Converting Fingerless Gloves to Mittens

My fingers are getting too cold on outdoor walks so I’m converting my fingerless gloves into full fledged mittens. I’ll be making myself proper mittens later 

#geekgirlcrafts #makersgonnamake #knitting #mittens #knittersofinstagram #crafting

Completed Katarina

Within the course of a week, I finished two projects! It feels so good to get things completed and to have two in one week feels doubly good.

This time around, I finished Katarina by CocoKnits out of Cascade Greenland, which is a discontinued yarn, but of which I have at least 3 sweater's worth in my Stash. I love Julie Weisenberger's aesthetic, and this sweater is no exception.

There's a seamless version of this sweater, but I chose to knit the seamed version. I don't mind seaming and I knit this in pieces as a substitute for my sock knitting at work. Because I did it piecemeal, it  meant that I could finish it a bit faster as it was always accompanying me to different places. (I also prefer having a bit more structure to my knitted garments that seaming affords).

While the body of the sweater took very little time, the garter stitch shawl collar took forever to finish and was fairly boring to knit. I also did some short-rows along the collar because I wanted the collar to have more substance and to stand a bit taller.

Consequently, I ended up working on the Viajante instead or reserved the Katarina for mindless t.v. knitting whenever we binge watched on Netflix or Hulu. However, I'm very pleased with how the collar turned out.

Here's the final sweater on me. It fits perfectly.

And the Greenland softened up considerably after washing it. I didn't quite block the sweater, but rather threw it into the dryer. It handled the dryer very well and didn't lose any of its shape.

Completed Viajante!

It's been a long time since I finished a project that wasn't sock related. I took on two big knitting projects and have been somewhat faithful to just knitting on them (except for my ever-present sock projects).

So, I'm glad to announce that I finally, finally finished the behemoth that is the Viajante that I started back in March, and I love this "shawl". Okay, let's be honest here....the Viajante really isn't a shawl but more of a fancy poncho. And I've discovered that I really like ponchos, especially in the frigid climate that is my work office.

As a recap, I used Miss Babs Katahdin, which is 1750 yards / 397 grams of wool. I used nearly all of it. I think I might have 40-50 grams left.

I also discovered that I like to add beads to things, despite it adds a multitude of time to finish a project! Because this was my first time beading a project, I didn't know what size beads to use. Consequently, I ended up using two sizes of beads: 2/0 clear-esque beads for the stockinette portion of the beading and 6/0 for the lace. For the larger 6/0 beads, I found some that perfectly matched the yarn.

The beads & lace look great, and I even bound off with beads.

Despite beading bits of this poncho, the vast majority of this project is a lot of stockinette. This poncho is huge and served as a 'blanket' while I was working on it. The neck opening is about 13" wide and the "tip" of the poncho/shawl is very long.

When worn as a poncho, it reaches down to the floor.

It can also be worn as an actual shawl when you double over the fabric, which makes it warm and toasty

I love this thing. This project definitely fell under the "project knitting" aspect versus the "process knitting". I really wanted the Viajante for use in the office, travel, and I think it's elegant enough to wear for evenings out, etc.

I'm actually contemplating on making another, but out of sport weight yarn just to cut down on the amount of time that it'll take to complete. And the next one will be out of a more solid or kettle dyed yarn.

U.K. Travel Knitting and LYS Shopping!

As a knitter, you can't go on a trip without bringing knitting AND visiting any local yarn stores in the area.

For knitting, I kept it very simple and brought one small project and one large-ish project. The smallish project was the self-striping Potter-themed that I picked up at Stitches West 2016. If I was going to the UK, I was going to bring something UK themed, and what better thing than a colorway containing all of the Hogwarts house colors?!

The largish project was my Viajante (traveler) shawl. My hope was that I would get a lot of knitting done on the plane and (hopefully) finish it while in the U.K, which didn't quite happen. The shawl grew quite a bit in size and I worked on while having large swaths of time, such as on the plane or on the train or hanging out with my friends. It was much too cumbersome to carry around with me.

Consequently, I worked on the socks quite a bit, while riding on the Tube (their subway system) or at various restaurants and cafes while travelling around London.

So, I've named my project Hogwarts TUBE Socks.... ;-)

 

Okay, I thought it was funny......

---

LYS Shopping

As the Viking and I were going to the U.K, I did some research on a few local yarn stores that were in reasonable distance that were open while we were there. We were on foot about 90% of the time (except when traveling by train), so accessible was key.

Unfortunately, I only managed to visit one LYS in Scotland, Ginger Twist Studios, because it was the only one that was open and within reasonable walking distance.

However, she had yarn made out of strictly English wool, such as Jacob and Blue Faced Leicester! So, of course, I had to buy a few skeins, as well as some of her specific colorways. :-)

And the owner, Jess, was a very nice & pleasant person. I highly recommend visiting the shop if you're ever in Edinburgh!

