52

52, that’s the number of finished knitting projects I made this year! That is 20 more than last year and 17 more than my all time high in 2011. Because there are so many I decided that I am only going to hit on the top two of each of these categories: most interesting, most annoying, most enjoyable, and most used and well loved things that I made.

First off, the most interesting:

The color craving!

This was my first ever mystery KAL and first ever Stephen West knit. This shawl really pushed me and made me step out of my comfort zone. It was rather exciting not knowing how it would turn out and it was even more exciting to see it finished. This pattern probably had the most interesting construction, which is why it is my number one most interesting.

One more shot of it.

Next most interesting would have to be the mandeville. I haven’t really talked about it yet because the pattern hasn’t been released yet, but I had a lost of fun with it and it too had a very interesting construction.

I will talk more about the madeville one it gets released.

Now for the most annoying:

Coincidentally they are both Christmas gifts. First up are the sock monkey booties. The reason they are so annoying was because the pattern that I bought was not very well written so I had to rip them out and mix two patterns to get this finished object.

The second would have to be the afterglow, but that was because I made stupid mistakes in sizing, I wrote more on the  sock monkey and afterglow patterns on my ravelry project pages so to save space you can visit those to find out the problems.

Now for the most enjoyable knits of 2014, in first place is the tonic water by babycocktails!

The tonic water was actually a gift for my cousin that I just finished yesterday just in time for her Birthday which was yesterday. The reason this was so enjoyable is because it is incredibly well written (which is to be expected I mean it is from babycoctails), but it also looks way more complicated than it really is! I just couldn’t be happier with out it turned out and I loved knitting it up because it had just enough going on the I was always interested, but never overwhelmed. Plus the pattern is pretty easy to memorize.

In second place is the thorough bred by Alicia Plummer.

These mitts were so enjoyable the pattern was so much fun, easy to memorize and oh so simple. Also the yarn I used is just wonderful.

Now on to the most used and well loved things of this year. This section is quite difficult because I love all of my hand knits, but if I have to choose they would be the grace and the chocolate stout.

I wear both of these cardigans a lot! They fit so well into my wardrobe and they totally are by go to sweaters for outfits.

While looking back through my list of categories and seeing all of the pictures I am reminded of what was going on throughout the year while making those knits, it’s been a long year and I can’t decide if I am sad to see it go or not. A lot of things have happened and it’s funny how things have changed, but it really doesn’t seem to be a big change.

And now I will leave you with the most recent finished Christmas gift, my sisters holden, modeled by my sister.

My mom is still patiently waiting for her present which will get finished after the new year. I’m also sad to report that I have at most 6 WIP’s that will be following me into the new year, hopefully if tonight goes well it will only be 5, but those except for my dang helix scarf will get finished within the first two weeks of the new year so I can start some new stuff!

Happy New Years Eve everyone!

Long time coming

Well my friend Ashley came over and as I hoped I got some good finished objects pictures and we made some yummy desserts. We also watched The Perks of Being a Wallflower (I would highly recommend the book and the movie. I enjoyed both) and talked about what was going on in our lives so a good time was had by all.

So here are the pictures that I have been saying I would post for about a month now.

The for love of pink welted cowl from Jane Richmond.

Well I have decided that I love the cowl the colors are perfect. They are just a nice pop of color in the dreary winter months. And again, it was wonderful to knit up. Such an easy and fun project.

Here is my deja vu cowl. I love it!

Now here is my beautiful blue sweater. This is the one that gave me such a hard time with size. It ended up that the second time around modifications work perfectly.

I absolutely love the color of this sweater and though it caused me a lot of grief and I hated having to rip it out and start over the knit picks city tweed dk yarn is just lovely, so it made ripping it out and starting over easier.

Mainly what I did was follow the Emily Raglan Henley pattern the raglan equaled 9 in from the back of the neck, then I cast on 10 stitches under each underarm, placed a stitch marker in the middle of the 10 stitches and then the five that it called for in the front and then joined it in the round. After that I decreased on either side of the stitch maker under the center of each arm every 5 rows until it measured 16.25 in. Then I increased every 5 rows 3 times. Then I worked even until the in measured 23.5 in from the top to bottom and did a 2 in 1×1 rib. Then I followed the rest of the pattern except of the arm ribbing I only did a 2 in 1×1 rib.

