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!

Red Scroll at Night

- Claire

Now that Mother's Day has safely passed and my package has arrived in rural Michigan (hi Mom!), I can finally tell you about my Scroll Lace Scarf. 

In my last update I had resigned myself to ripping out all of the body and starting the short rows again. I waited until I had good company for the ripping - Kendra! We had our last Monday coffee date before her big move a couple weeks ago, and she even wore her finished Scroll Lace so I had a handy reference. I reworked the short rows, "eating" up larger chunks for the whole body. I was able to do the picot bind off, but had to add more plain bind off stitches in between the points. But finally - it was done!!! 

A little bath and some stretching later, here is the fully finished result:

The slight semi-solid nature of the Tart colorway was perfect for the scarf. Mom just received the box today and called to say that she loved it. She made a good point that knitters don't often receive knitted gifts, which is sad, because we make the perfect recipients for handcrafted lovelies.  A knitter knows how much time and care went into that project!

Although if you train them well enough, non-knitters can come to appreciate your good work as well. Also in the box was my Dad's belated birthday present - a squishy knitted Alien face hugger! Hopefully he and the cat will have lots of adventures with it. 

A Squirrel Lives in Brooklyn

I want you all to meet someone new to town. He's a little shy and doesn't talk too much, but give him a few handfuls of cashews and he'll be your new best bud! Say hello to Lawrence:

He's hanging out with his little gnome buddy. Who knows what trouble they get up to while I'm at work! Mostly though, I think he likes to hang out on the couch, watch Animal Planet, or keeping watch through the window:

I had fun making him, apart from when I forgot to stuff his tail until I was about 3 rows from the end - oops! Like Jess I was worried about him being too small, but he definitely grew with stuffing! And as long as no one sits on him, I think Lawrence will keep his squirrelish figure just fine. 

I Knit an Oven Mit!

No, I did not knit an oven mit, but that's exactly what my beloved boyfriend thought when he saw me crafting a gray amorphous blob. While I admit that Nathaniel is not the squirreliest squirrel, he is still decidedly animal-like, thank you very much. I actually breezed through the pattern in just 3 sittings, but I hadn't gotten around to photographing him because I moved. He's safe and sound in his new home, enjoying his very own wingback chair.

While he didn't seem like he'd be all that big when I was knitting, Nathaniel did come out the perfect size for cuddling (especially when you're glaring at your boyfriend for not understanding your beautiful, whimsical pillow).

I knit the pattern almost as is. The one exception was the long strings of lifted increases. I found that these were pulling my knitting way too much, so I peppering in a few make ones whenever I didn't like the tension. I'm really happy with the way that turned out, so I recommend that tip to anyone who's having trouble with the lifted increases.

Now that the squirrel is all finished, I'm at a loss as to where to go with my knitting. I need to knit another Damson (I lost mine on the train!), and I definitely need to finish my hibernating sweater. I am proud to say that I've been steadily hexipuffing for lack of other projects, so I should have a Beekeeper's Quilt sometime this decade.

Knitting into the New Year

Claire here, bidding adieu to the year 2011. It's been an excellent year for me, and hopefully for my fellow bloggers and all of you as well! I've had a wonderful time knitting through WLK2 and being able to discuss problems and design elements with Kendra, Jess and Lindsey has made it even better. We like knitting along together so much that we've got more projects planned for the future. And of course we're eagerly awaiting the arrival of Whimsical Little Knits 3 as well!

Back to the knitting at hand, I have a finished project, and one that is so close I can feel it. While I was home in Michigan just before Christmas I finished the knitting on my Peaks Island Hood. It was especially fun because my mom was also working on the hood!

Mine is the orange Mirasol Miski on the right, mom's is the red-purple yarn she can't remember the name of on the left.

She was having some trouble with the shell shaping on the hood, so I was able to give her some pointers, and it helped having mine there to look at for reference. Even though I finished mine while I was home, I haven't gotten around to weaving the ends in, blocking and sewing the buttons on yet, so my mom technically beat me!! Hopefully that will be my task tomorrow - finish my 100th project on Ravelry in the first day of 2012. I got some lovely maplewood buttons for Christmas that will look great, so keep your eye out for an update post soon!

The other project I can finally share with you is the Emily capelet. This was one that looked cute in the book, but wasn't something I would normally wear. I called up my sister Emily and asked if she would be interested in it. We talked over the yarn requirements and her color requests, and decided on a light worsted-weight wool, or wool blend, in a chocolate brown. And then the quest began. It seemed like every yarn I looked at wasn't a rich enough brown, or it was too semi-solid, or the color was right and the weight was wrong. Finally I hit paydirt (with the help of Jess!) at Rhinebeck in October. I got two skeins of Shadyside Farm Colored by Hand in Chocolate - perfection! I skipped ahead to this project since I wanted to have it to give on Christmas, so I'll have to find a replacement project when the rest of the girls knit it.

