Thursday, January 31, 2013

January: a Tale in Pictures

Click a pic to embiggen

Jan 2 2013 -- 20%
Jan 19 2013 -- 35%
Jan 26 2013 --70%
Jan 31 2013 --87%

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Small FOs and other bits and bobs

Finished up some stuff, started other stuff, continuing to work on stuff.  Stuff!  It's happening!

FINISHED STUFF I'VE NEVER MENTIONED UNTIL NOW!
Legwarmies [Rav] by Alana Dakos; knit with half a skein of Knit One Crochet Too Handpainted Ambrosia in colorway 1934 Turkish Rug and a quarter-skein of Knit Picks Gloss Fingering in colorway Woodland Sage
Toddler Flashdance!  These have felted now, but that's okay, because c'mon.  Wear and tear.

TO GO [Rav] by Laura Archibald; knit with less than 100 yds of Crystal Palace Mochi Plus in colorway 557 Autumn Rainbow
Christian's Scarf [Rav] by Ágnes Kutas-Keresztes; knit with four full skeins of Knit Picks Capra in colorway Hunter
This took forever...  I don't like knitting scarves.  BUT the yarn's a cashmere blend, so all is forgiven.

Little Coffee Bean Cardigan [Rav] by Elizabeth Smith; knit with "a skein" (207 yds) of Lion Brand Cotton-Ease in colorways 122 Taupe, 149 Stone, and 113 Cherry
My first foray into duplicate stitch: success!

Seamless Baby Kimono [Rav] by Jacki Kelly; knit with most of a skein of Cascade 220 Superwash Paints in colorway 9860 Jelly Bean and half a skein of Cascade 220 Superwash in colorway 815 Coal
 My fifth SBK -- so simple, so easy to adjust the sizing, fits for a really long time.

2013: JANUARY SHAWL is finished!
But I haven't taken proper photos yet!  So all you get is this:

OTHER STUFF I'VE STARTED
Still working on the alpaca laceweight firework-looking shawl...

more Toddler Flashdance is on the way, one bound-off leg warmer...

and I'm making a cabley hat out of superwash because I can.

Exeunt!

Sunday, January 6, 2013

2012: The Year in Shawls

TWELVE SHAWLS IN 2012?  No.
It was a valiant attempt that fell short... as in, there were three full months out of the year I didn't do any shawling.  Oops.

Shawl Project Pattern [Ravelry links]
1 Sensational Carnation EZ 100th Anniversary Hearts Half-Circle [Rav]
2 Diamonds for a Queen Girl's Best Friend [Rav]
3 Seanmháthair Ashton Shawlette [Rav]
4 Shawlette of Destiny Holden Shawlette [Rav]
5 FanFare Panda Silk DK Fan Shawl [Rav]
6 Mariquita Annis [Rav]
7 My Prerogative Eiku [Rav]
8 Gryphon in Repose Ethereal [Rav]
9 Lannis Port Bananaboat [Rav]
10 Leaf Shawls are Cool The Lonely Tree Shawl [Rav]
11 Autumn Fireworks Shawl Echo Flower Shawl [Rav]
12 Classy Engorgio Crescent Crescent [Rav]

HOWEVER
I will not be beaten!  I will not be cast down!
I WILL be attempting twelve shawls in 2013!
With a plan this time!  And zero months off!

First on the docket is a bright blue aran-weight crescent shawlette; I'm trying to decide if I like knitting crescent shawls or not, as they may be easier to wear.  Hey, we'll find out!
See, I've already picked out the yarn and everything.  This is totally going to happen.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

FO x2: Shawls I Have Loved

In writing my Shawls of 2012 post (awesomeness to follow, ladies and germs!), there came to light a glaring error: two of the shawls had never made an appearance on this blog!  THIS SHALL NOT STAND!

From June: 
Holden Shawlette [Rav] by Mindy Wilkes; knit with a skein of Cascade Yarns Heritage Silk Paints in colorway 9996 Deep Water

No mods, just a straight-up awesome free! pattern, knit in what might be my go-to favorite shawlette yarn.  I love this stuff: it's so soft, it drapes well, I'm not allergic to it, the colorways are beautiful.  YAY.

This was about the time for figuring out photography stuff -- color balance, contrast, lighting conditions -- and I took lots of (awful) progress shots for this one, so here they all are yyaayyyyy......
*muppet flail*


From December:
The Lonely Tree Shawl [Rav] by Sylvia Bo Bilvia; knit with two and a half skeins of Knit Picks Swish Worsted in colorway Indigo Heather

A triangle shawl in worsted weight probably smacks of desperation to some people, and I'll admit, I did knit this mostly to quickly add to my Yearly Shawl Total (YST).  But I love the yarn and the shawl looks great, so I'm not going to feel guilty about the fact that I finished it in about three days.

 
 

This was Shawl #10 in my quest for TWELVE SHAWLS IN 2012!  So was I successful?  Or did I go down in a blaze of glory?  You'll just have to wait until tomorrow to find out!  Spoiler alert: wah-wah fail.

FO: Lannis Port

THE HOLIDAYS MADE ME SO TIRED, YOU GUYS.  Also, I'm writing this before coffee; this may get interesting.

Christmas knitting got away from me, as always, so I still haven't been able to send some things.  But the recipients aren't expecting them and they don't knit know about this blog, so HA, gonna write about stuff anyway.

It's a shawl!  It took a month!  Ooooh, aaaaah:
Bananaboat [Rav] by Sue Berg; knit with 2-ish skeins of Knit Picks Gloss Lace in colorway Port


This pattern is free! on Ravelry, vaguely translated from German.  I went up a needle size (no long-length circs in size US5 at my house), so I only did 3.5 of the 4 total repeats of the lace chart (for yarn usage reasons, rather than size).

 


I named the project "Lannis Port" for Game of Thrones reasons; it seemed clever in my brain at the time...  using yarn in the Port colorway + fancy like royalty + I had just finished A Feast for Crows (AKA Book 4).  Cersei wishes she had this shawl!