Manly Maze

Hello! I'm new to the KAL and am looking for anyone who has knit the Manly Maze in the called for yarn (Lanaknits Allhemp6). I ran across one other post on the internet from someone who said they did not like knitting with the hemp yarn (hurt their hands, difficulty getting gague, poor knitting fabric quality). Any advice or insight anyone might have about knitting with this yarn would be greatly appreciated.

Tomato Progress

I have now removed the sleeves and am about to join the body to work in the round. I plan on knitting with the main color until just past the bust before doing the design.

Knitters-Delight

Color Theory on Knitty

You guys, you've GOT to see this article from knitty.com - especially if you've wanted to do Bacardi in another colorway as I have. Oooohhhh aaaaahhhh....

http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter07/FEATcolortheory.html

Amy doesn't usually shamelessly advertise knitty.com here, so I will do it for her - terrific article - especially for the color-challenged such as moi...

Happy Holidays, everyone:)
Joan a/k/a fuguestateknits

Eileen in the round

I decided to knit Eileen in the round, rather than on straight needles. I knitted in the round until the armpits, then switched to straight needles for the front and back. It helped to break up the monotony of knitting only lace or only stockinette, as I had to knit both for each round. My plan was perfect, until I realized that I had been knitting the lace pattern in one direction only - so I had to learn to do it backward when I switched to the straight needles! A few attempts got ripped out before I finally got it right.

I used Rosarios 4 Bio Bamboo (100% bamboo) and I must say, I am extremely pleased with the result. It is so soft, and a bit drapey, though I think it turned out lovely! I used 4 mm needles to get anything near the gauge recommended for the pattern.

Bio Bamboo is wonderful stuff, but I think they were out to lunch when they printed the label. The yarn label's gauge is 27 sts and 32 rows = 4 inches with 5 mm needles, but I couldn't even get that gauge with2.75 mm needles (I got 25 sts and 30 rows). And I always knit to gauge. So I wouldn't trust the label, and recommend ALWAYS knitting a gauge swatch with this one.

Network

I finished Network, but I didn't get the same result as the photo in the book. Instead of the yarnovers alternating every 8 rows, they alternated every 16 rows. Still looks cool, and didn't warrant trashing the project, but I wonder why it happened?? I had some confusion when it came to the rows which required moving the marker, so perhaps I did an extra pattern repeat before ending the round and offset the lace pattern by just enough to cause the problem?

I knitted it in a lovely soft pink Rowan Classic Cashcotton 4 ply yarn, which was a bit finer than the recommended yarns, but worked OK.

I finished Tuscany! I started this project in June with some stash yarn, Bernat Satin in Bordeaux (a worsted weight yarn) and used size 6 needles. Because it's worsted, I ended up doing 8 repeats instead of 11.







It's still drying, though inside now. It was unseasonably warm today (23C, 75F), great for laying it out on the porch.

Finally finished Cables and Os

After sitting down in the same chair and knitting for about 12 hours almost non-stop. (Moi, not eat, mais non!)

It actually looks better up close and personal. It fits and I'm glad. The O's part kind of give a little "air conditioning" - perfect for a lightweight sweater. I used cotton and linen and besides the striping, also made a change by crocheting a band around the neck and the button/buttonhole bands.

Now, on to the next:)
Thanks for hanging in there with me, fellow blogsters!
Joan
in Ellicott City, Merlin
http://fuguestateknits.blogspot.com

Intro and Bob

Hello everyone,

I've been lurking here for awhile. I signed up for the KAL shortly after I got the book because I knew I would knit several patterns from it. I had plans to post about my progress on my Tomato sweater (which I am calling Bob because of Bob the Tomato on Veggietales). But I knit it and was almost finished other than the ribbing on the neck and sleeves and realized I didn't have a square neck I had a V neck because I hadn't added in the stitches for the bottom of the neck before joining in the round. So obviously it didn't fit either. :) So I had to rip way back and am not just past the color work again. So frustrating. But this is my first piece of color work so my second time around I learned to do it with a color in each hand and I love it. Here are my pics. Go check out my blog for more info or to comment if you would like. I can't post pictures right now so you will have to go to my blog for pics too. :) Happy knitting everyone!

