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

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 

TGIF!

I know I've been away for a very long time. I would start out by writing posts, then delete all my drafts. April was a hard month for us and we're only just getting over it. So much so that I lost my knitting mojo. I'd sit with the same unfinished sweater next to me, work a few stitches, then give up.

I've never been so slow to knit before. I guess sometimes knitting isn't therapy.

On to the FO, then. This one was finished ages back, but I never got round to writing about it. Mainly because of inertia-- why blog when its easier not to? Also my mods didn't quite work out like I had imagined.

I love how to top half of the sweater fits. Its like it was made for me- oh, wait, it was.

Now the bottom half, I wanted to make longer than the pattern and also try to give it an A-line shape. To that effect, I went up a needle size and made several increases on the sides. I'm wondering if I should have made increases all round to get more of a skater dress effect. In reality, I sbhould have started the increases sooner. Oh well. You live and learn.

I chose not to knit the cowl that the pattern calls for. I really liked the boat neck.

Still the color is very me and it does fit well. Maybe too well around the tummy!

Pattern: Francis revisited
Yarn: Knit Picks Brava worsted, wine colorway
Needles: 5.5 mm, 6 mm, 6.5 mm

Sharing this post with FO Fridays, Fiber Arts Friday and Creative Friday. (Linking up anyway even though Tami and Natural Suburbia are yet to add their posts!)

WIP Wednesday: Working on a wearable

The Voice is back! Its the perfect show to knit to in my opinion, because all my attention can be on my knitting, so especially perfect for cables or lace or whatever. I am however, working on stockinette at the moment. I bought the yarn for Francis revisited during the Knit Picks cyber Monday sale and was it a steal! I cast on early in January, worked the body down to the hip increases (its a top down) and then...stopped.

It would have been sensible to have worked on and finished this cute tunic when the polar freeze was shivering me timbers (is that a phrase that works in this context?!). I'm kooky that way however, and I got so bored of the mindless stockinette that I bundled int up in a bag and shoved it out of sight and started working on so many of the other things I've worked on and finished these past few weeks. I've just dug it out again so that I can at least wear it this spring!

I'm about 60-65% done with the baby blanket too. It will hopefully block to about 30 inches square. Since all that garter was also starting to get to me, I felt like I needed a change :)

I have enough yarn to lengthen the body to tunic length. I went up a needle size after finishing the hip increases to accommodate the extra length and get a figure flattering A-line shape. It just depends on how bored I get :)

The color is a very rich, very saturated wine. Its (yet another!!!) snow day here today so the color may be a tad off. Ugh. I'm tired of the snow. At least I've got coffee with my friends to look forward to later on.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday with Tami. And now off for my usual Wednesday blog hop. Stay warm!

The great switcheroo and hey its Friday too

Hello everyone. Firstly, please excuse any untidiness and missing links etc from the page, which unlike today's project, is still very much a work in progress. I've had a lot of fun with the header, but I'm still behind on updating my blogroll and linking my Google+ account so that anyone who wants can follow this blog.

As I mentioned in my last post on my previous blog, I have decided to focus my blog posts solely on my crafting endeavors as of now. Things at home are in flux and I just don't have the mental bandwidth to deal with anything else right now--except for knitting!

Why the name?

I used to store my yarn stash in my oven when it was small enough to not have taken over the house. I live close to New York city, where women have been known to store shoes, clothes and handbags in their ovens, so I figured an ovenful of yarn isn't really that much of a leap from there. My stash has long outgrown my oven though!

I still love the name.

And now, on to the show and tell.

Today, after many weeks, I'm actually showing a finished object made for me :) I started this beret during the first polar vortex in January, finished it by the second and have been wearing it incessantly ever since. The problem is, I never got around to taking pictures till like yesterday!

The angora merino keeps me cozy even with the lace pattern.

I love the cables!

Pattern: Rose red by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Cascade yarns Cloud 9
Needles: US 6 & 4

Linking up with FO Friday, Fiber Arts Friday and Creative Friday. I apologize for not having put up your images yet, but will do so very soon.