Knitting in March

Here we are at the end of April and I am updating you with what went on in March. So how did I do with dishcloths and socks?

I made a pair of socks just not a matching pair and I made both the dishcloths from the Yahoo group.

This is the one from the beginning of the month. I am very pleased that I finished up a ball of Peaches and Creme that had I had used for Halloween dishcloths.



And this is the one from the middle of the month. I gave this to a friend who had just finished their new kitchen.



I finished the second sock of a pair started in February. This started as a mystery in December but I was sensible enough to know that I would not have time to make them then so I saved the clues. The pattern is by Stephanie van der Linden and the yarn is Estelle by Arequipa. Yarn purchased last year just because.



I like the way the heel was worked on this sock. The heel was formed by increases to form a pocket for the heel. There was no picking up of heel stitches and only a few rows of short row shaping for the heel turn. A very neat and easy way to make a heel. I had come across this style of heel when I made this sock but I have not found generic instructions for calculating this heel.

Also I made a pair of mittens for a friend and gave them to her while the weather was still cold. They have a little pocket on the top of each mitten for tissues or poop (clean) bags. I found a little packet of tissues in Michaels with her initial on which fit nicely in the pocket.



The other sock I made was the mystery sock for March. I completed one sock and then decided to concentrate on the baby blanket but I am aiming for the end of this month to have a pair.

Stash Challenge

So the other day I wrote about knitting from the stash as in my stash.

At the end of last year, a member of our knitting group challenged us to knit only from our stash. From there, people made suggestions for incentives and it has turned into a full blown challenge with points awarded for completed items and bonuses for not buying yarn. At the beginning of this month we had a fondue party to celebrate our achievements with prizes for the person with the most points and some acrylic for the person with the least points. Myrna kindly made some project bags for the prizes.

I hope everyone who participated did so just for the fun of the challenge but a couple said it made them more focused to finish projects.

I didn't do too badly for points although most of my projects were one pointers. Would I have bought yarn without this challenge? I don't know. I'm glad I'm using the stash but soon I am going to need a break from socks.

Oh and the original person who started the challenge? She fell off the wagon and was last seen under a pile of fibre.

Another Baby Blanket

Almost getting ahead of myself here. Photos of an item I finished on Thursday - a baby blanket.

A girl I used to work with (neither of us work at the same place anymore) is pregnant and I decided to knit her a blanket. She is not due until July so I thought I had plenty of time except her shower was on Saturday. Yikes I need to get cracking I had less than a month to come up with something. I had an idea of what I was going to make so with this short timescale I just went with my original idea and didn't spend time agonizing over patterns and yarn.

I had 4 1/2 balls of baby 4-ply yarn left over from this blanket and I had bought coloured yarn with an idea for a crocheted blanket which I never made. So I chose to make this blanket. Alternating the colours with the white. As I was short of time, I followed the instructions for the smaller size, then worked 4 rows of each colour, finishing with one row of lilac and then the cast off. I achieved all this, except the cast off by Wednesday. I had time but I didn't want to have to mess around with different cast offs to find a stretchy one. I opted for a picot cast off with three stitches in between each picot, cast off with a Russian cast off. This made for an interesting edge that was not at all tight.

Here's an arty picture of the blanket in progress.



I was in the lounge of a hotel when I took this and cannot remember the settings I used but it shows the colours correctly.

Here is the blanket just off the needles.



And for anyone who thinks you can't block acrylic here is the blanket after a quick block.



I wish I had had more time for a proper blocking (did I hear you say blocking wires?). I pinned it out and then sprayed it with water, covered with towels as cat protectors and left it over night. Ready to drop off on Friday morning.

Using Up The Stash

On reading this post from the end of 2009, it appears that my stash is under control and being used. Things went a bit haywire in 2010. I bought yarn while on holiday, bought more yarn on a local yarn crawl with friends and bought more yarn in an end of year sale. And I have been given yarn.

I would like to set a target of when the yarn has to be used by. For example all the yarn bought on the yarn crawl has to be used by 1st day of summer. I know such a target isn't going to work so I shall set myself a general target of only knitting from the stash. This will present difficulties when/if I want to knit something and I don't have the right yarn in my stash. By that I mean yarn of the correct weight. Although I was very pleased that I was able to use yarn from the stash for the baby blanket I am currently making.

To show how good I am, on Friday we went to Canmore and I didn't even look up the address of the yarn store there.

A Hat For Me

After posting about the hat I made for hubby, I realise that I had not posted pictures of the hat I had made for myself. Especially as I made it at the end of last year.




The pattern is Quincy by Jared Flood who is known in the blogging world as Brooklyn Tweed. The yarn is Azapa by Araucania which I purchased in September during our local yarn crawl. I bought the yarn for a specific scarf pattern. But after trying twice with different size needles, decided that the yarn and pattern were not going to work together.

This photo is a better representation of the colour.



I had just under 50 grams of yarn left. Too much to throw away and too little to use but I found a pattern for a very simple neck warmer and knitted until I ran out of yarn.

My Cowl is Versatile

I really liked the yarn I used for my husband's hat; it was so soft. I used approximately 25 grams of the white and it seemed a shame to not use the left overs for something else. I have been trying not to add to my stash by using every little bit of yarn but have rather failed with this endeavour with all the socks I have been knitting as I have been putting all the yarn (new and left overs) in the stash.

I decided to make myself a cowl. I had always considered cowls a nuisance and therefore a pointless garment. Putting them on over your head, taking them off, putting them on again was a recipe for messing up hair and getting lipstick on everything. Or so it seemed, as I had never actually worn a cowl.

But then I realised that a cowl will take a place of a scarf when you go out but won't be removing your coat - going for a walk or a quick shop for example. But going out for coffee you wear a scarf so that you can take it off.

I found a pattern available only on Ravelry so I cannot not link to it here. An easy knit with some lace interest.



And now for the versatility. It can be worn as a standard cowl; if I have my hair in a pony tail and can't wear a hat I can pull it up over my ears; and, best of all, I can wear it upside down on my head and be Queen for the day!