Here’s the hoarfrost test knit that I did for IvoryEve.

It was a super fun and easy knit and I really happy with the color of the hat. It was by far my favorite dye job.

Now that I got all of that out of the way now on to the yummy stuff. The first thing we made was this Berry Cobbler thing. It was super easy, only required 3 ingredients and the prep time was only 5 min. I liked it, it wasn’t my favorite thing that I have ever made, but I’m not a big cobbler person. Everyone else in my house liked it so it was a success.

 

The Berry Cobbler.

The second thing we made was Golden Grahams S’mores. They were so yummy, I took them to work and gave it to the office staff  at the school, a coworker, and a friend of mine and they absolutely loved it. One person said it was like crack, overall it got a great reaction. It too is easy to make and has minimal ingredients, the other great thing about it is all you need to do is let it chill in the fridge for like 15 min. so it can get set and then you can devour it.

The Golden Graham S’mores. We made these Thursday morning and this is all that’s left Friday night.

 

 

 

 

New Beginnings and Great Endings Part 1

So I know I have been slacking with this whole keeping up with a blog thing, but my life has been nothing but confusion and life decisions, mixed with stress and being super busy, and sprinkled with doubt. A lot happened in the month of February that kind of sent me reeling and it has taken me  a while to get a handle on things. I think my knitting like I said in my at a loss for words post has very much reflected my life. I saw it again this past week, I was working on socks and I was at the point of turning the heel, I hate turning the heel, but it brings on something new. Just like with my life I hate making big life decisions, but it brings on something new. Sometimes not always good things, but new things. Luckily with the sock whichever way I’m working either with top-down or toe-up it’s generally a good thing and though the decisions I’m making are hard, the choices I have made though mixed with some difficulty will work out best for me in the long run.

I don’t know why I have been looking at knitting so much and comparing it to my life, maybe it’s because I am just trying to make sense of things, and well knitting makes sense so I’m using it as metaphors for my life, I don’t know but strangely enough it does make sense. This blog is going to have two parts (which you probably guessed that there would be at least two due to the title). I’m making it two parts first off to make me take finished project pictures of me wearing my beautiful blue sweater (Emily Henley Raglan), my hoarfrost test knit, my deja vu cupido, and my for the love of pink welted cowl, secondly to put me back on a reasonable blogging schedule, and thirdly to challenge me to start two new projects for myself.

The projects I want to start are the the annis and the gemini. I initially wanted to work on the gemini for March and the annis for April, and well I know that I will definitely keep close to those guide lines some with gemini being my first priority, I just really want to start the annis. I don’t know why I have such a strong need to start it, but I do. I also really want to start the citron, mainly because I think it would be a good textbook reading project where the annis will not be, the jury is still out if it will be started. So that covers the first part of the title and I hope to have pictures of them started and blog about them by Thursday.

The freshly balled yarn for the gemini, annis, and citron.

So the great endings part of the title is what I want to elaborate on some tonight because yes I need to blog and post pictures of the finished projects that I spoke about about, but I have a few other finished projects that I do have pictures of and can show you right now.

The is my I’m seeing green hat better know as the whittier hat that my sister requested.

Here’s my let’s get down to business, business casual socks that were part of celticcastons KAL. I finished them and I absolutely love them. I will totally make another pair. They are just so easy, the pattern is so well written, and the finished product looks great.

I know I have mentioned in the past that I had quiet a back log on orders for knitted items for people, well I have a few new ones, but I have started some and finished others. So here are some of the ones that are finished or in the works.

A baby owl hat for my coworkers baby cousin. The owl hat is one of my designs.

This is that started fingerless cabled gloves that some people requested. I am designing it myself and so far I really like it. In this picture you can’t really get a good idea of what the cables look like, but I hope when I finish it will show up better in different lighting.

