Lesson learned...the hard way

I have scarves coming out of my ears! I am on a full blown scarf kick.  It started with the Christmas scarves - the ruffled ones & the chunky one.  Okay, that is a lie.  It actually started with the Manitou Passage scarf that I just had to knit.  When I saw this scarf being knitted by a friend, I knew I had to knit it - to say I was captivated would be an understatement.  Obsessed might be a better word.  Okay, but, and I quote - "I hardly ever knit scarves", what is a girl to do?  Well, if you are this knitter then you commit to knitting the scarf via continental knitting because you remember you are trying to convert to continental knitting.  Phew, crisis averted.  

The only problem is that this scarf started an avalanche.  Why not knit more scarves? Oh and why not knit scarves for Christmas (see post here & here).  Well, I finished the Christmas scarves, but this one is still hanging on.  The Manitou Passage scarf was originally going to be a Christmas scarf until disaster struck.  I was happily knitting away on the scarf when I almost got until the end of the first skein of yarn and realized I hadn't bought enough yarn to properly finish the scarf.  I had two skeins of Manos del Uruguay Maxima and I really needed three.  No problem - I work at a knitting store, I will just pick up the third when I go in for knit night.  

Except when I went to knit night all ready to pick up the third skein what I found was an empty hook where the yarn should have been.  All the rest of the skeins were gone! Gone!  ARgh!!!  I did the only thing a knitter can do and that was to pout.  Silently.  Briefly.  Then let it go & ripped out the scarf and restarted from the beginning.  As other Raveler's have done, I modified the pattern to 12 stitch cables with 1 edge stitch per side.  I re-cast on for the scarf (12*3 + 2 = 38 stitches) and away I went.  I got lot of knitting done on this over Christmas and *hope* to have it done before the end of January.  

2012 Knitting Wrap-Up

I did a very similar post to this last year (you can find it here) and thought I'd do it again.

2012 completed projects:

• Ruffled scarves (x4)
• Wedge socks
• Classy Slip Up Socks
• Daybreak
• Thuja socks for Stephen
• Arm Warmers by Blue Sky Alpacas
• Cedar Shake Fingerless Gloves
• En Fuego Shawl (Yellow lace weight version)
• En Fuego Shawl (Black fingering weight version)
• Rodekool Scarf
• Amelie
• Baby Sophisticate
• Brushed Suri Loop Scarf/cowl (x2)
• Lancaster Scarf
• Multidirectional Scarf
• Summer Solstice Mystery KAL 2012 - shawl
• Gap-tastic Cowl
• Seedling hat
• Baby Beanie
• Belle Epoque (designed & knit)
• Merlyn (designed & knit)
• Silverbells Shawl (designed & knit)
• Pumpkin Spice Cowl (designed & knit)

Works in Progress

• Cirruncinus (design & knitting in progress)
• Brioche hat (design & knitting in progress)
• Neon shawl (design & knitting in progress)
• Gloves with fingers
• Manitou Passage Scarf
• Barely Sugar Cowl
• Rocky Coast Cardigan 
• *cough*Einstein coat*cough*

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.  My designing kinda fell off at the end of the year (as did my blogging), but I have a couple of projects close to being done/ready to publish.  I was pretty bad at time management during the second half of 2012, so that is something I can work on & get better at this year.

2013!

These guys partied a little too hard last night:

Arthur!

Copernicus!

Daybreak Blocking!!

I couldn't think of a better way to spend New Year's Eve then by blocking my Daybreak Shawl between watching movies with Mr. SpiderKate.  Oh! And I'd like to include a quote from my sister who has complained about the lack of mentions about her in my blog, though her quote was more about how she hasn't received any knitted items from me recently - "I was checking out your blog today.  I saw a lot of items being made, none of which came to my home".   My other favorite quote from her is "You can never have enough hand knit items", which was in response to when I asked her if she ever got sick of me knitting things for her.

Final FO of 2012!

It's my final finished object of 2012!  I'm talking about my Daybreak shawl.  I realized just before Christmas that if I worked on it, then it might be possible to finish it before the end of the year.  Then I realized that the end of the year meant I had less than a week to finish it.  But I was up for the challenge and started knitting away.  Let me just say that some of those final rows were looooong.  Very long.  I may or may not have taken a couple of breaks in the middle of some of the rows.  It all paid off though when I completed that last row!  Though I did postpone doing the bind off until tonight when I really could have done it last night.  Oh well, at least it got done :o)

Yay for being done!!! Okay, almost done :o)

I still have the ends to weave in and it needs to be blocked, but I'm counting it as being done.  I used Ella Rea Lace Merino for my Daybreak in a pink/fuschia color & gray.  I ended up using 58 g (267 yds) of the pink and 73 g of the gray (336 yds).  I knit the medium size, which the pattern said would take 240 yds of color A and 270 yds of color B.  Since I haven't blocked it, I don't know my exact gauge, but I'm probably pretty off since my yarn usage differs from the pattern.  I also modified the edging by adding in those yarn overs, and while they were dropped, that might have slightly affect the amount of yarn used; though the differences in gauge is the real culprit.  I'll post more info about what gauge I got and my final measurements after I get this blocked (which, fingers crossed, I hope to do tomorrow!).

