Two times two

I got a lot of knitting done since my last post. It's been a good week!
I finished my Lomond hat (by LittleTheorem on Ravelry) knit in Knitpicks Swish Worsted in Lost Lake Heather.

I'm really happy with how it turned out even though I messed up one of the wraps AGAIN, smh. Barely noticeable to a muggle I think, but a knitter would notice. One of the pluses of being tall though-not many people get to see the top of my head!


I had mentioned last week that I wanted to make an infinity scarf, but I hadn't found any patterns I liked. So I set about playing with patterns. At first, I cast on using US15/10mm. I borrowed a pattern from a sock book and I liked it, but it seemed to take a lot of yarn for not a very large piece of knitting, and was very dense. I think the pattern would look cute on socks, but not on a scarf. I used up a whole skein of the Cadena I before I decided I didn't want to knit a whole scarf like this.

I frogged it, and then played around with garter stitch, stockinette and eyelets. Also on US15/10mm needles, and didn't like it much either. I particularly did not like the stockinette.

The third time was the charm however, I left out the stockinette and did a pattern of garter and eyelets. I also switched to US17/12mm needles.

I lost track because I was enjoying knitting up the Cadena I. Somehow, I ended up with an 11 foot scarf. Oops. But, whatever, I like 'em big! I seamed it up at the ends, and soaked it in Eucalan. Which made it absolutely REEK. It smelled so, so bad, like putrid eggs, and because it's such a big scarf, it took forever to dry. My house stunk for almost 2 days.
It also grew. Significantly.

Seamed, in half, it's well over 6 feet tall. Which is totally cray cray. But I love it, because it no longer smells horrifying, and it's super soft and warm. I'm only exaggerating a wee bit when I say I can wrap it around my neck and head a dozen times.

Originally I had planned to do a provisional cast on so I taught myself to do a basic crochet chain. (I watched a video by Very Pink Knits-she's awesome and I like to pretend we're buddies when I watch her videos) But then I realized it wasn't going to work because I don't have a big enough crochet hook. Super annoying, but it's pretty amazing that I even have crochet hooks at all. I think I got them when my mother gave me some of her knitting stuff? Or maybe they belonged to my grandmother? Either way, the provisional cast on using a crochet chain is pretty nifty and I'm going to try to find a project to use that cast on.
I tried to do another provisional cast on using waste yarn and I could. not. do. it. I just could not figure it out. Reading directions, watching videos-numerous videos and trying the cast on over and over. Could not make it work.  I was, and honestly,still so frustrated that I couldn't do it. I wanted to scream. I'll try again at some point, but I need some space from it. I don't think I've ever been so frustrated with my knitting :(

Anywhoo, after the scarf was completed, I cast on the first of what will be a pair of Maize mitts by TinCanKnits, using some more stashed kp Swish worsted in Lost Lake Heather.

I needed mitts to match my Lost Lake Heather Lomond, and Maize is one of my favourite patterns for mittens.

Sunday, went to Mouline with mah knitta to get some Debbie Bliss Paloma (60% Alpaca, 40% merino, chainette) which was awesomely on sale, so I could knit another infinity scarf. I grabbed the last 3 hanks of the Paloma in black. Score!

We stopped in at a cute little cafe, where we got down to the serious business of knitting, and in my case, drinking  hot chocolate.
I cast on my second chullo hat, using the O Wool. First I started on DPNs, got annoyed and switched to my interchangeables.  Then I ran out of yarn while doing the long tail cast on. Then I miscounted the stitches I had cast on, even with markers (wtf?) to keep track of how many stitches I was casting on. Didn't notice that I didn't cast on enough stitches until I was putting locking stitch markers (for the ear flaps) in the cast on edge. Ridiculous. I should not ever attempt to cast on a project, even a simple one when I'm out in public. I'm too easily distracted.

I finished the garter stitch rows of the hat and then it was time to head back home...and then completely lost interest in the hat.

