Festive Wrap - Nine Colors Done

I have also been making progress on my Festive Wrap, another Ambah O’Brien pattern.  This is a nice filler project, easy and quick to see progress.  Each chart/section is worked with the same kind of yarn, which I think is cool.  So all the Festive Waves are worked in Neighborhood Fiber Company Rustic Fingering, all the Festive Heart sections are worked with Moondrake Soft Fingering, and all the Slip Stitch sections are worked in the Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light.

The colors so far:

Color 1 - Day 2 - Waverly

Color 2 - Day 3 - Copper Pink

Color 3 - Day 5 - Mauve

Color 4 - Day 6 - Leakin Park

Color 5 - Day 8 - Barbara Deserved Better

Color 6 - Day 9 - Toffee

Color 7 - Day 11 - Butcher’s Hill

Color 8 - Day 12 - Sweet n Low

Color 9 - Day 14 Peach

Pattern:  Festive Wrap by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light, Neighborhood Fiber Company Rustic Fingering & Moondrake Co. Soft Fingering

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Midnight Rose - Cast On!

This is the Knit Love Shawl by Ambah O’Brien, her latest knit along.  I really struggled with selecting the yarns and colors for this one.  I loved the colors of her samples, but wanted to work from my stash.

My first thought was to use a set I had gotten from Sunshine Yarns.

But I was worried that the color changes would not be smooth enough.

Next I looked at two of my Unique Sheep Advent Calendars, wondering if I could take a portion of one of them and pair it with a solid skein.  I came up with two options.

But neither one really felt right to me.  So I sat down with my iPad and went through the fingering weight yarns in my stash.  I came up with a couple of options, but in the end went with two skeins from deep stash that did not have a project identified in the notes.  Zen Yarn Garden Serenity Sock 20 in Midnight Rose.  I then had to find a good contrast skein for the mosaic.  I have identified two options, and haven’t decided which one I will go with yet.  Both are fairly recent stash acquisitions, and both are Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere - Gold Experience and Hope.

For the cast on I went with long tail, pulling out a very long tail (almost not long enough, I had a couple of inches left).  I placed the markers identified in the set up row as I cast on, so I wouldn’t have to count all of those stitches.

Pattern:  Knit Love Shawl by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 and Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Elora - Cast On!

The other exciting news is that I finally cast on Elora by Linda Marveng.  I have been admiring her designs for quite a while now and have several in my queue and in my library.  I swatched for this pattern over three years ago, back in January 2019.  Part of the challenge of this project is the fact that I am using a 12-skein ombré fade and I needed to figure out how I wanted to work that.  I am using the Brick & Clay Ombré.

I will work the colors from right to left for the body and then work the sleeves top down and in the round, continuing the gradiance, so they will not match the body.  I am also working the body in one piece.

Pattern:  Elora by Linda Marveng

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri in Brick & Clay Ombré 

Needle:  US 2.5 (3 mm)

Perseverance - Clue 1 Done

Expression Fiber Arts is hosting two year long Mystery Make Alongs - a Knit Along and a Crochet Along.  Both of the projects are blankets.  I am planning on doing both.  This is the first clue for the Mystery Knit Along.  I am using the cool colorway.  There is actually some texture, but it is a bit hard to see.  I have the second skein already but Clue 2 has not yet dropped.

Color 1:  Unshaken

Pattern:  Perseverance by Jane Vanselous

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Enduring Worsted

Needle:  US 8 (5.0 mm)

Festive Wrap - Cast On & Two Colors Done

I cast on this project on 23 January, I believe I was watching a football game at the time.  This is the 2021 Advent Calendar from Jimmy Beans Wool.  I picked the Ribbon Candy colorway.  It has not been getting a great deal of attention as I am using it as filler between some of my other projects.  Here is the second color.  The kit uses yarns from three different yarn companies, Madelinetosh (Tosh), Moondrake Company (MD), and Neighborhood Fiber Company (NFC).  They are all single ply, and all Merino.

The colors so far:

NFC Organic Rusting Fingering - Waverly

Tosh Merino Light - Copper Pink

Pattern:  Festive Wrap by Ambah O’Brien

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Every Love Hat 3 - Finished!

I actually finished up the knitting back in January, but I didn’t sew it up because I was thinking about making a video of that.  I ended up not doing that, and I finally sewed it this past Thursday.

I still have one more skein of the Dewy DK that was paired with the multi-colored green hat, but I don’t know where it is.  If I find it I may make another one of these hats with it.  This skein was paired with this one.

But I just couldn’t find a pattern that worked for the two colors together.

Pattern: Every Love Hat by Dolly Laishram 

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Dewy DK in Adventure

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

Not-so Neon January 2022 Knitalong - Finished!

I finished this up this past Wednesday and blocked it Thursday.  The pattern as written ends about two-thirds of the way down the back, ending just below the red and blue top leaf, but I extended it out by first working the color-changing slip stitch section from the Rectangular version of the pattern.  Then I worked leaf 1 with my solid color and just kept repeating leaves 2-5 until I didn’t have enough of my Rainbow Mountain (the multi-colored skein) to work another ridge.  At that point I switched to my leftovers from my Rectangular version working a long top leaf in color 329 and finishing it with a slip stitch section using my leftover Carmel by the sea and binding off with an I-cord, but only using one color, the 329.

This gives you a sense of the size, but not the colors.  Here is the blocking picture.

It is just hard to get a good photo of the whole thing.  When I blocked it I did stretch it out a fair bit, which completely changed the fabric from the Rectangular version, it feels lighter and floaty, so I think I will go back and re-block the Rectangular one and make it bigger.

Pattern:  Neon January 2022 Knitalong by Iris Schreier

Yarn:  Art Yarns Merino Cloud

Needle:  US 7 (4.5 mm)

Neon January 2022 Knitalong - Finished!

I finished this up on Thursday.  When blocked it I did not pin it, I just laid it out and smoothed it into shape.  The yarn is super soft and squishy.  I did screw up the top leaf in the first decrease triangle (I missed the 3 times) and so did not work as many short rows as called for, but I did not realize it until I was working the second decrease triangle and there was no way that I was going to rip back and fix that first one, so I just repeated the mistake and now it is a design feature.

I love the way the colors came out.  I don’t care that they are not symmetric, I think they are just gorgeous.

  

Pattern:  Neon January 2022 Knitalong by Iris Schreier

Yarn:  Art Yarns Merino Cloud

Needle:  US 7 (4.5 mm)