Some 2 weeks ago there was a little family gathering/party at my parents place and the weather was just perfect for me to wear my Pebble Beach Shawl. I got some really nice compliments with a lot of people being surprised this was knitting rather than crochet. Especially my aunt and grandmother expressed how much they loved it and actually wouldn’t mind at all if I happened to make them one. I’m always happy to give something back to these amazing people, so it was time for me to, for the first time this year, cast on some selfless knits.

In 2014 I apparently knit 7 projects that were gifted, so far in 2015 I have knit.. 0 gifts. Woops! Part of that is also because I got such a big knitting dip after my cat died, so overall I’ll have a lot less projects done. But no more excuses, I should do something nice for the people I love!

Knitting the pebble beach shawl a total of 3 times seemed a bit overkill to me, so I’ve decided to make the Henslowe pattern for my grandmother, in this lovely old pink Araucania Botany Lace that I bought last summer. I’m actually leaving for a long holiday next weekend, so the plan is to finish this shawl within the next week, which seems like a reasonable goal. As you can see in the pictures I’m well on my way and well.. no need to tell you what unblocked lace looks like. A big crumpled pile o’ pink it is. Also keeping my fingers crossed this WIP won’t end in a game of yarn chicken!

My aunt said she loved the Pebble Beach, which I knit in the shawlette version, but wouldn’t mind it being a bit bigger. So I’m going to go one pattern size up and make it a proper shawl. The colour she wanted was blue, so I did my best to find the gosh darn prettiest blue fingering weight yarn I could find. I think I did a pretty good job, don’t you agree?

These are 2 skeins of Fyberspates Vivacious 4 ply in colourway Blue Lagoon. The first time for me knitting with anything Fyberspates was making this cowl (Hyperballad) and I was so in love with it. So I have a feeling the 4ply will also be a hit. Plus, this is going to be my holiday knitting while I drive through Canada for 3 weeks. Given the ease of the pattern I thought that’d be perfect.

Pattern: Vinnland by Becca Compton
Yarn: Spun Right Round Superwash Sock 80/20 in colourway Martian Got Moves

I’m back in the sock knitting game with finally another pair added to my collection 😀 I know I sounded particularly grumpy about the toe up construction in the last post, but I got over myself and after initial grumpiness about the toe it was smooth sailing to be honest.

Somehow the toe instructions in the pattern confused me a bit, so I simply went with this Knitty tutorial for short row toes, only to later find out the designer also made a tutorial especially for the pattern (woops). Anyway, the pattern after that is really simple to follow. With a 16 row repeat it is a bit too long to fully memorise, but after 2 repeats I just needed to glance at the next row and I knew what would follow.

I used the Fish Lips Kiss heel, which already gave me a good fit in some of my other socks and again I have no complaints (this pattern is really worth the investment if you’re a frequent sock knitter, especially if you occasionally struggle with holes at the sides of your heels). I cast off using this version of Jenny’s surprisingly stretchy bind off. The rest of my pattern notes can be found on the Ravelry project page.

And do I still need to say anything about the yarn? I already raved about the great colour last week, and gushed about how much I loved working with it when I made my Prairie Spring socks. I think it suffices to say that my love for this yarn remains unchanged. And luckily for me I have another skein lying around that I got gifted for Christmas!

And I’ve kind of already cast on a new project, I’ll just leave it with this picture of a pile of old pink garter stitch, soon more!

PS: I’ve done a tiny website update, in case you’re wondering what the floaty black square is that is following you around, it’s a menu bar. So far it can take you to an About Me section, the main section of the blog or a list of Blogs I love. If you find any mistakes or missing blogs in the list please let me know! My internet kept crashing while I was linking everything, making me redo the list a gazzilion times and sometimes not noticing the things I lost. I alphabetised the list, and yes I spend an entire evening singing the alphabet in order to do so. I’m also working on an FO gallery that links to the blog, but this requires me organising all my pictures, so don’t hold your breath 😉

 

Have you noticed something a little off about me lately? Well I certainly have. I just did the maths, and it has been over 6 months since I finished my last pair of socks!! As a self proclaimed sock knitting addict (I officially have to hand in this title now) this is unacceptable. Sure, I fiddled around with some socks in the meantime, but there was no dedication, nothing got finished. Time for a change!

