Day 21 - Fleece Artist Socks

Oh yes, I am LOVING this yarn! It feels so lovely in my hands and I can just imagine the amazing socks it's going to make!

As I mentioned, the pattern calls for 3.0 mm DPNs and I had only 2.75 or 3.25mm so I mistakenly opted for the 2.75mm needles and I cast on the larger amount of stitches. It's still WAAAY too tight. In the picture below you can see the tighter one on the left, that's on my wrist and it's fairly snug on my wrist so there's no way I'd be able to get it on my foot.




So I did the painful thing. I yanked the needles out of the work and ripped the stitches all out. I find that physically painful to do for a moment.

Once I re-cast on the socks on the 3.25mm and worked them back to where I was in the ball of yarn I felt a whole lot better! The yarn feels much nicer and the pattern looks better. The colourway seems to stripe better with the 3.25mm needles.

As you can see I found a cool app to make collages.



I'm almost to the heel flap, about another 3/4". That will have to wait for tomorrow.

Photo Collage app for iPad: Photo Wall Pro for iPad, Version 3.0
Photos Taken with: iPhone 3.0 running OS4.0

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Day 20 - Finishing the Cable Ear-Flap Hat and Starting Sea Wool Bordello Socks

The Ear-Flaps have braids that extend below them. The pattern called for making flat stocking-stitch strips that you braid. I'm assuming that because it's stocking-stitch without some type of border, the strips would curl closed. So instead I decided to make i-cords.




I think the hat turned out pretty good. I'll be wearing it tomorrow!












I decided that I want to cast-on the Fleece Artist socks. After cruising around Ravelry for a while and taking some suggestions from Twitter peeps, I decided I'm going to do the pattern that came with the yarn.

The yarn is amazing! Look at this skein!!







It looks a lot different now that I've wound it into a ball.






The pattern calls for 3.0mm DPNs and look at my mess of DPNs...



Can you believe I don't have ONE set of 3.0mm. I have 2.0, 2.25, 2.5, 2.75, 3.25, 3.75 and 4.0 in this group. I have other sizes in another case, they don't fit in the small box. But can you believe it?! Not one set. So the pattern has two sizes, 7 & 9. I'll make the size 9 with the 2.75mm needles and hope it's okay.

Well I'm off to cast-on the Sea Wool Bordello Socks pattern from Fleece Artist.

Fleece Artists Web Site: http://www.fleece artist.com

I bought this yarn at Camilla Valley Farms.

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Day 19 - Just some stuff

Again, my blog is a day late (and a dollar short, but that's another story) because I'm busy on Wednesdays. I made a lovely supper for the boys of Curried Pork. I didn't make dessert as my hubby tells me he's trying to be good. If I had made something, he would have eaten it.

I didn't knit much yesterday. I did a couple of rows on the Sumac Leaf Shawl just because it was sitting here on my table. I frogged the first Ear-Flap Hat I made with the Kertzer Tweed Montage so I will have enough yarn to finish the Lofty Cable Ear Flap Hat. I pulled out the cast-on waste yarn of the final ear flap but then after supper I was so sleepy, I didn't have the energy to knit (or to do anything else for that matter!) I fell asleep early.

My CSM is calling my name. I think I should try and fire it up soon.



Look at it sitting there, minding its own business..hahahah.

I actually had the stand out because I needed the ball winder for the frogged hat. I have, however, left it out in the way because I want it to keep harassing me. Soon, my pretty...soon.

But for now, I'm finishing my cable ear flap hat because I really want to wear it.

I'll be back later today.
Have a good one!


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Day 18 - Cable Needles

Even though I've knit for many years, I never knew any advanced techniques. I knew how to knit and purl and K2tog but if there was a YO, SSK or C4L, etc, I wouldn't even attempt it.

Now I search for patterns that have things I don't know how to do in them thanks to the Internet and programs like the Knitting Help app. I'm a visual person so when I read the words describing how to do something, I have a hard time grasping it. I could NOT get the Kitchener Stitch until I found http://www.knittinghelp.com/ and for the first few socks, I watched the video each time and now it's like second nature.

I've always loved the way cables looked but was VERY intimidated by them. Now that I've done a few projects with cables in them, I'm all BRING IT ON!

I like hand tools so I want to try all different ways of doing things. I have several different types of cable needles and I tried them all on different projects.




For most projects I just use a double point in the same size as the needles I'm using but if it's a smaller project the double point gets in the way so I like the hook one shown in the centre above. My least favourite needle is the bottom one, I find it awkward and it slides out really easily.

I know there are different cable needles but these are the ones I have.




The Hook Cable Needle



Using a Double Point Needle



Knitting off the Double Point



The Metal One with the Bendy bit



Cable stitches slipped back to the left needle


I finished knitting the body of the hat. I did the top braid and one of the ear-flap braids but I'm out of yarn so I need to frog the first hat I made with this yarn because it's too big anyway. I can't see that happening tonight.



