Progress and a new obsession

I started the poncho. I am almost 2 skeins into it. It's going well. It's easy but each row takes longer because I am increasing 6 stiches in the increase row and then having to knit the extra stitches in the knit rows. My only regret? Using bulky yarn. I don't think it will drape well. It's very thick which I want for warmth. I'm not going to quit since I have already invested in 3 skeins of this. 1 whole skein goes to the fringe. I think I need around 14 skeins for this project. It's going relatively fast but it is kind of boring. I plan to have it done by spring.

The hat is coming along well to. It is also taking forever but I am slowly seeing the yarn ball get smaller. I really hope this fits a baby. I hope by the end the hat part is longer than the brim.

Now to my new obsession....

I saw this yesterday on Ravelry and I just melted. Isn't this the most delicious cuddly thing you just want to crawl into? It's a cowl. The yarn used in this is bulky and it has 68% Alpaca 22% Silk 10% Wool. I'm not so sure I want that much bulk. I had two thoughts on modifing this. I could use worsted. Since there are two colors, you knit them together to get that bi-color look and it will give me bulky yarn in thickness and it will be half as thick as using only bulky. Another option is to use worsted for the outside color and bulky for the inside color. That way I get some bulk but just in the upper neck area not everywhere. It also does something I have never tried. It uses darts. I have heard of bust darts. Here is an explanation:

What exactly are Darts?Darts are ways of adding (or subtracting) fabric in a small area in order to create more (or less) room in a very small, very specific area. The darts are placed so that they give more room for your curves--belly, bust, and booty all can be helped with the judicious addition of dartage.

In knitting, as in sewing, if you work a decreasing dart, you are taking away fabric: decreasing the number of stitches takes away fabric. To illustrate this with ordinary fabric: take a fold of your shirt between your fingers and pinch it closed. This makes the area around the dart smaller.

In knitting, again as in sewing, if you work an increasing dart, you are adding fabric: increasing the number of stitches adds more fabric. To illustrate this with ordinary fabric: Imagine if you were to cut up along the seam line of your pants legs, and then sew in fabric triangles between the seams of each leg. You'd end up with roomier pants legs (bell-bottoms, actually).

How do you work a dart?
There are as many different ways to work darts in knitting as there are clever knitters to invent them. But basically, more or less, you can break them up into Short-Row Darts and Vertical Darts. (Now that I have said that, you folks will come up with sixteen other kinds of darts that I don't know about.)

I think the darts in this cowl are decreasing but I'm not sure. Anyway, I'm trying to decide what yarn to use this for. I do have that 1 skein of green Lima alpaca yarn. But if I change from bulky to worsted, I don't know how my yardage will change. I have that question up on one of the ravelry forum boards. Hopefully someone will answer and I will understand. Here are some more pictures of this interesting design:

 

It looks like there are equal amounts of both colors. I am wondering if using worsted all the way is my best bet. I am frustrated that I just can't run over to my local yarn store like I did in Hartland and ask questions. I have to drive a bit to get to one. Besides it takes time to learn to trust the women so you know who knows the most. Just because they work at a yarn store doesn't mean they are experts in knitting. In any case I can't even start thinking of casting on till after Christmas when I will have some money to make this. One person who used this yarn says it grows like crazy. But that is the nature of alpaca.  People who make sweaters out of mostly alpaca complain bitterly about it. Not sure I want that for this project. I am looking into alternative, holds it's shape but just as yummy soft yarns as well.

 

 

Gauge Lessons

I am coming up on my 2nd knitting anniversary in December and I am now just starting to learn about gauge. Last night I was going to start a shawl with my Knit Picks Wool of the Andes yarn I have been agonizing over how to use it. Yesterday in church during bible class I was freezing. I looked at my outfit and realized it has black in it and a shawl would match. Last night I found a pattern and decided to try and do a guage swatch. I probaby did it wrong. I did 6-8 rows and then measured. I was looking for lenght. Was it 4 inches long? I did 4-5 swatches on different size needles and realized after I tried a size 8 that larger needles gives more lenght. Smaller needles gives less. I had it mixed up, I figured if you went smaller you could get more stitches per inch which would make it longer. So the size 8 seems to work. I will try a longer swatch later to make sure. I may go up to a 9 to give a bit more lenght.

