WIP Wednesday - Karin, still & bunnies

I'm still working on the Karin Wristwarmers. I haven't done much knitting since I've been home from holiday. Any progress made has been at the two knitting meetups I've been to in 2012. I have managed to finish one of the gloves, sans thumb:

I think my issue is that these gloves are literally painful to knit, but I don't know what to start next so I don't have a project to flip to when I need a break from cotton unless I want to spend 5+ hours on a repeat. I've been thinking about what I want to cast on, but I can't seem to make a decision. One option is the Helix Scarf from Jane Austen Knits 2011. I have one skein of Malabrigo Lace in a pretty brown that would be perfect. Option two is the Honey Cowl that everybody I know is knitting, and I'm incredibly jealous that they are knitting it and will own it and I'm not. My friend Mel bought me Madelinetosh DK in the Composition Book colorway for my birthday and I really want to try it because it will be my first tactile experience with MadTosh. But, I've been a little itchy to knit another lace shawl since I finished one over the holiday (more on that in a later post), so option three is Lazy Katy in this gorgeous skein of Meilenweit Solo Tono that my stepmom bought me from Coordinated Colors in Yorktown, VA:

 

I have the yarn and patterns for all three and I just need to pick one.

What I should be working on is stuff for the rabbit rescue craft fairs coming up. I have a few balls of the newish trendy mesh yarn to knit up, and I thought I'd mix in a few pom-pom scarves because I just can't help myself. I also made this little guy as a prototype:

 

We're planning to make these as part of the Make Mine Chocolate campaign at Rabbit Day 2012, so I needed to play with it to make sure it was actually going to work. I used some scrap felt I had on hand and drew a bunny template on paper. He needs a face still. His grand purpose in life is to hold a lollipop by sliding the stick through the loops in the back.

WIP Wednesday - Karin Wristwarmers

I bought this beautiful green Noro Shirakaba last month at Admit Ewe Knit when I spied it sitting oh-so-prettily in the Wall of Noro, and finally got the chance to start knitting it into something. It's a cotton/silk/wool blend in gorgeous saturated colors that's much softer than other Noro yarns due to the cotton content. I decided on the Karin Wristwarmers since I've never knit a pair of fingerless gloves for myself and I love fingerless gloves. Love, love, love.

The picture really doesn't do the color justice. I found the pattern to be a bit wonky to start. To get gauge I had to go up to a US 10 needle when the pattern called for a US 7, only for it to be way too big. I went back to the seven, ignoring the gauge and it's knitting up perfectly. The take away: gauge swatches are for chumps. This is not a good lesson.

Also, while the cotton makes the yarn really nice and soft, it's hard on the hands. Well, at least my poor, arthritic hands. I think I can manage it through this project and will just have to take a break from cotton for a little while to recover.

P.S. I was curious what "shirakaba" translated to, and best I can tell is "white birch." From wikipedia:
"The Shirakabaha (白樺派, literally ‘the White Birch Group’) was a Japanese literary movement centered on the magazine Shirakaba, first published in 1910. It also refers to members of the group who share the same ideas and literary style." I don't know what that has to do with yarn.

WIP Wednesday - Shaelyn

I decided to put a little time into one of the larger projects in my WIP basket: Shaelyn.

The shawl is beautiful and the yarn is divine, and I really want to have this shawl. But I don't seem to be all that keen on actually knitting it. After three 22 row repeats, I realized I couldn't complete a repeat in one sitting, so it got shoved to the side in favor of instant gratification. Earlier this week I added the fourth repeat. I timed it: four and a half hours. And there are at least three more repeats to go...sigh..

WIP Wednesday - Ninja Bun!

Ninja Bun was languishing in the WIP Basket and I decided he had to be finished this week. I need him for super secret missions, like keeping an eye out for Santa.

He has a weird parallelogram face. I don't know what's up with that. If I make more ninjas, I'll do some doctoring. I didn't have the patience for fiddling today so I just followed the instructions.

