Loopy Academy Gloves

 

I've completely finished my gloves for Loopy Academy!  It only took a couple of hours to weave in all the ends, but they're all woven in now and the gloves are finished.

The pattern is Three Oaks, but instead of knitting the little button tab cuffs, I just lengthened the ribbing.  I figured the ribbing would tuck into jackets and coats better anyway.  I used Malabrigo Sock in Ravelry Red.  This is my first time using this color and I really liked it.  I wouldn't mind a sweater in this red.

These were fun to knit and there wasn't really anything hard about them.  Fingers on gloves are fiddly, but they're not hard.  I've just got my toy project and my bobbles project left for this semester of Loopy Academy!

The Carson Throw

 

I have started the last, darkest color on my Carson Throw and I'm just finishing the last round of the contrast color (the light one).  I just have a little bit more to go before I start the lace edging!  I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I'm not 100% sure I did the color change right, but I'm not about to frog back with almost 900 stitches per round.  If I didn't do it quite right, I'm calling it a design feature and moving on.

It has also helped that Max is no longer trying to climb into the middle of the blanket, but is sitting in my lap, underneath it when I knit on it.  He's even OK with the periodic rotating as I knit around each (very long) round.  Knitting on this project is very cozy!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

A Change of Plans

 

I've changed my mind on my nupps project for Loopy Academy.  I love the Crown Tee design but I'm not loving it in this yarn.  I think the Wollmeise is too crisp; the design needs a softer yarn.  I've decided to do the Biscuit cowl for my nupps/bobbles/popcorn project instead, and new yarn is on its way to me.  At some point I will knit the Crown Tee in something softer, maybe just a little bit fuzzy.

Once I made that decision, I frogged what I had done for the Crown Tee and I will make something else with the Wollmeise.  It will probably be another Featherweight cardigan.  I haven't decided if I will start it immediately or if I'll knit another sweater first and let the Wollmeise have a little time out.  I think it helps the yarn forget the unsuccessful attempted project and then when I come back to it, it's ready for something new.  Or maybe its me that needs to forget.

A Footie Sock!

 

When I finished my Blue Fluffy Unicorn socks, I had some yarn left over.  It wasn't quite enough for a pair of footie socks, but it was pretty close (I need just under 50 grams).  Fortunately, I had just enough left of the Pop Rocks (this is the Pop Rocks that I used for the cardigan, and then knit a pair of footie socks with it, and then used it for toes and heels in another pair of footie socks) to make another pair of footie socks.  I didn't have enough Pop Rocks for both toes and heels, so I knit the toes and then added a few rounds of Fair Isle patterning.  I decided to add some more patterning on the instep as well.

I haven't weighed things after finishing this first sock, but I think this should use up the rest of the Pop Rocks and the rest of the Blue Fluffy Unicorn.  That makes me a bit sad, but I can always wear the socks!  Also, knitting sparkly, magical unicorn rainbow socks is a great way to procrastinate on weaving in eleventy million ends on my gloves!

Gloves!

 

The knitting is finished on my gloves!

I still have to weave in a few ends though...

My Blue Fluffy Unicorn Socks

 

Finished!  Blue sparkles, rainbows, magical socks - what's not to love?  Happy knitting project!

The socks are basic stockinette socks with K2, P2 ribbing at the cuff and a Fish Lips Kiss Heel.  The yarn is The Lemonade Shop's Sparkle Sock in Blue Fluffy Unicorn.

Have a great weekend!  I'm going to try to finish my gloves.

And There Shall Be Fingers!

 

I've started on the fingers for my gloves!  This is the first glove and there is much trying on and many notes.  Once I've finished the fingers there will be The Weaving In of Ends.  That should keep me out of trouble for a while.  I've probably got several more hours worth of work on these, but my gut is telling me that I'm on the home stretch and will soon be able to cast on something new.  I'm trying to ignore my gut until these are completely finished.  I do hope to get them done over the weekend.

Thanks for the hints on marking my end of round in crochet!  I'm going to give them a try.  I knew there had to be a better way to do that.

I'm going to go now, my brain is pretty sure I don't need spaces between the words this morning and also my spelling is rather unconventional.  I've retyped this enough times to have written two extra blog posts.  It's time for caffeine!

