Trillium Lake - Finished!

This one knit up quickly, cast on March 29 and finished April 14, I do so like top down in the round patterns.  I added some extra length because I like my tops just a bit longer than the pattern called for.  I did add the short row shaping for the back.

The fit is perfect, and the yarn is deliciously soft.  I had a tendency to stop and pet it while I was knitting.  This is also one of the few patterns that I have knit where the Knitting Barber Cords really worked well.  I had put the sleeve stitches on them when I was working the body, and when I wanted to try on the top to check the length it was easy to slip the body stitches on and off a cord.  I sometimes find that for some yarns the stitches just don’t slip easily on the cord, and I’ve actually pulled the cord off the needle tip, which is a nuisance, to say the least.

Pattern:  Trillium Lake by Kay Hopkins

Yarn:  The Fibre Co Road to China Light

Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm) and US 4 (3.5 mm)

 

Trillium Lake - Cast On!

Having finished up the body of my Sally Shawl I needed another easy project for my work bag.  Having also finished up my Ramea I decided I wanted to do another top and I grabbed the yarn that I had ordered for the Trillium Lake pattern from The Fibre Co.  The yarn is Road to China Light in the color Tanzanite.  The yarn is 65% alpaca, 15% silk, 10% camel, 10 % cashmere and 100% awesome.  Sometimes I just find myself petting it instead of knitting.  I worked up a swatch and got gauge, so I caked up all the skeins and cast on.  I got it to the easy knitting point before I needed to take it into work.

Once I got to the part where I needed to put the sleeve stitches on holders I worked that part at home, so that I could just enjoy the endless rounds of this super soft yarn that feels so good to work with.

I really do enjoy knitting in the round.  Now that it is the weekend, I will spend some time reading and knitting, and maybe have to figure out another easy project to put in my work bag.

Pattern:  Trillium Lake by Kay Hopkins

Yarn:  The Fibre Co Road to China Light

Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm), US 4 (3.5 mm)

 

Winter Wonderland MKAL - Finished!

I finished this up on 29 December.  It was fun, and I love the colorways that have been created for it.  So many beautiful shawls!  I liked the construction.  Blocking was straightforward, pun intended.

This shawl is a nice size, generous without being too big, and the yarn is lovely, soft and with wonderful drape.

I have finished six projects during my winter break, and am down to thirteen WIPs, I frogged seven WIPs last year as well, and I have seven WIPs that are in hibernation.  I am determined to finish or frog them all.

Pattern:  Winter Wonderland MKAL by Kay Hopkins

Yarn: Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply

Needles:  US 3 (3.25 mm), US 4 (3.5 mm)

Winter Wonderland MKAL - Clue 4 Done

The mystery knit along is over, it finished up on December 9, but I knew that I would not be able to complete my shawl in time for any of the prize drawings so I set it aside in order to finish some other projects.  But now that those are done I have pulled it back out and will finish it up this week.  The final clue joins the pieces together.

Pattern:  Winter Wonderland MKAL by Kay Hopkins

Yarn:  Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply

Needles:  US 3 (3.25 mm) and US 4 (3.5 mm)

Winter Wonderland MKAL - Clue 3 Done

Clue 3 finished off the first side, and started the second.  The last section of the first side has some double increases, and the gray is worked as short rows, which gives it the shape.  The lace pattern in the first pink section of the second side is candy canes.  I barely had enough of that mini-skein to finish, ending up with maybe two feet left over.  I had plenty of my second mini-skein.  I’ve already started working clue 4 and have pulled clue 5 into my knitCompanion app.  I’ve seen a finished photo and it is a really cool design.

Pattern:  Winter Wonderland MKAL by Kay Hopkins

Yarn:  Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply

Needles:  US 3 (3.25 mm) and US 4 (3.5 mm)

Winter Wonderland MKAL - Clue 2 Done

Once I got into the rhythm of things the second clue went fairly quickly.  I didn’t make any modifications to the pattern for this clue.  I’ve already set up clue 3 in knitCompanion, and have the clue 4 pages added as well.  The yarn is really lovely to work with.

Pattern:  Winter Wonderland MKAL by Kay Hopkins

Yarn:  Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply

Needles:  US 3 (3.25 mm) and US 4 (3.5 mm)

 

Winter Wonderland MKAL - Clue 1 Done

I am a bit of a sucker for Mystery Knit Alongs, especially when Miss Babs dyes up such beautiful sets for them.  I have more than a few in my stash, just waiting to be knit up.  This one I am almost doing on time.  I think clue 4 will be dropping soon.  The color way is Dark Canis Major, and the gray is Quicksilver.  There were so many lovely colorway options it can be very hard to choose.  I try not to overthink it and just go with something that makes me happy.

It did take me a couple of tries to get this one going, mostly because I forgot a very important detail that I had read when looking over the pattern about slipping the first stitch of each row.  I remembered it when I introduced the first color, so I ripped back and started over.  My next challenge arose with the first chart.  I didn’t really care for how the repeat was marked as the spacing between the first three repeats of the pattern and the last repeat of the pattern were not the same (11 stitches, and then 10 stitches), which made the placement of the next set of motifs not line up symmetrically with the first set, which just bugs me.  So  I decided to shift the start of the first motif over one stitch, which allowed me to have 11 stitches between each of the repeats without putting the last repeat right up agains the center stitch.  It also meant that I could have the second set of repeats placed symmetrically in relation to the first set - the first pattern row being 9 stitches.  It also meant that I did not work the partial trees on the second set, but that is fine by me.

Pattern:  Winter Wonderland MKAL by Kay Hopkins

Yarn:  Miss Babs Yummy 2-Plu

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm), US 3 (3.25 mm)