UFOs finished and projects in progress

My Hazelwood Sweater is almost ready to wear, just a few buttons to sew on later today!  This one was planned to start over a year ago, but finally got going last September.  Of course, it was set aside off and on, but the ends have been woven in and it's been blocked.  Just some buttons and trimming of ends and it will be ready to wear!!!

I've shown you pictures of the Paris Toujours shawl, but it hadn't been blocked.  Well, now it's blocked and it's HUGE, it grew so much, but I love it!  This one is a cotton and wool blend, so I may end up wearing it year round, since it gets cool in the summer evenings.  (Just for a size comparison, those pads I'm blocking it on are made of four 2' x 2' squares, and it is almost 8' wide!)

Have swatched for a couple sweaters (shown above with the shawl and also below), but am really trying to finish up more UFOs before starting either one, however, they're really, really tempting!  The brown swatch is for Amy Herzog's Options Rowan Sweater KAL and will be striped with an off white and coral pink, just like her sample.   The magenta swatch is still under consideration, since I'm waffling between a summer cardigan (Basia) and 3/4 sleeved top (Turks and Calicos), since it's a summer yarn.  Since I really want to try Custom Fit patterns, I've been thinking I could merge Charlie's Cardigan in Custom fit measurements for me with the Basia pattern.

Some handspun yarns have been washed and now feel wonderful and ready to  knit with!   This one is definitely going to be a cowl!

Sam's wedding shawl is almost ready to start the lower edging.  It mostly looks like a pink blob with beads on the needles right now, but if I spread out a little area, the design has really taken shape and I can't wait to finish it!  The pattern is Sweet Dreams.

I've been following The Splendid Sampler quilt-a-long posts and planning to start making blocks.  If you follow them, you'll be able to get all the patterns while it is in progress, but after the quilt a long is over, the blocks will be published in a book by my publisher, Martingale / That Patchwork Place, so if you miss any, you'll still be able to finish your quilt!  Some of the block designers (not sure how many) are also making other quilt designs with the blocks and I believe  at least some of those designs will be included in the book when it is published.  So far, I have been collecting patterns and fabric, with hopes to start making blocks soon!

Of course, I couldn't decide to make one sampler quilt, I also fell in love with the charm of Lori Holt's Bloom quilt and bought a kit so I could start it right away!   She's doing a sew-a-long on her blog.   All the pieces are cut out, except the outer border, because I'm thinking of changing it a bit and have purchased more of one of the coordinating prints.   Hopefully, later today I'll start preparing the applique pieces and basting them on the blocks (am waiting for fabric to arrive for some of the stems, and am hoping it arrives soon).

Knitting, Spinning, and Quilting too!

Last night I finished knitting a Paris Toujours shawl!  It's a wool / cotton blend that is light, soft and fluffy, and I'm hoping will be comfortable not only in the winter, but also on cool winter evenings.

Before Thanksgiving, I finished spinning this Waterlilies roving from The Yarn Wench on Etsy.  Since I had two braids, I combined them and chain plyed, to keep the color changes as clean as possible.  It still needs to be wet finished (soaked and dried), but love how it came out.

After Thanksgiving, the spinning wheel was out, along with braid of wool called Young and Old from Three Waters Farm.  It looked like this while it was being spun:

and this once it was chain plyed:

In 2010, Bunny Hill Designs was doing the Snowbound Block of the Month on her  design, and although I was able to keep up with it for a while, I did fall behind, put it away, and have just pulled it out again.  (If you remember, my book was released in October, 2010, so it was a busy year!)  If I keep working on it, it should be finished in time to hang before Christmas next year.

That's it for now....

This past year in knitting and more, part 2

Another shawl (Haley's Comet), this one for a friend:

Yet another shawl (Ashburn) for a friend:

Another hat (Rainy Tuesdays) for my hubby (it's really more blue):

My Peak color cowl is knit, but still needs blocked.  At least I have a modeled picture for this one:-)

This one was given to a friend earlier this year, but I forgot to post a picture, it's the 2015 WestKnits Mystery Shawl:

Our dogs have long hair, so no knitting for them, but one of our sons has a whippet who is always cold, so she was measured and this is my first time knitting a dog garment, so I'm amazed it fits!

Also finished another hat for me, just a quick one:

Knitting, soaping and more...

It's been a busy year and since my last post, much time has been spent baking loads of Christmas cookies that were gifted, making gifts and other secret things that can now be unveiled since they've been gifted, mailed, or wrapped, waiting for a belated exchange!  This post only has the hand knits, since there were many this year.  I'll have to do another with the handmade skin care items that were gifted to others.

An Antler Hat for my hubby:

A cowl (Snowshoe) for a sister:

Apparently, in my haste, I neglected to photograph the cowl for my other sister:-(  At least it was finished and shipped in time!  It is a Brain Frieze cowl.

