Alpacas

I do have a finished item to show, but before I post photos of that, I thought it would be fun to show some pictures of animals that provide wool.

This weekend (Thursday to Sunday) is the San Diego Yarn Crawl. This is its seventh year and the fourth time I have participated. Unfortunately, shops have closed and moved so now it is a trek to get to more than one place. (You have to visit at least three locations to be eligible to win a prize basket.) My knitting partner in crime had entered a fastest knitter competition, so of course, that was one of our stops and she wanted to see alpacas so then we just added another shop on the route to ensure we got three stamps. Purchases were made at each place so we weren’t just going for the freebies.

The alpaca farm we went to, neither of us had visited before. It was not part of the crawl in the first year when we went to every location. We were not disappointed – where do I start – animals or products? Firstly, I have to say that alpaca fleece is not particularly suited for where I live as it is a very warm fiber; but, oh, is it soft! I resisted some fiber to spin myself; there are two more yarn events coming up before the end of the year; but next year? I did purchase two skeins of alpaca that were on sale as I thought they would make great mittens for my great-nieces in the UK. And they had jam, so I purchased a pot for my husband.

We were very lucky as a baby had been born the day before. I will post some photos but the baby and his mama were completely black and difficult to photograph.

The Difference Blocking Makes

I am going to show two projects before and after blocking so that you can see the difference blocking makes to a garment. One is a finished item and the other is a work in progress.

The main reasons to block are:- to open out the stitches (in a lace pattern); to set the stitches (you hear people say the stitches will even out after blocking); to prepare the edges for seaming or picking up stitches. There are a number of reasons why knitters (crocheters) do not block:- like the item as is; do not have time; do not have space; don’t know how; and the big one – worried you won’t like the end result.

When people hear the word blocking in relation to their knitwear many think of Shetland shawls that are a scrunched up mess on the needles but after an extreme block end up as a huge lightweight shawl. Scroll down to the last two pictures in this post and you will see an example of scrunched up and post blocking, also the pictures in this post. And these aren’t the two projects I was planning to show you.

Before I show you those, let’s talk about when and why I block and when I don’t. (And I can see some more projects jumping in here.) When don’t I block? When I like the project just as it is. There are certain types of projects that I don’t block – hats and socks. Usually they are fine the way they come off the needles and as they stretch a little in wear any pattern will show up then. Also a project that is all or mostly garter stitch I prefer its just off the needles smooshiness. A good example of a shawl that needed blocking but I needed to be careful with as it was mostly garter stitch is this one - there was a lace panel that I didn’t want to close up and I wanted the puckering resolved but I did not want to lose the texture of the garter stitch plus I was worried about colours running.

But back to the projects I mentioned at the beginning. Let’s start with the finished item. I have a few single skeins of fingering yarn that I really like but have no idea what to make with them as I am not keen on making more one skein shawls. I have been trying to come up with ideas to use them together without much luck until I had a brainwave. Fingering weight held double is DK weight and one skein of fingering weight held double is roughly equal to one skein of DK weight and I had a pattern which used three different colours. This is a good example of pre and post blocking as well as a feature I don’t like about crescent shape shawls. The pattern is Odyssey Shawl by Joji Locatelli which she has provided at no charge.

Here is a picture of mine as it is ready for bind off.



Two things you will notice, at this point it is an upside down triangle and although, it is mainly garter stitch, there is a small lace pattern. I worked the picot bind off as stated in the pattern and all the points would need to be pinned out. I did not take a photo of it pinned out for blocking, but basically, what I did was to pin the top edge out straight and spray it with a water bottle, pinned out the picot bind offs and sprayed those and then sprayed the lace sections. I wanted these to stand out in the shawl and not be bunched up in the section of reverse stocking stitch.

This is the finished project. And it shows the hump that most of these style/shape of shawls end up with. I knew this would happen but next time I am going to really think about the start of a shawl before diving in.



The yarn I used from top down, is Sweet Georgia CashLuxe Fine, Stunning String Studio Luxury Fingering, and Blarney Yarn Twist. The first two were gifts and both contain cashmere. The last yarn does not but I did not have any more yarn containing cashmere in my stash and this colour goes well.

The other project I wanted to show pre and post blocking is a work in progress. It is a lace patterned cardigan made in a worsted weight yarn. I swatched in pattern and blocked the swatch but I still wanted to measure it correctly while in progress. I threaded a lifeline and took it off the needles and blocked it. After measuring, it went back on the needles and I continued knitting. This really is a good visual of before and after as it is the same garment.

