Tag Archives: garter

Habitation Throw Halfway

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My Habitation Throw is over halfway now. I finally got to where it looked good enough for me and I started decreasing.This thing is really screaming through my scraps! I have gone through a good amount of my coned solid white yarn and I had to pull some bigger used skeins out of my stash as I was working the long middle sections.

My widest point is the peachy/pink section. I am now having to strategize with my remaining scraps. I want to make sure the colors look good adjacent to one another but that I will also have roughly enough to do an entire repeat of garter and eyelets. That’s just my personal brand of crazy.

I still have a ton scraps in my bag. And I’ve pulled some DEEP stash skeins of sock blanks and Joann’s sock yarn just in case I need some longer sections. This blanket has literally consumed all my knitting time. I don’t want to work on anything else right now.

Do you have a project obsession?

Can’t Stop Won’t Stop

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My favorite project right now is still my Hibernation Throw. It’s just so fun to watch the colors develop as I add new scraps. Plus it’s extra satisfying when one of these section uses up every last bit of yarn. It makes this knitters heart happy!

I’m still increasing in the pattern and since I’m heavily modifying the pattern I’m not sure when to stop. I might see how many larger sized scrap balls I have left so I can work until I have enough to get to a middle point and then have enough to account for the larger decrease sections as I work down.

I have been kind of monitoring my colors and changing every eyelet row if I haven’t already run out of yarn. This has made my color blocks uniform-ish in size and makes the fabric look intentionally scrappy. My symmetry loving brain really likes this. Though it does mean that some of scraps are used up and I still have little balls leftover.

Happy Knitting!!

Blocking Arya

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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!!

Ready for Blocking

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My memory was better than we thought. I was correct in assuming I was in the decrease section of the Arya shawl last we spoke. And I have since zoomed through the last of the pattern. The pattern was really nicely done by Ambah O’brien as it always was giving me stitch counts on either side of the CDD. This really helped me from letting my spine wander back and forth when I inevitably made errors.

All my ends are woven in and she’s ready for her bath. It looks quite small just scrunched up on my floor. But based on how I can stretch and pull the fabric I can really see this growing with wet blocking. I may have to get creative with blocking mats with as long as skinny as this is…

Happy Knitting!!

Arya Shawl Update

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My Arya shawl has been seeing progress in fits and spurts. I am through the third slip stitch color change. And if memory serves this is where the shawl starts getting smaller? I am going to challenge myself to keep working on this so I can have a new shawl before spring gets here!

This fabric I’m creating has a lot of stretch to it so I can see where I might end up with a lovely and huge squishy shawl. I’m going to have more than enough yarn in each color to finish. But I don’t think I have enough leftover to do much of a second project. I just love how these yarns are playing together. I am really hoping this becomes a wardrobe staple for me.

Happy Knitting!!

Darn Counting Anyway

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I am an accountant and I have the degrees and fancy certificate to prove it. But oh man, did I have a fail at counting. I have been religiously knitting away on my Hibernation Throw. And last night I looked down and swore a little. (Okay, a lot)

I had knit right past where I was supposed to add the next eyelet row. I failed to count to where I had five garter bumps. I was watching TV and the show must have really captured me because I was on auto-pilot. I do have the pattern memorized….I just lost count. I had added two extra garter bumps in my delirium.

I think I’m going to grab some smaller needles and thread in a lifeline to rip back. I just randomly grabbed US 10s when I hastily cast on this blanket. The fabric seems nice so I’m glad I made a lucky guess. But I think I’ll find some US 3s or 4s to thread in and see if I can rescue this without tinking two yarns held together.

I’m still over the moon with project because I love to see all the stripes forming AND seeing my scrap bin shrinking and shrinking. I just wish I could have remember to count, darn it!!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Habitation Throw

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I have been seeing Helen Stewart’s Habitation Throw show up everywhere this holiday season on all the social medias and podcasts. Everyone was making them with their advent mini skeins. That didn’t really feel like what I wanted to do. But I couldn’t get this pattern out of my mind even though I have a ton of WIPs to be working on.

