Escher Socks

January 28: I’ve been itching to cast on for another pair of socks, so I decided to dive into these. I’m also trying out magic loop again (I usually prefer DPNs). I found the first 3 rounds rather fiddly, but now I’m on round 5 and it’s starting to get a lot better. Since I knit fairly tightly, I started with going up a needle size and casting on the larger size (60 stitches). I’ll knit a couple of pattern repeats and then see how the sizing is going. (Later: The fit is good!)

March 17: Wow. I started these quite a while ago. It usually doesn’t take me this long to finish a pair of socks and I’m nowhere close to finishing right now. Last night I did do another pattern repeat on the leg of the first sock. Just about 1 or 2 more of those and I’ll be ready to turn the heel.

April 2: Am now focusing my attention on these socks. Yesterday I turned the heel and got all that part taken care of so I’m working on the foot. Hope to finish the first sock in the next couple of days and start the second.

April 6: First sock finished. I’m really glad I did the large size because even so they still feel a bit tight. I’m wondering if I should go up a needle size for the second sock. I’m going to wait until this one dries from its blocking to see if that makes a difference before I decide and start the second sock.

May 9: Yeah, I’ve been sitting on these socks for far too long. In an effort to finish sock #2, I’ve been focused on knitting this project for the past couple of days. I’m past the heel and on the foot now. If I counted right, I have 6 more pattern repeats (or technically 3 more full pattern repeats) to go before I decrease for the toes.

May 11: Finished finally! (And yes, the blocking helped tremendously in making the first sock fit right.)

Pattern: Escher Socks by Lorna Miser (published in Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn)
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in In Vino Veritas

Dipped Infinity Scarf

April 9: I’ve been wanting to start this project for a while now so I finally gave in and began it. The stitch pattern is super easy and so I think it’ll be quite fun and simple to knit and look wonderful when it’s finished.

April 10: Got to the first color change today. Exciting! Later: Got to the second color change.

April 12: Worked on during knit night and just at the end of the evening, I dipped into Night Heron (fifth color, third color change).

April 15: Added in Pussywillow. Just one color more after that!

April 23: All finished! Just need to block (the ends want to curl in) and take pictures.

May 10: I’ve had one heck of a time getting this to dry after blocking. It sat on the blocking board for 3 days. Then I took it off and used a hair dryer on it. Still wet, I hung it on the towel rack. And this morning I finally ran it through the low heat cycle on my dryer. It’s still got a slight dampness to it but a lot better than it was. If it’s not completely dry by tomorrow morning, I may run it through the dryer again (although that caused the edges to want to start to curl in again).

May 12: Now dry.

Pattern: Dipped Infinity Scarf by Laura Chau (for sale on Ravelry)
Yarn: JulieSpins M370 in Black Beauty, Root Beer, Garnet, Bluebell Woods, Night Heron, Blue Slate, Pussywillow, and Christmas Cactus

Raverly Red Hat

April 10: I really liked the yellow cable hat that I made but the color doesn’t suit me. So I’ll save the yellow one for a gift and make this red one for me.

April 16: Finished tonight. Love! Super soft and cozy.

Pattern: Sarah's Cabled Hat by Sasha Stavsky (free Ravelry download)
Yarn: Malabrigo Twist in Ravelry Red

No Cable Needle Cabled Hat

April 7: Taking a knitting class tomorrow on cabling without a cable needle so I knit the ribbing tonight to prepare for the class.

April 8: Just back from the class. It was great. Now, the first round with cables went very slowly and was a bit frustrating because I had knit so tightly that instead of staying still while I moved stitches around (this technique involves letting stitches loose momentarily), I kept having the stitches drop, so I had to get out the ole crochet hook and pick up the dropped stitches. Grr. So the next time I made sure to consciously knit as loosely as possible for the next set-up row and that seemed to work as the stitches were so much easier to manipulate and I was able to get the hang of the technique. Now I can definitely see the benefits of doing it this way and how it will be much faster for doing cables. Yay!

April 9: All finished. I’m definitely a lot more comfortable with not using a cable needle after this project. I think I’ll make another hat with my Ravelry Red Malabrigo Twist.

April 10: As I’m looking at the pictures of the hat, I’m not liking the places where there are purl bumps in the middle of the cables. I wasn’t sure if the pattern was correct when it said to repeat those rows but I went ahead with it. Now I’m regretting it. So on the next one I make, I’ll just knit across instead of adding purls in the cables and see how it turns out.

Pattern: Sarah's Cabled Hat by Sasha Stavsky (free Ravelry download)
Yarn: Cascade 220 in Marigold

Gathered Scarf

February 6: Started for my MIL’s birthday or Mother's Day. I’m not sure yet whether or not I like the way it’s pooling.