Sepp the Seahorse

 

I had some quiet time yesterday afternoon and I got a few more inches worked on Sepp the Seahorse.  Crochet involves more counting than knitting, and while I can usually figure out where I've gone wrong on blanket squares, when I'm making a creature, I tend to get confused.  Staying on top of my counting is the only way I stay reasonably sane, and that means no TV and it helps if the house is quiet.  On this project, the tail is shaped by the stitches (the stitches on the outside of the curl are taller than those on the inside), so that kind of helps when I need to figure out where I am, but if my end-of-round marker falls out, it's very scary.  The problem is that on Sepp (and most other amigurumi type of creatures), you don't work in rounds, you work in a single, giant spiral.  It's a lot like knitting in the round that way, except you can't use your double pointed needles to figure out where the rounds begin and end.  I usually hook a locking stitch marker through the last stitch of the round, but locking and unlocking it takes a lot of time, so I just loop it through the stitch and leave it unlocked.  This means I sometimes knock it out and then chaos ensues.

If there's an easier way to deal with this, the keeping up with where you are in crochet, I'd love to hear about it.  Maybe crocheters just figure out how to read their work better than I can at this point.  I'm working on it though.  If I keep dropping my marker, I'm going to get pretty good at it!

One Blue Fluffy Unicorn

 

I finished my first Blue Fluffy Unicorn sock and I've started the second one.  It's just as amusing as the first: sparkle, sparkle, sparkle, oooh look - a rainbow! - sparkle, sparkle, sparkle....  Do you have an inner monologue while you knit too, or is it just me?

On a completely unrelated note, I was watching Harry Potter this weekend and I realized that I really need to go back and re-read as well as re-watch the Deathly Hallows.  I kind of avoid that one because it's so sad, but I think there are some things I might have missed the first time through.  I'm pretty sure I've only read it once and I think I've only watched those movies one time from beginning to end.  I've caught bits and pieces while flipping channels, but not the whole thing.  The other books and movies have all been read and watched to pieces. 

The Crown Tee

 

I've begun the body of my Crown Tee, which is my nupps project for Loopy Academy.  It also involves a provisional cast on and a hem, and just like the sleeves, it's rolling up and looking sad.  Also, the color is proving impossible to photograph correctly.  Overall, this might be an ugly duckling project while it's in process.  Once it's all finished, the hems are sewn down, and it's blocked, hopefully it will be a different story.

In the meantime, have a great weekend!

My Blue Fluffy Unicorn

 

My magical unicorn socks are moving along well!  I'm moving towards the toe on the first sock and the magical rainbows and sparkles are still amusing me.  There's not much to say about this sock except--oooooh look!  Sparkles!

Yep, that sums it up!

The Seventh Weaving Project

 

I've finished the Seventh Weaving Project, and by finished I mean completely finished it!  I used Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Optic for both the warp and the weft.  The random speckles and short stripes of the yarn make an interesting crosshatch pattern in the weaving - almost like a plaid that doesn't want to be there.  

This was a fun project to weave and it makes me want to play with more strange, speckled colorways on the loom.  Being black and ivory, this scarf should go with just about anything and I think the person I made it for will enjoy it.  If they don't, I might just keep it for myself!

The Carson Throw

 

I am still working along (slowly) on my Carson Throw.  Yesterday I was joined by Max who felt that it needed testing to see if it makes a good nest.  Unfortunately, since it's knit in the round (and I have to keep turning it as I knit it), he kind of stopped my knitting progress during his testing.  We can happily report however that the Carson Throw does in fact make a nice nest for a kitty and he wishes I would get it finished so he can sleep under it.

I'm working on that.  I'm on an increase round right now.  When I'm done with this round, I'll be at 850+ stitches per round.  I don't know if this is my last increase round or not.  I'm kind of afraid to look.

Have a great weekend!  Stay safe if you're near the hurricane!

My Blue Fluffy Unicorn

Something I've been thinking about lately is that if I had a plain stockinette project, I could knit by feel and not really have to look at it.  That way, when I'm having a bad eye day, I'm not stuck doing nothing (which I don't really do very well at all).  I've been avoiding starting something like that because I've got so many things on the needles/hooks right now:  the red gloves, the seahorse, the pullover (which is waiting for me to do a provisional cast on for the body), my Carson throw, and my cool colored Meditative blanket.  That's not even counting things that are in time out or are just kind of constantly going (hexipuffs) and it doesn't count weaving (or spinning, which I haven't done in ages).  Anyway, because of all this, I've been avoiding casting on a simple stockinette project.  I felt very responsible about not casting on, but I could kind of tell I needed something simple.

