Update, Catch-up

OK, well... It's been 2 years since I've updated.  Let's do a quick, timeline catch up, shall we?

October 2011, taught myself to knit:
Well, I had help.  In fact a small village from 'Wyrd Sisters Yarn shop' help.  Specifically it was the owner, Cate, who did all the coaching.  My first swatch?  ALL the stitches were twisted.  I yarned over the wrong way...  and Cate's response:  "Oh, that's very even.  The stitches are twisted, which is a design element in some knitting."  See, the best part about that response is that I didn't do something WRONG, I did something just different.  And I was hooked on knitting from that point forward.

(That's Cate in Wyrd Sisters!)

Summer 2012, Wyrd Sisters closes when Cate moves to away.  And I was sad and scared to meet the new shop people.  Mosaic, and its owner Gina, move into the same space. Shortly after I was back to teaching and hanging out at Mosaic, my local yarn shop II.

Facebook Page for Mosaic Yarn Shop

January 2012, I become a first year Hufflepuff student at Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup.  Don't know House Cup?  Ha.  Well, if you follow me from this point forward, you will.  Oh, yes you will, my dear.

 I keep on learning how to do all things knitting until June 2013 and then I was ready for a new craft to add to my arsenal.

June 2013, Kim teaches me to spin and Pam sells me her wheel.  "Frigg" and I are now BFFs and during the summer spend LOTS of time together.

(there's a wedding in April 2014... that's kinda important!)

Here's my Cruciatus Wellwood Sweater that made it to the front page of Ravelry!

May 2014:
Around 15 sweaters later, here I am restarting the blog.  Because I've been asked to by some instagram friends.  So, I'll use this space to update and review  products and patterns.  I'll keep you abreast of yarn trends and anything you might want to keep up with on Ravelry.

Right now: May is MadMay (MadelineTosh Lovers) on ravelry and the beginning organization for 2 Tour de France events: Tour de Sock and Tour de Fleece.

MadMay, FOs: way class'ay!

I must say that Mad May felt way more successful than Malabrigo March.  Here's what I worked on:


First, my bathing suit cover.  It's from the new vogue knitting crochet mag:
And this is the project I chose to do, #05 wrapped tunic.

It was a simple project, crocheted in motifs, joined as I went.  I selected my coveted Madeline Tosh Sock, in Calligraphy, to get the project done and lookin' classy.  I'm VERY happy with it, but still need to find the perfect button.  I want a turquoise one, although red, wood and antiqued silver have been suggested.

Purdy.

On a random side note, my mobile is making that ridiculous line in ALL my pictures.  Doesn't really bother me, but totally has been a bother to others.  #timeforanewphone.

I had other projects up for the knitting part of my MadMay, but they didn't make it through the month:

Both flops.


But, I did have one random success:
Grady's Graduation Cap

There's a dislike on Ravelry for this project.  I get a little paranoid about dislikes, but my guess is that either someone thinks it's dumb, poorly made, or that it's wrong to put a logo on a hat.  I can say that 1) yes, it's dumb, he's a middle schoolers, 2) hat is well made, embroidering is not my strong suit, and 3) have a heart, he's a middle schooler!

Grady was super surprised and happy with his gift, incase you were interested.


Finally, my SCALENE was near and dear to my newly formed knitting heart.  I desperately wanted to do a 10day top, but with SOL tests and May being as stressful as it can be, I decided something a bit simpler would work.  Scalene caught my eye, and was the ONLY one of the KALs I found worthy of my time.
My main problem was that I didn't possess (in my stash) any yarn that I LOVED to pair with my Tosh Maple Leaf, in another Tosh.  After talking to my knitting guru, Aimee, I went with Malabrigo Sock, in Cote D'azure.

Project photoMy scalene (so cute!)

I used the fibonacci math pattern to make the stripes.  And, for once I can say that I would TOTALLY make another one of these.  Ive never duplicated a pattern before.  I love it, and the key tab is the special difference to it that ALLLLL shawls/scarves need.  Next one I make, I'll work the math so that the large solid stripe is part of the pattern.  It's a 16 row chunk, meaning I'll get close to the perfect formula, and it will look more natural with the numeric pattern.


Up next from LarcYarn?

Well, I have 2 personal yarn bombs Ive ever long been dutifully been dabbling with.  They'll be done with when they done.  More on those SOON.

 But, I MUST get 2 projects off my needles in June:
Miriam & Teal Dress

10 day tops

Malabrigo March has come and gone. You can check my projects (finished and not) on my rav page. It was a fun month, but now I'm on to BIGGER and better things.

Knitting friend Aimee and I started a KAL with the Miriam top in January.

But, with Malabrigo March, and just how HUGE the project is, we're still not done.

What Miriam has done for me, though, is gotten me REALLY excited about making clothing. I NEVER made straight up clothes with my crochet. Always accessories.

First, I have volunteered to make this dress for Wyrd Sisters, as a shop sample.

Mine is in lanaloft, TEAL. and was going along quite well until Malabrigo March hit. Then, complete stop. But, I'll pick it up over Spring Break.

But, let's talk about personal project... Ive decided I'm going to do a few rounds (aka Months) of 10 day tops. By a few, I mean I have 8 tops in my que and I want to make them all. But, alas, I have a 8-4 type of day job where the only knitting I can allow myself is during lunch (20 minutes).

Thus, 10 day tops will be monthly in 2012. 2011 was year of the blankets. 2012, year of the 10 day tops.

March 10 day top : Sunset Madigan

ok, I love Quince and Co.'s patterns. I'm not WILD about their yarns yet, mostly because I have no experience with them, but, both Miriam and Madigan are their patterns.

