Happy Holidays!

Just a quick post to say I haven't forgotten about my blog! These past couple of weeks have really been a whirlwind starting off with a trip to MI for Mr. SpiderKate's brother's wedding, followed immediately with my sister and parents visiting us in Houston. We had a great time and I taught my mom to knit Entrelac! I have a bunch of pictures to share as well as an update "What I knit for Christmas".  This year has been a lot of firsts for the SpiderKate household and I hope that 2012 has many more!

The month that got away

December has been hectic at our house.  You see, we are leaving tomorrow for Mr. SpiderKate's brother's wedding in Michigan.  We are going to be gone from Thursday to Monday.  Then on Tuesday my sister arrives for an extended visit followed by my parents coming in for Christmas weekend. Ahhh! Craziness. I feel like I have this long list that I'm slowly checking things off.  My list looks something like this:

1. Finish Christmas knitting
2. Finishing Christmas shopping for people I have to ship gifts to
3. Wrap, pack up and ship out gifts
4. Write, address, and mail Christmas cards
5. Finish up laundry
6. Prepare house to be left for 3 days (mostly done with this one)
7. Make sure everything is prepare for pet sitter (mostly done with this one)
8. Pick up Mr. SpiderKate's tux
9. Pack for wedding
10. Prepare guest rooms (I'm semi done with this one)
11. Find time to knit

I feel a little better looking at the list since I have quite a few crossed off and some of them are "mostly done".  Tomorrow is going to be a long day though - I'm bringing Mr. SpiderKate early into work so that he can leave right from work.  The good thing about being up early is that at least I'll get an early start to the day.  The bad thing is that our flight doesn't get into MI until 9pm....so it's going to be a long day.  Now I just need to figure out what knitting to bring with me on the trip....

Quick Post

Just checking in real quick to say that I have been knitting! I was recently inspired to knit some items as Christmas gifts - something that I have never done.  I think I've never done it because the idea of a deadline just freaked me out - well that and usually I knit things for people only when specifically requested because that way I know that it is something that they want AND will use.  There is nothing more frustrating (to me anyway) to spend time knitting a item only to give it to a person and have them not want it/use it/etc.  I think that is why Mr. SpiderKate is awesome.  He has appreciated everything I've knit for him, even if the fit wasn't perfect. 

Now, I can't post many photos of what I've knit, but I can show you one photo.  This is a pair of Owlie Hats I knit for my nephews using Karabella Aurora 8 (one skein for each hat).  Very cute and super quick pattern.  I need to knit more things for my nephews since they are little and therefore projects for them should go quickly - perhaps I'll see what else I can dig up to knit for them....

Wild Ivy Shawl

 

I've finally got my Wild Ivy Shawl pattern up for sale on Ravelry! The details: this is a top down "panel" shawl with both chart & written directions AND directions for both fingering & lace weight versions.  The pattern available for $5.00 as a pdf download.  Use coupon code "WILDIVY" to receive 20% off the pattern from now until Dec 7th, 2011!

I've really really really loved designing this shawl.  After I finished my first shawl design, Chincoteague Shawl, I became obsessed with these "leaf" stitch motifs.  I couldn't find one in any of my stitch books that was what I envisioned in my head, so I set about trying to chart out my own leaf design.  It turns out that it is somewhat difficult to chart exactly what you want or at least it was for me.  I didn't give up right away, but I soon became frustrated and decided that I should give it a rest for a bit.  I'm glad that I did take a break from it because it gave me the chance to design En Fuego Shawl as well as knit some other shawls.  

Then one day I'm flipping through stitch pattern books and come across a lace panel motif that is almost exactly what I had in mind for leaves.  I was smitten.  After a couple of false starts, I was able to adapt the stitch pattern to fit how I wanted to look in a shawl.  Then I set about figuring out how to set up the cast-on for a shawl with a panel section which took a little trial and error.  Once I had the cast-on figured out the rest was fairly straight forward (especially compared to my start).  

