FO Friday: Brick

Posted on October 18, 2013 by atangledyarn84

Love love love this sweater!! Despite all the ups and downs it came out wonderfully. And after a bath and some drying time it’s ready to wear just in time for fall!

Nice and roomy and I had just enough yarn for the project. Only have a skein left! I used 452 grams or 4 1/2 skeins of Berroco Vintage DK. That’s about 980.8 yards of yarn in one garment! Start to finish I think this garment took about three weeks?

My one complaint is that the sleeves are still pretty loose even with knitting the tapered instructions. As I have said before my arms are not necessarily proportional to the rest of my body, lol. So as I was knitting I noticed the sleeve getting very long and I still have an entire decrease section to do before the ribbing. I measured and confirmed my fears. So I only worked five total decreases in the tapered sleeves with the final decrease having only 8 rows of stockinette following it. This solved my length problem but I feel the sleeves deserved to be tapered more to fit my arms.

I managed to make both sleeves match this alternation. So I didn’t have the heart to rip out and re-do. Besides this is going to be my cozy winter sweater anyway!

P.S. Totally wish I was headed to Rhinebeck and this was my sweater….

TGIF and Happy Knitting!!!

Distraction and Disc Golf

Posted on October 17, 2013 by atangledyarn84

I played a round of disc golf with the husband over last weekend. The hubs is pretty serious about it and I’m terrible. Not to mention the course we played could have doubled for a horror movie set with the abundance of creepy wooded areas.

I kept getting distracted by the foliage and canopies of trees against the brilliant blue sky! The hubs got annoyed. It was a gorgeous October day so we stopped keeping score and just enjoyed the day together.

Here are a few of my favorite snaps from the afternoon…

Gloves For Fall

Posted on October 16, 2013 by atangledyarn84

Due to Columbus Day here in the US, the hubs and I had a three day weekend. Which we turned into a four day weekend with the creatives use of leave time from work. It was a glorious break. I got to snuggle a tiny human, get in 18 holes of disc golf with the hubby (I’ll post pics tomorrow), see my dad’s football team play, eat waaaay too much, and chill out with the family.

I didn’t want to pack around my Brick or Nutmeg sweater, so I grabbed a single skein I had hanging out in my stash, a set of dpns, and a easy fingerless glove pattern.

This some Berroco Vintage DK in a orange-y color way. I think I picked this up a fee years ago in a birthday splurge. I have been wanting to venture more into dpns and small projects.

So I cast on Simple Fingerless Mitts from Tink’s Knits. It is very fiddly for me to get a project started on dpns, but after a few rows I can usually cruise. I managed to finish the first glove and half of the second one over the extended weekend.

Here’s hoping I can finish before the first fall frost!

A Grown Up Sophisticate

Posted on October 15, 2013 by atangledyarn84

Remember the secret project I mentioned I started at my friends wedding? Well, I finally made enough progress to merit an update. Albeit, a small one at that.

After making a few baby sophisticates, I decided I deserved one in my size! This is Sophisticate by Linden Down and will be #38 in my stash-busting efforts. I had just not quite enough Caron Simply Soft in Grey Heather….so I had to hunt down two more skeins in my dye lot. Having conquered that, I grabbed my needles and cast on!

I’m making the medium size and I’m still in the yoke section. I have a feeling that this will feel like it’s taking forever after making the mini size!

Happy Knitting!

A New Life

Posted on October 14, 2013 by atangledyarn84

Pardon me, for today I take a break from crafting to enjoy one of the greatest gifts anyone can make. A new life…

My oldest and dearest friend had a beautiful and amazing little girl this past weekend. I couldn’t stop staring at her angel face and tiny tiny hands. Who knows where those little hands will take her, but I can’t wait to find out!!!

