Another Year Gone By

It’s hard to believe that today marks another year’s passing since I started this blog. It has been an eventful year and so much has changed and yet so much is still the same. I write this sitting more or less in the same place where I wrote my first post 2 years ago (I think  it was two anyways but I’m feeling too lazy to check) after a wonderful day out on the mountain skiing. Now I am getting ready to sit down once again and work on my Christmas Cast-On for the year and it feels just so remarkably similar.

Looking back on this year I knit somewhere in the neighbourhood of 50 projects (or at least that’s how many I bothered to record in Ravelry), four of which were sweaters for myself which was the knitting goal that I set for myself a year ago and I also started a video podcast this summer which I have found that I really enjoy making (I have a few episodes in varying stages of completion to upload soon too!) I also finally started an instagram account (username TheLeaningLarch) which I also have been really enjoying and I post a lot of the things that I am working on there too. On the life side of things, I am nearly finished my undergraduate degree which I am finding hard to believe (where did the time go!) and I got engaged this year (just realized now that I never said anything about it on here). It has been quite the year looking back!

As far as a knitting resolution for the upcoming year, I think that this year I am not going to challenge myself to knit a certain number of items as I have the past two years but instead I think that I want to make a commitment to finish (or frog) the many blanket projects that I have on the go right now (with the exception of my leftovers blanket as I won’t have enough yarn scraps to finish it for a long time yet). I have four blanket projects that I can think of off the top of my head that have just been sitting there for ages, some need me to knit more squares, crochet a border or even just to sew on the second half of the squares and I would really like to just finish them after all this time but I think that I need a bit of extra motivation to actually do it, hence making it my goal for the year. Who knows, maybe this way I will have them all done by the summer!

On another knitting related note, anyone interested in seeing my Christmas Cast-On for the year?

This year I am making the Beastkeeper shawl by Justyna Lorkowska and I am making it with Sweet Paprika yarns in their Cobblestone Pizzicato and Wind in the Willows Colourway on the Elora base. I decided to call this shawl Newt after Newt Scamander from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them since I enjoyed the movie so much (I’ve seen it twice already!) and Newt is literally a Beast Keeper (plus newts are often green right? ) so I thought it was fitting. I am really enjoying this knit so far and it’s been flying off the needles, the pattern is simple but pleasant and the yarn is lovely to work with and the colours are amazing as well. I can hardly wait until it’s finished so that I can wear it!

Anyways I think that’s all for now since it is New Years and I want to get knitting. So I just wanted to take a little more time and thank you all who have been sharing the past few years on the blog and/or for watching my podcast, it’s been great fun for me and I have really enjoyed meeting and hearing from you and I really hope that you have been enjoying it as well.

I wish you all the best for the new year and happy knitting!

A Second Sunshine Sock Series Set

I mean to write this post on the weekend so I could add another S word to the title, but I forgot so oh well, better late than never right? But as you may have guessed, I’ve finished the second pair of socks in my sunshine sock series! I think they turned out really well too and I’m very happy with them.

I especially love the colour of them with the pattern for some reason, it just seems perfect to me. I also think the “rougher” texture of the yarn (it’s not really that rough, just not as smooth as most commercial sock yarns because of the mohair in it) goes really well with cables so I’m really happy with this yarn and pattern pairing. These socks were knit with Agrestal Yarns Grand River Sock in Butternut and the pattern is the Tauriel sock pattern by Josiah Bain. The cable pattern in these socks was very pleasant mix of interesting and stimulating but also predictable so you never get bored but you’re also not struggling with which direction to cross on each row. I think I might make another pair of them sometime after I knit a few more socks that I have been wanting to knit for a while.

 

One of those pairs of socks I have been wanting to knit for a while is my Hagrid Socks and I have finally started them. This is a sock pattern of my own design which was inspired by the Harry Potter Books which I re-read recently and which I think I will be writing up and releasing at some point. It’s a lovely lumpy and bumpy sock pattern (which doesn’t feel as bumpy as it looks when it is on your foot) which I think could be something that Hagrid would knit for himself and wear and I’m very happy with how they are working up so far.

The stitch pattern is actually pretty simple and very easy to memorize and I just blew through the knitting of the first sock so quickly. It is knit toe up and involves a bit of a different than usual type of toe (which I think might be my favourite actually) and a short-row heel.