Finally I had a light bulb, I could hold my fingering weight scraps together with the giant cone of Valley Yarns Franklin Natural that I have. It a sock weight yarn on a cone with 6,000+ yards I had intended for my Northeasterly blanket. The Northeasterly blanket has not gone anywhere but I liked the idea of an easier marled blanket reinvigorated my blanket mojo.

Essentially this is a marled DK weight blanket. I had a little trouble getting the I-cord cast one set up but I managed and now zooming. And I’m ADDICTED, I can’t put this down and it’s all I want to knit. It’s corner to corner construction so I am just knitting until I feel it’s wide enough and then decreasing then. So I’m hacking the pattern a bit.

I’m just pulling scraps from bin and knitting until they are gone. I am also spit splicing the yarns together so I won’t have any ends to weave in. There has been some effort on my part to manage the colors. I don’t have a plan but I am trying for “planned randomness” and that the adjacent colors don’t look hideous next to one another.

Happy Knitting!!

Arya Colors

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As promised, here is the second color section of my Arya Shawl. I have found this to be my “reward” knitting of late. It is busy season for this accountant at work so I come home pretty much wiped out. And so in the quiet of the evening I have been reaching for this project to work on. I may only have time for a few rows before I fall asleep but with DK weight yarn it shows the progress quickly. The shawl looks less thong like now.

I’m super late the party with the grellow color combination. But I’m really loving the grey and yellow contrast. But with this Chubbs and Squeak yarn also being a tweed yarn there is a consistent element flowing throughout. I’m still not 100% proficient on my CCD or centered double decreases and I have to fudge them sometimes to keep my stitch counts correct. But hey, this is garter stitch so it’s very forgiving!

My favorite of favorite parts so far? The mosaic slipped stitch color work portion that transitions between the two colors. it just makes my heart happy!

Happy knitting!!

Wool and Waves Progress

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Since re-configuring the order of my Cornbread and Honey mini skeins I have been encouraged to pick up my Wool and Waves more. I have now added in the second mini skein. I did make the executive decision to not finish the first full mini and to add the second mini at a strategic place in the pattern. I might save a little from each mini to add to my memory blanket…who knows! I also chose to fade in the color ala Andrea Mowry so that this first color change wouldn’t be so stark.

I did make one sobering realization after adding the second mini. Since I was adapting the pattern to fit my needs I hadn’t really read the pattern in detail. I am pretty sure after a more careful examination that this pattern calls for yarn held double. And I’m only using one strand so the yardage the pattern calls for might be wildly different from how I’m using it. Meaning, I possibly wont’ get through all my colors.

The shawl is still very pretty and I have decided to roll with it. I’m already adapting the pattern anyway I will just see where my yardage takes me and I will figure it out when I get there!

Happy Knitting!!

Advent Reconfigured

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I kind of hit stopping point on my Wool and Waves shawl. I just found myself staring at the minis as they dyer had ordered them. Something was niggling away at the back of my brain that made me not want to pick up this project. I will also note that my knitting mojo has kind of taken a hit post-holidays. I think between festivities and three rounds of the stomach virus through my house….this girl is just tired.

But I digress, pictured below is the order the dyer intended. I just don’t like the brown speckled skein in 8th position. And I think the two blue/teal skeins before it should be reversed. It was at this point that I realized I’m the boss of my own knitting and I can do as I darn well please.

So I reorganized like this…..

I think the colors achieve the fade much more like I really want. Each mini has an aspect of the skein before and after it. And I feel like I’m reengaged with this project and ready to knit more. Time will tell…..I’m also addicted to my Christmas Eve cast on. There’s only so many minutes this working momma has to knit in a given day so it’s hard choices all around.

Happy Knitting!!