Nightmare Before Christmas Speckles Shawl - Cast On!

Of course, finishing up the body of the Electric Oogie Boogie Shawl meant that I had to cast on another mindless project for my work bag, so I grabbed another six skein set from the Nightmare Before Christmas Advent Calendar and cast on a garter stitch boomerang shawl.  This set is simply called “Speckles”, and the only thing to do with this yarn is a garter stitch boomerang shawl.  I may go a bit wild with the edging though and pick a nice pop color, as the skeins aren’t all monochromatic gray/black.  I do like the way the speckles are knitting up.

Pattern:  Improvised Garter Stitch Boomerang Shawl

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)
 

Electric Oogie Boogie Shawl - Body Done!

Even with being in the office every day, I’m still managing to get lots of mindless knitting done.  I finished up the body of this shawl last week.  I still have a little bit of the last skein to knit, but I doubt I have enough for a full row, and I need to decide on the edging color before proceeding.  I currently have a skein that continues the purples set aside, but I’m pondering a change, maybe gold or yellow, with dark purple beads.  If I stick with the purples I’ll use more of the bright blue beads that I used on the Wyvern Shawl.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Fleece and Harmony Mystery Blanket 2024 - Swatch Done, and First Block Cast On

I turned my first attempt at the first block into my swatch, increasing needle size for each set of chevrons.  I started with 2.75 mm, and the other needle sizes are:  3.0 mm, 3.25 mm, and 3.5 mm.  After completing the chart and binding off, I cut my steak (no reinforcement) and blocked my swatch.  I do love the feel of this yarn, and my cut edges are very stable.  I still haven’t reinforced them.  After playing with the swatch and fondling it I have decided to go with the 3.5 mm needle.  I have also decided to work the blocks flat as I think the steek is just going to add too much bulk to the seams, but I am adding an extra stitch at the beginning and the end of the row as a selvedge stitch, to keep the edges neat and tidy, and so I don’t lose any of the pattern when I seam the blocks together.  I also decided to use straight needles instead of circulars.  I think the fact that I have a consistent needle size (instead of the cable) to hold the stitches will help keep my floats and stitch tension uniform.

Knitting back and forth means that I can’t do two handed yarn control.  I can knit just fine continental style, but purling is still very awkward for me.  Fortunately, before I learned the two handed Fair Isle I worked out a technique that holds both yarns in my right hand and allows me to throw the color that I need, and do so in a uniform fashion, and I can purl without any trouble or discomfort.  My box of yarn came last week, although I will have to buy more of these two colors for the July blocks, given my swatch, as that yarn is not reclaimable.

January Block Colors:  A Night Without Stars, November Sky

Pattern:  Fleece and Harmony Mystery Blanket 2024

Yarn:  Fleece and Harmony Selkirk Worsted

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

 

Sweet as Honey Cowl - Cast On!

While I was pondering my path forward on the Mystery Blanket, I decided to cast on one of the other projects that I had purchased yarn for.  This is the Sweet as Honey Cowl by Simone Van Iderstine.  It is also knit in the Selkirk Worsted, with the same gauge as the blanket, but on a 3.25 mm needle.  Hmm, said I, I’ve been wanting to knit this, so I decided to cast this on as part of my figuring out how this yarn knits up experimenting.  This is also coming out on the dense side, although not quite as dense as the blanket.  At this point I’m wondering if it would even fit over my head as a cowl, maybe it could be a hat.  But Kim of Fleece and Harmony has said that their yarn expands width wise and shrinks length wise when blocked, so I don’t know.  We will just see what happens.  That is, after all, what experiments are for.  I am enjoying the knit, and that is really what matters.

Pattern:  Sweet as Honey Cowl by Simone Van Iderstine

Yarn:  Fleece and Harmony Selkirk Worsted

Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Fleece and Harmony - 2024 Mystery Blanket

Fleece and Harmony is hosting a mystery blanket knit along this year.  I picked up their video pod cast from Fruity Knitting, and I really enjoy it, along with their Harmony Reads video podcast.  I binge watched all of their older episodes and am caught up at this point.  I’ve ordered yarn from them for several projects, but had not actually worked with any until I cast on for this project.  The squares are supposed to be worked flat, but I am not fond of working Fair Isle flat so I decided to work in the round with steeks, figuring that I will back the finished blanket to make it even more durable.  I cast on with the needles recommended in the pattern (2.75 mm), and no, I did not work a gauge swatch.  I’m letting this be my gauge swatch.  I have no problem ripping back and/or knitting over again.  I love the feel of the yarn, but the fabric with this needle size is super dense.  So, after working nineteen rows I set it aside to think.  I grabbed needles the next two sizes up (3.0 mm and 3.25 mm), and will probably continue this as my gauge swatch, putting a locking stitch marker on the round I change needles on.  There are four sections of chevrons, so I can use a different needle size on each chevron section and just see how it goes.  Then I can cut the steek and block it and see if my plan to work in the round will work for the project.  I have already bought the yarn for the rest of the blanket, all of it, although I will have to get more of these two colors (A Night Without Stars and November Sky).  This is one of the January blocks.  The February blocks are already out.

