Slowly But Surely

I have a little bit of knitting progress to show!

I have been doing a tiny bit of knitting over the last week (just a little bit each day and I stop as soon as I feel discomfort).  I've actually been able to finish my first Smaug sock and I've just made it past the heel turn on the second!  (For reference, a pair of socks usually takes me four to six days to knit both socks.)  Clearly, I'm not able to knit at my usual speed yet, but I'm able to do some and that's keeping me sane.

I can tell that my shoulder/upper arm is better than it was, but it's taking longer to heal than I want it to.  (Big surprise, right?)  Now that I am able to knit some, I'll be popping in more often to show what I've done.  I probably won't be back to my usual 4-5 times a week for a while yet, but when I have progress, I'll show it off!

Max Took A Bath

 

Cats are such elegant creatures.

The shoulder/arm is better but I'm still trying to stay off of it as much as possible.  This stinks.  (I don't do rest very well.)

A Sweater and A Break

 

I've finished the body of my Il Grande Favorito.  I'm ready to begin the sleeves and then all it will need is a neck band.  Neither should take very long, but I'm having a little problem.  I think I've overworked my right arm so I need to take a break.  Unfortunately, I'm noticing pain with knitting, crochet, hand sewing, messing around on my iPad, and basically most things I do  (I can still do laundry and vacuum up the dog hair).  This means I need to let it rest, but that means no blog fodder.  The blog will be put on pause until I can get back to doing the things I love and actually have things to share again.  In the meantime, I'll be icing it and trying to behave myself.

Hopefully I'll be back soon!

Wiksten Tank #8

 

It's been a few years since I made a Wiksten Tank, but I just ordered some lemon fabric, so it was time for a new one!  The fabric is from the new Mediterraneo collection from Art Gallery Fabrics and as soon as I saw it, I got enough of the lemon print in the rayon for this tank and some in the knit for a dress (I haven't sewn that yet).  I might go back and get some in the quilting cotton for pajama pants - I love this print!

I wear my Wiksten Tanks year round.  Even in the winter they're great for layering with cardigans, so eight of the same top isn't really excessive.  Six of them are in Liberty's Tana Lawn, one of them is a heavier weight Tencel and this one is a lightweight rayon challis.  Now I have to go pick a cardigan to go with it today because it's too cold to wear on its own.  I had to dig out the fuzzy running tights again for this morning's run.  Where are you Spring?

Happy Dragons Wrap Their Tails Around Themselves

Or your socks.

I'm through the heel flap and heel turn (it's underneath the rest of the sock in these photos), and I've started the foot.  You can see the "tail" starting to wrap around the foot now.  The sock is designed so the gusset decreases are worked into the tail cable to start it wrapping around the foot.  It's genius really.

Here's a detail of the tail cable.

I hope you all have a great weekend and I hope your dragons are happy!

A Heel Flap is Born

 

I've finished the leg of my first Smaug sock and started the heel flap.  I'm really loving this yarn.  This is the first time I've used Sweet Georgia's Tough Love Sock, but it's very nice.  I also like the color and I think it will work with my Aniversario pullover (although with as many colors as Aniversario has in it, everything should work with my Aniversario pullover).  Just in case it doesn't, I do have a skein of Malabrigo sock in Aniversario that I plan to make socks with.  But right now, I'm enjoying the single hued tones of Lollipop!

The Magical Pullover of Awesomeness

Do you remember when I finished the Ramble shawl and I mentioned that there would be more projects in the Aniversario colorway coming along this year?  I wasn't kidding.  Last year I knit a hat in Aniversario in the Mecha base and I fell in love with the way it looked.  I've always loved the way hand dyed colors look on singles yarns, but since Mecha is a bulky weight yarn, the stitches are nice and big and really show off the colors in Aniversario beautifully.  I did some thinking, because bulky weight and Texas don't necessarily mix, but I decided to just go for it!

I started the Il Grande Favorito pullover over the weekend.  I'm already past the separation of sleeve stitches from the body, and this thing is just flying!  I am alternating skeins and before I began, I sorted the skeins somewhat so they would work together colorwise.  Some of the skeins have more yellow in them than others - those will be towards the hem of the sweater, away from my face!

Here's a close up - check out those colors!  Also, huge needles!

Palpitations

After finishing my Ramble shawl, I had about 50 yards left of Aniversario so I decided to make another Palpitation heart.  I was able to get two hearts out of it (a small and a medium size) and I had enough yarn left to make a lucet cord to connect them.

Naturally, I hung them on my tote that's holding my new sweater project (not off to a great start with sweaters this year, but hopefully the third time's a charm), knit in Aniversario - of course.

I'll show you the sweater tomorrow!

A Tale of A Narwhal

 

Once upon a time, PinkLemon made a narwhal.  She used a free pattern, available on Ravelry, and she crocheted it using 2017's Yarnathon 10K Club exclusive colorway which reminded her of cupcakes with pink icing and sprinkles.  She used a 3.5mm (US E) hook for those of you that are curious.  When she had completed the narwhal, she placed it next to Maximus to get pictures for the blog.  Maximius sat very still with narwhal.  For about one minute.  Then things got a little weird.

I hope you have a better weekend than the narwhal did!

Socks

 

The Q2 KAL for Eat.Sleep.Knit is Summer of Socks.  Granted, it isn't really summer yet, but it will be here before the second quarter is over.  I've started my first pair of socks - Smaug socks in Sweet Georgia Yarns Tough Love Sock in the dragon appropriate color of "Lollipop."  Can't you just see Smaug rolling around on his hoard enjoying a lollipop?  Or maybe a small dwarf child that was just eating a lollipop?  No?  Just me?

Anyway, this is the first time I've used this yarn and I'm really liking it.  I'm also using a new type of needles - the Addi Crasy Trio (I've also seen them called Flexi Flips).  I ended up getting them from Amazon because they're hard to find right now.  Apparently everyone wants them.  They do feel different from double points, which is my favorite way to knit socks, but they're close enough that I didn't really have to relearn how to use them.  Also, since socks are my go to travel project, I figure keeping up with three things is easier than five.  I think I'm a little bit slower on these than on DPN's, but I'm getting faster.  I'm going to knit both socks from this pair with these and I'll report back at the end.

Finished

 

My Ramble shawl is all finished and blocked!  This was such a fun project, having both garter stitch stripes and brioche in it (two of my favorite things).

I used Malabrigo Mechita in Aniversario and Natural, one skein of each, and I just love the way it came out.

The pattern is written for DK weight yarn, but here in Texas, that would severely limit the number of wearable days I'd have with it, which is why I knit mine in fingering weight.  I worked both more garter stripes and an additional repeat of the brioche so that my shawl wouldn't be too small.

I should probably warn you all right now, I have several more Aniversario projects planned.  I'm loving this color so much right now!

Ramble

 

I spent most of the weekend working on Ramble.  I'm hoping to get another four rows of the Brioche pattern, but I'm watching my yarn amounts very carefully at this point.  I've also got to double check the ending directions.  I can't remember if there's another row or two before the bind off or if it's just a bind off.  I'm so close to finishing this that I'll probably try to get it done tonight.

I also started learning how to use the new KnitCompanion app.  I've been using KnitCompanion for years now (this turned out to be a good thing because Max has been known to grab a paper chart and go running down the hall with it), and I can't imagine knitting without it.  Of course I also use it for crochet and sewing patterns too.  With the new KnitCompanion NextGen app, there are some changes to how it works and how you set up a pattern in it.  I spent most of Saturday morning setting up some new patterns in it, and I think I'm getting the hang of it now.