Tag Archives: dk

Cast On: Free Your Fade

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I have a FO to show you tomorrow and to celebrate I cast on a project I have been thinking about for MONTHS! I finally put my Free Your Fade on the needles!

I finally settled on my One Twisted Tree Lavish in Chaotic Nuetral (grey) followed by Leon Alexander Yarns Duke DK in Oh La La (variegated) and finished by some Anzula Ava in Raspberry (pink).  It’s neutral(ish) with nice pops of colors and should coordinate with my wardrobe really well.

It took me honestly casting on three times to get a product I was happy with. I didn’t like my initial slipped stitches on the edges. Then I messed up the yarn overs on the my second go. But finally this third attempt is looking pretty spiffy! This might quickly become my new obsession…

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: Mood Indigo Sockhead Slouch

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My Mood Indigo Sockhead Slouch is done, with a pom pom on top!

Pattern: Sockhead Slouch Hat by Kelly McClure with mods by amberlindemann

Yarn: Voolenvine Yarns Smitten DK in a OOAK Mood Indigo colorway

Needles: US 2 and US 3s

I managed to use up as much yarn as I dared without risking yarn chicken. I used 93 grams or 215 yards of this DK weight yarn. The resulting hat is a bit snug in my opinion but my husband thought it felt like any other beanie hat. This has 10% cashmere and that doesn’t suck. It’s a lovely next to the face kind of feel. Maybe it could have used 4 to 8 more stitches in the total stitch count.

My favorite part is definitely the pom pom. It’s tonal browns really pair well with the moody hues in the yarn. Its a very light pom pom so it doesn’t feel heavy on my head. The fabric is nicely dense without being stiff and will be yummily warm.

I do wish it was a tiny bit bigger. With the brim rolled it barely covers my ears in addition to its hair flattening tightness. But it’s fine on length when I wear it slouchy style. Overall I’m happy with the hat made with a golden skein from my stash. I mean voolenvine just has the best colors. This will definitely need to be a staple in my winter hat rotation!

Happy Knitting!!

Mood Indigo Decreases

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I am soooo close the end of my Mood Indigo Sockhead Slouch. After complaining last week that it was going slowly I made a point to make this my lunch knitting at work. And miraculously I have most of a hat!

I don’t want to play too much yarn chicken as I’m following someone else’s mods to a pattern that isn’t meant for this yarn or stitch count. So later today I’m going to start the crown decreases and pray to the yarn gods.

But first I’m just going to admire this loveliness and pet the cashmere content goodness!

Happy Knitting!!

Shouldn’t A DK Hat Go Faster?

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Shouldn’t a DK hat go faster? Oh yeah….you have to actually work on it for it grow! This project (Mood Indigo Sockhead Slouch) has been living in my purse and it has wracked up a ton of travel mileage. But now I have put this into my breast pumping/lunch project rotation. And thanks to that I’ve added a little over an inch. Only six more inches of stockinette to go!!

If you have eagle eyes you can spot arandom Dex hair that is ever present on myself and all my things. I’ve become mostly blind to them now!

Happy Knitting!

Past The Ribbing

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This hat might just have to be all renamed my “Continuing Professional Education hat” instead of my Mood Indigo Hat, lol. I have FOUR HOUR governmental accounting standards update webinar this past week. It was about as scintillating as watching paint dry but I had to stay away to answer the polling questions.

And after finishing my Helping Hippos Vanilla Socks, this has become my purse knitting until I have time to cast on a new pair of socks. I’m pretty pleased wit the hat so far. I powered through 5 inches of ribbing without pooling and some nice subtle striping.

I switched from a US 2 needle to a US 3 needle. Which is nice because the US 2s were poking holes in my tender little fingers. Boy howdy do those small needles sizes get pointy!

Happy Knitting!!

Wishful Knitting: Hedgehog Fibers Merino DK

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I keep finding my thoughts drifting to the Merino DK I have in stash from Hedgehog Fibers. I have roughly 650 yards between my grey and blue colorways. I REALLY want this to grow up to be a shawl.

I had originally thought about doing Touchstone by Laura Aylor. But it’s a one color shawl I would have to commit brain cells into converting to two colors in a logical way. So I did some more Ravelry searching and came up with a few more options.

AAACK! Why do I have to have so many options. All of these would be lovely but I don’t have a clear front runner that scream KNIT ME! Perhaps these precious skeins just need to marinate a little longer before they decide what they want to be when they grow up…

Happy Knitting!!

More Conference Knitting

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A couple of weeks ago I attended another professional development conference. (If you haven’t figured it out I have to rack up a ton of CPE hours for my professional certifications each and every year.) This conference was held in a lovely event center that even had a good mother’s room for breastfeeding moms! But the topics weren’t exactly targeted towards this municipal governmental employee. And I was still fighting a terrible cough from the upper respiratory bug that went around my house.