  

The shawl was initially written for fingering weight yarn but after being asked if a larger version/option would be available, I decided to knit a larger version using lace weight yarn.  I'm glad that I decided to add this option because I think it gives the knitter more options.  I'm really happy with how it turned out :o) 

Finishing things up

I've been in a finishing up mode lately or at least that is what it feels like.  In the last 30 or 45 days I've finished up the following:

Entrelac scarf

Seedling

Wild Ivy Shawl with lace weight yarn

Wild Ivy Shawl with fingering weight yarn

Brushed Suri Loop Scarf

It feels good to finish things up.  Now, I'm starting to feel the itch to simultaneously cast-on a million projects.  Though at the same time I have no idea what to knit next.  I have a new shawl idea in the works, so that is something I'm definitely going to be starting.  I had to put it on hold a little bit so that I could knit the lace weight Wild Ivy Shawl, so I'm definitely itching to get that project going.  Oh! I just realized that I didn't ever post about the Seedling hat.  Well this calls for pictures!

Seedling Hat

Brush Suri Loop Scarf

Lace weight Wild Ivy Shawl

Bubblegum

This color reminds me of bubblegum.  Then I turn around and it reminds me of salmon.  Either way I love it the more I knit with it.  I haven't yet posted about a new shawl pattern I have in the works, but I will soon.  This is a second version I'm knitting - a larger version.  I'm a lot further along then this photo suggests.  In fact, that yarn cake in the photo is completely depleted and I'm about to start the second one.

Limbo

My yarn is talking to me.  I swear it is. "Knit with me, knit with me" it chants.  Only I can't figure out what to knit with any of it!  Crazy, right?!? Normally I have about a gazillion projects I want to knit and not enough time, yarn, or hands to knit them.  I don't know what's wrong with me.  Maybe I should check my temperature.  Okay, I confess that I do know what the problem is.  The problem is that I feel right now like I'm in limbo.  I have a pattern being test knit, but I might need to knit a modified version of this pattern and I want to be prepared to knit this modified pattern.  What if I tie up the needles that I need to knit?  What yarn would I use?  What if I commit the yarn I want to use to another project and then have to find other yarn!  Mr. SpiderKate tried to help me out of this quandary.  The conversation went something like this:

Me: I don't know what to knit right now.

Mr. SpiderKate: What's the problem?

Me: I might need to knit a modified pattern of the pattern I'm having test knit right now.

Mr. SpiderKate: Well, how long will it take you to knit that pattern?

Me: Not very long, I think easily less than a week.

Mr. SpiderKate: Okay, well will you have enough notice? Is it even decided yet if you need to knit this modified pattern?

Me: Well, it's not decided yet and yeah I'll have enough time.

Mr. SpiderKate: So, what's the problem?

Me: I don't even know what yarn I'll use for the pattern.  I need to go to the yarn store tomorrow.

Mr. SpiderKate: You need to go to the yarn store to pick out yarn for a pattern you don't even know if you need to knit yet?

Me: Finally, you get it!

And that sums up my problem.  I need to go to the yarn store to pick out yarn for a pattern I don't even know if I need to knit yet.  If only life were always this simple.

Brushed Suri

This weekend was the one year anniversary of my local yarn store, Park Avenue Yarns.  This also happens to coincide with my one year anniversary of living in TX, so it's something that I'll probably always remember.  I am soo thankful that this store opened close to where I live!  They had a weekend long sale with specific yarn specials each day.  I stopped by on Saturday to have some goodies and to part take in the sale.  I also wanted to pick up the book Coastal Knits since I knew they had that as well.  On Saturday they happened to have all Blue Sky Alpacas yarn on the sale for 26% off.  I couldn't resist picking up some Brush Suri in a white-cream color.  I've been wanting to knit a Brushed Suri Loop Scarf by Merri Fomm ever since I saw my mom casting on for one when I visited with her in Forth Worth.  The yarn is very soft and yummy, but not so easy to cast-on with.  I ended up casting on some last night and finishing up today and I haven't been able to put the project down.  I'm going to force myself to put it down and work on my Einstein coat.  At least that is what I keep telling myself I'm going to do.

