Author Archives: Kris

Shawls from the backlog

Posted on 10 June 2016 by Kris

I finished both Ewyn and Henslowe well ahead of time and they turned out beautifully. However, I didn’t actually photograph either before my lovely BFF’s wedding, and now one of those shawls is no longer in my possession, so documentation will have to wait for the moment.

In the meantime, since I’m still playing FO catchup, here’s a couple of older shawls:

Seraphim Shawl

Pattern: Seraphim Shawl by Miriam Felton
Yarn: Tess Designer Yarns Super Socks & Baby, colorway unknown
Needles: US2 / 3.0mm Knitpicks nickel-plated circular

Knit at a slightly denser gauge, like I usually do with lace, but with no other modifications. Yarn was nice to work with, too, although I wouldn’t go out of my way to knit with it again.

Seraphim Shawl

This was pretty mindless as far as lace goes, but that is definitely not a bad thing here! Effortlessly pretty, really.

Another effortlessly pretty shawl is one I knit for another friend’s wedding:

Duane Park Triangle

(I know, I know, I should’ve taken a few steps to my left before this was taken. Whoops.)

Pattern: Duane Park Triangle by Kirsten Kapur
Yarn: Anzula Haiku in Chiva and Paradise
Needles: US4/3.5mm HiyaHiya sharp steel interchangeable

I knit this one on smaller needles, too. Not only do I favor denser gauges, I also need smaller shawls!

Duane Park Triangle

The yarn was lovely to work with, as all Anzula yarns are. I picked two colors without a ton of contrast, so the striping isn’t super obvious and looks more like a blend of the two colors, especially up close, but that’s kind of what I was going for and I really dig it.

Yay, pretty shawls!

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Chamomile Top

Posted on 03 June 2016 by Kris

In contrast with my last post, this post is certainly not about a dud.

This is one of my older projects, one that I blogged about a bit while it was still in progress, and I still contend that it’s yet another example of overambitiousness. Or lack of fear. Or both. But as I said with Captain America’s Shield and will most certainly say again in the future: go big or go home.

Chamomile Top

Pattern: Chamomile Tunic by Asami Kawa
Yarn: Baruffa Cashwool in color 19
Needles: US0 / 2.0mm Hiya Hiya metal circulars
Hook: US2 / 2.2mm Susan Bates Steelite crochet hook

Lots of firsts with this project! First garment made out of laceweight yarn, and a very fine laceweight at that. First project with yoke shaping. First serious bit of crochet.

Also, first time I made multiple major miscalculations, leading to the first time I’ve ever knit a sweater yoke twice, and the first time I frogged most of the (already attached) sleeves and then reattached them by grafting. (Note to future self: the yarn requirement calculations you use for set-in sleeve sweaters don’t quite work for yoke-shaped sweaters.)

Not only that, but I did several other modifications as well. Like I’ve mentioned before, I added a bit of waist shaping. I also shortened the whole thing from tunic length to mid-hip length.

And if that wasn’t enough math for me, I also had to account for a very different gauge, since the Cashwool I used is quite a bit finer than the Alpaca Cloud called for in the pattern.

Chamomile Top

Whew!

Needless to say, I learned a TON from all that, and I’m more than a little proud of how it all paid off. Seriously, I love Chamomile to bits! But goodness, the amount of work involved. Never doing that again, but it was totally worth it just this once.

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Destined for frogging

Posted on 30 May 2016 by Kris

I still knit the occasional dud project; in fact I’ve knit two over the past couple of years. I did want to document them before I rip them out, so… here goes.

I wanted a cropped sweater for a couple of outfits, so I whipped one up:

Minimal

Yarn: Cascade 220 in color 4002
Needles: US5 / 3.75mm and US6 / 4.25mm Clover bamboo circulars

No pattern; I pretty much winged it, though it was kind of inspired by the Minimalist Cardigan from an older Interweave Knits. There was also minimal shaping (a little in the back, none in the front). So I called it Minimal. It wasn’t a particularly noteworthy sweater, construction-wise. Stockinette body, knit in pieces, with set-in sleeves and 3×1 ribbed edging.

So there’s two issues with this one:

  1. I really don’t like this sleeve length on me.
  2. The fronts were way too narrow.

Hence the need to rip. I plan on knitting a better open-front cardigan that addresses these two problems and is also longer, because I’m now over the cropped sweater thing.

