Wednesday 30 April 2014

WIPs - Progress Reports and New Projects

Of the WIPs I wrote about last time, five are still active.

Colour Waves Blanket

I'm trying to make sure to add a row or two every other day. It's still going slow, but I'm seeing some progress. I'll post a new picture once the body of the blanket is done, before I move on to the border.

Harvest Cardigan

With all the socks I've been making, I have not found a lot of time to work on my cardigan, so it still looks pretty much the same as it looked last time. Won't bother you with another picture of it.

New Oaklet Shawl

I've finished the knitting, and just have to block the shawl now. It was a very pleasant and relaxing knit, with and easy, but still pretty, beginner lace pattern. I'm very pleased with how this shawl turned out, and I am sure it will look even more beautiful once it's blocked - I'm always amazed what a difference blocking makes with those lace shawls. Looking forward to seeing it finished.


Blue Mystery Socks

This is what my socks looked like last Friday, just before the last clue was released:



I am now in the middle of the last clue for the mystery socks - the foot and the toe. I do unfortunately have rather long feet, and still need to knit about 3 cm of foot before I can start the toes. I hope to finish them over the weekend.

Owl Dress

I forgot to take a new picture, but I'm actually almost done sewing my first ever toddler dress. It's actually not looking too bad so far, and I hope I won't screw up on the last step - attaching bias tape around the yoke and shoulder straps. I promise to take a picture once it's finished and show it here.

Blackberry Mystery Shawl

I joined the Goddess Knits Mystery Shawl KAL, and yes - started another shawl. It's the first time I'm using lace weight yarn (Schoppel-Wolle Lace Ball in the blackberry colourway). I found it a bit fiddly to start with, but once I had knit a couple of rows I started to enjoy the pattern.



I finished the first clue in time, but I will fall behind on the second clue - too much going on in the non-crafting part of my life this week... Oh well, it's not a race, and I will finish in my own time.

Sock Yarn Blanket

Actually, not a WIP yet - the Beginner's Knit-Along Group are starting another KAL special - Bits & Bobs Blankets - tomorrow. Anyway, since I am producing quite a bit of sock yarn leftovers these days, I decided to join in the fun and make this blanket. I have not decided on a size yet, but however big it will become - it's going to take ages... but it will be fun!

The reason I'm including this future project is because I have already made a test (or - I you will - gauge) square.



I did that just to figure out a good number of stitches to cast on. I have settled for 61 cast-on stitches. This will give me nicely sized squares (approx. 11 cm x 11 cm) - not too tiny, not too large.

Until next time...



Thursday 24 April 2014

FOs: Crazy Stripey Cabley Socks and Blowing in the Wind Socks

Almost forgot to give an update on my sock week. I finished both the Cable socks and the Knitting Madness Spring KAL socks.

Crazy Stripey Cabley Socks

I love how my Crazy Stripey Cabley Socks turned out, and they also fit really well. I wore them all day yesterday and my, they are comfortable.


Now, I've got a good chunk of that yarn left, and since little Helena kept on asking me whether those socks would be for her (she obviously loves the colours) I'm going to make a pair for her as well. I have not decided on a pattern yet - might end up making up my own pattern for her.

Blowing in the Wind Socks

As I mentioned before, the Blowing in the Wind Socks came out a bit wide. They fit well enough not to fall down, but I can't wear them in (tight) shoes.


The patterning is just beautiful, though, and they do indeed make great house socks. Thank you, Natalie from Marigoldsloft, for letting me take part in your knit-along - it was such great fun. Oh, and these were my fastest full size socks to date!

Now I've only got one more pair of socks on my needles - at least until I start the next pair - but that is another story and will be told in the next WIP update...

Friday 18 April 2014

SIPs - Socks in Progress

This week turned out to be sock week for me - I barely touched a project that isn't to become a sock. Last week I had two pairs on my needles - this week, it's three pairs - ooops.

Crazy Stripey Cabley Socks

I'm almost done with my pair of toe-up socks - only 1 1/2 inches of cuff left to do. I'm looking forward to wearing them soon.



Blue Mystery Socks

Managed to finish the second clue in time. LOVE the patterning on the legs! The heel turn was a bit of a surprise - haven't seen it done like this before (but then, I'm still fairly new to sock knitting). Third clue should be released some time today, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what will happen next.



Knitting Madness Spring Socks (KAL)

My latest pair of SIPs is the result of joining in the Knitting Madness Spring Sock Knit-Along. The pattern is called Blowing in the Wind.