I was laying in bed and thinking about gauge and the hat I am knitting. It is no longer for Joel. It is for a baby boy some day. I looked at my knitting and saw that it is pretty good! I don't want to rip it out but I want my needles back! It is good car knitting or TV knitting. I think I will add it back to the basket and squeeze it it somehow.

I started the poncho! I have 4 of the 9 inches of ribbing done. It has a flaw. I knit where I should have purled or vise versa. But since it is a turtleneck and the ribbing will be folded over. It won't show. Plus I can put that part in the back to hide it further. For bulky weight yarn it is going slow.I started Saturday. But I am a slow knitter anyway. I am looking forward to finishing the ribbing and it is easy, but I'm itching to get on with the body. I had a frustrating start to it. On Friday I drove to Michaels and Joanns to get the needles and yarn since I didn't have the size I needed to start. Got both and came to home cast on. I cast on and realized I wasn't going to be able to join in the round. Why? Because I didn't read the directions carefully and it lists 3 diferent cord lenghts for the needles. I needed a 16", 29" and 23" of a size 10. I bought a 29 inch. So Saturday I went back to the store and bought a 16" size 10. Everything is good now. I always wondered why 16" was a needed size? What did you do with them? Now I know.

My black scarf is on the back burner. I did a round (4 row round) last night and looked at the amount that's left. I'm getting close! It will be a full lenght scarf when it's done. I do not know what I will do with it. I may gift it to someone for Christmas. It should be done by then. When that is done I am dragging my white wool angora scarf  out and do that one. I have 2 skeins of that so not sure what I will do. I may rip it out and make something else or keep it a scarf. I started it when I only had 1 skein.

Knitting update

I'm back! It's been quite a while since I posted. Much has happened as you already know. I moved and got a dog which really eats into knitting time. I think I said last post I thought I would go into a fit of startitis. Well...not like I thought. I am not knitting the bathmats because some were given to us. Curtains, I have some that were left here from the 70's, need new ones and am still thinking about knitting them. Actually, now that I do think about it, I need new ones in 2 bathrooms and our bedroom. I don't think I have yarn for it. My bedroom has yellow walls. Wait...I could make green curtians and have a bit of Packer color in the room! Sam needs curtains to. His walls are light brown. Here are a couple of patterns I put in my favorites. Think they would look good in a bathroom or bedroom?

I had made good progress on the Sayoran scarf but then made a mistake and had to start over. Lifelines lifelines lifelines! I picked up a shawl out of hibernation I am making for Grace for church. She is always cold and never dresses warm. I hope I have it done by Christmas. I dragged out a scarf I started last year and want to finish it because it's only 1 skein. I still don't know if it will be long enough to wear but so what. I think I spent $1.50 for a very good skein of yarn at Gooswill. I also dragged out the hat I am trying to make for Joel and realized it probably would fit a baby's head. I'm very frustrated. It looks good though. Maybe I'll gift it to a family member who has a baby. I'm not done with it though and not sure how much to knit of the body of the hat since the circumference of the brim is so small.

I bought 2 skeins of yarn with most of the last of my knitting money. One is called Madelinetosh tosh sock yarn and it is beloved in the knitting world. I want to make a shawl out of it.12,335 patterns have been knit with this yarn. Needless to say it is very popular. Sock yarn is not just for socks! Here is the pattern I plan to use for this yarn. Check out all the pictures they give of this shawl! I can't give a picture of the color of ther yarm because it is one of a kind says the lable but it's tan and veregated.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/oaklet-shawl

The other is one of my favorite brands called Rowan. The yarn I grabbed is called Lima. It is 85% alpaca, 8% merino and 8% nylon. I saw this yarn knit up into a sweater and I about melted. I've wanted this yarn ever since. I managed to get 1 skein on 30% discount. I plan to make it into a cowl but I don't have the needles for it right now. If I have the size they may be in a project right now. I plan to wait till Christmas and ask for the needles I need. Here is a picture of the cowl and the yarn knit into the cowl pattern I will use.

