Desert City Wattage - Finished!

After blocking my Perfect Blend I focused on my third Camp Loopy 2019 project and finished it up on Friday.  This is the fifth time I've made this pattern and I just love the bright colors in this one.

I have another set of the same base in colors that I think might suit my sister Virginia.

Pattern:  Practically by Kelly Herdrich
Yarn:  Dream in Color City in Desert City Wattage
Needle:  US 6 (4 mm)

Desert City Wattage - Cast On

Of course, with the coming of August, comes the third Camp Loopy project.  This one was easy, just pick your favorite yarn.  One of my favorite yarns is Dream in Color.  I love color.  For this project I picked a color with a lot of life.  The colorway is Desert City Wattage and the picture does not do it justice.  It doesn't help that it is pretty jumbled up on the needles.  For the pattern I picked one of my favorites for showing off beautiful yarns, Practically by Kelly Herdrich.  This is my fourth time knitting the pattern, and won't be the last.  Oddly enough I couldn't find my marked up printed pattern so I pulled it into knitCompanion.  I had figured out the increases for the yoke, but figured them out again and even tweaked them a little to try to make them a little more symmetric.

Here is another photo after I've bound off the cropped sleeves and started working the body.  I'm almost through the second skein.  This is nice relaxing knitting that I can read while working on.

Pattern:  Practically by Kelly Herdrich
Yarn:  Dream in Color City in Desert City Wattage
Needle:  US 6 (4 mm)

Hampton Sleeveless Top - Finished!

I finished up my July Camp Loopy project yesterday.  It only took me six days.  I ended up using only two skeins of yarn, so the yardage came out at 546 yards.

I already have my yarn for the August Camp Loopy project, and a pattern picked out.

Pattern:  Hampton Sleeveless Top by Brian Smith
Yarn:  Cascade Yarns Hampton
Needles:  US 3 (3.25 mm), US 5 (3.75 mm)

Hampton Sleeveless Top - One Skein Done

I have also been working on my July Camp Loopy project.  This is the Hampton Sleeveless Top pattern by Brian Smith.  The pattern calls for 3 skeins of Cascade Yarns Hampton, 70% Pima Cotton/30 % Linen DK weight yarn.  On the face of it, that comes to just over 800 yards, but I will likely not use that much yarn.  This is not a fiber type that I typically work with, but I'm enjoying it so far.  The pattern is pretty simple, work two rectangles and seam them on the sides and at the shoulders.  Of course I'm working it in the round to the armholes and then I'll work back and forth and do a three-needle bind off to join the shoulders.  I also modified the ribbing at the bottom.  The pattern calls for 4 inches of k1, p1 ribbing.  I worked 3 inches of k2, p2 ribbing.  I did not work a gauge swatch.  I did use the called for needle size for the ribbing (US 3) but went down a size on the needle for the lace.  The pattern calls for a US 6, but I went with a US 5.  The pattern gives a gauge for the US 6 needle, but doesn't indicate the pattern stitch.

The real challenge came when I wanted to take a photo.  How to take one that doesn't come out as a dark blue blob.  I hit upon the idea of putting the knitting over one of my daybed pillows.  I then just leaned the pillow up against my swift.  I'm pretty pleased with how it worked.

Pattern:  Hampton Sleeveless Top by Brian Smith
Yarn:  Cascade Yarns Hampton
Needles:  US 3 (3.25 mm), US 5 (3.75 mm)

Sunny Side Shawl - Finished!

I finished this up on June 23 and posted it to the Loopy Ewe web site.  This is my June Camp Loopy 2019 project.  I like the colors, but am not so crazy about the yarn.  It is dyed as a knitted blank and then caked.  The yarn is kinky as it comes off of the cake and that kink translates into uneven stitches, especially given the amount of stockinette stitch in the pattern.  I think there was an option to work the body in garter, which might have been the better way to go with this particular yarn.  Regardless, I will still give it to Carol.  I showed her pictures last weekend and told her about the uneven stitches and she doesn't care.  And it is her colors.  I will try blocking it again to see if I can get things to even out a bit more before I send it to her.

Pattern:  Simone's Shawl by Annette Junge
Yarn:  Canon Hand Dyes William Merino Gradient
Needle: US 4 (3.5 mm)

Sunny Side Shawl - Halfway Point

I really wasn't going to participate in Camp Loopy this year.  I haven't made it through for the last couple of years.  I've signed up, but not managed to complete the projects, so I was going to pass and just focus on knitting from my voluminous stash.  Then I saw the theme for this year - Space Camp, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.  How could I not join?

The requirement for the June project was that it had to have been published in 2019.  I paged through the potential projects on Ravelry and chose something simple, a one skein shawl that would let me use up all of the skein.  I bought a skein of Canon Hand Dyes William Merino Gradient.  I used the yarn on a previous Camp Loopy project.  I have mixed feelings about this yarn.  I like the color changes, but I don't like the fact that the yarn still has the memory of being knitted as part of the dyeing process so your stitches don't come out nice and even.

The first picture was taken yesterday, just before I had reached the halfway mark, and this picture was taken this morning, just after the halfway mark.

Pattern:  Simone's Shawl by Annette Junge
Yarn:  Canon Hand Dyes William Merino Gradient
Needle: US 4 (3.5 mm)