Entrelac Scarf

In October my friend Maxine taught Entrelac knitting at our Knitting Guild.  This is something I've long been wanting to learn and was excited when she told me she was going to be teaching it.  She actually told me she was going to teach it in October waaay back in March.  Yeah, it was a long wait but definitely worth the wait.  We used the pattern Watercolor Dreams by Mara Lloyd to learn the technique.  Mara's pattern very clearly lays out the steps to knitting an Entrelac scarf.  There is also a nice diagram that points out how the scarf is constructed.  Essentially the scarf is composed of a series of triangles & rectangles that you knit one at a time.  It starts with the base triangles (only knit at the beginning, thus why they are called the base triangles) and then follows right side triangle, left sloping rectangle, left side triangle, and finally right sloping rectangle. 

The first thing though is to cast-on.  Now with Entrelac, it's important to cast-on very loosely.  Just imagine what you consider to be a loose cast-on and then think even looser.  Maxine suggested using either a much larger needle OR to hold both of your needles together and cast-on using the long-tail cast-on.  I used the two needle held together method.  The cast-on was indeed loose and I was wondering if it was going to work out but decided to trust it.  The cast-on I did turned out to be just perfect though it could have been even looser, to tell the truth.

It's pretty interesting when you first start because you end up knitting it on faith since in the beginning it's hard to see that it's going to actually work.  You end up with what feels like unconnected triangles & rectangles (at least in the beginning) that don't look much like an Entrelac scarf.  But sure enough, as it goes on it all starts to come together.  I had my light bulb moment after going through the steps a couple of times.  I was hooked!  

 

I initially wanted to keep this project as my group knitting project, but I found I couldn't resist working on it at home.  It's a lot of fun knitting because there is a lot going on.  It really kept my interested whether waiting to see what colors were going to come up in the yarn or telling myself "just one more triangle/rectangle".  Of course it was never just one more.  One more led to one more and so on and so on.  

Project details: Cast-on 10/3/11; Cast-off 11/1/11; Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Lite from stash (2 skeins); Colors: browns, greens, & blues;  Size US 7 needles.  The only modification I did was to cast-on 16 stitches instead of 24 stitches.  This made a narrower scarf and accommodated for only having 2 skeins of Noro.

Happy Belated Halloween!!!

Okay, I wanted to post this yesterday but I'm not sure what stopped me.  I made pumpkin cupcakes which were delicious!!!  Okay, they aren't cupcakes exactly, but I call them that when I make them in a muffin tin.  When I make them in a pan then I call them pumpkin bars.  I also made home made cream cheese frosting, which for the record is waaay better than store bought and super easy (I mixed it all by hand).  I even had toothpicks with pumpkins and owls on them to decorate them with and boy did they look cute!  Mr. SpiderKate ate two and I had one and I can't wait to have more today :o)

Bertrand Louis

I came across this pattern (Bertrand Louis) during one of many pattern/yarn searching sessions on Ravelry.  Yes, I confess - I spend quite a bit of time on Ravelry.  I've even started to wonder how much more knitting I could get done if I turned my Ravelry time into knitting time.  My favorite thing to look up on Ravelry is different types of yarn.  I love looking up yarn and seeing what people have knit with it or reading comments about yarn.  Love it! But, I'm getting off track here.  

I had a lone skein of Malabrigo Merino Worsted that was begging to get used up in a cowl, except I was having trouble finding a pattern.  Of course I found myself on Ravelry and after much searching decided on the Bertrand Louis.  The next thing I usually do when I decide on a pattern is to look through other people's project pages for that pattern and see if any red flags or helpful notes pop up.  Bertrand Louis was no exception and it became clear to me that this pattern was not without flaws.  