The Closest You'll Get To a Dog In This House

At the beginning of the year when I was making baby clothes for my nephew's baby, I thought it was about time I made something for my granddaughter. I knew what I wanted to make but didn't have any yarn so I ordered some Sublime Yarns Baby Cashmere Merino Silk DK. It is lovely and soft and I enjoyed knitting with it. The black yarn is a fingering weight left over from an old project that I held double. The pattern is from a book published in the UK in 1989!



Although she really liked it, I shouldn't have prevaricated in finishing it as it has been too warm for her to wear it. Hopefully this winter.

Spiderman Climbs Aboard

I'm almost caught up with showing all my finished projects. In July I caught up with all my finished sewing projects, and as for knitting, two items are gifts and can't be shown yet so I really only have two projects to show. But they can wait as I want to keep up with my sewing projects.

At the end of May, my son turned up with this Spiderman fabric.


and requested I make a bag for his son, preferably a rucksack style bag. Ugg, I hate such requests. Is it the right kind of fabric, did you buy enough, do I have a pattern, am I in the mood for making what you want? The pattern part was easy; a while ago I had downloaded a pattern for a backpack. When I had some free time I checked how much fabric was required and what else was needed. The pattern said 5/8 yard each of main and lining fabric. I had a yard of the main fabric which I could have used for both main and lining but Spiderman would have been sideways inside the bag. As I needed to buy some sort of cord for the straps, I decided I'd buy fabric for the lining as well.

I was pleased to find some different Spiderman fabric at Jo-Ann as I have not seen any there before.



I am not going to link to the pattern I used as it was not well written but I can adapt it if I make another. Luckily, little boys don't care about that and are just happy that you have made something for them.

I Ran A 5k

With getting behind with writing about my finished projects, I forgot what is probably the most important one – running an official 5K!

I had been running on a treadmill at a gym and completed the Coach-to-5k program when some out of town friends said they were going to run the half-marathon in the San Diego RocknRoll Marathon and did we want to take part. My husband suggested I sign up for the 5K. And I suggested it to my knitting buddy, who had just started the Coach-to-5k, and that was it - we were committed and we had a year to train/plan. As I had already completed the Coach-to-5k, I found another program, None to Run, just to change things up. My friend found a running group.

I completed the None to Run program just before a vacation and it was really hard to get back into running. I was on again/off again at the beginning of the year. But I had this big race coming up. Husband had a sensible suggestion – don’t worry about running for the times the programs say, run for distance even if you are doing the walk/run intervals. So that is what I did so I knew I could complete the distance in the time allotted.

The day of the race arrived – a very early start. I was nervous because I didn’t know what to expect but I knew I could do it. We started off running together but about half way through my friend wanted a walk break. I kept going because I was determined to run the whole thing. And I did! Looking back I could have run faster as I wasn’t exhausted when I crossed the finish line but I will know that for next time. (And I have signed up for next year.)

The sense of achievement is amazing and has definitely spurred me on to keep going.



(And the friends that originally started the whole thing were a no-show.

Catching Up With Sewing Projects

I knew there were a couple of dresses that I had not shown here, but going through photos I found two other sewing projects that also I had not talked about.

Firstly the two dresses; both made for my granddaughter. I am really pleased by the first one as I drafted the pattern myself. I could not find a pattern in this style, so I measured a shop bought dress of hers and made my own pattern. I wasn’t sure how to work the neckband but found an example in a book I got at the library.



The second dress, she chose the fabric herself and I found a simple commercial pattern. Unfortunately, the fabric has shrunk so much in length in the washing process, it is now worn as a nightie.



Which brings me to the next make – which is a nightie. I was given the fabric, and it seemed suitable for nightwear. It is hard to fins commercial patterns that are not overly frilly. This was the least I could find. I didn’t have quite enough fabric but that did not matter as she is not very tall. She loves this and I can see myself making another.



And finally something for myself – a bag. My sister gave me a fat quarter for my birthday last year. I knew it would become a bag, but which style? Finally I opted for my standard drawstring bag but using as much of the fabric as possible. (Note to self – next time make bag a bit wider.)

A Little Stash Enhancement

I have purchased very little yarn this year. Partly because I don’t NEED yarn, but also, because I am enjoying knitting with what I have. Quite a few of my skeins are earmarked for specific projects. Earlier in the year I bought a skein of yarn in an online sale to go with yarn already in my stash which will become a big shawl. And in March I purchased yarn to make a jacket for my granddaughter; which has been knitted and worn. Including a couple of gifts and the yarn I sold, up until a few days ago, more skeins had left my stash than gone in.

