Bright & Bold Myndie - Finished!

I finished this shawl this past Wednesday.  I wanted to finish it before my 2018 Unique Sheep Advent Calendar showed up, and I just managed to do that.

Pattern:  Myndie / Kallara mashup
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Bright & Bold Advent Calendar
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Bright & Bold Myndie - Four Colors Done

I finished up both the Salsa Dance and the Tropical Teal colors yesterday, in between raking leaves and watching my Easy Bias Lace pattern rise and fall on the Ravelry Top 20 list.  I made it up to number six, but now I'm falling.  It was fun to have my day in the sun.

I do have a test knit I need to get started on soon, but I want to finish this up first.

Pattern:  Myndie / Kallara mashup
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Bright & Bold Advent Calendar
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Bright & Bold Myndie - Two Colors Done

I finished up the Wasabi and started the Salsa Dance color section last night.  I really like the way the colors look set off by the gray.  I probably would have gotten more done, but I was dealing with some family stuff and watching the response to my Easy Bias Lace pattern on Ravelry.  I posted the pattern yesterday morning and by the time I went to bed it was in the Top 20 patterns, and this morning it is in the Top 10.  I was not expecting that kind of response, but am delighted.

Pattern:  Myndie / Kallara mashup
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Bright & Bold Advent Calendar
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Bright & Bold Myndie - Cast On & One Color Done

Given that the holidays are fast approaching I decided I really should finish knitting up the last of my Unique Sheep Advent Calendar from last year.  I really like my Saltwater Taffy Myndie, the colors just make it a fun shawl to wear, so I decided I would make another oversized Myndie with the last 6 skeins of the set.

The colors for this one are:
1 - Sapphire - 19.8 g
3 - Tart Heart - 20.1 g
5 - Sun Porch - 19.5 g
13 - Tropical Teal - 19.7 g
22 - Salsa Dance - 19.6 g
24 - Wasabi - 19.6 g

The number indicates the original skein number in the Advent Calendar.  I've used the Sun Porch, and have just started the Wasabi.

With the Saltwater Taffy Myndie I used the lighter gray as the main color, but with this one I'm using the darker gray that I also used on my Compassion Celadon.  I also decided to add a repeat in gray between each of the color blocks.  I will probably use up any leftovers of the colors in last gray section, as I did on the Saltwater Taffy Myndie.

Pattern:  Myndie / Kallara mashup
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Bright & Bold Advent Calendar
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Saltwater Taffy Myndie - Finished!

I finished this up Tuesday.  I did a little improvising at the end.  My initial estimate of when to start working the mini-skeins was off, so I really started them too early.  It also turns out that my copy and paste was a little more enthusiastic than thoughtful, so I had to do some rejiggering at the end.  Instead of working Decrease Section 2 18 times I had to work it 21 times.  In this version I think I actually knit it 20 times.  The fact that I always switched colors at the end of a repeat meant that I had some leftovers of five of the six colors (the Saltwater Huckleberries came out almost perfectly).  I wanted to use those leftovers, and I had a pretty big stretch of gray at the end, so I updated my spreadsheet and used my updated yarn usage calculations to determine yarn usage for each repeat.  I weighed all of my leftovers and figured out where I could use each of my leftovers, which is how I got those stripes at the end.  I had the least amount of the Bananas and Key Lime so I used them at the very tip.  I hadn't quite worked all the kinks out of my spreadsheet when I did those last two repeats, so the decrease rate is a little too quick for the Key Lime, but I would have run out of yarn if I had done it per the pattern.

 
Pattern:  Myndie / Kallara mashup
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Bright & Bold Advent Calendar
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Saltwater Taffy Myndie - Four Skeins Done

Yesterday I made it through four of my six skeins, well almost.  I am one row shy on my fourth skein.  I am switching skeins at the beginning of a repeat, after the eyelet row.

The colors used so far are:
Saltwater Bananas
Saltwater Mangoes
Saltwater Key Lime
Saltwater Blueberries

Next up is Saltwater Huckleberries and then Saltwater Strawberries.

When I was switching between the Saltwater Mangoes and Key Lime I tried it in the middle of a repeat and decided it really didn't look as nice, so I ripped back.  I really like the colors of this one, they are cheerful and fun.

Pattern:  Myndie by Ambah O'Brien
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Rare Breed, Bright & Bold Advent Calendar 2018
Needles:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Saltwater Taffy Myndie - Skein 1 Done

I have been making progress on my enlarged Myndie, finishing up the first skein - Saltwater Bananas - last night and getting a good start on the second skein - Saltwater Mangoes.  I really wanted to get this one to a point where I felt confident that it was going to work and that I was going to be happy with it, and I am pleased to say that I have reached that point.  I'm doing the skein switches at the end of a repeat instead of in the middle.  I think this just gives it a cleaner look.  I will do another shawl like this using the Bright and Bold solid colors from my Advent Kit, which will use up all of the skeins from that set.

Pattern:  Myndie by Ambah O'Brien
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Rare Breed, Bright & Bold Advent Calendar 2018
Needles:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Saltwater Taffy - Myndie / Kallara Mashup

Earlier this month I restarted the Saltwater Taffy using the Myndie pattern, but as I neared the first switch I knew I would have more yarn left over than I wanted to, and I wanted to end up with a shawl bigger than Myndie.  So this past weekend I restarted it using the Kallara pattern, but I'm not really happy with that one either.

