And There's More

In my last two posts I mentioned an item that was finished but I needed to redo the cast off. Today I finally managed to take photos.



Another pattern from knitty.com. The yarn was gifted to me by one of my Calgary knitting friends when I left Calgary. It started out as a completely different shawl that didn't work out and I decided it needed a simple pattern to show off the yarn, which is Glimmer by Julie Spins. It was appropriate to make this pattern from this gift as the first time I saw it, was in a yarn shop and it had been knitted by the person who gave me this yarn. They had made it wider and I did too as I wanted less of a scarf and more of a wrap. I knitted until I ran out of yarn and as this is a 15 row repeat I was lucky to be able to use up most of the yarn. I am not happy with the cast on but I am not messing around to get that tighter but I am looking forward to wearing it on warm days.

Finished Objects

In my last post, I had a photo of my latest shawl. At the weekend I persuaded hubby to take a picture of the complete thing so here it is.

I am wearing it today and I love how light it is.

And here is a photo of an item I finished way back in 2010. I had just not been able to take a decent photo of me wearing the skirt so when I wore it to knitting group last week I persuaded another member to take a photo.



I redid the cast off of another item and it needs some good photos but the other item that I said should be finished needs some frogging so it might not be finished this month. And a couple of new projects were cast on. :)

Frenetic February

I know alliterations are so 2012 but the title seemed appropriate for my achievements. February finishers didn't sound as exciting. I have finished three projects; actually I finished four but after blocking I decided that the cast off needs to be redone - it is too loose which is way better than being too tight. I'm also hoping that I'll finish another project currently on the needles before the end of the month.

Here is the photographic evidence.

First off the needles was a shower pouf for a gift exchange our knitting group was having.

The pattern is Bonbon on Knitty.com. It is a simple tube, scrunched and tied in the centre. I cast on more stitches than called for to account for the different yarn and had the purl side of the stocking stitch as the right side. The yarn is Bernat Bamboo Natural Blends although that is a misnomer as it is only 86% bamboo. I can see myself making more of these for gifts.

Next off the needles was a shawl. I had bought two different lace yarns to knit shawls on my road trip but one took a long time. Even so, when it was finished I wanted to cast on the other one. Which was a much quicker knit, for three reasons, smaller size (used less than 1/2 the yardage), easier pattern, and no beads.

This is a close up for the time being, I hope to have some photos of it being worn soon. The yarn is Drops Lace by Garnstudio in a lovely deep blue. It is another pattern from Knitty.com - Forest Ridge; as I had plenty of yarn I worked two extra repeats of the leaf pattern.

And last off the needles was a pair of socks because I still have sock yarn ha ha.

The pattern is Marigold Socks, which I chose as there was a flora and fauna theme in Sock Knitters Anonymous for January. The pattern on the instep has two plain stitches on one side and three on the other so I just decreased one stitch to have the pattern centered. I'm not sure why the designer didn't think of it as she has you decrease a stitch after the heel.

The yarn is Shepherd Sock by Lorna's Laces and was given to me as the next knitter on one of the WCOBBS blankets. As I wanted the leg to be a bit longer than the yardage would allow, the heel was knitted with Araucania Ranco left over from the socks in this post. The pattern is toe-up and here is a photo of Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off.

So a very productive February to date, which has reduced the projects on the needles, although another sock has to be cast on so I can get through the sock yarn.

A Prize and a Decision...Maybe

So I frequently reference Ravelry in my posts and in particular a group called Sock Knitters Anonymous. I first wrote about this group in June 2010, the aim, for me, of joining the group was to use up my sock yarn. Except I have not been successful as the group introduced me to many more manufacturers and dyers of sock yarn.

Finally, after 2 1/2 years, I won a prize. Prizes are awarded on a random basis as long as each participant has followed the rules for the sock design and cast on and cast off info. My prize was a project bag.

Which I am now using for socks.

The decision now is whether to continue in the group. One of the incentives for keeping up with the group was the possibility of winning a prize and now I have, although previously winning does not preclude you from winning again. At the beginning of the year, I wrote that I wanted to make a dent in the stash which includes sock yarn. But do I want to continue with the challenges that the group sets? And even if the answer to that is yes, do I want to continue with the group? As with any group, the dynamics change as participation changes although there is a core of regulars and all but two of the moderators have been moderating since I have been in the group but were not the original "founders" of the group. I am now getting the impression that one of the moderators is fed up with the group and injudiciously writes comments that should be left unsaid. Lately the comments have been about the challenge and that certain members are just knitting any old pattern that fits that month's challenge. This had me concerned as previously it had been said that only the individual knew what their challenge was. For me it was using up my yarn. But as these comments were being made more often I was worried that a moderator would decide my choice of pattern was not a challenge for me. Of course there started to be comments about what constituted a challenge and how could the moderators say what was a challenge for one person. This morphed into a separate discussion about what changes could be made to make it easier to follow the rules etc and some of the replies just made me laugh. There was the "how dare you even suggest things need changing" post and the "the moderators are mean" post and after a few days the thread was shut down because one person went too far. And then someone started a new thread asking why the original had closed down! Never a dull moment with sock knitters.

The sniping in itself doesn't bother me too much because the internet is always a place where people are rude but do I want to continue with a worry that my choice is not a challenge? For once I had my next month's choice of pattern and yarn picked out in advance, although that is no guarantee that I will not change my mind after starting. So I will join in for February and see how the group settles down.