Ravelympic Knitting

A day before the Olympics Closing Ceremonies, I finished my second and last Ravelympic/ Knitting Olympics project. It's a simple, cabled vest that I donated to the Afghans for Afghans Youth Campaign. I hope someone will like it!

The vest is based on a pattern by Jenifer Paulousky. Stashbusting 4 skeins (~500 yards) of Gedifra Shetland Deluxe, I knit for a 30 inch chest, excluded the waist shaping, and continued the cable pattern all the way to the neckline. I added an inch of garter stitch for the neck and picked up 73 stitches per armhole and knit garter for 6 ridges before binding off in purl. The vest measures 21 inches from top to bottom.



When I first heard the call for donations for the Youth Campaign, it coincided with the Ravelympics/ Knitting Olympics timeline. For me, the donation date was the last day of the Olympics and the last day of Stitches West, where I planned to drop off the vest. I was able to combine some Ravelympics fun and useful knitting. Plus, I used up all of my Gedifra yarn, leftovers from my husband's sweater. Coming full circle, I bought this yarn at Stitches last year.



Speaking of Stitches West 2010, I attended the market on Sunday, the last day. This year I didn't buy as much as usual and spent most of the time wandering around in a daze. It's like I never quite got my bearings. Possibly, as this was my sixth year there, I had already bought everything I wanted to try out and didn't have any specific vendors in mind. Still, I managed to come away with something!

From left to right:

• Duet (mohair and wool) from Brooks Farm
• Sock Yarn from Dream in Color
• Red Sock Yarn from Icy Brambles (for my cousin)
• Sock Yarn (Wild Things colorway) from Lisa Souza (for my cousin)
• 2 skeins of Yowza Whatta Skein in Black Cherry from Miss Babs

I was really impressed with the choice of colors at the Miss Babs booth and am looking forward to revisiting them next year. Since my cousin is still working on her Stitches stash from last year, she didn't go but sent me as her buyer, instead. I would be happy to do that again!

Olympic Knitting

Tap tap. I'm still here! Time to blow the dust off this blog.

Alright, I entered the Ravelympics/Knitting Olympics 2010. I'm not doing anything particularly hard this time, but it will be an accomplishment to finish it all before the closing ceremonies.

First up, the Shroom hat knit with Spud and Chloe Outer. Yarn feels like butter and the hat is a huge mushroom cap on my head. I love it. Using most of the yarn, I knit a 4 inch rib brim, then knit 6 repeats of the puff rib before decreasing. In the end, I had ~25 inches of yarn left. It always feels great not to have much leftover.

Here's my Ravelympics 2010 Hat Halfpipe Medal!

Lazy Days

On the way home from Japan, we stopped in Maui for a family reunion. This vacation leg was the complete opposite of the first in every way. Slow, laid back island pace, beaches, tropical music, etc. It was jarring to adjust to this after living at a frenetic but exciting pace in Japan. Still, we managed :)

Up to this point on vacation, I hadn't felt an urge to knit. I admit I still don't, but that's due to my annual summer slump rather than lack of interest. In Maui, since I had a lot more free time on my hands, I finally picked up the needles again and worked on a sock. It's the Earl Grey sock pattern by the Yarn Harlot in Cascade Heritage Paints sock yarn.

On the beach with the sock.

From Maui June 2009

Thanks to Ravelry, I located two yarn shops in Lahaina. At The Needlework Shop, the yarn selection was small, but I bought a skein of sock yarn dyed by a local artist, the Maui Dyer.

From Maui June 2009

Standing with my new yarn, Pineapple Upsidedown Cake.

From Maui June 2009

Next, I found the Yarn and Needlecrafts shop, but it was closed that day. Peeking through the window, I saw a small yarn selection, but I never made it back to explore during business hours.

From Maui June 2009

Back to real life. I will update some projects I completed like two months ago. I finally got around to taking some pictures of the FOs.