I like the look of the eyelets from Myndie, but I want the size of Kallara so I decided to do a bit of a mashup.  I've modified the Myndie pattern to work more increases.  These shawls are pretty simple in their construction.  There are two increase sections and two decrease sections.  The first increase section has increases on both sides of the central double decrease.  The second increase section has increases only on one side of the central double decrease.  The first decrease section has decreases only one side of the central double decrease and the second decrease has decreases on both sides until you run out of stitches.  To make Myndie larger I will work more increase sections and more decrease sections, using the stitch counts from Kallara as a guide.

So, instead of working 8 repeats of increase section 1, I will work 10 repeats, which will give me 70 stitches at that point instead of 58.  I will then work 14 repeats of increase section 2 instead of 10, which will give me 117 stitches instead of 97.  On the other side, I will work 24 repeats of decrease section 1, instead of 20 and 18 repeats of decrease section 2 instead of 16.

Pattern:  Myndie / Kallara mashup
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Bright & Bold Advent Calendar
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Saltwater Taffy Myndie - Cast On

After casting off my latest Celadon I immediately cast on a Myndie for the Saltwater colors from my Unique Sheep Bright & Bold Advent Calendar set.  I've gone back and forth over what to knit with this yarn.  At one point I started an Adventurous Wrap Option B, but I really want to display the fun speckles on the yarn, and they will get lost in the Adventurous Wrap.  I'm going to modify Myndie to use up as much yarn as I can by making it bigger.  I have my spreadsheet and I'll get yarn usage figures as I go and figure out how much larger I can make it.

Pattern:  Myndie by Ambah O'Brien
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Rare Breed, Bright & Bold Advent Calendar 2018
Needles:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Hurricane Watch Myndie - Finished!

I finished up my Hurricane Watch Myndie this past Saturday morning, having finished up color 5 on Friday.

Blocking was pretty easy.  I didn't stretch the shawl too strenuously, but I did pull it out enough to open up the eyelet lace.

I like the bright colors, they are almost primary in the purity of their hue, and they make me smile.


Pattern:  Myndie by Ambah O'Brien
Yarn:  Rare Breed by The Unique Sheep
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Hurricane Watch Myndie - Color 4 Done

I spent the afternoon reading and knitting and finished up color 4.  I'm on the decrease section, which is more mindless than the increase section, and easier to fudge.  I've learned to count my stitches before I work the eyelet row and if I'm short one I add it to the end of the previous row (work a kfb, k1 in the last 2 stitches).  I haven't had to do that very often.  Only two more colors to go.

Pattern:  Myndie by Ambah O'Brien
Yarn:  Rare Breed by The Unique Sheep
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Hurrican Watch Myndie - Color 3 Done

I finished up color 3 this morning while watching The Court Jester, with Danny Kaye.   It is one of my favorite movies.  It is sunny here today, for the first time all week - the week has been rainy and miserable.  Perfect weather for staying home with knitting and hot chocolate and good movies, too bad I had to go to work instead.

Pattern:  Myndie by Ambah O'Brien
Yarn:  Rare Breed by The Unique Sheep
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Hurrican Watch Myndie - Color 2 Done

I have also finished up the second color on my Hurricane Watch Myndie.  The knitting is not quite mindless enough, and you have to watch out for the increases and decreases.  It is easy to get distracted and forget one and then your count gets off.  I've had to tink back a couple of times to fix that.

Pattern:  Myndie by Ambah O'Brien
Yarn:  Rare Breed by The Unique Sheep
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Hurricane Watch Myndie - Color 1 Done

I finished up the first color and started the second color this week.  Because I had created a spreadsheet it was easy to get stitch counts for the shawl and determine when I should transition to use my colors evenly.  I did the math for 6 colors, which leaves the white skein out, as well as for all 7 colors, but my first transition was actually after the predicted point for using just 6 colors, so that is what I'll do.  I am using up each color before switching to the next, with one caveat, I am switching at the very beginning of a right side row, to make the color changes clean, so I have about 3 feet of color 1 left over.

Pattern:  Myndie by Ambah O'Brien
Yarn:  Rare Breed by The Unique Sheep
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Myndie - Cast On

I also cast on another Ambah O'Brien pattern last week.  This one has a lot of repeats of sections, and rows that are repeats of previous rows, so the first thing I did was make a spreadsheet with complete instructions and increases, decreases and stitch counts just to make it easier to keep track of where I'm at.  Once I finished that and pulled it in to knitCompanion I just had to cast on.  I'm using a set of yarn that Laura dyed up while waiting for Hurricane Irma to arrive.  The colorway is called Hurricane Watch and is based upon the radar picture of the Hurricane.

I really like the colors - vivid, cheerful, bright.  I've been searching for a pattern to make with the set almost since I received it.  It seems most folks are going with something that mimics the swirl of the Hurricane, but I decided to go with something completely different, and Ambah's patterns lend themselves to using color.  I am going to work through each color until it is gone and then join the next.  I thought about working the white between each color, but I think I'm going to save the white for the end.  Any thing left over I can use on my ADVENTurous KAL (Ambah's Advent calendar wrap).  The Unique Sheep offered an Advent Calendar set, which I ordered, but it only has 24 colors and Ambah's pattern calls for 25.

Pattern:  Myndie by Ambah O'Brien
Yarn:  Rare Breed by The Unique Sheep
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)