Category Archives: knitting

Kindness

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10

I haven’t abandoned the socks but I took your advice and decided to step back (haha) from that project for now.  And I’m still debating about what to do with the Which Way Now shawl.

The Bacardi Cardi is ripped back part way and on my radar.  That sweater will be finished this spring (or summer), however, I need something different on my needles. Right.  Now.

Enter Kindness.

The garter tab start is new for me and I really liked how the beginning few rows look.  No bump.  Trust me, there is no bump.  All the stitches just blend right in.  

The yarn is Knit Picks Chroma Fingering in the beautiful Galápagos colorway (which is not available anymore). Soft blues morph into greens and cream and back out again.

I would be farther along with this but I decided to convert the directions into a table with row-by-row stitch counts included in the far right column.  It was a bit tedious and I don’t have all the stitch counts at the end of the rows as I am new to reading and deciphering lace charts to see how the count changes.  This concept is used by Helen Stewart and the Spindrift Shawl pattern and it really helped me especially when the stitch counts changes every row.

I think this lovely little shawlette will be just the thing to get my confidence back.

 

 

 

Stuck

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6

How many times will/can I begin knitting the same sock before I find the right pattern for the yarn?

The yarn is a nylon and acrylic blend because the recipient can’t wear wool.  I figured that I could just substitute this for the usual wool yarns and end up with a similar item.  It is the same but it’s not and I’m having a hard time figuring out what to do.

One color is so different from the Berroco website.  Hari Hari 1811 looks a lot brighter and bluer than the Hari Hari 1811 I received.

Plus I’ve found two knots in the first several yards which might be the reason why it’s coming out more as a self-striping yarn than a patterned yarn.  The other color called Beach House is bright and I thought the two would play well with each other.

Source

My original plan was to knit the slipped-stitch sock pattern I’ve used seven other times only instead of using both colors in the ribbing, I was just going to knit with one and start the second color once I got to the leg of the sock.

I didn’t like it so I ripped it out and started again just with the dull grey yarn and tried another sock pattern with some textural stitches.

Too subtle and the slipped stitches melt into the surrounding stitches and are not noticeable enough to add any texture.

Perhaps I should go back to the beginning of my original plan and use both colors so the grey tones down the brighter one.

Maybe it’s the color.

Maybe it’s the yarn.

Maybe it’s the wrong pattern.

Maybe it’s me.

 

Which way now?

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7

Mr. Aitch gifted me this beautiful yarn for Christmas.

The Which Way shawl pattern was written for this Wonderland Yarns Mad Hatter kit of five gradients plus one.  This is the Little Busy Bee and Lime to Turquoise kit.  I LOVE all the colors!

The shawl is finished.

I ran out of the main color and used the rest of the first color in the gradient to finish though I still ran out of yarn.  Others on Ravelry had the same issue with the quantity of yarn vs pattern.

Most of the ends are woven in but haven’t blocked the shawl.  I’m just not sure I like it.

 

Why did I buy this?

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4

Five words: because it was on sale.

Those five words can get me to part with my money faster than a hot knife through butter. Or a duck on a June bug.  Or a, well, you get the idea.  I didn’t really like the colors when I bought this BUT it was a great deal.  Or was it?

If I’m not using it and it’s just taking up space in my yarn bins, it’s not really a great deal at all.  I wasted money on something I didn’t really love or need.

This “mistake” happened 10 or so years ago and I’m not sucked in by that word that four-letter word “sale” like I used to be.  If I don’t love it or need it, I don’t buy it.  I do shop sales but it’s not the criteria to buy something.

18 balls of this yarn equals 2,854 yards of 95% cotton.  The other 5% is a shiny polyamide thread running around the cotton.

It knits up great and I would use it if it were another color.  The colors are pretty, just not right for me. It’s listed as trade or sell in my Ravelry yarn stash until I figure out what to do with it.

Has the word SALE ever caused you to buy something you didn’t need or love?