The other project destined for frogging actually uses the same yarn, which is convenient, since I’ll need more yarn for the sweater’s second attempt:

Strange Loop

Strange Loop

Pattern: Strange Loop by Morgen Dammerung
Yarn: Cascade 220 in color 4002
Needles: US6 / 4.25mm Clover bamboo circulars

I love the idea of this pattern so much, and I decided to try it out because I was going to the snow for the first time in years, and needed some warmer accessories. And it fit perfectly fine as a hat, and was lovely and warm for weather in the negative 10s (Fahrenheit), but was just a little too snug as a cowl.

So I ripped the whole darn thing out, cast on more stitches, and knit it again. That was better but not by much. The issue is that I used significantly heavier yarn than the pattern calls for, and I did a poor job of accounting for the thicker fabric.

Next time I knit this pattern (and there will be a next time), it’ll be out of fingering weight yarn.

So, there you go, proof that not everything I knit is awesome!

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ETA: End of May

Posted on 27 April 2016 by Kris

I previously mentioned that I have two projects that are going to be taking up the bulk of my knitting time for this month and next. These need to be done in time for my lovely BFF Jessica’s wedding in early June. I’m making fairly decent progress, given that I just started both at the beginning of the month.

Ewyn - April 2016

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you’ve probably already guessed that this project is for Jessica. (I appreciate pink a lot more than I used to, but it’s still not really my jam.) The pattern is the crescent version of Ewyn; the yarn is Anzula Breeze in Hibiscus, doubled. I’m replacing all the nupps with silver-lined clear Miyuki seed beads. Between the beading and the 28-row edging repeats, this shawl requires a good amount of active attention, but I’m actually really enjoying it so far! This construction is new to me – you actually knit the edging first, and then pick up along the edge to knit the center section. Picture shows only about 2 1/2 repeats, though I’ve completed 10 so far.

Henslowe - April 2016

The other shawl is Henslowe, using Anzula Milky Way in Lapis, and it’s for me. I know it doesn’t look like much right now, but that’s unblocked garter stitch for you. I haven’t done this particular construction since knitting my Tina Shawl 10 years ago. Different shape, but still: knit the center section and bind off, pick up stitches along the edges and knit the next section, then knit the edging on perpendicularly. It’s going much faster than Ewyn because Henslowe is 1) pretty mindless and 2) smaller (appropriate, given that I’m a good foot shorter than Jessica).

Most of my other projects are on hold for the time being. But at the rate I’m going with these two, I should be able to pick the other ones up again by the end of the month!

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Small stashbusters

Posted on 15 April 2016 by Kris

I finished Cauchy on the first of the month, so pretty close to what I was aiming for! No pics yet – I’ve got some of the socks on my blockers, but am still trying to talk T into letting me take a modeled shot. We’ll see what happens with that.

In the meantime I’ve still got quite a bit of catching up to do! Nothing too exciting to show off today, just couple of small projects to use up some random leftovers:

Garter Coaster Beer Cozy

Pattern: Garter Coaster Beer Cozy by Jessica Landers
Needles: US2 / 2.75mm Crystal Palace bamboo DPNs

As for the yarn, I’m really not sure what it is, since I seem to have lost the label. I know I got the partial ball from Jessica ages ago, because I wanted to swatch it and then maybe get more for a tank top, and I know it’s from Knit Picks. And I’m pretty sure it’s a cotton blend. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine!

I made modifications for gauge and size (since as you can see, this is for a can). Easy, quick project.

The cozy basically lives in my camping backpack, since camping trips are pretty much the only time I drink anything from a can. Also it makes it easier to tell my drink from someone else’s, if I’m not the only one in the group who’s opened a can of something.

The other small stashbuster is one of my own design:

Fitbit One strap

Fitbit One strap

Yarn: Handmaiden Casbah Sock in Midnight
Needles: US0 / 2.00 mm Hiya Hiya circular

It’s a self-designed wrist band for my Fitbit One, because the strap it came with is incredibly uncomfortable and so I kept taking it off in my sleep, basically defeating its purpose. This one, on the other hand, doesn’t bother me at all!

The construction’s pretty simple – it’s basically a mostly 3×1 rib cuff with a knitted on pocket. Still, I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out.

That’s all for the small projects; bigger ones to follow!

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