I still have at least 1 maybe 3 more pairs of the fingerless gloves I have pictured about, a baby bunny hat to make/design, and a mickey mouse hat to make/partially design. I hope to get the Mickey Mouse hat done by the end of the week and get the bunny started this week too.

At a loss for words

I would like to say that the reason I haven’t blogged for so long is because I have been super busy. I mean I have been busy, but not enough to really stop me from blogging. A lot has come up in the past week and a half, and it has given me a lot to think about and well when it comes to me also a lot to stress about. I think in a way my knitting the past week and a half has kind of personified my life. I’m making two hats neither of them for me and well I just don’t want to work on them, but I have to finish them. That relates to my life because with school I know I need to finish my grad degree, I mean heck I just started it and well you can’t do much with a BA in psychology without a masters so I need to stop dragging my feet with it.

Also I had to rip out one of those hats halfway through because I was being dumb and did it wrong, I have made that hat 6 other times and well I got to overly confident. Then on top of it you remember that really pretty cobalt blue tweed yarn from knitpicks I posted about, well I started my sweater that I planed to make with it and I was right on schedule to having it done in less than a week and I got the body done and it was too big! I had modified the waste shaping, but not enough and I screwed up with my modification on the arms and well I had to rip it out up to the arm pits! I CO 20 under each arm at the Raglan (so stupid I don’t know what I was thinking), I should have only did 10 and well the fitted look I was looking for I need to start my waist dec. earlier and do them more frequently, well I did and I’m almost finished with the body and I love it now. How that relates to my life is a long story but the main point of it is I thought I had plans all figured out and I think I may have to completely change my plans.

Another thing that has kept me from posting is that I was really hoping to get some good pictures taken of me wearing some of my new finished objects, so until I can get outside with someone to take some pictures these will have to suffice.

Here’s my sweater I am working on.

Here’s the test knit hat I did for IvoryEve. I will have a complete post about this test knit when I have better pictures.

It is called Hoarfrost, the pattern still isn’t up yet, but it is a great hat. Plus I died the yarn myself, but this lighting really doesn’t do it justice.

Here’s my finished cupido also known as my deja vu cowl

Well I hope to have some good pictures of me wearing the finished projects up soon (the ones of my wearing them on ravelry are pretty bad). Also my KAL socks, I really haven’t worked on them, I got the first sock down to the heel, but I have been procrastinating starting the heel. I hope to have one sock done by this time next Sunday, then I will still have plenty of time to get the other one done. I also hope to have both hats and the sweater done as well this week. Here’s hoping my sites aren’t set too high.

What projects have you been putting of working on? Is there a certain aspect of different projects you hate doing? Have you had to rip out a sweater like I did?

Challenge Completed

Well I did it, I cast on three projects in three days and had very minor problems. This last started project is the Cupido cowl by Hiroko Fukatsu. I have actually already made two of them so it was a really smooth cast on, but now you may be wondering why am I making a third if I have already made two. Well I gave one to my sister Christy for Christmas here it is:

Christy’s cupido.

My original cupido.

Now the other cupido is actually a kind of funny story. It is actually identical to the one I am making right now. Which would make sense if I was making it for a friend, but they are both for me or at least the first one was mine for a short period of time, which is why I am making my new one. I really liked my first one, but a friend of mine wanted to buy it from me for the price of the yarn to give as a Christmas gift, I thought she wanted to buy the yarn for me and then I would make it, but our wires got crossed and she wanted to take it home that night and she had the money, so I gave it to her. Not realizing how attached to the cowl I was. After it went home with my friend I really missed it, so I went and bought the yarn again so this is my cupido round 2, exactly the same as the original. Here is a picture of the original:
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So all in all my cast on challenge went really well. My only complaint is that I wish I had more connectors for Denise cords set and companion set, 4 just isn’t enough. Also I never realized, but needles size US8 is a really frequently used needle, I use my US6 needles a lot too. I am using it for two out the three cast on challenge projects and my secret project (one that I am designing, that will be posted when I finish it.) What needles do you find yourself using a lot? Is there a project that you have ever been totally attached to? I would love to hear about it!

