Holly Sweater - Yoke Done!

Since I have retired I have actually become monogamous with my projects, so I have been knitting away at my colorwork sweater.  This morning I finished up the yoke and am now ready to place sleeve stitches on stitch holders and start working on the body.  Before I get too far in to that endeavor I am going to skein up all my little balls of yarn, spit splicing them together so I don’t end up with a bunch of mini skeins, then wet them to get the kinks out and cake them up again.  I’m pretty happy with how this is turning out, and my gauge looks to be pretty spot on.  No, I did not do a gauge swatch, my earlier attempt served as my gauge swatch, and I have since checked the gauge on the yoke and seem to be on target.

Pattern:  Holly Sweater by Ruth Sorensen

Yarn:  Shetland Wool

Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 5 (3.75 mm)

Holly Sweater - Take Three!

Having finished my Peacock Shawl (a project that I had started back on November 6, 2016!) I looked at my other WIPs to see what I wanted to tackle finishing next.  When I had set it aside back in March of 2023 it was almost finished.  I had actually worked one of the sleeves, although I didn’t take a picture.  But here is a picture of the body finished.

Although it fit me, it did not have the recommended ease, and after letting my mind ruminate on it in the background and trying it on again, I decided that it really did need more ease and that my gauge was just too tight.  I had already gone up one needle size, but I decided I needed to go up more.  I was using a 2.5 mm and 3.0 mm needle, and my gauge was 32 stitches and 38 rounds in 4 inches, vice the called for gauge of 27 stitches and 30 rounds in 4 inches, so I decided to go up to a 3.5 mm (US 4) and a 3.75 mm (US 5) and try again.  To organize the yarn I got 8 bags, and put a slip of paper with the chart symbol for the color in each one.  Then I spent an evening frogging my work and winding lots of little balls of yarn and sorting them all in to the appropriate bags while watching the Chiefs beat the Texans.  My Lumos light helped me make sure I got the correct colors in their respective bags.

I had already cast on a fresh start and the larger needles, and going up the needle size seems to have done the trick with regards to gauge.  I was worried about the looser gauge looking sloppy with the color work, but so far it seems to be okay.

Pattern:  Holly Sweater by Ruth Sorensen

Yarn:  Shetland Wool

Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 5 (3.75 mm)

Peacock Shawl - Finished!

I finished up my Peacock Shawl this past Wednesday and I am delighted with how it came out.  I extended the pattern to use up all of my yarn, and ended up needing more, running out with six rows and the bind off to go.  Fortunately I had a skein of Zen Yarn Garden Sturdy Sock in my stash that went well with skeins 7 and 8 from the set, containing some of the same greens and taking things into the lighter colors as you can see.  Oh the advantages of a ginormous stash, and also these are my favorite colors, so it wasn’t a stretch to find a similar enough skein.

I did have one set back, when I decided that the original way that I had extended the pattern just wasn’t working out.  I had gone a bit nuts on the beads, I didn’t like the way that I had closed up the peacock eye, and I had also started using the final chart for the center panel and I didn’t like how that was working out - too much stockinette stitch and I just didn’t think it would block out well.  So, I spent an eventing putting in an afterthought life line in the row right before I started my changes (10 rows back), ripped back, got all my stitches back on to my needles, and went back and reworked the chart for the sides - this time simply extending the peacock eye motif, cutting back on the beads (just one per eye) and decided to just keep using the center chart C for the rest of the shawl.

The shawl is huge, taking all of my newer gridded blocking mats, plus some of my older Knit Picks ones.  You can see how I extended the peacock eye motif as well as the center panel.  I really like how it came out.

Pattern:  Peacock Shawl by Sivia Harding

Yarn:  Yarn Fairy Fairy Sock Medium and Zen Yarn Garden Sturdy Sock

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Finnegan’s Run 2024 Winter Comfort Box - Unboxing!

Last week we made our every 12 weeks “Beer, wine and steak” shopping trip to Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania so I was able to pick up my winter comfort box from this past Christmas.  We don’t get in to “town” that often, having a pretty full life here in King George.  I have been buying these for several years now, although I have yet to knit any of them up - definitely on my “to do” list now that I’m retired.  They always put together a nice package and try to locally source the goodies that they include.  This year they even personalize the project bag, which was a really sweet surprise.

Here are all the neatly wrapped goodies prior to unwrapping them.  I’m not going to have before and after for each package as I am just not that person.  So here are all the goodies after unwrapping.

