Finished: Wrapped in Leaves Shawl

Some projects just put themselves together.  You buy the yarn with a pattern in mind (or vice versa), you breeze through the knitting or sewing, and before you know it, you have a finished project to show off in real life.  It doesn't linger in your WIP pile, it doesn't come with a million unforeseen issues.  This is one of those projects.

Ravelry notes here.  The pattern is Wrapped in Leaves, found in Alana Dakos' Botanical Knits.  It's a really pretty pattern, but I tend to like streamlined, simple designs (which is why I'm not a lace knitter!).  However, when I found the yarn--which is Miss Babs' Yowza! in Crawdad--I just knew it had to be this shawl.  Whatever that feeling is (kismet?), it happened, and I cast on almost as soon as I received the yarn in the mail.

The pattern is wonderfully written.  It's not too detailed and assumes you know the basics, but it doesn't leave you scratching your head anywhere either.  I will say adding the leaf edging had me a bit confused, but it was one of those things where you had to just do it to understand it.  Stop reading and thinking about it; just pick up the needles and do it.

The yarn is ridiculously wonderful too.  The colors are gorgeous and deep without being too dark for me, and the masculine palette brings down the feminine leaves a bit.  I haven't worked with Yowza! before, but I should've known it would be amazing--every skein of Miss Babs I've ever knit with (or even touched!) has been my most favorite skein yet.  It's a good thing I have a stash of her yarn!

Is it bad that I'm already looking forward to fall so I can wear this?  Yes, it is.  It's finally warm, I should enjoy it!

What have you knit lately?

Finally Finished: Lucky Quilt!

Okay, brace yourselves, folks: I have two finished projects to show you this week!

Things have been so crazy lately.  We bought a house and close in less than a month!  Kelby visited this weekend!  Nick's dad is visiting next week!  My mom and I started a yarn dyeing business!  Oh, and we're still going to our day jobs everyday!  Needless to say, time is at a premium, but everyone is busy so I have very little right to complain.  How are you?

Let's talk about my first finished project, my Thimble Blossoms Lucky quilt.  I don't think I ever blogged about these blocks, but I know I posted some pictures on Instagram and Flickr.  Basically, I won a one-yard bundle from Leah Duncan, celebrating the release of her first collection with Art Gallery Fabrics, Tule.  (She's about to debut her third, so it's about damn time that I finish this.)  I had also purchased a FQ bundle of the collection, and I knew I wanted to use it somehow in our home.  The colors are a bit saturated for Nick, as he is a wimp when it comes to color, so I decided to focus on the guest room instead of our bedroom.  I had also bought the Thimble Blossoms Lucky pattern and it was just sitting in my Google Drive, waiting for a match.  Thus, a quilt baby was born.

Did you know Nick hasn't touched either of his guitars in over four years?  Yet we're about to move them for the third time?  Now you know.

Again, I started this quilt last September.  Really.  It's all HSTs with sashing, so it isn't like the piecing is super intricate.  I just moved onto other things for some reason.  I started knitting, I focused on Christmas presents, and Lucky got tossed to the back of my sewing closet.

Let's not focus on the negative, though, okay?  It's a really pretty quilt and the colors are so happy.  I used all Art Gallery solids with the blocks.  I think I bought them all from Hawthorne Threads, but I'd be happy to figure out the names if anyone wants them!  I backed the quilt with a plain white sheet from Target: not only is this thrifty ($13.99 vs. five yards of quilting cotton) but it also makes the quilt super soft and luxe.  Because this quilt is for a bed and won't be stored in a cabinet or on a quilt ladder, I needed to make sure the quilt will withstand the use but also will drape right.  I think it looks pretty good for a sheet!

I quilted with the orange thread from the Thimble Blossoms Aurifil set--I can find out that number as well, if anyone wants it.  It matched the peach in Tule perfectly!  Again, this is a bed quilt, so I wanted it to be soft and snuggly.  I quilted about 2.5" on either side of one diagonal throughout the quilt.  I know my quilting is boring but it served a purpose and also went really fast!  I quilted and bound this in about three hours.  

