Spunday 6/29/14

Tour de Fleece starts on Saturday and I wanted to clear my spindle.  I spent most of this weekend finishing up the plying on my Knitting Knorth Polwarth.  I finished it on Saturday morning, gave it a soak and hung it outside to dry all day.  It's 288 yards of sport weight and it's the most yardage I have ever spun.  The colors are super bright so I think I will make a larger toy with it rather than something to wear.  

Knitting Knorth Polwarth-22713

I decided on spinning my Shadawyn Fiber Arts Merino/Silk blend for Tour de Fleece.  I've never spun anything with silk in it so that will be a challenge for me.  I also think I am going to try to fractal spin this time.  Every time I have spun I just split the fiber in half and spun randomly.  I want to try to have more control over my colors and have less of a barber pole look.  

Shadawyn Fiber Arts Merino/Silk 80/20-Severus Snape

FO Friday 6/27/14

I mentioned in our last post how I got 2 larger projects done this past week.  These looming deadlines kicked my butt into gear!  After 8 months of on again, off again stitching, I FINALLY got my Spooky Sampler done!  Now I can frame it and be ready for Halloween!  

Halloween Spooky Sampler pattern by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery

Not only did I finish my sampler, but I also finished my June socks and I am so glad they are off the needles and safely tucked away in my sock drawer.  
The pattern is easy to follow, the yarn was lovely to knit.  About halfway through the leg on the first sock I was ready for it to be over.  I think I had so much going on  in my world that following a detailed pattern was too much for my brain to handle.  On Sunday, I went to see the Iron Pigs play (That's our local minor league baseball team).  I had just started the second sock and managed to knit 2 pattern repeats during the game.  After that, I went into beast mode to get them done.  By the time I got to binding off the cuff, my brain was dead.  I stupidly cut the yarn to pull it through the last stitch when I realized that I wasn't done with my bind off.  I still had another needle to go.  D'oh!  So, I joined the yarn and continued binding off.  I moved on to my afterthought heel.  No big deal.  I've done this like twenty times before, right?  Yeah...about that.  While I was kitchenering the heel, I was singing along to music playing on Spotify.  Somehow, I got so into it that I forgot that I was even working on my sock.  I looked down and the stitch count on the two needles weren't the same.  So, at this point I fudged it and went on my merry way to the finish line.

Rainbow Explosion pattern by Lauren McMordie  Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Slushie Facial

I have a few knit FOs this week and a sewn one as well.  The first I have to share is another Voodoo You Love me  by Susan Claudino.  There are two Puffs who are expecting their second child, so I am sending a softie for each of the older brothers.  That way when mom gets a big box for baby there is something for the big brothers too.  

Voodoo you love me - Susan Claudino - Dancing Dog Dyeworks - "Jenna"

I brought this little guy up to Glen Onoko so he could bask on the rocks there.  I love how bright and colorful he is.  I have made two of these toys so far, but think I need one to hang out in my craft room in the new house.  I am so excited that I will have a room where my sewing machine can be set up all the time.  I can also have my spinning wheel there instead of hanging out in my living room.  
The other FO is a shawl knit in some gorgeous yarn dyed up by the Three Irish Girls.  This colorway is called "You are my Sunshine" and they donated part of the proceeds to a group called SHARE that supports people who lose pregnancies and babies.  I loved the colorway when I saw it and love donating to a worthy cause. This was a limited colorway so I have been holding on to it trying to find the perfect pattern. I decided to knit up the Holden shawl by Mindy Wilkes. I knit the smallest size and left off the picot hem and I really like it.  It is an easy knit and I finished it up in a little over a week. 

This week I also sewed up a little pouch with a zipper. This is the first time that I have put a zipper in all by myself! I think that it turned out pretty well. I can see a few things that I can improve the next time that I sew one up. I am just glad that I am not as scared of zippers anymore.  My projects survive better from the chomping kitty in house in zippered bags, and if I can make my own, I will have one for every project on my needles!

I followed the tutorial found here. It was really easy to follow. The only thing I would make sure to add is before you top stitch on your zipper you should iron the fabric back away from the zipper.  That way you wont get the fabric caught up in your zipper when you use it later.

WIPs Wednesday 6/25

I am back this week with my WIPs too!  I am still working on my Dr. Who scarf. I have about a month to go to finish it in time for my OWL and I hope I can do it.  I am on stripe 30/53.  I didn't take a photo since it it doesn't look all that different from the last time that I posted. I worked on it yesterday in the car on the way up to Glen Onoko falls.  The hubby and I had lunch outside and it was so nice out he said we should go for a walk.  We hopped in the car and headed to Jim Thorpe. We have been up in that area before, but not to the waterfalls.  We have been living here for 4 years and haven't seen many things in the area. We are hoping to spend as much time as possible outside while we can since it is so much harder to do in the winter.

Glen Onoko falls, Jim Thorpe, PA

I am wearing an FO in that pic that I will be sharing on Friday!! I have also been working on my Simple Skyp socks. I have one finished and am halfway through the leg of the second one. The goal is to finish these by the end of the month so I can submit them for Flying class.  

