The KG Square Swap #2

 
I am happy to say I received my second swap square from Erin of Ellettsville, Indiana.  It is a very pretty knit/purl square block.  She was kind enough to send the rest of the Knit Picks Simply Cotton in worsted, Bermuda Heather.  I will be able to make up my own squares now to match.  I am excited.

It has been fun finding squares to make for someone I don't know.  Finding out what they prefer in pattern, color and the goodies to include.  I have my next victim...what should I do to them this time?



Join a Square Swap and make friends!

The Reunion Catkin (w/ correction)

 

I am happy to say I have finished my Catkin by Carina Spencer.   I made it out of Madelinetosh Merino Light in the Oxblood and Rosewood colors.  I was trying to come up with a cute name for my Catkin using the color names, but with ox & blood nothing sounded right: Oxrose, Bloodrose, Oxwood, Bloodwood.  It is too pretty to have an unpleasant name.  It is my Reunion Catkin since I made it to wear to the football game back home during my 30 year reunion.  Go Tigers!  Our school colors are/were maroon & gold, as you can see.  This yarn is a single ply and a dream to knit with.  Since it is very round, the stitches pop.  I did find that where I had to rework an area, the yarn wanted to untwist itself a little, but I don't think it hurt the finished project.  I won't call myself a yarn snob yet, but I am beginning to really appreciate all the wonderful choices out there.



Madelinetosh Merino Light



I am still trying to figure out what I did to cause the short row effect right at the beginning/neck area.  Maybe I increased every other row and should have been every row for awhile.  I thought it would block out, but it didn't.



Once I get some blocking wires, I will try it again.  The length was 42" and should be 50", so it can block out some more with the wires helping me.  I found some cute hexigon shaped metal buttons at Hancock Fabrics, used a coupon and was pleased it cost only $3.50 for 2 cards or 8 buttons.  I didn't get a close-up of them for you, I forgot.  You can still see the yarn ends from where the buttons were sewn on.  lol
 

Finally on knit rows!



This has been a challenge for me.  I read from a chart, actually it has Chart 1 for the tan area, then Chart 2A, Chart 2B and Chart 2C for the color work section.  There was some ripping back, dropping and correcting stitches.  I am pleased to say that I took the time to get it right.  Now if I can only find out what I did wrong that made that funny bump...

UPDATE: I found out what I must have done wrong on my Reunion Catkin.  After reblocking, (thanks MrsAbi) I had way too much in the center back.  I folded it back on itself, pinned it and tried it on; and yes, the increases were wrong.  I increased every other row on both sides instead of every row.  The best way I could figure to make the corrections was to create a provisional cast-on where the tan color began.  Working the maroon back to the beginning would allow the cute slip stitch on each edge.  It isn't as neat since it works better with the increase as designed, rather than the decreases.  So far so good.  I know my tan was the correct # of stitches and I am working backwards decreasing both ends on every row.  I'm not sure if I will be able to do the final 4 stitches to look like the 4K edging, but that is at the basee of the neck & no one will really see it.  I have learned alot about fixing errors on this project.  I will call that a good thing

Reworking the Catkin, lol



Find a challenge and knit it.

Tangled No More

I found a great project to help preserve your earphone cords from tangleing up & breaking.  I can't tell you how many earphones I have bought because they don't last with me.  Untangled  is wonderful I-cord pattern that does exactly what we need.  How-to video on I-cord.

1. Very simply cast on 3 stitches. on double pointed needles.
2. Knit across.
3. Place earphone facing down behind stitches
4. Bring working yarn down, around and behind earphone.
5. Slide stitches to the right end of needles.
6. Repeat Row 2-5.

Look at the pattern for detailed directions.

Jacquard & Stripe Socks by Patons

and size 2 double pointed needles

Have a little fun with I-Cord

Reunion Catkin

I am so excited, my Madelinetosh Merino Light came in today!  This is a great looking pattern, Catkin by Carina Spencer.   I purchased it from The Loopy Ewe in Oxblood (maroon) & Rosewood (tan/gold), my high school colors.  With my 30 year reunion coming up in September, I couldn't think of any other colors and besides that, I love the combination.  I spend an afternoon on the computer copying colors, matching combinations and looking at what others have done on Ravelry.  I always came back to the original you see here.  I love it!

 This will be an ambitious project for me since it has colorwork and charts for the texture.  We knitters know that a challenge helps us learn and become better at our craft.  Power to in the needles! 