My main reason for suddenly rushing on this was because Kelby visited this weekend!  I wanted the guest room to be as done as it's going to be, until we move and make a new guest room.  We had a blast--we visited the Mint museums, walked through the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens, ate everywhere (including Tupelo Honey--my favorite!) and had so much fun together.  She got to meet Nick and the animals, who all loved her, especially the cats!  Schnoz loved her too, despite freaking her out by licking her knee.  He's kind of a weirdo.

Part of finishing the guest room was hanging new art--the "Yay Summer" print is by Emily McDowell and the other two prints are by Nan Lawson.   I have some of their prints picked out for our new house too.  When is it too soon to start buying things?!

Finally!  I just wanted to mention Kelby made beautiful yarn labels for us:

I took all new pictures of the yarn today, trying out a new background and showing off the labels.  Check it out!

So that's it!  Lucky quilt: Check!  Come back later this week for a new knitting project!

Finished: Cherry Soda/Orange Soda Hat

I really love knitting hats.  They're fast and fun and small and I usually can't figure out how to effectively wear them but that doesn't stop me.

This is the Cherry Soda/Orange Soda pattern from Thea Coleman's With a Splash Of... series.  I love Thea's designs and this pattern was great to start with.  It wasn't difficult at all, even with the lace chart.  I think it helped that it's made from DK-weight yarn, so you aren't dealing with skinny strands of yarn and tiny little needles.

I used Madelinetosh DK in Forestry for this hat, which I bought at Eat Sleep Knit on Black Friday.

I love the movement of the colors in this yarn, and all tosh yarns.  It's never boring!

You can find my Ravelry notes here.  You'll notice I finished this almost two weeks ago.  I've just been a little behind lately.

I took this one before the others, without any makeup--yeesh.

I have two other projects in the works now, so I hope I can get those posted here soon!

Finished: Oaklet Shawl

Yay, another knitting project!  I'll have some patchwork to show soon, and there's fabric in the washer to be turned into Archers, but until then, let me introduce you to Oaklet!

This is a top-down shawl by Megan Goodacre; the Oaklet shawl is free on Ravelry.  It's rated as easy (2/10 on the Ravelry scale) so I decided to give it a whirl.  Well.

The first 113 rows were fine.  They're stockinette stitch; I can do that with my eyes closed (practically).  After that, the lace begins.  And that's also where my problems began.

I kept ended up with an extra stitch outside of the repeats.  I dropped stitches; I added extras.  I was a mess, pretty much.  I took my shawl into Charlotte Yarn (my LYS) for help, after my mom declared herself unable to help.  Luckily, Stephanie was there and got me to a good place--we ripped out the lace I had started so I could get going again.  Stephanie is pretty much my new BFF.  She invited me to her knitting group at Whole Foods on Wednesday night, which was really fun!  That's besides the point, but it's good to remember the positive instead of the negative (messing up my shawl and ripping it out).

Anyway, so I went home, tried again, and still messed up.  My mom decided to take on the challenge at that point and got me back to the beginning of the lace, inserting a lifeline for future mistakes.  Thankfully, I didn't need it, because the third time was the charm!

I used size 6 circulars--Knitter's Pride Dreamz, which aren't as good as my Addis but are also half the price--and the yarn is SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock in Chai Spice, which I bought at Eat Sleep Knit.  I can't recommend this yarn enough!  So soft and superwash, and the colors are gorgeous.  

I bought a sweater from Loft to wear on Thanksgiving, and it coordinates well with this shawl--it doesn't match exactly (thank God) but the colors are in the same family.  We're having Thanksgiving at my parents' house in Rock Hill this year, which I'm so excited about.  The last two Thanksgivings we were alone in DC (last year we moved to Charlotte the day after) so I'm overdue for a family holiday.  My brother and Kali are driving up and Jake's friends are joining us as well.  It should be so much fun!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  Enjoy the down time, or your time spent shopping, if you're into that craziness.

