An FO and more knitting-curses

A couple weekends ago I had an action movie marathon and finished my Truckee Shawlette.

It was seriously a marathon--I watched/listened to four different action flicks and knit my brains out.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and Malabrigo remains my favorite thing ever.  It's so lovely and soft!

Poor Sam hasn't been able to finish (and I shouldn't have, but I was on a roll).  Luckily she's a better friend than I am, and is okay with my having finished because she knows I have other KALs to start.

Speaking of, the Mean Girls Yarn Club KAL started July 1st (and goes until August 31st), and I had all kinds of plans.  None of them have come to fruition yet.

I really wanted to use the colorway called "Hoar's Your Buddy?" which is based on Syndrome from the Incredibles.  My original plan was to make a knitted monster, but the more I looked at the yarn, the more I wanted it to be something else.  I decided I liked the pattern Baana, because the linen stitch would mix up the colors nicely and prevent a lot of pooling.  I started it, and even liked how it looked:

...but then I realized that despite all the blue (I love blue), I would probably never wear it because I am not a fan of orange.  So...I frogged my progress and decided to make it a monster again...except I don't have the proper needle size.  My birthday is in a couple of weeks, and I asked for an interchangeable needle set, which would include the needle I need, so the monster is on hold.

So, with a different MGYC colorway, I decided to try my hand at Trillian.  It was looking pretty good, but the pattern calls for a gauge of 21 stitches/27 ridges over 4 inches, and I'm getting 30 stitches over 4 inches.  SIGH.

I'm not really sure how far up in needle size I should go (and how much it matters, since its a scarf/shawl).  I did pull back and try on a US 8 for giggles, and that's WAY too loose for my liking.  I actually liked how it was knitting up on the needles I was originally using, but I'm worried about the gauge, especially because I have less yardage than called for (which others have done, just making a smaller kerchief).  I WILL NEVER WIN.


ETA:  I just realized that the gauge thing may be less of an issue than I thought, because its not blocked.  Crisis averted?

Hurray for Progress!

So far, all is on schedule for the mini-KAL.  Sam and I both finished Segment 1 of the Truckee Shawlette, and will be moving on to Segment 2 this upcoming week, though we still aren't quite sure how to break that segment up.  Our original plan was to do 4 of the 8 repeats, but then we realized that not only are we going to be increasing stitch counts, but there are four rows for each color instead of just two.  So...we're sort of playing that one by ear.

Truckee Shawlette in progress.  Yay, stripes!

In other news, I've also been plugging away on my Raphaelite socks--shocking, I know.  I'm currently working through the gusset increases of sock #1 (the sock is toe-up).  My sock progress will likely slow down as the Truckee Shawlette gets bigger.

Most of a sock!  I might get these done by November.

Gettin' stuff done.

This is an amazing feat, but team--I finished another project!



Just some simple cabled hand warmers to go with my cloche.  The pattern is called Blue Monday and is a freebie on Ravelry.  Its super easy to follow and I didn't have to use my brain too much, which is always nice.  I like how they turned out and they'll be lovely and warm and cushy when the weather decides to be cold again, and not 95(F).

Next up, I'm thinking of going for a Wingspan.  I rather like the version with the holes, which I think is referred to as "Angel" (there's a Ravelry page here, and the actual blog post about it is here.)  I fell in love with several versions people have done using Knit Picks Chroma in the Mix Tape colorway, so I decided to do one myself!  Sadly, I don't seem to have the right needle size (of course), so a trip to the LYS is in order.  Shucky darn!

Finally an FO

I somehow managed to be a knitting maniac the last few days, and finished my Jenny Cloche last night.

I love it!   It's cushy and warm and lovely.  I did have some issues trying to cinch up the side seam (I couldn't get it to look right--it always made the hat look wonky), so I ended up just taking that out and left it un-cinched. I also ended up tacking down the bow on either side, as it was otherwise a bit too floppy and felt like it would come flying off.  I think this is where my lack of sewing skills came into play (I should probably work on that...)

As I also mentioned before, I have also developed a deep love for Malabrigo, and I have quite a bit left over!  I'll have to measure it, but I think I might have enough to make some handwarmers to go along with it...and we all know I have plenty of patterns to choose from in my Ravelry queue.

Mushy Malabrigo (and a partial project)

Awhile back I had started the Jenny Cloche, only to realize I was using the wrong yarn about half way through.  If you're wondering how that's possible, please allow me to explain.

I had been admiring the pattern for quite some time, so for Christmas (2010), my friend Sam bought me the pattern and the recommended yarn for it.  I finally started the project this last winter (2011), and as I was knitting the front band portion, I noticed I was going through the yarn really quickly.  I checked the yardage on the pattern to the yardage on the yarn band and realized I was two skeins short.  You would think this would have triggered some alarm bells, but it didn't.  Instead I found some more of the yarn and bought it, and plugged away on my project.

I got to the point in the pattern where you seam the band together and then pick up stitches from the edge and was having problems figuring out why the pattern was asking me to pick up 70 stitches, and I only had 45 slipped stitches on my edge.  Usually this kind of thing works out more closely.  I talked it over with some of my knit night pals, and told them how I didn't know what was wrong, I had the exact yarn that the pattern asked for!  One of them, who was reading the pattern, asked if I still had my yarn band.  I did, and she read it and then pointed out something that should have been PAINFULLY OBVIOUS:  the pattern had asked for Nashua Creative Focus Chunky (which is a bulky weight yarn), and I had Nashua Creative Focus Bulky (which is a SUPER bulky yarn).  D'oh!

Since the hat had been knitting up so densely with the super bulky weight, I decided to frog it and start over with the other recommended yarn in the pattern:  Malabrigo worsted, held double.

My friend Rachel, who works at JBW, helped me pick out the most perfect color, and I swatched it up.  I haven't used Malabrigo before, but had heard tales of its awesomeness.  However, I was not prepared to fall head over heels in love with a yarn.

It's like butter.  So soft, smooth, and easy to knit with.  And the color!  I love it.

So you would think that I would have made a little more progress on the newest version of my cloche hat.  But alas, it is not so (insert sad trumpet noise here).  I really hope I get on the ball soon, because now I have blog posts to consider!  

I've become a bit obsessed with Malabrigo and have decided I want to find a skein with which to knit my first shawl, 198 Yards of Heaven (several of my buddies already have and I love it!).  However, Malabrigo is proving to be a hard to find yarn--its sold out everywhere I look (JBW, WEBS, Loopy Ewe...)  It may be a sign from the universe that I should quit trying to buy yarn for yet another project I won't start for awhile, and instead focus on the Malabrigo and project I have at hand.

Easier said than done.