My future daughter-in-law received several hand knits:

a Nora G. cowl,

Shallows cowl (sorry, this one was also taken while blocking, but the best one I have),

and the SknitsB Mysterie cowl:

An Autumn Blush shawl for Tammy (this was while it was blocking):

More to come, as I had to chop this post in half, because it refused to publish.  Crossing my fingers it works this time!

Pink Applesauce and more!

Yep, my applesauce really did come out pink!  It's a blend of pink fleshed and white fleshed apples from our trees, and we ended up with 18 jars!!!.

Now we don't just have apple trees, we have a variety of different fruits, but they're really just baby trees that are starting to produce more than we can eat fresh, so I have to find more ways to use and preserve them. Before making the applesauce above,  The pears were getting way too ripe, so I made spiced pear butter and spiced pear sauce, and before that it was the pickles, so the cupboard is getting filled up!

Today was the day to make something with Asian pears, so I tried the recipe - Asian Pears in Honey Syrup from The Joy of Jams, Jellies and other Sweet Preserves.  A couple ginger slices are at the bottom of each jar and the syrup has not just honey in it, but also lemon, so it's not too sweet and there's plenty of lemon flavor in there.  We'll let these sit a little while to soak up some of the ginger flavor and then they'll be ready (of course, they're ready now, but time will blend the flavors better).  After two batches, there are now eight quart jars cooling on the counter!

Have a bit of cast-on-itis, since this month is Plucktober, celebrating Plucky yarns in their Ravelry group.  Of course I had already picked out about four projects to work on, but then some people started making cute sheep hats and I had to make one too!  It's called the Baa-ble Hat.

Knitting projects finished up!

For some reason, little finishing details tend to bog me down.  Projects get almost done, but need things like ends woven in, stitches picked up so an edging can be knit, hems, blocking... the list goes on.  In an effort to have less UFOs hanging around (I have sooooo many projects), I've been actively trying to get some finished and making progress!

Capall Dubh finally got it's buttons sewn on:

Bartender's Choice Mitts, to keep hands warm:

Ring of Kerry cowl:

Dessigne-moi un Mouton pullover is so cozy:

Trying to finish Beach Walk (a shrug with lacy details down the center back and just above the ribbed cuffs), Am over halfway finished and if I keep at it, maybe I can finish it soon!

Summer Moon Shawl is finished!

It's all pinned out - and it's quite a large shawl!  This time, I'm going to spritz it with a mixture of water with a bit of  Eucalan wool wash (this is usually what I use to soak my finished knits in).   It will be an experiment, but I've been reading that many knitters do this and thought it was worth a try.  The reason it isn't spritzed yet, is lack of a large spray bottle to put the mix in, so I'll pick one up when I'm at the store (the little ones I have available would take forever and probably make my finger sore).  At least it's ready to go, and all spread out so I could take these pictures!

Here's another picture:

In my last post, I was trying to get the post finished and entered in the soap challenge, but I missed the deadline by seconds!!!  The reason I know it's seconds, is that I saw the entry button, with directions, but wanted to open another window so I'd have the instructions ready if needed, and in that short time, the entry window closed.  So I'm going with the motto "try, try again" and planning to try again next month!

Trapeze KAL clue 3

Since this summer has been spent with lots of time on the road, not much quilting or sewing has been done and I'm starting to feel withdrawal symptoms - must get back to my machine!

I've been participating in the Trapeze shawl KAL (knit-a-long) for several weeks now and we are on clue3.  On week one we knit one of these trapezoid shapes, then we had two weeks for clue 2, which was to make two more of the same shape, placing our stitches on colored yarn that was different for each one.  This week's clue started putting them together with the lace triangle in between two of the trapezoids, that we have also been calling things.  It's interesting to watch the knitting take shape, and I'm guessing that the next clue will be another triangle which is a mirror image of this week's triangle, that will connect the remaining piece we have knit.  From there, who knows, but I'll venture a guess we'll move on to adding a border.

Penumbra scarf finished!

Well, almost.  You've heard the phrase "haste makes waste", well, it's true!  I was the first of the group to finish knitting.  Brought it home and soaked it, so I could block it into shape, and as I was patting it out, I found a boo boo:-(  Unfortunately, it happened when I was only about 1/4 into the shawl depth, so I'm just going to have to darn it and hope no one notices when I'm wearing it, because there is no way I'm going to tear it all out at this point!  The only other thing left to do is weave in the ends and it will be ready to wear.

The big picture:

As you can see it's really long, so I'll be able to wrap it around my neck more than once!  Here's what it looks like up close:

Knitting with Beads

About a month ago, I decided to join the Mezzaluna Club that Sivia Harding was doing.  (Here's the Ravelry link.)  I'm only getting the patterns, then choosing my own yarn / beads from my yarn / bead stash, and am loving the first installment!  Last week, she sent us the first pattern and shipped yarn and beads to those who have signed up for the pattern and kits.  For those of us not receiving kits, she had given us  approximate supply lists so that we could search for yarn and beads that would work.  It was difficult to make a final decision before seeing the design, so I had pulled out a few choices.  Once I saw a picture of the yarn that was in the kits, I decided on a beautiful, varigated blue Ella Rae sock yarn.