Starting at the top, just above my name, and going clockwise:  A beautiful card from a local artist, a short folding ruler that also lets you do wraps per inch (and has the wraps per inch for different yarn weights on the ruler), a Pom-pom, a notions tin (they included one last year as well, and we all know how we love our notions tins), Andes mints (quickly eaten - shared with my husband), lip-balm, leather sew-on gift tags, and the yarn.  There were also two $25 gift certificates to the shop, which was a nice surprise.  The yarn is from 29 Bridges Studio across the Potomac River in Maryland.  It is sport weight, 100% superwash merino, and the colors are (from right to left) Afterglow and Lapis.

Crafting Spaces!

Now that I’m retired I’ve been focusing on creating crafting spaces in the house for the crafts that I love.  When I signed up for the Spin School I knew that I needed to create a spinning space that would encourage me to practice my spinning, and would keep everything I need neatly arranged.  The mini chaise is a piece that I picked up at an antique store when I was living in Center City Philadelphia.  Next to the chaise is an octagonal oak table that my husband and I picked up at a local antique store when we bought the old fashioned ice box that I use for my teas.  All the tools that I need are close at hand and the chaise has me at just the right height for spinning.  You can’t see it in this picture but the TV is to the right as this is our living room

Most of my knitting and crochet takes place on my day bed, which I use instead of a couch that is also where I lounge when we are watching TV.  I used to have an overloaded coffee table, but now have a much bigger, and much prettier table set up.

I made this table top when I was in graduate school at Notre Dame (in South Bend Indiana) and used it as my dining table (attached to a couple of book shelves), and when I moved to Philadelphia it became both my dining table and my crafting table, supported on book boxes (you can see a couple of my book boxes in the background of the first picture being used to support shelves, which is what happens when your collection exceeds the boxes and you’re no longer moving around).  You see, I have lots of books (and DVDs and CDs), and I used to have lots of book shelves.  I also moved around a lot in my younger days.  When I was in graduate school at Ball State (in Muncie Indiana, and just two hours away from my folks in Yellow Springs, Ohio) my Mom had the brilliant idea of turning my book shelves into book boxes that could be stacked to form shelves, but more importantly would serve as packing boxes for my books.  So that is what my Dad and I did - first we converted most of my book shelves into book boxes and then we made a bunch more.  They are all backed and have lids.  Anyway, back to my table top.  I needed something to support it, and all of my book boxes are occupied, so I bought some large milk crates (that come in bright colors) and used four to provide the base, and storage for my projects.

Even the trash can has a nice spot that keeps it out of the way and yet still accessible.

And there are spots for books that I want handy, as well as my iPad.  And that poor overloaded coffee table has also found a new home.

We had another coffee table that had served as a place to keep all of my spice jars (it was supposed to be a staging area as the real storage solution was created, but that never happened) and it just so happens that my old coffee table fit perfectly on top of that other coffee table, creating a nice spot for books that had been piling up (literally) on the floor and it also provides another napping spot for our cat Jezebel (cats need lots of good napping spots, preferably by windows).  The spices have a home in spice shelves that I bought and set up on more (you guessed it) boxes that I also bought to hold more books.

I Made Yarn!

About a decade ago I bought a spinning wheel - a Kromski Polonaise (a good investment as it turns out as the price has doubled since then) - but never learned how to use it.  I tried at one point, and we just fought each other.  Oh the mysteries of tension and drive!  Along the way I also picked up some spindles and a friend taught me the basics of park and draft, but I never really got good at that either.  Then along came the Mighty Network and a community called Sheepspot.  I joined it with the thought that I might finally learn to spin, but never had the time to really dedicate to it until I retired.  I had re-upped my membership in The Sheepspot Guild last year (after letting it lapse for a while), and then Sasha offered a Spin School for beginners starting November 5.  Conveniently I had started my terminal leave leading up to my retirement on October 21 so I signed up and I am very glad that I did.  The skein on the left is the first skein that I plyed.  It is the most inconsistently spun of the bunch, and it is too loosely plyed.  The middle skein is the second one that I plyed.  The spinning on that one is more consistent.  The skein on the right is my latest one.  The singles are still more consistent and also thinner.  My niddy noddy creates one yard skeins so I am able to determine the yardage of each skein.

Skein 1:  47 yards, 57.8 grams

Skein 2:  38 yards, 43.8 grams

Skein 3:  60 yards, 44.9 grams

Sasha promised that she would make me besties with my wheel, and she delivered.  I love spinning, and will be doing more.  At this point I have been focusing solely on my short forward draft, just trying to be consistent.  Once I have mastered that to my satisfaction (basically spinning consistent singles) I’ll go back to the videos and work on the short backward draft, spinning from the fold, and the supported long draw.  I am using Heinz 57 from The Woolery to learn on (this is the fiber that Sasha recommended as being easy to spin) and it definitely is.  She will be starting a free class for intermediate spinners next week that is supposed to help you continue to improve, which I signed up for, and in March it looks like she will be offering the Breed Study course, which I will also take.  I may also dabble a bit in dying, just to add color to these skeins.
 

