second sweater start

Am I crazy? I started a second sweater last week. Granted, part of the intention is to get a few projects going past the fiddly cast on/first few rows stage, but still. Do I bite off more than I can chew? There may even be a third sweater coming. Such hubris! 

This will be my second go-round with this particular pattern so I have some great notes in my margins. I am being cavalier and not gauge swatching despite using a different yarn. Part of me feels like it's an awful lot of work to do without checking first, but I also feel like having made this before I have a decent intuition of how the finished garment will behave and it's pretty forgiving. I may be learning some hard lessons about gauge this fall, but I am going to take what the universe gives me and either declare victory or be grateful for the "now I know better" moment(s). 

I have already made my way through the bottom band and much of the front short row shaping. Once that's done, it is on to the back short row shaping. If I didn't like the hem on this so much I would complain more, but here's my little vent. It isn't the short rows themselves, and wraps are fun and magical. It's the PURLING. Nothing makes my hands hurt more than purling. Ok maybe 1x1 rib, but it's up there on my least favorite maneuvers to do with sticks and string. This pattern is a heartbreaker because the band is garter stitch in the round which means loooots of purls to start with. When you're done, ordinarily that would mean flying through a stockinette body knitting in the round. But with short rows, one must turn. And when one must turn, one must purl. I'm enjoying working on this, but it does have a time limit because my hands start to ache. That will change once I get done with this hem shaping though! May it be soon. 

Ah and also the rest of the yarn for my dad's sweater came in the mail today. Just look at this pile! I will not consider how many stitches that represents.... oh boy. Here we go!

mossy green sweater start

Well, here I go on a sweater adventure! Just cast on Tuesday evening and have struggled my way through the first few inches. I quite dislike doing ribbing, especially when it is 1x1 ribbing, but in this case the magic of the tubular cast on looking so amazingly neat down there at the bottom was the consolation prize. It is wizardry, I tell you.

I have found a lovely new YouTube channel to watch with a very creative woman who makes beautiful quilts and things. Her voice, accent, and mannerisms are so relaxing and her aesthetic so charming that I find myself feeling quite cozy and peaceful. Between that and my favorite gardening channel, I have been feeling quite domestic in the little nook on this couch! I got a little over half way through the ribbing that first night and finished the final bit over lunch yesterday having decided that 2.5 inches was close enough instead of the 3 inches it called for. One more row and there would have been mutiny. My hands are a bit angry.

It was a delight to get to the stockinette rows, and I can tell this may go by pretty quickly if I can find the time for it. Worsted weight wool is so quick to work with! I'm a little nervous about gauge since I am using a needle size down. I did do a gauge swatch (well a few rows anyway), but did not block it so I am still guessing, but it seemed to be a good educated guess. I would hate for this to end up hilariously large, and this wool is so springy and tight right now I suspect it may grow in the blocking process. Though, of course as I am knitting in the round now I suspect my gauge is a bit tighter than the flat swatch I did... I may go for it and switch back to the recommended needle size. I don't think this first inch will end up looking weird if I do that, and given the finished measurements cited for the size I chose and the intended ease I may be overthinking this. Glad to have thought that out through my fingers here, good talk! 

I am enjoying the color very much and have already nearly finished one cake of yarn. I have another, but the rest is still on order so I may pause here until I can get the rest of the skeins to see if the dye lots are significantly different. In that case I'll figure out how to mix in this other ball with the rest so I don't end up with a weird color block at the bottom of the garment. I'll be calling the shop today or tomorrow to see if they've arrived. 

summer wall hanging, finished

Last night was a big night - I finished this wall hanging. I really love the colors I managed to pull together for this one and how they work perfectly with the beautiful print I used for the backing. It's a little bit late for summer, I had hoped to have it done by August 1, but it will look great on the wall for the remainder of what may be a steamy September before my pumpkin wall hanging appears in October. 

