Gift Knitting.....My Favorite....and Bad Yarn Venting

 The end of October.   At the end of October I usually think about those gift projects that I should have started....a couple of months ago.   A few I did start but blithely abandoned the projects for something.....more exciting.   No more time to procrastinate.

At least one hat is in the queue.  Instead of finding a pattern, I am going to figure out a pattern to go with the yarn I want to pull from my stash.   The intended gift knit will be done from a strand of Rowan Sock in grey tones and Knitpicks Aloft Super Kid Mohair in Carbon.   The goal is a 1 x 1 ribbed hat that is warm and easy to fold up and stuff in a pocket.

Swatching has to come first....and must be done.   Roxanne Richardson teaches a new to me method of swatching.....viewable on YouTube.  Tayler Earl on Wool, Needle, Hands showed this technique and referenced this video.  My first reaction was .....what????   Practice made...my swatch much better and I am a convert.

This morning I cast on and knit the swatch for the hat. Part of the goal was to decide whether to use the Carbon or Ash greys in the mohair.  The other goal was to doublecheck the fabric I thought I was getting to make the hat.   I started using Size 3's on the swatch and toward the top shifted to size 2's.   

My natural preferences lean towards the tighter knit but...the looser knit, I think, is a better match for the project.  I think I will do a test hat before this one.

My yarn vent.   For me, one of the joys of knitting is the tactile experience of the yarn.   I just gave away slightly more than I 10 gallon bag of Cascade Heritage Sock and Cascade Heritage 6 ply.   Others may enjoy this yarn.  I do not.  It split.  It split a lot.  The texture was okay...but....the rest.  Nyet.   I did three pairs of socks and decided life is too short to knit with yarn one hates.  Bye bye.

Where have I been?

 Retirement....getting used to it....is more of a challenge than I thought it would be.    When times are tough, the tough buy yarn.  My stash has expanded....and I am further from its' center.  Oh well.

Watching knitting blogs...and spending time on Instagram...has been tremendously inspiring.  Learning new things has been a joy...that moment when the new technique works.....

YouTube podcasts to see:

• A Lovely Yarn
• Wool, Needles, Hands
• Danish Musings
• Colorado Knitter
• Nerdy Knitter

The list above shows my current favorites.  I have learned a lot from watching podcasts.   Knitting ideas, resources, and techniques are the best take aways.   Being able to hear about what other people are doing is interesting as is seeing their work.   The wonders of our age!  Not kidding.....YouTube has been such a resource! 

What is also interesting for me, arising from part of my educational past, is how I evaluate the presentation quality of the podcast.   Some presenters -particularly Tayler Earl of Wool, Needles, Hands - are engaging and draw me in even when what is being presented is not something in which I am particularly interested.  Others.....some I turn off with a few minutes. Yet more I will watch an episode or two but realize that I dislike the program even to skip over any further offerings.   The first time I watched a particular podcast the presenter spent much of the time complaining about dog sitting.   Hoping it was an off day, I watched another episode.   Hmmm.    My first impression was not wrong.  Fortunately there are so many other choices.

Craftsy and Domestika are two course sites that feature many good classes....knitting and many other topics.   Before I retired, I bought classes on sale.  Now, I have the time to do the classes.  I am slowly working through my list.   Being able to play....and replay...sections of the videos has been great.  So many things to learn!

Now that I have time.....I can do this.   This is a great opportunity and I am grateful for the time and the space.

 Every year I knit my friend Rob a pair of non-wool socks for his birthday.   On this project, I have been working through my stash of Canadiana.  The vintage Canadiana was wonderful...the new stuff...not as much.

I watch knitting blogs....and learn a lot.  One of the "duh" moments was hearing about striping socks with a variegated and a solid yarn.    I thought about what I had and though....wouldn't it be interesting to do this backwards and see what happens.   

So far, I am really liking it.   The reds are not an exact match but close enough for me to give an interesting pattern.

A Throw in Ocean Teal

 My friend Sandra saw this yarn in a store near where she lives.   Bernat Blanket Ombre in Ocean Teal is a super bulky yarn that knits up quickly and can go through the washer and dryer.....

