Why Hello There!

I guess it’s been a while since my last post. Just like everyone else, my life has been a little busy and I have let thing lag here at Smitten w/ Knittin’. However, I am in the process of making some pretty serious life changes and realize that this will be a good place to have my voice be heard…well my knitting voice anyway. But since this is a KNITTING blog, I won’t go into all the details.

So…what have I been knitting? Of course I have multiple things going on at the moment. But my major project is a Shetland Triangle in Tosh Merino Light. I really love this yarn. It is lightweight like a lace yarn, but with more body. Yet not as heavy as a sock yarn, which makes it perfect for shawls.

Here is a shot of the back side:

Looks like an egg crate, right? But once it is blocked it will be a beautiful shawl. I have wanted to make this for quite some time. And the medium grey yarn will make it very wearable. I am working on my last repeat before the border and think it will be a good size. It will be a little bigger than my Dover Castle Shawl, which I get a lot of wear out of. I hope to have this finished in the next few days.

I will catch you up on some of my knitting projects from the past year or so in the coming weeks. I also hope to have some posts on knitting techniques in the future.

Knit on!

Update

I must be the WORST blogger ever! I feel really bad…but apparently not too bad, or I would have blogged before this.

I don’t know what is wrong with me but I have been obsessed with lace lately. The last 2 pages on my Ravelry queue is all lace shawls. That is all I want to knit. Lace, lace, lace. Have I knit much lace lately…not really. Here is a list of what is on my needles:

1. A pair of Noro socks for Jon – a swap. Basic rib and cable socks.

2. Veronique in a pretty purple cashmere. I don’t know why this is taking me so long. Miles of stockinette stitch I guess.

3. A Lady Kina in a (you guessed it) pale pink. I had some Rowan Wool/Cotton in my stash and I felt the need to cast on.

4. A pair of Anastasia socks in Punta de Este MeriSock. I love this pattern. I love this yarn. So why am I not done with these yet?

5. A pair of striped socks from some yarn I got at Renegade Art Fair a few yarns back. This one, I know why I am stalled. I did make one sock last summer in this yarn…but it wasn’t as long or tight as I would have liked. So I decided to use a solid to go with it and do stripes using smaller needles. I had some solid blue in my stash from quite a few yarns ago. I am not really loving the color combo. This may go into the frogging pile.

6. A tweedy blue multi-directional sweater. I like this one, but since it is all in one piece it is way too hot to knit on during the summer. So this is hibernating until the fall.

7. Charity hats (this is always on the needles…in my desk drawer at work…you know in case of emergency.)

8. A secret project I can’t talk about here…yet.

9. Finally…a lace shawl. I am using some Rhinebeck yarn in a raspberry. I am making the Dover Castle Shawl. I have tons of yarn, so I decided to make it a little bigger than the original pattern. I started the border chart last night which is only 16 rows. I can’t wait!

Wow, that's more than I thought!

But what I am most excited about…after a lot of hymning and hawing on my part, I broke down and ordered some lace blocking wires. Like I said before, I have really been into lace lately…so it seems like a good idea. I ordered them yesterday from Knitpicks. Hopefully they will be here soon. I am hoping to time the bind off of the Dover Castle Shawl with their arrival.

I think my next shawl is going to be Ishbel. Although it starts with lots of stockinette, I am hoping I will motor though it in hopes to get to the lacey bit. I think it will be very wearable. I have seen lots and lots of pretty ones on Ravelry. I think I am going to use some grey alpaca I have from Rhinebeck a few years back. I have about 1800 yards, so I will have left over yarn. I can always make another shawl out of the left over, right?

Do you see the other trend here? Yes that’s right, I am using Rhinebeck yarn. I told myself I couldn’t go to Rhinebeck until I had used all the yarn from the previous trips. I have been really wanting to get out of the city lately and have been dreaming of a cool autumn day upstate. So I have been planning out my projects to use all my Rhinebeck Yarn. Or at least start using it...that counts, right?

Abrazo

I have been thinking about lace and shawls lately. So when I saw the pattern on Twist Collective for Abrazo I knew it was going in the queue. I have been trying to use stash yarns as much as possible and found a pretty purple ball of Trekking. The pattern calls for about 400 yards (however Ravelry said about 420 yards, so I knew this was it.



I cast-on on a Friday night, and by the following Friday I was done (with the knitting anyway…I had to wet-block it). It was a quick knit…even with me tinking back a couple of times (apparently you have to do the YOs and not just the decreases when you are knitting lace).



Over all I am happy with it, but I do wish it was a little bigger. I do realize that my gauge is off and that accounts for the smaller than expected size. I was really planning on wearing it more like a scarf than a shawl anyway. But I do like the idea of the short row shaping. I will be making more shawls in the near future and will keep this concept in mind.