Well here are some pictures of the beginning of my new cupido and a group shot of all of my ongoing projects minus the helix scarf, but if you click on the hyperlink connected right here you can see it. Also the hyperlink in the picture on the left will take you to that project page on ravelry.

All of my beautiful on going projects.

The beginning of the cupido

More of a close up.

For the Love of Pink!

I’m finally getting to join it in the round.

Day one of my cast on multiple projects in one week adventure: I started with a pattern I have already done, the welted cowl, besides being familiar with the pattern it’s also a project where gauge really doesn’t matter so it wasn’t a completely horrible cast on.

So I was meaning to first cast on after my this will be the death of me post, but alas even though I had already picked the easy, familiar, no need to truly gauge pattern I still drug my feet. It wasn’t until around 6 in the evening did I finally start the project. All was going according to plan until I stopped to count how many I had cast-on, surprisingly I had cast on well over 20+. The reason that is so surprising the pattern calls for 132 usually when it is in the hundreds I am usually under. So I went to pull out the excess stitches and guess what I did? Being careless and not paying attention I pulled them from the wrong end where the slip knot is, which meant I had to start all over. Luckily I was able to pull it all out without any kinks which is also surprising since I am working with mohair, I feel like the cast on I used is what made it so easy. If you read my welted cowl post you would know that I used the cable cast on method which is what I used on this one, even though the pattern calls for the long-tail cast on. I have tried to pull a long-tail cast on out with mohair and it just turned into a knot.

Well after that mishap which made me cast on twice, I finally was able join in the round and get to work on it a bit last night.

Now about the yarn it is pink if you knew me you would know that the title is pretty ironic because I generally don’t like pink, but I do like coral and salmon and that is pretty much the color of this cowl.

Now one qualm I have about this project is that I already have one and I decided to make this one because I was looking at some of the finished projects on the pattern page and some people had used some really bright vibrant yarn and with the mohair it just looked luscious and fabulous and I couldn’t resist. I haven’t decided if I will keep it or not, but if I choose to give it away I have a wonderful little 7-year-old niece who loves pink and whose Birthday is in February.

Well as of right now I am going strong on my cast on project list. Once I get off of here I plan to gauge and cast on my Jane Richmond Raglan sweater. But I am worried that I am going to have some problems in my future with the whole feeling overwhelmed with so many projects. For those of you who don’t know today is the day I started my first semester of grad school for school counseling and for this semester I am only taking online classes so I need to be diligent with them, I am also working 4 hours a day for the YMCA after school program, and before I started this adventure I kind of forgot that I got hired on to make two hats, a baby hat, and two pairs of fingerless gloves. Well I was reminded of that today by the people who hired me because I told them after Christmas to remind me, well it’s after Christmas. On top of that I got asked to make three more fingerless gloves.

So right now it looks like once my cast on challenge is over all of those project will be put on the back burners until I can get those other projects done.

Here’s a link to my welted cowl project page on ravelry.

I really like how the color is fading in and out. It’s kind of following along perfectly with the welts.

This could be the death of me

Well I don’t know about you, but I have two weaknesses when it comes to knitting projects. My first weakness is the fact that I hate to gauge, I just hate it, but I am learning that I have to do it. The second weakness is that I don’t like to cast on, well it’s more a love hate relationship. I love casting on because I love knitting, but that’s the only reason I love the cast on. I don’t know what it is about casting on but I don’t enjoy it in the least. The big problem with not liking to cast on I end up putting off starting projects. It’s okay when I have little tedious projects started like the socks that I have started, or the helix scarf. It makes me work on them until I finally give and gauge then cast on, but sometimes I will put it off for a while.

That brings me to my next quirk, I don’t like having more than three works in progress, because one I feel overwhelmed, or two if I don’t like it that much it gets put on the back burners.

