New Project: Plaited Poncho

Project:  Plaited Poncho
Pattern:  Plaited Poncho by Knitter's Design Team, Knitters Magazine Summer 2005 

Yarn:  Big green ball of (probably) wool found in my stash, most likely came from eBay
Yardage:   about 900 yards. The ball was wound off a big cone, weighs smidgen below 1lb.
Needles: Size 8
Cast on: April 25, 2012 

Notes: My main project is supposed to be Wingspan. (I am working on it even tho I haven't posted a picture here. I forgot to take a progress picture today, just what happens when I have two projects going at the same time.) But Wingspan is all garter stitch, so of course I have to cast on another project to keep me engaged so I don't doze off while knitting (have done that before and didn't drop a stitch). The yarn has been in my stash for a few years. Bucky was in the picture for sizing. No I didn't put him there, he'd have wiggled his way out if I made him stay. More likely I was trying to shove him out of the way so he decided to lie down and take a nap. I don't usually like "Knitter's Design Team" patterns, but I was looking for something very specific -- top down garment with cables in DK to worsted weight yarn, but gives me the variation to make it shorter or longer depend on the among of yarn I have. This fits what I was looking for.

Caireen Finale

Project:  Caireen
Pattern:  Caireen by Susanna IC, Knitty Deep Fall 2010 
Yarn:  GGH Via Mala
Yardage: 511 yards in stash, used about half, unplied from 4-ply to 2-ply
Needles: Size 8
Cast on: March 25, 2012
Cast off: April 18, 2012
Cost: Less than $20
Previous Entry: here
Notes: The yarn doesn't have the right body for cables, and I mis-crossed one the cables. The shawl looks fine, but I know it's there. This is a lovely pattern, and I feel like I didn't do it justice. Will have to re-knit the pattern some day in a different yarn.


Happy Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog, Tami's blog, and leave me a comment! 

Spring Break Fiber Goodness

My son has the week off for Spring Break and the weather has been super nice, so we did some day trips. Monday we went to Carmel to visit my mom and go to the beach. Picked up a big stash of her finished charity knitting, and dropped off a huge bag of yarn donated from my local friends.

Thursday we went on a day trip to the east bay, and ended up at couple of yarn shops at my insist. A Verb for Keeping Warm has a strong presence at Stitches West, Ravelry, and carries their own line of yarns. It's my first visit and I was pleasant greeted by this gorgeous shawl.

It's a circular shawl from Doilyhead on Ravelry (designer Herbert Niebling), knitted in thread(!).

Then we hit Article Pract in Oakland. I've seen the shop from the outside on my previous tours but this is the first time to go in. It's much bigger than I imagined, and very well stocked. Best part, there is a sale room!

Sorry about the reflection of the bathroom door, I meant to capture the shelf across from the mirror, and there is yet another shelf full of yarn.

These came home with me. Three skeins of hand painted merino from Twisted Sisters, almost 1200 yards. I had a hard time deciding which colorway to get, they all look amazing!

Happy Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog, Tami's blog, and leave me a comment! 

Wingspan Knitalong

I forgot to take a picture of Caireen, but it's chugging along nicely. I'm on row 41, about 15 rows left for the main cable pattern, and then 22 rows of short row decrease and cast off.

I don't usually talk about my new projects until they are started, because I tend to be indecisive about what pattern to use. Sometimes a new pattern would catch my eye at the last moment and I'd change the plan right before casting on, or even after. On Sunday I posted a link of Wingspan on Facebook, asking if my knitting friends would like to join me for a knitalong. Eight people raised their hands, a few more than I anticipated. Couple hours later I started Wingspan Knitalong group on Ravelry and invited my friends to join. Four days later we have over 100 members in the group, including the pattern designer Maylin of Tri'Coterie Designs, who has been answering questions about the pattern.

Wingspan is a simple small shawl knitted all in garter stitch, with short row shaping. The pattern is a free download on Ravelry. People have knitted it in different weights of yarns, with huge variations for the design, even couple of crochet versions.

I'm going to use this Kauni for my Wingspan. The long color repeats would look very pretty in this design.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment! 

New Project: Caireen

Project:  Caireen
Pattern:  Caireen by Susanna IC, Knitty Deep Fall 2010 
Yarn:  GGH Via Mala
Yardage:   511 yards in stash 
Needles: Size 8
Cast on: March 25, 2012 

Notes: Last year I made Oslo Walk shawl, also designed by Susanna IC. I love these crescent shaped shawls and her patterns are so pleasant to work with. The yarn is a heavy 4-ply wool that I bought from Knitting Arts in Saratoga (a neighboring town) right before they closed. It turned out too heavy for the pattern, but fortunately the plies are parallel (not twisted together), and I was able to easily rewind them into separate balls. I'm glad I did. There are gaps and knots in every ball so far, I hope it's just old age or poor production. 

working yarn on the left, original ball on the right

this little plant survived another winter

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment! 