I also couldn’t help but thinking of the mastercard commercials when I was blocking this on my living room floor. You know the ones where they find unexpected faces in random things? Here take a look:

Hello

Once again too much time has passed since I have posted about knitting. I would give a list of excuses, but I know you don’t want to read that. So instead I will show you a picture of the baby blanket I am working on:



I feel like such a copy cat. Every time Jared designs a baby blanket, I end up mkaing it. I made the Tweed Baby Blanket and now I am working on a version of the Wool Leaves.(Ok, maybe not ever time, I didn’t make a Hemlock Ring, but I did help block one...does that count?)I have honestly always loved this lace pattern. It’s easy to memorize and still very pretty.

I am using some Malabrigo from my stash in an effort to knit it down to a reasonable amount. I had 9 skeins to start with. I think I will be using about 3 to 3 1/2, so there will still be enough left over for me to make a sweater or a shrug (thinking about this one, once the pattern is released)

I have also been working on a Tea Leaves Cardigan, but have no photo to show you. You will just have to trust me that it is pretty. I am using some Road to China Light that I had in my stash in a very pretty pinky/purple color (I know—shocking…Pink…?) I am almost to the “hem.” So really just the sleeves left.

I am hoping to have both of these finished before 6 PST on February 12th, so I can start my RavOlympic project(s) without much guilt. After much internal debate, I have decided on a pair of Esther socks. I have some soft pink (I know, I know) Kogui I bought a few years ago. I have been doing some reading online about using nylon sewing thread as a carry along to help prevent holes. I am going to run down to City Quilter later and see if they have some. Hope it works. Sewing thread comes in almost every color imaginable, so it will be less noticeable than using the reinforcement yarn. My second project will be a stockinette pair of socks in some hand dyed I bought at the Renegade Art fair a few years ago. And this time it’s not pink! I am going to stripe it with some blue sock yarn my mom bought me a couple of Christmases back. This is going to be more of a time challenge than anything. But I figure 2 pair of socks in 16 days…that should be good. Plus all my socks have holes in them, so at least I will have 2 more pair by March.

Does anyone else see how much stash knitting I am doing?

Hello Again

I apologize for the long pauses between posts. Life has been a little crazy lately. Something had to give, and unfortunately it was the blog. But I am here now.

So what have I been knitting you ask? Does anyone remember when I was a monogamous knitter? That seems to be in the past my friends. I currently have 4, yes 4, projects on the needles.

First I have my "work/commute" project. A basic toe up sock in Great Adirondacks Super Sox yarn. I wanted something easy for while I am at Annie's. That way if I have to put it down to help a customer, I don' t won't have a difficult time figuring out where I am. I started this about 4 weeks ago, I am half way up the foot on the first sock. Needless to say I don't have a lot of time to knit while I am at Annie's. But isn't the color way gorgeous?



Next up is a bag that I am designing myself from yarn ripped from a sweater a friend was going to throw away. I loved the color and grabbed it quick. The wool is very course and will be perfect for felting. Because you KNOW how much luck I have had with felting. I have faith that this time I am going to get it right. I am also going to use some of my partial balls up and make some nice felted flowers to adorn the bag. I hope to have a picture soon.

Thirdly is the Aune skirt from Berroco. I love this skirt. I hate knitting it. It is made up of 24 lacy hexagons. The instructions tell you to knit them flat, and then sew them up. But you know me…"patterns are just inspiration." So I decided that I should knit the hexagons in the round (less finishing :-), which isn't so bad, except you kinda need to knit the hexagon all at once. It's difficult (since there is lace on every round) to find your place if you put it down. Each hexagon takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to make. But it will be beautiful once it is done!



And last but not least, I have always wanted to make Rogue, but thought I wouldn't wear a hoodie pullover. But while playing on Ravelry, I found this. A cardigan version of Rogue. How smart! So I set myself out to pick up some Cascade 220 to make it in. I was thinking, since it's a hoodie, it should be red (you know little red riding hood.) So I picked a lovely burgundy. I got a skein and a half into it before I realized that I didn't have anything to go with it. So I exchanged the yarn for some nice green. I know Ravi, I always knit with green, but what can I say, I like green. Here's a progress shot:



I better finish something soon as I have a very special project or two to knit for a special friend. I don't think I could handle five or six projects at once. Good thing I have till November before the shower.

Multiple Finished Objects

Thanks to the long weekend last week I finished a couple of things.

