My First Real Cardigan

Just recently I got the idea to start knitting sweaters, like real sweaters.  We're talking adult sizes here.  I decided to start simple with the Where the Wind Blows Cardigan Kit from Knit Picks.  It's a one piece construction top down sweater.  It's short sleeved, so there's no need to worry about sleeves or anything like that.  This struck me as an easy choice because it's such a simplistic design, yet gets my head thinking about the reality of knitting something wearable.  I had a feeling once I actually put it on for the first time, I'd be excited to make more.

Starting out, I fell in love with the yarn before anything else.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures that really do it justice, but the color is beautiful.  The yarn is super soft, which makes it even nicer to knit.  I just love the way this feels in my hands, which is one of my favorite parts of this sweater already.

Early on I ran into some problems, though.  First I cast on the wrong number of stitches, so I had to go back to the beginning.  Thankfully I'd barely gotten into it so I didn't have too much to pull back, but it was still not a shabby number of stitches to pull back.  It took me some time to work up to where I was again, which wasn't too bad, but it was still time lost.

Then there was the stitch count for the second increase row in pattern.  I just couldn't get it to work out right.  It turns out I was reading the pattern wrong, but by the point I figured that out I just decided to improvise and move on.  Right now it really bothers me that there's an increase in the wrong place and it's missing one in the right place, but I'll forget in time, I'm sure.  It looks fine and it's so completely subtle that I can't even find it now when I'm looking for it, so I'll just let it be and move on with the rest of it.

Knitting down into the body has been the most satisfying part.  There are some decreases followed by some increases to make shaping for the waist, I guess.  It seems really high to me, but what do I know?  I'm not exactly a talented sweater knitter, so maybe there's some wisdom in this.  It's coming together rather quickly, and I don't think I'll want to rip back and fix it if it does seem to sit kind of funny.  I doubt it will.  I'm probably just thinking to much on the whole thing and it'll be fine.

I'd planned to have this done in time to wear to a wedding in August.  With how quickly I've been working it up, I have no doubt I'll make that deadline.  I'll probably have it finished by the end of the week, if I'm perfectly honest.  I might have had it nearly done if I hadn't had to work over the weekend, even if I did just go in for one day.  It's amazing how much work can get done in even one day on this.  I think I'm just not used to working with thicker yarns.  I've done a lot of socks, which go together much more slowly, even though they're smaller.  It's kind of nice to have a piece that's coming together so quickly.

I've still been working away at the Hue Shift Afghan, one square a day on average.  I didn't do any Saturday and only finished half of one yesterday, but that's something, right?  I'm slowly working my way through it.  At this rate it should be done by winter, which would be nice.

And next on the list?  I have another shawl to knit.  I've also got to get myself some stuff for blocking, so that's on my list of things to do.  Then when I'm looking for something else to knit, I'm considering another sweater, something more ambitious than this one.

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!

The Beachcomber Shawl

I haven't been doing much knitting, to be honest.  I finished the Chilly Podsters and kind of lost interest in doing anything else.  My Nutkins are still not finished.  I started some Carousel socks, but lost interest in that.  Something about the new job had me not knitting very much.

That is, until I decided to check out what Knit Picks had to offer.  I have no idea why, but I started combing through their pattern kits.  I was hoping to find a shawl, as I've knit up a couple of the shawl kits they've put out before, but I was really up for just about anything.

When I first saw the Beachcomber Shawl, I was in love.  I was a little saddened by the fact that they didn't have any kits in the original color scheme, so I picked the only one they had available.  I wasn't thrilled with the colors, but I figured I could always give it away if I didn't like it.  But I wanted to take a chance on it.  The colors might not actually be that bad.  I don't tend to go for yellow, but I do a like my gray tones.

The start of the shawl went well.  It's an easy enough, basic garter stitch with some increases thrown in on one side, decreasing on the other.  It worked up fairly quick in the beginning, the short rows and simple color changes making it pretty easy to work through.  I have to be honest, when it was just gray I wasn't loving it so much.  I thought I would give it a chance, but I wasn't expecting much.  My daughter loved the way it was working up, so maybe I would give it to her.  That wouldn't be a half bad idea.  It was a little disheartening that I didn't like the way it was knitting up, but I figured I enjoyed knitting it, so I may as well stick it out to finish it.

When the yellow first came in I was even less thrilled with the look.  It was such a shocking departure from the subtle gray tones.  I really didn't like it.  I had built up in my mind that no one could possibly like these colors together.  They just didn't flow well.  I was starting to think this shawl would end up sitting around somewhere, unused and ignored.