Finally, last night I caved.  I was actually too lazy to go upstairs and wind yarn on the swift and ball winder so I just opened up the skein over my knees and hand wound the ball (which I should also be able to do on a bad eye day).  Then I cast on for a plain vanilla, stockinette sock.  I made it past the ribbing and have just started the leg.  Now that I'm to the stockinette section, I should be able to knit by feel and I won't have to sit there like a lump when I don't feel like working anything more complex.  The yarn is Sparkle Sock from The Lemonade Shop and the colorway is Blue Fluffy Unicorn.  The sparkles and magic rainbow-ness of it all make me giggle!

The Other Loopy Academy Project

 

I've already shown you my gloves and the sleeves for my nupps project for Loopy Academy, but there's one more project for this semester:  a stuffed toy!  I had so much fun making Lorelai the Mermaid, I decided to make another Lalylala toy for Loopy Academy.  This is the beginning of Sepp the Seahorse, her newest big creature (she also has small, seasonal things which are also super cute).  I'm using sport weight yarn because I couldn't find fingering weight in cream when Loopy Academy started (I'm guessing Camp Loopy used it all up).

Sepp's body is Malabrigo Arroyo in Lotus and I'm loving the little stripes that are showing up as I work.  His face and hands will be Rosy Green Wool Cheeky Merino Joy in Edelweiss.  (I haven't used this yarn yet, but just from squeezing it, it's really nice!)  I do plan on making his baby as well because they're just so cute together.

Finishing

I've been taking my weaving off the loom, snapping a couple of pictures and calling it done on the blog, but that isn't really the end.  Before a weaving project is truly finished, I have to finish the ends and then wash and press it.  Since I'm using superwash yarns, the washing just makes everything relax and the yarns can bloom into the weaving.  If I was using regular wools, the washing would full (kind of like being lightly felted) the yarns.

There are several ways to finish the ends of a scarf and the first couple of scarves I made, I did a twisted fringe at the ends.  I love the way the twisted fringe looks (and feels), but it didn't seem quite right for the last couple of scarves I made because these are for men.  It seemed a bit fussy for the men in question.  I didn't want to just turn under the edges and hem them either because I knew the ends wouldn't drape right.  Finally I decided on just a simple fringe, trimmed short.  I always hem stitch on the loom (I love the way hem stitch looks), so to finish the fringe, I tied little square knots (using yarns from adjacent "bundles" of hem stitching), and then after washing and pressing, I trimmed the fringe with the rotary cutter.  I decided the knots would help hold the hem stitching in place.  I'm not sure they were completely necessary, but they made me feel better.

Here is the finished end of my Fifth Weaving Project.

And here is the finished end of my Sixth Weaving Project.

On this project, I wove the first few rows (the first six, I believe) using the warp yarn.  I also did the hem stitching with the warp yarn (Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Charcoal).  The rest of the weft is the weft yarn (the Mare colorway, same yarn base), and at the end, I repeated the warp stripe and hem stitched the end.  I really like the way this turned out and when the warp and weft are different colorways, I'll probably do this again!

A Little Bit of Glove, Some Bad News, And Some Good News

I'm just about to start the hand section on my glove.  This is the cuff of the second glove.  It's moving slower than the first glove because I'm having eye issues.  You know the commercials you see on TV about dry eye?  Well, I realized that I might be having it, so I went to the eye doctor and yes, I have dry eye.

The good news is that I'm on the medicine to treat it and I've started early enough that there's no damage to my eyes due to being dry.  I also still have 20/20 vision.  The bad news is that the medicine takes a couple of months before I'll start producing more tears, so in the meantime, I'm still using artificial tears.  The reason I bring this up on the blog is that when I'm having really dry eyes, I can't really see clearly and knitting isn't any fun.  This means there's not much to feed the blog.  Eye allergies (which I also have) make the whole thing worse because allergy eye drops dry out your eye.

So, while I did find out what was going on with my eyes, there's not much I can do until the medicine starts working.  On days where my eyes are really miserable, I can't do much beyond watching TV.  Hopefully things will start to improve before Thanksgiving, and not every day is a bad eye day.  In the grand scheme of health issues, this is very, very minor, but I need to take care of my eyes, and sometimes, that's going to mean the blog will be quiet.