Mi Corazon

It's about time!  I was provided with some yarn by the lovely Lizzy Inman of Vice Yarns in her (then) new neon colorway.  I choose the Neon Yellow one or as I like to refer to it, Highlighter Yellow, and got designing away.  A big thank you to Lizzy Inman of Vice Yarns for her generous support!

Design process photo

Vice Paradigm Neon Yellow (Highlighter Yellow)

The result of that designing session is a shawl called Mi Corazon.  Mi Corazon is knit using just one skein of Vice Paradigm yarn (80% Merino, 20% Nylon) with US size 6 (4.0 mm) needles.  I knit mine on 40"/100 cm circular needles, however since it is a smaller shawl, I think you could get away with 32"/80 cm circular needles.  The pattern includes both charted and written instructions.  The best part? It's currently on shawl sale for $4 until the end of the month!  (Can you tell I have shawls on the brain???)  No coupon code required!  The regular price will be $6 starting on April 1st.  

This shawl was named for the tiny hearts created from the stitch pattern.  I must admit though - I didn't see the hearts at first until a fellow knitter & friend pointed out the heart pattern to me.  But from that point forward it was all I could see when I looked at the shawl.    It was a joy to both design & knit this shawl; I hope that you enjoy it as well!

A week in pictures 3/8-3/14

Magic Loop

My sister and her boyfriend recently visited me & Mr. SpiderKate here in TX.  And by recently I mean they just left today (arrived this past Friday).  I was scheduled to teach a class on Magic Loop at Park Avenue Yarns on Saturday morning and with my sister being a knitter, I signed her up!  Now, while she does knit, she doesn't knit like I do - which is to say that she doesn't knit as much as I do (in fact when I last saw her, she brought me a knitting project to fix).  

I decided that it would be a good idea to give her a little preview of what Magic Loop was the night before the class.  So, Friday night I did a demonstration and she goes "that's going to take 2 hrs to teach? You just did that in 5 mins!".  Yes, I did do it 5 mins, but she was also just watching and not actually trying out the technique.  I made it look easy because I Magic Loop all the time.  Fast forward to Saturday morning and she understood why the class was 2 hrs long.  I was a little nervous that she wasn't going to get it, but by the end of the class she (and all the students!) were magic looping like pros!  I was one proud sister!

Mary's magic loop baby hat!!

Spring is in the air

As someone who knits a lot of lace, well, I haven't been knitting a lot of lace.  This has made me a little bit sad because I really love knitting lace.  Love it.  How has this happened?  Well, I'm going to blame my new obsession with crochet.  I am crazy about crochet and keep trying to find new projects to start. In fact, I'm resisting starting a new crochet project tonight, but that's for another post.  I'm getting back on the lace bandwagon with the Springtime Bandit.  Park Avenue Yarns is doing this shawl as the KAL for March, which I had a hand in picking out!  I won't lie that I was hoping to do a shawl for a KAL because I know it's just the kick in the butt I need to get my lace mojo back.

The Fibre Company Terra - Copper Pennies (828)

I'm knitting mine using The Fibre Company's Terra yarn, which is a lovely Baby Alpaca, Wool, & Silk blend.  This yarn is heavenly to knit with.  Heavenly!  This is my first time knitting with any yarn from The Fibre Company and I can say for certain that it won't be my last.  I really love the color - Copper Pennies (828) - because it just screams Spring!  It may also be that I just love this teal/blue/green color since my primary knitting bag is the same color.

Set-Up & Rows 1-9 of Body Chart completed!

I cast on yesterday during the morning knit group and got through the Set-Up chart and Rows 1-9 of the Body Chart.  I've worked a little bit on it today and am thisclose to having two repeats of the Body Chart done.  I'm knitting on US 9 (5.5 mm) circular knitting needles, though I don't know the exact cord length - it's from my interchangeable set and seems long enough for now.  There seems to be some conflicting information regarding what needle size to use - Ravelry lists a US 8 (5.0 mm), but the pattern listed a US 9 (5.5 mm).  I ended up going with the US 9 because I knit a little on the tight side....that and my US 8 needles are tied up in another project at the moment.

It's all in the family :o)

Not this past weekend, but the weekend before (Feb 8th to Feb 12th) I took a quick trip to visit my family in Kansas.  My sister (who lives in Virginia) also flew in to visit over the same time.  Prior to this trip, my sister and I discussed teaching my mom how to crochet.   We came armed with our crochet projects and a couple of crochet hooks for her to try out.  I even bought another hook from her local yarn store, The Yarn Barn, as a third candidate for her to try.  

