A Move, FO's and the Beginning of the End

So Kendra here, finally checking in again with lots to update you on! First off, I moved! It took what felt like ages to actually pack up four years of living in NYC, but we made it out after shipping 49 boxes and selling all of our furniture. 10 bags at the airport later...

...and we made it to California!!! It's good to be home, I gotta say. I miss my Brooklyn knitters dearly but it really is great to be back. We even found an apartment in San Francisco already, a gorgeous home up on a secluded hill. Here is the view from it, although the photo does not do it justice and the trees are about to be trimmed so it'll get even better!

And although I haven't been knitting a great deal recently I have finished two things since I last spoke up. My Scroll Lace Scarf, aka Whimsical Little Mushroom Scarf, was knit up ages ago (only took a couple of evenings in fact!) but I've barely stopped wearing it long enough to photograph/I forget to ask someone else to take a photo when I wear it. So here it is finally, in all its golden glory!

I knit it out of the beautiful Metamorphosis by A Verb For Keeping Warm in an awesome colorway that is naturally dyed with "locally foraged mushrooms". As an Oakland based company, this seems like the perfect welcome back to the Bay Area project! I love the color because it goes with everything so it's been my in-purse-in-case-of-chill-emergency scarf since I cast it off over a month ago.

The next big FO is a Color Affection shawl, the beloved pattern by Veera Valimaki. I love it!!! I picked out three colors of Miss Babs Yet Lace (in Pewter, Moss, and Oyster) while at Stitches West 2012 (with fellow WLKAer Lindsey's help!) and got knitting! And look how pretty!

This was one of those fortunate times when "blocking will fix that" actually worked out! The garter edge was just wee-bit-too-tight, but I foraged ahead because that's how I roll. By the time it was finished the effect was quite obvious and causing the points to spiral. I had pretty much decided to call this a Design Element and move on, but a goofy blocking on the bed with towels (this thing is HUGE!!!) where I tugged at the straight edge and smooshed the garter body and poof! Perfect shawl!

(Side note: Turns out adding a yarn over after the 2nd stitch then dropping it on the way back is good idea to help this tight-edge problem - little late for me, but thought I'd help a fellow knitter out.)

I love the pattern and loved knitting it, but making the lace weight version meant by the end I had probably 600+ stitches (although to tell you the truth I didn't actually want to know the number at the time) so the last 20 rows were a bit painful. Now that it's bound-off and blocked the painful memory is gone and now it's just the warm and fuzzy feeling of new love. Even Adam is a fan...

Now it's on to the next and last project of Whimsical Little Knits 2 with the Cotton Reel Mittens. I'm making mine in the fingerless mitt version out of Miss Babs Yummy Toes in grey and greenie-yellow. The pattern starts with an I-cord that becomes the bottom of the cuff which is super cool in this knitter's opinion, which is as far as I've gotten so far.

Luckily I'm casting on in time to take them with me on the flight back to NYC for graduation. Back already, I know, but it means I get to see some knitter friends so it's all good :) Stay tuned to see how the final project of this knit-along goes and what we'll be knitting up next!

Alternative Knits

Jess here with an admission: I'm a little bit picky with my knitting projects (okay, super picky). This is probably because I'm primarily a selfish knitter. So while I did like the looks of the Scroll Lace Scarf, I decided it wasn't quite my style. Instead of knitting along with the other ladies, I decided to go back to the beginning and re-knit Damson. As I previously mentioned, I left mine on a G train, and as any New Yorker will tell you, it's just not worth going after. Thus, I wound my yarn -- Tosh Merino Light in the beautiful, versatile Dust Bowl -- and began my knitting. As with my previous version, I knit the body in stockinette so that I wouldn't run out of yarn. The result is absolutely perfect. I haven't gotten the chance to snap a great photo of it, but here's a less than flattering shot to tide you over!

I'm so happy with how this version came out. I'm loving Dust Bowl even more than Smokestack; the slightly darker gray shade goes with my skin tone a little better, and it matches more of my wardrobe. I'm also pleased to report that I'm the proud owner of blocking wires, so I was able to make all of the loops stand out with ease. It's amazing how good blocking can elevate a project from good to great!

I had about 20 yards leftover, so what did I do? Okay, I saved half for hexipuffs, but the other half I used to create a fun little pal! Meet Joel the Jackalope.

Joel was based on the patterns Tiny Easter Bunny and Tiny Reindeer from Teeny Tiny Mochimochi by Anna Hrachovec. He's a little sweet and a little scary, which I find hilarious. I'm about to attend a wedding in Mexico, and I think that Joel will be the perfect date.

Beyond that, I've somehow managed to become a prolific knitter in the past month or so. I've finished my Rocky Coast Cardi, knit a Bunny Nugget, made a Tiny Armadillo named Queso (also coming with me to Mexico), and have started a pair of Elm Socks. Not too shabby. Now, time to keep knitting my socks! It's cold and rainy today, so I need some bright pink/red socks to make me smile!