So basically I was bored and miserable. Thank goodness I packed knitting!! I pulled my Mood Indigo sockhead slouch hat out because it was the easiest no-look auto pilot knitting I could lay my hands on. I added maybe 2.5 inches to the brim? This is a DK weight modification to the traditional sock weight sockhead slouch. I probably could have/should have gotten farther but I even had trouble concentrating on ribbing.

But progress is progress! I think I have roughly another inch to go and then it’s stockinette for days! I’m really liking how the colors are spreading out and almost striping? And the cashmere content in the yarn doesn’t hurt either. It’s just about the right kind of meditative knit!

Happy Knitting!!

Preparation

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I have been itching to work on my memory sock yarn blanket. And it’s been pulling all of my knitting focus. But close on its heels is my Northeasterly blanket. I have scraps, needles, pattern and my coned yarn to hold doubled all kitted up in a bag. And after a helpful comment on this blog about coned yarn….I decided to wind off a skein of the white yarn and wash it.

This being for two reasons, one to wash off the spinning grease that is used to manufacture coned yarn and two to see if the yarn blooms and shrinks up. I wouldn’t want wonky fabric after spending so much time knitting a blanket for Pete’s sake! So I stole some quiet time while PB was napping and while hubby and Jellybean were out building a snowman last weekend. I had yarn and a podcast….it was heaven!

I wound off yarn until I felt like I had a decent amount and tied off a skein. Don’t mind the dog hair, it’s just considered extra fiber content in this house. (Dex is blowing his coat yet again and I’m now vacuuming almost daily and still can’t keep up!)

The skein has since had a bath and is drying (slowing) in the laundry room. When sufficiently dry I will wind it into a cake to be ready for blanket knitting! Jellybean seemed keen to work my yarn swift and sad I finished my skein without him. So as a mommy and me project we might make a second skein to wash one of these evenings. We will see if his interest abides ninja figures and magnetic tile building.

Happy Knitting!!

Wishful Knitting: Late To The Fade

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One of my purchases from Winter Woolfest 2019 is already hopping into my knitting queue. The Fade has been around for what seems like forever now and just about every knitter has faded something. I’m not generally a bandwagon knitter and take awhile to come around to a trend. But I have been feeling the pull of Free Your Fade from Andrea Mowry. This is more my speed as it’s only three skeins so not as large of a time commitment as some of the others. I just don’t get enough knitting time to spend months and months on the same thing. I would explode. Plus this shawl comes in Fingering and DK. And I just so happen to have a pretty neat fade in some Sport weight yarn.

From left to right is my One Twisted Tree Lavish sport in the chaotic neutral, followed by the Leon Alexander DK in the Oh La La color and lastly some Anzula Ava sport in the Raspberry color. I think these make a nice shift with a tonal solid on either side with a speckle in the middle. No clue when I will get to this one but I have the pattern purchases and yarn all kitted up together just waiting for the Perfect cast on day.

Happy Knitting

Winter Woolfest 2019

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The Christmas season is over and it’s back to real life. And that real life has involved a lot of germs and coughing around here. So I made sure to take some time away from nursemaid duties and re-charge my batteries a bit. I made a trip over to Wamego, KS for Winter Woolfest 2019!

First I’ll flash all the goodies I found with my Christmas cash. I focused my monies on independent dyers and especially those I haven’t seen before. I grabbed a Little Lamb children’s book with pattern from Melissa Dallke. And four 20 gram mini skeins from her Acorn Willow yarn line for my scrappy blankets. Then I snagged a speckled DK yarn from Leon Alexander in glorious shades of purple. Next up is a dark grey and rainbow-y skein of sock yarn from the Wichita Woolery. It’s called Prism Break and it should micro stripe if I get the gauge right. Finally I finished up at a LYS booth that had several indie dyers. I gravitated to the speckles again. I picked up some Super Sock 4ply from Twisted Owl Fiber Studio in the Razz-ma-tazz color. I listen to their podcast, the Worsted Knitting Podcast when the occasionally drop episode and it’s hilarious. And lastly I picked up some Pebble Sock from Black Trillium Fibers in the Happy Fun Times color. I didn’t go overboard and I was very pleased with my purchases.

It was a beautiful sunny and weirdly warm January day here in Kansas. The attendees were slightly sweltering in their knitwear this year!

This year’s theme was Classic Rock N Roll. It wasn’t quite as cool as last year’s female super hero theme but still adorable.

And this festival has really grown. This place was PACKED by 11 am after the doors opened at 10 am. It was honestly hard to move around and get into most of the booths. This kinda triggers some anxiety in me and was my least favorite part.

P.S. This Wamego is kind of Wizard of Oz themed because they have the Wizard of Oz museum. And the whole town has kind of rolled with it. They have a tulip themed Toto that made me smile!

Happy Knitting!!