The major thing I came across in Ravelry is that the number of stitches to cast on was wrong.  The pattern calls for an odd number (49), but many people noted that the half brioche stitch needs an even number (of stitches).  The pattern does have 6 edge stitches (3 at each side), but 49 minus 6 equals 43, which is not an even number.  Now here is the kicker - after reading all of this I was convinced that these people had it wrong and they just hadn't figured out or understood the pattern correctly and instead punted by changing the number of stitches.  As I type this I realize how crazy it sounds because it is crazy!  How could I not believe all these other people who had knit this pattern before me? I'm still baffled by this.  Well you can guess what I did next.  I cast on 49 stitches and tried to figure it out and make it work.  The not so shocking conclusion (after a handful of cast on attempts) is that I could not get it to work.  Part of me still wonders if it's possible to work with 49 stitches, but I'm not sure I see how.  After this rocky start the pattern was pretty much straight forward. 

Oh! The other thing I wasn't quite understanding is the movement of the yarn for the edge stitches.  The pattern for the half brioche stitch and for the edge stitches used the terminology "wyif" which I know to mean to move the yarn to the front of the work.   For the edge stitch it literally meant "move the yarn to the front of work, slip the next stitch, then move the yarn to the back of work".  Essentially the purl stitch is "wrapped" by the yarn, if that makes sense.  It's a very nice technique that makes a pretty sturdy edge. 

Once I got the knitting going, it was a fun knit and pretty fast too.  I forgot how nice it was to knit with Malabrigo Worsted!  The skein was left over from a Clapotis that I made for my mom and I thought it only right that I give the cowl to her.  I mainly kept it as my group knitting project, but then had to move it along so that I could have it done in time for my her (my mom's) birthday. 

Good news!!

I'm having a really good day today because I found out that my En Fuego Shawl pattern was accepted into Knit Picks Independent Designer Program and I couldn't be happier!  It's been an interesting journey from the time I submitted the pattern to the time it was accepted including spending a lot of time on the pattern itself (lots & lots & lots of tinkering) and knitting the sample to send to Knit Picks.  During that time we also moved into a house and I spent some time in Fort Worth (which I often type as a combination of both words "Forth").  I think that all this activity at the end of September & beginning of October really wore me out.  The sad part being that I've only just realized the toll all of this took on me.  The good news is that I'm starting to feel recovered and as a result I'm back working on what I call my "panel shawl".  I've fixed the charts and only have a couple of more things to figure out on it before I finish knitting and write up the pattern.  Now if only those "couple of things" would work themselves out quickly.... 

My "home office" + Merlin

 I also have a vague idea of a cowl design I want to do, but I'm going to wait until I finish up this shawl.  Now, while I haven't been working on my "panel shawl", I have been working on my Entrelac scarf (which I'm totally loving).  I don't have any good pictures of it yet, but I anticipate a photo shoot in the near future.  I'm actually really thankful that I've had this scarf to work on because it's kept me knitting and it feels good to move a project forward.  Let me leave you with a photo of Arthur and the "panel shawl".  He loves a good knit, but they always seem to tucker him out :o)

P.S. My pattern isn't on Knit Picks site yet.  I'll let you know when it's officially for sale on their site!

Fort Worth, TX

I'm spending a couple of days in Fort Worth, TX visiting my parents.  They are here because my dad has a conference at the convention center here for the week.  Today started out with a drive over to Dallas to visit my long time friend Carly, who had spent the weekend in Dallas.  I haven't seen Carly in what feels like forever (I think the last time was when I lived in RI and she lived in MA) and it was really nice to see her and her sister.  After meeting them for breakfast, I headed back to Fort Worth and my mom and I spent the rest of the day walking around and hanging out at Starbucks.  The highlight of our day was discovering that we could walk down into part of the Water Garden across from the hotel.  Very neat and very loud.  Later on we spent the night knitting and watching playoff baseball.  All in all a perfect day :o)

Goodbye 20s, Hello 30s

Happy Birthday to me!

That's right, today is my birthday and it marks the end of my twenties.  I could not be more excited to turn 30!  I feel like I'm betraying all those who turned 30 and tried to hide it or deny it, but I don't see what the big deal is; I guess I've always been fine with birthdays and getting older.  This year is particularly a good birthday because I get to spend it with Mr. SpiderKate!!!  We've spent many birthdays and special days apart that it really means a lot when we get to be together on those days.  Mr. SpiderKate already got me my birthday gift in the form of a trip to our local yarn store.  I picked up a pair of Addi needles, a pattern, and some Madelinetosh Pashmina yarn!