Much to my surprise, my daughter came in and said how much she loved it.  She thought it looked cool and the colors looked really good together.  Then Chesh came in and said he thought it looked awesome.  I felt a lot better knowing this project would be loved and used by someone, even if it wasn't used by me.  I was knitting with a purpose again, and made good progress too, until I had to go to work and put it down for the better part of two days.  Even so, with new determination, I worked my way through this shawl like it was the best thing I'd ever knit.  I was excited to see the finished project and I was looking forward to having it go to a good home.  I knew people were excited to see it done, which made it that much easier to knit.  It flew off my needles (all considering) and was done in no time.  The lace sections were simple and pretty, which made it that much nicer to knit.  The only thing that was kind of a pain was the cast off, which was more time consuming than anything.

That's when something happened.  As I was working through the cast off I started to reconsider my thoughts on this shawl.  After I was finished my opinion became that much more firm.  I was not going to give this shawl away, not unless my daughter asked really, really nicely.  I mean, I've got a few shawls, so it's not like I would be lacking any to give this one away, but I did like it enough that, without being begged, I'm not going to part with it.

I still have my thoughts on this shawl.  Perhaps I would have liked the original colors better.  They may have even been more wearable in my mind, but this shawl suited me.  The yellow is bright and cheery, and the gray makes it something I can wear with just about anything I own.  It's not nearly as summery as the original colors, but I think summery isn't really a look I tend to do.  I tend to stick with my very neutral tones, and this yellow would really break up my wardrobe, which tends to have a lot of black, perhaps too much if you ask some.  I really love the way it turned out and I can't wait to get some good wear out of it, something that will undoubtedly happen when they days get a little less brutally hot and muggy.  It's perfect and light and I'm going to love wearing it!

Nutkins and Chilly Podsters

Now that I'm back in the swing of knitting, it seems like I suddenly have so much to do.  I've got a bunch of projects that need to get done at some point, though nothing is knitting on a deadline, so that's fantastic.  I guess I could count one thing as "gift knitting," but seeing as the recipient already has two knitted gifts already, I don't think it'll be horrible if I don't get the third and fourth promised projects finished in time.

However, the first thing that needs to be talked about are a the Zombie ViXen fingerless gloves I started, oh, forever ago.  This is the first project I've put in long term hibernation for stupid reasons for a long time.  These are being modeled by Bear, because no one else's hands were available.

So why did these things get put on hold for a while?  It's really silly.  I didn't want to go back and do the thumbs.  When Chesh tried on my gloves he decided everything fit, but the thumbs were on the tight side.  We batted around some ideas, but I decided it was just too much effort and I would worry about it later.  This is generally my philosophy on knitting.

So when I saw these sitting in the stack of things to do, with a groan, I pulled them out and realized if I didn't get them done, I never would.  So I got them done.  I sized the needles up to a US 2, hoping that would solve the size problem, then I picked up all the stitches on the waste yarn.  The larger needles were kind of a bad idea.  The stitches didn't want to get picked up onto larger needles.  I probably should have picked them up on the smaller needles, then knit onto them with the larger ones, but hindsight and all of that.  In the end they got finished and fit perfectly, so who am I to complain?  One gift down and done, only a couple more to go.

Next on the list are my ill-fated Nutkin socks.  Let me tell you, these are not my favorite socks in the world.  The toe is a really lose fabric so I'm tempted to rip out the toe and start all over again.  Truth be told, that's a lot of work, and I think you saw above my philosophy on work. In spite of the straight cast on and the straight stitches, the sock still wants to twist on my leg.  That's going to annoy me.  Still, I've cast on the second sock.  We'll see how they work out.  Worst case scenario I can always pull off the toes on both of them and redo them in a smaller gauge.  Best case scenario, I just don't care and leave it.  Then again, I've noticed even superwash yarns seem to fluff up and get a little more snug after a few washings.  Maybe that will be the case here and I'll be glad I didn't fix it.

I've got to say, I don't think it's entirely the fault of the pattern.  This yarn is such a fine yarn that it's really loose on the larger needles.  I could have kept it on smaller needles and added more width to each pattern, but I thought this would be better.  Then again, the loose weave may be really nice if I can get some sock liners to wear under them to keep my feet warm.  We'll see how they work out when I'm finally wearing them.  At the very least, I've found a yarn I don't like working with as much for socks.  I think the heavier sock yarns suit me better, which is good to know for the future.

