Hope Springs Eternal - Flower Lace Section Done

I finished up the Flower Lace section and have started on the garter stitch stripes.  I am actually over half way done with the striped section at this point.  It is good knitting for reading, so that is what I’ve been doing this morning.  I love the yarn and the colors.  It really is a great pairing of color and yarn, and also the two colors.  The yarn is 80% Bamboo and 20% Wool.  It has a wonderful sheen to it, and feels smooth and silky in your hand.  The knitted up fabric is light and ethereal, and the colors suit the feel so well.  I know it is going to drape and flow beautifully.

Pattern:  Marinna by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  SpaceCadet Maia

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Bifrost - One Skein Done

I picked up this kit last November, from Cate Carter-Evans.  It came complete with knitting needles and stitch markers, along with the pattern, so everything was set to go.  I cast on pretty much right away, but didn’t work on it consistently until last week when I needed a mindless project to get me through a number of work telecons.  I finished up the first skein, and am about halfway through the second.

The skeins are actually made up of multiple strands of yarn tied together with a slip knot, so there is a lot of joining as you run out of one and switch to the next.  She includes an easy technique for the switch in the pattern instructions.

Pattern:  Bifrost by Cate Carter-Evans

Yarn:  Infinite Twist Helix Treasure Cakes

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Hope Springs Eternal - Cast On!

I finished up The Winter Violet this morning and it is currently blocking, so I cast on another Ambah O’Brien pattern - Marinna.  I’m using the SpaceCadet Interstellar Yarn Alliance March 2020 shipment Eternal Spring and the complimentary color Hope.

The yarn is Maia, 80% Bamboo and 20% wool.  When I was working the set up for the first chart I noticed that there was a deliberate asymmetry.  One side had one more stitch than the other side.  I had to restart it because I made a mistake, so I took the opportunity to make it symmetric.  I also made the first chart symmetric, thanks to the magic of knitCompanion.  I mirrored the right hand side of the chart and combined it into a new symmetric chart.

Pattern:  Marinna by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  SpaceCadet Maia

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Lamina Wrap - Finished!

Thanks to a lot of telecon meetings this past week I was able to finish up my Lamina Wrap.  I was actually pretty close to finishing.  At the beginning of the week I only had three more skeins to knit up, so I caked them all up and decided to focus on getting it done.  I am thrilled with the result.  The gradiance set is so beautiful and it blends so perfectly.  I realized when I was about half way done with the shawl that I was knitting it on a larger needle than I thought, a US 6 instead of a US 4, but I love the drape and the lightness of the shawl.  It is large - about 8 feet long and over 2.5 feet wide.

Pattern:  Lamina Wrap by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Rare Breed Christmas Carol Advent Set

Needle:  US 6 (4 mm)

The Winter Violet - Making Progress

I picked this project back up this past Thursday after finishing up Omena on Wednesday, and then worked on it some more yesterday after finishing up my Opinionated Cardinal Shawl.  I really love the colors of this one.  In person they are just so yummy, and the yarn is soft and squishy, a real joy to knit with.  It is hard to see the lace pattern in the photo, which is a very simple zig-zag, except in the way that it creates wiggles in the color stripes.

Pattern:  Miso by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Sundara Yarn Italian Fingering Merino Cashmere in Winter Violet

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Opinionated Cardinal Shawl - Finished

I spent Friday and Saturday finishing up the edging on this shawl.  It actually goes pretty fast once you get going.  I had five hours of meetings on Friday, which gave me a lot of knitting time.  Working from home has definitely increased my productivity on several fronts.  I have another skein of this yarn and will make another of these shawls.  I have some red that I recently acquired that may actually work for the border.  If that color doesn’t work, I have a darker gray on order.  Before I pulled this project out last week, I hadn’t touched it since April 20.  I actually cast it on way back in January, so it has been languishing for a while, although it is not the oldest work in progress that I have.

Pattern:  Improvised (Boomerang shawl)

Yarn:  SpaceCadet Yarns Oriana in Opinionated Cardinal

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Omena - Finished!