Twin Mitts

One of the best (and worst) things a knitter can hear is, "Can you make that for me?" Often, people don't understand the time and the energy involved in knitting something (let alone the time and cost of the beautiful yarn). But when my twin sister requested a pair of Snapdragon mitts, I knew I had to say yes. She hasn't always been appreciative of my knitted gifts; she considers them "cheating" because they're not store-bought. Yet when she spotted my Snapdragons, she sheepishly asked, "Can I commission a pair from you?"

Now, I've accumulated at least 4 sweater quantities of yarn in the last month or so (whoops), so I've been looking to destash. Luckily, I had some beautiful Candlewick Madelinetosh DK leftover from my Acorns sweater. I also had some spare owl buttons, so away I went.

I definitely learned a lot from knitting these mitts the first time, so I made some beneficial changes. The most significant change was to knit the first 25 rounds or so on size 5 needles. This tightened up the wrists to prevent gaping.

I went down even further -- to a size 3 -- for the i-cord. This was to make sure that my button tabs are super durable. I also shortened them by several stitches to accommodate my smaller buttons. (Bonus: Check out the friendship bracelet Claire made me! We traded bracelets 5 or 6 months ago, and they're still going strong. Hooray!)

Overall, I think these mitts are a rousing success! I had a great time working the pattern again (and using up some of my stash!), so now I can move on to the Peaks Island Hood.

Flipping Out

What's a girl to do when an epic, historic snowstorm ruins Halloween weekend? Why, knit the Snapdragon Flip-Tops, of course!

To match my Snapdragon Tam, I whipped these up in Madelinetosh Tosh DK in French Grey. And to make myself feel better about the gloom and doom, I added some very special buttons.

These sparkling beauties were already in my (ever-growing) button stash, and I'm thrilled to use them on this project. A note about button stability: it can be difficult making buttons secure on knitted fabric. This goes double for shank buttons. I always sew a plain shirt button on the wrong side of my project. That way, the real button is resting flat against something hard and stable (the shirt button) as opposed to something pliable (the knitted fabric). Super easy, right?

And now that I've gotten the pretty pictures out of the way, I want to offer some advice on the construction of these mitts. Both Claire and I find the wrists to be a bit loose. That's because the pattern starts with ribbing, but the stitch count quickly increases when you create the buds. To combat this, I'd recommend dropping down a needle size for the wrists. I used the recommended size 6 for the entire project, and that's my only regret. While the wrists aren't too loose to wear, I'd be happier if the winter chill couldn't get in quite so easily.

My final piece of advice deals with picking up stitches for the flip-top. Ysolda recommends using a double-pointed needle to pull your stitches through the knitted fabric. I knit really tightly, so I decided to use a crochet hook instead. This made the process super fast and easy! All you have to do is use a crochet hook to catch your yarn on the wrong side.

Then pull the stitch through to the right side. Here's what it looks like when all of the stitches are picked up:

So simple! Then all you have to do is slide the stitches onto your knitting needle, and you're ready to knit the flip-top. Apologies for the low quality phone photos, but I think they illustrate my point.

Now that the gloves are done, I'm going to wait on Claire (and hopefully Kendra!) to finish theirs up, too. Come on, ladies!

Cold Snap(dragon)

Jess here again, and I have to say that the Snapdragon Tam whipped up in a flash! I really wanted my cables to pop, so I decided to do a full wet block. Instead of stretching it over a dinner plate or bowl, I simply laid it flat to dry on a blocking board to prevent sagging. This definitely opened up the cables well. However, it's been so humid here that it took my hat a full 4 days to dry. That's longer than it's ever taken one of my sweaters to dry!

I'm really happy with how the tam turned out, and I think my sizing ended up perfect. A word on yardage: I know that some people using the recommended yarn (Madelinetosh Tosh DK) have run out of yarn or have come awfully close. I finished the medium (minus 4 or 5 rounds) with a little over 50 yards remaining, so I wasn't even close to this problem. I hope that puts some people at ease!

Now I'm at a bit of a crossroads. I don't have a sweater quantity of yarn, and I refuse to buy any before Rhinebeck. I could try to whip up the matching Snapdragon Mitts for Rhinebeck (which sounds wonderful considering how cold it is here). I should knit the band on my Lanesplitter skirt so that I can call it finished (and, you know, wear it to Rhinebeck). But all I've been doing is knitting hexipuffs! So far I've finished about 12 of them, and I can't get enough. Each is the perfect little size to complete during your lunch break, while watching television, or while riding the train. For a sweater knitter like me, it's nice to have such fast-finish sections of an overall larger project. I'm also happy to finally be using up my sock leftovers! My goal is to only use stash on this quilt. We'll see how it turns out in about a year.