On Monday I didn't knit much. I was too busy looking through stitch dictionaries for a pattern for my infinity scarf made from Paloma, I ended up choosing a Broken Slip Stitch pattern.  I cast on 15sts, with US15/10mm needles and only knit a couple of rows... but Tuesday I knit a huge chunk of the day and it was awesome.
See, my mother was getting some furniture delivered, and couldn't miss work so I waited at her place for the delivery.  It was promised that the furniture would be delivered before I needed to leave to go pick up B after school (she lives 3 minutes away from his school).
I brought three projects

(the scarf, maize and the chullo hat.) Brought my laptop so I could binge watch Hannibal (SO GOOD) and knit, knit, knit. As I'm plugging away at my Paloma scarf, and watching Hannibal eat people, I start thinking about making another Lomond hat, out of the leftover Paloma. But, I don't think one hank of the Paloma is enough for the hat, and I don't want to skimp out on my scarf. I check the yardage needed for Lomond-103yrds. Paloma is only 73yrds per hank. I've got about 7 repeats (of a 20 row pattern) done on the scarf, I could definitely make a hat, and then if there are any leftovers, I can add more rows to the scarf.
I couldn't start the hat while at my mother's house because, while I did have the right size needles, they were currently being used by the Chullo Hat and I didn't have any waste yarn, or an extra cord so I could use those interchangeables. Argh. So I did an extra couple of rows on the scarf,  estimating what 30 yards looks like so I'd have enough for the hat.  I spent the rest of my time at my mom's finishing the first Maize and casting on the second.

That night, after B went to bed, I couldn't wait to cast on Lomond with the Paloma. Double Seed stitch did not even phase me, my needles clicked furiously as I flew through this project.

This time around, the w&t's went smoothly and I didn't mess up the wraps!
I finished up the hat yesterday morning, and then with the leftover yarn,  I finished my scarf as well. I don't know why I bothered with a pattern, you can barely see it. To be quite honest, this scarf would have been just fine as a garter stitch scarf.

I managed to get in 10 full repeats of the 20 row pattern. But it was vry, vry close. By the end, I was worried I would not have enough yarn left for the bind off and I would either have to tink back the last row, or scavenge some of the tail from the cast on. But it worked out!

Chibi to show you just how close I came to not having enough.
End result:

Yay!

tl;dr: finished two hats, two infinity scarves, mostly finished a mitten. Still no sweaters.

*ABC

Election day! Exercised my right to vote, I don't care who wins, as long as it isn't the conservative party. I dragged B with me, he found it all very exciting.


The bulk of my knitting this past week took place at Maison Tricote, where I worked on one project-the Basket Whip cowl. (Do you spot the hand knit biscotte&cie socks?)

So I finished the basket whip cowl. It was a fun and quick knit, and I really liked knitting with Quince & Co yarn, but I'm not sure I am a cowl person. Maybe for mild days, but I wore the cowl out when it was windy and hovering around 2°C and it didn't do much in the keeping warm department. I really hate when my neck and chin are cold.

 Last year, I accidentally felted two of the infinity scarves I made with Malabrigo worsted, and one of them was so unwearable that I had to toss it. I love my Soda Fountain scarf, but I knit it in Glazed Carrot (Malabrigo) and it's gorgeous, but it doesn't go with everything. I want to make an infinity scarf with my Illamani  Cadena I, which will pretty much go with everything, but i'm having a hard time finding a pattern I like. I even spent a couple of hours flipping through stitch dictionaries, the Cadena I is chained so I want something simple, but not so simple that I get bored and it becomes another ufo.
btw, look at this yarn? isn't it beautiful?? I like to pet it and rub it against my face.

I'm thinking of starting off with a provisional cast on, and then some rows of garter stitch, stockinette and rows of eyelets, and then finish it off with a three needle bind off. Just need to figure out needles, how many stitches and how long to knit.

I also bought new yarn for the alpaca chullo hat that I want to re-make. I was rooting around in a discount basket at Maison Tricote when I found two skeins of  bulky O Wool, in "Earth" and "Oyster" which are absolutely perfect for the chullo! At 20% off, it was clearly meant to be.

Of course, instead of casting on the chullo hat, I cast on a different hat. I cast on and am currently knitting the Lomond hat by LittleTheorum.

I'm knitting it using two strands of stashed kp swish worsted in Lost Lake Heather, which is a kind of dark olive/bluish colour. I have enough in stash that I'll probably do mittens as well.
It's super cute, and even though I hate knitting moss stitch, I have to admit it looks really nice.
I messed up 2 of the 4 wrap&turns, missed picking up the wraps but didn't notice until I was just over one inch into the stockinette part of the hat. Could have been worse...