Pattern:  Fleece and Harmony Mystery Blanket 2024

Yarn:  Fleece and Harmony Selkirk Worsted

Needle:  Size to be determined

Electric Oogie Boogie Shawl - Cast On!

Last weekend, having completed the body of my Joy to the World - Dragons shawl I needed another easy knit to throw in my work bag.  I’m back in the office full time again due to some technical/security issues with the VPN we use.  I don’t really mind that much.  I had never teleworked until COVID because I liked the clean break between work and home, and I’m enjoying that again.  It isn’t quite as clean as it used to be because I have a work phone that I can check email and MS Teams on, but I don’t bring the computer home anymore.  Anyway, I grabbed another six-skein set of minis that I had set aside for another Over the Moon variant shawl.  At this point I am working on skein 4 and don’t have to refer to the pattern anymore as there are no more stitch doubling rows.

This set is part of an Advent set that was inspired by A Nightmare Before Christmas.  This is the best set of that lot, the others are going to be more challenging to work with.  It was a bold choice for an Advent set, and bold choices don’t always work out so well.  I have a full sized skein picked out already, but I’m not sure if I will stick with that choice.

I may go for a blue skein, if I can find a good match.  Or I may stay with the purple, after all, purple is my favorite color these days.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Joy to the World - Dragons - Body Done!

After finishing up the first triangle, I quickly knit up the second, and cast on the third.  I had created a spreadsheet to track my yarn usage, so after the completing the second triangle this became a project that I only worked on at home, but it made for some great reading time.

I did not take a picture of the finished third triangle on its own, as I was just so focused on getting the three triangles done and assembled.  While I was working the third triangle, I used my yarn usage spreadsheet to determine if I would have enough yarn on each mini-skein to finish both a right and wrong side row.  I thought about just joining all the mini-skeins together and knitting them till they ran out, but thought that might look a bit odd.  If this were a gradiance set I probably would have done that (and I have two other sets that are gradiance sets that I probably will do that with when I knit those up into this shawl pattern - unless I find some other patterns for those sets).

This is actually the wrong side of the shawl, but I thought it looked pretty, and Jezebel did such a great job of photo bombing.  She was very good about getting up and letting me flip it over so I could get a photo of the right side.

I did a three needle bind off to join the triangles.  Now I just need to pick up stitches along that bottom edge and work the knit on edging, which will also take care of the live stitches still left on the other two triangles.

Pattern:  Joy to the World by Louise Robert

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering

Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Joy to the World - Dragons - One Triangle Done!

I have been dutifully weighing my mini skeins and recording everything in a spreadsheet so I can track my yarn usage, and happily everything is working out just fine.  This is a wonderfully mindless project that I can knit while reading, or watching TV that I have to pay attention to.  The colors were always a challenge, but we shall see how it all comes together.  It feels good to be knitting up stash, and especially Advent kits.  I love them, but it can be a challenge to find good uses for them.  Most of the patterns don’t use up all the yarn and I just hate having left overs.  This triangle used 99.5 grams total.  The entire shawl will use about 350 grams.

Pattern:  Joy to the World by Louise Robert

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering and Kiri

Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Smaug Shawl - Ten Repeats of Border Done

I changed the yarn that I am using for the border.  I had finished four repeats of the border pattern and I did not think that the skein that I was using quite went with the shawl so I went back to stash and found all the yellows that I had and came up with another one, also by Sundara Yarn.  The new color is called “You are my Sunshine”.

The original color is on the right, the new color is on the left.  They are actually very similar colors, but the new one is just warmer.  The new yarn also has 25% silk, which gives it a bit of a shine that matches the shawl yarn better.  The strand is also just a little finer, which also matches the shawl yarn better.  I am much happier with the result.

Pattern:  Over the Moon by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep 4 Ply SW Merino Fingering and Sundara Yarns Extra Fine Fingering Silky Merino

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)