 What are your favorite color combinations?  Are they associated to anything in particular?  Looking in my closet, I see that there are certain colors I gravitate to.  Hopefully they are colors that compliment my coloring.  There is black that is slimming, jewel tones & pinks/purples.  Color should make you happy and feel good about yourself.  Funny, I just thought about when I was in high school and would be feeling down or just needing a pick-me-up.  I would wear a dress, heels and all.  Since I rarely did wear anything besides my jeans & sports shorts, I would get lots (a few) compliments about how nice/pretty I looked.  That felt good, especially being a bit of an introvert & socially awkward.  Dress for success, they say.  I don't always follow the rules, but believe you need to feel comfortable when presenting yourself to the world out there.  Unfortunately, lots of people do judge you by appearance.  Their loss, right? 

We shall see how long it takes for me to get my (rose-blood) Catkin finished.

I'm Knitting for the 5K Still

This has been interesting.  I thought I knit a lot.  When I am under pressure it doesn't seem to add up to much.  I have finished my Patons Stretch Socks using the Plum colorway, but I made them too long before placing the Afterthought Heel.  They got washed and still not right, so I am actually in the process of ripping them back to get it right.  Since I did have them completed so it counts for the 5K Stash Dash with TheKnitGirllls.   I used 2 skeins, but not more than 1/2 for each sock. (240 yds estimated)

I have to figure out about my cuff being loose, I will go down a needle size for the rib and hope for the best.

My KnitGirlls Square Swap - BlueBonnet  out of Cascade 200 superwsh, demin colorway (52 yds)  I had fun putting this together.  I made the bag out of a placemat from Dollartree.

I made another Holden Shawlette by Mindy Wilkes using Patons Lace in the Mitas colorway. (490 yds) This one is much longer, since I continued in the pattern for more rows.  That was a bit adventurous of me, I just kept knitting and placing markers whenever I had a new set of repeats.  This time I  placed glass beads on the last 2 rows of YO pattern.  I didn't know to put them on during the YO row and had to go down a stitch each time to correct my error.  That took a lot of extra time.  I was grateful for the demonstration on using Superfloss from Oral-B, from TheKnitGirllls, it helped. I bound off a little tightly and hope it blocks out ok.  I had only 8 yds left from the 1 skein I bought, sigh.

So I have knitted 538.7 yds

                       240.0 yds
                         52.0yds

                       490.0 yds

                     1320.7 yds!

Now, that doesn't sound so bad.  I think I will give the Hemlock Ring another try. 

Stitch Markers are our Friends!

5K - I may not be ready

The KnitGirllls Stach Dash has been going on and I really haven't knitted much. So far I have finished a Holden shawlette out of some pretty

York Boutique Mohair-Kid mohair. I used 2 balls that were 100m each, so that gives me 218.7 yards. I finished it with less than a foot of yarn, talk about close.

Then I finished a pair of Wolkistchens socks out of Regia 4-fach haltbar that has 210 m or 459.3 yards. I have yarn left over, so I need to weight it and figure out the yardage acutally used. (something like 320yds) I don't think I will come anywhere close to the 5K for it to really matter.:(

This was my first After Thought Heel. It was easy to do too. Give it a try. It is a must for self-striping yarn.

My yardage so far: 538.7 yards, so 4,461.3 yards to go! And I have until, what, Aug 6th? Maybe I should spin/knit something that counts as double.

Make yourself happy, knit!

Recycle

I enjoy a good deal. I use to hoard up the Walmart $1 a yard material, then the stopped carrying it. That was OK, I found the Goodwill had clothes for sale on Sun/Mon for 50 cents. A much better deal, right? How about getting 1,000 plus yards of wool yarn for $1. I found a pullover vest that was very pretty, but not a style/size I could wear. All it took was a little unraveling on my part. I must warn you though, the nitty noddy is not as easy as you would think.

In this pic, it appears I am winding properly; but when it was time to take it all off I had a problem. Maybe I started out right and got twisted up somewhere. I spent 2 hours last night with the yarn wrapped around 2 chairs as I reapplied it to the nitty noddy. I am happy to say, it is soaking in the sink dekinking. :^) Here is a link for Tim Horcher, general manager of New Voyager Trading, talks about the niddy noddy and demonstrates how it is used to make a skein of yarn.

The yarn has 5 strands: 2 green, 2 purple & 1 navy. I haven't burn tested it yet, but I believe it is a wool blend. Super soft. I think it wants to be a shawlette next.