Because I Always Have to Do More

I'm "finished" with the Catamaran shawl.  I use quotes because I decided that, instead of throwing on the i-cord cast off, I was going to knit a whole second segment with the pattern repeat for a slightly longer shawl.  The shawl as it is wraps just over my shoulders and hangs about the level of my bra strap in back.  This is not the length I wear my shawls, even my nice summery ones.  I'm adding another repeat to add a little bit more length.  And why not?  I have the extra yarn.

Though, I have to say, I'm loving this shawl.  The fabric still feels a little weird to me, but it's pretty simple and fun to knit.  If it weren't I would have just called it where I was and thrown on the binding, but I love it.  The colors are fantastic.  Just everything about this shawl is wonderful.

I have to say, one of the things I like about this shawl is the way the yarn looks under the sunlight.  It's almost like it wants to shine, but isn't quite.  It gives it a really unique feel to it, which makes me so incredibly happy.  Even pictures don't do it complete justice.

This is a project I can't wait to have finished.  Yes, part of it is the satisfaction of having one more thing done and off the needles.  There's something wonderful about being able to show it off and say, "Look what I made!"  In this case it's because I'm really looking forward to wearing it out and about.  I think I'll be looking for excuses to wear it out of the house because of how wonderful it looks.  I am absolutely in love with the colors too.  The classic grays it was designed for are probably more wearable, but I absolutely love these colors.  I was a little hesitant at first, which I think I might have written about last time, but I'm not doubting it anymore.

The Hue Shift Afghan is coming right along as well, though not nearly as fast.  I'm on the last row of Section 2, which is coming along rather nicely.  I like the color yellow that's being added, and I'm looking forward to having another square down.  It's really enjoyable to see the way the colors pair up, though I think it will have lost it's charm by the time I've seen all the combinations going into Section 4.

However, this has become kind of a mindless knit.  On the right side I knit to the halfway point, then center decrease, then it's mindless knitting from there to the end.  On the wrong side I can just turn my mind off and knit.  The whole pattern is becoming pretty standard and routine.  I could almost do it in my sleep.

In a way, this kind of makes it become a boring sort of knit.  It's no longer a "one more row" kind of thing.  At first it was definitely "One more block!"  Now it's kind of, "I don't feel like working on the Catamaran.  May as well knit up another square, right?"  It's something to do to keep my hands busy while I watch television.

However, when I finish knitting one of these, I have another couple of kits from Knit Picks on the horizon!  I ordered another shawl kit (because I seriously have a problem...an addiction to shawls) and a poncho.  The shawl only comes in one color, fuchsia.  The poncho I picked in wonderful earth tones, brown and gold.  I can't wait to see how that knits up.  I'm probably not going to need it for another month, but I'll be happy to have it once the weather turns, so I want to be sure to knit it early so it will be ready in time.  Of course, that means I'm going to have to get cooking on the Catamaran shawl so I can be free to move on to something else.

Best of all, I'm finally getting a blocking set, which was much needed.  I've only ever blocked a couple of my shawls before, though I seriously should have been blocking a lot more of my knits.  I'm excited to finally be able to block things for real and not just on the carpeted floor on the bedroom or on my bed.  It's going to make so much difference in how my knits are finished!

Catamaran, Hue Shift Afghan, and the Cardigan

I finished the cardigan!  I don't have a picture of it yet, but it's done.  I'm going to try and get a picture of it with my dress for the wedding, but we'll see how that works out.  I figure it would be a good way to show it off.  I'll probably even get all dolled up to do it, if I can ever find what I did with my makeup.  I guess I'm not that feminine after all, even if my taste in knits tends that way.

Just after I finished the sweater I started a new shawl, the Catamaran Shawl from Knit Picks.  Let me first say that this is the strangest yarn I've ever knit with.  The name "Lindy Chain" is totally appropriate.  It seems like it's one thin thread that's looped in on itself to form one long chain.  It was a little disconcerting when I started the project because the texture was so weird.  I was beginning to think I would hate this project, but I think I start out all my projects with this attitude of "This isn't what I expected."