Sock #2, Simple Skyp Socks - The Cyborg's Craft Room - "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock"

Lastly I have been working on my Wintry Mitts. I finished the first mitt and continued on in the Crystal Palace Mini Mochi skein. So whereas the first mitt starts at green at the bottom, this one is a purple.  I know that looks more magenta than purple, but the color is very different in real life.  Hopefully my swap partner is not too OCD about her mitts being identical.  

Wintry Mitt #2

I made a list of all of the deadline knitting I have to do and I almost cried.  When I first commited to doing everything I figured, I have all year, why not?!  Now that the year is half over and I am just starting some of these things the panic is setting in.  There's no way I can do everything, so my Adrift cardigan is going on hiatus until I can finish up some deadlines.  I would have loved to finish it by the OWL deadline, but there's no way it can happen.  

I am happy to say that I finished two bigger projects this past week that I will be sharing on Friday.  Now I am just working on my deadline knitting.  I plan on knocking a huge portion of it out in July so I wanted to see how many of the smaller projects I can finish before then.

I cast on this adorable pumpkin  hat using Knit Picks Brava.  When Brava first came out I loved it!  Now that they changed manufacturers I'm not a huge fan.  I think it will still be durable, it's still easy to care for.  It just doesn't feel nearly as nice as it did before and squeaks when I knit it up.

Pumpkin Hat pattern by Eileen Casey.  Yarn:  Knit Picks Brava Worsted in Orange.  

The other project on the needles this week is for my swap partner.  I'm knitting her the Cruiser Mittens.  The pattern calls for worsted weight but I am double stranding sport weight instead.  

Cruiser Mittens pattern by Cailyn Meyer.  Yarn: Cascade 220 Sport in Charcoal Grey

Tonight is your last chance to enter our spindle and Gourmet Stash puni giveaway in the Ravelry thread!  The winner will be announced in the group tomorrow morning so if you haven't already, get those last minute entries in!

Spunday 6/22

So first let me say I have been a bad blogger. Wednesday was super busy for me. We are in the process of buying a new house and putting our current house on the market. It was also graduation week for the residency program so we had happy hours, parties and graduation itself.  I have definitely have WIPs on the needles but not a ton of progress on anything since I have not been knitting much. I try to make sure that I have time to knit or spin at least a little every day, just for stress relief if nothing else.  So I have some spinning that I have finished up to share.  In February I spun up a braid of Malabrigo Nube.  Now normally I am not a big fan of merino.  I like spinning it up, but I would rather spin BFL or Polwarth.  I loved spinning up the Nube.  It was soft and lovely.  I love that after you spin and ply it, it blooms in the soak.  With that 4 oz braid I achieved about 250 yards.  That was one of my projects from the Winter Ravellenic Games.  

Malabrigo Nube - Aguas

So I bought a braid of Malabrigo Nube in the colorway Indiecita to spin up next.  I loved the purples and greens in the braid.  

I am still new to color control in my spins.  I am hoping to try an N-ply in the next few months which should keep my colors together when I ply rather than diluting them.

Malabrigo Nube - Indiecita

The most exciting part of this handspun is I got 348 yards of a 2 ply yarn in about a sport weight! That is almost 100 yards more than the first time that I spun up the Malabrigo Nube! It is the most yardage that I have ever gotten from a single braid! Now I just need to pair it up with a pattern.

WIP Wednesday 6/18/14

For the past week I have been focusing all on my sweater and cross-stitch.  I finished the sleeves on my Adrift Cardigan and am about an inch past the raglan into the body.  9 more inches to go and then I'm done!  

I need to pick my June socks back up and get them finished before the month is over, but I want to finish my Halloween Sampler first.  I have one more square left and then it's done!  

FO Friday 6/13/14

With being sick and trying to catch up on yard work I don't really have any new FO's to share.  The only thing I have to share this week is a hat I finished last week but didn't photograph in time for last week's post.  A co-worker asked me to knit a hat for her baby grandson.  After knitting this hat, I was reminded that I wanted to knit some cute children's hats for church this year so expect to see more hats in the future :)

I have been working on mostly big projects, so the only FO I have to share for the week is a Harry Potter theme washcloth that I am sending to a fellow Hufflepuff who is expecting her first baby in September.

Extra special thanks to the hubby for taking the picture for me. I didn't realize how hard it would be to capture the pattern when knit in white!

WIP Wednesday 6/11/14

This past week went so fast!  Friday & Saturday I had plans and didn't get much time to work on any knitting.  Sunday, rather than knitting I decided to pick up my Halloween Spooky Sampler and work on that.   I made some progress and will be trying to work on that each week so I can actually be done before Halloween.  I really want to buy the Halloween Town pattern by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery, but I am trying to finish the projects I have started before starting a new one.  

I haven't made any progress on my June socks in the past week.  They are currently sitting in the WIPs basket until I make a little more progress on my sweater.  
I finally started the sleeves.  Monday & Tuesday I was home sick so I tried to spend an hour a day working on it.  At this point I don't see myself finishing by the end of July and finishing my OWL.  I'll still work on it, but I can't let myself stress out over it.  