Peacock Shawl - Chart C Done!

With the Saugerties Shrug finished I’ve been focusing most of my knitting time on my Peacock Shawl, finishing up the second repeat of the Chart C yesterday.  I’ve totally disregarded the yarn usage instructions in the pattern and am just using up each skein and then joining the next.  I have decided to modify Chart D, closing up the main motif into a diamond and repeating rows 151-155 of the chart until I use up my yarn.  I may do some modifications to that pattern as well - closing up the pattern in those final rows - it depends on how much yarn I have left at that point.

Pattern:  Peacock Shawl by Sivia Harding

Yarn:  Yarn Fairy Fairy Sock Medium

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)
 

Saugerties Shrug - Finished!

I finished up the shrug this past Sunday and posted the left over Bisque (59.9 grams) on Tuesday to the Ravelry user that had contacted me about it.  I am very glad that I knit this at a tighter gauge than the pattern called for, or else it would have been really huge.  I stopped working the flat stockinette section when I reached the end of the third skein of the Bisque instead of making it as long as the pattern called for.  After casting off I picked up stitches around the opening and knit 8 rows of the cuff pattern, working decreases every row where the two sides meet (the corners) to just finish it off.  That stockinette edge curled horribly and looked unfinished to me.

The blocking picture shows the edging on the opening, and you can see my decreases.

Pattern:  Saugerties Shrug by Jill Zielinski

Yarn:  The Plucky Knitting Scholar Worsted

Needles:  US 7 (4.5 mm) and US 8 (5.0 mm)

Saugerties Shrug - One Skein of Bisque Done

I have used up one skein of my Bisque and am halfway through my second skein.  Based upon some yarn usage calculations I will use up most, but not all, of my four skeins of Bisque.  It is actually fortunate that I am knitting at a tighter gauge and making a slightly smaller shrug, as I don’t think I would have had enough yarn otherwise, given how under weight my skeins are.  Four skeins should give me 460 grams of yarn (115 grams each), but I have only about 420 grams, and I will use about 400 grams.  I like the size that mine is working out to be, and it will be snuggly when it is finished.  I did go back down to the US 7 needle when I started working back and forth, it just looked neater than continuing on with the US 8.

I did make a slight modification to the colorwork pattern on the last patterned row.  I worked 3 C2, 1 C1 instead of 7 C2, 1 C1, just so I wouldn’t have to catch my floats.  This project is one of three that is in my current rotation and is my “I want to pay attention to something else (reading or watching TV) knitting” at least until I get back to the colorwork section on the right sleeve.  The other two projects are my Peacock Shawl, which requires some attention, being lace, and my Wallflowers blanket, which I also have to pay attention to while I work on it, but it makes a great lap blanket while I’m doing it - perfect for these winter evenings.

Pattern:  Saugerties Shrug by Jill Zielinski

Yarn:  The Plucky Knitter Scholar Worsted

Needles:  US 7 (4.5 mm) and US 8 (5.0 mm)

Peacock Shawl - One Repeat of Chart C Done!

After finishing up my Capelet I pulled this project out of my WIPs pile and decided it was time to finish it.  I had set it aside because I wasn’t sure how I wanted to handle the skein transitions.  The pattern calls for “feathering”, also known as striping, and I’m just not a fan of doing that, so in the end I just went with my default method of attaching the new skein to the old and just knitting until the old skein ran out, wherever that happens to occur.

It has been a while since I’ve done an all over lace shawl, and I am really enjoying it.  The yarn is really wonderful to work with, and I love the colors and the beads.  This project has been languishing since December of 2016!  I’m glad to be working on it again.  I want to finish as many of my WIPs as I can before I start more projects, although I have already broken that rule with the Saugerties Shrug, but that is a special exception.

Pattern:  Peacock Shawl by Sivia Harding

Yarn:  Yarn Fairy Fairy Sock Medium in Peacock

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Kalona - Finished!

Finally, I finished up my Kalona cardigan.  I finished it up on December 29, and it came off the blocking mats this morning.  It fits me better than it does my dress maker dummy, although the sleeves are just a little long, coming down just past my wrists, but that is okay.

Blocking was very straightforward.

The only thing I pinned was the bottom lace.

Pattern:  Kalona by Alison Green

Yarn:  Berroco Ultra Wool Fine

Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)