A Special Request Revisted

Posted on October 12, 2013 by atangledyarn84

Earlier this week I completed a very special request for any old friend. While she was thrilled with the results…I felt the need for a few tweaks

I knit a 2×2 ribbed brim instead of the rolled brim
I knit at looser gauge to give the fabric some stretch
I only knit half the required row for the “nipple” portion to make it less “perky” as one other blogger put it, lol

All in all I was happy with the results! Sorry for the i-Phone shots. I finished the hat late one evening in a rush to get both hats in the mail to Momma before she popped. I’m hoping she’ll send me some action shots once the wee one gets here.

I used a smidge more yarn on this one, 63.1 yards or 32 grams. And I made the thing in one night! Not bad for a quickie 🙂

A Brick Update

Posted on October 11, 2013 by atangledyarn84

Huzzah! I have one sleeve complete!! And it’s a pretty one to boot, if I do say so myself! It only took me a couple evenings to finish one sleeve since I picked up at the armholes.

This pattern has tested my patience, but I’m finally feeling in the groove. Here’s hoping I can slog along on the second sleeve and have this sweater ready for a bath by the weekend!

I did have to do some pattern mods to shorten the sleeve. But I’ll wait to finish the second sleeve before I post them. Here’s hoping I can make them match! Apparently I have moderate T-Rex problem when it comes to the length of my arms in relations to my torso. Ugh…

Until then, Happy Knitting!!!

Foiled Again

Posted on October 10, 2013 by atangledyarn84

I’m been on a HUGE sweater kick as the weather is slowly turning to fall. And I have had The Nutmeg Sweater in my Rav queue for a while. I’m pretty close to finishing my Brick sweater do I thought, what the heck and cast on! After all it’s a bulky sweater and will go crazy fast right?

Oh, the knitting hubris. Remember when I had all the trouble with my increases in the body of Brick? I’ve been foiled again!

The pattern didn’t specify what kind of increases to use in the raglan portion of the yoke. And I was in too much of a hurry to check Ravelry notes, so I just clicked along using the backwards loop cast on method. Don’t know why…just did.

After a whole evenings knitting and tv watching I looked down and what did I see but holes at the increases! Now this is black yarn and I’m very pale. Therefore with any stretch these holes will become readily apparent with my skin underneath. Sigh.

To the frog pond I went and ripped back the whole thing. On the next go round I’m going to use the make one left, make one right increases as explained by Twist Collective.

I really should learn faster. This is probably one of those “fool me once and so on” moments. Good thing it’s bulky yarn and I had some chilled wine in the fridge!

This will be Stashbustin’ #37 and I’m using Knit Picks Brava Bulky in black for those who are interested.

I Am The Master Of My Own Knitting

Posted on October 9, 2013 by atangledyarn84

For this WIP Wednesday I give you, Stashbustin’ #33 aka Brick is finally making serious progress!!

After some major frogging and frustration, I think I have conquered the body of my sweater. And being of top down construction, I have tried it on and it fits exactly how I want. It’s loose without being baggy. I’m shooting for a cozy sweater to cuddle up with on weekends this fall/winter.

I have picked up the stitches for one of the arms. And based on the size of the opening and numbers of stitches, I’m definitely going to knit the sleeves with a taper. Otherwise I think they would just be WAY to big and loose. Good news is that I’m going to have enough yarn. Maybe even enough leftover for a small hat?

Happy Knitting

Crafting At A Wedding

Posted on October 8, 2013 by atangledyarn84

My husband was asked to be soloist for a wedding ceremony by some dear friends. While it was a bit breezy in KS for an outdoor wedding, we persevered!! The bride is a fellow actress and fiber artist. So of course she thought of activity books for the wedding reception. I did a little coloring and photography to kill some time after dinner but before the dance.

It was very nice to have a date night with the husband. I even managed a few rows on a new project. Hopefully I have a few more rows complete this week to have enough to share!

My favorite part? The whole wedding part and assorted friends did the Time Warp dance from Rocky Horror Picture Show. I love to going to weddings of theatre people!

The Bride and Groom look so in love and it was a very beautiful day!

My Tangled Yarn Knitting Adventures

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