Neon Confetti Irresistible!

Hi! Happy January! Is that a thing that people say? Happy January anyway :)

So far I’ve spent quite a lot of this calendar year eating nachos (YES) and watching the West Wing on netflix (YES) with my favourite person :) I have not been doing any knitting (broken record: no-crafting-for-wrist-healing-for-as-long-as-I-can-stand-it-so-that-hopefully-it-really-heals-this-time).

But! I did do a little bit of knitting back in mid-December that I haven’t shown you yet. (It was a bad idea wrists-wise, but I can still show it to you. Yeah!)

Remember this neon yarn that I gushed about (from Vancouver’s RainCityKnits) which I picked up at this summer’s Fibrations festival in Victoria?

I love speckley, sprinkley yarns like this one, even though I sometimes have a hard time finding patterns that really make them shine. I’m using it to make (Guelph’s) Ash Kearns’ pattern, Clincher, and I’m still pretty obsessed with it. (Also kind of pleased that both the yarn and the pattern are by Canadians :) )

I think the combination of yarn and pattern here is FANTASTIC. Kudos to RainCity dyer (and lovely person) Krista for doing such a beautiful and non-pool-ey dye job!

Project glamour shots time? I think so.

Neon yarn + simple, addictive pattern + bright happy project bag = COME ON

Finally, regularly scheduled cat leg cameo:

Yeah. I really, really love how this yarn is knitting up, and when I’m back in fighting form knitting-wise, I’m going to be all over this prettiness. It just makes my heart happy!

2014 in review!

Check it out – WordPress has this cool “year in review” feature that compiles a bunch of statistics from a blog over the last year. Neat!

Click here to see the complete report.

My blog is pretty tiny right now (in terms of traffic, commenting, that kind of thing), but that’s okay with me. First, because even chatting with a few friends (YOU GUYS!) is still lovely – and nicer than chatting just to Miss New Zealand… Second, because it means there’s still lots of room to grow!

I’m still thinking about the how’s and why’s, but I think I’d love to make growing the blog a little bit a goal for 2015. It might be challenging, especially if my arm strain issues continue to prevent me from crafting as much as I’d like to, but I really enjoy blogging so I want to try!

I’m not normally a big “resolutions” person, but I do like the idea of goals and targets (which you could argue is just semantics… but it’s a meaningful distinction to me. I think goals and targets communicate an intentional flexibility and aspirational quality, while resolutions have kind of a more rigid, “to be broken” feeling that can set you up for feelings of failure. ANYWAY!).

I have a few others in mind for this coming year that I’m still mulling over. What about you? Are you thinking about goals, craft-related or otherwise, around this time of year?

Garter Chevron Blanket – halfway catchup!

I was looking through some photos from the last two weeks, and realized that I DO have new photos of my garter chevron blanket to share, even though I’m still on knitting hiatus, for now, while my wrists and forearms heal up from overuse.

I actually made a bunch of progress on this project in a short span of time — which is part of how I messed up my stupid wrists in the first place! I had a couple of days in a row where I had to spent 5+ hours sitting quietly, waiting for things. PERFECT for knitting, right? Except, it’s not a good idea to knit garter stitch (knit knit knit knit with no purls or other stitches) for the whole 5 hours with no breaks.

Although I regret it now, because it’s meant such a dumb hiatus, I did get quite a lot knit.

I finished the third colour/second stripe! This was the first really truly green stripe, in a colourway called “granny smith.” I’m still really loving how this is coming out – I know the colours wouldn’t be for everyone, but they’re very me :)

This next stripe is the only non-Cascade yarn. This 3rd stripe/4th colour is Classic Wool from Patons, in a bright medium green called “clover leaf”. Why different yarn? For the most practical reason ever: this yarn in this colour happened to be on super sale at my LYS. It fit into the colour scheme was economical to boot!

I’m super excited about how this blanket is shaping up! I think I’m firmly in “knitted blanket junkie” territory, now.

Walking… Still not knitting

There were some completely lovely comments on my last (quite whiny, really) post about wrist pain and time away from knitting – thank you lovely commenters!