Traveling

On Sunday, we finally came home after a long vacation. First, we visited Tokyo and had an amazing time. There was so much to do there that we couldn't possibly fit it all in our schedule. Each night, our aching feet and legs could attest to the amount of walking we did all day. Even though I brought my knitting, I didn't have the energy nor feel the urge to knit at all while we were there. Of course, I managed to check out two craft stores and was on the lookout for the craft section at the department stores.

First off, Yuzawaya in Kichijo-ji. Before I went, I had a vague idea it was the Michaels of Japan but really was clueless. It was huge!!! Like the mothership of craft stores. 7 floors or something like that. Big floors too, not like the tiny, narrow buildings I was used to seeing in Tokyo. It isn't Michaels at all, as Yuzawaya seemed to have a good selection and variety of everything. Not just a little bit of everything. If only I could sew, I would've gone crazy on the fabric floors. I took a few pictures of the yarn aisles but it really doesn't do it justice. The knit and crochet section only took up maybe a third of a floor, but they had a bigger yarn stock than most of the LYSs near me at home.

From Japan Trip- Tokyo

There were aisles and aisles of yarn. Mostly, Japanese or Asian brands such as Puppy, but some brands I knew. There was the Noro aisle (missed taking the picture). I was tempted to buy up a bunch of Noro sock yarn because it was on sale for $12.50!!!! I must have been crazy tired to have passed that up because I did.

From Japan Trip- Tokyo

Be sure to look up at the top of the shelves.

From Japan Trip- Tokyo

Lots of samples everywhere!

From Japan Trip- Tokyo

So inspiring. I think the yarn companies must provide the sample garments, since I saw some similar ones at a different store. But I don't know for sure. It's a fantastic way to showcase and sell the yarn and pattern book. Samples at our LYSs are not provided by the yarn companies, I'm pretty sure.

Later that day, in Shinjuku, we came across Okadaya. Although the yarn selection was nice, it was a much smaller store than Yuzawaya. It was a very narrow building with several floors and only one small elevator. We took the stairs and stopped at every floor until I hit yarn. I should've learned the Japanese character for yarn or knitting, so I could read the store directory. Still it was fun exploring.

Days later, off in Kyoto, I walked by this:

From Japan Trip- Kyoto

Silk yarn and a spinning wheel. It was closed at the time so I'm not sure if this was a textiles shop or a tailor's, but it seemed to come out of nowhere. Maybe this was Avril but I didn't know it? By that time, I had stopped looking for craft stores and had forgotten about the famous Avril store. There was so much more to see and do, but it's funny how I can't get away from my craft!

Eventually, at the end of my Kyoto stay, I bought a pattern book at the Daimaru department store on Shijo Dori. The 7th floor has a small yarn department. It's amazing how universal knitting can be. I felt so at home in these departments it didn't matter that I couldn't really speak to the store clerks. I managed :)

Hexacomb

A tea cozy for a friend. Stitch pattern from Barbara Walker's 1st Treasury. Fun to knit and finished it within a short time.

From made by stacey

It's a Pumpkin!

Well, I hope I don't look like a pumpkin in this! It's the Shalom Cardigan by Meghan McFarlane. As of this moment, there are 1040 other Shaloms out there on Ravelry. Very popular! It's an easy, top-down cardigan with a twisted rib yoke. Simple yet appealing. I knit this with 4.5 skeins of Cascade 109 LE Bulky on size 6.5mm (10.5 US) needles. It's a rust orangy pumpkiny color. I really do like this cardigan, even with the fly-away front. There's enough coverage in front that it doesn't showcase my chest and stomach in an awful way. I'm glad the cardigan turned out bigger post-blocking than pre-blocking. It's a bit too big but still wearable.

