t wait to see what the finished project will look like. The bottom edge has the same tortoise-shellish pattern as the top edge – the garter stitch makes the edge roll up, but I promise you it’s still there. I’ve finished clue#3, and clue#4 just arrived, and I think there are a total of 5 clues, so I’m nearing the end. The mystery KAL really is a lot of fun – I forgot how much fun it can be. My last mystery KAL attempt was the Westknits Earth & Sky KAL. That one was a fail for me – I never even managed to cast on for that one (yup, I STILL haven’t cast on).

I’m hoping to finish up clue #4 by tomorrow, and then I’ll finish the pleated scarf – only 3 more inches plus tip are left, and then I can try and work on projects. I’ll probably start to cast on for a Wollmeise project to fulfill my 12 Wollmeise in 2012 goal, and then I’ll turn my attention to another wip – my “Better than pea soup” wedding blanket project. That one will take up quite some time…

So, that’s it for me. Are you interested in participating in the Yarn Along? Here‘s more info on the Yarn Along, and here you can see Ginny’s past Yarn Along posts. And here’s a link to Ginny’s current Yarn Along post.

Have fun looking at all those knitting and reading posts, and I’ll be back soon, probably with a post on food. I made these amazing cookies that really deserve a post of their own.

*For you non-knitters, a wip is a work-in-progress

What to do with…?

I’ve been part of the 10 shawls in 2010 group for a while – so long that the group moved to 11 shawls in 2011 and now 12 shawls in 2012. I haven’t managed to reach the group goal in any of the past years, although I’ve given it a good try. It’s just that there are so many other things to knit up, plus requests, gifts, and so on.

So I’m trying to figure out my which projects I absolutely want to knit this year, especially since I’m participating in the 12 Wollmeise in 12 month KAL. I figure this is the perfect opportunity to match some of the yarn and yarn colors I love with patterns that have been lingering in my queue.

The problem is, what would I do with all those shawls? I’ve already distributed some of the FOs among friends and family, and there are some people that I’ll be knitting for. And I do want to gift shawls to people where I feel they’ll really appreciate them. But beyond that, really, how many shawls can I wear? I’m the kind of person to stick with one accessory for a long time. I have a favorite cowl – hello, American Apparel – that isn’t even handknit, and a favorite handbag that I use all the time. I have a few finished shawls that are lingering in their accessory box. And I’d hate for shawls to sit in a pile, unappreciated.

What do you do with all those shawls that you knit?