This first design is called Penumbra, and it's beautiful!  When I saw the pattern, I just had to start knitting, and with the long holiday weekend, was able to get quite a lot done.  Just finished row 70, and only have 6 more pattern rows to go!  The needles aren't long enough to spread it out, so I did my best to take a picture of the center, and then one a little closer.  Hopefully you'll be able to see all the beautiful beads.

Mystery socks - finished!

Originally, I had hoped to finish these in time to wear for Valentine's Day, but better late than never!

Pattern is the January 2012 Mystery Sock from Through the Loops.

Another Madrona sample finished

It didn't turn out quite like I had planned, but I learned so much while knitting this sample.  I had wanted it to be more rounded, so I should have done short rows that began and ended on both sides of the knit rows, instead of only short rows on the outside.  Although the outer edge curled under as it should have, it is much flatter.  I bet a smaller version of this would look like a flower if it was used as an embellishment with a button in the center.

Live and learn...

Madrona

Classes usually require preparation before and finishing up afterwards, no matter whether it's a class I'm teaching or taking, and the Madrona classes were no different, although they are much smaller, because most were either very small sample projects or technique samples.  

I learned so much in the Spinning for Arans class with Carol Rhodes!  It was the first time I've used hand cards to card wool and make rolags to spin.  While I still need a lot of practice, I was able to spin some yarn and finish the sampler.  The light colored part is knit with the yarn I spun in class, which was a blend of Coopworth and Cheviot wool.  Its more lumpy and bumpy because my rolags weren't the best (definitely more practice needed).  The upper, darker yarn was spun from roving that I was given, and I really like both the yarn and knit sample better.  It has more stitch definition and I was able to spin a better yarn from the roving.  All samples are 3-ply.

The next day, I took a Jazzknitting class from Ilisha Helfman, and ended up purchasing her book Jazzknitting An Introduction so that I'd be able to bring all the techniques and inspirational pictures of her work home with me. She works with hand dyed yarns, isolating certain colors in areas of the knitting, instead of knitting a pattern and ignoring the color change in the yarn.  If you'd like to see her work, her website is here.

Our first project was a Ginko leaf.  We used short rows to create the shape and texture of a leaf, and everyone's leaves came out beautifully different, due to differences in our yarn and knitting.  My first leaf was knit with Koigu KPPN yarn:

As you can probably guess, some in the class were very fast knitters and knit more than one, but I was happy to have started a second leaf with a different yarn, so I could see the difference with it.  This leaf is being knit with leftover sock yarn from Blue Moon Fiberarts, and I enjoyed both the color repeats in the yarn as well as the feel, so plan to finish this sample soon.

She called the next shape an Echinus shape and I should have asked the spelling, as it is not in her book, but   is supposed to be included in the next one.  All of her designs have infinite possibilities, are very organic and beautiful!  She had some samples that looked like sea urchins, so I thought I'd try to head in that direction, but won't really know how it will work out until I sew the ends together and see how I did.

In Season Socks - Finished!

Yep, they're finished!!!

In Season Socks in Progress

In 2009, I took part in the Rockin' Sock Club at Blue Moon Fiber Arts.  At the time I joined the group, I was hoping I'd be able to keep up with the group, beginning the first sock as soon as the kit arrived, and then getting behind the first month (yes, it's still a UFO, but now it's back in the "active" pile),  Now I have kits that I can grab when I would like to start a new pair, which came in handy a couple weeks ago.  I had taken the red socks with me to work on, but the car got stranded because of ice and we only dared to carry our necessary items and groceries from the car.  The nice thing about that, was that it made me grab a bag and start these socks:

I'm not that fast a knitter, but these are a relatively quick knit for me, as the first sock was finished in a little over a week!  Now I don't want to go back to the red socks until they're finished, so I try to work on them at least a little every day.

TTL mystery sock 2012 - spoiler alert!

Last year I finally finished the 2010 mystery sock (only took me 2 years, because I set it aside for a while), but this year I joined the 2012 TTL mystery sock group in the Through the Loops group on Ravelry, and am trying to keep up with the weekly clues to make a pair of socks in a month. This is not an easy feat, as they're being worked on between other things (like bookkeeping in time for taxes - yuk!).  Not doing too badly, since I've got both socks in progress at the same time, one is ready for the next clue and the other is getting there - maybe it'll make it too.  If not, she said the next clue will be the heel, so will give us time to catch up before starting the foot.  It's a challenging pattern, but beautiful, and I've taken the liberty of exchanging beads in place of the bobbles in her design, since I've never done them before, and want my socks finished asap, because I'd really love to be able to wear them to the Madrona Fiber Arts spinning class that I'm taking next month!  Well, here's what I've knit so far...