Where did I get this yarn? From the WEBS booth at Stitches West! I bought enough yarn to make four sweaters. Stitches West was definitely calmer than previous years but still fun. Probably more enjoyable without the pushy crowds. Weeks ago, I meant to post about my haul but I've been MIA on the blog. So, besides Cascade 109, I bought Gedifra Shetland Deluxe at the WEBS booth. Both yarns were close-outs and heavily discounted. A real plus, when buying sweater quantities... I also bought some red-purple-orange (sounds horrible but looks great!) Mas Acero from Brooks Farm. And to top off my haul, I chose a light grey bulky weight 50/50 Jacob Alpaca yarn from Toots LeBlanc. Good loot! And I've already made something with one of my purchases. Woo hoo!

Cable-y Goodness

This is old news but better late than never. Introducing my new cabled beret! Actually, I finished it at the end of December and have been wearing it ever since. For a long time, I've wanted to knit a slouchy beret and kept looking for the right pattern. On Ravelry, I came across the Cabled Goodness pattern, but I have to say my hat was "inspired by" the written pattern and not an exact copy of what the designer intended. I tried to follow her instructions, but things just didn't work out for me. So, when in doubt, wing it!

First off, I altered the brim circumference to 20 inches for the hat because I didn't think a 17 inch brim would go around my head. I was very wrong about that. As I neared completion, I tried the hat on and it swallowed my head. Way too big. With berets, since there's hardly a crown because you increase right away to make the disk shape, you need the brim to be snug just to stay on. Anyway, after I finished the top of the hat, I cut at stitch an inch or so in to the brim and unravelled all the way to the cast-on. Once I rescued all the stitches back onto the needles, I immediately decreased down to 17 inches, knit the ribbed brim, and bound off. That marked the end. This should have been an easy, straight forward hat to make, but it took longer than expected. It took three tries to figure out the decreases at the top. I must have been way off from the pattern because after initially following the written instructions, it didn't look right at all. Frogged it twice before the third time (the charm?) I made something work out, even though it doesn't have the cool cables snaking all the way to the top. Oh well. If the written pattern works out for you, that's great. I obviously had a hard time for some reason :)

Anyway, I love it now. This is fantastic yarn from Artfibers in San Francisco. Super squishy and luxurious. I made my pilgrimmage to Artfibers back in December before they closed their storefront. Even though I'm from this area, I had never been there before. I had known about it for a long time but took it for granted that it would always be there. At least I had a chance to do their "yarn tasting" and knit with a couple of their yarns before leaving.



Yarn: Ming (50% wool, 50% silk), Artfibers
Needles: size 7 (4.5mm)

Tweedy Aran Cardi

I love this cardigan! It fits well, especially around the shoulders. I've worked on other set-in sleeve patterns, but those still looked drop-shouldered. All thanks go to Norah Gaughan for a well designed pattern.



Pattern: Tweedy Aran Cardigan by Norah Gaughan
Size: ~35 inches around chest
Yarn: Tahki Donegal Tweed, olive green, less than 6 hanks
Needles: size 6 and 8
Knitting time: 2 months start to finish



My gauge was a little bit bigger (closer to 4 stitches/inch) than the written gauge. Sticking with my own gauge, I followed the pattern for the smallest size and came out with finished chest size of about 35 inches. This is probably the warmest sweater I have. Now with the weather cooling down again, I can wear it often this season. Yay!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a great time during the holidays! Time has flown by. Although I haven't blogged about anything in over a month, I've been busy with all the holiday hustle and bustle. Seems all I did over the past few weeks was eat, eat, eat. Not that I'm complaining.

Onto the knitting. I managed to cram in a lot of knitting, whenever I could. It's my way of keeping calm and centered.

Old business first. This is my first felted project ever. I made Meema's Felted Tote Bag from the first Stitch N Bitch book. Knit on 15s with 3 skeins of Knitpicks' Wool of the Andes Bulky in Grape.


