A Small Project for March

I was not going to make a small item in March as I had a big cast on planned for later in the month. The categories in Sock Knitters Anonymous did not immediately shout out a pattern and/or yarn so I did not investigate that any further, but when the beginning of the month rolled around I decided to make a hat. The yarn was given to me at the end of last year and the pattern was one I had in my queue for a while.

The yarn is Haymarket from Lorna’s Laces. A 100% Bluefaced Leicester single-ply yarn. Here are photos of it in the skein, on the swift, and wound into a ball so that you can see the difference between how yarn looks in the skein verses ball.

 

 

 

The pattern is Brattleboro Hat and is available from Interweave and is also in their book 25 Knitted Accessories to Wear and Share. This was an easy knit so able to do while watching children. I followed the pattern as written except when picking up stitches. I picked up three out four and then adjusted the number needed on the next row. If I had been making this for myself I would have added more depth before the decrease rows. The buttons were in my stash, left over from another project. It took me a few days to sew them on because I was wondering if there were better choices deeper in my button jar or if I would want those buttons for some future unknown project. In the end I just sewed them on as I could always replace them at a later date.

 

 

Straight Onto the Needles (Hook)

Another yarn store is closing. This is the third local store to close in just over 18-months. As I have documented here, when the first store closed, I purchased quite a bit of yarn. When they announced they were closing, they had a timeline and how much the discount increased over that time. It was worth it for me to purchase quite a bit of yarn even if it would take a while to be used.

When the second store announced it was closing about a year ago, the discount varied depending on the item and did not change throughout the time of the sale. This was right at the beginning of the pandemic and shutdown so I chose not to go. A friend went and got some needle tips and some yarn for me.

When the latest store announced its closing, I declared “I Do Not Need More Yarn”. But as a friend reminded me, they sell other things besides yarn. I decided to make an appointment so I could spend some time with a knitting friend. Sandwich and a drink before looking at yarn was just what I needed.

This owners of this particular yarn shop took over when the previous owners retired – 5 or so years ago and they started to stock many different independent dyers. I knew this could be my downfall but I also knew I did not want yarn to sit in my stash. The discount was not worth it. But I did have a pattern in mind before I went shopping. A crochet pattern that a podcaster I watch had made two of; and I didn’t have a crochet project on the go. I also wanted to look at needles.

Unfortunately, this store does not display their needles, so you have to ask for what you want. The good thing for me is that I only purchased what I really wanted, whereas if I had been able to browse I probably would have bought more.

As for yarn, I could have purchased so much. My first stop was at the gradient yarn and a skein went in my basket. I also saw a beautiful blue variegated sock yarn and a pink yarn by a dyer that gives money to outdoor charities. My friend was also picking out skeins. The project I wanted to crochet needed four skeins of fingering yarn and I found two perfect ones hanging next to each other. I have grey in my stash, so I needed to find one more skein but in the end I purchased four skeins for the one project and put back all the other yarns I had picked out on my first scan of the store. My friend also put a lot of her yarn back, but did end up with two colours to knit a Stephen West wrap.

 

When I got home, I immediately wound the first two skeins and started the shawl while watching a movie. This will not be a fast project as I will mostly work on it when I am watching something.

 

I am very pleased with what I bought and happy that I did not buy for the sake of buying. But that will not preclude me from returning if they do happen to increase their discount.

A Little Interlude

Just to show off Day 3 of the Advent socks. This time I used the same colour green on both socks. 

My Oldest and Newest Projects

After taking about ten years to finish one project and then giving it to a friend, I decided I did not want my projects to get that old again. I started the year with three projects, two of which were started in 2019 and I could see that they would turn into forever projects if I did not prioritize them. It seems funny to talk about a hobby in this way but I did not want to end up giving away finished items because I was fed up with having had them around for so long. I said to myself that I would work two rows a day on each of them. Two of them are lace projects that are not suitable for working on in all situations. The third, which is the one I have finished, is a crochet project.

I started this project on 14 September 2019. I had purchased the yarn for it two days previously on the San Diego Yarn Crawl. On the Crawl, yarn stores have to give away a free knitting and free crochet pattern and this was the pattern in one particular store. They had a sample made up and I liked it so much I bought the yarn. The Yarn Crawl was not too long after the closing down sale so I had gone on the crawl with specific purchases in mind. This was the exception.

I had a hard time getting into the flow of the pattern. It was not a hard pattern but I found myself looking at the pattern for every stitch and I found that I would work just a little and then put it down, even if I was on a car trip. Although every row was the same, for some reason one of the rows started with a chain three and three double crochets and the other row started with a chain three and two double crochets. This was why I was constantly looking at the pattern to see which row I was on even though every row was the same except for the beginning. In the end I wrote out the pattern row, ignoring the extra DC at the beginning of every other row, changed crochet hooks and everything went much more smoothly. Although at the start of the year, I did look at what else I could make with the yarn as I seriously considered frogging. I was about half-way through the first skein of a two skein project.

Working a minimum of two rows a day quickly got me through the project. The picture on the pattern and the sample I saw in the shop had a slightly different edging – there was a row of V stitches that were not in the pattern. So I added this row myself. I am pleased with the finished result.

The yarn is Mechita by Malabrigo in the colourway Archangel And the pattern is Sail Away Shawl.

 

 

I started the year with three projects but I knew due to the nature of these projects that they could not be the only ones I worked on. I also wanted to join in with sock and hat knitalongs. I liked all the categories in the Sock Knitters Anonymous group for February and opted for a new-to-me designer – Louise Robert. I have yarn in my stash that I think will look better as socks than knit into a shawl or similar. This yarn is one of those. I was given it way back in 2017. The pattern I chose was Brown Eyed Girl Socks. The pattern has a short row heel, which is not my favourite, so I incorporated the heel (and toe) from Make Your Heels Strong. I like the Strong Heel but have not worked it in rib before. I think the yarn and pattern go well together.

My oldest project is from the end of November 2019. I have plans to finish it by the end of November this year. So no oldest project posts for a while but I hope there will be plenty of newest project posts.