Jess, the owner, told me that there had been the Edinburgh Yarn Festival the week prior, which we had just missed! I made a mental note to visit Scotland whenever this festival happens next.

Beading the Viajante

When I went to Stitches West this year, I saw the Viajante by Martina Behm, and I absolutely knew that I had to knit this shawl, because it's more than just a shawl --- it's a cowl, a shawl, a poncho, or a head covering/hood.  

(Pronounced vi-a-janche in Portuguese)

Other pluses about this project? It's knit in the round; there's a lot of customization you can do by simply increasing or decreasing the stitch count or length; and it's a good "vanilla" knitting whereby I could go to meetings or go to knit group and not worry too much about a mishap.

Like every good knitter, I went through the Ravelry project page for this pattern to read what modifications other knitters made, and came across a few beaded versions. Normally, I'm extremely averse to adding beads, but I love how they look. And since I REALLY WANT THIS SHAWL, I decided that beads were worth it.

I am knitting this out of Miss Babs Katahdin, in the colorway, Morticia.

Consequently, the beads I chose were a "frosty" Swarovski beads that seems to play well with the variegation.

I started using the simple crochet hood per bead, but found this really slowed my progress down immensely and I was concerned about spilling the bead container. I knew that some people used threaded floss (normally used for teeth straightening braces), so I decided to give it a go. 

I took one of the threaders and simply added a string of beads to it, and after watching a YouTube video, gave it a go. Wow, what a difference in using it!

I ended up using a generic brand from CVS which worked just fine and only cost a few dollars.

The knitting-to-beading ratio increased dramatically, and I wasn't afraid of losing beads to a mishap.

Originally, I thought this would be a good travel project to work on as I am planning a trip very soon. However, I decided that I really wanted to wear this ON said trip, so I've been knitting furiously to finish.

I'm not sure if I'll make it, but I'm going to damn well try.

The Effect of Knitting Different Stitches

If you've ever purchase a Miss Babs Yowza skein, you know that this skein of yarn is GINORMOUS....

560 yards of yarn!

The above is a photo of a different colorway of a skein of YOWZA, but you get idea of size (each square of the grid is 1x1 inches).

I made a hat for myself....

....And there was a ton of it left over. I decided to use a herringbone stitch to make myself a cowl. I wanted to use as much of the yarn as I could before I got too bored or it got too big to use. I ended up using Purl Soho's Big Herringbone Cowl. (I made one previously, but it was much too thin for my liking!)

The pattern is fairly easy to follow, but does require that you pay a bit of attention to it. It is not quite extreme lace knitting, but it's not mindless knitting either. I continued knitting on this hat until I felt it was big enough to use comfortably.

It ended up being the same height as my hat.

One of the things I love about knitting is that you get different variations of color simply by using slightly different stitches.

It's close enough that it matches in color and tone, but isn't exactly the same as my hat.  And the best part about this stitch is that it's almost as thick as double knitting and gives you a nice thick fabric.


It kept me warm when walking about downtown Seattle for Emerald City ComiCon! Plus, I still have quite a bit enough of it left over to use for maybe a pair of fingerless gloves.

Pussy Cat, Pussy Hat, I love You.

As part of the podcast, we encourage folks to do a bit of #craftivism by helping their local charities with things they make -- Afghans for Afghans, Knitters for Peace, 20,000 Tukes -- as well as supporting worth charities.

This time around, we're supporting Women and getting our voices heard to support Women's Rights, which include, but isn't limited to our reproductive rights, equal pay, equal treatment. So, I've been knitting a few hats using the KitKat Hat pattern.

Yarn: Miss Babs Yowza, Funny papers

Yarn: Cascade 220 - Pink and Heathered Purple

 

Sammy is not amused. "This doesn't look like a cat!" 

Yarn: Katmandu Chunky

I've got one more left to be knit using the colorway, NASTY WOMAN, by White Birch Fiber arts. I'm pretty sure I'll have it completed before this Saturday.

And just because I'm a geek....

 

Designed by Hayley Gilmore

Can be found at: http://ladieswhodesign.com/protest-posters/

Target Archery Beanie

I haven't posted much about my archery but rest assured that I'm still flinging arrows at various targets.

Over the summer and fall, I was outside target and field archery. It was a blast. This is a typical target face, and each ring represents a score.

White = 1, 2 points. Black = 3, 4 pts. Blue =5&6 pts. Yellow = 7,8 pts. Yellow = 9, 10 points. 

The inner most yellow is also an X or a Bullseye.

(Bigger 120 cm targets are used when you're at least 60 yards away)

Now that winter is here, I've moved to indoor archery, and surprisingly, it's pretty darn cold in those indoor ranges because they are usually large drafty warehouses with very little insulation. So I decided to make myself some archery related gear, including this archery beanie.