Finished knitting within days back in October, but the felting process took me a lot longer. Since I only have coin-op washing machines in my building and can't control the speed, I hand felted the bag. Taking advice from my friend, Annika, the felting queen, I had super hot water ready, dish soap, and rubber gloves. Now, being the smartypants that I am, I decided to use my silcone oven mitts (way too big for my hands, by the way), so I wouldn't feel the boiling water as I pummeled the poor wool into felt fabric. Well, I managed to rub the skin off my knuckles because of too much movement inside the silicone mitts. EEEWWW. So, that set me back at least a week before the stinging subsided. Anyway, after the bag dried, I wanted to lose more of the stitch definition, plus shrink it more. A month and a half later (I was lazy), I re-felted the bag in hot (not boiling water) and didn't need gloves after the water cooled a bit.


Pre-felting bag dimensions: length x width x height, 11 inches x 6.5 inches x 16.5 inches
Final dimensions: 10 inches x 5 inches x 10 inches
Decreased ~40% vertically and ~15% horizontally


Next, I made a cowl from yarn I bought at Stitches West 2008.

It's super luxurious cashmere silk from Argosy. Haiku 4ply in Blackberry. I took the shell lace stitch pattern from Barbara Walker's First Treasury of Stitch Patterns, calculated for a 20 inch circumference, and knit til I used up all of the yarn, ~200 yards. Feels great against my neck.


There's more but that's all for now. Happy 2009!

Let's Skate!

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! Now that I have my new top ready, I can go skating to work off my turkey dinner.

After three months of work, I finally completed my Skater's Top, the overtop. This is really a two piece set- a lace short-sleeved overtop and a plain stockinette long-sleeved undertop. The long sleeve top does have interesting cables on the sleeves. Although I wasn't planning originally to knit the undertop, I am now interested in making it to wear separately, not as a set. The weather here is not cold enough to merit wearing both simultaneosly. For me, a thin layering tee is enough to wear under the short-sleeved top.



For the overtop, there are two main lace charts to follow to make the pattern, the tree pattern and the little fir cone pattern. Things were fine until I had to decrease at the sleeves to shape the cap, etc. With my stitch count off everytime, I slowed my knitting between rounds, counted stitches, and decided how I would proceed while maintaining the stitch pattern yet decreasing here and there. Basically, I winged it but didn't write down my alterations (sorry). Luckily, it fits! As I knitted the last few rounds, I suddenly worried that it wouldn't fit and that all my work would have been wasted. Knowing that lace can stretch, I consoled myself that it would fit somehow, unless it had to stretch to frumpy proportions.

On Ravelry, I am one of the few people who have not used Rowan Kid Silk Haze, the recommended yarn, to make my top. Instead, I chose Valley Yarn's Colrain Laceweight, a wool and tencel blend, which I bought at the WEBS booth at Stitches West earlier this year. Lovely yarn. It felt smooth, running through my hands as I knit. Although it doesn't give off that "hazy" halo look as in the Kid Silk Haze, I think the clear stitch definition from this yarn works well for this top too. And I only used about 120 grams of the yarn, so I have half of the cone left! Need to think of something to use that for...



Pattern: Skater's Top, overtop
Book: Knitting Classic Style by Veronik Avery
Size: 38
Yarn: Valley Yarn's Colrain Laceweight, used ~770 yards (120 grams), blue grey
Needles: size 6 (4mm)

Completing this top was my goal for November's Knit a Sweater Month (NaNiSweMo). I'd been working on this for so long but allowed myself to work on many other projects at the same time. When the November challenge came up, I decided to finish the top and not let it drag out for more months. Anyway, it's done. So are my Fawkes socks (Belated Socktober). So many things suddenly reached a happy end recently. After months of slogging through WIPS and never feeling like I'd made progress, I finally made it to the end. Including things at my real job, last week really marked the culmination of a lot of work with knitting and non-knitting. I can fully enjoy the holidays! Now, what to knit next?

Belated Socktober

Better late than never! Originally, I meant to finish these in October for the Socktober challenge, but it didn't happen. Oh well, I completed these last Friday, about a month after my start date.



