Eyre - All Laced Up

 

I've finished the lace section of Eyre!  I had blocked it a couple of weeks ago and thought I had figured out where I was, but since I ignored it for a bit, it bounced back a little more from it's blocking, meaning I wasn't quite as far along as I thought.  It still held the blocking well, but it shrank back from where it was originally.  This is really common with Merino because it has a tight crimp and that crimp will always come back.  This yarn is Merino, cashmere and nylon, so it bounced back.

So, I had to knit a little bit more before beginning the underarm shaping.  Now I've worked the underarm shaping for the back and finished the lace.  I'm probably going to re-block the back section so I can block the top part as well before I really get going on the stockinette.  The top back (yoke?) section is stockinette, as is the rest of the sweater, so it should go faster from here.  It's already too warm for this sweater here, but it will be ready for Fall when it shows up in late October!

Sock

 

I've completed the leg of the sock and made it past the heel.  I'm now working my way towards the toe!  I can't believe how fast this sock has been going, or at least it seems to be working up quickly (which in knitting, is essentially the same thing, right?).

Also, can someone please explain to me how March is starting Wednesday?  How did that happen?

The Blanket

 

Just a quick blanket check in - I've completed row 14 of my Meditative Blanket!  I'm thinking I may need to get a move on this if I plan to finish it this year.

Have a great weekend!

A Sock

 

The first Decathlon sock is moving right along.  This is a great pattern for mindless knitting as well as easy to knit at Man Sock size.  (You don't want a fiddly, detailed pattern when you knit something as big as man socks.)  The fact that the stitch pattern is ribbed means it will more easily fit a foot without trying it on as I go (and therefore easier to surprise someone as a gift).  All of these things add up to a really great sock knitting experience!  I'm actually thinking about knitting more than one pair in this pattern for Mickael!

Ashburn

 

I've started the third color in Ashburn!  See the light blue green there?  That's it!  Also, while the middle textured part was fun to knit, it wasn't particularly fast, so I'm happy to be back to mostly garter stitch as the rows get longer and longer.  The directions for this shawl have it divided into thirds, which correspond with the main color used.  I'm not sure if the thirds are equally divided by the amount of work each one is made up of, but it does make me feel good to have two-thirds completed.  If anyone has knit this shawl and already knows that the final third is actually more like half the shawl and it just takes months to knit because it goes on forever, please don't tell me until I get mine finished.  According to the directions, I'm two-thirds finished and my brain doesn't need to know otherwise.

Also, it's big enough now that I have to stand on a table to get the whole thing in photograph.  Just in case you were wondering how big it was.

Eyre

 

I blocked what I had so far to get an accurate measurement and while my row gauge is a little off, I think it will work out.  I thought I might need to frog it and start over, but after unpinning and remeasuring and refiguring, I think I'm going to be ok.  There are side seams so that will help stabilize the lace and keep it from doing too much that it's not supposed to.  I really like the way this looks so far and it's been fun to knit, so if I had decided to frog and restart, I wasn't even really upset about the idea.  It doesn't hurt that the yarn is super yummy to knit with!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  We're taking a holiday Monday so I'll be back Tuesday - hopefully with a finished lace back section for this sweater!

Weaving

 

I was able to get more weaving done yesterday.  I have now woven a bit more than 40 inches on this wrap.  Since I'm shooting for 72-80 inches without fringe, that means I'm more than halfway done!  This project has been sitting quietly while I work on some other things, but I should be able to get back to it more often now.  I have discovered that I tend to beat harder with my right hand, so I'm trying to consciously ease off a bit on that side.  My guess is that I did that on the scarves too, but it was less noticeable on the narrower width.  I'm working on correcting it on this project, but my next project will also be a wide wrap and it won't be a hound's tooth check.  It's just going to be regular weaving, no color changes, nothing fancy, so I should be able to really work on any issues and get them corrected.  I don't want an uneven beat to become a habit!

A New Pair of Socks

Something I've noticed over the years is that Christmas comes every December.  It doesn't pop up in July some years or occasionally show up in September just for fun, it comes in December.  Every.  Single.  Year.

You would think I would have learned this and planned for it, especially considering that we have five family birthdays between Thanksgiving and the first week of January.  That means the majority of gift giving for the year happens during that period.  Since I'm a Maker, I need to Have Things Made before then.  For some reason, this concept kind of eludes me.

In an attempt to make my own life easier/not turn into a raving lunatic by mid-December/eliminate stress, I've started some Christmas or maybe Birthday knitting for Mickael (Mickael's birthday is one of the December ones).  I have a couple of pairs of socks worth of yarn stashed for Mickael so I grabbed some and cast on.  He loves his hand knit socks and while he doesn't always treat them nicely (I once caught him outside on our concrete driveway doing something in only his sock feet - hand knit sock feet!), he really enjoys the way they make his feet all cozy and warm.  So I will knit socks for him (and fuss at him a bit when he abuses them).