All knit up it looks like any other yarn.  On the knit side it even feels like any other yarn.  The purl side has a strange texture, but I'm finding as I work with it I don't dislike it.  I can't say I love it and this is my new favorite yarn ever (that goes to the yarn for the sweater), but I think I'm going to be pretty happy with it in the long run.  It's not a gooshy yarn, so it doesn't attract every piece of dog hair in the house either,which is nice.  It's nice to have one garment in the house that's not going to need to be hit with a lint brush every time I want to leave the house, especially for something nice and summery like this.

I wasn't totally sure about the contrast of colors either.  When I picked the kit I got, the white and green just called to me.  The original gray tones were nice, but I kind of felt like gray would just be lost on me.  I wanted something with a bit more fun.  That's why I chose the white and green.  I just had second thoughts for a moment when I saw the two in my hands and realized just how dark the green really was.

Thankfully, seeing the two colors worked together I felt a lot more comfortable with what I was knitting up.  The green and white go really well together.  I just wish I had a picture with the two in the sunlight because it's a really flattering combination.  It actually makes me think of Ireland, though I'm not sure why.  It didn't take much to restore my confidence in these colors.  They look absolutely fantastic together.

And the more I knit with this yarn, the more I realize I was exactly right when I decided to get this shawl.  It's going to be a wonderful piece for when the weather starts to change, or even with the weather we've had lately, where I want a little bit of something, but I don't want to put on a full sweater or anything.  The colors will be nice in the spring and throughout the summer, which means I'll get a lot of wear out of this.  I've already got a sunflower shawl for late summer and the fall/winter shawl from Knit Picks all those years ago for fall.  This will be great for the seasons where I've got nothing for the weather.

As for the project list, I'm slowly making way on the Hue Shift Afghan again too!  I have to admit, I like Section 2 much more than I like Section 1.  That means I'll have two sections that I like this much.  I think I'll like Section 3 even more.  I guess I just have a thing for cool colors, which is what Section 3 will be, but the blend I've got going on now is actually pretty cool.  I'm not liking all of the colors blended together, but it's coming along pretty well.  I don't have a more recent photo, but I've started the third row on this section, which lightens up the whole piece.  There's going to be a pale green and yellow after this, and then the section will be finished.  It's working up pretty quickly.

I have to say, I've started to work into a rhythm with this blanket.  Every time I knit a square I weave in the ends right away.  I hate weaving in the ends at the points of the squares, so this saves me from having to do a bunch of them all at once.  It also leaves my work nice and neat, which definitely helps.  I like being able to pull my work out and not have a bunch of strands hanging off of it.  It's also nicer to show off to people when it looks so much more complete.  Best of all, I get the hassle of weaving in the ends done right away, so I don't have it sitting over me for later.

I've really been on a binge knitting spree lately.  I've had a lot of time to sit and work on projects, and the extra money available to pick up a few project kits.  I'm hoping I can keep up the routine, though I have to admit, it was kind skip a pay period for ordering because I still had too much work to do on the projects I was working on.  The sweater and the shawl, even considering the cost of needles, were both pretty inexpensive projects, which is nice.  It means my money goes that much further.

Knitting is an expensive hobby.  I've got to eventually pick up a ball winder and swift, though I have to say, there is something meditative about hand balling yarn.  It's time consuming, but it isn't as much of a hassle as I would have imagined.  I kind of like it.  I guess that means the joy of knitting consumes that many more hours.  Then I need to get blocking pads and pins at some point.  Of course, there's the cost of yarn and patterns, though there are a number of patterns available for free.  The best ones are still paid patterns, or in books, at least where the larger projects are concerned.  If I want to get into sweater knitting, I'm going to have to face purchasing patterns.  It's just something I'm going to have to do.

At least the projects I'm getting are lasting for some time.  I can't imagine how people who crank out knit goods like they're nothing manage to have the money for it all!  I'm sure it's a decent chunk of their budget, plus they look for good deals.  I guess I'll learn to be more thrifty with my knitting as time goes on.  For now, I'm happy with knitting the projects I'm working on and getting the most out of them.  A little knitting seems to go a long way in my life!

