Liquid Gold Sinua - Finished!

I finished this project up this past Monday - a holiday for me - but it has taken me a while to get a decent picture in natural light.  I've already worn it to work.  If I had gotten another skein or two I might have turned this into a tunic so I could wear it with leggings.  I really like the I-Cord cast on and bind off and have plans to use it again.  I skipped the ribbing at the bottom, and also lengthened it.  I added side increases starting at my natural waist.

Pattern:  Sinua by Susanna IC
Yarn:  madelinetosh DK in Liquid Gold
Needle:  US 6 (4 mm)

Liquid Gold Sinua - Fit Check

I finished up the second sleeve this past Saturday so I started working on the body again.  I started with the leftovers from the upper body and finished up the remains of that skein last night, so I took advantage of the situation to put half the stitches on a second needle and check the fit.  The pattern does not have any body shaping, but I started adding increases at the waist.  I'm working the increases every 10 rows because it is easy to remember and gives a reasonable spacing for the increases.  I haven't decided how long I'm going to make the body.  I just started my last full skein, and I have two leftover balls from the sleeves.  The pattern also calls for ribbed edging, but I'm going to skip the ribbing and work another I-cord bind off.  And the fit is perfect.

Pattern:  Sinua by Susanna IC
Yarn:  madelinetosh DK in Liquid Gold
Needle:  US 6 (4 mm)

Liquid Gold Sinua - One Sleeve Done!

Once I finished up my Margaret Beaufort I picked up my Liquid Gold Sinua again and finished up the sleeve.  This is actually the second start on a sleeve.  I had started working the sleeve on the other armhole using the remains of the skein that I had been working the bodice with - the skein I didn't continue with when I joined the body at the underarm, and had actually worked through the end of that skein, but I had picked up more stitches around the armhole and I wasn't sure I liked how it lay when I tried it on.  So I picked up stitches around the other armhole using my old standby method of picking up a stitch for every other row and knit that one to completion.  That pickup gave me 68 stitches to start with.  I increased 1 stitch at the shoulder seam on the second row of the stitch pattern as I was working the short rows, and then picked up an extra stitch on each side of the underam seam to close up any pesky little holes that sometimes happen down there.  That gave me 71 stitches, which is what the pattern actually called for.  I started the decreases when I reached the elbow, and worked 6 sets of decreases every 10 rows.  I ended up working 5 full repeats of the pattern chart - the part that you repeat, which I liked because I ended the sleeve on the end of the repeat.  I did an I-cord bind off, and looked up how to graft my end to my beginning.  Actually super easy and pretty intuitive, once you think about it.  One skein of yarn was perfect for the sleeve, I even have some leftover.

I cut the yarn on the remains of the skein on the other side, and wove in the end, and have picked up stitches with a fresh skein, now that I know I can work the whole sleeve with a single skein.


Pattern:  Sinua by Susanna IC
Yarn:  madelinetosh DK in Liquid Gold
Needle:  US 6 (4 mm)

Liquid Gold Sinua - One Skein Done

I am finally able to get a good picture of my Liquid Gold Sinua.  When last we saw this project I had just finished up both the front and the back to the point where I was ready to join them together and begin knitting in the round.  I had been working with two skeins of yarn, but when I joined I only worked with one skein.  I did not cut the yarn on the other skein, I just set it out of the way while I worked.  I've now worked a good four inches on the body and am almost to the end of my working skein.  I put it back on to two circular needles so I could try it on and also get a good picture.  I am happy to say that it fits perfectly.  At this point I may leave off working on the body and use the other skein to pick up stitches around the armhole and work on one of the sleeves.

Pattern:  Sinua by Susanna IC
Yarn:  madelinetosh DK in Liquid Gold
Needle:  US 6 (4 mm)

Liquid Gold Sinua - Top Portion Finished

When my brain is not up to working on my Velveteen Rabbit test knit (I'm on the last chart, and the last 2 skeins of my yarn set - I have a 12 skein circle set) I pick up this project instead.  This evening I finally finished up the other half of the top part down to the underarm.  I am now ready to join the front and back and begin working in the round.  I'm going to cast on 8 stitches for each underarm.  There is no shaping called for in the pattern, I haven't decided if I'll add any, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do at the bottom.  The pattern calls for more knit 1, purl 1 ribbing, which I don't really like the look of.  I skipped the ribbing at the top, maybe I'll skip it at the bottom and finish with an I-Cord bind off, or some other finishing technique that will help prevent curling.

Pattern:  Sinua by Susanna IC
Yarn:  madelinetosh DK in Liquid Gold
Needle:  US 6 (4 mm)

Practically Anything - Four Skeins Done

For the past 20 days I've been working on a test knit, but before I had started that project I had almost gotten through the fourth skein of my vest.  I have another test knit I need to get started on, but I decided to take a little break today and work on some of my other projects.  This morning I finished up the last few rows of the blue-green skein and joined the blue skein.

I can't share any details of the test knit that I just finished up, as it is for a club and must remain a surprise.  I will say that I really like the colorway.  I can share my yarn choice for the next test knit I need to work on - The Velveteen Rabbit, which is the next Unique Sheep Mystery Knit Along.  Ellen of Earthfaire has been working with Kelly of The Unique Sheep on some wonderful circle colorways made up of 12 skeins.  I offered to do my test knit in one of those circles so we would be able to provide the transition points for those sets as well as the traditional 6-skein sets.  This is the colorway that I chose - Enchanted Garden.

I still haven't decided on the bead color yet, but I have several options in my bead stash.  I spent some of last night grooming the charts and setting up the project in my knitCompanion, and putting together my Excel spreadsheet to calculate the stitch count and transition points.  I even cast on and worked a few rows, but I think I'm going to restart and go up a needle size before I really get going on the first clue.

I also got some new yarn in over the last few weeks - as if I need any more yarn in this house.  I did successfully complete all three projects this past summer for Camp Loopy, so I had to select my reward.  I ended up picking the skein on the left in the picture below.

I then had to pick a coordinating color to go with it as I have really been wanting to make Sivia's Layer Cake Shawl.  This is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Color in the Clouds and Grapevine.  And of course while I was at the The Loopy Ewe web site some other yarn found its way into my cart.

This is madelinetosh Tosh DK in Liquid Gold and I bought it to make Sinua, from the Fall 2016 Twist Collective.

I also had some Jimmy Beans Bucks that were set to expire at the end of this month, so of course I had to find something there to spend them on and ended up with this yarn, which is also madelinetosh Tosh DK, in Havana.  I'm going to use this to make Caledonia, from the Fall 2014 Twist Collective.

Pattern:  Practically by Kelly Herdrich
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Wild Thing
Needles:  US 6 (4.0 mm)