FO Friday #20: Sock Foot Slog

I finished these wee little socks for my new nephew:

BMFA Socks That Rock Mediumweight, colorway On Blueberry Hill

The feet on these things look comically large, but they're only about 4" and apparently 3.5-5" is the recommended size for newborn sock feet. That seems pretty big to me but we'll see! I'm heading down to Long Island later today to meet him, which I'm very excited about.

I've entered the dreaded sock foot slog on my Tour-de-Sock pair:

Cephalopod Yarns Skinny Bugga, colorways Blue Ringed Octopus, Ghost Moth, and undyed

I'm not sure why but once I reach the gusset the sock just starts to feel endless. I love the cuffs, the legs are exciting because I'm still learning the pattern, the heels are fiddly and therefore interesting... then it's just sameness for a long while until the toe. When my socks stall out, they stall out here. That won't happen with this one, but the instinct to do so is there! Especially with more-or-less plain stockinette.

So my boredom prompted me to start something else:

Malabrigo Dos, colorway Lettuce

This is a prototype for my first shawl design! I've had the idea kicking around for a while now but haven't had time to sit down and chart things out. The actual shawl will be knit with an aran weight yarn so it'll be nice and thick, but I'm working up a prototype in sport weight because 1) I didn't want to keep frogging the shawl yarn and 2) it felt easier for me to see the pattern develop with smaller stitches. I'm really loving it so far and am excited about designing again! There's no deadline on this and I still need to figure out the edging but progress is progress.

Hope you have wonderful Fridays! Check out more FOs below.

FO Friday #18: Beautiful Bugga Blues

I finished this WIP early last week but was waiting to get better photos before I showed it off. However, the opportunity to get better photos is eluding me so you get crummy ones instead because I'm impatient! Hopefully the awesomeness is apparent regardless.

SG/CY Bugga in colorways Box Jellyfish and Blue Ringed Octopus

This color combination is no doubt, hands-down, my absolute favorite of ALL FREAKING TIME. Yeah. It's that good. The deep dark teal and pale greeny-blue-aqua together just makes my color-lovin' heart sing. Not to mention that it coordinates with nearly everything in my closet.

Freakish, right?

Somestimes the Fiasco and I play the "how many matching accessories is Alicia wearing right now" game. I don't know why but I get a strange OCD thrill from matching/coordinating everything I'm wearing, which I've done since at least high school. (Aside: but I weirdly hate when people wear an entire outfit all the same color, those velour pantsuit lungewear things from Old Navy drive me crazy...) Anyway, back to the shawl.

I started this puppy back in February 2012 and it took me 16 months to finish because it was boring as hell. The pattern is Flamboyan by Stephen West and it is without a doubt a clever, striking, and stylish design... I just hated knitting it. I am not a fan of large swaths of stockinette (it's the purl back rows that get me) and juggling three balls of yarn for the (very simple) intarsia was annoying. And then there were the endless three inches of ribbing for the edging. By the last row there were over 570 stitches on the needle and I think 570 stitches of ribbing is just too much for my taste.

All that aside, I do love the finished piece. It's a bit small for me to use as a stand-alone shawl (as in it doesn't cover too much of my upper arms, which I like for warmth) but it is a generously-sized shawlette that is perfect for the around-the-neck kerchief-style of wearing. I used Cephalopod Yarns Bugga on size US 6 needles and the combination made for a fabulous fabric. The stitches are smooth, even, and gorgeous. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that using anything besides Bugga (or another sportweight Merino/cashmere blend I suppose) would be a crime for this shawl. Bust out the big guns for this thing to make it extra special. The only thing I changed about the pattern was the bind off. I used Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off alternating between the knit setup and the purl setup where appropriate which made for a neat zig-zag effect on the edge. In short, I definitely recommend the pattern for looks and style if you're in the mood for a whole lot of mindless knitting. However, I will probably never knit one again. :)

FO Friday #17: That's Better

Seeing as my sister-in-law is in labor as I type and my new little nephew should be arriving some time today, I'm thrilled to have finished this baby set:

This is an extensively modified version of Jared Flood's Turn A Square hat pattern and a troublesome pair of matching socks knit out of The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga in Box Jellyfish and Common Emerald Moth. I love these colorways together, the green just glows. Also, the hat and socks together used less than 40 grams / 126 yards of yarn, so it's great for sock leftovers. You can see the modifications I made on my Ravelry page. Also, this set is finished item #6 of the 13 SG/VG/CY in 2013 projects that I'm doing as part of my fiber goals for the year and #22 of the 50 total projects I hope to finish this year. Not bad progress, eh?

