FO Wednesday

Instead of my usual WIP Wednesday, I’ll show you some Finished Objects for once. My latest two finished knits were accessories, knit in thicker yarn and bigger needles than my usual socks.

Back in September I knit a Stacked Eyelet Cowl. It took me just a few days to finish it and I’ve been wearing it pretty much non stop since then. I used just over one skein of Mirasol Yarn Chirapa and knit 20 rounds between each eyelet row. I will definitely be knitting more of these… One in every color! I find cowls really nice to wear, and they take so much less time to knit then scarves!

Details here on Ravelry.

My next FO was for DH. I knit him the Turn A Square hat by Jared Flood. I had some issues with the carrying the yarns on the inside and the tension in the same area but overall, the hat is a much better success than the latest hat I knit for DH. He likes it and has been wearing it since it’s been done. I’ve enough yarn to knit him one, maybe two hats, so I’ll probably do that sometimes this fall.

Ravelry details here.

Hopefully more FOs next week!

There is progress

Just  a quick post to show you my two current WIPs:

The first one is the Marigold socks, sock #1. I knit the heel and am now on the leg. It should go pretty fast from there. Each repeat goes quite fast and is fun to knit. The yarn, Madelinetosh Sock in Chamomile is a pleasure to knit with and even DH thought the color was awesome!

My second WIP is the Stacked Eyelet Cowl in Marisol Yarn Chirapa in Crystal Ocean. I had a few colorways to pick from and couldn’t make up my mind. I always show DH and ask him which he likes best and he picked that colorway. Blue’s not my usual color so I said “why not”! This cowl is one that’s been in my queue for a little bit. And it’s perfect for the Chirapa. I’m knitting it on a bigger size than recommended (my 5s are busy elsewhere, I’m not sure) so I cast on for 10 less stitches than the pattern recommended. I’m quite pleased with the size, this cowl is not going to be too big like the Silk Garden Sock cowl I finished a while ago. (Ravelry details)

Are those finished objects?

I finished two of my projects in the last couple weeks. I did try to knit less because of my wrist, which is feeling better, especially after a long weekend, but I couldn’t stop myself entirely from knitting. So I finished the Country Kiddie top by Pixie Purl and a pair of socks.

Country Kiddie was knit with just under 1 ball of Jojoland Melody Superwash (Ravelry details). It’s a little smaller I think than the smallest size, although it stretches quite a bit. It will definitely fit a newborn baby up to a 2 or 3 months probably.  I knit this along with a bunch of other projects so it took me 3 weeks to finish it. This little top is a pleasure to knit and I will definitely be knitting more of these in various sock yarns. It’s definitely perfect for sock yarn leftovers, of which I have more than plenty.

The socks I finished are the Tipsy Socks by Gina House (Ravelry details). They were knit in Sleeping Dragon sport weight in the Mossy Frog colorway. They will be nice and warm for wearing this fall and winter.

It took me a bit under 2 months to knit them. I really wanted to have at least this pair finished by the end of the August (they were finished exactly on August 31st). These socks were easy to knit, I think that I’ll probably knit them again when I’m in need of an easy pattern. Next time I try it though, I’ll use a sock yarn with more color definition so that the slipped stitches are more in evidence.

Since I finished this pair I’ve been working on finishing up my first Marigold sock and I cast on for another cowl, the Stacked Eyelet Cowl by Sour Cherries. I’ll be showing those to you in another post!

Noro-licious!

In the last few months I’ve had the chance not only to knit with the new Kureyon Sock but with the new Silk Garden Sock also.  My experience with Noro started very early in my knitting career.  My third ever scarf was knit out of Silk Garden, in seed stitch. I had the most horrible time with this yarn. I think I had particularly bad skeins as the yarn kept on breaking. I didn’t find out about split-splicing until almost the end of the scarf, so the amount of ends to weave in was ridiculous. Also, I think I ended up using about  4 or 5 balls all told for the scarf. It still ended up being a pretty nice scarf and I gave it to my MIL for her birthday.

Later I used some Noro Kureyon for a felted bag, Kemp by Jane Ellison.

Both these patterns were knit in 2006 and in 2007, I knit the Fake Isle Hat as part of Fair-Isle February. Since then I hadn’t knit anything out of Noro, until the day Noro Kureyon Sock came out.

At the beginning of May I cast on for plain stockinette socks out of the colorway 185. A couple days ago I finished knitting the second sock. The socks match almost perfectly, just a slight shift in the cuff area. I love how these socks came out and look forward to wearing them in the Fall!

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A few weeks ago, Silk Garden Sock became available and I promptly grabbed a skein for myself. You already know that I decided to knit something else than socks with it and that I started working on a cowl. Well the cowl has been done for a while and, although it is a bit on the large size, as you’ll see in the pictures, it will be well worn once it becomes cool enough to do so.

In this picture you can see it right side out. It’s gathered around my neck so you can’t see the size so well.

In this picture you can see the cowl inside out, purl side showing.

You can also get a better idea on how big it is! I think that a shawl pin or something like that will be the solution to keeping it closed once the cold starts again. Maybe even something to buy at Rhinebeck in October…

I hope you enjoyed this trip to my history with Noro. There were tangles, there were knots but mostly there were beautiful colors and beautiful stripes. I’m definitely looking forward to working with the Silk Garden again, both in the worsted and the sock weight, maybe the Lite too. And I’m sure that more Kureyon Sock will find its way in the stash someday also.

Not a sock

The last few days have been spent sewing and knitting. And I haven’t been knitting socks… Can you believe that!

On Friday I had the chance to start working with the new Noro Silk Garden Sock and for some strange reason I decided to not knit socks with it. I chose the color 84, which is the color of Silk Garden I wanted to knit Lady Eleanor with, but never got around to finding the yarn for.

So instead of knitting socks I decided to knit a cowl. Yes, a cowl. Ever since cowl-mania started around blogland and everyone was knitting them, I’d been wanting to knit my own but just never got around to it. The Silk Garden Sock was just perfect for one. I had an idea of what I wanted so I browsed around Ravelry looking for the perfect pattern. I didn’t really find what I was looking for but was inspired by the Pashmina Cowl from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts and just made up my own pattern.  I cast on and started knitting, some stockinette, some garter ridges, more stockinette and more garter ridges.

I have 2 or 3 inches to go until I’m done with my cowl and I really love it. I realize now that I might have made the cowl a bit too large, but after finding the Cowl group on Ravelry and reading about a cowl’s perfect size, I think I’ve found a solution.

This last picture is as of yesterday and I have a few more inches done on it now. I expect that I will have it done tomorrow or the next day. The wonders of knitting on US 7, I had forgotten what it was like…

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