Albuquerque Sunset - Cast On & Pattern Repeat Section One Done

I frogged my Ziggy Shawl yesterday and decided to knit an Albuquerque Sunset shawl with the yarn instead.  I just wasn’t feeling it with the other shawl in these colors.  Casapinkia’s designs are interesting and I’m hoping this will show the colors off better.  So, I got the pattern all set up in my knitCompanion and got myself started.

Pattern:  Albuquerque Sunset by Casapinka

Yarn:  Alcidina Momentum in Corona and Sundara Yarns Extra Fine Fingering Merino in Green

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Xuan Wrap - Two Mosaic Sections Done

I’ve finished up two of the mosaic sections now.  The plain garter stitch rows between the mosaic sections make good reading knitting, otherwise I would find them way too boring.  I’m on my third mini-skein from my Advent set.  The first skein got me halfway through the first garter stitch section, and the second skein got me through the second mosaic section.  I have been using up each mini-skein and just attaching the next one.

Pattern: Xuan Wrap by Ambah O’Brien
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Rare Breed - Christmas Carol Advent Calendar & Hedgehog Fibres sock yarn in Butter
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Take a Bite Vest - Finished!

I finished up this vest yesterday morning.  My sister Virginia covets the companion colorway to this one, so I will make a vest for her out of that yarn, but then I’m thinking of taking a break from the vests and try designing a shrug.  I’m going to start with the February 2020 Space Monster club yarns and see what I can do with 6 skeins - 3 skeins of each color.

Pattern:  Practically by Kelly Herdrich

Yarn:  SpaceCadet Yarns Cressida, color is Take a Bite from the Space Monster Club

Needle:  US 6 (4 mm)

Xuan Wrap - One Mosaic Section Done

I’ve finished up the first section of Mosaic knitting.  I had to rip back early on because I had messed up my colors.  I was using the written instructions, but there are reasons I use charts.  I hadn’t started with this chart because I don’t really like the colors used in the chart.  But I work better with charts, so I decided to use it. I just have to remind myself that the Main Color is represented by the red squares and the Contrast Color is represented by the yellow squares.  But my Main Color is yellow - hence a source of confusion.

Pattern:  Xuan Wrap by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Rare Breed - Christmas Carol Advent Calendar & Hedgehog Fibres sock yarn in Butter

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Take a Bite Vest - Two Skeins Done

My Take a Bite Vest is good telecon knitting, so I’ve been making progress this week.  I’ve just added in the last skein.  I should get about another 50 rows.  I have sets of yarn for several more.

Pattern:  Practically by Kelly Herdrich

Yarn:  SpaceCadet Yarns Cressida, color is Take a Bite from the Space Monster Club

Needle:  US 6 (4 mm)

Ziggy Stardust - Cast On

I pulled the variegated yellow skein out of deep stash a while back.  It is Alcidina Momentum in, fittingly enough, Corona.  I was thinking of making another  boomerang shawl, but I hadn’t caked it up, and it has been sitting in the top of a project bag for a while.  I recently saw the Ziggy Shawl by Joji Locatelli in the Kitterly newsletter.  Although the shawl is designed for a single color, they were offering a two color version.  It occurred to me that my yellow skein would look good for the garter stitch sections.  I went in search of a solid color for the lace sections.  I was originally thinking about a red, but that just didn’t click.  Then I spotted the green in a box of yarn from Sundara Yarns.  It is actually part of a set for a temperature scarf - you know, one of those scarves that record the high temperature each day.  I ordered the set, but then never started the scarf, and decided that the set gave me some nice semi-solid colors for coordinating with other yarns in my stash.

