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Stitches Midwest turned out to be... interesting. SO many stores and SO MUCH YARN. Quite overwhelming. Luckily, with the help of ravelry.com I was able to create a list of projects I wanted to knit in the future. My list included the pattern-suggested yarn as well as alternative yarns that other knitters used. Oh ravelry, so helpful.
I brought my friend Danielle along. Out of the 3 people I've taught to knit she's the only one who stuck with it. She already conquered cables and knitting in the round... it took me over 6 months to get that far... I guess she's a really good student... or I'm just an awesome teacher. LoL.
Tangent. ... So... here's what I managed to find:
Mmm, silky wool. I brought my Branching Out scarf as my WIP to Stitches... I was really enjoying knitting it at the time (right now it's been waiting for me to finish my circular shrug--see below). I had already decided it would make an awesome gift so I decided to grab another ball so I could make another. I think the second one will be for my mom.
This yarn is a long story. =)
At the end of last winter I was at Coach with my best friend Lora. They had these beautiful cashmere blend scarves for sale. Sale to them was still over $200. x_X I decided, that I would find similar colors and a similar cashmere yarn and knit them for myself.
Finding both the same colors and yarn proved to be difficult... it wasn't until Stitches that I saw 3 of the almost perfect color ways. They weren't cashmere though... they happened to be 100% alpaca. We passed up the table and I kept them in the back of my mind. Finally, on our semi-second round of the market I decided to buy them. 100% alpaca is cRaZy soft... of course, not as orgasmic as cashmere, but, would definitely make a great scarf. So, here's to my Coach knock-off.
Mmm, sock yarn. ... I hate knitting socks. =( After my 3 separate attempts I still don't have a pair of socks that fit or match. Luckily, this skein of Lorna's Lace is for Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts. I've been eye-ing them ever since I fell into the world of knitting blogs. It'll be my first color work project, and, I'm quite excited. I, strangely, ended up with a very similar color choice to her original pair...
I just love the blue-brown combo.
Well, those were my purchases from this year's Stitches Midwest. I'm already looking forward to next year. Sadly, we didn't win any prizes, but, Danielle got a free mini-hank of Malabrigo lace weight. mmmm. I ended up getting my picture taken for The Panopticon's 1000 Knitter's Project--and I'm knitter 100!
We also felt some buttery soft cashmere... sadly the small skein was $46. Definitely out of my budget. It was so soft we went back after our initial round through the market to get a second touch. ^_^
I'll leave you with one last picture.
Danielle and I decided to do our own mini knit-along. We chose the Circular Shrug pattern, and, we've been working hardcore on it since we started. So hardcore, in fact, that we both claim the project is sucking the life out of us. Hopefully it'll be done soon so she can wear it and I can take pictures and gift it.
Knit hard!
It's been over a week since my last post. Not too many FO's. I finished one Dashing in Malabrigo. It's part of a set I'm knitting for my cousin.
dashing in velvet grapes
I LOVE Malabrigo. A friend of mine had a birthday party over the weekend. She really liked the pair of Dashing I had so instead of yet another pair I decided to try Fetching. I went to Wool & Co. to get some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, but, they didn't have any. They did, however, have an ample supply of Malabrigo, so, I bought some in Pink Frost and Verde Adriana. I ended up knitting Fetching in the Pink Frost colorway with a few changes--the main one being I made the gloves significantly longer. Sadly, I was weaving in the ends as we were driving to her house so no pictures. =(
It was really sunny yesterday so I decided to take pictures of yarn I've recently acquired.
I bought this from the JoAnn store near my house during their huge closing sale. It was 50% off. It's Sensations: Bellezza Collection. It's so soft and luscious. I thought it'd make a decent pair of Fetching, but, I'm not sure about the gauge. I only have two balls so I'm a bit limited in what I can create, but, it's wonderful yarn. Wool, nylon, and cotton.
This is Bearfoot sock yarn. I lost the label for it so I went online to look up its information. Turns out you need US 1 or 2 needles. o_O I have no idea what "inspired" me to pick up this yarn, but, I'm very afraid. Four is seriously the smallest size I've used and the smallest size I own. Hmmm. I'll definitely try it, though. I wouldn't want it to go to waste. ^_^
And finally, my Malabrigo. This is my current Malabrigo stash in its entirety. The Verde Adriana is all the way on the left, you can see the leftover Pink Frost in a sad little heap on the right. Slightly above the Pink Frost is Saphire Magenta Gold. SO beautiful. The moment I saw it I had to buy it. I love the really contrast-y variegated colorways. I believe the rest have been featured on my blog at one point or another. =) It's good stuff, that Malabrigo.
There are a few more pictures on my flickr. You can see close ups of Verde Adriana and the Saphire Magenta Gold among other things.
I actually have nothing on my needles right now, but, on my to do list is the other Dashing, and the other sock (it's been so long, I forgot what size needles I used x_X).
Knit hard!
Clapotis has taken over my knitting life. The pattern is fairly simple and is made easier with the use of stitch markers, but, it's taking FOREVER. I think I'm almost halfway through. I'm on the 6th repeat of section 3. o_O I've already dropped a few stitches and it looks awesome. Knowing that I'll be dropping stitches in the near future is the only thing keeping me going. Sadly, though, I don't think my stitches are that even.
Did I mention what I'm using to make Clapotis? Well, it's Cascade 220 in this purple heather color. It's not too bad of a yarn and it's not expensive either. Although, WEBS is having a sale and their Cascade is going for $4.98/skein... I paid $7.50/skein. x_X Hopefully I'll have pictures soon.