I’m still on my knitting break, so I don’t have anything yarny to show you. I did go on a lovely rainy walk, though, and I thought I’d share some of the best bits.

I started out near the inner harbour, which I kind of love on gray days.

This time of year, Victoria also has lots of cherry blossoms – super pretty!

AN ADORABLE SNAIL!!!

There was some fiber-ey content – I passed three or four of Victoria’s giant spindle whorl sculptures (more on them here – they’re called “Signs of Lekwungen”, and honour the Coast Salish). I love, love, love having such amazing and public connections to fiber arts in my city!

It’s 100% spring here, so flowers are happening!

There’s also a series of sculptures around the harbour of hands doing a variety of things. I both love them AND think they’re super super creepy :)

I love my city, and walking is definitely a good thing; I’m still looking forward to getting back to knitting, though!

Mitten fit.

So, here’s the thing. I’m an experienced and pretty confident knitter. I adjust patterns all the time to create garments that will fit me the way I want them to – shorter sleeves, adequate busts, buttons where I want them, all kinds of modifications.

Even though I can and usually do take my actual body’s measurements into account when I’m knitting, until now, I’ve only ever knit mittens that are too big for me.

I really have no explanation for this. I tried them on as I went. I could see that probably they would be “a little bit long”. But I still finished them.

Exhibit A: a basic mitten recipe, and handspun that I got at one of Victoria’s yarn stores.

The cuff is WAY too long. The wrist-to-fingertip portion isn’t too bad, but the too-long-cuff means it never sits quite right. Also notice the lobster claw thumb, which is weird and wrong but I love it.

Exhibit 2: Beautiful cabled mittens out of Brooklyn Tweed’s Shelter yarn, which is unique and gorgeous.

WHO HAS ARMS LIKE THIS?! (Just to be clear – the birth mark on the left of the photo is about 1″ away from the inside of my elbow. Is there a name for “inside elbow part”? Inbow? Brb googling… “Antecubital Fossa”.) Pattern, you crazy. Sarah, you also crazy for not realizing you made a mitten sleeve, and then MAKING ANOTHER ONE. So beautiful, so too long for me.

Exhibit III: Okay fine, these pretty much fit. But the button loop at the end makes them a little bit impractical… or at least a little bit quirky. (The pattern is by the super talented Ysolda Teague.)

Finally, enter New Favourite Mittens That Fit And Also Have Nostalgic Childhood Resonance!

Following another Raveller’s modifications, I eliminated several sections of the (very nice, and very free) pattern, in order to shorten the cuff, the palm, and the thumb, substantially. And behold! A my-hand-sized mitten! It’s made out of 100% angora, which is BANANAS soft.

When I was a kid, I had a pair of plain white angora mittens and a matching hat that were super super soft, and only for special occasions, and I treasured them. They weren’t handknit, or cabled, but they were soft and pretty and made appearances on the kind of days when my sister and I had to wear matching dresses my mom had sewed with crinolines and too tight sleeve elastic. I’m pretty stoked about the new, adult version, that I can wear anytime I want :)

Guess who has two thumbs and two sleeves?

This guy!

Remember, this is Kate Davies’ Shepherd Hoodie knit in Juniper Moon’s limited edition Shepherd & Shearer yarn (which you can STILL GET right here!)

How about a super blurry selfie modelled shot? I’m expecting it to look a bit different once it’s been blocked, but you can see the general shape of the garment.

Once the sleeves were finished, I moved on to the last big knitted element – the hood! Working the hood requires you to collect stitches on hold and pick up new stitches, from the front button band edges, up along the shaped fronts, and across the back. (Bonus cat hair in the photo! Thank you, cat, for spreading your body hair all over everywhere.)

Then there’s a sea of seed stitch to work!

The hood requires quite a lot of yarn, so I ended up unravelling my swatch to reclaim the 30+g it had used up. Here’s the swatch yarn unravelled…

…and after a soak and air dry! Much better.