So what happened? A closing down sale. A yarn store is closing its doors after many years in business. Although this is sad, I don’t think it will have much of an impact on me as I didn’t frequent them often. But they did carry the brand of needles I like. I had no plans to go to the sale but on Friday I had a number of errands to run and happened to drive past the store. Why not pop in and see what is left?

So yes, I bought some yarn. I could have spent a long time looking at yarn and patterns on Ravelry but I was conscious that later in the year is Stitches SoCal and I want to save some enthusiasm for that event. I bought 6 skeins of yarn and some needle tips. Only one skein do I not have a plan for – the grey sparkle sock yarn. Grey is a good neutral to have in my stash. The skein on the far left is more turquoise than the photo shows and is to go with two other yarns in my stash for a specific project; the two blue skeins are for a specific project. The gradients follow on from each other and I have an idea of the pattern I will use, but it is not definite.




I am pleased with what I got as it is not too overwhelming and I will enjoy making things with it.

A Tale of Two Appias.

I like lacey cowls that cover my shoulders as evidenced by the two Starshowers I have made. As seen here and here.

So it’s no surprise that I wanted to make another with this yarn that I bought on the LA Yarn Crawl last year.

But I decided to change it up a bit and purchased another of the designer’s pattern – Appia. I swatched on three different size needles and worked the project on size 4mm needles. (I had worked the two Starshowers on size 5mm needles.)

I really like the final project.



Of course, I had to make another one and used yarn that had been in my stash since July 2017 but I couldn’t think what to turn it into.


I decided it would be my vacation project and that I would use 5mm needles. Except I messed up when packing my needles and didn’t have any 5mm needles with me. Rather than going down to 4.5mm I worked the project on 5.5mm needles. I don’t like the end result and wonder if it would have been better made on smaller needles. Here’s a picture of the two Appias side-by-side and you can see that the new one does not have any drape.



I had not sewn in the ends so I have started a new project right from the end of the old one.

A New Photo of an Old Project

I finished this shawl in March 2017 but I have not shown a good photo of it. The main reason being that I have not worn it. A couple of reasons for this - firstly when I finished it, I really needed a break from it. I had not enjoyed the knitting of it although I liked the finished item. Secondly - I needed an occasion to wear it. It is a large but delicate shawl.

That opportunity arose last week and my friend quickly took photos before she had to rush off. (There was plenty of standing around at the event I was at but I was too embarrassed to ask anyone else to take a photo.)

A Finished Item

It's been awhile since I've posted anything, not because I haven't had anything to say but because there is too much I want to write about. So rather than spending the time finishing and editing a post I'm going to show a finished item.

I showed this project in January last year. At that time it had been put to one side and that's where it remained for many months. I even considered frogging it but that wouldn't solve the problem of what to do with the yarn. In the end I decided to finish it by the end of the year which I did - 31 December to be exact. And then took a couple of weeks to sew on buttons, and nearly five months to take a photo.

Having a visitor that could deliver it to my great-niece in England was the final push I needed.



The yarn is Beach Baby DK by Wendy and the pattern is Patty Cake Cardi.

Gnometastic

I finished this project last week and would have shown it then if I hadn’t been trying to think of a catchy title.

Today I have two finished items to show. Firstly the gnome. Here he is enjoying the sunshine.



After a pretty crappy winter we are back to sun and warmth. This was an easy mystery-knit-along to keep up with and I was able to use all left over yarns. I had picked out my colours before the pattern was released but changed my mind about the beard colour when we knit a leaf on the end of the hat. All the knitting was finished by 26 March but it took me a week to sew on the features. I was concerned that the beard was a bit too long and was thinking about reknitting it on a smaller needle. In the end I kept it and am happy with it.

The other finished item are some fingerless mitts which were supposed to be a hat! It had already been cast on twice as a hat but I wasn’t feeling the love and went for mitts. I am glad that I did as I like the finished project. Although having said that, I would put the buttonholes closer to the edge, I would make the edges the same stitch (the buttonhole band is moss stitch and the button band is rib so the gauge is different) and I would have the cable pattern on the back of the mitts rather than close to the buttons. Despite all that I like them. I took them with me when I purchased buttons but still managed to buy slightly too small buttons so I sewed down the inside edge of the button band. After all I couldn’t see myself undoing and doing up the buttons.



The pattern is Zeppelin Mitts and the pattern for the gnome is Gnome-de-Plume.

I’m still working away on the cardigan for my granddaughter. The collar is taking forever but I need to hurry up and finish the whole thing before the weather is too warm.

Baby Quilt

I have finished the quilt for my nephew’s (unborn) baby.) I have not shown any photos of it in progress so before I show the finished project – a few works in progress. I used this pattern. I have made this quilt before for my other nephew’s second baby but I finished that one in a different way and used much different fabric. (Although two of the squares crept into this blanket because I thought I needed two more.)

