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!

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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. 

Too cute not to share!

Here's a pic of my 5 month old puppy using my WIP basket as a bed :)

happy new year!

New year, new resolutions? Nah. I'm one of the many who don't bother, my reason being that I probably won't keep them anyway. However, the only real one I can think of actually fulfilling is to finish at least SOME of the wips and ufos languishing in my house, frog those three sweaters which I will probably never wear AND use up at least 50% of my yarn stash. Okay so now that does sound like a resolution. Hm.

I finished the test knit I was working on for a fellow Ravelry member, but since the pattern is not out yet, can't really blog about it. Bummer. Except to say it is gorgeous, and I love the magenta like shade of merino I made it in, which is now, sadly, discontinued. Also, since the good folks at knitpicks have raised their prices, I hope my yarn splurges will stop, temporally at least. I bought enough wool of the andes worsted to make three sweaters last year, but other projects got in the way....which hopefully will be off the needles by January. It's SO cold, I wish I had finished some :(
K's due date is tomorrow, and her baby blanket is coming along nicely- I'm on block 10 of the length (had CO for 11 blocks width wise), but I think I may need to add a couple more blocks to make it look more square.

What have you been working on?

Swatching, swatching!

Anyone who knows my knitting style (how many are there I wonder), knows I hate swatching. I find it tedious and boring and avoid it when I can. I've made successful sweaters and accessories without swatches. The only time, in fact, when I underestimated my gauge was during a tutorial on sock making. SInce it was only a tutorial, I didn't really care. However, now that I've got a cool pattern for WW socks, and more importantly, am planning to branch out into designing, playing with swatches is going to be more important than ever. I'm starting out small, with cowls and scarves, and think my investment in Elizabeth Zimmerman and Barbara Walker is going to pay off, but I need to know if the lace patterns I'm making up on the fly will work. And I will not do that with a full size project. I'm thinking of designing a soft cowl with chroma worsted and that is a single ply yarn which is not very forgiving of frogging and tinking. Since I want to make at least two sizes available, I need to work out my gauge so i can predict what finished size I'll get. I may even enjoy it. Who knows. Wish me luck. :)

December halfway gone already?

And I've not completed a thing! Rather have frogged stuff. Oh me, oh my, where did the time fly?