Cowl/Scarf

Fiber and Yarn and Projects

/ LDSVenus / 8 Comments

Well, I might have accidentally bought another 8 oz of spinning fiber, my picture didn’t really capture the sparkles. Let’s face it I have AD-OS (attention deficit – Oh Shiny!). I now have the same fiber, that I bought in yellow, now in cranberry. Thought it might make a nice batt with yellow, gradually blending the yellow and cranberry together toward the middle for an orange gradually blending back out to the, cranberry for a fade, well it works in my head anyway. Just a thought. As usual I got this from Camaj Fiber Arts.

I saw that KnitPicks is having their annual yarn sale (until 11/27 at 11:59pm so hurry!!!) and I got the Chroma worsted weight, 70% super wash wool, 30% nylon, on sale 60% off for $4 a skein so I bought 3. Then I decided I wanted to try to make this Brioche cowl, Purple Mountain Majesties from KnitPicks, I think it was a free pattern. I have never tried brioche before and it’s small (lets see if I’m biting off more than I can chew) so I bought 2 skeins in the colors of the cowl in the Chroma fingering weight, not 60% off, but it was 50% off so it was $6 per skein, still not bad. I got them all in and they are gorgeous, not merino soft but soft enough. But they are single ply, ugh, no where on the skein did it say it was single ply. Not my favorite to knit with, but I have them and they are pretty, I will see what I can do with the 3 that are not in a project yet, hats maybe, is 198 yards is enough for a non cabled hat? I’ll do some digging.

Haven’t gotten notice yet on the yarn being shipped for my special project, hope it comes in soon, I think it’s been the 2 weeks they said it took them to get it in. I need to go buy more color ink for my printer with my next paycheck so I can print out the color work Christmas stocking that Arnie and Carlos are doing as a free knit along. I’ve never really liked knitting color work and here I am jumping head long into deep water with a huge color work sock with an after thought heel (never done before, I can barely do the regular heel), and it’s charted (maybe I can read colors better than I can read symbols) oh my, life is so interesting! But if you are following along with Arne and Carlos on YouTube, it is really pretty.

Was warm today in the low 50’s, but tomorrow is 39F and it gets colder and colder from there. The next Monday will be around 22F, and after tonight most nights, will be in the 20’s (F) to lower teens. Winter is on its way!

Cowl is an FO, Won a Fiber Package from a Spinner on YouTube!

/ LDSVenus / 11 Comments

First is the cowl I finished for my son’s mother-in-law for Christmas. She and I exchange gifts every year and last year I made her a headband so her ears would be warm when she went walking and I wanted the cowl to match. I used the dandelion design from the headband pattern and designed where to put it, how many stitches to make the cowl, how many stitches before starting each pattern and between so the pattern ended up right at the end and staggering them. I’m not really a math person so it always takes me a while to design where to put designs, so I don’t do them very often. I had to frog this several times until I got the count and placement right.

The bottom picture is a package from Fiber Love Diary on YouTube. She gets a spinning package from Paradise Fibers free for their Fiber of the month club to show to her followers and then she buys one to give away. I won the drawing this month from last month’s package, woo hoo!! It was a nice one. I really like the fiber that Paradise Fibers sells. For fiber there were 3 2oz bags of their new chunky multi merino blends (and the card shows all the colors that they have), 1 oz of autumnal chunky merino blend and a sample of their whitest white merino (most “white” wool tends to be a little on the creamy color scale), plus a purple bent nose darning needle, 3 harvest inspired progress keepers, a stash tea and a sticker of their ewe mascot. The fiber colors are very pretty. Lots of merino to spin and I can always use another darning needle for weaving in the ends of my knitting.

I’ve started another hat for my son in law, the one I made him is just a tad tight. I’ll post progress as I go.

My fiber optic Christmas tree quit working so I had to order a new one, I bought it used in 2005, so I can’t complain, it lasted a long time. I wasn’t sure they still made fiber optic Christmas trees but happily they do!!!