I was traveling this week so I really had to make some crafting choices before I left.  Since my OWL scarf is getting so long, and it has 7 different colors, I decided to leave it at home.  When I got home last night I finished the last two stripes that I needed to do to hit my 50% mark!  Now I can submit that for 75 points and keep working on it.  I have 26 stripes to go and the tassels, but I think I can totally do it.  After I block it, it will feel so good to trim all those woven in ends!

I brought two projects with me, one was a pair of socks. When I left last week I had the cuff done on the sock, now I am on the toe of the first sock.  This is the Simple Skyp Socks pattern by Adrienne Ku.   It is not a pattern that I have done before, but I knew that Jess had, so I decided to give it a try.  The colorway is the funnest part of these socks though.  It is The Cyborg's Craft Room Assockilate in "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock." I am a sucker for anything that can be connected with another fandom that I love (this should make sense since we are the Fiber Fangirls!)  So I knew when I saw the Big Bang Theory colorway that I just had to have it! These socks will be a Christmas present so I cannot tell you who they are for, but I love them so much. Too bad they would never fit me!

My last WIP for the week is my Wintry Mitts that are for my Order of the Phoenix Mission. I have about 4 colorwork rows to go, and then the ribbing on the top of the mitt, and the thumb and the first mitt is done! I don't think I am going to be able to match the two mitts, but I think that the mitts will still go together well.  

FO Friday 6/6

I only have a few FOs to share, but one of them I am super excited about. Last week I shared some blanket squares that I made for a friend who will seam them together and donate the blankets to a hospital.  I was asked for a link to the chart so I wrote up the pattern and published it on Ravelry! I am offering it as a free pattern, but feel so excited to have designed something that someone else wanted to knit!  So here is a link to the pattern if you are interested in checking it out.  Here is the most recent square that I made.

Giving Hearts Blanket Square by Jen!

For quidditch, we had to knit a project that was at least 200 yards for Round 3. I decided to finally knit a pattern that I have had in my queue for awhile. I have no baby in mind for this adorable sweater, but it is ready for when the next sweet baby girl comes along.

This is the in threes: a baby cardigan knit up in Dream of Color Classy "Cool Fire." I love the colors.  This sweater was a quick and easy knit, and I see more of these in my future.

One more FO to share. We have a Puff whose son is going through chemotherapy. She is collecting chemo caps to donate to the hospital.  They have kids from age 2-18 there, so I made this cap a little on the larger size.  

They requested that the hats be made of machine washable yarn, so I knit this up in scraps of Vanna's Choice. The pattern is Scrap-happy Celebration Hat and I also see making more of these!

WIPs Wednesday 6/4

Still working on the Dr. Who scarf.  I am at 25 stripes so far.  I was taking a picture of it and the hubby asked, "Are you done?" I responded with, "Almost halfway." 

It is too big to photograph on the table so my pictures from now on will be on my carpet.  I am almost to the point where I will have to climb on furniture to fit the whole scarf in the shot!

A few nights ago I binge watched Gossip Girl (thanks for introducing me to that wonderful show Jess!) and worked on my mitts.  They are feeling pretty snug, but I can still get them on my hand so I think that they will work.

So sad that I will not be keeping these mitts, I see another pair in my future.

I cast on a pair of socks today too, but since I am only three rows into the cuff I will wait and share the progress next week.

I finally got finished with the raglan increases on my Adrift cardigan!  Now I just need to knit the sleeves and I will be at the halfway point.  After that, just 10 more inches (ha!) of stockinette and then I will have a finished wool sweater just in time for a heat wave!

I started my June socks.  This month I am knitting Rainbow Explosion by Lauren McMordie.  I am using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Slushie Facial.  The pattern is easy to follow, I love the textured panels on the side.  I just feel like my tension between knit and purl might be too loose so I don't think my rainbows look very rainbow-y compared to others that have been knit.  They are still neat looking though :D

We have a new contest up on the Ravelry group just in time for Tour de Fleece!  To celebrate our first ever TdF as Team Fiber Fangirls we are giving away a top whorl drop spindle and a sampler pack of Gourmet Stash punis!  To enter, just go to the thread in the Ravelry group and tell us what one of your spinning goals are.  The thread will close at midnight on 6/25 and the winner will be announced on the 26th.  

Spunday 6/1/14 and Contest Winner

On Friday, Jen came over so we could celebrate her birthday.  She brought over a drill and an extra bobbin so we could divide my single in half for plying.  After some yard work on Saturday, I sat outside plying for a bit and just enjoying the sunshine.  I am hoping to have it done sometime next week.  

I selected my Tour de Fleece fiber and will be spinning Shadawyn Fiber Arts Merino/Silk in Severus Snape. I have never spun anything with silk in it, so I'm excited and nervous at the same time. My personal goals for this year will be to spin for at least 45 minutes a day.  

On a non-spinning note, we have a winner for our Modular Mondays in May giveaway!  The winner, chosen by random.org is...

Congratulations, MKmaineknitter!!  Please contact me (sameoldknit) on Ravelry and I will get your mini skeins in the mail!