Now this past October I did have the socks, the helix, the bohemian hat, the holden shawlette and the lovely leaves all going at once and I did complete them all in a rather timely fashion because I got them all done except the socks and the helix. Plus I started my Rae, after I completed a few of the others.

Now probably by now you are wondering where the title of the post comes in and that is now. I have quite a few projects I want to make this year, two of which are big projects. So this week I am making myself cast on the Jane Austen Raglan sweater, the montview cardigan, another welted cowl, and another cupido. Also if I am feeling especially adventurous the woven shawl. And don’t forget I already have socks that I am working on, the helix scarf, and a secret project. Now that is a lot of ongoing projects. The reason I am doing this is because I hate finishing a project and then putting off starting a new one for weeks just because I hate casting on so if I get the cast on out-of-the-way it eliminates the problem.

Yesterday I went ahead and balled all of the yarn so now all I have to do is gauge and cast on the things I hate the most. So Today is Sunday and I have four, maybe five projects to cast on I will try to post about the start of a new project everyday, which I hope will also keep me on track. Wish me luck, in doing the thing I hate the most and that I don’t get too overwhelmed with so many WIP’s.

All the soon to be WIPs not balled.

All the soon to be WIPs balled.

Welted Cowl

Well my most recent finished object is the welted cowl from Jane Richmond. I’m really enjoyed knitting it up. It really didn’t take much time at all, the pattern was super simple, free, and one that you could pick up and put back down without the worry of losing your place. Also it gives me a project to use mohair with. I really like mohair yarn, but I can never seem to find projects that I like that mohair would be an appropriate choice for, this is it. I have a feeling that there will be at least one more in the future, who knows. I just know after looking at some other people’s finished project and the colors they used it made me want to cast on another one in the salmon mohair yarn I have had lying around for over two years now.

Just starting out.

Well back to the pattern. I did switch two things while making it. The first thing I did was use the cable cast on where the pattern called for the long-tail cast on. I chose to do the cable cast on because though the long-tail is faster I hate the idea of having an extremely long-tail left over because I feel like it’s a waste of yarn. Also if I screwed up in the cast-on mohair is incredibly hard to pull out especially when dealing the cast on. So I decided on the cable cast-on because it does have a pretty stable and nice look to it.

The second thing that I did differently was that you are supposed to do 5 knit rows and 5 purl rows

13 times. I only did it 8 times. Mainly because I used up my entire ball of yarn, yes I did have a second ball in the same color/colorway, but I didn’t want to use up only about a 1/4 of that ball and then have it be useless. If it was a solid or an ombre colored yarn I could have used the excess in stripping for a later project, so I would have but it’s not. My friend and Mom said they liked the 8 better any way so it worked out regardless and I like it.

Oh, on a completely unrelated topic, I just recently saw this youtube video and found it to be quite funny so I thought I would share. Enjoy!

Just an overview

Well the past two months have been an absolute whorl wind. November started Christmas knitting season and I was doing really well and was very much ahead of schedule. I even took on the task of dying yarn for two projects (first time dying experience), a new pattern, and two that I decided to design. Well my first hiccup hit when I made the turtles, they were the new pattern and well i had to crochet which I kind of despise doing and it just took longer than expected. Then I had to rip out the cupido that I was making for my sister because I kept forgetting to do the first step and the holden shawlette for my friend Marissa because I was a dummy and didn’t make a swatch and the gauge was wrong because I was using the wrong needle size.

Here’s the finished cupido. This is also one of the projects that I dyed. The yarn started out a robin egg blue. I dyed it because my sister prefers darker colors.

After all of those hiccups I thought the rough part was over but then I took on the task of making 4 more hats for friends to give as gifts. Being ahead of schedule I thought that would be okay but then I was at Pier 1 with my mom, she bumped something which knocked something glass over and I went to catch it. Needless to say it broke while I was attempting to catch it and I cut my pinky open right where my pinky bends, it needed three stitches.

But alas I got all 17 gifts done before all of their due dates. I am very relieved all my Christmas knitting is done because I can go back to knitting stuff for myself, making jewelry, and designing my own knitting patterns.