Category Archives: Knitting

Self-imposed sock club: start!

Posted on 26 March 2011 by Kris

At one of our knit nights early this year, each member of my knitting group put together their own self-imposed sock club. Basically, we paired stash yarn with sock patterns, and throughout the year we’ll keep picking one pair at random to work on.

Other ladies put twelve pairs together – one for each month of the year. Me? I only did six.

(Please excuse the cellphone picture, I didn’t have my camera on me when I was putting my own club together!)

Let’s face it, there’s no way in hell I’ll knit twelve pairs this year. Not with all the other projects I have planned and all the other yarns I have stashed! Besides, I’ve never even done six pairs per year before, so this still counts as stretching my limits, right?

I started the actual knitting a bit late, since I had another pair in progress when 2011 started and I wanted to finish those first. So here’s what I’m working on now:

Yarn is Anzula Sebastian, while the pattern is the 9-to-5 Socks. So far, so good! I’m loving the yarn so far, and the pattern’s simple, but requires just enough of my attention to keep me interested.

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Not-so-fiery bolero

Posted on 24 March 2011 by Kris

I have this utterly lovely red and black dress, but it’s sleeveless. It’s not strapless, but it still calls for some sort of cover up, just in case I get chilly while wearing it.

Unfortunately, my Tina shawl is exactly the wrong shade of red, and besides, I’d really prefer something plainer. The dress, not the coverup, needs to be the highlight of the outfit.

So, I knit a bolero…

Pattern: Fiery Bolero by Debbie Bliss
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Cavern
Needles: US5 / 3.75mm Clover bamboo circulars

Which looks like it could be perfect, except… it’s really not. It’s significantly too big in the back.

At least it’s not as noticeable with the dress. But it’s pretty clear with a more fitted top like my Demeter Camisole here.

How did this happen? I think it’s a combination of two things – wrong size, and a deceiving swatch. I used the size that corresponded to my full bust size, rather than the one with the right cross-back measurement. Not only that, but the yarn grew even more than the swatch led me to think it would. (I partially blame the cotton content. Though I probably should’ve knit both swatch and bolero a little bit tighter, to try and compensate for cotton’s tendency to grow wider.)

So… whoops.

I haven’t frogged this yet because I suspect this may fit my sister. Though I’ll probably donate it if it doesn’t fit her, because I can’t think of another project I want to use this yarn for. (That’s not a knock on the Cotton Fleece, by the way. Because Cotton Fleece? Perfectly nice yarn. I’d use it again, but I’d rather use a different color.)

So I guess I have to knit another coverup now. Maybe not from this pattern, though. I think I’d rather have this bolero in a different color, and I do have some lovely Manos languishing in my stash…

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Stoles and sleeves

Posted on 19 March 2011 by Kris

I’d bought some laceweight Malabrigo back in 2008, in a gorgeous deep purple. (Who’s surprised by my color choice? Probably no one.) Fairly soon after I’d bought it, I decided that I wanted to use it for a Juno Regina stole.

However, it took me awhile to get around to it, because I had other stuff in the queue first and I try to have only one lace shawl/stole in progress at anytime. (You may notice some very convenient loopholes in that rule. Yes, those were put in on purpose.)

I actually ended up breaking that rule in July 2010. I’d started Aeolian just before Comic Con, but Aeolian is a poor choice for convention knitting, so I wanted something simpler. Juno Regina fit the bill nicely, and I figured I’d only have about a week of overlap anyway.

Much of the knitting here is actually from Comic Con. I’ve worked on it a little bit since then, but not much, since because during the last quarter of 2010, Juno Regina was pretty much my only WIP without a deadline.

The other reason I’m slacking? I’m not super thrilled with the yarn. Yes, it’s pretty and soft, but it’s spun kind of inconsistently. I don’t mind some variation in thickness, but I’ve come across some super-thick parts and some incredibly wispy parts as I’ve knit; both have been so extremely different from the rest of the skein that I’ve had to cut them out altogether. The yarn also has an unfortunate tendency to stick to itself – the center of my pull ball is a partially felted mess.

But at least the finished product will be nice, right?

On a less negative note, I now have sleeves for my Four Play cardigan!

They’re elbow length, exactly like I wanted! Had to unravel my swatches and use that yarn for it, but still, yay! And I have just enough yarn left for seaming, too.

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Aeolian Shawl

Posted on 17 March 2011 by Kris

Somehow, until last July it had never occurred to me to knit a lacy shawl in fingering weight yarn. I’m not entirely sure why – I mean, my very first lacy project was in an even heavier yarn! But then I saw some of the awesome fingering-weight shawls from my knitting group. And, I had more than a bit of a fingering weight yarn in my stash. So I started poking around Ravelry for options.

I ended up going with a pattern that I’d previously marked as a favorite – turns out that a fair number of people had knit it with Malabrigo Sock already. I think mine turned out pretty well, don’t you?

Pattern: Aeolian Shawl by Elizabeth Freeman
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock in Cote d’Azure
Needles: US4 Inox Express circulars

I knit the shoulderette version pretty much as written, although I did omit the beads. It was a pretty quick and fun project for me – I’m sure I’ve never knit a shawl so fast in my life. Yay for a fun pattern, and yay for fingering weight yarn!

My only problem was – I ran out of yarn partway through the bindoff! I thought I’d be okay since several people on Ravelry seemed to only need the one skein, but apparently I’m one of the exceptions. Booooo. Luckily, Jess came to my rescue! She had already finished a project using the exact same colorway of Malabrigo Sock, and she gave me the remnants so I could finish my own.

Speaking of the yarn, I really enjoyed working with it and would definitely use it again in the future. Though not for socks, despite the name. Malabrigo Sock is lovely and soft, but it’s not very tightly spun and I doubt it’ll wear particularly well. Luckily, wear isn’t as much of a problem when you’re dealing with a lacy shawl. Good thing, too, since I actually use this quite a bit. Mostly in the office, but still!

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Froot Loop socks

Posted on 15 March 2011 by Kris

And back to 2010. Man, I was such a slacker with these socks. It’s not like they were difficult to knit! But… well, I got bored with them about halfway through. Surprise, surprise.

Pattern: Froot Loop by Kristi Geraci
Yarn: Koigu Painter’s Palette Premium Merino in colorway 848
Needles: US0 Inox grey DPNs

The stitch pattern wasn’t too tough, but as you probably gathered from my opening sentences, I found it tedious after awhile. Oh well. At least it looks nice.

Unfortunately, these socks are slightly more snug than I’d like; I probably could have modified them to have more stitches all around. But at least these aren’t so tight as to be unwearable.

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