FO Friday: Jonium and Thorin!

Hello Everyone!

I have a major FO to share with you today! It’s officially my favorite project to date and the FO has, in the time between blocking and being posted here, been used quite a bit.

My Jonium!

I never quite understood shawls, until I bit the bullet and made one. I didn’t decide to make one because I suddenly understood, oh no. I had seen someone else’s shawl and realized i had the same yarn. And i felt like making it. It was Stephen West’s Boneyard Shawl (for which I am finally going to take some pictures tomorrow, as it’s been finished for ages, but I was using it so much I never seem to get round to it). It’s a basic top down triangle shawl. A lot of stockinette stitch with the occasional bit of garter to keep it interesting. the perfect beginners shawl! As a matter of a fact, I’m urging my mom to make one too, as she keeps grabbing mine when she sees it. I made it out of an Aran weight tweed yarn and it’s perfect for snuggling under on the couch. I ended up using that one a lot. I get cold often in my dorm room as the heating there is pretty shoddy and I can just fling this around my shoulders and the soft shawl keeps me warm. But a adam weight blanket shawl is a lot different form a proper fancy shawl with lace and cables. I had this vision of myself in the spring, which, your mouth is probably falling open in shock, is my least favorite season. I get allergies (yuck!) and i hate that transition between winter and summer clothes. I frequently dress to warm and end up sweaty and hot and very very annoyed. In these days of torture a shawl could be the ultimate solution! I could wear my cute summer clothes and stuff a shawl in my bag. If i get cold, voila! I have my fancy shawl that will keep me toasty (but not too toasty). And so I went looking for the perfect pattern. I found it pretty quickly!

Stats:

Pattern: Jonium by Tiziana Sammuri. Wow. I knew instantly this had to be my first fancy shawl. The samples were nice and large and the pattern looked like a fun and challenging knit.

Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in Chicory. It’s an impossible to photograph, but totally gorgeous blueish purple. In some light it can look almost cobalt!

Time: Long. I worked on this for almost 6 weeks by doing a little bit every evening. Near the end of the shawl the rows had 500 + stitches and each row took me over an hour! This is a pattern where focus is critical. It’s not a mindless tv knit. I think this slowed me down quite a bit.

Needles: I used 4.5 mm needles with a 100 cm cable (the pattern recommends 3.5, but I knit really tight!). Near the end of my project it was pretty full. I think with 80 cm you would really have to squish the stitches on there!

Experience: AMAZING! Tiziana was a great great help. I really cannot thank her enough. The pattern was a little bit above my skill level so I got confused a few times. She was always quick to respond and provided me with detailed explanations for the parts that had me puzzled. The pattern was amazingly fun to knit. You start with cables and slowly some lace creeps in and eventually you end up with a lot of lace. Fun! It keeps such a huge project interesting. I’ve gotten so many great responses to the finished piece already! I love wearing it, it makes me feel very cool (shawl are nonexistent where I live apparently). I thought it would’t be as warm due to the holes caused by the lace, but it’s perfectly warm!

I had a fair bit of panic ever since the shawl was halfway done until it was off the needles. I had this fear that it was turning out a lot smaller than all the samples. Hahaha! I was so surprised after blocking. It was suddenly at least double the size it was before.

Hihi. I like this photo, but it keeps making me laugh. I was having  horrid time trying to pose naturally because my mom and I were joking around the entire time. Suddenly she was pointing loudly somewhere in the sky so I looked. And then burst out laughing again. She took the picture just a few seconds before so I look a little awkward, on the verge of an outburst of even more awkward laughing.

I also made good progress on my Thorin Oakenshield socks. I finished the first one! I have zero hopes of finishing before the end of the olympics so am taking a teeny break from the bobbles and focus by knitting a (hopefully) easier sock. More soon!

Love, Renée

 

Work in Progress Wednesday

Hello Everyone,

Today is Wednesday and so it’s time I shared my current wips!

My main project for the last few weeks is off the needles! All that’s left to do is to tuck in the last few ends (I didn’t have time to finish that before leaving for my dorm this week) and it needs a vigorous blocking session. It’s quite scrunched up and includes a lot of lace and cables so a good blocking will really make it bloom.

Here’s a picture from before it was done. The colour is a lot of here. The yarn is terrible to photograph even though it’s gorgeous in reality. It’s a blueish purple. Sometimes it looks more purple than other times, but it rarely looks like the colour above.

This is a photo of my favorite lace section. The colour here is a lot more accurate.

As i don’t have much to do on this I’ve continued on my next project.

I’ve continued work on my Painter socks! This is my first pair of vanilla socks and my first time using self striping yarn. I love it. It’s so relaxing and easy. To challenge myself I’ve made myself try out a new to me technique in this pair. I’m trying out an afterthought heel so as to not interrupt the pattern created by the yarn on the foot. I’m really enjoying this project so far. The yarn is soft yet firm and very pleasurable to work with. It was expensive, but it’s proving worthwhile. I bought the yarn while on vacation in New York so these socks will always have fond memories for me. I’m already imagining hexipuffs made from the leftovers. I’ve progressed a little further than is shown here. I’ve already placed the waste yarn for the heel and am now working on the foot. I’m hoping to match the striping on the first sock on the second sock.

