Pebble Beach

Hi friends!

I have another finished object to share with you. It's Pebble Beach, and I love it. 

Pattern: Pebble Beach Shawlette by Helen Stewart
Yarn: Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in color Euphorbia and Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Inkwell
Needle: US 7, 40" circular
Modifications: I knew I would run out of yarn so I decided to use a contrast color for the edge. I ended up repeating the last four rows once more to have just enough purple in the shawl :)

I greatly enjoyed knitting this shawl. I had read someone's comment that it's potato chip knitting, and I was like, what? no way! It's lace! But it really did become intuitive and, I don't want to say mindless or simple, but very relaxing. The lace rows were the rows to pay attention to, but they're followed by three rows of stockinette or garter stitch.

A month or so ago, I came across Helen Stewart's podcast through another podcast. In one show she discusses her Pebble Beach Shawlette, and Unwind Brighton, and it made me so interested in the pattern. Then I kept seeing friends on Instagram who had been to Unwind Brighton and received the shawl pattern, knitting their Pebble Beaches and, well, you know how enabling goes!

Helen's podcast is called Curious Handmade and if you haven't had a listen yet, consider trying it. I really enjoy her podcast!

Mine turned out fairly long. I didn't measure it but my wingspan is 64 inches, plus there's at least five inches extra on each side (the pattern measurements are 55 inches diameter). I did go up one needle size than the pattern calls for because the Hazel Knits Artisan Sock fabric just seemed too dense on US 6.

I am glad for a little extra length! It will wrap a few extra times under my jacket this fall :)

I hope you are all having a sunny but cool Sunday! Thanks for reading! x

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(p.s. I connected my Blogger account to Google+ recently, but for some reason it left me unable to reply to certain comments. I disconnected from Google+ in the hopes that I can again reply directly to comments left here. We'll see! If I didn't reply to your comment in the last two posts it was because of this, but I did read your comments and greatly appreciate them!!) x

Echo Flower shawl

 

Hiking and Mrs. Weasley

Hi friends! I wanted to share a few photos from our hike this weekend, and some new photos of Mrs. Weasley's blanket!

We drove down the Bitterroot on Sunday morning and hiked Bear Creek. It's an easy hike that follows alongside the creek.

 

We hiked it once before a few years ago. During that time, it started pouring as soon as we reached the falls. We wouldn't have been worried but we each had a camera (I can't remember if we had brought rain jackets). So we sped down the trail to the car, about 1.5 miles, taking cover under large pines every once in awhile. At one point I skinned my knee on a tree that had fallen over the path and by the time we were back at the trail head, we were soaked!

Thankfully, it was nothing but sunshine when we hiked this past weekend :)

I took a photo with my camera's self-timer and it worked great except I didn't see that little plant in front of the lens. Photo bombed!

And now, progress on Mrs. Weasley's blanket:

Today I seamed two quadrants together. I had to YouTube how to seam (!!) and I found a superb video:




It really did make an invisible seam, which is important for me because my seaming yarn was a different color.

My invisible seam!!!:

I love love love this blanket ♥

Mischief managed

spring spring S P R I I I I I I I I N G ! ! !

I think spring might be my favorite season after all. I love the cool air during the early morning and late evenings, it isn't too cold, just refreshing. And I love the fact that I can wear Bermuda shorts during the day but can still slip on a sweater to stay comfortable. The trees are all kapow with new leaves, and there are dots of color in front of everyone's home; tulips, irises, poppies.

I've cast on a new blanket and started the annual Harry Potter read. That is how Mrs. Weasley's blanket came to be.

Pattern: based on Hue Shift Afghan by Kerin Dimeler-Laurence

Needles: US 3 or 3.25 mm 

Yarn: only sock yarn scraps

You might remember I've already started one Hue Shift afghan...and haven't finished it. But I have been itching to cast on a sock yarn blanket for awhile, and finally decided to! I love this pattern because you pick up stitches as you go to form the next square, so no sewing blocks together!!! I'm altering this one to have four quadrants of 36 squares, I think that will be plenty large enough. 

It's ridiculous how fast this is going. I started both the blanket and the first HP on May 24, and I've knit a block of 6x5 squares and am on the third book already. I cannot put either down.

Doesn't it look like something Mrs. Weasley would knit?

my tub of sock scraps

That's it from me, I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!! You know what I'll be doing xx

mainly about a Stormborn Shawl

A blog post on a Thursday evening...a little out of the ordinary for me! Truthfully, I meant to write earlier today but then I took a nap... :) so you can clearly see my priorities.

I have been working on a lot of things over the past few weeks.