I’m so looking forward to having the finished sweater available to wear, because it’s been quite cold lately (cold for my corner of the country, anyway). But I’ll also be a tiny bit sad when the knitting is done. This piece has really been a pleasure to knit, and the yarn is an absolute favourite. I’ll be looking for more hard-wearing, lanolin rich yarns in the future, for sure: they’re awesome to knit with, and they result in garments that wear and last extremely well.

I admit that I’m looking ahead to what’s next too – a pretty, shiny lace project!

Shepherd Taking Shape!

Since my last Shepherd sweater update, I’ve made some exciting progress!

I finished up the right front, which was shaped with a combination of binding off stitches and decreasing at the neck edge.

Then I worked on the left front, shaped in the same way.

Doesn’t it look pleasingly symmetrical? I’m starting to see “sweater” when I look at it instead of just “rectangular block of cables”!

Now I’ve moved on to the center back portion of the body. It’s wider than the front pieces were, so it’s a bit slower going, but no shaping to keep track of! I’m looking forward to finishing this bit, because then I get to join the shoulders and start SLEEVES!

Even for such a large and labour-intensive project, knitting this sweater isn’t at all a slog. There’s constant evidence of progress to keep me feeling motivated and excited! I only wish it was small enough to carry with me on the bus ;)

Shepherd Update!

The last time I showed you my Shepherd sweater, I was making steady progress on the lovely, heavily cabled body, and generally gushing about both pattern and yarn’s considerable charms.

I’m still totally in love with the pattern and the yarn – no surprise there. I know it’s been said (by me, and by others) already, but the yarn for this project is just SO so special. It’s not buttery soft like most of the commercial yarns available today, but it’s not really what I would call “rough” either. It just has more substance, more body, more crispness, and I loooove it. Also bears repeating: it just smells. so. fantastic. Lanolin is magical, and fragrant.

ANYWAY! I took a little break from Shepherd over the holidays, to crank out a pair of socks for a beloved whose feet were cold and whose office mates apparently had handknit socks made by their wives. Now my attention is back on the sweater!

Like my friend Amber, who is also knitting (and blogging!) the Shepherd hoodie, I’ve just divided for the fronts, back, and sleeves. (*waves* HI AMBER!) Before I divided, I worked the body length to about 16.25″, a little bit shorter than the pattern calls for, for my size, because I’m a bit shorter than, um, most eighth graders ;)

I prefer to put held stitches on extra circular cables, instead of waste yarn, so that they’re super quick to pick up again when I need them. So, that means my sweater looks like a bit of a hot mess right now. All is well, there are just a lot of extra cables flapping around!

I’m making progress on the first front piece, and getting really excited about being able to try on a sweater body sometime soon :)

Healing, Knitting. Hexa-Rainbows and Rainb-agons!

I’m recovering! Slowly – but surely. I’m very lucky that I’ve been able to take a good chunk of time off from work to stay home, consume liquids, and rest. I need it, too – I’m totally worn out! Even a quick shopping trip today completely wiped out the energy I had stored up over a few days. Oops.

Also lucky for me, it turns out that knitting something simple is the perfect way to keep my mind busy (to avoid obsessing about the potentially catastrophic meaning of every tiny ache and pain – I’m a worrier ;) ) and to create something happy and beautiful at the same time.

First, I finished some socks for a beloved with cold feet. I *really* hope they fit, but if they don’t, I can make more. That’s the beauty of knitting, I think.

Next, I made a bunch of easy, comforting hexagons.

They have been the perfect project, because I don’t need to read or remember a pattern, and they’re small enough that I can work on them even with a supervisory cat in my lap. :) They are also hella pretty.

Even though I’m really enjoying working on these hexagons, I’d love to get back to my Shepherd hoodie, too. What are you knitting, these days? I hope it’s something happy-making.

Bright Hexagon Blocking!

Remember that Rain City Knits sampler?

I’m starting to finish some neon hexagons with that gorgeous yarn!

Check it out :)

Not all of these yarns are from Rain City – but the brightest ones are ;)

I’m loving how these are turning out!