February 22: I worked on this scarf a little bit more this evening. The blocks of pooling have broken up so it’s looking a bit better. I’m going to keep going with it because I think my MIL will love it no matter how it turns out.

March 19: Finished first skein of yarn and got well into the second skein.

March 31: And now finished! I’m not sure if/how to block this scarf with the whole gathered effect, but it does seem to want to curl inward so I might try to do some sort of blocking to see if I can get the curl to settle down just a bit. Otherwise, I’m looking forward to giving this to my MIL for Mother's Day.

Pattern: Gathered Scarf by Maryse Roudier
Yarn: Yarn Love Elizabeth Bennett in Maiden

Toe Up Practice Socks 2

February 16: Taking another knitting class, learning a different technique for toe up socks, using Judy’s Magic Cast-on. And I can say that it’s definitely magic!

February 22: Finished my homework and all ready for class tomorrow night.

February 23: Tonight’s class covered the heel which went quite well. Gotta finish up the leg this week so I’m ready for the bind off for next week’s class.

February 27: Finished my homework (the leg) and all ready for the cast off during Tuesday’s class.

March 2: Sock #1 finished in class (it’s just a tad bit tight) and Sock #2 started. For some reason I had a little bit more trouble with the cast on for the second sock (I had to start over about 4 times) than I did with the first, but I think I got it once again. I think I’ll do some extra practicing over the next few days, though, so that way I can make sure I remember how to do it.

March 15: Finished the foot and heel of Sock #2.

March 18: And finished Sock #2. The yarn feels a bit stiff and the socks are a bit tight, so I’ve tossed them in the washing machine and will block them, hoping to soften them up.

Pattern: Basic Toe-Up pattern passed out during knitting class
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash in Aran

Drop Stitch Scarf

October 18: I bought this yarn so I could try out some bamboo yarn, but then I wasn’t sure what to do with it. This pattern seemed like a good fit. So far it looks like it does fit pretty well. It’s also a simple pattern and is knitting up pretty quickly.

February 8, 2010: I had put this aside for a good long while but decided to work on it this evening. It’s now at about 29” and I’m estimating that I’m halfway through the skein, so it should turn out to be a good length.

February 22: I’ve been concentrating on this project a lot more lately because I really wanted to finish it. And now it’s done. I think I guessed just about right on how much yarn I had remaining and it turned out to be a pretty nice size (I’ll measure later) so I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. I think this was indeed a good yarn-pattern match.

Pattern: Drop Stitch Scarf by Christine Vogel (available as free download on Ravelry)
Yarn: Farmhouse Yarns Bonnie's Bamboo in Bamboo

Lazy Susan

February 17: Doing a test knit for my friend Emily.

February 20: Finished. Pattern is easy to understand, and my hat came out just fine. Sadly, this style of hat does not look good on me so I shall have to find someone to give it to.

Pattern: Lazy Susan by Emily Nimz (pattern available for free on Ravelry)
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Jewel Blue

For sale in my etsy store: karendawn.etsy.com

Ingenue

January 29: I can’t seem to stop myself from starting new projects instead of finishing projects. But I’ve been really looking forward to knitting a sweater with this yarn and I think this pattern works rather well for the yarn so I wanted to give it a start. I’m really loving the rich colors in the yarn.

January 31: Two skeins used so far. It’s so gorgeous! I’m in awe of the way the colors just blend together.

February 1: The main body is complete (and used almost all of 3 skeins of yarn). Just the sleeves remaining!

February 3: Started the first sleeve. Since my row gauge is a bit off, I’m adding a row or two between each of the decreases and increases to help make up for it.

February 6: Finished the first sleeve. I think it used a bit over half a skein, but I’ll get more precise measurements a little later. I also went ahead and sewed down the neck section so that way I could make sure everything is fitting okay. I hope blocking adds a little length because I’m thinking the body is just a tad bit short, so we’ll see what happens then. But must start and finish the second sleeve before I get there!

February 10: And finished.

Pattern: Ingenue by Wendy Bernard (from Custom Knits)
Yarn: JulieSpins MCN 200 in Cedar

Dolores Park Cowl

February 6: Started as an easy knit for game night. And also finished. The pattern notes said that there would be very little yarn left (and warned about leaving too long a tail at the beginning), but I had several yards remaining at the end. This was my first time knitting with the Chunky Malabrigo. It’s definitely something I’ll use again.



Pattern: Dolores Park Cowl by Parikha Mehta
Yarn: Malabrigo Chunky in Bobby Blue