I finished this up this past Wednesday.  I was going to work nine ripples of the Element 79, but when I got to six I decided it was the right size and cast off.  Getting a good shot was a bit of a challenge, from the front it doesn’t look like much.

 

Pattern:  Omena by Jill Zielinski

Yarn:  Dream in Color City

US 6 (4.0 mm)

Omena - Half Way

Having finished up my Mirror, Mirror Vest, I turned my attention back to my June Camp Loopy project.  This project is also great work knitting, and I have a lot of meetings this week, so I should make a lot of progress on it.  I usually try to remember to weigh my skeins before I start knitting, but sometimes, in my eagerness to get started, I forget with that first skein, which is what happened on this project.  I did remember to weigh my second skein, and partway through knitting that one I decided that I really wanted to know exactly how much yarn I had used.  So I weighed my knitting.  It came out to 201 grams, total.  I had 13 grams of my first skein, the Fancy, left over.  My first skein of Eaten the Plums weighed 116 grams total, and I had 28.4 grams of it left when I weighed my project.  So, doing the math: 201 grams - (116 grams - 28.4 grams) - 13 grams = 100 grams.  So I used 100 grams of the Fancy, less whatever my knitting needles weigh.

The pattern calls for an equal number of the ripples or ridges or whatever you want to call them, but because I could only get one skein of my first color, Fancy, I could only get three ripples out of that single skein.  I figured out that I needed to work eighteen ripples total to get the size I want, so I decided that I would knit six ripples in my second color, Eaten the Plums, and nine ripples in my third color, Element 79.

Pattern:  Omena by Jill Zielinski

Yarn:  Dream in Color City

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

Mirror, Mirror - Finished!

I didn’t have far to go on this project, so I decided to finish it up this weekend.  It is all blocked, so now I just have to package it up and send it off to my sister.

Pattern:  Practically by Kelly Herdrich

Yarn:  SpaceCadet Yarns Cressida, color is Mirror, Mirror from the SpaceMonster Club

Needle:  US 6 (4 mm)

Omena - Cast On

It is June, so it is time for Camp Loopy!  This year the theme is Science Camp.  For the first challenge you need to combine colors, combine patterns or use beads with yarn.  I went for the Color Lab.  For the first project I picked something from my queue, the Omena Vest.  I’m using Dream in Color City in (from top to bottom) Fancy, Eaten the Plums and Element 79.  The pattern calls for two skeins of each color, but The Loopy Ewe only had one skein of the Fancy, so I bought two skeins of Eaten the Plums and three skeins of Element 79.  I’m going to work an I-cord edging around the armholes using Element 79 and also work an I-cord bind off in Fancy.

Pattern:  Omena by Jill Zielinski
Yarn:  Dream in Color City
Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

The Winter Violet - Cast On

I was looking for yarn for a different Ambah O’Brien shawl, when this yarn called out to me.  I really like the colors.  It seems to me to be a wonderful mix of berries, chocolate and cream.  Given the nature of the colorway I decided a simple pattern was needed and settled on Miso, by Ambah O’Brien.  Simple lace, simple increases, designed to use up all of your yarn.  I have two skeins.  I thought about just working one of my simple boomerang shawls, but the colors didn’t look right in just plain garter stitch.  It seems the lace, which causes the lines of color to wiggle, just makes it look better.

Pattern:  Miso by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Sundara Yarn Italian Fingering Merino Cashmere in Winter Violet

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Lunar Fade MKAL - Finished!

I finished this up last weekend, but it has been so hard to get a good beauty shot.  In this one the colors are good but the point won’t hang down properly.

And this one doesn’t do justice to the full splendor of the shawl.

Nor does this one, but you can at least appreciate the shape.  This was a very fun knit, and now that I know how it all goes together I think I need to knit another.  And there are so many wonderful possibilities with the construction. More half moons, different attachment points, short rows!

Pattern:  Lunar Fade MKAL by Larissa Brown

Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Serenity Silk Single

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)