Pattern:  Ziggy Shawl by Joji Locatelli

Yarn:  Alcidina Momentum in Corona and Sundara Yarns Extra Fine Fingering Merino in green

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Xuan Wrap - Cast On

Ambah O’Brien is hosting a Stashdown 2020 this year and I am participating.  My plan is to always have an Ambah O’Brien pattern on the needles.  Now that I’ve cast off Lacy Business, I’ve cast on the Xuan Wrap.  I’ve been wanting to make this for a while but haven’t been able to find the right yarn combination in my stash.  I needed a gradiance, but all of my 6 skein sets have either too much yarn or not enough.  This weekend it occurred to me that I could use half of my 2019 Unique Sheep Advent Calendar set.  I pulled it out last night and separated it into skeins 1-12 and 13-24 and then pulled out some solid colors for the Main Color.  I ended up picking skeins 13-24, and a skein of Hedgehog Fiberes in the color Butter.

Here are the contrast colors.  I’ll figure out how I want to adjust the length of the pattern as I go along.

Pattern: Xuan Wrap byAmbah O’Brien

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Rare Breed - Christmas Carol Advent Calendar & Hedgehog Fibres sock yarn in Butter

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Lacy Business - Finished!

I finished this up yesterday morning and blocked it.  I did learn a few things.  I did not maintain the spine when I switched to the lace section, and I think I should have.  It looks fine as it is, but the blocking would have probably been a little easier.  I also did a second repeat of the lace pattern, which I really like.  I think it balances the colors better than a single repeat.  I do love this shawl shape.  I’m going to have to try my hand at designing one.  I also think that cashmere tends to pill.  I noticed fiber coming off on my hands when I was blocking, and I’ve noticed that with other fingering weight yarns that have cashmere in them.

I’ve been on mandatory telework since this past Friday.  I resisted going on telework, but now that I’m doing it I find that I like it.  I am an introvert by nature, and only pretend to be an extrovert at work.  But that pretending is pretty tiring.  Now that I don’t have to pretend any more I find I have more energy and my stress level is down.  It’s going to be hard going back to the office after this is all over.  I’m also getting more knitting done because I can knit while reviewing documents and while on telecons without worrying about anyone taking exception to it.

Pattern:  Lacy Business by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere in True to Life and Time Away

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Lacy Business -Take Two

I had started the solid C2 section when I decided that I wanted to switch my colors.  It seemed to me that the lace border would look better in the solid color as opposed to the variegated skein, so I ripped all the way back and started over.  I am almost done with the eyelet section, just 12 more rows to go and then I will be working the lace.  I recharted the lace, keeping the increases the same as established in the main body of the shawl and also flipping the lace chart so that it will be symmetrical around the center spine.

Pattern:  Lacy Business by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere in True to Life and Time Away

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Botanical Exordium - Finished!

I actually finished this shawl up last month, but just never got around to posting about it.  It was a fun knit, and used up pretty much all of the yarn.

I still like having a knit on border on these boomerang shawls.  I think it finishes them off nicely, and also helps with the blocking, but the pattern didn’t call for one.

Pattern:  Exordium by Rebecca Picoult
Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Superfine Fingering in Botanical and Limes
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Midwinter Moon - Finished!

Once I got to the final section, there really didn’t seem to be a good stopping place, so I just kept knitting and finished it up this past week.  Blocking it was interesting, and I’m glad that I have 3 sets of knit blockers.  There was only one section where I had to resort to pins.

I love the colors, and the SpaceCadet Yarns Celeste Fingering results in such a light and airy shawl.  It feels ethereal.

Pattern:  Midwinter Moon by Larissa Brown

Yarn:  SpaceCadet Yarns Celeste

Needle:  US 5 (3.75mm)

Midwinter Moon - Sections 5 and 6 Done

I’ve been making fairly steady progress on my Midwinter Moon shawl this weekend.  This project is mostly reserved for weekend knitting, when I can spend more time on a knitting session.  I thought about getting a photo after Section 5, but that section was pretty short, so I decided to finish Section 6 as well before taking a progress shot.  Section 5 involved the first of the picking up of stitches.  The instructions stated to pick up an extra stitch every 4th or 5th stitch.  I decided to just work a straight pick up in the slipped stitch edging and not worry about getting the extra stitches, and then I added them in when I knit back on the row after the pick up.  I used my Knit Evenly app, which is miraculously working again.  It was originally an iPod Touch app, which I was able to use on my old iPad, but it disappeared when I got my iPad Pro, and then reappeared on my new iPad Pro.  I’m super happy to have it back as it is the best app for determining how to increase or decrease evenly, and it will even step you through it.