This next picture is my newest obcession. I have this blue jacket that I wear to church in fall and spring that doesn't look that good and I'm to fat to feel comfortable in it. I saw this and thought it would be a good replacement. This appeals to me because it is out of bulky yarn and size 10 needles. I really like the turtleneck collar but it may be a bit too much. I'm sure it's easy to remedy. Plus if it's cold in church I can wear it during the service or out and about like to the store. I am partial to wool and I don't have money for 1250 yards of good wool. I can get 80/20 acrylic/wool at Micheals or Joanns for a good price with a   coupon. The yarn I have in mind is a 50/50 acrylic wool blend. Problem is it's only got 90 yards per skein. At that rate it will take 14 skeins to make it!!!!!!!!

I also have 5 skeins of worsted weight black wool that I do not know what to do with! I was making a lap blanket with it but compared to the bulky yarn I am using to make Grace's shawl it didn't compare. I ripped it out. There, I think that is it. Oh, I do have 1 finished project to mention. I made one of these:

Of course I just realized that I put the hanger part on the wrong side. It broke yesterday so I need to fix it anyway.

Till next time!

Ideas for new house

I am going to have a bad case of start-itis when I get to PA. I want to make bath mats for the bathrooms, I may want to try making drapes-short one for decoration over the kitchen window, and I had the thought of making myself a lap blanket for when I knit. Plus a few others. I considered knitting place mats for the table but I decided I wanted to buy stain resistant ones since my family are very messy eaters and I don't want all my hard work ruined after one meal.. Plus they will have to be washed after each meal. Click on the links to see pictures. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-stylish-square -lap blanket

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/soft-linen-cafe-curtain -curtains

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/cicadastudio/knitted-bathmat -bathmat

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-quickie-plastic-bag-holder -plastic bag holder

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cabled-napkin-rings -napkin rings

I am currently working on a scarf/shawlette. Here is a picture of what I am working on currently with my new camera:

As you can see it looks pretty good-the camera I mean. the color is right. I uploaded the picture with Hannah's computer and it doesn't appear you can click on the picture for a better look but try and see if you can. I can't. The pattern has leaves on the edge. They will look better I hope when it's blocked. The two strange lines are lifelines and I will pull them out later. It's so if I make a mistake I only have to rip back to the line and not all the way to the beginning.

I am knitting this with yarn called Blue Sky Alpaca Silk. It's 50% silk and 50% alpaca. I love it! It's so soft. It takes 3 skeins. I walked into the yarn shop with the intention of buying different yarn but walked out with this when I saw the shop sample of this pattern!. Funny thing was I had this pattern in my hand when I walked in. I had 3 patterns and I choose this one because of the sample.

The section I am doing is called the increase section. As you can see it's getting larger as I go. There are 14 rows in each repeat. I am doing the repeat twice. I will have 12 leaves when the section is finished. It will use 1 skein of yarn. Then the next section is the straight section that has another 14 row repeat but I knit that 10 times. I will also knit that repeat twice and use 1 skein of yarn. The last section is the decrease section. It is the same as the increase section. 14 row repeat and I will knit that twice.

I really like this pattern. It is so easy! See ya when i get to PA!

Here is my first picture from my new camera! The colors look good, meaning they look like the colors they are. It's a bookmark for Hannah's piano teacher. I am almost finished with the dishcloth. 3 more rows and then bind off. I will take a picture of the sachet to. I really like having my own camera. It's so small which is hard to get used to. I don't think the kids will ask to use it since they have cameras on their phones that they use a lot. Joel likes the 'broken" camera we have. He dropped it when we were up north and it messed up the zoom and I can't take pictures without them being fuzzy.

First Packer sock done!

I finally finished the first sock! I would say on a scale of 1-10 I give it a 7. My heel got messed up and there were a couple of holes but overall it was better than my first effort. I have already cast on for the second sock. I have till Sept 1 to finish in time for Packer season. Can't wait to wear them for the games.

Pictures to see

Here is the start of the bookmark. It's taking longer than I expected. but I am using size 2 needles.


Here is the dishcloth. It's almost finished.


Here is the sachet-it's not filled and doesn't have the ribbon yet.