OK You guys have truly inspired me

to keep on with the Cables and Os sweater! Here's where I was as of Friday night:

Last night, while out and waiting for a concert to begin, I started the second sleeve and continued to work on it during down times at church this a.m. - I WILL get this thing done. I'm going to do some sort of striped edging band/collar combo thing - I know I'm supposed to use the "Os" for buttonholes on one side, but it's just that eentsy weentsy bit small and an extra couple of inches will be just the ticket to the ease I needs! OK women (and men, sorry!) I'm goin' in....... If I'm not back in two weeks, send a search party (or any kind - I like parties)......

Tuscany

I just wanted to pop in and say that I am over half-way through my Tuscany shawl, 8 (or 16 markers) repeats so far. I ended up going to my LYS and getting 3 skiens of Sea Silk on purple. YUM! I love working with this yarn! I also bought some more of the other silk that I blogged about earlier. Turns out it is Regia Silk in a lovely green. Now I can also finish the first shawl. Yay!

Tuscany!

More pics and specs on the blog.

Morrigan is finished!

More photos and lots of words about it can be found on my blog. I shall not torture the non-Morrigan knitters will my rambling words.

SLOWWWW SLEEVES....

This is as far as I've gotten on the cables and os first sleeve, no less! That's what I get for starting up a bunch of new projects. Bad knitter, bad knitter!
I'm not giving up! I'm going to a conference this weekend - maybe I'll take it with me and make a dent in the sleeves. I have short arms, but fortunately not this short!




So near and yet so far!!!

Mint Tomato

Here's my version of Tomato:


I used Cotton Ease in the discontinued colors Mint and Blueberry.


This was my first sweater, and my first attempt at 2-color knitting! Although this wasn't a hard pattern, I started this back in July! I'm glad I finally finished it :) I think I should have added a bit more ribbing to the sleeves, and bound-off the sleeves and body directly from the ribbing rather than adding the extra row of plain knitting.

I love what everyone is making! I really like Tuscany and the River Rock Scarf, so one of those may be my next project from the book :)

Intoxicating - done!!

Yarns: Sea Silk, SWTC Soysilk, SWTC Oasis and Ella Rae Silkience

And I'll throw in a photo of my Tuscany in progress - with Silken (of course!)


More info/specs at my blog:
Intoxicating and
Tuscany (near the bottom)

More Morrigan Errors

I found two more errors in the pattern.

1) After completing the sleeve increases, the pattern says to repeat rows 19–24 or 7–12 (depending on size) of charts R3 and L3 until the sleeve is the right length. You should repeat rows 17–24 or 5–12 to keep the pattern correct.

2) Row 23 of chart L3 is missing a cable crossing. The position and type of the cable crossing should be obvious to anyone who has gotten that far on the sleeve.

A Finished Cables and O's

After a last big concentrated knitting effort (nothing but knitting for the last 4 days) I'm finally finished my Cables and Os sweater and one week before my deadline for the special event (Wicked in L.A) I wanted to wear it to. I loved this pattern, it was the first time I had knitted the entire body in one piece and the first time that I knitted both sleeves at the same time. I chose the exact same yarn and the same color that the pattern called for because I really liked the way it looked. Generally speaking I'm not a huge fan of cotton but this yarn (60% cotton 40% linen) was great to work with and I would highly recommend knitting this pattern with this yarn. If you want to read more about it please come on by the blog or if you are on Ravelry I'm CraftyCupcake. It has been great to see everyones projects, they have all been very beautiful, happy knitting and KAL-ing to all!

River Rock Scarf!

Knitted in Pewter and Peridot colourways, one at a time more or less. Pattern by Sivia Harding.

Peridot


Pewter


More info on the blog.

River on a grey day...

I had to post a progress pic of this one - loving the colourway (Handmaiden Silken "pewter"). ;-)

Everyone should make one of these - amazingly simple knit - I'm even liking working with the beads, more or less.