I had the top completed around the holidays, I sandwiched it up this spring, and it sat around for a while while I decided how I wanted to quilt it. The challenge I have many times is that when I have a lot of negative space I don't know what to do that will look good. This particular time I also paused because of thread color choices. I really did not want to use white thread on the saturated color but I didn't want anything to show on the white. And I was even more reticent to stitch over that amazing appliqué corner! In the end a simple crosshatch seemed like the way to go to just get it done, and I do like the way it works with the geometry of the blocks. I used a light gray on the front and had a bright magenta bobbin wound up near the machine, so I went with that for the back.

  

This was a Natalie design from a Missouri Star Quilt Co "triple play" day tutorial video, my favorites to watch. The theme of the episode was the rail fence block. The whole design has so much movement despite the simplicity and very traditional blocks, and I had a great time playing with the prints and choosing the motifs to feature in the appliqué. That zen pair of scissors just does it for me. I have just a small precious scrap of that print left. I ended up using every last square inch of the floral print for the back as well as the remainder of my ochre trees for the binding. I had just inches to spare! The thing that tickled me in particular about that print is that I have two projects where this unique color was the perfect thing to augment a stack of prints that I had assembled. Who would think? 

I hung it up in its spot this morning and it's going to make me smile every time I walk by! It's gorgeous. 

stashing and starting

Yesterday in the craft room was all about stashing and starting. First, here's a round up of all the fabric I acquired on the "tour" of local quilt shops with my parents. The top row are from Golden State Quilting up in Campbell. OMG. The Charley Harper horsey print! The mushroom and fabulous hippy horse from Ruby Star Society (Sarah Watts and Melody Miller... two of my faves)! They have also always had Tula Pink fabrics when I've gone in, which I resisted this time but mom did get some very cute bunnies and owls. It's so nice to have a shop nearby that you know will have the latest from your favorite designers. 

The bottom row big three are from Back Porch Fabrics on our trip down to Pacific Grove. I got the Anna Maria Parry zinnias and the somehow irresistible mustard/hot pink blender and mom snuck in that beautiful Charley Harper butterfly fabric for me. I thought she was getting it for herself! Monarchs are "a thing" down there, so it's a fun thing to remember the trip with. 

Last are a few fat quarters from my true LQS in Morgan Hill, Quilts and Things. Somehow this visit my eye was drawn to all the pinks and oranges, which is quite unusual for me! The checkerboard print in the middle is not coming through quite as eyewateringly neon in the photo as it truly is in person. I am 99.9% sure that's a Tula Pink blender. I'm not sure what any of these will be used for, but in laying these out I can see an interesting project potential taking shape in that bottom row.... 

Mom and I also spent a loooong time winding yarn. The two balls on the right were wound for me at the shop where we got them (Fillory) and will turn into a sweater for my dad - along with 10 of their closest friends when they arrive on order. Realizing I was going to start that sweater project made me want to line up a couple of others that have been on my mind since the yarn crawl in spring. The blue and coral on the left are going to be another Hold Sway Sweater, and the brown is going to be some sort of boxy summery top. Not shown are the yarn hanks for my next Shift cowl I have planned, also with yarn from the crawl supplemented by that aqua peeking in the background (from a trip with mom to A Pop of Color in town). They won't get made if the yarn's not wound! So we wound. And wound. And wound. 14 cakes! I did not snap a picture of them, but it was a lot. They are all now nestled in project bags waiting patiently for me to get started. I think my plan is to get them all cast on and started a bit so that I can work on whatever I'm in the mood for without the barrier of "ugh casting on" to deal with. 

Also part of the day was spent with mom choosing a gnome. I showed her my book of Gnomes of Grimblewood that I got at the workshop in February and suggested she pick one for me to make. I already sent her some cute earrings, but I have been thinking of starting another gnome so it would be fun to send it along to her house. ( I haven't made one since April! So much for doing one a month ;) ) We did some stash diving and came up with a rainbow of colors to use on one of the tall stripey guys. I've already cast on and knit a few rows, so more to come. 