And finally, it's time to talk about the Chilly Podsters.  These were chosen because they're the only free pattern for convertible mittens that has both mitten caps for the fingers and for the thumb.  This means it's easier to do things like pull out money, write, or get a card from a wallet without having to take gloves off.  It's a practical thing.  The original request was made when the recipient was still a smoker, but now that he no longer is, they're still practical and useful.  This will be the first set of mittens I've ever made in any fashion.

Thus far I've managed the cast on and to get all the way through the ribbing.  It's been easy going to this point.  I know it's going to get more complicated when it's time to break down for the fingers for the glove portion.  It'll be easy enough to do the mitten portion, I should think.  It looks like it's pretty much little hats that go over your fingers.  That should be pretty simple.  I'd like to think this will be another quick project to knit up and not another that I'll decide to hibernate because the individual fingers are so much work.

I'm pretty excited for this project.  It's the first of it's kind that I'm doing.  I was finding myself getting bored with knitting because it seemed like there were no fantastic challenges left for me, aside from tackling a sweater.  I still mean to do that, but it's going to take some time to get to it.  I've got a good stash to work one up, but I just haven't had the ambition.  I think I need to start doing some searches for patterns I like and just go for it already.  I should probably get myself a new tape measure so I can bust out some measurements to get an accurate fit.  I'll get there.  It's just going to take some time.

Another Set of Snuggle Paws Down!

Having another commission come in was really good this month.  I knocked out another pair of snuggle paw warmers in almost no time.  That's the great thing about a pattern I know by heart, it takes almost nothing to whip out a pair.

These snuggle paws were done in a yarn I wouldn't have typically picked.  I don't tend to go with variegated yarns for my projects.  I tend to find they're too loud for most gloves.  It makes them very loud and kind of drowns out the beautiful pattern, but it wasn't my call, so these are the gloves we ended up with.

The color pooling definitely had an interesting effect on the gloves.  I expected to see something pretty much striped throughout.  Instead the colors pooled, making it appear almost as though I did some kind of color work instead of just letting the yarn do it's thing.

Even the little heart (something that's becoming a signature bit) turned showed off the interesting way the yarn played.  It's not as serious of a striping as the gloves, but crochet often gives a very different effect.  It works up in thicker sections, using the yarn up differently.  I think it's got a lovely effect in crochet.  It's a really interesting yarn.  I've got an extra ball, so I'm thinking I might look into crocheting something up, both because I like the way it plays, but also because I really like the idea of learning to crochet better!

Getting Back into the Swing of Things

So, I've been a bad knitting blogger.  I haven't been updating my knitting projects.  NaNoWriMo has really kept me busy.  There are a whole list of projects I'm working on or have finished that need to be updated.

For example, the Sailor's Rib Cowl was started, I don't know, sometime in November.  It's knit out of Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool, the request of the recipient.  It's an incredibly simple rib pattern.  I was able to work on it while watching television with no issues.  The effect is lovely too.  Best of all, it looks warm.

Now, personally I wouldn't want to wear it.  That wool is far to itchy for me, but the recipient likes it, and that's what matters.  I actually liked working on this project too.  It whipped up pretty quickly and was thankfully over before it got to the point of being tedious.

As for the recipient, he can't wear it until Christmas.  It's the only Christmas gift I'm making this year, at least to be delivered on Christmas.  He's also going to be getting a hat and gloves, but I'm not too stressed about getting those done in time.  I'm done with holiday knitting, I think.  I don't need another reason to stress out coming into the holidays.  There's plenty of reasons to stress out already.  This is just one more thing I can check off my list of finished projects.

The next project was a bit of an improvisation.  I decided after making a beret for Bear, then the cowl, Bear wanted a cowl too.  I decided to use the extra ball of yarn to make one matching the hat.  It took me a few tries to get the sizing right, but it finally came together.  It's a bit big for Bear, but at least there's room to grow.  It should fit all the way into adulthood, provided it doesn't get lost before then.  I'm kind of betting in it getting lost, but I'm trying to be hopeful.

Let me tell you, Bear loved this cowl.  The only down side was being unable to do any kind of fitting.  I constantly got "Mama, can I wear it?"  I kept having to say no.  Thankfully, it did get finished, so that's something positive.  Now it's a favorite article, even if it's not yet cold enough.

Best of all, this little cowl now makes a matching set.  There will be no doubt who it belongs to because of the matching hat and cowl.  They're only acrylic, so they won't be warm, but they'll definitely be fine underneath the hood of a jacket.  It's just an extra little layer of insulation.