Mom's first attempt at crochet!

The crochet got off to a little bit of a bumpy start.  Somehow, I'm still not sure how, her crochet ended up going in a circular but at the same time not going in a circle.  Instead of having the tail of the yarn at the bottom corner of the dishcloth, the tail ended up in the middle.  Mary and I had no idea what happened, but she was being a little bit crazy while learning.  And by crazy I mean not really listening...  In the photo you can see how she's using it as some sort of top of bottle warmer.

My mom's second attempt at crochet

She decided not to keep the bottle warmer, pulled it out, and started again.  Her second attempt went much better and she was crocheting away.  We all worked on a dishcloth using single crochet.  I started mine by chaining approx. 20-22 stitches.  I'm pretty sure my mom started with a similar amount of stitches, but my sister started with a lot more.  Either that or she is a very loose crocheter.  All of her dishcloths turned out very wide, much wider than mine or my mom's.  

Mine is the yellow one; Mary's is the orange

We all got a dishcloth done during the course of the visit.  Mary decided to leave her's with my mom and I ended up doing the same.  It was hard to part with the yellow dishcloth, as it is my favorite color despite what my sister will try to tell you (she claims my favorite color is orange), but I'm glad it went to a good home.  The second one I started there was with half double crochet (hdc).  I tried to convince my mom and sister to learn hdc, but both refused.  Hopefully I can convince them to learn it someday.

I'll end of a series of shots of my sister crocheting that I think are pretty cool:

I can crochet!

I can no longer say that I don't know how to crochet.  January saw a lot of raining days down here in Houston, which I took advantage of on one particularly rainy and dreary afternoon.  I taught myself to crochet!  I started by following the directions for a sample granny square in the book Granny Square Love by Sarah London.  I used scrap yarn leftover from my potato chip scarf and a size G (4.0 mm) hook.  It was somewhat frustrating at first because, well, I was learning something new.  

Next up I crocheted a dishcloth using some really old stash yarn.  The yarn is Tahki Cotton Classic and the stitch is half double crochet (hdc).  The pattern was from the Granny Square Love book and is simply called a dishcloth.  I'd link to the pattern but it's not listed on Ravelry or anywhere else that I can find.  I've put the dishcloth to use since making it and while I love the look of the stitch pattern, the yarn isn't that absorbent of a cotton yarn.  I think it would make a better washcloth or scrubby towel.

I can honestly say that I am enjoying crochet.  Enjoying it enough that I'm jumping all the way in and am crocheting a cowl.  Yes, I am crocheting a cowl as part of the shop's (Park Avenue Yarns) first CAL of the year.  It's been a little bumpy crocheting the cowl, but I'm making progress and trying not to worry too much about my mistakes.  The hardest part so far has been joining in the right spot at the end of each round.  I may have accidentally decreased stitches, but I'm considering it all part of the learning process!  And until I get an in progress photo of the cowl, my project bag will have to do :o

Potato Chip!

Okay, so I broke a promise that I made to myself.  That promise was that I wasn't allowed to start any new projects until I finished up some of the WIPs I had lingering around.  My first finished object of 2013 is the result of breaking that promise.  I rationalized breaking the promise because I really needed a Potato Chip scarf to have as a class sample AND they are fun & fast to make.  So, I don't feel too bad.

Snapshot of color

I knit mine using Kudo by Plymouth Yarn.  I used color 55 which I would describe as a blue-purple-red leaning rainbow.  The yarn is a 55% cotton, 50% rayon, & 5% silk blend.  I enjoyed working with this yarn for both the fiber content and the color.  I haven't knit something with such a variation in color in a long time so I had forgotten how much fun it is and how it can really pick up your mood.  I also happen to think that it makes a really lovely potato chip scarf with all the color changes.

I love this project for beginner knitters as it makes a scarf that looks harder than it actually is to knit.  Plus you are going knitting a small number of stitches at time, making it really dynamic and never boring.  Oh and I love that it only uses the knit stitch.  It just really shows off that with a little bit of knitting knowledge, you can make a complicated looking scarf.  I followed the pattern given here by Barbara Aguiar using size US 8 (5.0 mm) straight knitting needles.  You can find my project here: Kate's Potato Chip scarf.  The scarf currently resides at Park Avenue Yarns as a sample for the Knit 1 class.

I love this photo because it looks like the scarf is floating!

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!