Pattern:  Midwinter Moon by Larissa Brown

Yarn:  SpaceCadet Yarns Celeste

Needle:  US 5 (3.75mm)

Lacy Business - Cast On

I picked this yarn up from The Loopy Ewe last November.  I was cruising the Dream in Color yarns, because I do love color, and spotted them and knew they just had to be knit up into a shawl together.  When Ambah released Lacy Business I knew that they would be perfect for it.  I have had them sitting out since then, and had caked them up a couple of weeks ago, so last weekend I cast on.

I did make some modifications to the pattern, which is one reason why it took me a little while to get started.  The original pattern used knit-front-back stitches for the increases.  I wanted to use yarn overs where ever possible.  The original pattern also has increases on both right and wrong sides on the edges.  I wanted to keep all of my increases on the right side only.  I decided to start and end my rows with k2, (k, yo, k) into next stitch, reversing that at the end.  I also worked the center increase as k1, yo, k1.  In order to make this work from the beginning I cast on nine stitches and knit one row before beginning the pattern.  With the exception of the eyelet rows, by wrong side rows are knit.  For the eyelet rows I work k3, (yo, ask) to center stitch, k1, (k2tog, yo) to last three stitches, k3.  My modifications mean that I end up with two more stitches than the pattern calls for at each of the check points, but I’m not concerned about that.  I’ll be making modifications to the lace pattern as well, when I get there.

Pattern:  Lacy Business by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere in True to Life and Time Away

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Take a Bite Vest - Cast On

For my trip to the West Coast I wanted some easy knitting so I cast on another Practically Vest in the Space Monster club color Take a Bite.  I do love the way the colors in this skein are coming out.  The picture doesn’t quite do them justice, but they are just luscious.  The yarn is Cressida and it has great stitch definition.

Pattern:  Practically by Kelly Herdrich
Yarn:  SpaceCadet Yarns Cressida, color is Take a Bite from the Space Monster Club
Needle:  US 6 (4 mm)

Midwinter Moon - Section 4 / Clue 2 Done

I finished up Clue 2 yesterday as well, but couldn’t get a photo of it until this morning.  I thought about working German short rows on this section, but the pattern said to just turn and knit the first stitch through the back loop, so that is what I did.  I figure if there are any holes at those spots that is just part of the design.

Pattern:  Midwinter Moon by Larissa Brown

Yarn:  SpaceCadet Yarns Celeste

Needle:  US 5 (3.75mm)

Midwinter Moon - Section 3 Done

I had to travel to California this past week for a one day meeting.  I flew out late afternoon on Wednesday and took red eye back Thursday night, which meant that I had Friday off.  I had knit most of Section 3 before I left and quickly finished it yesterday.  I do love the way the colors are playing together.

Pattern:  Midwinter Moon by Larissa Brown

Yarn:  SpaceCadet Yarns Celeste

Needle:  US 5 (3.75mm)

Midwinter Moon - Section 2 / Clue 1 Done

I finished up Section 2 / Clue 1 this morning.  I really like Larissa’s patterns because she spells everything out for you step by step and she gives stitch counts.  I don’t check every row, but do spot checks to make sure I’m staying on track.  I did a spot check when I brought in the third color and discovered that I was somehow 2 stitches short.  I have no idea what happened.  I did count the stripes leading up to the third color and seem to have the right number.  I didn’t worry about it too much, I just knit two extra stripes at the end of the section before bringing color A back in.  I did not cut color A when I was working with B and C, I just carried it up the side with the rest.  It does make it a little more awkward to work sometimes, but it is pretty easily managed as long as you’re careful.  I have the three cakes sitting to the right of me and I rotate them at the beginning of the right side rows so that the one I am currently working with is first in the line to make sure they don’t twist.

Pattern:  Midwinter Moon by Larissa Brown

Yarn:  SpaceCadet Yarns Celeste

Needle:  US 5 (3.75mm)