In other news, I have a picture of the Calorimetry I knitted 2 weeks ago.
purple goodness
This was knit with Malabrigo in the "faulty" Tortuga colorway.
hugging some starbucks
I cast on 88 stitches instead of the recommended 120. People had been saying the finished object was huge and that the pattern stretches a lot... now, it's actually too small. Go figure. I have a feeling I'm a tight knitter because FO's always seem to end up smaller than what I expect. I'll probably make another one with the leftover yarn.
Hope you enjoyed this quick taste of my knitting. ^_^ More to come!
knit hard
I really enjoyed my first pair of Dashing so I decided to make another pair. This time I used Lion Brand Cashmere Blend. It turned out much softer and cleaner-looking.
Pretty? I love the color. Sadly, it doesn't work very well with my skin tone. =( Here are a few more pictures of Dashing.
my friend lora modeling dashing at work
I have a few more finished objects to show you and one or two WIPs. I'll save those for another day. =)
Knit hard!
i've been telling some friends to deny me if i ask to check out a yarn store. i've been buying too much and i don't knit fast enough to use it.
so, over the weekend i hung out with lora. i havn't told her yet that i need to stop, so, of course i asked her to visit a store with me. i ended up buying 4 skeins of malabrigo in autumn forest and solymar. oops.
mmmmalabrigo
my odessa hat is turning out perfectly. well, it was.
i figured that since the silk wool had less yardage than the recommended cashsoft i would need an extra ball. i "calculated" that once i get to the decreases i should be out of yarn.
i got to the decreases and i still had a good amount left, so, i continued.
not the smartest idea. i noticed that i was quickly running out of yarn but, since i had already started i tried to finish. instead of doing a decrease row followed by a regular-pattern row, i ended up doing consecutive decreases. well, i now need 6 more rows and i've completely run out of yarn. it's $10 for 94~ yards and i seriously only need about 7 of those 94. AND i'm supposed to be saving money. o_O
i was about to cut off my tail end and use it, but, my tail is only about 5 inches long. so, today i gave in and stopped in at my LYS and grabbed the last ball of silk wool in the green color.
i'm gonna have to rip back a few rows... well, i think i'll just tink x_X, but, i guess i'm "safe" now ... i just really didn't want to spend an extra $10 for maybe 7 yards of yarn.
oh well, .. i'm just happy that i havn't made any huge mistakes in this odessa.
here's a picture of the first one, btw.
i had cast on too few stitches in the beginning and didn't realize it until i had finished the ribbing and started the pattern rows. i figured i was too far into the project to frog.
i messed up on the pattern multiple times, and, i didn't really catch the mistakes until a few rows later when i realized my count was off. once again i figured i was too far from the mistake to rip back.
i started my decreases an inch and a half too early because i misread the instructions. and, as usual, i didn't rip back becuase i had already done a few rows of decreases.
so, i'm happy my green odessa is "perfect" right now and hopefully will end up wearable. =)
knit hard!
i am now officially obsessed with Malabrigo. it comes in such beautiful colors and it's so unbelievably soft. mmmm.
last week i went on a spontaneous trip out to evanston to check out their yarn stores. i brought kevin along with me. after a strange mix-up we got to closeknit and took a look around. i didn't really see anything that was really grabbing me. i wanted something REALLY thick in blues and browns. i had seen a scarf on grey's anatomy that i loved and wanted to make.
sadly, i couldn't find yarn that i wanted so i settled on this blue varigated wool. at this point kevin had become impatient and really wanted to leave. so, i had the hank wound into a nice ball and went to leave.
as i turned around to shut the door behind me i noticed a few skeins of yarn sitting on a table. my eyes moved to the tag and i read malabrigo. i made a grabbing motion towards it but at the next moment kevin pulled me out of the door.
the rest of our time in evanston was spent walking around, eating, and exploring. the whole time i couldn't get malabrigo out of my head. i've read SO much about it and i really wanted to get a feel. so, i finally asked kevin if i could go back. he agreed to wait in the car while i bought my yarn.
there wasn't a lot to choose from. only a few single skeins of random colors. i noticed glazed carrot, sunset, lettuce, and indigo. i went for the glazed carrot. when i got to the front i noticed they had a few more skeins at the counter. i asked if they were for sale and lady said yes and that they had just recieved a new shipment. she went to the back and brought out bags and bags of new malabrigo for me to look at. it was bliss. i ended up buying charrua and vaa.
charrua: browns and blues
vaa: blues
i LOVE them. the yarn store woman also gave me a copy of a pattern for a moss rib stitch scarf. i decided to give it a try. the pattern calls for 2 skeins of malabrigo but i only purchased one in each color. so, instead of CO 32 stitches i did 24. i ended up with a good 63 inches.
malabrigo charrua scarf in moss rib!
i've been watchin the knitting help forums often and they had been recommending the scrunchable scarf pattern to use with malabrigo so i figured i should try it out. a few days later i returned to closeknits in evanston to buy 3 more skeins in tortuga, velvet grapes, and lettuce.
i decided to take another trip to some new yarn stores. i really like to drive out and find shops that carry a decent selection and have great customer service. i've been looking for some manos del uruguay yarn in any of their varigated patterns and i managed to find some. i also found a shop with MORE malabrigo at a cheaper price than i had originally bought it at. so i ended up getting 2 skeins of amber gold. beautiful!
for the scrunchable scarf i ended up using velvet grapes.
scrunchable scarf in velvet grapes
i'm not too fond of the pattern. i definitly like the moss rib stitch more, but this is still pretty decent. i like how it causes the columns of stockinette to tilt a little on their side. but, what i like about the moss rib is that each column of stockinette has a decent amount of space in between, it's even on both sides, and it creates deep channels. here's a close-up.
reminds me of pebbles or cobblestone
well, that's my deal with mmmMalabrigo. if you havn't knit with it yet you should definitely try it.
mmmmmmmalabrigo!
