Category Archives: cast on

Preparing For Christmas Eve

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Christmas is almost upon us and I am once again preparing my family’s Christmas eve boxes! Mostly I get everyone in the family a new set of pajamas and special treat for Christmas eve. I like being able to open an early present. So I wanted to give you a sneak peak inside mine. (My box includes a special Christmas Eve cast on!)

I have a brand spanking new pair of Christmas pajamas, a bottle of wine, and brand new knitting project to start. This year I chose the Arya Shawl by Ambah O’Brien. It’s a two color shawl worked up in DK weight. And I just so happen to have those two coordinating skeins of Chubbs and Squeak in tweed DK from my Portland trip. It seemed just like kismet. Now I just have to wait for Santa to get here!!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Bullseye Vanilla Socks

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My sock needles have been conspicuously empty. I was in need of a simple vanilla project for some travel/meeting knitting so I went rummaging in my stash. I have had this Biscotte Yarns Bis-sock self-striping wound up for way too long. But it was ready to go so I pulled my size 0 needles out and hit the road.

I did manage to do the figure 8 cast on and get some of the toe increases established before leaving the house. I much prefer if this had been been to the “round and round” stage but I’m sure I can manage. The yarn is a pretty thin light fingering with a three ply structure. It has a mix of nylon and merino but I still plan on knitting this at pretty tight gauge to make the socks as hard wearing as possible.

I’m not mad at the speckled sections of this self-striping yarn. I’m interested to see how this next solid/tonal section works out!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: The Weekender

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Okay, here is my second birthday day cast on. I finally cast on the Malabrigo Rios in the Fresco y Seco color that I wound up in my last winding frenzy. I cast on the Weekender by Drea Renee Knits aka Andrea Mowry.

This sweater had a split hem and the front and back is cast on separately. I started the front hem and you guys….I learned the Tubular Cast On. It did take me a lot longer to slow down and learn this. I watched at least three YouTube videos and painstakingly did the first set-up TWICE.

It’s definitely not perfect but I can see how it makes a nice clean edge that seems to come out of now where. I’m hopeful that my second hem is a little neater. I need to work on keeping my gauge consistent across and slipping the correct stitches.

I’m excited to get this sweater going in the round so I can have a nice zen project that can just work endlessly in circles. Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Faded Party Top

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On my actual birthday back in November I used my personal day to stay home and just introvert and knit. It was glorious and I cast on not one but TWO sweaters that day. So I’m going to give you a peak at the first one.

This is going to be the Party Top by AbbyeKnits in my stash of Moonstone Dyeworks Merino DK. I have started with Wild Honey color for the color and the first section of the fade.

I took my measurements and cast on a 40 inch bust size to allow for 2 inches of negative ease on my 42 inch bust. I even put the project in my birthday present knitting bag my family got me from Tanneicasey. With all my travel in November and Thanksgiving chaos I’m not sure I ever showed that to you all.

The bag holds my pattern, yarn and supplies nicely. And this fade even looks lovely just sitting in the bag! I didn’t get very far for two reasons and the first is that twisted rib takes forever for me as I’m a thrower.

And the second reason is that I realized I probably need to gauge swatch if I am going to make a successful sweater. I have two skeins of the Hard Cider so I think I will work from the outside of one ball to make and wash a swatch for gauge. This is a cropped fitted sweater so I best not take any chances…even though I’d rather just be making the sweater.

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Sherwood Forest Wrap

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I might be getting close to the number of time I can mention my birthday trip to Portland before you guys quit this blog so I’m just going to talk about one last thing. I honestly spent more time pre-planning my yarn and travel projects than I did the rest of my suitcase. Which led to some interesting outfit choices during the trip, but I have no regrets!

I was SURE I had settled on casting on a new Sockhead Slouch in some lovely rainbow and grey sock yarn from the Wichita Woolery I got last Winter Woolfest. I had caked it up and pulled the needles and pattern all into a project bag ready to hit the airport. And then literally at the 11th hour I changed my mind. At 10 pm the night before my 4:30 am wake up call I decided to cast on a whole different project, a huge rectangular wrap.

I pulled the skein of Trampoline from KnitCircus in the Sherwood Forest colorway off my shelf where it had been staring at me and I cast on the Pride Wrap by Nicole Tavares. Its a rectangle wrap designed for a 150 gram gradient, which is what my skein was. I literally got the 200 stitches cast on and I worked one row before closing up my suitcase.


I knit on the airplane a little but A LOT just lounging around my friends house. She got me some amazing socks as a birthday present and I thought they paired nicely with my knitting. And I decided to call my wrap the “Sherwood Forest Wrap” after my yarn color instead of the pattern name. I think it has a nice ring to it.

I managed to work the first garter section and start the stockinette section. It takes me awhile to work across a row and back with the large number of stitches so I didn’t make what looks like a big chunk of work. But it was several hours worth for sure!

I was also a little disappointed because the pattern is a paid for pattern (and not an inexpensive amount either) and it has a pretty big booboo in one section of the directions. I am guessing this was not tech edited and I emailed the designer to politely point out my issue. I love this project and I’m not going to give it up. But I’ll see what kind of response I get from the designer before I pass any judgement.

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Four Season Hat

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It was so satisfying finishing my Modified Barley that was made in worsted weight yarn that I decided to put another worsted weight hat back on my needles. I pulled the KnitCircus Ringmaster skein that I got in their grab bag mystery sale. I still had my needles out from the last hat so I cast on 96 stitches and started working 2×2 ribbing in the round.