;-)

Blue Tomato finished (finally)

Sorry about the photo (took it myself!)... But you get the idea. I started this waaaaayyy back in July! Or was it June? I used just over 3 skeins of Cotton-Ease in Lake, and a small amount of 1 skein of Maize. The cotton-ease is actually quite nice, but I do wish they had more vibrant colors. This was my first try at stranded knitting, and I think I need a bit more practice! I can see the areas where I pulled the yarn too tightly (I'm a thrower, but I tried continental for the last few rows to speed things up). I could also use some practice picking up stitches, which I did rather inconsistently around the collar. All in all....it did go quickly, considering the time I put in. And I'm ready for another sweater!

Sweet

The Sweet Indulgence Robe is finished. Behold it reclining artistically in its pre-button-and-button-loop stage on top of the unsorted (clean) laundry.


I am not a fast knitter. This has been going on for weeks, maybe months if I add in all the geeking/research, but it's beautiful. Thanks to Deb White's clever design, there was no post-knitting assembly to do, so I finished it in time to accompany my daughter to the UK for her year of study abroad.

To college-student-proof it, I used Cascade Pima Tencel, double stranding throughout, except for the bottom edge and the cuffs, where I triple stranded.

For the record, despite the washing instruction on the label, the robe is machine washable and dryable and doesn't shrink. Which translates to: work the robe to the post-blocking gauge and measurements.

More detail than you would ever want to know is scattered through my blog.

intoxicating in progress

I said I wouldn't, but here are progress pics.




If interested in the whole (somewhat sorry) story, check out the blog. Bonus feature in today's post: Felting (or not, as the case may be) with mohair/acrylic blend. Serves me right for trying to go all sheepy on you!

Cheers,
Kristina

PS. The stripe effect on the back is, I know, rather - ahem - interesting. Oh well. ;-)

Tuscany content?

I just acquired this yesterday (for more specs on this, if you're bored, check out the whole sorry story).

I do seem to recall one or more people posting here that they used only two skeins of Silken to make the Tuscany. For the life of me, I can't find those posts now, though.

Any thoughts? Stitch-ay Woman thinks it's a go. :-)

Cheers,

Kristina

PS Hopefully will have some FO Intoxicating pics within the week. I've been slacking off planning future projects and working on what I hope will be the world's biggest log cabin blankie made from scrap and swatches. It certainly may well be the most colourful. ;-)

Cable and O's Progress

The last time I posted about a month ago my Cable and O's sweater wasn't very far along, I had just started and had only completed 4 repeats, but at 288 stitches per row that was still a mighty fine accomplishment. However after a month of dedicated knitting I finished the entire body tonight, it's off the needles and I feel a great sense of accomplishment.

As you can see the pattern calls for you to knit the back and the two fronts together in one piece. Towards the end it was a bit cumbersome but the pay-off is less seaming and the entire of the body of the sweater is done.



I decided to use the exact same yarn in the same color as in the book, Queensland Cotolino in fuchsia. I'm not a pink person, but I really do like the color, and I;m really glad I'm not sick of it yet. Here is a close-up:


All I have left is two sleeves, one button band (the side with the button holes is already on the sweater, you use the eyelets, smart huh?), and the neck band. Hopefully I will be able to power through and finish it up because I would love to wear it to a special event we have in the first week of October, hopefully grad-school work won't get in the way to much. It's been great to see everyone's projects, keep up the good work!

Chubster and PROUD:)

I got the rest of the back done on the Cables and Os sweater: and yes, I am using the Magic Loop method to knit the sleeves one at a time in the round! I also couldn't resist sewing the shoulder seams together, so I could do a quick fit test. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. But boy, do I look FAT in these horizontal stripes, LOL. Actually, the cable is vertical, so next one of these I make (oh yes, there will be another one) will be in one color so the vertical is more apparent, LOL! Note the dark band in the middle, LOL! Think it'll do me any good?

yarn substitution advice

Hi All,
I have a question, and I figured that you lovely people would probably be the best source for the answer.

I'm looking for a good laceweight or fingering yarn that is non-wool and non-silk. (I'm allergic to everything.) It needs to be something fairly inexpensive. Any favorites?


Thanks in advance!

intoxicating update...

I've finished the front! (after a brief hiatus into the world of lace...)
(pre blocking)

I'm posting this in progress as I wanted to show a colour modification I made within the front of the top:


I'm not sure how clearly it comes out in the photos. However, I reversed the colour patterning midway through the top, so that colour A (brown) became colour B (teal) and vice versa. This was borne out of practical necessity because otherwise I was going to end up running out of the brown!