I do not have any photos of the strips before they were cut but here is the final layout before and after sewing.



As there are so many colours and designs I added a narrow border (1/2 inch finished) before deciding on what I wanted as a wide border. But once I added that narrow border I knew it did not need anything else. You’ll have to make do with a photo of the quilt laid on the backing.



I used the same fabric for the binding so as to not detract from the quilt. Here’s a photo of an uh oh moment. I had plenty of binding so how did this happen?



I trimmed both ends 2 ½ inches from where sewing started and stopped. So I unpicked the start and end of the binding for a few inches and sewed the cut binding back on, good thing I had plenty, and then finished properly. But when I had sewn the binding onto the front I had another hmm moment. This is a baby quilt, how much use and washing will it get? I don’t really want to hand sew the binding I should have machined the binding to the back and then machined from the front. Which I have never done by the way, hence not thinking about it. I used Wash Away Wonder Tape to attach the binding to the back before machining and then gave it a quick rinse in the washing machine to remove the tape. The quilting is simple straight line quilting on the inside of the long pieces of each block and after completing the binding I added straight line quilting on all the outside blocks.

I am really pleased with the finished quilt. All the fabric is from stash including the backing which was enough to join two pieces down the length.

Baby Clothes

I have finished and photographed the projects I have knitted for the soon to be born baby. But still haven’t finished the quilt. As we do not know the sex of the baby, I used navy blue and teal as well as off white. All the yarn was in my stash, even the ribbon but I did have to buy buttons for both the cardigans. I have made the bootie pattern a number of times but both hat patterns and cardigan patterns were new to me.

In no particular order here are the items that will soon be flying across the pond.



The pattern is Lara's Version of Stay-On Booties and the yarn is Wendy Beach Baby DK left over from a crochet project.



The pattern is Little Greenup and the yarn is Vanna’s Choice. Taiga Hillard has many simple and similar baby patterns available on Ravelry. I had made a couple for this baby’s sibling but wanted to make something different.



This pattern is Baby Sophisticate and I have thought about making it for a while. The yarn is Red Heart Soft. I like the shawl collar design but I don’t think this is the best pattern to achieve that.

I like making baby hats but I wasn’t sure how much they would be worn as this baby will be born in Spring. So I made the Magic Hat as it is designed to stretch. Having made one hat, I had to make another so I made Quick Ombre Hat. I love this pattern and will make it again for a different baby.



While knitting all these baby things, my mind was wanting to make something for my own granddaughter, so some yarn was ordered and there was yet another cast on on Friday.

Some More Cast Ons

You would have thought that after working so hard to finish a load of projects at the end of last year and into this year and not working on existing projects so that I could knit some baby clothes that I would be holding back on starting new projects. But no!

Somehow I have managed to cast on three projects this week.

This year I wanted to make a concerted effort at using yarn that I had been given but had put this off to make the baby clothes. I started with the yarn that I knew what I wanted to make from it (or so I thought), I even had set up a project bag with yarn, pattern and needles for when I was ready. Except I changed my mind a few rows in. I started the Speargrass hat pattern as I had heard people say that it was a good pattern for handspun yarn. I had less yardage than called for in the pattern but wasn’t too worried as I would make the hat less slouchy. I wasn’t worried about yardage up until I cast on. And then I became more convinced that I would run out of yarn before finishing the hat. So I pulled it out and started One Night Hat. I’m much happier with this pattern, although by the time I finish it, it will not be hat wearing weather.



The next cast on was a mystery knit along that started on Monday. There was a big lead up from announcement to start of the MKAL. As you can probably tell from reading this blog, I do like mystery knit alongs. This one is for a gnome! And I can use left overs. This is the first clue which is part of a hat.



These are the yarns I am going to use. The pink is for the hat and the purply is for the body and one of the other two colours will be the beard.



I am not concerned about this MKAL. There are many, many people taking part, it’s a small project using leftover yarn, the designer has already published other gnome patterns.

The final cast on was for Pi day. I didn’t have a Pi day project last year but was keen this year as I had pattern and yarn. The yarn is a merino/silk blend that I purchased on the LA yarn crawl last year and the pattern is Evenstar. This is the start.



So once again I have way too many WIPs but I like seeing all the lovely yarn on the needles.

And Here’s The Knitting

I’ve finally got a photo of my finished Advent project. This is the project that three of us were working on in December and none of us finished in that month. I’m really pleased with the result – it’s big as you can see. I used three complete skeins of yarn. The lilac is Candy Skein Yummy Fingering in Lavender Latte, the colour of the month for April 2018; the other two colours were specially designed for the Tits Out Collective, the dark is by Earl Grey Fiber Co. and the light is by Queen of Purls.