Proof that they do, indeed, match now. Also, flash reveals all sorts of messiness regarding the weaving in of ends!

Thanks for all the suggestions on what might have gone wrong with these little socks. I checked the gauge, which was the same, and counted all the rows between sections of the sock. Turns out I had somehow worked about 5 extra rows in the foot and toe of Sock 1... and then wrote down different instructions? Still not clear on what exactly happened (I blame airplane turbulance) but I ended up frogging back the foot of the larger sock and reknitting it to what I knew I had done for the second sock. I liked the slightly smaller version better anyhow.

As the Yarn Harlot says*, I've finished the baby knitting, so now the baby can arrive. Exciting!

*It did not escape my notice that the Yarn Harlot is also having bootie problems. It's like we're the same person**. 
**I wish. She's my hero.

IS #23: May Flowers

Apparently, a week of busy vacation that involved very little sleep followed by a week of super late nights working on deadline knitting takes its toll on a girl. I slept a full 11 hours last night, which means I'm halfway through Saturday already with many of my plans out the window and a head that's a little too foggy to come up with a really involved Inspiration Saturday post. So, instead, have some pretty pictures of flowers from Cheekwood Gardens in Nashville, TN!

Don't they make you want to knit something botanical? Maybe like the leafy Rue de college hat or the Rosebud shawl? What's your favorite flower-y knit?

Oh, and here's the finished deadline knitting... 6 feet of knitting in 10 days, even with a midway frogging, is not bad!

What's been inspiring you lately? Link along and share!

FO Friday #16: A Tale of Three Cowls

Friends, it is very rare for me to knit the same exact pattern more than once. It is even more rare for me to knit two items from the same pattern within a week of each other. This rarest of patterns is Zuzu's Petals by Carina Spencer. It is a clever little shawl-shaped-cowl accessory that is simultaneously genius and simple in design and engaging and quick to knit. I think cowls in general make wonderful gifts, they serve the same function as scarves more efficiently (as far as knitting time goes) and they're rare enough in stores to make them uniquely knitterly and therefore more awesome. Anywho, I've made three of these cowls, one for myself last summer and two in the last couple of weeks for gifts.

#1 and #2 are the new ones (size large), #3 is my old one (size small).

Cowl #1 is the large size knit with a skein of my handspun merino/tencel blend yarn. This yarn was the thickest of the three which made this cowl the largest and bulkiest to wear. I'm particularly excited about the way the colors in this cowl worked out. When I spun the yarn, I split the braid in two and and ended up with two little skeins that gradually transitioned from gold through green to a darker brown. When I knit the cowl, I started the first skein with gold and then knit from the opposite end of the second skein so it would transition from brown to gold again.

Cowl #1 - handspun

Cowl #2 is also the large size, knit with the sadly discontinued SG Zaftig Bugga, a worsted weight merino/cashmere/nylon blend. Knitting this yarn was supremely satisfying, the stitches were plump and even and blocked cleanly while the fabric remained soft and supple. Since the yarn is a bit thinner than my handspun and contains a good deal of cashmere which usually drapes, the cowl is a bit smaller/less bulky-feeling when worn than Cowl #1, despite being the same size.

Cowl #2 - SG Zaftig Bugga, colorway Starry Night Cracker

Cowl #3 is the small size, knit with Blue Moon Fiber Arts Marine Silk Worsted, a silk, Merino, Seacell blend which is extra drapey (and wonderful). That drape contributes to why this cowl is my go-to accessory indoors because my neck stays warm without a lot of bulk. I barely even notice it's there when I wear it but it warms me right up, I wore it constantly this winter (which is why it is less crisply pointed than the first two freshly-blocked cowls). The small size is intended to be knit with sport weight yarn but I used the same needles with thicker yarn to compensate for the drape of all that silk and I love the result.