On a trip to http://theyarnlounge.com/ , I found 2 (or was it three?) skeins of Sunset Rios, and I had to have them. Then, Madigan started calling, and knitting friend Aimee said I could have her left over .75 skein from her last project. Then, on rav, a

lovely person was selling 3 skeins. I thought I was the luckiest girl in the world, so I made my first EVER gauge swatch (which yes, I washed and dried).

Cast on: March 30th at 7:40 am.

From the picture, you can see that Madigan has a gorgeous cowl neck. Those welts took me a while. I have until Monday at 7:40am to be done. Think I can do it?

10 day tops, April?

Here are the top 3 for April (although, I think I've settled on one of them)

1) Dorflinger 2) Pegboard 3)Xia

But first, to finish Madigan.

Beth Cyr give away--hoping to win for seester!

Ok, so the artist that made our rings is giving away a ring--and my seester NEEDS this ring. Everyone check out Beth!

Decisions, decisions

For Malabrigo March, Ive added a few additions to the original 5 projects. Altogether now I have 8 projects. Seems like a lot, I know, but 3 of them are 1 night projects. It's really 2 which will take about a week...

So, I've added a few and the pictures are where I'm attempting to get the color combo right. There's a wrap, called the Color Affection wrap, designed by Veera, who's becoming my favorite knit wear designer on Rav. This pattern is the FIRST pattern Ive bought on Rav. It's SO pretty. The assymetry is beautiful to me.

Anyhoo, I can't decide which color to use as the main. If I had one more skein of Vertiver, the pale green, that would hands down win. But, I'm having NO luck finding another skein of this colorway. Thus, I'm stuck with either Verde (dark green) as the main color (eh, would be ok) or a smaller wrap. My classroom stays COLD all year long. I'm excited to use this shawl for my day job.The chilly room is also why I chose to make my Color Affection in worsted, instead of sock or lace weight.

So far, I like the Verde as the main, but I'm not in love with it:

Malabrigo March

Ok, if you don't know it by now, I'm ADDICTED to all things Malabrigo. I do HATE the pilling of the worsted, but I can't get enough of the company's luscious texture. I have a ton of Malabrigo in my stash. 6 skeins of worsted, 5 skeins of lace, 1 Rios, 1 skein of sock. And this March, I'm putting it all to good use for some healthy stash busting. Hopefully I'll win some prizes, but if not, I'll have a good time working on decreasing my ever growing bin of 'LUXURY' yarn.

My Malabrigo March submissions are *nearly* finalized. I'm only doing 2 of the specific project offerings in the ^MM12 KALs, mostly because I don't love anything they chose. Well, I do love a couple, but I'm not a good enough knitter yet to do those ones I love (Like this GORGEOUS thing! Damn that's a very convincing project photo!). There were NO specific CAL projects selected, which irks my nerves a bit. I should have submitted one, I guess. The crochet project delimma gets solved a little further down in the post. Double whammy, baby!

For Malabrigo March:

In the category of General Accessory

The Dominion Bracelet which I discovered in the Entrelac digital mag I ordered last week. My plan is to use a doubled SnowBird lace to make this. I'm also thinking about felting it, but I'll really have to see how it comes out before I make that jump.

Last night I received a copy of the Best of KnitScene. Most of the projects I had already seen when I review the book before I purchased it. But THEN I saw the Phiaro scarf and was awed by it's simple beauty. I love this scarf and before I even finished my dinner, had planned to make it of a newly acquire Noro stash. Sadly, the Noro cast-on was TOO sticky and I frogged it before I finished the first row. I'm using Malabrigo Sock in Tiziano. I think it'll be super classy and more a scarf than a shawl. I don't own shawls and don't wear shawls, so thinning this scarf will totally work for one skein.

2 Official KAL entries:

Last night I planned most of my MM entries, but this morning as I was drafting this blog post I saw these beauties and couldn't believe I missed them last night! These are totally me: I LOVE fingerless gloves, and this pattern is just quirky enough for me not to think I'm repeating myself for a third time on the easy mitts. I'm thinking about doing these in Vertiver, but then there is a picture of 2 different yarns being used for the 2 parts. I might go for a combination (and, YIKES!, maybe not even a Malabrigo!). I have 1 skein of Berroco vintage left over from my Boneyard Shawl which is green and the Vertiver is green... hmmmmm.

Hats are fast and give that immediate gratification. I like this one pretty well, so I'm going to give it a go, in a Rios. Paris Nights is a safe, kinda BLAH

color and the only reason I have it is because someone on Rav was selling it for a great price. Rikke hat=safe, fast, easy project.

Probably will gift it, so if you want it, speak up now!

And, finally, my Crochet submission.

My shawl will be my piece de resistance (I know, I forgot my accents on that phrase!), and it will double as the prototype for the Wyrd Sisters Yarn Shop class I'm teaching in April. This shawl is written in Japanese, but charted very clearly. I'm going to make it in Pearl Ten lace, which I'm thinking about doubling. I have 2 skeins of it, which means a thicker, but smaller shawl, than if I was to crochet it not doubled. Another possible problem with doubling would be a different color for the edging. I have 2 skeins of Frank Ochre lace I could use for the edging, but the deep purple-yellow combo is too Sports Team-ey for my wardrobe.

Wanna join the Malabrigo March Madness? You should. :)

Bernat CAL Afghan.

It's week 2 of the crochet asking Afghan Emily and I are doing together. She is making two, which I thought would be easy enough. Then, we got this week's clue. Yikes! These are yarn intense. Still pretty basic.

I want to post pictures of mine on the bernat page...but I can't because I'm making mine from stash yarn (simple soft)  oh well. To ravelry I go!