These are Decathlon socks (thankfully Mickael prefers simple sock patterns for his big, manly feet), knit in Madelinetosh Twist Light in the Kitten colorway.  The color really reminds me of driftwood - kind of the brownish, grayish, sun bleached, ocean washed color.  I've finished the top ribbing (I've adjusted the pattern a bit to be big enough for him) and have just barely started the main rib pattern.  These will be a great portable project, which I'll be needing later this week when Caleb has his wisdom teeth removed.  Socks are perfect for a portable project!

Ashburn Again

 

I keep grabbing Ashburn when I sit down to knit, so here it is again!  I've finished the first third so I'm through with the Fieldmouse color (this first section has stripes of Rainforest, but it's primarily Fieldmouse).  I'm working on the second third which is just the Rainforest color, no stripes.  Also, this new section is a textured stitch instead of garter stitch which is kind of fun to knit.

This was a great project for this weekend and it's easy to knit while watching TV.  (I'm currently watching Grimm on the Amazon Fire Stick.)  Also over the weekend, I started a new project, but you have to wait until tomorrow to see it.

Tune in tomorrow - same Bat time, same Bat channel!

Ashburn and a Really Great Cause

 

I've started striping the second color in my Ashburn!  This is (of course) very exciting to me because now there are little polka dots of the blue green color in the taupe. I am highly amused by the little polka dots.  Here's a close up so that you can also be highly amused by the little polka dots.

Aren't they fun?

On a serious note, yesterday I got my hair cut and as I was chatting with my stylist she started telling me about a mission trip she's taking to India in March.  She's working with Grace House over there, which works with girls who are orphaned or for various reasons, given up by their families.  One of the things they try to do is give the older girls and women skills so they can support themselves and when they found out that Bobbi is a stylist they asked if she could train some of the women there.  So, in about a month she will be going to India to teach 60 women the basics of cutting hair.  She'll also be helping them treat head lice, which is apparently a huge problem there, and she's trying to put together some basic hair cutting kits so the women she will train have the tools to continue after she leaves.  She's very excited to be doing this, but the idea took off so quickly, it has left her with very little time to get everything together.  She's started a Go Fund Me page to raise money to purchase the supplies and the local Sally's Beauty Supply has agreed to give her a bulk discount when she buys everything.  I thought I'd mention it here because as (most of us are) women, we all know what a difference a good haircut can make, but with this project, haircuts could potentially change these young women's lives.  I think this is truly a case where something we take for granted (and honestly can seem kind of silly in the grand scheme of Big Things That are Happening in the world) could open doors and new opportunities to women and their families.  If you'd like to donate, even just a little bit, here's the link to her page.

Thanks for reading my blog and I hope each of you has a great weekend!

Eyre, Lace

 

I've gotten back to work on my Eyre pullover.  I've now completed four repeats and I can work a repeat in an evening pretty easily.  The lower back hem is actually at the top of the picture because I laid it out upside down.  That's kind of the way I roll.

I still haven't figured out how much I should stretch the lace to measure it.  I know there will be some horizontal stretching when I block it, but I'm not sure how much (if any) vertical stretch I'm supposed to add.  I'm off to Ravelry this morning to read project comments and try to figure this out.  I'm probably overthinking it...

A Little More Blanket

 

I'm halfway across the fourteenth row of my Meditative Blanket.  It's finally getting big enough to look like it might be a blanket when it grows up.  Max has tested out how well it works to keep him warm during a nap (it works properly), and I continue to be amused by the squares of color.  Onward!  I must make more squares!

Something New

Sorry about the radio silence, I've been working on an Unbloggable Project.  I've just about got it finished, so I can work on bloggable things as well now.

I decided to start something new!  Since I finished my Sunwalker, I decided to cast on another Melanie Berg pattern that I had yarn for - Ashburn.  Several years ago I bought a Yummy Fingering Trio from Miss Babs.  These are three full skeins of yarn (the base is Yummy Fingering in this case) that have been put together by the Miss Babs team.  Mine is made of the Field Mouse, Rainforest, and Forever colorways.  I almost never knit with brown (I have brown hair and brown eyes and I have a suspicion that wearing brown makes me look like a chocolate bar - or worse), but I do like brown with blue greens.  Also, this is a taupe-y brown which is one of the browns I like.  I think with the blue green and pale aqua, I should be OK - I'm going to take a chance!

Anyway, I've gotten started on the first section and it's just relaxing garter stitch.  This is the same shape of shawl as Sunwalker - that is an elongated triangle.  These are great wrapped around the neck like a rectangular shawl - easy to wear for a shawl.

Also over the past week, Loopy Academy assignments went up.  I'm not sure if I'm going to participate this semester.  I don't mind doing any of the assignments, but when I looked at projects to fit the requirements, the ones I wanted to knit are all sweaters.  I can knit three sweaters in the next four months, but I won't be able to knit much else and I'd have to buy new yarn for all three.  I've just cleaned out my sewing/stash room and I have yarn for thousands of sweaters in there (OK, not thousands, but lots of potential sweaters are up there).  I'm thinking I might just sit this semester out and knit from my stash.