The Hue Shift Afghan

I have to admit, I bought the Hue Shift Afghan kit because I was in love with the picture on the website.  I've been a little obsessed with rainbow colored things, so it probably isn't surprising that this kit would appeal to me.  The only down side?  I didn't look on the kit information, but it's knit out of acrylic yarn, which is a bit of a bummer, but for the price, it makes sense.

This was a new knitting technique for me.  I've never done mitered squares before, so I was excited to give this a try.  It really is a simple process, when you get right down to it.  It's just rows of garter stitch with a central decrease in the middle, which makes for a simple enough pattern to memorize.  After the first square I no longer needed to refer to the pattern, not really, at least not to give me instructions on how to knit it.  I was pretty pleased with myself for the first square I finished.  It looked really good, which was exactly what I was hoping for.

Though, I have to admit, I was a little surprised at how bright the yarn was for this kit.  When I looked at the pattern it looked like pretty bold colors, nothing bright and garish.  I'd expected a little more subtlety, I guess.  As you can see from the picture, the purple is pretty intense.  It looks pretty shockingly bright, which caught me off guard at first.  I had to admit, I was thinking I might not love this pattern after all.  It's made with acrylic, which I'm not a fan of, and it's incredibly bright colors.  Shortly after I ordered the pattern I decided to make this for my daughter, so I'm kind of glad I had that in mind.  Acrylic yarn doesn't bother her.  Actually, it's best for her because it's easy to clean, which means she can be curled up in a blanket with some soup and not have to worry about spilling.  Better still, the bright colors are totally her style.

When the striping started, I thought the contrast was a bit intense.  The first row being purple against a really bright pink, it seemed like it was a little much at first, but by the time I was halfway through the square I was really kind of digging it.  It's a pretty cool color combination.  I almost wish the whole blanket was made of squares those colors, and maybe mixing in the red that comes later.  With the red it had a cool Valentine's look.  I thought it looked pretty awesome, honestly.

Though, truth be told, I was a little worried about how some of the other colors would come together.  The way the pattern works blends orange with pink and purple.  I thought those might be a bit much of a contrast, that an the gold.  Eventually those colors come in contact with blues and green as well.  Those colors all will cross and mix as a part of the pattern, though I'm not nearly that far yet.  I'm starting on the first block of the four that will eventually be sewn together, then surrounded by a border.  It's a surprisingly huge blanket, meaning I'm going to be working on this one for a long time to come.

Yet when the colors in the first square have started to blend together, I have to admit, I haven't hated it.  Section 1 is coming right along and I'm making good progress.  At this point I have the first 10 squares done of the 25 in each section.  The whole blanket totals to 100 squares and a border, which means I'll have a lot to work on for some time to come.

So far there haven't been a whole lot of snags in the process.  I did have to pretty much frog an entire square because somewhere the central decrease became off centered.  I couldn't find where it was by tinking it back, so I finally decided to just frog the square and start from pretty much the beginning.  I left the picked up stitches and the first two rows of color, but everything else was ripped back.  That was the red and pink square.  As I'm sure you can see, I've progressed a good deal since then.  I've managed to get on a couple more squares at that point, and to weave in the ends, which is the part I've hated most about this project.  There are so many ends to weave in!

That's one thing I've learned in all of this, weave in the ends as you go and it won't be so bad at the end.  I've been making sure the row gets done, then the ends get woven before I start the new row.  This not only makes it easier to pick up the stitches, but it means there's less work to be done at the end of the blanket.  Plus, I think it makes the whole thing look neater as a whole.  It would be a mess if there were a whole bunch of colored strands just dangling from the back.  Now I can hand it to someone and it looks like a somewhat finished piece of work.

All told, for a first larger than baby sized blanket project, I'm pretty happy with the way this one is turning out.  It's obviously going to take quite some time to finish.  I've barely made a dent in it and I've been working at it pretty steadily for the past couple of days.  I think when I have other projects to mix in with it, I'll make a requirement to knit at least one square every day, just to keep me motivated.  I think if I can keep moving on this project, it'll slowly get done, even if it takes me months.  At least I know I won't be without something to knit for some time now!