Pardalote Shawl - Cast On

Once I had finished up my Kentia Wrap I cast on my Pardalote Shawl.  This shawl was just recently published by Ambah and I had already picked out my colors from some recent acquisitions from The Loopy Ewe.  The pattern is easy and repetitive (most of her patterns are), but they really showcase the yarn, and they let you play with color.

Both of these skeins are Loopy Ewe exclusive colors from Dream in Color.  I love their yarns and their colors.  The top one is Haunted, and came out last month.  The bottom one is Exploration Station and came out this past summer during Camp Loopy, which was science themed this year.  Both are Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere.  I keep an eye on that page and tend to buy at least one skein of the color on Smooshy because I know that I can use it in a shawl.  Sometimes I will buy a couple of skeins on City as well.

Pattern:  Pardalote Shawl by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

 

Kentia Wrap - Finished!

 

I finished up my Kentia Wrap this past Friday evening and blocked it Saturday morning.  I used a Paintbox set, plus one skein from a Paintcan set so I begin and end on a Mosaic section.  I enjoyed knitting this.  The colors are fun and it makes a nice squishy fabric.

Pattern:  Kentia Wrap by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Koigu KPM and KPPPM

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Kentia Wrap - Eight Contrast Colors Done (almost)

 

I have also been making progress on my Kentia Shawl in bursts.  I’m almost done with the eighth contrast color and I have the ninth caked up and ready to go.  I really like the texture and the color play.

Here is a close up of the top.

Pattern:  Kentia Wrap by Ambah O’Brien

Yarn:  Koigu KPM and KPPPM

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Woodsman Shawl II - Body Done!

 

I’ve been working on this one lately and managed to finish up the body last night while watching the latest season of The Last Kingdom.  I ordered a skein of basic black sock yarn for the border.  Now I need another mindless project.

Pattern:  Improvised (Boomerang shawl)

Yarn:  SpaceCadet Yarns Oriana in Woodsman

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Crochet Basket

I’ve been trying to use up some of my deeper stash, especially the heavier weight yarns.  I tend to prefer knitting with lighter weight yarns.  These yarns are from clubs and they have been in my stash for a while.  I’ve been wanting to make a simple crochet basket for a while now, and I finally got started the last weekend in October.  I’ll keep working the increases in the bottom until it gets to a size I like and then I’ll work the sides until I run out of yarn.

Pattern:  based on Stash Basket by Emily Bolduan

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Back to Basics

Hook:  4 mm (G)

Claude the Octopus

 

When I first started knitting, way back at the turn of this millennium I became obsessed with Adrienne Vittadini patterns.  I loved the sophistication of their style and I bought pattern books and yarn.  Back then I always bought yarn for patterns that I wanted to knit right away, on the theory that the yarn could be discontinued later when I finally got around to knitting the pattern.  It is a habit that has contributed to my rather large stash, but it has paid off.  One of the Adrienne Vittadini yarns that I have in my stash is Dianna.  This yarn is 51% cotton, 49% acrylic, and comes in 50 gram/87 yard balls, and I have 27 balls in my stash in 5 colors.  I did knit a top out of it, and didn’t really like how it knit up, so I left it in deep stash and moved on.

Lately I’ve been going through my deep stash and deciding what to do with it.  I’ve given some away to friends and I almost gave this away to a friend of mine that crochets and can’t work with wool, but then I saw Claude the Octopus on Ravelry and I fell in love.  I looked at the colors in my stash of Dianna and realized that I had colors that would work in the quantities that I need.  This baby is taking 13 skeins, almost half of what I have in my stash.  So last weekend I grabbed a hook and started crocheting, and I am loving it.  I’ve been eyeing Amigurumi for awhile now, but this is the first one I’ve attempted, and I am hooked - pun intended.  The picture above is the head/body (upside down).  I’ve almost finished the top side of the tentacles.

This is the very start.

And this is the head/body before I started really decreasing and had to start stuffing it.

And these are the colors I’m using.  The off white will be the underside, and the rose will be the suckers.  The dark blue is the edging color that you use to join the top and the bottom together.

Pattern:  Claude the Octopus by Kate E. Hancock

Yarn:  Adrienne Vittadini Dianna

Hook:  4 mm (G)

Rose Bolero - Finished!

 

I finished this up last weekend.  I didn’t have enough yarn to work the picot edging, but I did have enough to work a single crochet around the armholes just to give them a neat finish.  I had to undo all of the joining I had done of blocks to the body, but not the joining of blocks to blocks.  When I got the last block attached I had a gap of 12 stitches between the last one and the first one.  Oops.  So I pulled the thread and all the blocks came off.  Then I counted out intervals of 18 stitches, plus two that had 19 stitches, and marked them with locking stitch markers.  I then finished joining all of the blocks to each other in a long strip (per the pattern instructions) and joined them together into a loop, being careful not to twist the loop when I joined.  With the wrong sides facing each other I joined the loop of blocks to the body using the locking stitch markers.  Once that was done I started joining once more.  This time everything worked out.  

Pattern:  DROPS 126-8 Rose Parade by DROPS Design

Yarn:  Fiesta Yarns La Luz Multi in Rose (June Flower of the Month colorway)

Hook:  D (3.25 mm)