I am going to be looking for test knitters soon for this pattern so if anyone is interested in test knitting this for me please message me or something!

Very Enjoyable Knitting and Rediscovering Harry Potter

It’s been so busy around here that I only just realized that I finished a pair of socks a while back and never showed them to you and I haven’t posted about what I am working on in quite a while. About time I get a bit caught up I think.

These are the My Cup of Tea Socks in Lang Jawoll Solids, as per usual I didn’t really follow the instructions in the pattern but used my own numbers and heel choice. This time I did the Beehive Aladdin Heel (the one I used for the Tardis Socks I made for Bilbo) and I used a contrasting toe and heel colour to make eventual repairs easier (though this yarn is quite hard-wearing already), I also used reinforcing thread in the toe and the ball of the foot to make them even stronger. I really enjoyed knitting these socks and I think I might make another pair of these in a variegated yarn sometime.

I think they turned out rather well!

 

I also started a new pair of socks recently, these are the Hermione’s Everyday Socks, I think that everyone has probably heard of these by now but I have been dying to make these for a while but just wasn’t sure of what yarn I would make them in.

It’s funny how the mind works sometimes, there are so many huge Harry Potter fans in the knitting community and I hear a lot about it but I have always just thought that it just wasn’t really my thing. I do remember enjoying the books but I had forgotten just how much I did because it has been years since I last read them. Recently though, me and my brother decided to watch the Harry Potter movies together. Both of us had read the books but not watched all the movies. My reason for that is that they showed us the second one in school when it first came out and it absolutely terrified me (I’m arachnophobic and I was still quite young when it came out so I didn’t know how to handle it yet) I didn’t even finish the movie it freaked me out so much so I never watched another one again unless I really had no choice (I hadn’t read the books yet at that point, but when I did later I just didn’t visualize that part in my head as I read so I got through it alright). Back to the current story though, we both thought it was well overdue and might be fun to watch them (it really is! I highly recommend it) so we did and I am really glad that we did. I had forgotten how much I love(d) the Harry Potter books but watching the movies brought it all back again, I have always loved an escape to a magical world that is so different from our own (which is why my favourite fiction genre is fantasy) and Harry Potter is just perfect for that.

Luigi had given me two balls of yarn for Christmas last year (this is Kauni wool 8/2 Effektgarn) and I knit a pair of socks from the first ball already but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with the second ball yet but I finally decided that the Hermione’s Everyday Socks would be a great pattern for the yarn and because we are watching the movies together it will also remind me of the time spent with him when I wear them so it’s perfect.

I am really loving how these are knitting up so far, the pattern is easy to remember and looks amazing and I am really loving the yarn. The colours are fantastic and you can still smell the lanolin on it which I love. Judging by the length of the first colour though I am going to have fraternal socks which I think will still be nice (and I can totally picture Hermione wearing socks that don’t quite match as well). Again with this pair of socks I have proved my seeming inability to follow a pattern as it is meant to have 1×1 rib but I did 2×2. It’s not really a big deal but I do think that in this case the 1×1 would have looked better and I kinda wish I had paid more attention to the pattern before I started knitting it because I only noticed this when I was part way down the leg so I decided to just stick with it.

I also did my own thing with the numbers on these socks too but I am very happy with the fit of these and am really loving these socks in general, I will definitely have to make another pair of these sometime soon too.

Now all this Harry Potter enjoyment doesn’t quite stop with the socks, I also had the urge to re-read the entire series, so I got the Philosopher’s Stone out of the library and started reading it. Again, I am so glad that I got back into this series! One thing that I noticed this time around though that I didn’t before, is the amount of knitting in these books (I didn’t knit yet the last time I read these).

Hagrid knits, on the train and something yellow!!!!! How much more awesome can Hagrid get!!! This is just so awesome it blew my mind and I had to share it with you!

 

Now back to the regular knitting type stuff that I have been up to. I darned up some holes in some socks I knit as a Christmas gift. I am not very impressed with the yarn I knit these in, its beautiful but not very durable and I am definitely not using it for socks again. For the darning, I used a white reinforcing thread first (its on the bottom of the socks where no one can see it) and then the same yarn again to camouflage it a bit, hopefully it will be a bit stronger this way and last longer.