Cowls 1, 2, and 3.

The three cowls pictured side-by-side provides a good representation of their differences. The main difference in the pattern is that you knit the plain stockinette portion to a larger stitch count before beginning the lace and you knit an additional pattern repeat of the lace for the small size. I knit cowls 1 and 2 on size 9 needles and cowl 3 on size 6 needles. The large pattern size produced cowls that were a bit more funnel-shaped and the small size produced a more cylindrical cowl. You can see in 1 & 2 that the lace portion flares out more at the bottom and narrows towards the top while in cowl 3 the width is more equal throughout. If you refer back to the first picture, this affects the way the cowl sits around the neck. I think I prefer the shape of the small sized cowl, which could probably be achieved with the large size as well if you changed the rate of increase so that the stockinette portion became wider faster (more crescent-shaped, less triangle-shaped) which would decrease the height of the plain stockinette portion. I think the large size as written is probably more effective as an outerwear accessory than the small since it hugs the neck more tightly and would keep one warmer, but for comfort and around-the-house wear I really like Cowl #3. If you want more details on size/gauge/etc. because you're a total knit nerd like me, you can check them out for Cowl 1, Cowl 2, and Cowl 3 on their respective Ravelry pages.

Speaking of knit nerds, today is the last day to enter the contest on Vicki's blog interview of me, so don't forget to comment over there for the chance to win one of my patterns!

Random Monday

With so much going on lately, I've amassed quite a few little tidbits that I've been meaning to blog about but hadn't gotten around to, so you're getting them all here in one big random post!

1) Remember the Great Rhody Yarn Crawl? Well, it turns out I won a door prize at one of my favorites of the shops I visited that day, Eneri Knits!

They gave me a great zippered tote bag as well as three balls of pretty yellow fingering weight Merino baby yarn and a book of Dale of Norway baby patterns! There's a sweet little dress in there I think would look great in yellow.

I probably won't get around to knitting it anytime soon and the only baby girl I know is quickly growing (sorry, Lyra!) so this will probably be for my own future baby. I'm not planning on having a baby anytime soon, but that's ok, the wool will wait.


2) I finally received the buttons I'd been waiting for to properly finish my Plovate shawl. I finished the knitting in 2 days but had to wait about 4 weeks for buttons. I was about ready to quit on the idea that they would ever arrive... when they came, it turned out I had ordered them from freakin' Hong Kong. No wonder they took so long! Huge carbon footprint on these little leather toggles. Ooops.

They are perfect for this shawl, though! (Sorry for the terrible self-modeled pic, the Fiasco and I never seem to be home together in daylight for a proper photoshoot.) I loved the pattern as well as the finished shawl and highly recommend it.

3) I broke my June Pryce Fiber Arts gradient BFL fiber up into bits in preparation to begin spinning. I love how they look in the ziplocs, especially the blue that goes from light to dark, the finished yarn is going to be so fun. The ziplocs are necessary for both fiber organization and protection, as Darwin got a hold of the braids last week and nearly ripped the blue one to shreds. I was not pleased but I think most of it is still spin-able.

I hope you're having a great start to the week!

FO Friday #15: The Homestretch

Well folks, we're coming into the last few days of March, which means I've been knitting as much as possible on my Malabrigo March projects... which means I have two more FOs to show you! Also, a final reminder that you can still receive 20% off any of my patterns on Ravelry with coupon code "YayMal13" for 2 more days.

Baby Huacaya:

Malabrigo Rios, colorway Lettuce (most accurate in this photo)

What is this vaguely jellyfish-or-hot-air-balloon-like object, you ask? It's a teeny tiny babysized version of my slouchy hat pattern, Huacaya, blocking over a conveniently-sized spherical candleholder.

Post-blocking

This hat is going to my friend's new baby, Lyra, whom I will finally get to meet tomorrow! It goes along with the coordinating cardi and booties I finished earlier this month. It is oddly satisfying to knit tiny baby versions of my adult hat patterns!