I was a bit surprised at the recommended needle size (3.5 mm), but decided to follow the recommendation. I am now thinking I should maybe have gone down to 3 mm needles. The socks are turning out fairly large - they will fit, but not as snugly as I usually like my socks to fit when I'm wearing them in shoes. Oh well, I will have a pair of beautiful, wonderfully comfortable socks to wear around the house, then. I prefer warm socks to slippers anyway, when it's to chilly to walk barefoot ;).



So why knit three pairs of socks at the same time? Must be boring... Let me tell you - it isn't! On the contrary - it's very interesting to see the differences in construction. Most obvious: Cuff-down (Blue Mystery and Spring Socks) vs. Toe-up (Crazy Stripey). And then there's the heel construction. All the cuff-down socks I have made so far used a classic heel flap construction. The Blue Mystery Socks are like that - but with a heel turn that is different to what I'm used to. The Spring KAL socks use a boomerang heel - first time for me! So - not boring at all... if you're a knitter... who knits socks...


Thursday 17 April 2014

FO: Cabled Tree Sweater Vest

I finished the sweater vest for my daughter a couple of days ago.


I knit the back first, and then the front - and I must say that this was a good decision. The back is basically the front without the tree: ribbing, stockinette, a couple of rows of seed stitch, and then reverse stockinette - knits up quickly and was just enough patterning for me not to get bored. Still, knitting the tree on the front was something I was looking forward to doing  - that alone made me finish the back part in no time. The front took a little longer because of the cable pattern, but I tremendously enjoyed that part.

To make a long story short - I could have completed this project a lot sooner, if it hadn't been for the seaming. I don't like seaming, and I usually try to avoid it. So the finished (and blocked) pieces had to wait a couple of days until I felt in the mood to stitch them together. Sure, I could have knit this in the round up to the sleeve separation and then grafted the shoulders together. But I think once in a while I should practise seaming - and if it's just to prove to myself that I can do it...

I am actually quite happy with how the finished piece turned out. And I'm glad that I chose to make it a bit larger than my daughter's current size - she seems to have hit another growth spurt those last couple of days...

Thursday 10 April 2014

WIP Parade

Thought I'd tell you what I'm working on at the moment - that is to say, my recent WIPs, not the long time UFOs (those will become WIPs of the week once in a while). As you might have noticed by now, I'm not good at sticking to one project at a time...


Cabled Tree Sweater Vest

I'm making this sweater vest for my daughter (1 1/2 years old). I'm knitting it one to two sizes larger than she needs right now, so she can grow into it.
Found the pattern in one of those knitting magazines (Bambino Strick Herbst / Winter 2013) and just liked the look of it. I'm using a merino / cotton blend (Junghans Wolle Merino-Cotton) - very soft and nice to work with.


I'm almost done with it, actually, just need to knit a couple of rows of ribbing around the armholes - should be able to finish this over the weekend.


Harvest Cardigan

I'm knitting this cardigan as part of the Simple Collection KAL in the Beginner's Knit-Along group on ravelry. I had wanted to knit a cardigan for myself anyway, and this one looked very nice in its simplicity. The pattern is available on the Tin Can Knits website.
I started the cardigan in mid March, and so far am having fun knitting it. But now I've got the long stretch ahead of me... between 9 and 10 inches in pattern before the garter border starts...


When I chose the yarn for the cardigan, I wanted 100% wool, but machine washable (I've got a toddler in the house, after all), and finally went with DROPS Big Merino - a yarn that I had worked with before.


New Oaklet Shawl

I have come to love knitting shawls. So when the Triangular Shawl KAL came up in the Beginner's Knit-Along Group I couldn't resist. I chose to knit the New Oaklet Shawl (pattern available here on the Tricksy Knitter website).


I have finished the four repeats of the lace chart the pattern calls for, but have enough yarn left for a fifth repeat. So I'll add one additional repeat before starting to work the border chart.

I'm knitting this shawl in Malabrigo sock - love that yarn for lace accessories.


Blue Mystery Socks

This is the second time I'm taking part in the mystery knit-along with the Solid Socks group on ravelry. Last time was just so much fun - couldn't resist. Love the pattern so far - looking forward to the next clue, which should be released tomorrow.



Crazy Stripey Cabley Socks

Yes, another pair of socks - just couldn't resist. This month's KAL topic in the Beginner's Knit-Along Group is cables, and this - Socks on a Plane - is one of the recommended patterns. I just had to cast on...


