Knit Meter

Friday, March 31, 2023

New Yarn, New Project

A new yarn store has opened near to me recently and a couple of friends and I met for lunch and a quick look. I wanted to support this store but I did not really want to buy anything so I decided I would buy yarn for a gift. I ended up doing that but also buying a skein of yarn for myself. The yarn is beautiful and could easily become a pair of socks but I cast on pretty quickly a longer cowl.

I like this style of cowl and I have knit a few by a different designer but this is a new to me designer. You start off knitting flat as you would for a shawl and then join in the round. Usually I would work until I ran out of yarn but this time I finished when the pattern said to. The start is a short piece of garter stitch with stitches picked up along one long edge, which is a pretty standard shawl start. I followed another knitter’s suggestion to cast on with much smaller needles and gradually increase size as this avoids the hump at the start of the shawl. I will definitely do that when I next make a shawl but I am not convinced it was the best thing for a cowl as you want lots of drape at the neck. But I do love the finished item, because I really love the yarn.

 


 



The yarn is Dream in Color Smoosy, colour Burr and the pattern is Secret Skein.

Thursday, March 30, 2023

April’s Hat

No, I haven’t made a mistake. I have knitted next month’s hat in advance. As you know, I try to knit a hat each month and this year I started to work through the year of bulky hats.

A few days ago I finished a relatively easy knit. I didn’t want to cast on anything new because I have big plans for April; it being the start of a new quarter. But I did want a relatively easy and portable project. So why not cast on a hat and why not make it the next bulky hat? It’s only me that says a hat a month.

Once again I used YOTH father and now I am ready to start all the things on Saturday.


 

Saturday, March 18, 2023

First Socks of 2023

With my new arbitrary system of choosing which sock patterns to knit, I didn’t cast on a sock until February. Once again a pattern in my favourites fit one of the prompts for February.

The pattern is Standing in the Shadow of Love by Adrienne Fong (may she RIP). And in keeping with unplanned stash intentions, I used leftover yarn. Both the yarns were featured in this shawl. Quite often with these types of patterns I will swap the yarns for the second sock but I didn’t his time as I did not think I would have had enough of the pink. I might have but it would have been close.

The pattern is illusion or shadow knitting, I have tried to capture the “illusion” but using a variegated yarn was not the best idea. Nevertheless, I enjoyed knitting them and I like the secret of the design being there. Having a plain foot made for easy knitting plus not having to worry about how they would feel in shoes.

A couple of weeks ago I was going to write about my WIPs but didn’t because Wednesday came and went – apparently I can only write about WIPs on WIPping Wednesday. But as you can see from the last few posts I have been finishing things. And I haven’t started new projects to replace them so the projects are being completed without having to be shamed on the internet.



 

 

Sunday, March 12, 2023

Pride Goes Before the Fall and Other Finished Items

I have noticed that I know quite a bit about knitting and crochet but don’t often speak up when questions are asked. I have also noticed that the people with the most affirmative voices are the ones listened to even if they are not correct. This has made me think I should speak up more.

But a big mistake in my most recent finished project has brought me back to earth and reminded me that just because I know a lot doesn’t mean I will remember to use it myself.

I have knitted a hat which has bobbles, lots of them. I don’t mind bobbles but they can be a pain to knit. In this particular pattern, you increase to five stitches, turn your work to purl five together, turn work again and on your merry way.

My bobbles were not very pronounced; I put it down to using thinner yarn than the pattern and then about half-way through the pattern section it came to me – my bobbles were smaller because I had been doing them wrong! On the first bobble I had found the purl 5 together impossible to execute so instead I just passed four stitches over that last one without turning the work. All well and good except the purling of the stitches together creates another stitch which my bobbles were missing! I should have knit the last stitch before passing the other stitches over.

I decided to continue as you can see the pattern. It’s not as pronounced as the original pattern but no one has to know that, do they?


 

The other finished item is a baby jacket. I was given the yarn Caron Latte Cakes which is a good choice for a child as it is soft and washable. The pattern is a free one from Lion Brand. Not difficult but a couple of changes made it better. For example adding neck shaping and picking up all the stitches for the bottom skirt – pattern has you pick up front and backs separately then seam them.

The mother, always knitworthy, was very appreciative.



 

Saturday, March 4, 2023

A Hat and a Frog

I have mentioned before about all the yarn that has come my way as people clear out their stash and give it to my friend. One of the yarns she gave me last year was a skein of Spincycle yarns. This yarn provokes all sorts of emotions in crafters as it is not a cheap yarn and certain designers use it in their patterns which creates an expensive finished item. Knitters feel there is a case of the haves and have nots and that they are being excluded if they can’t afford this yarn. I can’t comment on other people’s feelings but with so much yarn and so many patterns – walk on by. The yarn company justifies their prices by saying that it is an expensive process and they pay their staff a living wage with benefits.

I really wasn’t sure what I would make with the skein, it seemed a waste to let it sit in stash for so long but as with all these yarns I have been given I did not want to feel obligated to use it. I found a hat pattern which used the Spincycle with another yarn in a mosaic pattern. Pondering on what yarn to use, my friend then gave me some of her left over Malabrigo Arroyo.

The hat was one of my January cast ons and I finished it in two weeks. I had quite a bit of yarn left and thought some fingerless mitts would be fun. In a slipped stitch or mosaic pattern to go with the hat. This was not as easy as I was expecting and I started three times before I found a pattern that worked. In the end I used the stitch pattern from the Humboldt Hat and incorporated it into a mitt pattern I had already started so that I would not have to redo the rib. This was not a good idea. As I was working on them I knew they were not going to be long enough but I convinced myself otherwise but after taking off the stitches for the thumb, I couldn’t deny the truth any longer. I frogged them but have not restarted as by then I had more projects on the go. Although with all the yucky weather we have been having, I would have worn the hat and gloves.