Getting into the Christmas spirit

I'd been feeling kinda blah about Christmas, but then it got cold here.  I mean it finally got cold and my Christmas spirit kicked into high gear, which resulted in Christmas exploding in my living room.  I went out shopping, I got gifts, I wrapped gifts, and I got a couple of packages out in the mail.  I was productive.  It also helped that I realized that I need to have all my Christmas shopping done AND mailed this week.  You see, next week we are traveling to Michigan for Christmas and I knew that if I didn't get things done this week then they were never going to get done.  I only have one more package to mail and at the beginning of the week I had 4, so I'm going to consider this week a success even if I don't get that last package in the mail this week (I definitely will get it out on Monday).

Christmas Explosion

Related to Christmas gifts, Mr. SpiderKate and I had a conversation regarding knitting scarves as gifts for his Aunts that went something like this:

Me: So, what do you want to get for your Aunts for Christmas?
Mr. SpiderKate: You are knitting them the scarves.
Me: No. You said not to knit them anything.  Maybe I could knit them something....if it was quick and easy.
Mr. SpiderKate: Anything with ruffles would be good.

Ah ha! I could knit them each a ruffle scarf that was all the craze awhile back.  Well, they are still a little bit of a craze, but it's calmed down now.  I will confess though - I almost gave up on the first scarf.  It just seemed really hard to get into any sort of rhythm when knitting them.  I persevered and once I was about half way through the first scarf, I got into a rhythm with pulling out the yarn, preparing it for knitting, and then knitting with it.  The first scarf was probably the "hardest" and by the end they were just flying off my needles.

The details:
Ravelry Project Page: Ruffled Scarves
Yarn: Pizzo Lux by Mondial (each scarf took one skein of yarn)
Colors: Various colors (teal/gold, rose/gold, black/gold, & white/gold)
Needles: US 11 (8.00 mm) straight needles (I found that straight needles worked better then using a circular as a straight needle.)
Scarf pattern: CO 8 stitches and knit every row. Bind off when approx. 8 "holes" to end of yarn.  Sometimes I had to fudge the bind off by combining a couple of stitches when I didn't leave enough holes for all 8 stitches to be bound off properly.  For the last stitch I pulled the remaining yarn through the loop and then if I had enough, I tied another small knot - normally I don't do that in knitting, but it seemed like the scarf need the extra knot.  The extra knot isn't noticeable as it gets hidden in all the ruffles.

If you find yourself in need of a very last minute knitted Christmas gift, then definitely give this scarf a try.  It really only takes a couple of hours (or less once you get the hang of it) to knit.

Bulky yarn + big needles = love

I'm not sure how it happened, but November is gone and December is here!  November was pretty busy for me, especially since towards the end of the November I decided that maybe I would knit gifts for Christmas.  Yes, I am that crazy person.  It started with a bulky scarf that I decided to knit for one of my sister-in-laws.  I figured that if I could finish the scarf in a reasonable time, then it wouldn't be that crazy of an idea to knit some Christmas gifts. 

The pattern I used was Lancaster by Kristin Spurkland.  I used the yarn the pattern called for, Baby Chunky by Twinkle/Classic Elite.  Coincidentally, I even used the same color as in the pattern.  I cast on for this project on Nov 18th and cast off on Nov 20th.  It was really that quick.  I'd estimate that maybe it took 5 hours to knit.  Maybe.   I haven't knit a scarf this quickly in FOREVER.  Bulky yarn + big needles might be my new favorite knitting project.   I used all of my skein, which made for a pretty long scarf.  My sister-in-law is tall, so I think it will be a good fit for her. 

There isn't a thing I didn't like about knitting this pattern.  The pattern is well written & easy to memorize.  I was equally impressed with the yarn and found it to be a lot softer than I thought it would be.  I'm fairly sensitive to wool and I think it's even something that I could wear around my neck without too much trouble.  Sadly, I've just gotten around to blocking this tonight, so I don't have any final pictures or measurements yet.  Also, I'm really hoping this doesn't take too long to dry since I need to mail it out this week so that it arrives in time for Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving & Black Friday Sale!

Just a quick note to say Happy Thanksgiving to all!!  Also, I'm running a Black Friday sale starting today and ending Monday night.  Buy any pattern (or patterns) from my Ravelry shop and get 20% off the total order!  No coupon code needed!!  In other news I've created a Ravelry group for my designs.  Check out the group here: SpiderKateKnits Designs.  It's a small group, but hopefully we'll grow and have some fun along the way!

