Koolhaas

Mmmmmm.....Malabrigo merino worsted, the 2nd most popular yarn on ravelry. Finally, I get to use this luscious thing. The colourway is called "little lovely," but when I work this in my hands, it is all raspberries and cream. Total yum. Unfortunately the pictures are nowhere near the true colour.



A couple of days and I'm done.



Koolhaas is written by Jared of brooklyn tweed, where cabling is done every other row. The look is impressive, and made so much easier (and waaaay faster) by cabling without a cable needle. This technique saved me from fiddling with an extra tool. and I felt quite clever each time I did it! I knit this pattern exactly as written (5 mm needle), with four repeats of the chart before starting decreases. Love it.

Working through my ravelry queue

Last weekend we had a great trip across the border! The Aldergrove/Lynden crossing worked out well for us. We were all prepared for a long wait: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on 23 CDs. And of course, something for me. Here's what I made over the weekend.



Odessa, from Grumperina (free as a ravelry download). Working from my stash, I used a ball of Rowan Yorkshire Tweed DK. I thought it would be good choice, but the plies sometimes separated and then I got a little confused when I was doing the SSk and YO. I ploughed on, though, since this was all I brought. I had to rip out the first couple of inches two or three times before I got my rhythm and feel for the pattern and yarn. The hat enjoyed some time at the pool and golf course at Semiahmoo.




This was a nice small project that I just barely finished before coming home. The line at the border was almost a little too short (about 30 min)!

At home and only a few hours passed with nothing on the needles, I couldn't stand it. I knew what I was making next. From Leigh Radford's book One Skein, I started the Baby Bolero. Again, working from my stash, I chose another ball of Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton (I have one more ball to use up, please, someone, take it off my hands, I'm ready to move on). This was a quick one alright, and what they said on ravelry is true: the finishing did take longer than the knitting. But it's all so small, it didn't matter much.


This is sweet. Not blocked yet, but it'll be all ready for a newborn baby this summer. For now, Ginger the bunny is enjoying a summer cardi!

Well, that's just swell!

See pattern details on previous post.

Next!

Can't. Stop. Making. Stuff.

Ta da! Cranked out another finished object. Still on the Blue Sky theme, I used two balls (150 yds ea) of Organic Cotton from my stash. I had bought it on sale, so this little shrug cost less than $15. Gotta like it! Free pattern from Kelly Maher, the Ribbed Lace Bolerois an easy knit and did not require any modifications on my part. There is one row where cables over 2 sts are made. I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn cabling without a cable needle since I have something else in mind where that would be very useful! I looked at lots of videos but found the tutorial on Knitty the best for me.

Here's my second pair of Maine Morning Mitts, free pattern here.  One skein of Noro Kureyon, I'm crazy about this yarn.    These will be for a Christmas present, check!

For my latest sock endeavour: I first saw this Duet Sock yarn here (see Dec 7 and 10/07) and have been *so* curious to try it. The source is A Swell Yarn Shop (see sidebar for link), in Renton WA. When I ordered it, they did not have the colourway I wanted (chocolate crunch) but I liked this, in Platinum Canyon. It's a DK weight, 7 sts to the inch on 3 mm bamboo needles. I liked it so much, I slept with the yarn on my bedside tablefor a week so I could wake up and look at it.

I used their pattern for a basic toe up sock with an afterthought heel, using the contrasting solid colour. Having made a bunch of toe-up socks, I was intrigued about trying the afterthought heel as an alternative to my standard reinforced heel.

Not my cup of tea. Not crazy about grafting the heel, nor the join with the instep.

I did make a change to the heel for fit purposes. My heel is on the narrow side, so I decreased every row (instead of every other) for the last 4 rounds of decreases. The fit is much more snug and looks way tidier! Not to mention would be more comfortable in a shoe, too.

With 52 sts, it knit up well with single row stripes. When I increased to 57 sts for the ribbing (k2p1), the colour striping changed a bit so it became swirling stripes. Kind of cool.

I do like the snazzy toe and heel contrast look, though, so it's worth the weaving in of the ends. Guess I'll start the mate!

Noro Taiyo One Skein Project

Some time ago I gave myself up to this lovely little skein.


It was sitting around different areas of my house giving me inspiration whenever I looked at it, then I spent some time on ravelry to come up with a project. I found this! The "raveler" used Noro Taiyo, and her nest tote inspired me to make my own. This pattern suggests using needles a few sizes bigger than what the ball band says - I used 6.5 mm, in retrospect I wish I had used 7 or 7.5 mm to make the bag fabric a little more mesh-like.



Instead of knitting this flat, I used Judy's Magic Cast On, and knit in the round from the bottom up, on two circulars. I had 41 sts on each circ (as per patt) and knit the rows where the pattern called for purling (since I was working in the round). I had studied the colours of the skein and decided that knitting in the round would also make good colour distribution of dark on the bottom of the bag, and handles. That all worked out brilliantly.



I stopped about two inches short of the desired depth of the bag, and then knit each side separately on straights. This allows the bag opening to be bigger since the I-cord finishing/handle tends to pull in the opening a bit. The finished size of the bag before working the I-cord was about 10 inches wide and 10.5/11 inches deep.



The applied I-cord was new to me. There are many tutorials I found by googling to learn this technique. After a few tries it went smoothly, and the handle itself zipped along too. I knit the handle about 16 inches long before grafting it together.



The strap stretched a lot, which I wanted, and now it is a very comfortable shoulder tote!

Rushing Rivulet Sock

Done the mate! These turned out pretty well. Not loving the pooling so much, but I can live with it. Actually, I won't be living with it since these are designated for a gift. Cat used a lovely picot edging for the cuff but I am not convinced it will stay up well enough, so I opted to go for a simple plain 1x1 rib which I neglected to photograph, take my word for it! They have great texture and the yarn knit up very soft.
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Remember this? I have pieced together 12 of the 16 blocks for this quilt. Once the added borders go on, it will be too big for the space so I'm just using these twelve shown. I'm still thinking about what colour inner border to use on this, so I get to make a trip to the Cloth Shop to figure this baby out. I love how it looks so far, I'm very happy with the arrangement.




In a weak moment earlier this week, I found myself at a yarn store happily immersed in more colour decisions. I'm planning a little something something!