There's my hat! I love it as much as I love the mitts!



I have a natural colourway of this yarn too, 2 full 150 gram balls. Hmm, should I make another set?

Later peeps.

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Day 17 - Magic Loops VS 2 Circulars

I started my hat project the other day and discovered I don't have the correct length 5.5 mm circular. I need a 40 cm (16") one to do the hat or use DPNs which would be a pain because with 104 stitches per round there would be 26 stitches per needle.

So I headed into my wonderful Knitting Help app to learn the Magic Loop and 2 Circular needle methods. The first night I tried the Magic Loop method. I guess this method works okay but I found myself forever pulling the cable out and I don't like doing that. It feels like I'm hurting my very expensive Addi-Turbo. I have been told that they don't break easily but I still don't like putting the undue wear on it.

The next day I thought I'd watch the 2 Circular Needle method again. I didn't give it a fair shake the previous night. I was tired, a bit cranky and the two circular needles were giving me a rough time. Once I watched the video again with Brenda in the morning at coffee, I felt a little more confident that I was doing it wrong the first time and I thought I had it all ironed out in my head.

The trick with the 2 circulars is to have 2 different coloured circulars. It worked out for me because my 60cm circular is Bamboo and the 80cm circular is an Addi-Turbo. The thing to remember when using this method is to make sure you're only using one needle at a time. So whatever needle is next to be worked, make sure the other loose end you use is the other end of it, not the other circular needle. Clear as mud? lol. Got to http://www.knittinghelp.com and I found the video in Working in the Round.



You can see in this picture that I'm working the bamboo needle for this half of the hat and the Addi is not in use right now.

Of the two methods I've talked about in here, I like the 2 circulars better but my preferred method of knitting in the round is to have the correct length needle. For socks and small things, I love to use DPNs. I almost never use straight pins for knitting, even things that are worked back and forth in the flat, I use a circular needle.

Oh and I know, this blog is posted a day late. It was all in my head last night but I was too tired to enter it onto the computer. I will try and have another entry for today but that will be later on.

So here's your daily dose of fibre from me...
Later Peeps.

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Day 16 - Lofty Braided Ear-Flap Hat

I love my mittens so much I was hoping I will have enough yarn left to make another hat. I gathered up the end of the last ball and the little bit from the first ball of this yarn and together they weight 126 grams.



The pattern calls for 3-50g balls of yarn so I'm hoping I'll be able to get this hat done with 126 grams. Worst case scenario, I will pull out the first ear flap hat I made with this yarn. I find it a bit large anyway.

This pattern calls for waste yarn to be cast on before the ear flaps are knit, I used a screaming orange worsted weight I had close at hand for this use. This is a first for me. I'm not sure what happens with that later but I'm assuming that it'll get pulled out.

Here's the beginning of the hat, both flaps are ready:




I don't have a 40cm 5.5mm circular needle but I have two longer ones, a 60 and an 80. I tried the 2 circular needle method first but I didn't really know what I was doing and I found it awkward to do so I thought I'd use the longer needle and try the magic loop method.

I really think I like just having the right length needle but I guess the magic loop method is okay too. I pulled my needle out of the stitches once already looping the cord in a new spot but this yarn doesn't just drop the stitches so I was easily able to pick them up again.

I think I'll watch the video on the 2 circular needle method a couple more times and give that another shot again. I feel like I'm doing damage to the cord on my very nice Addi-Turbo.

I love this pattern. It is as well written as the mittens were so far. I'm over half way to the crown reduction already. Maybe by Tuesday I'll be wearing a nice matching hat with my incredibly warm new mittens.






The pattern is Lofty Braided EarFlap Hat by Crystal Palace Yarns. Available for free on Ravelry.


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Day 15 - The Fuzzy Yarn Becomes a Shawl

After spending a few hours in Ravelry trying to decide on the right pattern for the lovely Rico Glitz Aran yarn I finally decided on Sumac Leaf Shawl by Anna Dalvi. I purchased and downloaded the pattern and got off to a start in the wee hours of January 15th.





The yarn is so incredibly soft! And the colour is lovely. It looks like spun gold! Here's the image of the yarn for a second time:




I didn't knit much on Saturday night (this post is from Saturday, just didn't get to it until Sunday) but I did get two full repeats of the pattern done plus the initial repeat so there's three repeat so far.



I love the way it's working up. I might, however, find I hate this yarn. It's seriously a magnet for dog fur and if you know anything about me, you know that I have 4 very sheddy dogs! So even though I LOVE the feel of this yarn, I might give this shawl away :o(




Well I'm putting the shawl to the side for a bit while I cast on the Ear Flap Hat that matches the Lofty Cable Mittens that I just made. Hopefully I'll have enough yarn.

Later peeps.


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