Pattern: Fawkes Socks by Monkey Toes
Yarn: Superwash Sock Yarn (merino wool/bamboo/nylon) by Mary Jane's Attic
Color: Bananarama
Needle: 2.75mm

The pattern was inspired by Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix, in the Harry Potter series. And yes, I realize I didn't use red or orange yarn to go along with the flame theme. I might try out a few of the other Harry Potter inspired sock patterns by the same sock designer- Nagini and Bellatrix. Fawkes reminded me a little bit of Cookie A's Monkey sock pattern but had narrower curves. The flame pattern is pretty cool, although I'm not sure how clear it is to see in this particular yarn colorway.

By the way, I chose this colorway because it's different from anything I'd usually buy. It's kind of crazy, and I really like it. The yarn was hand-dyed by Jamie of Mary Jane's Attic, who happens to be a childhood friend of my cousin. Small world! Recently, she opened her own fiber store in San Francisco, Urban Fauna Studio. Check it out! You can also see her yarn at the San Francisco Bazaar Bizarre this Sunday, November 30th. A cool indie craft fair that sounds similar to the Renegade Craft Fair I went to this summer. Can't wait to go!

Recycled Plastic Bag

In an effort to be less wasteful, I'm interested in ways to re-use/recycle items at home. By using my own cloth bags at stores, I've reduced the amount of plastic and paper in our bag pile. That's fine, but, as a knitter, I want to go a step further and make something out of it. I can't help wanting to turn those plastic bags into something useful, other than garbage bags. Recently, I came across the Re-bag pattern by Cocoknits. It's a knit tote bag made out of chopped up plastic bags. It's a great idea, and she includes a tutorial on how to turn the plastic bags into yarn. Looks cool and crafty! I wonder how sturdy it is?

Socktober!

It's Socktober, in case you didn't know! I joined an October challenge to knit down my sock yarn stash. The goal amount varies for each knitter, but I've pledged to knock down 500 yards, which is roughly 2 pairs of socks for my size feet. Last Saturday, I finished my first pair of the month.

Pattern: Nutkin Socks by Beth Lapensee
Yarn: Baywood Yarns, Sock
Color: Jewels
Needles: 2.75mm
Loved the curved lines in the stitch pattern! However, I made several modifications to the pattern structure, due to my personal preferences. I started with 2 inches of 2x2 rib cuff. For the heel, I made a slip stitch heel flap, instead of a short row heel. For the toe, I decreased on each side, rather than knitting short rows as written.

Don't these look like Christmas socks? They will be a gift for my mom this year. I'm glad I won't have to stress knit these towards the Christmas day deadline. The colors are fantastic. The red is so deep. Really lovely. The wool is super soft and squishy too. Great to knit with and wonderful to wear.


As of today, more than half the month has passed and I'm not sure if I will achieve my goal of 500 yards. An eighth of the way through, I've begun the Fawkes socks, but we'll see how it goes.

Sunday Hodge Podge

More Elizabeth Zimmermann? I really had an EZ-influenced summer. BSJ number two. I began knitting this in late August and finished sometime in early September. However, I totally lagged on buying buttons, and when I eventually purchased some, I let them collect dust for a while. I love to knit, but I fall down when it comes to sewing. Anyway, tonight is the non-shower baby party for my friend and that was enough to motivate me to finish off the jacket.



Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Yarn: Knitpicks Swish DK (100% Superwash merino wool), less than three balls
Needles: size 6, 4mm
Size: 9-12 months, 18 inch circumference for chest, 11.5 inches from shoulder to bottom

As I mentioned before, I've been knitting hats for charity. This weekend, I will mail my donation for the 7long project. I made four new hats and am including two hats I knit years ago but never wore. The patterns are: two basic hats, Fake Isle, Ganomy, Three-Cornered Tam-o-shanter, and the Beehive.



I know this last picture is out of focus, but it was the best I could do before my camera gave up and died. The video screen has been wonky for the past month- blurry, distorted live images. However, that didn't affect the photos. Until yesterday. It was hit or miss- sometimes I'd get a picture and sometimes it would be a blank black image. Oh well. It was a good little camera and served us well for years.