How does one pick up two wraps, but completely miss the other two, when they're all on the same row?? I was so irritated with myself that I put the hat down, left it overnight, and only earlier this evening did I pick up the hat again, and rip-it rip-it rip-it, all the way back to the double moss stitch band. When I'm done writing this blog, I'm going to get myself some tea, make everyone leave me alone, and re-knit the set-up row and the short row, picking up all the wraps this time, I'll even put a locking stitch marker in the wrap so I don't forget it this time around.

I have one other FO worth mentioning, I finished one chocolato sock! Cast on the second chocolato sock,

worked on it a little bit while having cupcakes and hot chocolate with A, my 17yr old,  after seeing The Aztec exhibition at the  Pointe-a-Calliere musuem on Sunday. The Aztecs; much sacrifice, very bloody, wow.

*anything but conservatives

UFOs piling up

Aren't long weekends wonderful? Canadian thanksgiving yesterday...and it was a beautiful one, perfect weather!

So, I've added my rainforest sweater to the UFO pile, all snug next to greenfield and virpi. Have not touched any of those projects, at all, as of late. Instead I've been casting on all the things.
First, I cast on the Basket Whip Cowl (by Classic Elite) and I'm knitting it with Quince &Co Chickadee in Robins Egg Blue.

I've not knit with Quince& Co before and I'm quite liking it. It seems like it would be great for sweaters. Final verdict after I wash and wear it of course.

Midweek, I hit up Maison Tricote to do some knitting on the basket whip cowl, have some tea (and make faces at babies)  I ended up buying some yarn-this gorgeous Illimani yarns Cadena I in beige (i'm very into neutrals right now) that will eventually become a giant, smooshy cowl. The Cadena is super bulky yarn, chained, made with 73% alpaca and 27% merino. It feels amazing. And somehow, I did not take pictures of it.
I also bought some of the coolest stitch markers ever!

Because why not? With the number of projects I have on the needles right now, I need a lot of stitch markers!


Before I could finish the cowl,  I had to cast on for a new pair of Leethal Mary Jane slippers. I know I swore to never make another pair, but I love them and my favourite ones (the ones made with bulky black swish and mustard yellow Eco Merino Possum Chunky) somehow got a hole in them *sad face*.

I think they just wore out, due to incessant wear, and I just couldn't be arsed to darn them, they served their time,  let them go. This also gives me the opportunity to go stash diving!  I cast on the new slippers using leftover balls of bulky Wool of the Andes (from knitpicks); 2 strands of Planetarium and 1 strand of Stormy.

Those worked up so quickly, I think 4-5 hours total for both slippers? including finishing. Bloody hell, they take a long time to dry though! Totally worth it though, so comfy on mah feets.

I was worried I wouldn't have enough wool to finish the slippers, but I really needn't have, I had plenty.

With those done, I should have been focussing on the cowl again, but instead I decided I needed to knit a hat with alpacas on it! I've actually been thinking about a chullo-style hat for awhile, it's why I bought that hank of Fleece Artist  blue-faced Leicester in Ebony (a gorgeous deep brown) all those weeks ago. And using the leftover bfl in Smoke from my skoodlet for the alpacas!  Anyway, chullo and alpacas go together like pb&j so I found a hat pattern I liked (and knit long ago in noro silk garden before I knew about yarn weights and needles sizes) and an alpaca chart and did some math (ick) and started knitting.

Now that was a quick knit,  banged out most of it while binge watching season 1 of Portlandia.
Sadly, my floats are too tight and I don't think it's going to fit and I don't like how it looks because of the puckering. I soaked it overnight, hoping to get as much stretch as possible out of it, and now I'm blocking it on a balloon, but I don't think it's working *sigh*

I'm going to have to re-knit the bloody thing. It's too small, and too puckery-I wouldn't ever want to wear it, nor would I want anyone else to wear it. I have enough leftover yarn that I should be able to knit a whole new hat, and if I don't, well, I can always frog the hat and pillage the yarn.

And that brings me back around to the cowl. Working on it again, probably about half way through?