This was a fun pattern to knit, with the short row shaping and the fairly easy, but very pretty, lace edging. My only concern while knitting was the yarn - it was so saturated with dye that it came off on my hands, leaving a lovely brown-purple stripe over my index finger where I tension my yarn. I was worried that it would all wash out during blocking and the finished product would be much lighter, but I think it turned out okay. Have to give Emily a warning not to wear it in the rain or with a white shirt though!



I love the drapiness of the yarn too - going through the project gallery on Rav, some capelets looked very short, but I'm pleased with the length of mine. I think it will provide some warmth as well as being super cute.

It hangs a little funny on the mannequin, but I swear it's even in front!

I had to tighten the button holes a little to fit my buttons, and I also added a stabilizing button to the back. A knitter needs a button stash as well as a yarn stash - these were bought years ago at an antique mall, and I never thought I'd have a use for just 3 buttons. Just goes to prove the need for variety in your stash!

I hope you all have a Happy New Year and continued knitting success! I'm off to go put on some sparkly nail polish (it's a party, after all!) and decide which project to bring with me into 2012!

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.

Seeing Red

Red is a notoriously difficult color. Its light pigments are larger than others, causing it to glow in photography and video. It is difficult to dye to proper shade and often bleeds when washed (oh, the irony). And I can't stop knitting red yarn.

My previously mentioned Rhinebeck skirt was Lanesplitter. Claire and I both decided to use Lion Brand Amazing as an economical (and softer) alternative to Noro. While she opted for the neutral browny Cobblestone, I went straight for Roses, a bright tonal variation of reds, burgundies, and pinks. I mostly followed the pattern as written, although I have lazily avoided inserting the elastic so far. I've worn it twice with no wardrobe malfunctions, though, so I'm pretty happy! If I had to do it over again, I would use a provisional cast on. To do this, simple cast on the number of stitches for the diagonal width you wish to achieve. Since you're working on the bias, you would work increases on one side and decreases on the other (as for the main body section). When the skirt fits around you, simply graft it to your provisional cast on. Bam, you've got a seamless skirt! Added bonus: your color changes won't be as obvious at the cast on/bind off edges. I definitely see myself making another of these in the near future (perhaps in my other color obsession, green). At any rate, here's my finished skirt (photographed at Webs):

For my next red projects, I decided to use up some stashed Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in the gorgeous Scarlet colorway. I needed a small project to knit while standing in lines at Rhinebeck, so I pulled out an Ysolda classic, Ishbel. I'm not much of a triangle shawl person, so I knit the small lace and stockinette sections. Overall, I'm pretty happy that the shawl went smoothly (just 9 days start to finish!), but I think it deserves a more aggressive block.

Pro tip: block lacy shawls like this with the right side down. This helps prevent curling in the stockinette and lace. Yes, I learned that after I blocked this. I'll definitely be doing this from now on! In the meantime, let's get a closeup of that gorgeous lace.

Now that I'm finished with these projects, I'm starting my Snapdragon fliptops. After all, it's starting to get cold here!

Chester Hedge, reporting for duty!

Chester apologizes for his late arrival, but does hope you'll forgive him. Claire got very distracted on holiday, and then contracted a bad case of startitis upon her return to the city. But mostly you may lay blame with one Mr. Harry Potter.

From a midnight double feature of the Deathly Hallows part 2, to rediscovering my copies of the first three books while I was home, Harry has taken over my spare time. I even had to run to the Borders closing sale to make sure I got the rest of the series in the same type of cover! (What can I say, I like my books to match?)

But finally, in a fit of knitterly productivity (which conveniently happens in front of the TV and fan) I finished my little hedgehog yesterday, and have a serious start made on his mushroom friend!



He turned out a bit larger than I was expecting - pretty much life size! - but I think he's still awfully cute. Especially with his little glasses! Who knows, maybe more accessories are in his future. I just know my hands will be glad to get to some springier yarn on the next project, Veyla. They've suffered some abuse with this non-stretchy alpaca on small needles, and the cotton in my sister's chickens and a summer top I'm working on!

Ta-ta and cheerio for now!

Lindsey Finally Crosses Not One But TWO Finish Lines!

Alright folks, Late Lindsey here to say I'm catching up! The best part of catching up is that I actually have pictures of projects to share! I bound off and pseudo-blocked Damson on Monday.

For some reason I was really into the bubbles and purple water when I soaked Damson.

Like I said, I "pseudo-blocked". In my transient state, I don't really have all the proper equipment (and can't easily borrow it). For now I just laid flat to dry, but the edging could use some proper blocking.

Finished Damson! Sorry for the busy background and awkward perspective. If I haven't said it enough already, I LOVE this shawl in this yarn and colorway. LOVE!