Spring Seedling 春苗

Last year Ally sent me this nice skein of her hand spun, corriedale plied with kid mohair and silk, that I blogged about here. Now it's a scarf.

Project:  Spring Seedling 春苗

Pattern:  Seedling Wrap by Tonia Barry (free Ravelry download)

Yarn:  Ally's handspun

Needles: Size 11

Cast on: March 19, 2012 

Cast off: March 24, 2012

Cost: None!

Previous entries: here

Notes: Had couple of false starts so I can make the stitch pattern into the right proportion for a scarf. The total knitting time was less than five hours. Love the finished scarf!

I'm posing, mom.

You mean like this?

Or like this.

I'm outta here!

Happy Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog, Tami's blog, and leave me a comment! 

Mock Cables Finale

Project:  Mock Cables 真淑女
Pattern:  High-Low Peplum Pullover by Sandy Cushman,  Interweave Knits, Spring 2001 
Yarn:  Karabella Majestic 
Yardage:   1240 yards in stash (could have used a few more yards on the neckline)
Needles: Size 7
Cast on: January 26, 2012 
Cast off: March 18, 2012
Cost: estimate $40. The yarn was on sale at Stitches. I don't remember buying it, but I wouldn't have paid more.
Previous entries: here, here, and here
Notes: The neckline came out much lower than I planned as I was running out of yarn, I think it looks fine. I still want to add something in the center diamonds, but it's a pretty busy all over pattern, adding more to it might just be too much. I wore it Thursday evening to a concert at our local high school (Henry's music instructor plays in the band), and it was quite warm and comfortable, and pretty too, so I should leave good enough alone.

Love me some spring colors

Happy Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog, Tami's blog, and leave me a comment! 

Neckline

Mock Cables, front, back, sleeves all done, picked up stitches for the neckline. The pattern calls for a cute mock turtle neck, which I love, and the stitch patten goes up the center front and back. It's going to look so cute and sweet when it's done.

Over the years I've knitted sweaters with all kinds of necklines.

Crew neck, simple, classy, boring. 

Turtle neck, extra knitting to keep you warm!

Deep V, sassy, stylish

Sweetheart neckline, gotta have the body to carry it

Mandarin collar, beautiful, elegant, practical. Love, love, love it!

Polo style, too many little pieces, not worth the time.

And then some of us don't have much of a neck to speak of.

Do you have a favorite neckline? and why do you like it?

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment! 

Mock Cables Progress

Project:  Mock Cables 真淑女
Pattern:  High-Low Peplum Pullover by Sandy Cushman,  Interweave Knits, Spring 2001 
Yarn:  Karabella Majestic 
Yardage:   1240 yards in stash 
Needles: Size 7
Cast on: January 26, 2012 
Notes: This is coming along nicely. The pattern makes you do bobbles in the middle of those diamonds in the center front and back, but I'm not a bobble kind of knitter. Will be looking for interesting things to fill the diamonds.

Question: I have a stash of costume jewelry that I don't wear any more, and I want to take them apart and make some stitch markers. If you have made stitch markers, can you tell me what basic tools I need to start? I have seem jewelry pliers at Michael's, and we have a small wire cutter. I need jump rings, and some sort of wires, right?

A stretch a day, keep the doctor away.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

Stitches West 2012

Previous reviews: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011

This year I worked in the market part of Friday and Saturday, for the wonderful Laurel and John from Handknitting.com, and shopped the rest of the time. Here is a small sample of what I saw.

Crochet this scarf with Trendsetter Bodega, took only couple of hours.
Modeled by fellow day laborer,  Prabha. After I finished my shift and left the booth,
Prabha's aunt bought the scarf!

First time to see yarn with Russian lable

A knitted man sitting in Lion Brand's booth

Yarn tasting station in the lobby. Can you believe they CUT qiviut and suri alpaca and cashmere??

The Oriental Jacket in Koigu booth. I have the Koigu book, but this
colorway is so much more handsome.

Learning to knit with size 50 needles in The Bag Smith booth, also learned
Tunisian crochet with super sized hooks.

My collection from the yarn tasting station went into this magic ball.

Glass buttons (aren't they pretty?), shell buttons, mixed beads.

The loot, clock wise from upper left corner:

- 5 balls Supreme Possum Merino 4 ply, possum/merino/silk (blue)
- Neighborhood Fiber Pagoda Lace, silk/cashmere (yarn is more green in real life than in the picture)
- box of mixed wool fiber for needle felting
- (on top of the fiber) glass buttons, shell buttons, mixed beads
- 2 skeins Newton’s Yarn Country Cashmere Merino (bright green)
- Green Mountain Spinnery Simply Fine, fingering weight kid mohair/wool (undyed)
- Leilani Arts silk ribbon (crazy colors)
- 2 skeins RedFish Dyeworks 20/2 silk (purple)
- (big bag under the other yarns) 10 balls Valley Yarns Northampton, 100% wool (blue)

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!