It feels good to be organized in the craft room again, to have infused a few new things, and to have some plans! It was also really fun to take a tour around my favorite shops with my parents. I am lucky in how many great places there are pretty close by. May they continue to thrive.

quadrant cowl, finished

This cowl just flew off the needles! Five stars, would knit again. It took me just two weeks to work this up and I enjoyed every stitch - even the grafting! This beautiful kit came from Monarch Knitting in Pacific Grove, a splurge if I am being honest. The yarn is a cashmere blend and was very pleasant to work with. I have had it sitting around for years, so it is funny it was such a fast project this summer. Cowl knitting in summer? Why yes. I am willing cold weather to come. 

Knitting this was like eating Pringles, once I started I did not want to put it down. For me having little repeats of things to do (a few stitches at a time, a few rows at a time, etc) makes for a good amount of momentum to keep going. The "just one more row" phenomenon was strong with this one. Despite the complexity in the finished look, the knitting was quite easy and to me just one step up from knitting a stockinette tube. It was great. My hands may have gotten a BIT sore by the middle of the first week, so caveat for next time. 

I'm enjoy the fact that this is a way for me to wear that lovely soft pink without looking like ripe tomato and that the olive color plays off my dark hair quite nicely. I also really like that it's just a one round cowl, no wrapping necessary, and that the Möbius strip twist makes it a) interesting and b) extra cozy and squishy. Here's to many days of cooler weather where I will grab for this to keep me warm!

 

Pacific Grove favorites

Well true to form a trip to Pacific Grove with my folks turned into a tour of some old favorites! We headed down for a day trip to "see the ocean", which included a lovely lunch at a coast-side local park, and pretty much my favorite other thing to do there which is to check out the local yarn and fabric shops. 

Back Porch Fabric recently changed ownership and I am glad to see that the new owners have continued stocking prints that I really enjoy. In fact, it might even be more up my alley than the previous owner which is kind of surprising given how much I liked her choices. Designers I recognized were Charley Harper, Kaffe Fassett, Sarah Watts, and Anna Maria Parry. There are still plenty of batiks, ocean themed prints, and pretty blenders that pop. This gorgeous zinnia print had to come home. There was also a chicken quilt on the wall that was so fun I'm tempted to try it even though I'm not a big chicken person. I'm pretty sure it was Kaffe Fassett prints - so fun to see a traditional topic worked up in bright and busy prints!

I don't think I've skipped popping into Monarch Knitting on a trip down here since the first time I found them. I enjoy the space and the way they've arranged it, the yarns they choose to stock, and they always have some beautiful samples to check out. Case in point, the adorable whale and pufferfish stuffies they had knit up out drew me over to the table where I found this little guy who came home with me. I went in thinking (knowing) I did not need to add to my yarn stash, but does a kit to make a toy turtle really count? I at least have a plan for the yarn. :) 

kits are fun too sometimes

Cleaning up my craft room and "ravelry stashing" my yarn earlier this month got me going on a new project. This is a kit I got from Monarch Knitting, a favorite LYS down in Pacific Grove. I've had it for a while and wound up the hanks this summer so it was sitting in it's box ready to go. I've been missing the simplicity of knitting in the evenings. Embroidery and cross stitch are nice but I find it easier to multitask while knitting!

The pattern is simple enough, though looks more complicated than it actually is - I love things like that - and the fact that it is knitted in the round with a repeat that is easy to memorize has made this really fun and really quick. I am enjoying it quite a lot and have been thinking this is a pattern I would make again. I don't ordinarily find myself drawn to kits, not for any particular reason other than that I like to pick my own colors. I am appreciating though that these are colors I would not have thought of for myself but they drew my eye in combination through their clear box enclosure at the shop. That light pink especially is so pretty and unusual for my palette. I don't usually do well in light/pastel warm tones but I think the combination with the stronger pink and dark olive will make it wearable for me. 

I had intended for this to be an occasional project that would take a while, but it has grown rather quickly! It's been less than two weeks and I am already at the final color shift and approaching the grafting step.