Well, I didn’t “just” start knitting. This skein of yarn was a prototype for their Four Seasons colorway and it had knots. I found four knots to be exact. So as I hand wound the ball I snipped the knots and used a Russian join to reattach the yarn to itself. My joins aren’t perfect but they will be smoother than the knots!

I pulled out my woolly hand knits and re-loaded my drawers for the Fall. I think I’m good for hats for myself. So this knit will probably go in the the charity or gift pile. It’s sort of machine washable so I feel comfortable setting it free into the world!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Dark Side Socks

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My mojo (in general for life) has been a little low lately I decided I needed a morale boosting project.  So what would be better than a quick win using one of my sock snakes? I pulled the Knit Picks Felici snake in the Dark Side colorway and paired it up with some Cascade Heritage from my stash.

I managed to get the needles inserted and the waste yarn pulled off. I have both 50 gram skeins cranked next to each other with waste yarn in the middle. I think I plan to put a toe at each end of each 50 gram snake. Then I will find the middle and split the tube in half. I can knit two cuffs and then based on the size figure out where I need to place an afterthought heel. I will probably end up with a set of shorties socks. But I am okay with that, I need more of those for my sock drawer! Plus if the plan works then I can do the same to the second 50 gram skein and have a second whole pair of socks!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Modified Barley

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I recently attended an annual conference for one of the professional organizations I belong to. It was two solid days hanging out in ballrooms listening to speakers. I have been knitting a lot on large sweaters lately and didn’t have a ton of “grab and go” knitting available to me. I had to do some stash diving and get something going just for “travel” knitting.

The night before the conference I hand wound a skein of worsted weight yarn and grabbed a set of interchangeable needles. This was a recent purchase of Plymouth Yarn Worsted Merino Superwash in the Lipstick colorway. I managed to establish the ribbing before walking into the first day of lectures. And then I quietly knit in my lap or under the table and this was my progress at the end of two days! I used the basic stitch count and sizing of the Barley hat from Tin Can Knits and just omitted the garter section.

It’s kind of hard to see squished up under the conference table but that is two inches of ribbing and about five inches of hat. I had a new-ish coworker with me and she was duly impressed. I think just a few more evening of knitting time and I will have a hat for my gift stash!

I also attended Schmancy cocktail event on the first night. I couldn’t help but snag a photo of the most grown up thing I have done in a dozen fortnights. I got to enjoy a good glass of red coupled with tasty hor’dourves in a proper bar. And no one wiped their cocktail sauce on me or threw asparagus chunks at me. It was non-mom heaven!!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Autumn League Pullover

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I have had crazy sweater mojo here lately. It’s all I feel drawn to right now. I have a Worsted Boxy on the needles in a neutral colored Berroco yarn. But that didn’t stop me from casting on the Autumn League Pullover by Alexandra Tavel after I saw one being worn by the Jodi of the Grocery Girls podcast.

I printed the free version of the pattern and marked it up for the medium/large size, grabbed some needles and yarn and just started knitting. I pulled some Lion Brand Heartland yarn in the Acadia colorway (that has been in my stash for 5 year) because its a pretty soft 100% acrylic yarn that had the appropriate yardage I needed. It’s basically the same color as my Worsted Boxy. whoops!  I didn’t gauge swatch or pre-plan at all. This could be a total disaster…for real.

Speaking of disaster, did any of you catch the minor disaster in the photo above? When I pulled needles I just grabbed my plastic interchangeable that I have had since 2009. They had the right needles size and cord length so I could cast on right away. Well….these needles have seen better days. And as I was pushing the growing number of stitches around the cord….it came unlocked/un-clicked and I dropped about 25 stitches.

I grabbed a tapestry needle and some scrap yarn and scooped  up those stitches before they could run. I was pleasantly surprised that for 100% acrylic the stitches stayed pretty much put. I got wise after this and dug out my Knit Picks aluminum interchangeable needles and transferred my work to those. I made sure to use the key to tighten the cords.

I’m not sure if changing needle types will change my gauge or not. But after looking at my work I can already see places where I was purling flat that have some noticeable tension/gauge differences that I can see. So what the heck would a few more of those bother? This is comfy sweatshirt style pullover that I probably will just wear around the house. I just really want to be knitting soothing stockinette in the round forever and ever.

I am wondering if I am switching from a product knitter to a process knitter…zounds!!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Progression Shawl

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I have found my zen again. As I wrote yesterday, I frogged my everyday shawl in my Cheshire Cat mini set yarn. Yet another dive down the Ravelry pattern search rabbit hole led me to the Progression Shawl by Carin Risinger.

This pattern is a garter stitch shawl which makes me happy because I was not in the mood to purl after my issues with the everyday shawl. And it’s also incorporated some easy eyelets to add some interest. The Progression Shawl is also asymmetrical and should made a nice long shawl to wrap up cozy in next winter. Not to mention I feel like the garter and eyelets are suited to the heavy variegation in this yarn.

The added bonus to this pattern is the fact that I can adjust the instructions to easily use up all my yarn. Those kinds of details just make my OCD tendencies SUPER happy. I might decide to save out 8-10 grams total of this set to add to my memory blanket. I’ll have to see how the yarn stacks out in this shawl.

Happy Friday and Happy Knitting!!