And Sewing It Is

Because it is easier for me to take pictures of small flat objects. Here are the last two blocks for my block of the month.

First is December’s.



The only reason this didn’t get made in that month was that I ran out of time. The green is from the fat quarter I bought to make March’s square. It seemed excessive at the time to buy a whole fat quarter for a small requirement but it has been used in many of the blocks. The yellow is from the fabric I purchased for August’s square. All the other fabric is left overs from various projects.

September’s square was delayed as I could not make a decision about which fabric to use. There are small amounts of six different fabrics; the example used plain and print fabrics. I have plenty of prints but hardly any plain fabric but I did not want to buy more fabric as such small amounts were required. In the end I went with a background fabric that showed quite a bit of white.



The theme for December was half square triangles and for September was corner square triangles.

Now I have finished the squares, what to do with them? They are all different sizes ranging from 6 inch square to 13 inch square and some are rectangles. The first thing to do is make them all the same size, so I purchased some plain colour fabric in Jo-Ann’s sale. I had worked out how much I needed and then rounded up to the next yard to allow for any mistakes. The cutting is something I will want to do when I am not going to be interrupted! When I have twelve squares all the same size I can decide on sashing and borders.

Knitting or Sewing?

This is just an interlude until the next post containing photos. Which may be sewing projects or knitting projects as I have finished examples of both.

I have finished the two remaining blocks of my block-a-month project. Now they need to become a quilt. I have some ideas but no fabric, in the meantime I should finish the dress I am making for my granddaughter and the quilt for my nephew’s soon-to-be-baby. I have finished the top and have fabric in my stash for backing and plenty of batting. All that’s missing is the time to do it.

On the knitting front I have finished the Advent shawl that three of us decided to have as our little KAL. I would have finished on time if I hadn’t made it bigger. But now it is waiting for some decent pictures and as our weather is the opposite of decent I don’t know when that will happen. Also I have made a cardigan for the aforementioned baby, it needs buttons so no photos yet.

Despite the recent finished objects my WIPs don’t seem to be going down as I cast on a new project this week. Socks! Yes, everyone was surprised. My last finished pair was 24 December 2016 – Christmas socks for my husband. I did cast on a sock at the beginning of January 2017 but only got as far as the cuff before deciding yarn and pattern did not work together and haven't started any since.

E decided to knit Monkey socks. In the spirit of camaraderie, P and I decided we would knit them too although I have already knit a pair. P has finished hers and E wants to take her time. A quick look at my original project page showed I had started them on 10 February 2008, so the same day but this year seemed an obvious choice and plenty of time to choose (i.e. keep changing my mind) yarn. I thought about frogging the Hitchhiker, but I have plenty of yarn in my stash, so why use that now; then I thought about some yarn E had given me as that seemed appropriate; but I finally chose a dark red tweed yarn and love it. Despite implying at the beginning that there wouldn’t be any photos, this is my progress to date.

A Big One and A Small One

Two projects finished in January - one of my Advent projects and a quick little project for my Granddaughter.

The Advent project finished is the Advent to Epiphany, which I would have finished on time if I had bound off at the end of the pattern. But I had yarn left over and as it was gradient yarn I wanted to use all of it. The shawl was knit in sections of garter stitch and lace, with all the garter sections having the same number of rows and all the lace sections having the same number of rows. The shawl ended with a garter stitch section so I decided to just repeat that but that didn’t use up all the yarn. I pulled out the extra rows and added a lace section. The lace sections had all been a different pattern so I searched my stitch pattern books for a pattern that would fit in with the others and be the right number of rows. This used up most of the yarn and I finished with a few rows of garter stitch before binding off with an Icelandic bind off.

The pattern is Combinatorics by Tetiana Otruta and the yarn is from Alexandra's Crafts that I purchased at Stitches SoCal.

This thing is big!



The other two Advent cast ons are still being worked on. I am managing to work a few rows of the lace mystery nearly every day and the other one would have been finished if I hadn’t decided to use up all the yarn – such a theme of mine.


One day, walking to school, my granddaughter declared that she needed gloves and I could make her some. When I asked her what colour, of course she said pink. I knew I had yarn in stash and it would be a quick project it was a matter of finding time. Ann Budd’s Handy Book of Patterns came in, well, handy. The yarn I used was fingering weight, left over from these socks.

I doubled the yarn which meant few stitches. What a pain. I didn’t have any double pointed needles in the right size but did end up using two circulars. The reaction was worth it.