Fingering weight En Fuego Shawl

In other news, I've finally got my En Fuego pattern up for sale!!!  The pattern is $3.99, but I've set up a promotion in honor of my 30th birthday.  When you use the coupon code 30Birthday then you will get 30% off of the pattern.  That makes it only $2.79!!!  The promotion is going to run for a full week starting yesterday and ending on 10/10/11.   

Crazy weekend!

This past weekend has been absolutely crazy!  Between moving and knitting the fingering weight version of En Fuego Shawl, I am exhausted!  Oh and not to mention that I had to wind yarn in our guest bathroom since our desk hadn't yet been moved over to the house.  I am happy to report that we are now all moved in, but not completely unpacked AND that I finished up knitting the shawl.  Originally I really wanted to have the shawl done by Friday (9/30), but I just could not swing it.  When I wasn't moving or unpacking, then I was knitting and when I wasn't doing either of those things, then I was just vegging out.

Desperate times call for desperate measures

This next week is going to be donated to unpacking, photographing the shawl and updating the pattern (En Fuego Shawl) with the fingering weight photographs and measurements.  I am planning to have the pattern up on Ravelry for sale by Tuesday, which just so happens to also be my birthday!!!  I am ridiculous excited for my birthday - honestly I'm not sure someone should be this excited to turn 30, but I really am!  The pattern is going to cost $3.99, but I'm thinking since it's going to be released on my birthday that I'd do some sort of promotion/sale for the first week.  I'll post the promotion info on the Ravelry pattern page as well as here in the blog and on twitter.  Okay, now just to make sure I get it photographed and the pattern updated by Tuesday.  I can do it, right?

In progress fingering weight En Fuego Shawl

Love it!

Knit Picks Gloss in Bordeaux

Look at what arrived in my mail today!!!  Sooo excited (but okay, when am I not excited to get yarn in the mail??) for this yarn to arrive!  The yarn is Knit Picks Gloss in color Bordeaux and it is beautiful.  Love the color and love the yarn.  To tell the truth, I've even been putting projects on hold so that once I got this yarn I could focus on knitting with it.  What am I going to knit with this? Why of course I'm going to knit my En Fuego shawl!  Speaking of putting projects on hold, I'm almost done knitting my Bertrand Louis and I will definitely be writing a blog about that project in the near future.  Otherwise I've been busy packing, loading up my car, driving over to the new house, unloading the car, putting stuff away, and repeat.  It has been pretty tiring, so tiring in fact that last night I took a nap at 7 pm for almost 90 minutes.  After my nap I was worried I would have trouble falling asleep for bed, but no problems there!  Okay, now off to find my swift to get this yarn wound up....except my swift might already be over at the new house.  Looks like I'm making another trip over there!

It's official!

We are officially home owners!  We had our closing at 8 AM this morning and then after a frustrating sequence of events we finally got the keys around 4 PM.  Ugh.  Once we had the keys in hand the excitement sunk in again and we took over our first car trip of items to the house.  Mr. SpiderKate changed out the air conditioner filters and I went to work setting up the bathrooms and other misc. items.  The next week is going to hectic around the SpiderKate household since now we have to finish up packing, move over what we are going to move ourselves and be ready for the movers to come next Thursday.  Knitting will probably be slow over the next week, but I think that if I stick with a easy project (re: no lace)  then I will still be making some knitting progress.  I'm sad that this means I'm going to have to put a lace project on temporary hold, but I'm just at the border and I still have to figure that part out.  Some quality time with charts and I think I'll have the border worked out by next week - just in time to pick back up the lace knitting!  The other big event of the day (okay it wasn't much a big event) was that I had my first ever Starbucks pumpkin spiced latte this morning and it was AWESOME!!!

Pumpkin spiced latte with knitting!