After I finished up Damson I started right away on Ripley. I had a few issues (why do I own twenty-something inch size 10 circs?), but the pattern was great. Like everyone else, I didn't check gauge. When I got to the point in the lace band where I could just do the extra-small, the band fit around my head so I just got started on the body of the hat. I met up with Jess around the time I got to the second pleat, and she laughed at how small my little hat was (I have a tendency to make tiny hats out of lazyness). So, I ripped back to the lace band and added enough repeats for the medium. Luckily I was able to do almost the entire hat on the Jitney! Disclaimer: I don't recommend this, my wrist hurt so bad last night. Anyway, ends were woven in this morning! Sorry for the flat photo, I don't have Jess's awesome ability to take pictures of myself and there is no one here to take them for me. Oh right, I should probably mention that this is in Tosh 80/10/10 in Fig. The base is great and the color is nice for this hat (although it doesn't make me as excited as Flash Dance).

Joining the Ripley Bandwagon!

Claire here, checking in with another finished Ripley! It's true that the worsted weight yarn and larger needles make this a fast-finishing project - provided you read the directions correctly, of course! When a pattern has multiple sizes it's a good idea to go through and underline or highlight the size you are making. Well, not wanting to mark up my book I skipped this step, and as a result had to take out my pick up row three times! Once I got past that silly mistake it was smooth sailing. The pleats make it interesting, but not too complicated to follow while watching TV or hanging out with friends. And now, on to the pictures!



I chose to do the lacy edging, and a size in between the less and more slouchy by knitting 5 rows after the last pleat instead of the 1 or 10 specified in the pattern.



And I still have enough left for another hat! This would be a great project if you just have a little bit of a special handspun, or a more luxurious fiber blend. Just keep in mind that different fibers will drape differently, and try a swatch if you're not sure about it!

Excuse the shiny face - I don't have AC and it's extra warm with a wool hat on your head!

As cute as it is, I'm not sure it's quite my style. I'm going to give it to my sister and hope she enjoys it. Now I'm off to dig through my stash and find some good odds and ends for an adorable hedgehog!

Another Finished Ripley!

Jess here, and I'm happy to say that I breezed through Ripley. It's no surprise: the worsted weight yarn and larger needles really make this project fly by. While I was knitting, I noticed that my hat looked a bit small, despite the fact that I went up a needle size. Like Kendra, I rarely check my gauge when knitting hats (although we really should!), so I didn't worry too much about it. When I finished, I ended up with a very tight cap -- not exactly the slouchy hat I had desired. I solved this with some wet blocking, and now I have a hat that I love!

Pardon the silly look on my face. I have a hard time taking self-portraits seriously. I really love the way my Malabrigo Merino Worsted worked up. The kettle dyed semisolid added a rich depth of color, and the super soft merino really bloomed after blocking. This is definitely going to be one of my go-to hats in the fall! Best of all, I have enough yarn leftover to make another one.

Another Damson Down!

Claire here, adding another finished shawl to the tally! This would have been done a bit sooner but for my indecision about the edging. Originally I finished it with the mustard, bind off and all, but then I had some second thoughts. Since it was pretty late by the time all those stitches were bound off I put it down for the night and revisited it the next evening. Yup, I wasn't as in love with it as I thought. Time to rip! I continued merrily on my way with the remaining Graphite until about 2/3 of the way through the bind off when I thought "Hm, that yarn end is getting a little short." You guessed it, I ran out of yarn! Luckily, this is where having a bit of stash saves the day. I have another skein of TML in the Terrarium color, which is a darker greeny color, but I thought I could get a section that could match okay, especially for just the bind off. I only ended up being about two yard short, so if you did want to keep the body in garter stitch and use the TML, I would recommend taking out a few body rows and doing the math to fit the scallops in.


I blocked mine a little more aggressively than Jess, since I like my shawls on the larger size. For all you nerdy crafters out there, the first thing my SO said when he saw it blocking was "Is that a Cylon raider?"


It's so silky and drapey! I can see this becoming quite a wardrobe staple this fall. You can also see how wildly the color varies depending on the light!


If you look closely, you can tell that the top row of edging in this picture is a different shade than the bottom row. Since Tosh Merino Light is a 100% wool yarn, I avoided having to weave any ends in by doing a felted join, also called a spit splice. I think the latter name is much more descriptive! Basically, you are applying moisture, heat and friction to the yarn ends, just like if you were felting a larger piece. I made sure to overlap my ends by about 1.5 inches to form a secure join.

Overall, I am super pleased with how it turned out, and can't wait to cast on for our next project. I've got plenty of projects to keep me occupied in the meanwhile; I just cast on Rondeur last night!

Damson: Crossing the Finish Line

Jess here, and I'm happy to say that I crossed the Damson finish line! The pattern was an absolute pleasure to knit, and I love the finished result in Tosh Merino Light. Enough talk; on to the pictures!

A word on yardage: The pattern calls for 440 yards, but Tosh Merino Light's new put up only has 420. Claire mentioned that she thought she would have enough yarn. I had absolutely no problem finishing mine with maybe 15-20 yards to spare.

The finished shawl is so versatile. I like to wrap it around my neck as pictured, but it can also be worn with the center over the back (like traditional shawls) or with the center in the front. I'm so in love with the Smokestack shade; it's a true neutral gray that goes with everything. Needless to say, I've been wearing this shawl almost constantly (despite the heat!), and I can't wait for the others to finish theirs!