Dad's socks have heels! I am still decreasing the gussets but I am happy with my slow progress! Fingers crossed they'll be finished by Father's Day.

I cast on Sue's socks in one of the hand dyed skeins that I mentioned last week. I really like it! They are a nice, vanilla pair.

A project I haven't mentioned yet is the Game of Thrones Mystery KAL aka Stormborn Shawl by Kristen Ashbaugh-Helmreich!! I LOVE it!

Since it's a mystery knit along, only bits of the pattern are released at a time so no one knows what the end shawl will look like! This is the third MKAL I've participated in, and they are always so much fun!!

I am using Cascade sock in the color Citron, ooooh! 

I will switch to a longer cable, but here is one half stretched out and pinned:

This is my first time knitting a lace shawl. It is challenging; for this clue we worked from two separate charts for one single row! I've had to tink back several times because my stitch count has been off, but it is such a good kind of challenge. It's the reason I'm hooked on knitting.

These photos are all through Clue 2, and there will be six total clues. I can't wait to see how it will turn out!! It calls for about 800 yards of yarn, so it's going to be huge!

(I am obsessed with it. And with the show as well.)


I've been spinning on this:

It's from Sheep on a Spring. The roving is called Norma and is a blend of merino, angora, and alpaca! The colors are so vibrant and pretty, it's asking to be barber pole plied :)


I recently finished spinning this lovely:

It's from Moonrover. It started as a gorgeous batt full of yummy secret things, like soy silk, angelina, corriedale, and fire star (I'm not even sure what that is!)!

It made 202 yards of a fingering weight, 2-ply. Very pleased.

I also finished this shawl for my mom:

Pattern: Picabeau by Jennifer Dassau
Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss in Guava
Needles: US 6 circular
Modifications: none! I knit it to the pattern 

This is a wonderful pattern! The shape of the finished product is more of a scarf really, long and thin-ish. It seems like it would make for a nice layering option, like for colder mornings. It may have been the yarn that contributed to that, too. It was my first time using Knit Picks Gloss, and I enjoyed working with it! I won this yarn from My Sister's Knitter midway-Resolutions KAL.

One last thing, I am hosting a KAL! My dear friend, Dag, recently published her first Ravelry pattern and I want to help her celebrate!!

The pattern is called Enchanted Shorty Shrug and the KAL starts on Saturday, May 17!!! I want to knit so many of them, in all of the colors! A lot of the action is going to take place on Instagram and you can find more photos with the tags #enchantedshortyshrug and #enchantedshortyshrugkal. I hope you will join us! There is also a thread on Ravelry here.


Wishing you all a HAPPY FRIDAY tomorrow and hoping you can do what you love x

a little of everything

Good Sunday afternoon friends!

I'm going to start off with some hand dyeing that I did last week:

I am really excited about these and I have plans to dye up some more too. I received the acid dyes and some bare yarn for my birthday, and after reading Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece by Gail Callahan about five times, I finally worked up my nerve! (it is a really good resource, I highly recommend checking it out!)

soon to be socks!

A friend on Instagram and I have made a swap together; socks knit by me (I'm going to use the skein pictured above) in exchange for this yarn she sent me:

A pretty fantastic swap! I am so crazy for Crazy Zauberballs :)


As for WIPs, I have a new shawl on the needles:

 

The pattern is Picabeau by Jennifer Dassau and it is such a delight to knit! The pattern is super easy to memorize. And it's customizable to how much yarn you have; you start decreasing once you've used half of your yarn! I think that's so cool.

I am using yarn that I won from a My Sister's Knitter KAL. It's Knit Picks Gloss in Guava! It's a really pretty pink and with the yarn's silk content, it should be very cozy!

Right now I'm knitting a short pair of hiking socks for myself. I want to be able to wear nice, wool socks with shorts and hiking shoes this summer. I think these will do the trick.

I have used an Eye of the Partridge heel flap... I think it's the prettiest. The yarn is Patons Kroy in Celestial Colors on 2.25 mm needles. I have been keeping this sock in my purse and surprisingly, I've been able to knit on it a lot while running errands.


Progress on my Once Upon a Time sampler:

I've finished April in time for May, yay!! So sweet, isn't it?

But you can see that I still have a few blocks to fill in :) You can find the pattern here.



Guess what? I finished a pair of socks! Only, I have a few ends to weave in.

heheh :) My goal today is to finish weaving them in. I have one sock's ends woven in, but had to take a break. I really don't mind weaving ends in. I've decided that it looks much neater on the right side than a Russian join. For some reason, I always get a little bump with Russian joins.


Enjoy your week! x