WIP Wednesday: Destash, destash!

Also known as...

Pom pom overload!

=D

Linking up with WIP Wednesday :D 

WIP Wednesday

Still working on my Latvian Garden, still making little mistakes but still LOVING it!

Action shot!

I finished Chart 1. Three more to go!

I'm using CC 1 (the red) for part of Chart 2.

Sharing post with WIP Wednesday.

Repost for Friday

ETA: Still plugging away at the blanket. I worked 3 rows of hearts in red, 2 in bouquet (a heathery purple) and 2 more rows in red. Will add a final row of red hearts and then move on to Chart 2 :)

Reposting for Fiber Arts Friday and Creative Friday.

Color! Why was I so late to jump on the color work bandwagon? I love bright, saturated colors (as Vianden, Aidez, and many more of my projects testify), so color work and I should be natural affinities. Sadly, I was scared of all the twisting of yarn and long floats of yarn that stranding involved, of the bobbins intarsia involves and I just find double knitting a bit tedious.

So I drooled over the Latvian Garden pattern for months. Years, maybe.

Till I decided to jump in last week. And I couldn't be happier! Tension issues, and minor mistakes notwithstanding.

I'm leaving reasonably long floats since the wool is scratchy and the blanket will be lined.

The stockinette curls terribly. As expected, I suppose. The Palette yarn is lovely and saturated but I've found so many frayed and broken bits in the green its disgusting. At  least it splices together like a dream.

I'm sure there will be many more color work projects in my future. And I will need some hand holding and possible Dutch courage for the steek!

Sharing with WIP Wednesday

Friday: An FO and some freaky weather

Taken by the Hudson, with the WTC tower in the background

We haven't seen the sun for almost a week here, instead we have fogs and 96-99% humidity levels. Ugh weather. It was so sunny on Sunday too! Sigh.

There are very few times when I stop knitting altogether. That's kind of what happened with this pullover. Unfortunately, it was a test knit, so I do feel bad that I took so long to finish it, but luckily I made the deadline and I wasn't the last to finish, so that sort of consoles me. It was a project that was interesting at first, but got a bit boring too once the lace part was over and there were miles of stockinette to do.

Its a tad loose- an issue most testers have reported to the designer. I had trouble starting the yoke too, but once Nell, the designer, clarified the positioning of the marker it went very well. The lace was actually pretty interesting to do.

I skipped the waist shaping with Nell's permission.

Other than that my only mod was to do a k2p2 rib at the hem instead of k1p1.

I love the color and the yarn. I might have mentioned how much I love the Dolce Merino yarn in my last post...well I can't say enough nice things about it.

Pattern: Daisy
Yarn: Dolce Merino (DK weight) in the Sassafras colorway
Needles: 4.5 mm (US 7) and 5.00 mm (US 8)

Sharing with FO Friday, Fiber Arts Friday and Creative Friday. This is FO #11 of 2014.

P.S- Thanks to all the readers who commiserated with my meltdown post last Wednesday. It's nothing I've (or the DH) has done, just circumstances that are frustrating for us and over which we have no control. Your sympathy is deeply appreciated. Shukriya! 

WIP Wednesday: knitting through a meltdown

When I have a lifarmageddon, I stop knitting and curl up into a (metaphorical) ball. When its just your normal, average meltdown, I knit lace.

The more complicated, the better.

I actually won the pattern for the Mehndi stole on Ravelry. Well, I won a pattern of my choice (the sponsor paid for the pattern) and I chose this. The lattice like cables, the sprawling vines, the smell of henna (ok so that's a memory!), I knew I had to knit this pattern.

Pic taken after 1.5 repeats of chart A

The complicated twisted stitches, the need to read the chart for almost every stitch is exactly what I need right now. It calms me and I can't stop to think! 

Even the reverse looks gorge!

I'm using a yummy, yummy yarn. Its Universal's Dolce merino, a merino and microfiber blend and it is soft! I just knit a pullover with it and it was a dream to work with, no splitting, no fuzz and frogs wonderfully. My swatches didn't grow or shrink either. It's going to be a cuddly wrap.

If the p2together tbls don't kill me first.

Sharing with WIP Wednesday 

Flowers for Friday and every day

Flowers may fade but these pretty little crocheted ones are forever.

I might have mentioned that things were a little tough the last few months. One thing that cheered me up was working on these sunny little flowers for an everlasting bouquet. i enjoyed every part of the process, from crocheting the flowers and leaves, making up my own pattern as I went to gluing yarn to the 'stems' and fitting them all into a mason jar only to discover it wasn't the right height. I'm using an old pasta sauce jar at the moment, till I find something prettier to use.

The flowers were all made from leftover yarn, from worsted to super bulky weight. The leaves and stems are again from stash yarn, but wrapping the stems did use up a fair amount of yarn. While I did use a lion Brand flower pattern for 4 or 5 flowers the rest are my own creation.

I used pipe cleaners for the stems, gluing the yarn and flowers and leaves on with craft glue. It was a messy process!

Overall, quite pleased.

Ravelry entry
Link up to FO Friday, Fiber Arts Friday and Creative Friday.

Wip???

After endless swatching and two false starts all I have left is this:

What does one call a disaster of such epic proportions?! Lol. This just proves I am math impaired. And I can't read directions either. 

Oh- the blue box is where I store my stitch markers. I have quite a few of them it seems. 

Gah! 

Reality check

I am embarrassed to say this but last night, we could not find the camera's battery charger. I was cooking dinner at the time (mattar ke parathe, nothing says winter to me like peas!) and my hands were all floury, so did not help the hub turn the place upside down. I eventually remembered that it was next to the TV. He then muttered under his breath, 'there's wool everywhere, wherever I look'. Sheepish looks.

Now, he's generally a fairly liberal guy and he usually doesn't bother me about the housekeeping and whatever money I spend (he knows I keep a fairly strict budget) but I think I need to go on a yarn budget now. After all, with enough wool to knit my way through probably 2013, I should stop at some point, I guess :(

I worked out how much yarn I have by yardage, even if it has been assigned to a project. I lost count after this number because it was exhausting and flat out shocking. Here goes.....66.3 km. Probably only about 70% of that humongous stash! Really? I don't think any more- I'm SURE I have a problem. and yes, I did post about snagging some stuff at the knitpicks sale too :(

Reality check. How much money could I have saved from not buying so much yarn? I'm betting $500 is a too conservative estimate. Especially since I have stuff to save up for! So, starting today, I will not be purchasing any new yarn until my stash drops down substantially. How much more depends on the total number, like I said, I lost count after 66.3 km. So according to my knit meter I have worked 8.4 km this year. I am not liking the stats. Of course, it does not include crochet, but then am not a big crocheter, although my granny square has eaten up 6 balls of yarn so far. Sniff.

And to think I signed up for classes at the lion brand yarn studio in January. Will have to make do with yarn from my stash if possible.