And I finally dragged out the Nutkin socks again!  I kind of rage quit on them after having to take them out a couple times and size them up.  I felt like it meant I had fat legs.  I think it really just means that I knit excessively tight, because I know I have small feet.  I may always need to size my socks up on needles.  I think I'm going to have to check the gauge.  Then again, I know I have a high instep, so that might be my problem.

Aside from the new technique on the cuff, this pair also had a couple of other new techniques.  For example, it used a new way to do a short row heel.  There's also a short row toe on this one.  It's all polished off with a three needle bind off, which I'd heard of but never tried.  Now that I've done it, I actually really like it.  I also like how the short row toe leaves plenty of wiggle room for my toes.  It's definitely got a nicer look in my mind than a traditional toe would on this sock.  It makes for a nice, strong boundary line between the pattern and the toe.  This gives it a nice, sharp look.  It's also unlike any of the other socks I've ever knit.  I'm not sure how I feel about it for a sock, but we'll see how it wears.  Hopefully it'll be as nice as it looks.

Finally, I have a commission!  I've got to knit up another pair of Snuggle Paw Warmers for Sable to give as a gift.  They've got this funky pooling thing going on.  It's not my style, but Sable loves them, so that makes me happy.  It just means I've got to get flying on these things if I want them to be done early enough.  That's the one thing I both love and hate about commissions.  In some ways it's fantastic because it lights a fire under my tail.  In other ways, I hate the time crunch.  I'm a procrastinator for sure!

This one is definitely coming out funky.  The yarn looks really neat, but it does kind of make the pattern disappear.  The good news is the pattern itself is more functional for the fit rather than something decorative (though it certainly is decorative too!  The color pooling on this one seems to be falling on the cables, which really makes them pop, and the ribbing disappears.  I'm not sure I could have managed that if I tried!  We'll see how it all falls out on the second glove.  It shouldn't take me long to get those flying off the needles.  I'm almost halfway done with the first one already!

Slowing Down for NaNoWriMo

Knitting is decidedly a time consuming hobby.  The most frustrating part of it seems to be winding balls of yarn when you don't have a ball winder or swift.  This latest cake of yarn happens to be my most sloppy, but all considered, it's still pretty darn good for being done by hand!

I'll be honest, I have no idea how to properly ball yarn.  I don't know how this cake thing developed, but once I started doing it I realized how easy and practical it was.  I've always liked working with cakes of yarn better.  The one thing I haven't been able to manage is center pull.  Then again, center pull balls and cakes tend to collapse in on themselves once you get towards the end and then you just need to redo them anyway, especially if you don't use up every bit of it.  Now I just need to find a way to keep the yarn from wanting to bounce around everywhere.  Right now it's not so bad because the yarn stays tucked in the center of my crossed legs, but it would be more practical if I had one of those jars or whatever that you can put the yarn in to keep it from bouncing around everywhere.

As for the hat, it's coming along fairly well.  I'm still not done, which is putting me at a third of the rate I've had for the other two hats.  Something about NaNoWriMo makes it tough to get much work done.  Thankfully, I don't have a deadline to get this done for, so I can go at whatever pace I want to.  Besides, something about knowing it's going to come together so quickly really helps me feel good about it.  I don't feel like I'm taking forever to make it.

As for the yarn, I'm really loving the color.  After seeing the pink one I started to worry that it would have weird pooling, but it really doesn't.  The colors are falling a lot more like the purple one, which I really like.  I have to admit, I'd thought about keeping the purple one for myself, but now that I see the gray, I'm pretty happy with it.  It's very wearable and it will go with all of my jackets.  That means this can be my go-to hat for winter this year.  I'm glad to finally have something that's a little more neutral.  Usually I go for colors, which don't always work with everything.  Even earth tones can be hard if everything else I'm accessorizing with has color.

Hopefully it won't be too much longer before this one's done.  It's not working up horribly badly, and being so far ahead in my novel, I feel like I've got a little wiggle room to do other things for a while.  The pattern is so intuitive by now that I'm learning to work on it without looking.  I've always felt like if I knit without looking at my work I would screw something up, but it feels so natural in my hands, at least until the knit together and yarn over rounds.  It helps to have something I can't take my eyes off of.  Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was perfect for that.  It was also insanely funny, so I'm glad I recorded it.

Now that Daylight Savings is over, it gets dark so early.  That early darkness has me wanting to curl up with some tea and do something crafty, when I'm not writing, of course.  I can imagine as Christmas looms nearer I'll be looking for Christmas movies to watch while I knit, perhaps with some hot chocolate.  I'm hoping the weather change will have a lot more projects flying off my needles.  For now I'll just be happy to get finished with this hat!