It's been awhile

I've been knitting like mad, just haven't posted anything. I'll throw a few pictures here now just so you know I'm still here!

I might be crazy, but I'm knitting an afghan for my parents for their 50th wedding anniversary this summer. I chose the pattern and bought the yarn last fall, but didn't start knitting until after the holidays. It's the Lovers Knot pattern from Lion Brand. I'm making it an extra repeat wide so it will be a bit bigger when finished. It's a an acrylic yarn because it MUST be easy care for my parents and their dogs!
Next photo is the first thing I knit for myself after Christmas knitting was finished (which, by the way, didn't happen until about 10:00 pm Christmas Eve.) It's a beautiful shawl made with Kraemer silk and sterling. Yes -that means there is actual silver bits in the yarn. It's so sparkly and pretty - I love it!
I also finally finished the Patons Must Have cardigan! I made it using Knit Picks City Tweed HW. While, I love, love, love the yarn - the sweater is really heavy and it stretching out of shape like mad. I'm not sure if there is a solution, but if anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Sorry - no finished photo.....I've been wearing it too much.
I've got a test knit on the needles right now. It's using a fingering weight yarn on size 6 needles. It's looking nice, but all the stockinette is getting boring! I'm almost up to the armholes, so I must be at least 1/2 done, right? No photos of this one yet......stay tuned!

Knit on!

It's done!

Sometime I start a project and think that it might never get finished. This was one of those projects. I thought it was just too ambitious for me. (Usually I just end up stopping a project at some point, frogging what's knit and re-using the yarn for something else.)

But here it is, my magnum opus of knitting:
The photos a bit washed out, black does that to me. I'm hoping to get a photo of me wearing it, but that will have to wait.

It was a challenging knit, but I'm very pleased with the end result. It fits me very well and there are no glaring errors. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of errors, you just have to know where to look for them.

I purchased a pattern for this, something I rarely do, but I really liked it. Had I known that the pattern was a bit "dicey", I probably wouldn't have, but live and learn I guess. The sleeve shaping was more of a "hint of a pattern" instead of actual directions, so you really had to be willing to let things be wrong/off in the lace pattern.

Pattern: Myrtle
Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll sock
Needles: Knit Picks options in 4's and 5's. (I learned after knitting the bottom hem and the sleeve hems that my gauge in garter is looser than in stockinette. To make the neckband and button bands look better, I used size 4's for them.)

Whew - it's done and I love it!

Summer knitting....

...is supposed to be for me! However, this summer I have found myself knitting lots of projects for my family. Not that I mind, but I have grand plans of all the fabulous new sweaters I will be wearing this fall and no time to knit them!

Recently Finished:
Fuzzy Feet for Kirk - I've made him several pairs of these, but they do wear out. Thankfully they are a fairly quick knit.
Haruni for me. I've knit three of these. Yes, I said three. I found a pattern I liked well enough to knit it three times! (One was for my mom, one for my MIL, and the latest one was for me.)
And a close up. (And dang - is red ever hard to photograph. It's really a nice deep red, not the crayon color that it looks like!)
On the Needles:
Cardigan set for Miss C. My daughter has entered the world of American Girl dolls (so help me God!) I picked up some Sport weight wool for very cheap, so I have embarked on matching cardigans for C and her doll in a lovely heathered pink. EEK!

My black lacy cardigan. I set this down for over a month because I was worried about the sleeves. I've made a few modifications and am now back on track. Sleeve #2 should be done today. I'm making pretty good headway on this one now.

And a pair of socks. I use this as my travel project. It's always nice to have a pair of socks on the needles! I've modified the pattern to be only the "loop" portion. I just didn't like the way the twisted stitch section looked.

And VERY neglected Bohus Sweater. This has been on the needles since February. It's a bottom up and the nearly 14 inches of plain stockinette is almost done. This got put down mostly because it's too hot to have a large wool sweater on my lap. (My sweater is gray for the main color and either white or purple and black for the contrasting colors.)

And all the things I still want to knit:
Fitted February Lady Sweater (in a lovely red)
Avocet (in a plum heather)
Helleborus Yoke Sweater (in the yarn Mom and Dad got me in Ireland)
Must Have Cardigan (in some City Tweed from Knit Picks)

So there you have a snapshot of my knitting, and summer is fading fast. I'd better get moving.

Dead Fish Hat

My son rarely requests knit items. So when he does, I'm happy to oblige. I present the Dead Fish Hat:

He's not home this afternoon, so I'll add another picture of him wearing it later.

Pattern: Fish Hat from Knitty
Yarn: Only Stretch from Schachenmayr nomotta. This yarn has a built in stretch. I've never knit with yarn like this before. It took a little getting used to, but the finished product doesn't seem to be effected. (The stripes are misc worsted yarn from my stash.)

ETA: Picture of Gregory with hat!

A quick diversion

I've been knitting too many socks I think. I went through a major sock burnout last fall and I don' want that to happen again. So I knit a quick shrug for my daughter. Turned out very cute I think!

I used some yarn I had left over from a baby blanket I knit. (I still need to take a few pictures....will blog about it soon.)

Pattern: Heart Party Shrug from Petite Purls (a great source for kid knits)
Yarn: Swish DK from Knit Picks, color Petal
Needles: Size US4 and US6

I made quite a few mods because I didn't have quite enough yarn, but I don't think it affects the overall design. And since I used a different yarn type (wool vs. bamboo) I think my sizing is a bit different. I love how it came out and Charlotte loves it! (And that's all that really matters in the long run.)

Rainbow Swirl

I bought some of this rainbow striped yarn on a bit of a whim. (You know, they were almost out of it and I didn't want to miss the boat so to speak.) I decided to make a pretty plain sock to show off the fabulous stripes.

Yarn - Knit Picks Felici in Rainbow (and yes it's all gone, but there are lots of other lovely colors.)
Pattern - My own (but I'd change a few things if I were to make this again.)

I actually used my 9" Hiya Hiya circular needles for this one. I don't usually like them, but if I'm not knitting a pattern, they work OK. And they are FAST! I made this sock in about 1 1/2 days.

I'm still plugging away on the lace cardigan. The requires concentration (i.e.; no kids around) and I don't have much quiet time to knit right now. So I do a few rows when I can. I'm to the yoke for the body and about 1/2 done with the first sleeve.

What's up with shawls?

I'm not much of a shawl wearer, but they seem to be the new "in" thing in the knitting world. So like a lemming, I've been knitting shawls! So far I've stuck to smaller shawls that I wear like a scarf - and I've ALWAYS been a scarf person. So maybe it isn't such a stretch!

Yarn - Inca Sportlace 100% wool - 376 yds. (I got it on clearance at Tuesday Morning.) It started it's life as a mustard yellow color. That's not the best color for me, so I over dyed it in a greenish-blueish color.
Pattern - Traveling Woman (Rav link)
Mods - None (I was afraid I would run out of yarn, but I had about 30 yards left over.)