Speckles and Spots!

I finished my third Ambiente pullover!  This is knit in Farmer's Daughter Fibers Rocky Mountain Purls in Strawberry Shortcake.  This is my first time using this yarn, which is a superwash BFL/nylon blend.  It's got more texture than the more common superwash merino, but it really softened up after washing and I'm very happy with the finished sweater.

I did the pocket on this one and while it's naturally useless as a pocket, I do think it's cute and I like the look of it.  This the first Ambeinte I've knit that is a light enough color for the pocket to even show, so this is the first time I've done it.

I hope you all have a great weekend!  If you're here in the US, Happy Fourth of July weekend!

Slowly, But Surely, It's Getting There!

I finished the body of my third Ambiente!  I've even gotten the neckband finished.  The next steps will be weaving in ends and knitting the pocket lining.  Then, I'll need to sew the pocket lining into the sweater and finally, knit the sleeves.  My goal is to get all of the ends taken care of and the pocket completely finished today so I can start the sleeves by tomorrow.  (I've mostly been keeping up with the ends as I go, but I didn't worry about them while I knit the split hems, and they're still hanging from the neck edge.  At least there's not a full sweater's worth of ends to deal with!) 

My ultimate goal is to finish this by the end of the month for the ESK Second Quarter Craft Along.  I'm starting to think I might make it!

Have a great weekend, and if you're area is crazy hot like ours is, make sure you stay hydrated!

A New Sweater

A little over a week ago I started a new sweater, but this will be the third time you've seen this particular pattern since I've knit it twice before.  This is Ambiente, knit in Farmer's Daughter Fibers in the Rocky Mountain Purls base in the Strawberry Shortcake colorway.  This is the first time I've knit the pocket though, so that's super exciting.  (Maybe not.)

I'm through the upper body shaping and short rows, so at this point it's just round and round until I get to the split hem.  Sleeves are picked up and knit down (so they're super easy too), and I've been weaving in yarn ends as I go.  Future Me will be very happy with Now Me!

Have a great weekend!  Stay cool and hydrated if it's crazy hot where you live too!

Blanket-ing Along!

I'm moving along on Caleb's Aggie Stripes blanket.  I had to take a break because I was messing up my shoulder again, but I remembered enough from the last time I overdid it with crochet and I stopped.  I'm about to start working on it again, but I will be alternating with knitting, and I'll be watching my posture and arm motion.

As you can see, I've just worked my third maroon stripe.  I think there will be seven maroon stripes total in the blanket, but I'll have to double check my yarn amounts when I get there.  When I bought yarn (2 skeins of maroon, 15 skeins of gray) I kind of just guessed.  I hope to use most of it, if not all, so who knows how big this will be?

Cables, Cables Everywhere!

I finished my capelet/poncho type thing.  The pattern is Ebb Tide and it's actually a fairly easy and fast project.  I knit it in Yarn Love Amy March DK in the Orchid colorway.  I wouldn't recommend this as a first cabled project, but if you've made a cable or two, and understand how they work, I think this would be an easy project.  The pattern isn't charted, but it's so simple that it's easy to knit from written directions.  

The depth and texture of these huge, dramatic cables is amazing.  There's nothing subtle here - you could lose a small animal in the cable twists!  This pattern does have sizing, but there's not a lot of guidance as to how to choose a size.  I measured around my full bust including my arms.  That measurement was almost equal to the small size.  I decided to knit the medium because I'm pretty sure it isn't supposed to have zero or negative ease.  When I finished the main part of the capelet and joined the ends, I tried it on.  It felt huge.  So I knit the neck edging using one size smaller needle than I used for the body and that tightened up the neck perfectly.  You can see that while it has a wide neck, it's not falling off of Fifi's shoulders.

Now I just need to wait six months or so before I can wear it!  Have a great weekend!

A Hat

I finished knitting my Musselburgh hat, and I love it!  This is the large size, but the medium length because I prefer it without the brim folded up.  I knit it in Western Sky Knits Magnolia Sock in the Icon colorway.  I used size US 3 needles (3.25 mm).

The way this pattern is written, you start knitting at the crown and don't even think about gauge until you've knit enough to measure your work.  The hat is its own gauge swatch!!  It's also self lined so knitting it in a fingering weight yarn, you still get a decently warm hat.  I'll probably be making more of these because they're perfect for autopilot knitting, and they use almost a full skein of sock yarn.  It looks very much like a commercially produced beanie, so I think it could be a good gift/gateway drug for someone who's new to hand knits.

Cables. So. Many. Cables.

I've been doing some cables - big, chunky, textural cables!  There's nothing subtle about these.  You could lose a small child in the texture of these cables.  I'm actually through with the most intense sections of the cables now, and I'm more than halfway around on this capelet.  It's an easy pattern to knit because there are a lot of plain rows between the cabling rows - you need some space for the cables to settle in when they're this dramatic.

We're trying to get Caleb set up for his first apartment around here.  I'm trying to balance what he needs, what he wants, and what would be nice to have with the size constraints of the apartment.  He's brushing up on some cooking skills, and wants to do some cooking there, but we'll have to see how much he actually does and actually has time for.  Thankfully, College Station has more places to pick things up than Galveston does, and there's always Amazon if he needs other kitchen things.