Dropped Stitch Scarf

Last night I finished up the Easy Drop Stitch Scarf Pattern by Christine Vogel.  Above I have the scarf pictured with some lilies Mr. SpiderKate surprised me with the other day.  I can count on one hand the number of times Mr. SpiderKate has gotten me flowers and since he does it rarely, it makes it all that more special when he does.  This week marked the 6 year anniversary of when we met/started dating and thus the flowers.  On to the scarf details!  I started this scarf at the end of June while visiting my parents in MD.  My mom presented me with this variegated yarn and I went to work almost immediately to find the perfect pattern.  I came across the Easy Drop Stitch Scarf pattern and I was sold! 

The yarn is Claudia Hand Painted Yarns Worsted 55 (55% silk 45% merino wool) in colorway Sharks.  I ended up naming my project Swimming Sharks! on ravelry due to the name of the colorway and that the pattern reminded me of the ocean.  Later on I stumbled across this stitch pattern in one of my stitch pattern books and it was called "seafoam" so my instinct of it reminding me of the ocean was spot on!  This pattern was fun and easy - another reason why I picked it.  It even inspired a knitter friend to knit one herself!  Since I'm often inspired by other knitters to knit certain projects, it's really neat that I too can inspire others to knit what I'm knitting.  The unblocked measurements are 59.5" long by 5.75" wide.  I ended up using 156 grams of yarn which comes out to ~262 yards.  Really loving the look of the scarf and I'm pretty sure I'll get good use of it (well if the temperature every goes below 90!).

Chart, swatch, rip & repeat

Arthur helping out

I swear that my cat, Arthur, must have been a knitter or designer in a past life. He loves cuddling up with me when I'm looking at stitch pattern books or working on charting out patterns.  Note that there is no yarn involved at this stage unless of course I am testing out the chart.   Our other cat could care less about my knitting designing.  In fact, Merlin (other cat) often tries to prevent me from working.  He will come over and meow (or scream as I like to call it) until I give him my undivided attention or feed him or clear my lap of everything for him only to have him walk away.  Good thing I have Arthur to encourage me to keep  working. 

Yarn for new shawl design

Speaking of designing - I've had this design stuck in my head from when I finished Chincoteague shawl and I think I've figured it out.  I became obsessed with the leaves down the spine of Chincoteague shawl and tried working them into an all over lace pattern.  However, I couldn't get it work out and decided I needed a break from that design and went on to something else.   Well, I've now finished up that second shawl design (En Fuego Shawl), but those leaves from Chincoteague were still in my mind.  I've also been thinking about a shawl with a stockinette section and suddenly it dawned on me to make the leaves into a panel with stockinette on the sides!  So, that is what I've been working on.  The good news is that I figured out the panel part fairly quickly, but I've been hemming and hawing over what stitch pattern to use for the border.  This has involved putting time in with stitch pattern books which leads to cycle of charting, swatching, & ripping.  I am very excited to knit this shawl; I even wound the yarn yesterday as motivation to get the border pattern finalized.  The yarn winding motivation worked because I'm very close to finalizing the border and hope to start knitting it this weekend.  Oh!  I must mention that more people are knitting Chincoteague shawl and it's really exciting to see other people knit it.  I mean, I can't even say how cool it is to see other people knitting it.  Okay, that is all for now.

En Fuego Shawl photo shoot

Last week I got Mr. SpiderKate to do a photo shoot for my new pattern En Fuego Shawl.  I've already posted the good pictures on ravelry, but I thought I'd post some of the out takes here.  The pattern isn't for sale yet, but will be soon.  The test knitters are finishing up and the written pattern is 99% done.  I've also submitted it to Knit Picks Independent Designer Program, so I'm really excited to see what comes of that.  Even if nothing comes of it I'm still proud of myself for submitting it!  Anyhow, on to the photo shoot!  At the beginning of the photo shoot Mr. SpiderKate kept saying "Do something with your eyes" and this first  photo was the result. 