Also, frogged the Fetching. I'm pretty okay with it now since I wasn't crazy about how the cuff was rolling. Just need to find another pattern for that super soft Plymouth Yarn Suri Merino, which I've just found out has been discontinued - gasp! Why do they keep discontinuing yarns that I like? Why?

So, that's two things off the Stuff I Need to Get Done list. As a bonus, here's Goose scoping out Ninja Bun:

Resolutions? What Resolutions?

I am so, so bad. Ridiculously bad. It's August - does that freak anybody else out? - and I haven't completed a single resolution. And, on top of that, the whole stash busting thing? Let me just say in my defense that I'm pretty sure it hasn't grown any larger.

So...tonight I went through one bin of yarn and entered it all into a spreadsheet. You caught that, right? One bin. My current tally: 149 balls of yarn. I have another smaller bin, 2 large bags, a chair, a huge round basket, and two large boxes of cotton left to go through.

And I've given away yarn just to get it out of my apartment. Two balls, just today. When my awesome knitting group had a yarn swap back in January, I got rid of a whole trash bag full of yarn.

Anyway, we're planning to have another yarn swap soon, so I've started another swap bag. But it's so hard to let go. There are so many possibilities for each and every ball. What if I need that one particular ball one day? I'm really trying to be good because it's out of control. I've made a point of entering planned/possible patterns for each ball of yarn in my spreadsheet, so if I really have nothing to make with it, I should just get rid of it. It's going to take some time to come to grips with it all.

More exciting news...

I designed and knit my very own lace shawl!

Now I just need to knit it in a couple different weights because I really think the cobweb is too light, and write it up.

Also, though I haven't completed one yet doesn't mean I'm forgetting about those resolutions. When my friends Deb & Tiffany & I went out yarn shopping this weekend (bad, I know, but I only bought one ball) we decided that we're going to do a sweater knit-along:

It's the Asymetric Cardi from Knit Simple Fall 2010. Super excited for that. And it's stash busting because I have 10 balls of Lion Brand Wool-ease sitting in my stash.

Signing off for now. Final yarn tally to come.

Peace out,
~ Meg

Pom-Poms make me happy.

I started knitting hard-core because of eyelash yarn. I picked up needles for the first time when I was 19 and knitted off again, on again (mostly off) for a few years, until at age 24, my stepmom brought home this funky eyelash yarn and I was intrigued. I had never seen anything like it, only having knit with Red Heart and the like. Since that first eyelash scarf 6 years ago, I have been knitting non-stop, although I've moved beyond the novelty, thankfully.

While novelty yarn isn't my favorite, there are a few exceptions. The first is Yarn Bee Infatuation. I used to make drop-stitch scarves out of this yarn for the Heartland Rabbit Rescue craft fairs when I lived in OK. It is super soft due to the nylon, kind of quirky, and always a big seller and therefore a good thing for the bunnies. Sadly, since it is a Hobby Lobby brand, I can't get it anymore since I moved to Raleigh. The second is Moda Dea Dream - so soft, but disappointingly discontinued. I still have some in my stash, but I'm hoarding it 'cause I know that it's all I'll ever have.

My newest novelty yarn crush is Red Heart Pomp-a-Doodle - little puffs of happiness on a string. I ran across it randomly at Michaels and decided to knit a few scarves for my nieces as birthday presents. Here is the result:

Each scarf only took one ball and about an hour to make. Now, I wouldn't personally wear one of these scarves myself, but I loved knitting them. My favorite colorway is the blue-green shoreline and I would like nothing better than to knit an entire coverlet out of it. Both the knitting itself and the snuggling afterward would be pure bliss. Never thought I'd be raving about pom-pom novelty yarn, but there you go. ;) Try it folks, it's perfectly delightful.

Gratuitous bunny shot: Goose in a pile of pom-poms...

On another note, I also finished this today:

The pattern is Baby Berry Hat, and I think I would have enjoyed knitting it more if I had picked different yarn (Caron Simply Soft & Bernat Berella 4 - not a fan but have sooo much of it in my stash). Very cute little hat, though.