Hats!

These days, I've been churning out hats, hats, and more hats for the 7long project. The Stash and Burn girls are collecting hats for a pediatric oncology ward at UCSF in my old neighborhood. It's a good cause and very local to me, so I'm happy to do this. On a selfish note, I get to try out all sorts of hat patterns :)

I must be on an EZ kick these days. Mittens last time. Now, I've knit two more patterns from The Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann. First up, the Ganomy hat. It's supposed to be gnome-like. For adults, it looks a little funny. At least, how I made it. If I were to knit this again, I would make it smaller and lessen the pointiness on top. I can see how it can be fun for children to wear, like a costume hat. I hope they see it as a fun, playtime hat! Otherwise, I just made a very uncool hat.



This is an example of my old stash. I bought this green acrylic yarn from Walgreen's back in 1994. Yes, I know this because the receipt was still in the bag. And yes, Walgreen's must have sold cheap yarn way back then. It's not great yarn, but it's not as rough as Red Heart. I've never given it away or thrown it out because that would've been wasteful. Couldn't do it. Anyway, I knit this Ganomy hat on size 9 (5.5mm) needles to get gauge at 4 stitches per inch.

Next, the Three-Cornered hat/beret/tam, also from the Almanac. If you follow EZ's sizing directions, this hat will be HUGE. My husband laughed at me as I modeled the hat and said it looked like a spaceship sitting on my head. Plus, it covered half my face. Not a good hat to donate. So I frogged it and sized it way down. Started with an 18 inch circumference, instead of 20 inches. Now, it looks less spaceship-like and won't swallow some poor child's head.



I used Vanna's Choice acrylic for this hat and size 8 (5mm) needles. Less than one skein. Haven't used this yarn before, but I recommend it if you're looking for acrylic yarn. Soft and thick (aran weight). Nice colors too.

Additionally, I've knit two more hats, just haven't taken pictures yet. Another Fake Isle hat and a basic ribbed brim hat. These are instant gratification projects. I can make them within two nights, which is speedy for me. (I know others can bang these out within a few hours.) Currently, I have a lace top on the needles as well, but the hats are more fun.

EZ Norwegian Mittens, month of May

Pattern: Norwegian Mittens from the Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Yarn: Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift
1 ball in navy blue, 1 ball in denim blue
Needles: size 4 (3.5mm), two circulars

Okay, it isn't May, but it's not too late to make mittens for the winter. This is my FO for the Ravelympics challenge. As my Norwegian mittens qualified in more than one event, I "competed" in the Mitten Medley and the Colorwork Cross Country. I cast-on on August 8, 2008 and finished on August 19, 2008. 11 days, not too bad for me. The goal was to finish before the end of the Summer Olympics. I joined the Doctor Who group, Team Tardis, and knit for them. Also, a big thanks to Coach Simon for cheering me on during the competition :)

I really like stranded knitting. A few weeks ago, after I made my Fake Isle Hat, I felt the time was right to try making snowflake mittens. It was not hard at all. Before, I looked at colorwork and thought it was too daunting. I worried it would take some time for me to figure it out, etc. Nope, probably took a few seconds and then I was knitting round and round, forming a picture. Pick up one yarn, knit a few stitches, drop the yarn, pick up another color yarn, knit, drop the yarn, pick up color A again, etc. Easy, right?!

This pattern is from Elizabeth Zimmermann's (EZ) Knitter's Almanac. Mittens for the month of May. I think this is my first project out of the Almanac, actually. Her pithy directions were easy enough to follow, unlike the directions for her other patterns, such as the Baby Surprise Jacket. There isn't a whole lot of shaping involved with the mittens; it's a much more straightforward knit. The Thumb Trick? Very clever idea she "unvented."