(crossposted to my blog)

A Funny Story

This weekend I visited the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival with my 6 year old daughter.
It was our first time there. I mainly wanted to shop, but we also enjoyed the herding and shearing demos; and my daughter took a "Teach Ewe To Knit" class - and she actually learned. I'm so proud of her. But while shopping, I came across something puzzling.

One of the vendors (a larg-ish yarn shop) had No Sheep For You prominently displayed on the table. Hmm, that's not something you should see at the Sheep and Wool Festival, is it?

Morrigan ramblings...if you dare to look

For those of you who are interested in the errors and non-errors in Morrigan, I wrote a very long rambly post about it on my blog. Normally, I would simply cross-post here, but it is very, very long and I don't want to put off anyone who isn't knitting Morrigan.

So if you are knitting Morrigan, click here and enjoy (or at least let your eyes glaze over).

thoroughly intoxicating!

I must confess that this is NOT the geeky swatch... but the beginning of the sweater (which I started tonight). Colour choice due in large part to (and inspired by) the lovely "extra" in a recent swap package from our very own Stitchay Woman! The two yarns pictures are SWTC, one soysilk, one bamboo.

Has anyone else started this top? It's a great knit so far, and makes me feel so clever! ;-)

More info on the blog

Montego Bay Scarf

I'm cheating a bit... although it's not from NSFY, it is by Amy Singer and it is made out of the ever-fabulous sea silk.

So, if interested, check out the blog.

Happy knitting! Still waiting to hear back from Earthfaire so I can order the beads for the River Rock scarf.

I finally finished my Tuscany!

The colors are more muted and pretty. I used Sea Pearl from Briar Rose Fibers, and I loved working with it--it's a gorgeous yarn. I know it has wool in it, and I'm sorry I cheated, but that's what was in my stash that seemed to work best with this pattern.

I can't wait until it's dry! Thanks, Amy, for such a wonderful pattern!

Look Who I Got To Meet!!

Amy Singer, author of "No Sheep for You"!! Look at all that YUMMY yarn in front of Amy!! She gave a FABULOUS lesson on the other types of yarns that exist out there besides wool. We got to touch and feel all the luscious yarns in the book and even knit with some hemp and bamboo - heaven!! We also got to see and touch some of the geeky things from the book :-)

Here is Amy signing my "Knit Wit" book (she also signed my "No Sheep For You" Book). She was so amazing to speak with as well and gave us a tour through the yarn shop too, Loop Yarn in Philadelphia, explaining all the benefits of each yarn there and how to substitute it for other yarns. What a fabulous morning!!

my first stab at Morrigan

...with many thanks to Laura for putting me in the right direction re. the sleeve pattern (I can't read very well these days, apparently! .

Fear not: I won't be providing a progress report for every inch knitted! Just happy that I got started. No rush to finish: my goal is 30 rows per week (and this is just the first sleeve).

Cross-Posted from my own blog

I'm packing this up to take with me on vacation (well sort of). I mean, really folks, first things first. This thing is really starting to move along. Well, of course it does when you're not knitting 352-stitch rows, LOL! And by the way, I'm not as slim as the picture below might indicate! The stitch holders for the back are gathering up a LOT of stitches. I did take a brief break from knitting last night to check the left front against my own and it appears that this thing will actually fit -at least I hope so after all this work.


I think I said somewhere that this will be my most documented sweater and I think I was right!

Gotta go pack! whoo hoo. New tire, not a lotta geld, but who cares!

+

Any thoughts?

I'm ready to shape the shoulders on the Cables and Os for the left front and am wondering whether I should attempt short row shoulder shaping or just follow the dang directions? Any votes? Here's what I'm gonna do (since I'm now officially on vacation, sorta kinda and have a little bit of time for a learning experience): I'm going to try to do short row shaping and see if I can do it in the number of rows the directions call for. If it doesn't work, I can always rip back a few rows, so really, what's the harm?

UPDATE: I'm going to play it safe and follow the directions. I do not have enough experience with short row shaping to know how to change things. Maybe next time, LOL!