On a good note though, my darning skills are getting better, these ones are much neater than the last ones I did. I actually quite enjoy darning, it’s very peaceful and relaxing and I really enjoy giving a new lease on life to things that I put so much time and love into to make.

I also finished a test knit a while ago which I can’t remember if I told you about or not as I could not post photos until it was released. This is the Herlighet pattern by Josiah Bain, and I knit it out of Lichen and Lace single ply merino fingering yarn. I am really really happy with this project, the yarn I used is lovely and soft and the shawl is very wearable. I really enjoyed knitting this shawl as well, its a nice simple knit but very pleasant and I would definitely recommended it. I might make another one of these soon as well (that seems to be an unintentional reoccurring theme of this post but I really have been enjoying what I am knitting lately).

Well that’s all for now, I do have a bit more that I have been working on but I think I will save that for another day when I have more to show and talk about for them (and because this post is getting quite long already).

Happy Knitting everyone!

Swatching, Swatching, Swatching

As you might have guessed I knit a few swatches today. I’m planning on making a colour work baby cardigan and I needed to work out gauge and which colour I was going to use where. The pattern I plan on using is Ludvig by Lena Gjerald and I think its just going to be so cute and perfect for either a boy or a girl.

I’ve decided to go with the swatch on the right and the main part of the sweater will be the grey. The yarn is mostly just leftovers from some other project that I found in my mom’s stash and she said I could use and its 100% acrylic/nylon but surprisingly soft so it’ll be perfect for new parents as it can go in the washer and the dryer.

I’m really looking forward to knitting this actually, baby sweaters are so fun to knit and I haven’t done one in a couple of years.

I haven’t got much to show knitting wise right now, life has been so busy lately I just haven’t had much time to knit. Hopefully I will have some more time soon though.

Sunshine Socks

I’ve finished pair number 1! In case I forgot to post about these (because I probably did) there are knit using the Monte Cristo Socks pattern by Caoua Coffee and I’ve knit it out of Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock in the Saffron Colourway.

I am so happy with these, the look and feel great and it was so much fun to knit with the bright yellow yarn. So much fun in fact (as I knew it would be) that I’ve cast on the second pair already.

These are going to be the Tauriel Socks by Josiah Bain as I’m making them in Agrestal Yarn’s Grand River Sock in the colour way Butternut. I’m really loving it so far, the colour is great and I love a good twisted rib. These will probably go pretty fast as I’m just feeling like knitting socks again after the shawl kick that I’ve been on the past little while.

Warning: Unattended Socks will be Photographed

My brother likes photography, and he takes fantastic and creative pictures that I never would have thought to take. I am beginning to think that we really need a sign like this though. As you all know, I’m a knitter and I really enjoy knitting socks. I do give a lot of them away but I do have quite a few socks myself and I wear them almost exclusively. The below picture was taken of my dirty socks pile that was waiting for me to wash them. I was not expecting them to be the subject of a picture at all and I was so surprised when he showed me this picture but it looks pretty cool and I like it a lot, so even if it is a picture of my dirty socks I can’t complain.

I think I am going to see if he will take some intentional pictures of some of my other projects for me since he takes such nice pictures.

 

Shawls, Shawls and More Shawls

I have been knitting pretty much only shawls this past week and I finished two! One is a test knit that I can’t show you yet but will after the pattern comes out and the other is my Christmas Cast on from last year. The pattern is Indian Feathers by Alina Appasov and I made it in Agrestal Yarn’s Grand River Sock in the Amethyst Colourway.
 

I haven’t blocked it yet so the lace still looks like purple lettuce but stretched out it looks like this, hopefully I will be able to get it blocked soon so I can show a picture that actually does it justice.

I found that for this pattern once I got past the three rows with nupps the shawl just flew by and I really enjoyed it. I wonder if there is a trick out there to do nupps without struggling to get your needle through all the stitches.

I took this project with me when me and Bilbo visited the yarn shop this weekend and we had a nice little knit and visit there (Bilbo is working on a Dr. Who scarf), it was such a beautiful day and the sun coming through the window as we knit was absolutely lovely. He took this picture when I wasn’t paying attention but it turned out really nice so I thought I would share it.