AND in case you missed it, I have a new pattern out: Merlyn.  I did blog a little about it here, but neglected to blog about it again when I released the pattern.  This shawl is a sideways knit shawl with a border that is knit on as the shawl is knit.  If you're looking for a quick last minute Christmas gift, then look no further!  In my post I talked about how much ripping and reknitting I did for this design, so I can attest to just how quickly it knits up.  The shawl was knit with Vice Paradigm on US 5 (3.75mm) needles.  A big thank you goes out to Lizzy Inman of Vice (Yarns) for her generous support!

This shawl design in particular holds a very special place in my heart because it's named after my cat.  Now, I know that it might be weird to name a shawl after a cat, but during the designing phase of this shawl my cat became ill and eventually had to be put to sleep.  It was a very sad time in the SpiderKate household, but we believe that he's gone on to a better place now.  We still miss having the little guy around (he loved turkey day!).  In my mind this shawl was always named for him and I believe it's fitting for this fantastic shawl to be named after such a great cat.

Sleeve redo

I just might be crazy.  Today I ripped out the sleeve I completed in my Rocky Coast Cardigan.  Yes, you read that right.  I ripped it out.  It wasn't easy to rip out either - apparently EZ sewn bind off doesn't really rip out, you have to actually undo it.  Why did I rip it out?  I just wasn't happy with my decreases.  Essentially I was knitting along on the second sleeve and got to the point where I had to decide if I was going to follow what I did for the first sleeve or follow the pattern as written.  I looked at my first sleeve and realized that I really was unhappy with the decrease structure I did.  Basically, I had bunched all the decreases at the end of the sleeve, which just didn't look good. 

Newly ripped sleeve

The good news is that is was pretty easy to rip out and pick up the stitches.  Since I was in progress on the second sleeve and just coming up to the first decrease, I used that as a marker to figure out where to rip back to in the first sleeve.  I think that I got it pretty close to where it should be and if not, then it's close enough for me.  Now I have this crazy idea that maybe I can finish both sleeves by the end of the week....hmmmmm. Oh and perhaps knit a Christmas gift this week.  Actually, I'm pretty sure I am crazy.  Wish me luck!

Daybreak!

The shop is doing a KAL and the pattern is Stephen West's Daybreak shawl.  This is a pattern that I've had in my queue for awhile now, but haven't gotten around to knitting.  The hardest part of this pattern was picking out the yarn.  Let me tell you - I spent A LOT of time on Ravelry looking through all the Daybreak projects.  Probably more time than I should admit to.  Did all that research help? I'd like to say yes, but I think at the same time it just made me more confused about what colors I should do.  Or maybe I just need to knit a Daybreak shawl in every color combination!  Okay, that might be a little crazy.  In the end I decided to look through my stash to see if I had something I could use because at least that would help narrow down the color choices.  

So, I go looking in my stash and I see that I have two skeins of Ella Rae Lace Merino in a fuchsia color. Why do I have two skeins? Who knows!  But it was probably because I wanted it around for design purposes.  Well, since this yarn is actually a light fingering weight yarn and NOT a lace weight, I don't need to have two skeins around for design purposes.  Since I got this yarn from Park Avenue Yarns, I knew that I could find another color in Ella Rae Lace Merino to make my Daybreak.  After much debate and many color consultations, I ended up going with a grey color, which is more of a lavender/purple grey.  With my yarn picked out & wound, I was finally ready to start my shawl.

I finished the first section yesterday and got started on the stripes! Yay! I actually like the stripes part of the shawl better than the first part because the increases are really easy to follow - no counting involved!  I tried to use a marker in the first section to eliminate having to count to the halfway mark for the make one stitch, but it didn't really help out all that much.  I still had to count and check things even with the marker.  My plan right now is to knit the medium size, but I might be tempted to go for the large size...we'll see!

I'm doing one modification for this pattern.  I had to add a yarn over after the first two edge stitches (so before doing the first make one on the right side) AND I added the same yarn over before the last two edge stitches (on the right side).  Now, I can't take credit for this modification, but it's something that I came across in the research that I did when trying to decide on my shawl colors.  I didn't want to have to do this modification, but it was just too hard for me to complete the make one left on the wrong side without the yarn over there.  My edge was going to be waaaaaay to tight without it.  Okay, so what do you do with the yarn over on the wrong side? You drop the yarn over and then pick it back up according to which make one you are doing and then make that stitch.  It's really that easy and saves a lot of frustration when doing the make one left stitch on the WS where you need to purl through the back loop.

How would this instruction look in the pattern? It would look something like this:

All RS rows: K2, yo, M1L, (follow rest of instructions for this row until last two stitches), M1R, yo, k2.

All WS rows: K2, drop yo, M1L, (follow rest of instructions for this row until last two stitches), drop yo, M1R, k2.