When I'm outdoors, I typically wear a hat with a brim to act as shade from the sun. Indoors, I don't have to worry about the sun, but just keeping my head warm.

It looks like a target face, except for the arrows.....

I made some minor modifications to the pattern. The pattern used a lot of white (the 1&2 rings), but I am not particularly fond of white clothing, so I just opted to use a lot more black (the 3&4 rings)

This project was a great stash-buster because I had all of the colors in my stash from previous projects. All of the yarns that I used are Cascade 220!

Hawaiian Waters Cardigan -- First FO of 2017!

Before we left for vacation, I started working on a new cardigan, Watercourse by Carina Spencer. 
I had the opportunity to try on this cardigan while at Stitches two years ago, and I fell in love with the sample. I knew I had to knit it.

However, it was fraught with mistakes of my own making and I ended up tinking back multiple times and frogging back at least once. But, it did become my very first finished object for 2017!!

For this sweater, I used Malabrigo yarn for the very first time. I had this yarn in my stash from an impulse buy ....to my credit, the yarn was on sale. And luckily, I had just enough for this project. I have to say, this yarn is just simply amazing to use for knitting. It has a superb hand and feel. I can see why so many knitters love this yarn.

I had a hard time getting gauge (pre-block), so I used several different sized needles. It bloomed a lot after washing, and I definitely got gauge with a US 6.

My Knit Companion app makes keeping track easy. It was only coincidence that the yarn I selected was the same color as the pattern.

I knit on this cardigan throughout our Hawaiian vacation. The blue was nearly the same color as many of the beaches we visited.

The pattern itself is well written. There are a few mistakes in the ribbing pattern, especially as it transitions from one part of the pattern to another, but if you're very careful, you can tell where it goes off and catch it quickly -- unless you're like me and aren't paying attention, and therefore have to tink back a couple of rows to fix the issue.

Or in one case, I had to rip back about 10 inches, because I put the waist decreases in the completely wrong place. I almost threw the entire project in the time-out bin. However, the only saving grace was that

1. I wanted this sweater.
2. Malabrigo yarn is amazing and is such a joy to knit.

After much teeth gnashing, I eventually I got to the point where I was finished with the body. I was very happy

The instructions for knitting the sleeve cap is rather clever and one that reminds me of a set-in sleeve for sewing. I was worried that I wouldn't have enough yarn to do both the sleeves and a deep enough hood, so I started with the sleeves first.

In the end, it turned out that I had more than enough yarn so I have enough for any repairs, if needed. I knew that the finished sweater would grow slightly once I washed and blocked it, and it did!

It grew slightly in length and width, but I prefer it that way.

And the hood grew slightly too, which I wanted. Many Ravelers had lamented that the hood was a bit too shallow per the original instructions so I had made it longer and deeper while knitting.

I'm so very glad that I finished this cardigan!  It's going to prove rather stylish and versatile in the office, especially with our wonky A/C and heat issues.

I love the color. It'll always remind me of our vacation.

Sweater Inspirations

This is an older project that I finished back in July but have only finished writing up recently over the holidays.

About a year ago, I saw a sweater in a shop that I absolutely loved, but all of the sizing was a it too large (and much too expensive) for me. However, I thought, I'm a knitter! I can make something like this or at least an interpretation, thereof.

The elements that I really liked are the colorwork sleeves and the shawl/cowl neck. With these elements in mind, I looked for appropriate yarn & colors at Stitches 2016 (even before I knew what pattern to use). I bought enough yardage to complete whatever pattern (sans cables) that I could find.

 

Luckily, I made a huge swatch of this yarn -- i.e. a hat -- and discovered a problem with the yarn, which was not-quite-set red. It was heartbreaking, but at least I found out about the problem before I knit the entire sweater.

After solving the yarn issue, I looked around Ravelry for a base pattern that I could use. Eventually, I decided on the pattern On the Beach by Isabelle Kraemer.

I like v-neck sweaters that are somewhat fitted -- not quite the cowl neck and boxy look of the original, but mine would be an interpretation. I also decided to make a matching cowl, because I wanted to the option to remove it when I got warm. After all, I live in California and the weather never gets as cold as it does back East.

After some planning and sketches, I eventually came out with this sweater.  I initially had problems with shoulder increase of the sweater, but that was mostly due to my lack of understanding. I had to re-do the shoulders three times before I got the hang of the construction.

I also made a matching cowl using the Big Herringbone Cowl by Purl Soho. The pattern was exremely simple, and I double stitched the line color work going up the side (also to hide a funky beginning of the round changes).

Overall, it's a loveliy sweater, and I've gotten a few good uses out of it.