Anyway, these mittens just fit my hands. I admit I didn't go for gauge, but it worked out in my favor, luckily. I used fingering weight yarn, which knit up much smaller than the written pattern calculated. I wear extra small gloves, so this isn't a problem for me. However, if I were to knit these for any other adult, I'd use DK or worsted weight yarn to make bigger mittens.

1 year Blogoversary!

A year ago, I decided to give blogging a try. I wasn't sure how it would go or if I'd like it. But it's been a good experience. It has been so nice receiving comments from friends and knitters all over the world and knowing we have projects in common. At times, knitting can be so universal. Thanks to everyone who has ever left me a comment! You know it makes my day :)

Queenie

Pattern: Queen of Cups socks by Nathania Apple
Yarn: Valley Yarns Franklin, Fried Green Tomatoes, used a little more than half a skein
Needles: size 2.75mm

These socks were so fun to make! I loved knitting the goblet lace and twisted rib pattern. I like how the semisolid green color shows off the cups and stems.

I began knitting this project last month, while I was in the knitting blackhole with Clapotis. I needed something to avoid falling into a knitting slump. Something quick, yet interesting and challenging. In came the Queen of Cups to the rescue! And the Fake Isle Hat.

Ravelympics Mitten Medley report. I've completed one mitten and have begun the second one. However, I seem to have bruised my index finger (the one that throws the yarn and pushes the needle/stitches around) and need to take a break from knitting for a day or two to allow for recovery. I'm on the DL. My husband commented that a coach would've noticed if I had been doing something wrong and could've prevented an injury. Since most Olympians have coaches, I need one too! He's been drafted as my coach. Pass the ice, please :)

Fake Isle Hat

Here's my first foray into stranded knitting! I bought some beautiful Noro Kureyon yarn and mixed it with some leftover grey Cascade 220 yarn. Looks so intricate, like real Fair Isle. Except it's the Fake Isle Hat, which takes advantage of the long color stripes in the Noro yarn.

Pattern: Fake Isle Hat by Spunky Eclectic
Yarn: Noro Kureyon (a little less than one skein) and Cascade 220 (less than half a skein probably)
Needle: size 6 (4mm)
Size: Medium/Large, 21.5 inches circumference



I enjoyed stranded knitting so much that I've jumped straight into knitting Norwegian mittens. I'm in the Ravelympics, the knitting summer olympics, and on Team Tardis, for all the Doctor Who fans. I'm "competing" in the Mitten Medley and Colorwork Cross Country. More updates on that next time.

Clap-o-tee

Here's one of the most popular knitting projects in the world. Clapotis, pronounced Clap-o-tee, as I found out at the yarn store when asked about yarn suggestions for Clap-o-tiss. I've known about this pattern for a long time but never had the urge to knit it until I saw one in person.

I love the finished project but the knitting became monotonous. Took over two months to complete, mainly because I worked on other small projects. It didn't help that my yarn was so thin, sport-weight or heavyweight sock yarn. Using thicker, worsted weight yarn would've made this a faster knit. However, I bought this yarn especially for this project and was not going to give up and re-purpose the yarn. This is seawool which has a bit of seaweed, cellulose, and silver blended in with wool. The idea sounded cool, so I gave it a try. I bought the yarn from the Creatively Dyed Yarn booth at Stitches West this year. I met Dianne, the dyer/owner, and loved all of her handpainted skeins.



Normally, I don't wear much pink, but I chose this colorway because it's different for me. There are flecks of bright turquoise, green, and yellow throughout the shawl. As I'm easily amused, seeing the changing colors as I knit kept me interested. It's sort of like a surprise to see what comes next.



Can't say knitting this was a complete joy. It's one of those projects that you have to suffer through just to get the prize at the end. The knitting was boring, but the yarn was and is fantastic.

Pattern: Clapotis by Kate Gilbert
Yarn: Seawool (70% merino wool, 30% seacell) by Creatively Dyed Yarn, used 2 skeins
Needle: size 5 (3.75mm)

edit: Dianne, thanks so much! I'm glad you like it.