Mr. SpiderKate: Do something with your eyes

 

 

 

 

Really liked this one except my hands are in the photo

Thought this would show off the pattern better than it did

We took a lot of this type

Iced Coffee recipe

A brief detour from knitting to talk about iced coffee.  I. Love. Iced. Coffee.  Phew, feels good to say that out loud.  However, I'm terrible at making (regular) coffee and until recently have had to resort to going to coffee houses for my iced coffee fixes.  I then learned that my husband, Mr. SpiderKate, is AWESOME at making both regular and iced coffee.  I don't know how I didn't learn this sooner, which just goes to show that even after knowing him for almost 6 years (married almost 4) that I'm still learning things about him!  I think he's tried to keep this secret to himself so he wouldn't get roped into making coffee for me all the time or as he puts it "contributing to my addiction".  Well, he's been making both kinds of coffee for me and I think he's gotten a little tired of my "can you please make me coffee this morning" routine (okay, it might be a little more whiny than I'm portraying it here) and decided to tell me his secrets.  Today I share with you Mr. SpiderKate's recipe for Kate's perfect iced coffee.

Step 1: Brew coffee stronger than normal by using 1/4 cup of coffee grounds and filling water to 2 cup mark (on 12 cup coffee marker).  Reference: for regular coffee we use 1/4 cup coffee grounds and fill water to 3 cup mark.

Step 2: Fill cup with as much ice as possible, top with 2 splenda, and then add cream.

Step 3: Pour hot coffee into cup, mix with straw and enjoy!

Updated list...finally

Remember this list posted here and here?  Well, I have an update (drum roll please)...

1.  Rose lace stole

2.  GAP-tastic cowl

3.  Sweetheart socks

4.  Einstein coat

 

That's right, I finished up the GAP-tastic cowl in the beginning of July.  This project fell victim to "I only work on it at knitting group" and then it fell victim to "I want to finish this so I can start something else". On a side note, I need to get better about blogging about projects when I finish them and not months later.  In my defense, Mr. SpiderKate just took the photos the other day so it's not entirely my fault.  The Einstein coat is still hanging over my head BUT I have worked on it and will talk about it in another post (it's not done).  

 

Project info: 

Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Chunky (2 skeins) in colorway S M Gold (207)

Needles: size US 10 24" circular needle

 

Modeling the GAP-tastic cowl

The GAP-tastic cowl was a nice relaxing knit.  So, what mistakes did I make.  Well, when I first cast on I ended up with a twisted join, which was funny because as I was joining I remember thinking "oh I've never had a problem with joining" and then boom - I joined incorrectly.  Then I cast on again, joined and started knitting only to realize I was off by one stitch in my cast on and of course I don't realize this until I've knit a couple of rounds.  Off by one stitch?!?!?!  And you know that I checked and double checked my cast on number!  Okay, maybe I should have triple checked the count.  Do I rip and start again? Nope!  I decided that it wasn't going to bother me and to just go with the flow.  The cowl is a simple seed stitch, so the only problem created by being off by one stitch was what I call a "seam" look at the start of the round, which I didn't think would be as noticeable with my variegated yarn.  I'm not sure my choice of yarn was the best because (to me) it looks like the colors "pooled" a bit, but it doesn't bother me enough to rip it.  I should probably remain this cowl "go with the flow cowl" since none of the "mistakes" ended up bothering me.  

 

That's my story with the cowl and I'm sticking to it.  This cowl has also had the unfortunate side effect of making me want to knit more cowls which means I might have a renewed interest in buying worsted weight yarn....shhhh don't tell Mr. SpiderKate ;o)

Helical Hat Finished

Finished hat

I just realized I never posted about my Helical Hat!  Oops!  I've been distracted lately and more forgetful than normal.  I'm not sure what is going on as I'm not normally very forgetful - maybe it's just "summer" brain.  Speaking of the never ending summer - this is my first Texas summer and it sure has been hot.  I knew it was going to be hot, but it's just weird that it is still this hot and football is on TV.  I'm use to football starting and the temps being in the 70s not in the 100s! At the end of the week the high is only suppose to be in the low 90s; I'm definitely looking forward to that.  Okay, on to the knitting.

