Germinate WIP

Hi friends!

I'm sorry for missing last weekend's post. It was Valentine's Day (Happy Valentine's Day!!) and the weekend passed way too quickly! Scott and I went out to a movie, the first one in a long time, so that was kind of special. We saw Kingsman and it was highly entertaining. I recommend it if you like spy movies, Colin Firth, and a little cheese :) We also had frozen yogurt ♥ and made dinner.

Scott's gift to me was a gift certificate to a day spa and salon! He thought I might like to try a gel manicure, because I've mentioned it before. Well, I had them done this week, and I absolutely love them!! My biggest problems with nail polish are that it takes forever to dry, it chips much too easily, and it only looks good for a few days. That's too much effort for me! The gel manicure took about one hour from start to finish, and that included cleaning up my cuticles and shaping my nails...which took some time because I don't do much for my hands beside moisturize. My nails were instantly dry thanks to light curing, and they're so shiny!! (seriously, I still can't get over how shiny they are!) It's been three days since the mani and they still look perfect. This is going to be a bad obsession :)

Ok, knitting. I cast on a new shawl:

The pattern is Germinate by Kristen Kapur. It was originally a mystery KAL in 2013 and I fell in love as more Germinates popped up in my Instagram feed. I love the lace and stripes, and the zillions of possible color combos. My sweet friend Denica gifted me the pattern and it's taken me a long to decide on my color scheme. I really wanted to use stash yarn, but most of my fingering weight is heavily variegated or self-striping. In the end I only purchased one skein (orange) and used two from stash :) Green and purple are both Knit Picks Stroll Tonals and orange is Ella Rae Lace Merino.

When I was at the LYS I saw some beautiful sport weight (Frog Tree Pediboo), which would have made the ultimate squooshy shawl, but it would have cost over $80 for all the yardage. I almost justified it because my birthday is coming up, but I think in the end, I would have felt crummy for breaking my self-imposed-not-strictly-enforced yarn diet. And you know what? I feel great with my colors and am really glad I didn't splurge on yarn :)


I also cast on a new pair of socks:

The yarn is Crazy Zauberball from my dear friend, Dag! I love this purple colorway! This is my third pair of socks on the needles.... I just needed a vanilla one to take on errands! And it's shown me that I really do knit a lot while on the go, because I'm already on the heel (and I knit a seven inch leg). I tried knitting and reading a "real" book...it was hard! No matter what I do, the book won't stay open. If you're interested, I'm reading The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. It is really kooky. Which is just up my alley :) The book jumps in time from current day, back to periods in the main character's life. It builds his character, but really, I think a lot of it should have been edited out. I think the present day storyline is funny enough to have held the book. We'll see how it evolves, I'm about halfway through.

If you've seen my Rav page for these socks, you'll see that I've named them All About that Space socks. That came from a really funny parody of Megan Trainor's song, All About that Bass.





hehe :)

That's about it from me. This kitten cracks me up:

He is so content laying in sun rays. But he totally zones out when he lays there!


I hope everybody has a fabulous weekend! Stay warm!!
Jesse

Hello, hello, hello!!!

Happy Fall!!

Last weekend I had the good fortune to have Friday off and we spent the time out of town. In Spokane, Washington to be exact. It is only about three hours away; far enough to feel like you're getting away but close enough that you're not driving all day! I also like the time change :)

We truly did not do much while in Spokane, which was awesome. On Saturday, we walked around  Riverfront Park. It was so beautiful.

A lot of the attractions were closed for the season, but we were able to take the Sky Ride...a gondola over the falls.

Top left clockwise: 1. Pavilion skeleton 2. LUNCH! 3. Scott on the Sky Ride 4. The view of the falls from the Sky Ride

I was able to knit a lot too :) I brought three projects (because that's what we knitters do...way over pack in case of emergency!) but mainly worked on a new sock that I'm calling Patronus:

and yes, I loved Throne of Glass!

The yarn is Knit Picks Hawthorne and I'm using all of the colorways. When the yarn first came out, I had joined a co-op on Ravelry to receive a small sampling of the colors. It was really difficult to think of a pattern because I wanted to use all of the colorways. The balls are only about 4.5 grams, so just a little shy of what I need for my sock yarn blanket's squares. I decided on Blender Socks by Heather Sebastian. Here is where I'm at on them:

One finished!

It's a really fun knit! Sometimes I use two colors and alternate rows by carrying the unused yarn up, and sometimes I juggle three colors. I think three colors makes a more blended appearance, but it's a pain to keep everything untangled! I admit that the OCD part of me hates this project because the rows are pretty much random. Sometimes I will plan it, like once I knit an inverse set: 1 row C1, 3 rows C2, 2 rows C1, 2 rows C2, 3 rows C1, 1 row C2. But for the most part I just grab a strand and knit it.

I used a Fish Lips Kiss Heel in one solid color.

Even though each yarn is carried up, there are still a lot of ends to weave in! I think there are twenty colorways, so each sock will have ten different colors...and twenty ends. Towards the end I started using a Russian join...I think the second sock will have many more Russian joins! (don't know what I was thinking)


I also finished each sock from last post, Fall and the Crazy Zauberball:

Fall Socks received a FLK heel...

while Crazy Zauberball received an afterthought heel. Now to finish their mates.



and I finished Brie's socks!!