Aguas Shawlette:

Malabrigo Rios, colorway Aguas

I'm so glad I finally knit something out of this colorway! I've called it my favorite since I first saw it but never hadn't had the chance to knit with it until now. This design is the Impari Shawlette by Nina Machlin Dayton, a very profuse and knowledgeable designer who is a major Malabrigo Junkie. Nina is also very generous, she is a moderator in the 'Budding Designers' group on Ravelry and is always willing to answer questions and share what she's learned during her design career. I've admired many of her designs but this is the first one I've actually knit and I think it was great, especially for beginner knitters as the pattern is simple and well explained. I love the asymmetrical shape of the shawl and those tassels just slay me. Nina explains how to make the tassels very clearly but I thought it would be fun to show you some photos of the process, too:

Steps 2 & 3

I skipped pictures of step 1, which is to cut multiple lengths of yarn, fold them in half, and join them to the corner of the shawl as you would a normal shorter fringe. Then anchor the corner of the shawl with some heavy books. Step 2 is to split the yarn in two and twist each half in the direction of the twist of the yarn, so that it holds so much twist energy that it kinks up when relaxed like the strand on the right in the first photo. I recommend putting in more twist than you think you need. Step 3 is to hold both strands taut and make a big knot at the end.

Steps 4 & 5

Step 4 is to let go! The tassel will snarl and kink up on itself as the twist energy escapes and that is ok. Step 5 is to run your hand down the length of the tassel multiple times, smoothing it out and letting the twist energy settle into that lovely braided-looking shape. What's really interesting is that this process is essentially the same thing you do when you are spinning a cabled yarn. Cool, huh?

Lastly, there were some really great comments about what we all like and look for in patterns in response to my last post, I encourage you to check them out if you haven't already. And finally, don't forget to see some more FO's by clicking the photo below! Have a great Friday, everyone.

FO Friday #13: Frantic Fracas

This week has been a bit hectic so I've only gotten a small bit of knitting done, but the knitting has been anything but frantic. It's been quite perfect, actually.

Malabrigo Yarn Dos, colorway Zinc

These are my modified version of Hunter Hammersen's Fracas Cuffs and my 2nd Malabrigo March FO. The yarn was positively dreamy to knit.

That, my friends, is what 2 plies of springy, soft, sport-weight heaven looks like. Revel in its glory, please.

The only thing fracas-like about these cuffs is how badly they've got me jonesin' to knit with more Dos. See, I get like this. I love a yarn, then need to knit everything I can think of with that yarn, and I'm pretty happy that way. Then sometimes a new yarn catches my eye and I destash some (remember, $3 off if you're a blog reader!) in order to justify frantically hoarding new yarn. But in this case, I'm at a loss because Dos is not readily available, it was a test yarn that may or may not ever really be produced, and I have a third of my skein left over and I MUST KNIT WITH MORE DOS. *ahem* So I had to beg and borrow, wheel and deal but finally one lovely soul is willing to trade her skein (of a different color, unfortunately) for some other yarn I had (see, who cares anymore?) and I suppose that will have to tide me over. Any good ideas for a cute cowl or scarf that uses 2 colorways of sport-weight yarn (~200 yards total)?

Enjoy some other FOs this week by clicking below!

FO Friday #12: Tumultuous

Happy Friday! I've finished a gift, but my feelings are mixed.

The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga, colorway Fierce Snake

This is the Tumult cowl from Hunter Hammersen's awesome little Rabble Rousers collection of accessories. The stitch pattern was pretty fun and simple to work, though I'm not sad to see the last of twisted stitches for a little while. I made it to match my mom's cuffs. I think they make a pretty little set. However, I'm not thrilled with the fit of the cowl.

Too tall... too squished... folded over sorta works?