First the bag. I decided that I wanted to finish the bag so I could take it to Long Island for the Holiday. I made very small buttonholes, that, should I decided to do grommets later I can just put them over the buttonholes. Once the straps are thought the buttonholes, you can’t see them anyway; so many grommets are just not in the future for the Betty Shopper. I took Betty to SnB last week and got quite a few compliments. Here she is:



I also finished the cream top. I wore it under my pink suit the other day and it was perfect. Here is a shot of her blocking:



And a close up of the lace trim:



And finally, isn’t it amazing how this:



Can become this:



Better pic to come soon.

In the meantime, I cast on for the Debbie Bliss Cardigan, Juliet, that Crafty Girl is also making. 12 inches of garter stitch should make a boring upcoming post.

Finished Object Alert

Say it with me…awww, so cute.





I finished this hat for a co-worker. She isn’t due until August, but she is moving at the end of the month. She’s moving to the mid-west, where they have very cold winters, so a hat is perfect for her. I hope she likes it.

So it’s back to the cream tank. I am almost to the armholes. Just about another half an inch. I should be done soon. Then back to Robin.

Quick Update

Here is a picture of Robin as she stands now.



And a close up



Nothing worth a picture on the cream tank (yet to be named, any suggestions?) But she is moving along nicely. I slipped half of the stitches onto a spare needle last night and tried her on. I am about half way to the armholes. The trouble with using size 2 needles is it takes a-l-o-n-g time to get an inch of knitting done. But I hope to have this finished soon as the college has a lot of functions coming up, and the pink suit is dyeing to get out of the closet.

If you want to pre-order your copy the book with my recent secret project, click here.

Hummm…

Well, there has been knitting going on, but there are no pictures to prove it today. Robin (aka the Essential Tank from Lace style) is rockin' along. I am about half way to the armholes. The lace pattern is pretty easy to memorize and goes pretty quickly. And I have only used about 2½ balls of the yarn I bought. I subbed the alpaca it called for, instead opting to use Kogiu (I heart Kogiu) and although the math tells me I need 10 balls of Kogiu, I think I will have a lot left. Good thing Purl believes in exchanges.

I also started another tank, this time of my own design. I purchased some Knit Picks Gloss in bare (I really need a basic cream tank). I am planning on reverse stockinette stitch with some garter lace trim at the neckline, but didn't want to do all that purling. So instead I am going use stockinette stitch and turn it inside out when I am finished. Such a cheater, I know. I have a vision of the tank under my favorite pink suit. I must knit faster, spring is already here!

Pictures to come soon!

I guess that’s why they call it the blues

So I finished knitting the stockinette stitch wrap for my mother. Once the wrap is on a person it will look something like this:



Flat it looks like this:




You can imagine how boring knitting all that stockinette was. I used 8 ball of Berroco Denim Silk in Acid Washed. I got four balls from Craft Girl during the last yarn swap and bought four others and stranded the wrap. What I thought was a little weird and kind of interesting was when I went to block it, the different dye lots absorbed water at a different rate:



I also finished the basic basic socks for my mother:



I knit these out of Regia Bamboo on size 0, toe up. I will definitely knit socks toe up again. I like short row heels better than heel flaps anyway.

I think I deserve a good daughter award for all this stockinette. Plus I am ahead for Mother's Day, even though I am really late for her birthday.

Now that I can knit something for myself, I wanted something a little more interesting. I decided to knit the Essential Tank from Lace Style (loving this book by the way). I got some beautiful robin’s egg blue Kogiu from Purl (much brighter than the picture). Of course I am going to knit this in the round in stead of flat (no seams!) I did a swatch on 2s, but my gauge is quite a bit off, so I am swatching on 4s. Even though this is all lace, I think it will go pretty fast. Here is my size 2 swatch:

Radical Lace…

Taking advantage of President's Day, Jenn and I went to the Museum of Arts & Design to check out the exhibit of Radical Lace and Subversive knitting. What a great presentation. The exhibit included everything from lace made from car parts to a crocheted table topper with 3-D skulls around the edge. There was also a video of the infamous flag that was knit with telephone poles by Dave Cole (what is with guys and size, the whole thing was a little phallic). My favorite piece was a large piece of felt that looked like it was made from roving with snowflakes on it. It was so tranquil. I think I could have stood there for an hour looking at it. I also enjoyed the lamp that was crochet out of optical glass fiber. In fact, I kind of want to make one for myself. There was also a full sized knit body suit that is stabed with knitting needles, ironicly the piece was knit on a machine. I seem to have lost touch the past few years with the whole art scene, which is bad considering I have a B.F.A. from SCAD. But this got me really inspired and thinking once again about creating things for art sake. I would go back again. The exhibit is free on Thursday nights so that might be a good time to check it out. The exhibit is up till June 17. Check out the Museum's website for more information. I'll leave you with a few pieces from the show…