I used size 10 needles to get the fabric I want.   As I am a relaxed knitter and this yarn really has no give, I swatched a bit to to get to what I wanted.

While it is not obvious from this picture, the yarn's ombre runs through shades of teal and blue.    Good thing I like the colors a lot and am not tired of them.  I overbought....hate to run out and got a really good priced and cheap shipping...and have enough to knit a second one for someone who loves the first but is not the recipient.

Instagram is teaching me a surprising amount about knitting.   One of the things I saw was a way to make a smooth edge by slipping the first stitch of each row and then making a yarn over.   On the next row, where the yarnover and the slipped stitch are the last two, those stitches are worked together.  I was pretty pleased with the result.

I used three cakes of this yarn for a throw that is 50" by 60" ....  I kept measuring the throw against my body as I knit it to decide when to bind off.

This is what I did:

Cast on 90 stitches using a German Twisted Cast On.

Foundation row:  K10, P10...end K10

Next row:  Slip first stitch as if to purl, yarn over, continue in pattern.

Row 1:    Slip first stitch as if to purl, yarn over.  Work in pattern to last two stitches, Knit 2 tog.

Row 2:  Row 1:    Slip first stitch as if to purl, yarn over.  Work in pattern to last two stitches, Purl 2 tog.

Repeat until you have enough yarn to bind off or until you get sick of doing it our satisfied with the length.

I bound off the on the right side without paying attention to the pattern.   This gave matching edges that, I think, will be more stable.

The result:

Lots of Knitting

 This has been a year or so of lots of knitting.   Of course, it has also been a year of a lot of yarn buying.  The center of the stash is much further away.

One of my friends suggested watching the knitting vlogs on YouTube.   There is so much information out there....and I have really been enjoying it.

A few good ones:    Danish Musings, Summer Lee Knits, Nerdy Knitting, Northwest Yarns.   There are many, but these are the ones I make a point of seeing.

There is so much more to learn.....can't wait.

Yarn Buying is a Whole Different Hobby

 Okay...I admit it that I have been on a yarn buying spree.   Etsy gets me into lots of trouble.  

Etsy is where many yarn dyers sell their yarn.   The colors grab me....and I end up overdoing it.

Hawpatch Yarns has rich and deep colors.    The picture below, of my score, does not really do the colors justice.

There will be socks....and at least one hat from this batch.

The last time I was at beWoolen, I was resting on the settee in the yarn store which is very close to the display of their house yarn Pigments.  Towards the bottom there was a pinkish skein that glowed.   The name of the color is Rhubarb Pie.  It came home with me and is becoming socks.

Plain socks are a palate cleanser after more complicated projects....and I am enjoying this quiet knit.

Knitting....and what I have been doing...

 Life has gotten in the way of talking about knitting with myself here.

Now, I am retired.   All the time is mine.

My latest obsession is yarn from independent dyers.    Fiber MacGyver has a real gift with color.  Yesterday I finished a pair of socks from her assigned pooling collection.  I was so curious to see how this:

KALEIDOSCOPE EYES Merino Cashmere Assigned Pooling

would knit into socks.    Yesterday, I finished the pair and gave it to Fritz.    The colors glow - the picture above does not do the yarn justice.

The picture of the socks is tweaked a bit to give a better idea of the beauty of this yarn.    The yarn itself is soft.  The one flaw is that I had to pay a bit of attention to make sure I was not splitting yarn as I knit.  Not much of a flaw.  There are two more skeins of this yarn here...in different colors.  One is for me and one is for a gift for a knitting buddy.

Fritz saw a hat on Ravelry for which the pattern was no longer available.  He really liked the fox motif more than the motifs in other patterns.   Always up for a challenge, I did what I could to copy it.   After playing with charts for a bit, this is the result.   I learned a lot while I did this.   Fritz is happy with it...but there are things I would change if I did it again.    This is a one and done so I did not write up the pattern.

My knitting adventures are a great way to spend my days.   There are so many great patterns, so many great yarns, and now time to enjoy both!