My knitting mojo has seen a little hiccup as I have been busting out home improvement projects lately. I’m still working on my DK Ripple Bralet as a wind down before bed project.
I am through 1×1 twisted rib and into the ribbed body. I needed to determine how far I was into the body but I didn’t have a knitting tape measure. But luckily my home improvement jag had a real deal tape measure laying around. Any tape measure will do right?
I got a wild hair this past week and decided to make a Ripple Brawlet DK in some precious Chromatic Yarns DK from my stash. I bought the pattern, skein-ed my yarn, kitted up a project bag and accessories. I was full of enthusiasm and cast-on-itis so I jumped right into the pattern. I then came to a screeching halt as the pattern called for an Old Norwegian Cast on. I don’t know how to do that one and after an hour on YouTube and complete concentration in a kid free environment…I had five stinking stitches.
I used many tutorials including the “slow” version by Very Pink Knits YouTube channel. I just couldn’t make it click with my brain and my hands. I really want to start this project so I think I’m going to use an alternate cast on that is also stretchy. I will learn the Old Norwegian Cast on someday….today is just not that day!
My Radiate pullover is swimming right along. I’m several inches into the body with lots of zen round and round knitting.
The pattern calls for 14 inches of body and I haven’t measured to see how far I am. The pattern also called for waist decreases and increases. My midsection after two babies is less shaped that it used to be so I’m omitting the shaping and just knitting straight down.
I think I’ll try it on when I get close to 14 inches and see how it looks. Both these yarns are super-wash so I know i’ll get some stretch. But I like a nice long sweatshirt length sweater in my garments. Next up for this one is sleeve island. I think I will use my Chia Goo interchangeable needles to knit the sleeves in the round.
Thanks to the long holiday weekend and lots of grandparent babysitting, I managed to knit through the yoke of my Radiate sweater and split for sleeves.
I even slipped on an extra knitting needles and tried this sweater on. Even unblocked it falls appropriately in all the places. The neck was higher than I anticipated but other wise the bust and armscye fits nicely. I’ll have to be careful with blocking this super wash yarn so that I don’t make it too big.
Now I have like 14 to 17 inches of sweater body to knit. Lots of round and round in stockinette! Happy Knitting!!
My Weekender is dry and the cuffs finished and I have a huge FO Friday post ready for this week. But my garment mojo won’t be subdued. I had some DK yarn already skeined up from Treasure Goddess Yarns and Hedgehog Fibers to make the Radiate by Jojo Locatelli.
I decided not to tempt fate, so I made a swatch. I even made it proper sized! My four inch swatch worked over US 6s got me REALLY close to gauge. I’m one stitch too many but I adore the fabric feel. If I knit any looser then you will be able to see through the fabric. So I’m going to keep my needle size and go down a pattern size and accept a little less ease than it was designed for.
I’ll also have to watch my row gauge. I had easily two extra rows compared to pattern gauge. Radiate is a top down yoked sweater so I’ll need to try it on after I split for sleeves to see if it’s too deep across the chest and armpits. I am more than prepared that I will have to rip back to make it fit. But I’d rather have a well fitting sweater!
I’m calling it….I’m frogging the TINY neck band for my Party Top. And this isn’t an April fools joke.
I just can’t pick this up to knit on it so there’s no sense in just letting it sit. I have had this on the needles since November…that is just too long. I still love this yarn and want it to turn it into something (its Moonstone Dyeworks DK in three coordinating colors). I also still want to make this top…but I think I have yarn in my stash that would be better suited to it.
I have found some clarity in my knitting lately and I feel in a much better place to “finish” or “frog” it. I want to work on things I will wear and want. No sense in forcing a project just because it is sitting there.
I am thinking a nice big squishy shawl would be great for this yarn. Maybe with these colors striped or faded? Time to dig into Ravelry!!
Spring is around the corner and I have a finished Hibernation Throw! Seems appropriate to be “coming out of hibernation” from winter and to have finished this project.
Yarn: Valley Yarns Franklin Natural coned sock yarn and all the fingering weight scraps from my stash
Mods: I modified this pattern for DK weight yarn (fingering held double) to make a scrappy marled version of this blanket.
This project just ticked all the boxes for me and I’m almost tempted to cast on another one! It was very to memorize and easy to read where I was when I put it down mid repeat. It used up a TON of scraps from my stash. When I weighed this behemoth it weighed 822 grams. Based on some maths I did based on the average sock yarn statistics….this blanket used rough 3,300 yards of yarn!
And I finished this in about a month and a half. That is lighting speed for me and a blanket. But I will fully admit that this became a knitting obsession and I didn’t really work on much else for that period. I did notice that when I was taking FO photos that my blanket is not perfectly square. I found that at multiple times I had to fudge my decreases on the last half because I didn’t have the right number of stitches. I’m pretty confident that this led to the last half being slightly bigger than the first half.
But I don’t care, I have a new snuggly blanket that is 100% mommy’s and no one else can use it without permission! Happy Knitting!!
You guys….my DK Hibernation Throw is sooooo close to being done. I’m definitely using up the smaller and smaller scrap balls now. And the rows are going much faster. Based on what I can cover up with while knitting, I think this should be a good one person lap throw.
It still feels a little “rustic” to the touch thanks to the Franklin Valley Yarns undyed sock yarn I’m holding double throughout. It might soften with washing but I’m not sure I want to wash the blanket right away. I know for a fact some of the yarns I used will bleed. And I sort of want it to be just so…at least until the first time my kids spill on it.
Welcome to my newest creative blocking solution. And forgive the three baskets of clean laundry to fold. I honestly said screw it and picked up my knitting instead! The Arya shawl did not disappoint when it came to blocking. I would say it opened up nicely…I mean it covers the entire back of my sofa!
I didn’t use any pins or wires on this one. Honestly, it was 9 pm and night and I just wanted to be done. But also, it grew just fine by pulling and stretching it by hand that I didn’t really need it any bigger. And my couches are scotch guarded (hello two small kids) and it dried over night just fine!
I just need to clip the last of the ends and take some FO shots of this beauty! Happy Knitting!!
My Tangled Yarn Knitting Adventures 