The yarn for these socks was inspired by Hundertwasser paintings. Below is the one the colourway for these socks was based on. My yarn was labeled incorrectly so I had to do some digging to figure out which one it was based on.

What are you working on this week?

Love, Renée

ps. linking up with Tami’s Amis  🙂

Casting on: Passion Flowers Shawl

Hello Everyone!

It’s wednesday so it’s time I give an update on some of my current projects! I’ve been away for a while, so I didn’t get too much crafting done, but I still have some things to show you.

Unfortunately all projects I have been working on I haven’t ever written about before! How does this keep happening?!? So today I’m going to write about this weeks project that got worked on most and that made the most progress, my Passion Flowers Shawl.

Whilst waiting for my yarn for the Pickaboo KAL to arrive I started a new shawl, Passion flowers by Marisa Hernandez. I got off to a good start and could share a photo on instagram in a few days (it took me a few tries to get it right!).

I kept speeding on and although I had used 2 lifelines I didn’t really encounter any problems. I sped through the first 2 charts and yesterday could show some significant progress…

As you can see I have made some great progress on the third chard (above the second lifeline). I was about 35 rows into the 86 row chart. I must have jinxed the thing, because suddenly nothing would work anymore, my stitch count was off (waaaayyy off! I had 10 extra stitches of so…), tinking didn’t fix it and so this morning I had to rip back to the second lifeline. Sigh. So my progress has disappeared.

So this is where I’m at now… I have a bit of catching up to do, but I’m a bit mad at this shawl right now so it’s getting  time out. Not too long a I need the needles it’s on!

Love, Renée

ps. Checking in for Work in Progress Wednesday at Tami’s Amis!

Pick A Boo KAL Update #2

Hello Everyone!

It’s time for the second update on the Pick A Boo KAL! I still haven’t started as, while I was waiting for my yarn to arrive I cast on another shawl and I want to finish that one first now. But that one should be done fairly soon so I should be able to start pretty soon (hopefully before next week’s update!).

I do have something new to show today. I  decided to order the yarn I saw on Etsy (and that I wrote about here) and it has arrived! So of course I have to show it off today!

This photo is very colour accurate. The colour is a very nice dark purplish grey which leans to black at times. It reminds me of my favorite time when night falls and the sky turns all these lovely shades and variations of blue.

The info.

Along with the yarn came a lovely handwritten note, a little magnet and a business card. The note especially was very nice to see. I really think little personal touches like these make shopping at small independent businesses so much more rewarding. I would never imagine a big box store doing something like this.

Isn’t it gorgeous? I think it’s pretty perfect for my Out of Darkness shawl.

Love, Renée

Work in Progress Wednesday 7

Hello Everyone!

It’s Wednesday and this time I actually have some things to show you!

First off: Hexipuffs for my Beekeepersquilt. I have been slowing down considerably with my multitude of projects to pick from. My hexipuffs have been shoved to the background a bit.

But that’s all about to change! I recently won some miniskeins in a challenge on Ravelry (check it out, there’s more challenges and there’s a fun game coming up!). These will soon be knit up, either for a challenge, a random puff or the upcoming game!

I’ve also picked up a project that has been dormant for a bit. The first sock of the pair had taken forever so I needed a break before starting the second one. But I’ve finally gotten back around to it. I’m not really loving it, but I will love it once I’m finished. The pattern and yarn don’t seem to be working together very well. I also made the leg a bit to long and it’s been a bit of a gamble to see if i would have enough. I ended up making the foot a teeeeny bit shorter so that I can finish it, but it’s a tight fit now.

I’ve also started a new project ( because everyone knows I didn’t have enough of them yet!). It’s a shawl and here’a a quick (and crappy, sorry!) photo I took with my phone. More pictures of this later as I’m quite a bit further now!

These have been my main projects for the last week. What have you been working on?

Love, Renée

 

 

 

 

Pick a Boo KAL!

Hello Everyone!

July first marked the start of an exciting new adventure in knitting land! The start of a new KAL, or knit-along by Crafts of the Cwtch. What is a knit-along? A KAL, is where you form a group of people and all start the same project in the same timeframe. In this case it’s a little bit different, we aren’t all making exactly the same thing. The theme of the KAL is “Pick a boo” (don’t you just love this name?!). Everyone will be making a shawl by the same designer (Boo knits).

I love KAL’s. The fat that you’re knitting with others is highly motivating. Every week those with a blog write an update (every thursday!) and we keep each other updated on the Crafts of the Cwtch group on Ravelry. This is so motivating! Seeing others progress makes you want to keep cracking on even if a pattern is (too) challenging! The fact that there is a timeframe in which you are to (aim to) complete the project is also a great motivator for me. I’m a pretty proud person, being anything less than perfect ticks me off (can you imagine how i feel with a frankenstein face this week? It totally sucks!). I don’t want to embarrass myself by not finishing (plus I love being able to guiltlessly parade my newly finished things. My parents and sister often laugh at me when i take a tour of the house showing stuff off, with the same complementary story every time, to everyone in the house.) in the time given, so I work hard to make sure I finish it. With my ever growing list of WIP’s a very good thing too!