I have knit toe-up socks only once before - and that was baby size - so this construction is still quite new to me, which just adds to the fun!

Oh, and this is the first time I'm using self-striping yarn for my socks (not counting the pair of baby size socks mentioned above) - I love it! I would still not use it on sock patterns with lots of pattern detail that might get lost, but it's just such a joy and so exciting to see how the colours will work up. I have not tried to match up the colours for my socks - because, hey, I'm knitting crazy stripey socks - they are not supposed to be a perfect match!


Owl Dress

My only non-knitting project for today. I have started to sew the dress for my daughter. We'll see how that goes...


Helena at least loves the owls on the fabric, and I had to tell her what I'm making. She seemed very excited to find out that I'm making something for her, and now everytime she sees me handling those pieces of fabric she points at them and says something like "de, de" (which I think is supposed to mean dress), and then her name. 

Uhm, rather long list... hope to have some finished object(s) next time.

Wednesday 9 April 2014

My first zipper!

In my last post I mentioned that I wanted to make the zipper pouch from the Craftsy class on Bag Making Basics. Well, I did - a couple of days ago, actually... just didn't find time to post.

Here's the result:



I was a bit worried about sewing in the zipper, because I had never done it before, but it was easier than I thought! I'm so glad that I tried. The whole thing took me just over an hour to sew - and I was checking the video tutorials frequently (this was after all my first attempt at this pattern).


I did make a tiny mistake, though: I forgot to trim the corners before I turned the pouch right side out and closed the last seam - this leaves the corners slighlty rounded. As I said - tiny, tiny mistake. I love my new pouch and have put it to use right away.



I think these make really nice little gifts (especially as they are so quick to make), and I'll definitely sew more of these (already got a couple of zippers). Anyway, I do need to make one for my daughter first - she is trying to claim mine all the time.  

Friday 4 April 2014

FOs: Peach Leaves Socks and Reversible Tote

I've got two more finished projects to show this week.

First up is a pair of Socks. The pattern is called Peach Leaves Lace Socks by Qianer Huang. The yarn I used is Vendita sock yarn. I purchased it at one of the local discounters a while back, and while it is fairly inexpensive yarn, I can't complain about quality. I've used it for socks before, and it is sturdy, holds up well in the washing machine, and is still quite soft.


I have been taking part in her knit-alongs now and then since October last year, and I'm really enjoying her sock patterns. When I first tried to make (plain) socks I would end up with a single sock, just because I got bored after the first one. Anyway, I have been very disappointed in storebought socks lately, so I figured I should start knitting my own socks. My goal this year is to knit one pair of socks every month. The knit a-longs help a great deal when it comes to actually finishing complete pairs, and so do the lace and cable designs - they keep the knitting interesting.


Oh, and the socks do actually fit, too.

My second finished project is another bag. It's a reversible tote, and the pattern is from the second Craftsy class on bag-making basics (reversible tote and zipper pouch). Of the bags I have made so far, I found this bag to be the easiest to sew, and I like how it turned out.

This is what I consider the "outside" of the bag:


And this is the "inside". As you can see, this tote has got a cute little pocket on the inside.


While it is a reversible bag (technically), I like the look of the "outside" better. I think if were to I make a second one, I would not choose three different fabrics, but only two, and make the lining the same colour as the outer top, and the pocket the colour of the outer bottom and handles. Well, chances are I will make a second one... but next in line is the zipper pouch.

Oh, and what happened to my WIP of last week - the colour waves blanket? Well, I actually did get about 4.5 inches done, so I've still got about 7.5 inches ahead of me, and then the border. I noticed two mistakes I must have made yesterday while not paying enough attention to what I'm doing - but I have decided not to rip back to fix them. I just want to get that blanket done before June...

Tuesday 1 April 2014

Bucket Bag

I went ahead and made the bucket bag from the Craftsy tutorial I mentioned in my previous post.



Overall, I'm very happy with how it turned out, in spite of some crooked seems. It was my first time working with interfacing and fusible fleece, and  the fleece especially didn't make sewing straight easier... the result being that my stitching on the handle is far from parallel to the handle edges. Also, I had some issues sewing the bottom in -  the rest of the bag seemed to get in the way all the time, and I ended up with some minor creases in the exterior bottom seam.

Still, I love this bag. It stands up on its own - which I think is wonderful for a project bag. But the best feature by far are the customised pockets that run around the entire bag. I made some narrow pockets for needles or pens / pencils, some slighlty wider ones for a pair of scissors or a ruler, and two really wide ones for instruction sheets.