Finished: Hitchhiker Shawl

I'm not even going to tell you how long these pictures have been sitting on my camera.

Okay, I'll tell you: almost two weeks.  I took them on my lunch break one day and just never blogged them.  The camera has been sitting on my dining room table ever since I took them.  That's a little ridiculous, don't you think?  But work has been crazy, so by the time I get home and make dinner, I have very little mental energy for much else, especially blogging and editing pictures.

(Not that these pictures are any good.  I'm going for the Worst Blogger Ever award this year.)

This is the Hitchhiker shawl by Martina Behm, which you can find on Ravelry.  It was a really fun shawl until about the 37th tooth (of 42).  By that point, the rows were so long I just couldn't take it anymore.  

I used Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 in Peacock, which I bought from Eat Sleep Knit.  I used 3 mm Addi Turbos to knit, which are currently being held together with washi tape.  After I finished this, Eleanor found them and chewed the cord in half.  They're expensive needles; I wasn't too thrilled upon seeing that.

This pattern was fun for the most part because there were milestones.  I could see how many teeth I had done, and each tooth was comprised of eight rows--it was easy to track my progress.  I also learned increases (kfb), which are so super easy!

The yarn is really a standout here: I love variegated anyway, but the colors just seem to shimmer, especially after blocking.  And it goes with everything!

I started on an Oaklet shawl about two weeks ago and have had problems with the lace since doing the first few rows Friday night.  My first two rows were fine, but my third was off; when I took it to the yarn store, Stephanie helped me but I must've dropped a stitch en route because my rows were off AGAIN last night.  I put in a lifeline and this morning I frogged it back to the last row before the lace.  It looks like I somehow wove the working yarn through a stitch (?) so I'll need some help fixing that.  Knitting is hard sometimes!  In the meantime, I have some small gifts I'd like to work on, so that will be my priority!

Finished: Tin Can Knits Oats Cowl

I did it!!

I finished a knitting project!!

I've never knit an entire project before.  I've dabbled, I've wondered how two needles and some yarn could make something, anything, but I've never completed a project.  Until yesterday!

I started this cowl weeks ago, on September 18.  I'm not yet used to how sloooooow knitting is.  It's honestly ridiculous.  I'm so set to finish things quickly!  And then my yarn says, hold up, sister, you have two more skeins of us waiting in the wings.  Sigh.

If you follow me on Instagram you've seen this cowl through its many stages: casting on, unintentional yarn overs, good ribbing (and bad), binding off.  I won't bore you with detail shots, but I will say I used Tin Can Knits' Oats Cowl pattern, from the fabulous Simple Collection.  I can't say enough wonderful things about this collection!  It taught me everything I know (albeit I don't know much).

  

The yarn is from Quince and Co.; it's Lark in Cypress, a dark green worsted wool.  It is truly beautiful to work with, and there were no variations within the lot.  I knit with Hiya Hiyas (first time using those!) and blocked it with Soak Celebration.  I think next time I'm going to go with Lacey or Yuzu.  Any suggestions?

So this is all to say I haven't been sewing.  Knitting has taken on my full attention, for better or worse.  I feel bad admitting that, like I've failed my Bernina.  I have to realize that I haven't, that having several hobbies of different natures is perfectly fine, and just because I haven't been sewing doesn't mean I never will!  I just am taking a hiatus.  I do need to finish that Tule quilt, though, and I got a new book (Jelly Roll Quilt Magic--beautiful quilts!) that will need some attention.  Eventually.

I do have a pretty nuts yarn stash growing.  I just cast on (and finished ribbing) for a small project last night, using some Manos Del Uruguay Maxima.  Such awesome yarn!

What are you stitching, regardless of form?