This week I haven’t made a lot of progress. This will be my first time knitting lace weight, knitting a lace shawl, etc… Frankly I’m a little apprehensive. And after the rough (though planned) start of the week, it didn’t seem to be the right time to start such a challenging project. So I’ve postponed. But i’ve thought a lot abput the whole thing!

I picked a pattern: Out of darkness. The shape of the lace sections just really appeals to me, especially combined with the plainer areas of the shawl. Plus I think I will actually be able to wear this!

One thing that has kept my mind occupied this week is yarn. I have some laceweight yarn in my stash, but it’s not really any colour I would choose for this pattern ( a dusky greyish colour, perhaps a gradient, of a really dark grey,…) so I’m not very excited to use those. So I’m trying to justify buying some very nice hand-dyed lace weight yarn on easy, as I have wanted to for a great while. And I actually found one that I really really like, but it’s a tad expensive…

This is it. As soon as I saw it, I loved it. This would be perfect. It’s a hand-dyed luxury BFL/Silk lace yarn by The stationary Nomad on etsy. The colour is velvet night and it is One of a kind (i’m a sucker for things like that!). It’s described as a deep, almost black, slightly variegated, purple, like the night sky.  And the night sky is what I think of when I hear “Out of darkness”. I want this. I neeed this. But I can’t really justify it… can I? I do feel very sorry for myself with my swollen cheek and sore face and mouth… But that’s already fading. I need to decide fast. If it sells, I’m going to be devastated!

What should I do?

Love Renée

 

 

Casting on: Lindisfarne Shawl

Hello Everyone!

Today I’m going to tell you about another new project. I’ve cast on my very first shawl! I’ve been charmed by the pictures on Ravelry ever since I joined the site and learned how to knit. Although I’m a little unsure on how one wears a shawl I’ve been desperate to make one of my own! And so, when I came across a new pattern that I absolutely loved and found that I had some suitable yarn (this was before the yarn surprise) and the perfect circular needles, I had to buy the pattern and get started.

Lindisfarne shawl

The pattern I’m referring to is the Lindisfarne shawl by Angelea McGarrah. I can recommend the pattern as it is clearly written and there were no mistakes.  As a beginner knitter I learned many new skills during the process of knitting this shawl and sometimes didn’t quite understand how to precede. Angelea, the deigned of the shawl, was very kind and very helpful to me and helped me work through the pattern.

I liked the colours of the sample shawl above so much that I decided to use the same colours for my version. I am using a fingering weight acrylic yarn by Action in a red and grey colour.

The pattern provides the directions for 3 red chevron stripes, but I feared this would make for a very short shaw and I decided to add some rows.

Here are some pictures of my shawl:

I’m loving knitting this so far! More soon as I’m almost finished now! I only need to block it!

Lots of love,

Renée

Casting on: Scale Scarf

Hello Everyone!

I just cast on my favorite project to date and felt I just had to share it with you! I cast on a scarf I have been eying for a while. I already had the pattern (It was gifted to me by a friend), but I thought the stitches used in the pattern would be a bit too tricky for someone of my skill level.

Yesterday I travelled back to my dorm. At my parents we had had some wet snow, but none of the snow stayed put. When I arrived at my dorm there was at least 5 centimeters of snow on the ground. And it was cold. Really cold. I only have to walk a tiny bit to my building, but I practically froze on the way over. Luckily (although it could have been bad), I had forgotten to turn off the central heating when I left on Friday, so my room was nice and warm. These cold temperatures got me thinking about this scarf again and this time I was allowed to cast on. I had finished my NSSKAL socks a few hours earlier so I had room for a new project! (I will be posting about the socks soon, but i need to get some good pictures first!)

Back to my new project:

I am using this pattern by Bonita Patterns. If you want to cast on the same scarf, I recommend checking out her book (available both in print and as an ebook): Crocodile Stitch Fashions (Amazon). It’s actually the scarf on the front cover of the book.

Made by BonitaPatterns. Project information here

This pattern is amazing! It’s clear and well written, but doesn’t repeat explanations endlessly (A pro in my mind: I hate having to read how a stitch works every single time you need it). The pattern, once you have it down, is very easy. You can work on this project in front of the television without any trouble.

I’m using a fingering weight acrylic yarn from Action (a Dutch budget store). This is the same yarn as I used for my lace wrist warmers, you can see those here. I still have to add the largest part of my stash to my Ravelry stash page, so you won’t see this yarn listed there yet. I have to get started on that soon!

I’m still undecided on the fringe. I think it would look nice, but I don’t know if I’ll have enough yarn and it bothers me to have to start a new skein just for a fringe… I saw a photo of someone who had only attached a tassle at the point of the scarf. I think that might be a good middle ground. But I think I would attach a hassle to each of the points as well.

What would you do?

Love,

Renée