Lots of Knitting!

 Hi all -

I've been knitting up a storm lately, so I have a lot to share! We actually got down to freezing at my home last night, so I might get to enjoy more of my knitted items soon. Fall is in the air, but I'm sure the dog days of summer will be back soon!

For my birthday month, I really concentrated on finishing my Birthday Bliss shawl designed by Amy Gunderson. I was excited to get it finished before the end of August! Here is the finished shawl:

Birthday Bliss

I should block it, but I can still use it as a large scarf if I never get around to that. I hate blocking, especially large items like this! But blocking really does make the lace shine and will get rid of some of the rolling that I'm getting on one end.

Finishing my birthday shawl inspired me to start a new project. (I don't need to start any new projects, but have to follow the mojo....) A lot of the projects that I get as kits, like this shawl, come with lots of small balls of yarn and end up with lots of small leftovers:

Project Leftovers

All of these leftovers were starting to bother me, so I decided to start knitting a Habitation Throw designed by Helen Stewart. This is an easy-to-knit pattern that allows you to throw in whatever spare pieces of yarn you have. Here is where I am so far:

Habitation Throw

I'm really enjoying seeing some of the scraps disappear, although the pile doesn't seem to get any smaller. The pattern has you connect the pieces of yarn using a technique called the "magic knot." I found that some of the yarn I had couldn't handle the magic loop, so I've switched to just holding the old and new yarn together for 10-20 stitches when I am transitioning between yarns. This will save me from having to weave in a million ends when I'm finished with the throw and isn't noticeable in the stitching. The yarns that I had the trouble with were what are called "singles". These are single-ply yarns without any twist. Although they are strong when pulling on the yarn, I found that yarn would easily break when I put a tight knot in it. If I were using all plied yarns, I would probably stick with the magic loop technique since it allows you to get all but a couple of inches of each yarn into the blanket.

 Another project I worked on is the Laxo Worsted hat designed by Laura Nelkin:

Laxo Worsted

This hat knits up quickly and is very warm with the fold-over brim. The faux cables look fancy, but they are very easy to do and don't require a cable needle.

I also picked up and made some progress on my Hring Scarf, also designed by Laura Nelkin:

Hring Scarf

I have a love/hate relationship with this scarf. I think the pattern is beautiful and the yarn is soft and feels wonderful once it's knit up. However, I find the yarn a bear to work with. The yarn has an uneven consistency (that is, it's thicker in some places and thinner in others) and it has what I would call slugs throughout. It also kind of sticks to itself when knit together. When you add my tight knitting style to the inconsistencies and the stickiness, you get knitting that is very hard to read (when looking at the stitches I've made, it's hard to tell which stitch is of which type) and very hard to unknit. So mistakes are hard to fix. So, I'm actually thinking of punting this project. I just can't decide if the final product is worth the trouble. I'll put it aside for a while again before making the final decision.

In place of working on the Hring Scarf, I started working on the Otayski headband designed by Laura Nelkin:

Otayski

I'm enjoying working on this much more! The yarn feels so good in my hands and you can read every stitch you make! This month is Laura's K(n)it-along where you can win prizes for working on her kits, of which I have plenty! So I wanted to join in and make some progress.

I've also made some good progress on my After the Storm Cardigan designed by Kelly Fowler. You can actually tell that it's a sweater now:

After the Storm Cardigan

I've connect the fronts to the back under the arms, so am now just knitting back and forth for the body. This is a lot of knitting because I'm a larger person and this sweater is designed to be worn with 12" of positive ease. That means that you make the size of sweater that is 12" larger around than your measurements. That's a lot of knitting with fingering weight yarn! But this yarn is really soft and beautiful and I'm loving it! It's from Crafty That Way and is dyed to order. I'm finding that the color matches perfectly between skeins so I don't have to alternate skeins or do anything to hide transitions between skeins. And the brown is a beautiful, rich milk chocolate color that I'm loving! It may take me a while to finish this sweater, but I know already that I'm going to love it when it's done!

Finally, my Habitation Throw inspired me to do some more work on my Witchful Thinking cowl designed by Amy Gunderson.

Witchful Thinking

 This is another one of those advent calendar type projects that gives you a little ball of yarn or a prize each day. This was from Halloween last year and I got busy and put it aside. I decided that I wanted to finish this up and throw the leftover yarn in the pile for my throw (or for another throw down the road).

So, you can see I've got plenty keeping me busy! I hope everyone is enjoying the end of summer and the start of fall!

Nancy