I'm dying to show off the super amazing color, but I'm going to wait until she receives them. The pattern is Faux Cables by Jen Lucas. I've knit them once before, exactly per pattern, but this time I continued the faux cable pattern onto the back of the leg. I thought Brie might like that better.

I think I mentioned last time that Brie and I have been making hand knits for each other. I already received the item she knit me and I absolutely love it!!!

I'm not sure what pattern it is, but it has such amazing texture and patterning! It's been cool enough to wear it already :)


This past week I knit a lot on Nurmilintu by Heidi Alander. I'm using Madelinetosh Merino Light in Black Velvet that I purchased while on summer vacation.

I am just about to start the first lace portion!! And I've ordered some yarn to make one for my mom :)



That is it from me.

Happy Friday!!! I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend that includes plenty of knitting x

Jesse 

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

****************************************

(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

 

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

two old FOs :)

I finished both Hitchhiker and the Colorblock shawl in March, but never took photos of them! (with a real camera, instead of my cell phone, I mean :) )






Pattern: Hitchhiker by Martina Behm
Yarn: Madeline Tosh Sock in Tart
Needles: 3.25 mm
Notes: I wanted to use as much of the skein as possible, and ended up with 35 teeth

This yarn is soooo beautiful, I loved knitting with it. This is my second time knitting this pattern, and it is my favorite! I have yarn to knit my aunt one too :)



It started snowing!!



Pattern: Colorblock Shawl by Jenn Pfeiffer
Yarn: Knit Picks Felici Sport in Sunny Day and Lana Gatto VIP
Needles: 4.0 mm
Notes: The only modifications I made were sandwiching the MC between the CC (which ended up being the main color!), and shortening the length of the shawl.



I love it!! Both yarns are super soft, and the Lana Gatto has a touch of cashmere in it :)



That's it for now! Hope you guys are having a great weekend :)

I was attacked by the flu bug two weeks ago, and it was the worst! It started with Scott on Valentine's Day and then I got it that weekend. It took at least an entire week for me to start feeling normal again; I felt like the walking dead!

You'd think that being sick, stuck on the couch all day with nothing to do, would yield lots of knitting. But it didn't. I did read a lot, and finished the first two Beautiful Creatures books. They are sooo melodramatic and cheesy, with lots of teenage angst. The first book was just made into a movie and the trailer always catches my interest. So when the series was the Kindle Daily Deal, I bought all of them. What I like about the series is that it moves quickly and there's enough suspense/intrigue that the books read fast. What I don't like is how much I enjoy reading them, especially because it's in the teenagers-with-supernatural-powers genre. Sigh. It's my guilty pleasure. (and I definitely want to see the movie!)

There hasn't been much progress on my cardigan because I've been busy test knitting for a friend!

The pattern is Great Divide Shawl by Michele Brown. It calls for DK weight yarn but I used fingering weight with US 6 needles. I used stash yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Blue Yonder and Araucania Ranco Solid. Besides changing the yarn weight and needle size, I knit to pattern. It's a beautiful pattern and is very well written. I love the shawl!!

I've recently purchased some yarn candy and am itchy to cast on something! I primarily purchase yarn as I need it for projects, but these recent skeins are just plain stash enhancers!

MAD TOSH!!!

the white yarn is nice, but not part of the enhancement

Those are my very first skeins of Madeline Tosh and I am soo excited about them! One skein of DK (maybe for a hat) and one of fingering (shawl). And the above photo contains my first skein of Malabrigo (it's the middle blue. I think it will be a cowl or mitts!) and the colorful skein on the right is A Stash Addict's sock in Mermaid Hair!! So I have a lot of project ideas in mind, I just need to settle on one.

It's Wednesday, friends :) Enjoy the rest of your week

Rockefeller finished!

In my blogging absence, I've been busy finishing Rockefeller! It was finished waaaaay back on August 14, but it took me some time to block it, have Scott take photos, and then upload photos! I am way happy it is finished and am so pleased with it!

Pattern: Rockefeller by Stephen West, it was a Mystery KAL

Yarn: I ended up using FOUR different yarns because I kept running out... Color A (white) is Regia Extra Twist Merino and Classic Elite Alpaca Sox (I only needed the Sox for about four inches of a tip). Color B is Mountain Colors Crazyfoot in Big Sky and Mountain Tango. Big Sky was my initial color and is the mostly blue section, and Mountain Tango was used for the wings.
Needles: 3.00 mm
Modifications: none! 

So drapey!!

This was my first mystery knit-a-long and it was very exciting and fun! I have a feeling there are two different types of mystery knit-a-longers... One type who never look at the spoiler photos until they have completely finished knitting that clue, and the second type (me) who peeks at spoiler photos to see what they are in for. I just can't help myself :)

I have several projects going on right now, one is an order and has a deadline so I'm quickly knitting it. Pictures soon (psst...it's a monkey!). I am also putting together projects for the road because in less than one week we are taking a vacation to the Oregon coast!!! I am completely psyched :) We will be gone for ten days, camping, hiking, swimming, knitting, reading, driving, ..... !

Happy weekend friends!