I got one of my fanciest sock yarns out of my stash, a beautiful gift I got for christmas. It’s sock yarn by Spun Right Round in the Martian Got Moves (ha!) colourway. Do I mean the same sort of sock yarn I used for my ever favourite Prairie Spring socks? Hell yes it’s the same, and it is just as amazing as that speckled graffiti spectacle was. I am so excited about it that I took a picture of the sole of the sock-to-be, which I guess normally might not be the most interesting part of a sock ever.

I had fantastic yarn, I picked out a pattern that I thought fit it like a glove (or a sock, if you like), so what could possibly rain on my sock knitting parade? Never underestimate my readiness to be grumpy about unreasonable things! As I was about to cast on, feeling like I was back in my element, I discovered the pattern was written toe up. UGH! Toe up socks. I made loud disgruntled noises, I sat on the couch pouting, I might’ve sworn off sock knitting altogether for 5 minutes or so (yes, I am aware converting the charts to cuff down is also an option).

But surely knitting toe up rather than cuff down can’t be that bad? Well to me it is. It’s feels all kinds of wrong. Starting a sock to me should be a zero thoughts kind of thing. I know how to do cuffs, I can do them in my sleep. I like the idea that I can cast on any kind of sock at any time of day, at any stage of wakefulness. Casting on toes requires thinking, it potentially requires provisional cast ons, it requires more thoughts than ‘do I want my cuff k2p2 or maybe a twisted knit?’. It’s like exercising in the morning really, I’ll never be that person. I start my things easy. Anyway, I’m an adult, and I totally got over my unreasonable grumpiness, and cast on my sock. I am loving the result so far. The pattern-yarn combo might seem a little sqooshed (this is totally a word) at the moment, but trust me, when you put on the sock and the pattern opens up, it works fantastically.

And in other news about all things blueish greenish, I got a little reason to celebrate last week. My first ever first author paper of my phd got accepted into a proper scientific journal! Major milestone, so I figured I earned some celebratory yarn. Would I also have bought yarn if the paper got rejected and termed it consolatory yarn? Maybe.. Anyway, I finally jumped on the gradient train and went for 600 meters of merino fingering weight by Wollelfe in the Kingfisher Teal colourway. I want to make the Grady shawl with it, I just need to make the difficult decision if I want to knit this cake inside out or outside in, given that the shawl is knit inside out (got it?). Any thoughts?

*** Disclaimer: I acknowledge to the fullest that this post might be considered as enabling to the purchasing of yarn. However, I can not be held responsible for any purchases resulting from the reading of this blog post, but I sincerely apologise for any (permanent) damages to your bank account. If you need any excuses to buy new yarn though, I’d be happy to provide them (as you can see I am expert at coming up with reasons for yarn buying)***

 

Pattern: Pebble Beach Shawl
Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Sock in Primavera

Yay, this was such a quick and enjoyable knit! Admittedly, it was already done last weekend. But I was so busy last week that the poor thing spend the entire week strapped onto my blocking maths. I felt some guilt, peeping at it in the mornings and feeling like I was applying medieval torture techniques to yarn. I didn’t want to take it off yet though, because I first wanted to take pictures before starting to wear it. But the pins have been taken out and pictures have been snapped.

I’m on a bit of a Malabrigo sock binge and again this is one colourway I love. I wasn’t sure how it would knit up, but I love how this shawl is very colourful without being very colourful (does that even make sense?). Still don’t think I would ever knit socks with it, seriously doubt it would be durable enough.

But this is perfect shawl yarn. And hat yarn, and mittens yarn and probably sweater yarn. The drape is so pwetty! I made the shawlette version of the pattern (perfect 1 skein project) but after blocking I think it can be called a proper shawl, size-wise.

And I have been such a good little knitter, I even immediately started turning my leftovers into hexipuffs. Seriously, do I earn knitting credit with this or something? Like knitting points I can later on exchange for someone else to sew in my seams or something. Earn 100 credits and your skeins of yarn will be wound up for you. How awesome would that be? Yes please!