 

I also started a new shawl this weekend which I was so super excited to cast on, its called Le Moelleux (The Squishy) Shawl by Mina Philipp. It’s a triangular two colour brioche shawl and I am making the symetrical version. From the moment I saw Mina’s sample on the Knitting Expat Podcast I knew that I wanted to make it because it just looks so fantastic and I had been wanting to try brioche for a while. I also knew which yarn I wanted to use, I am using Riverside Studio’s Merino Nylon Sock in the Pumpkin and Moroccan Spice colourways, I knew that I wanted to use the pumpkin for a brioche project and had been saving it and the Moroccan Spice colourway just goes so perfectly with it.

Here’s how it is working up so far (I’m further along now than I was when I took this photo, what can I say brioche is amazingly fun and addictive and I have had trouble putting it down), the pattern is well written and easy to follow and Mina made a video to explain how two colour brioche works which was super helpful as well. This is what I have decided to call the right side,

and this is the wrong side.   I love both sides really but I thought it would look nicer with the stitches on the edge in the darker colour and I really do like it this way.

 

Since I have finally managed to finish most of the projects that I had on the needles for such a long time I also started swatching for my first pair in the Sunshine Sock Series so I am going to start that soon which is super exciting!

 

 

 

 

The Frustrations of a Knitter: Dye Leakage

First off and mostly unrelated to this post’s title, I have a couple finished objects already to show you this week. The first is my Be Simple Shawl. It turned out really well actually, I was a bit worried that the yarn would be too much for a while but now that it is finished I actually quite like it.

I also made myself a pair of slippers this week as I had been wanting something to keep my feet warm around the house at night that wasn’t socks. I just made these up as I went along with the idea of the garter foot with stockinette toe that I have seen around on the internet lately. I really like these actually, they are maybe a bit big, but very comfortable and warm. I made these out of some super bulky wool yarn that had been in my stash for so long that I have no idea what it is but was great to use for something finally but I am thinking that I want to make a pair of these out of worsted weight soon as well.

 

I have been working on my Amethyst Feathers shawl today and yesterday as I am trying to finish up all of my works in progress right now. But it has been leaking dye all over my fingers like mad, now on its own this wouldn’t really annoy me that much but the Be Simple Shawl had that same problem, and the yarn I used for my Campside Shawl as well, not to mention a large number of my pairs of socks. It just feels like almost everything I have knit with this year has dye leakage problems. These are my fingers after knitting for a couple of hours today, (they got worse by the end of the night and are still that colour even after multiple washes). I also think its so strange that they’re a raspberry colour because the yarn isn’t really that colour at all.

And here are some pictures of socks that I am washing tonight and that I have to wash individually because they let off so much dye (these aren’t the only pairs, just the ones I am washing right now). This pair is only on the first wash (I had a hunch) so maybe it will get better yet.

This pair however, has been washed many times already and shouldn’t really be leaking dye at this point (it doesn’t seem to affect the colour of the socks somehow though so its not the end of the world).

I’m just so sick of always having the dye from the yarn getting on my hands so I look strange, and of having to be careful of how I wash things but not because of felting them. I’m almost considering pre-washing my yarn before I knit with it to try and eliminate the dyed fingers problem but I’m wondering if that’s a bit overkill since maybe it’s just chance that the last few yarns I have used have this problem.

New Sweater!

I finished it!

It’s not perfect but considering how badly written the pattern was, I am very happy with it. The yarn is actually pretty nice and feels warm and woolly and I think I finally have the fit of the lower body right for what I like my sweaters to be (my last two sweaters weren’t quite fitted enough through the hips for my taste). I think this will be a good just hanging around sort of sweater.

I am starting to plan out my next sweater for the year now and I picked out the yarn and buttons for it the other day when I went to my lys.

The yarn is the Mineville Wool Project in #2701 Angora Wool and the colourway is Mr. Bun, and the buttons which are hard to see are little metal buttons with 4 holes each. The yarn is very soft and knits up nice and I think that the subtle colour variation will be really nice for a sweater, I also really like that this is a Canadian yarn. The sweater that I think I am going to make with this is Sophie by Jennifer Wood, I think its a really cute sweater that would go great with a dress or jeans and I’ve been wanting to make it for a while. I’m going to get this balled up and start swatching soon so I can get going on the sweater, I feel like I’m in a real sweater knitting mood right now so I might as well take advantage of it.

Starting to look like a Sweater

I’ve been making some serious progress on my sweater. All I have left to do is the knit the back, block it and seam it together. Almost there!