Inside of hat

The helical hat is a fun, quick project.  I believe I already talked about the tubular cast on in a previous post, but let me just mention again that it is a really nice cast on for 1x1 ribbing.  I'm talking nice as in it looks very professional.  Probably the most difficult part of knitting this hat was the crown decreases.  I call this difficult because I did mine keeping with the helical knitting instead of switching over to just one color and having a solid colored crown.  I had no problems keeping the different colors separated while on the circular needle, however that wasn't the case once I switch to DPNs.  The DPNs made everything go crazy for me.  The yarns were all tangled not only around each other, but around the needles as well.  It made me crazy!!  I kept untangling and untangling and untangling and you get the point - a lot of untangling. 

View of top of hat while flat

I was also delusional about how big this hat was turning out.  I was thinking that this would be a great hat to give to my nephew since I haven't knit him anything yet.  Well, while my nephew does have a big head, he doesn't have a man sized head.  This hat is definitely fit for an adult and preferably an adult male or someone with more hair than me. 

View of brim and inside of hat while flat

The shawl that took a week

Homemade cappuccino

 Coffee.  I've been drinking coffee like it's going out of style.  And it's all because a lot of things are going on in the SpiderKate household. I think I mentioned in a post back in June that some exciting things were going on that I couldn't talk about, well I'm glad that I didn't bring it up because it didn't end up working out.  We had been trying to buy a house and it had proved to be quite the undertaking.  Basically we ended up under contract for a house and after going back and forth about repairs and etc it didn't work out - the sellers were overwhelmed as were we.  I was somewhat disappointed that it didn't work out, but we didn't give up.  The end result is that in the next couple of weeks we found another house, put in an offer, had an inspection and are now set to close in the middle of September!  Going through the experience with the first house really taught me a lot about the process and I felt better prepared when we put in the offer on the second house.  Mr. SpiderKate and I are excited to be moving into a place of our own.

Live Oak Shawlette

In other news, I finally wrote up the pattern for En Fuego Shawl and recruited test knitters.  I'm pretty happy with how the pattern turned out and am grateful that knitters have volunteered to test knit it.  The test knitting is set to be done by end of September and the pattern released shortly after that.  Honestly the test knitting process couldn't be going any better.  The feedback I've received so far has been very helpful and the pattern is looking better and better.  

Shortly after I had the test knitters set up, I decided to cast on for the Live Oak Shawlette by Romi Hill.  My goal was to finish this shawl in one week, but I fell short by a couple of days.  I think that I could have easily finished it in one week, but with setting up the test knitters, apply for a mortgage and etc it made it difficult for me to give it all my attention.  The hardest part of this shawl was probably the BO - but only because of the number of stitches and the type of BO.  The stretchy bind off is a double edge sword for me - I love it and I hate it.  I love that it gives a very stretchy edge, but I hate how long it seems to take since it essentially involves working each stitch twice as you bind off.  I ended up doing half one night and the other half the next morning.  Oh and the blocking!  This piece is not for the faint of heart or those that don't block pieces.  This shawl definitely needing blocking to bring out the leaf edging.  Half way through pinning out the leaves, I realized that I wasn't going to have enough pins to pin out each side of the leaves individually so I ended up having the pins do double duty.  Basically I ended up using one pin to pin out the sides of adjacent leaves.  Overall I'd rate this shawl advanced beginner, though Knitscene rated it intermediate.  

Look at those leaves!

Cupcakes :o)

I was going to update about knitting, but I didn't finish my Live Oak Shawlette as planned.  What did I do instead of finishing my shawl? Well, I made cupcakes after I finished dinner.  Mr. SpiderKate requested that I make a cake, but I wanted cupcakes so off I went.  Tonight I give you Joy of Cooking Four-Egg Yellow Cake cupcakes with Quick Orange Icing.  The recipe was pretty straight forward to follow and I ended up with 24 cupcakes.  And yes, they were/are delicious!