I'm going to focus solely on the cowl until it's done, try some project monogamy for change. I'll probably finish it today or Wednesday and then my plan (hah) is to re-knit the hat, and then hunker down and knit the body of my rainforest sweater, it's getting cold and I've been wearing my two V-necks, my Aiken and my Cypress incessantly and I need a new sweater in rotation. I figure I've been away from the sweater long enough that it might seem like I don't have that much knitting to do before ribbing and casting off. Then, as a reward I'll cast on a cowl with that yummy Cadena I! Cannot wait to get that sqooshiness on the needles! I also want to take a picture of my stash, document it, share it, laugh at some of it, and maybe get rid of some of it.

Plans...so many plans, hopefully this burgeoning cold doesn't put a damper on my plans.

October (aka pumpkin everything month)

In honor of the month of October, I knit a pumpkin hat. For my cats. From the Cats in Hats book by Sara Thomas. Of course I used leftover stash yarn, Malabrigo Worsted in green (forget the name-oops) and Glazed Carrot. It literally took 30 minutes to knit up, weave in ends, attach the stem. Ridiculously quick project.  Nikki is resigned to the cat hat. 

                                            Libby is not resigned. Wants it off, right meow.

 Next cat hat is going to be an actual hat- with ribbing and maybe a pompom on top.

In non-pumpkin knitting, I have a FO to report! Zuzu's Petals! Another relatively quick knit, finished it up in just a couple of nights. Enough to finish watching the last episodes of Weeds. Though now that I'm done Weeds, I'm kind of at a loss as to what to watch next. I've been watching some docs in the interim, I think I may binge watch the second season of Penny Dreadful. 

It looked gorgeous after blocking! I love the silvery colour near the bottom. I want more ombre yarn! Freia Ombre washed up very very nicely, it's very soft, and lost no colour at all. It is a little pricey, but the yardage is decent and I would definitely knit with this yarn again. 

The fit is okay, I think I could have gone up a needle size and it would be a better fit around my neck, it's not as drapey as some of the Zuzu's I've seen on Rav. 

I'm thinking about making another one using some of the Miss Babs Yowza (in Candied Pecan-ooh! I could also do up a pair of fingerless mitts to match) I have in stash. Suggested weight for the worsted version of Zuzu is us8 or 9, but I think i'd go up to a us10. 

WIPS:

-I haven't touched my Greenfield Cardy since I last posted. It's in timeout until I feel like knitting it again. Just not feeling it. It's not being difficult, the yarn is lovely, I'm just bored af. And I know if I wait long enough, I'll be able to bang it out in no time at all, because I've already put so much knitting into it.

-My Cropped Sweater for Winter by Andi Satterlund, is coming along nicely. I think I'm going to just refer to this sweater as my Rainforest  sweater (from the colours) because the name is a bit of a mouthful and it's not going to be a cropped sweater. I'm about a 3rd of the way through the bust shaping, which is not bad. With it's miles of stockinette it's perfect for car knitting, and binge watching crime documentaries. 

-Chocolato sock#1

I was only bringing out this sock while waiting for B's class to enter the school (I wait by the fence) and while waiting for him after school.

I can generally get a row or 3 done. The leg of the sock reached 5.5" which I decided was long enough for this particular sock, and yesterday I started the heel flap. It's going to be more difficult to get the foot knit, it's definitely too cold to knit in the mornings now, and no doubt, it won't be pleasant knitting after school either. I really love this yarn though, so maybe I'll focus on just the socks for a week and get those done during my usual knitting time. 

In other news; I am a little bit heartbroken. I made B a flax sweater last year, out of the wonderful Juniper Moon Farm Chadwick (60% merino, 40% alpaca-really gorgeous stuff). I put it on him last week, to see if it still fit (it did!) and after a couple minutes he started to pull at and started yelling "take it oooooff, take it oooooff". He said it was scratchy *sad face* A couple of days after that, I put one of his ear flap hats on his head, and he immediately pulled it off and started scratching his head saying "mommy, my hair is sensitive" *sadder face* that hat was made with old school KP Swish worsted (100% merino) and it was super soft and lovely. His dad is sensitive to all kinds of wool as well. I am aware that it's not necessarily the wool that is the problem, it could very well be the chemicals the wools are treated with, or could be the way the wool is processed or even the dyes. but the fact is that it makes him (and his dad) itchy *saddest face*
The upside of course, is that at least now I don't have to knit him a sweater! 

Shhhh, don't be pointing out the nice acrylics available out there, this is a good excuse for being a selfish knitter!