FO! And the Hat I Will be Working on

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I finished the scarf I was making for a friend for Christmas, yeah it’s late, so what else is new :P. The color isn’t showing right on my screen, it’s actually a fawn color and not grey. This is my Little Lace Cat’s Paw Scarf that I corrected a line of the pattern and added two more rows to, it’s not a beginners pattern but it’s not hard, just pay attention to what row you are on. I knit this out of some of my hand spun cria (baby alpaca), that my daughter had given to me as a fleece and sent it off to a fiber mill to have processed into what they call bumps for spinning, which is similar to a batt of carded fiber. Soft stuff!

The next picture is of the hat I am finishing for my friend this is where she left off with her knitting. It is Quivet (muskox fiber, and is very soft stuff too, and very warm) and I am getting ready to figure out where she was with it and see if I can finish it for her.

Our temps are back up to normal, I always hate those arctic blasts, but we get them every year, and I’m sure we will get another one before the end of Feb. The days are teens and 20’s ambient temps, occasionally we get up to the mid 30’s and we think it’s spring (LOL), and the nights are single digits to below 0 ambient temps, but I’m not out at night so I keep warm at home :P. Hope everyone else is staying warm as well.

Last 2 Promised Hats New Stitch Markers and a Birthday Gift

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Ok, I lied, I said I was not going to buy any more new stitch markers or progress keepers for a while.  “But mom they followed me home can I keep them?”  Actually I replaced the Dallas Cowboys progress keeper and bought another set of the hearts stitch markers and progress keeper, because I love it so much, and yes I have one already, but I wanted to use it and couldn’t remember where I put the old one, they will both be well loved :).  I got these from AdoreKnit and she threw in a surprise, the fox progress keeper.  I mentioned I was looking for one as “hat jewelry” for a young family member I had just knit a hat for because she wanted a fox on it and I didn’t see one in her on line shop.  I was beyond ecstatic when I saw that in my order when it came in today!!  She really is such a sweet person, you should check out her shop.

The blue hat above is the hat for the younger of my family members, who was very excited to get the Dallas Cowboys color hat and star to adorn his hat.  The other hat showing was to be for his older sister but she really liked another hat I had knit earlier so the other one became hers and this one will go in the charity pile.  She was very excited to get the fox progress keeper to put on it, I will add that to the pictures when I remember to get a picture of it on the hat.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see “hat jewelry” become a thing for school age children. 🙂

Lastly, yeah I had a birthday this past week.  Celebrating the anniversary of my 29th birthday and that is all you are getting out of me :P.  I can’t be older than my dad who is 29 every year, can I?  I belong to a group who does Harry Potter knitting and my name was drawn on her quarterly prize drawing (which just happened to be on my birthday woot woot).  I got gifted a pattern of my choice, and what I chose was the Baa-ble Mittens and Cowl set , I already had the hat pattern, which is a free pattern, but the accessories were not. So for my birthday I was able to complete the set, how cool is that!!!  Hope everyone has a great week coming up.

Sudden Loss

/ LDSVenus / 3 Comments

Scarfalong  This is my progress on the Scarf Along I was doing with my friend Kari.

I got a call from another friend of ours today to tell me  Kari was killed in a one car accident yesterday evening.  My heart hurts over her loss.  She was my Harry Potter marathon buddy when I lived in TN.  We would have a Harry Potter marathon every 3 months or so, popcorn, soft drinks and knitting.  We went to church together (where I met her) and I enjoyed her “lets go do something” attitude.  She will be very missed.  I will finish my scarf in her memory.

More Progress :)

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Here is our progress on our Diagonal Garter Stitch scarfs.  We are coming along.  Glad I didn’t have as many stitches as Keri :P, but she has much less time to knit than I do :). Looking forward to the color changes on her scarf :).