Hunter mentioned that the stitch pattern stretched a lot after blocking... and my swatch did, but the cowl... not so much. The thing about twisted stitches is when you put a lot together like that, they really do tighten things up and the fabric does some funny things. I wanted the lovely draped styling of the cowl in the pattern photo:

Copyright Hunter Hammersen

But that didn't happen. For one, I had to go hunting to see what size the sample was... which I hate. It's one of my pattern pet peeves. I understand wanting flexibility in patterns and it's great to encourage knitters to think for themselves, but I like some baseline information. What size is pictured and also how many repeats did you knit to get that height? Yes, swatches and math will let you figure it out for yourself, but 1) swatches lie and 2) I still want to know how tall yours is. Don't get me wrong, Hunter is one of my absolute favorite designers: I love her aesthetic, her yarn choices, and her patterns are clearly written. Those little sizing things just bug me.

It's still pretty, though!

Speaking of yarn choices: going back to the pattern page just now I realized Hunter used a 65% wool/35% silk blend yarn for her cowl. That would explain the lovely drap! My yarn was 70% wool/20% cashmere/10% nylon. Bugga has a little bit of drape to it, but not usually much when knit on size 4 needles. Oh well... It's still wearable, just not what I was going for. I'll get the next one!

FO Friday #11: Fierce Fracas

Stupid blogger ate my post! I wrote this one already! Grr! So I guess you guys will be getting the short-and-sweet version now...

The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga, colorway Fierce Snake

These are my modified version of Hunter Hammersen's Fracas Cuffs. There is a matching hat in her delightful collection of accessories, Rabble Rousers. I highly recommend the book.

Both elegant and sassy, yes?

I like them, but these are for my mom. These represent the last holiday gift I still needed to finish... yay!

And before I forget, I just wanted to let you all know that my Fiasco socks would fight in nicely with this month's challenge in the Sock Knitter's Anonymous group on Ravelry. If you're unaware, SKA is an excellent group of hardcore, talented sock knitters who challenge themselves each month with different pattern techniques, designers, and mystery KALs. One of the techniques for March is to knit socks designed specifically for men.

These Fiasco socks were designed for my very own Fiasco (a.k.a. fiance), so they would fit the bill perfectly. If you don't have a knit-worthy man in your life, the pattern is written in three sizes for three yarn weights (fingering, sport, and DK) so it can be made to fit pretty much anybody. I would really love to see some Fiasco socks in March's SKA KAL!

And as a reminder, all of my patterns are on sale for 20% off on Ravelry with the code 'YayMal13' in honore of the beginning of Malabrigo March! Yay for March, yay for KALs!

FO Friday #10: Hootenany

I present to you the adorably woolly face of evil.

Hoot?

These little owl faces represent five hours of work... for just the eyeballs and the beaks! Each mitten had about 20 or so ends to weave in, too. However, they did come out darn cute and they are pretty much exactly what my coworker commissioned for her little daughter so hopefully the little owl-obsessed girl loves them!

The one on the right looks extra surprised.

I used Cascade 220 superwash in an appropriately owl-y color for the body of the mitts held double. I knit most of one mitten before deciding I needed to cast on a few more stitches because although 2-year-old hands are tiny, they do grow and the fabric was extra thick so I wanted to give a little more room in there. But the rest of the mitten knitting went fairly smoothly and I followed this blog's tips for making the white 'brow' part at the top. I felt like a mitten-knitting-genious... until I hit the eyeballs.

Attempt #1: single crochet circle. Attempt #2: knit in the round with lots of increases.

 

I even have crochet the old college try for this project (a.k.a. an hour of internet searching when I should've been doing other things). This only confirmed for me that I still hate crochet. It feels entirely unnatural to me. Even the basic chain stitch comes out all wonky and as I'm using my fingers to pull the loops over the hook, I can't help wishing for an implement to help in the process... like another needle. Knitter to the core, I suppose. So then I tried knitting a tiny circle in the round with lots of increases but that was too ruffly. Finally, I cast on 4 sts to a DPN and did short rows within those 4 sts until I had a curved strip of knitting long enough to kitchener the two ends together into an approximate circle. Phew! I don't keep a lot of superwash yarn lying around but I had some Bugga mini-skeins that I used for the brow and the irises, Cascade 220 sw for the pupils, and Socks that Rock Heavyweight scraps for the beaks. In sum, these mittens are quite cute and came out just as I'd hoped but I will likely never make them again... the finishing was far too fiddly.

Click below to see more FO's!