Te Ara Mitts progress  I’m coming along on the Te Ara Fingerless Mitts.  I will have this finished by Saturday and ready to give to my friend on Sunday :).  They match the 3 Color Cowl I made for her.  I hope she will enjoy these.  🙂  I’ll get a picture of  them finished before I give them to her.

Hope everyone is enjoying the first day of February.   It’s the last official month of winter, YEA!!!!  Spring is just around the corner I can hardly wait :).

 

Progress on the Diagonal Garter Stitch Scarfs and on the Te Ara Fingerless Mitts

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Here is an update on our progress on the Diagonal Garter Stitch Scarf.  My friend is a EMT so she has less time to knit, but to be fair I am using a bulky yarn and she is not so mine appears to go faster :P, but I do have two skeins to her one, so it will equal out and it is not a race, just a KAL (knit a long).  My colors change faster than Keri’s do, so it will be interesting to see her finished scarf :).

Te Ara Fingerless Mitts progress 2

Here is the update on the Te Ara Fingerless Mitts I am knitting.  I still have to finish the thumb and have decided that I will make it match the upper part of the mitts in the lighter speckled yarn.  To see more about the yarn I am using check this page out.  I will just keep my fingers crossed that I will now have enough of the navy blue to do the other mitt :P.

Diagonal Scarf Along – With a Friend :)

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I taught my friend to knit when I lived in TN and we use to have Harry Potter Marathons and eat popcorn.  Ahhh those were fun days :).  We have missed doing those things together, as I now live in another state, so we decided to have a Scarf Along.  We have picked out our yarn and needles and our plan of attack for the scarf.  I wish I could tell you where I got the pattern, I hand typed it out and have had it for years so no telling where the pattern was from originally so I can’t share it, but there are several on Ravelry that are Diagonal Garter Stitch Scarfs.

The pictures above are the yarns we chose, I neglected to get the brand of yarn she got for this project, but it looks like Lion Brand tho’ I could be wrong, I’ll check back with her and update this(**Yes it is Lion Brand yarn  Mandala, thanks Keri :).)  My yarn is Yarn Bee Aspyn from Hobby Lobby, it is 80% acrylic and 20% alpaca and very soft and is a bulky weight tho the pattern calls for a DK weight and a US size 5 needle.  We both decided the 22 stitches cast on was to narrow for us.  My friend, Keri cast on 44 stitches and went up 2 needle sizes and I will also be using the US size 7 and I am casting on 32 stitches.  We should have pictures of our progress to show soon :).  I am excited to get to do something with my friend again :).

I am coming along on the fingerless mitts.  I decided to add the 3rd color from the cowl on the top of the mitts because I was getting very nervous about the yarn chicken game with the navy yarn, lol.  So I will frog some of the top area of the mitt I am working on and add that 3rd color.  I should have one mitt to post a picture of soon as well.  I started with the navy, then added the beautiful turquoise color for the pattern area, then back to the navy and the top few inches will be the light speckled yarn.  It will be a perfect match for her cowl. 🙂

3 Color Cowl Done!

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This was an interesting knit.  Each band had different stitches, some lace and some texture and some color changes and ribbing.  My friend loved it and that is all that really matters :).  I need to get some blockers, pins leave little “juts” in the fabric.  I’ve seen several different kinds.  I’ll have to check them out.  But for now on to a different project :).

Progress on the 3 Color Cashmere Cowl

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3 Color Cashmere Cowl Progress

I finally figured out how to rotate it :).  You will notice there is a different yarn.  I felt the need to have her return the darker teal color, in the previous picture, because it was a cotton/bamboo yarn and the rest of the yarns are wool.  I will need to block this cowl and the cotton yarn really wouldn’t stretch to block well.  But this new yarn is lovely to work with.  It is a 3 Irish Girls fingering wt merino/nylon yarn purchased from Stitch Together Studio.  I have put more about this yarn on my Ravelry project page (you might need a Ravelry acct to log in to see it, it is a free acct to make) :).

I should have a finished project picture to post by the weekend, as it is my intention to have this finished and blocked by Saturday :).