Category: knitting
Embrace Octopus sweater: part 1
Well, I’m still waiting to get the yarn from Knit Picks so I can finish the Afmaeli sweater (I ordered it almost two weeks ago!) so I started working on the Embrace Octopus sweater. This is the first time I’ve ever had two sweaters going at the same time but it’s a little less daunting than I expected. What is daunting however is the charts for the octopus sweater. There are 6 pages of charts with very small stitch blocks- they are definitely the most complicated charts I’ve ever used. They aren’t too difficult to follow, but they require a lot of concentration.
Yesterday I had a moment of panic when I realized I had somehow lost 5 stitches and my stitch counts were off. Thirty minutes and lots of frantic counting later I figured out where the lost stitches belonged and added them in. Thankfully I didn’t have to rip out any rows.
Right now I’m about halfway done with the main body of the sweater. The tentacles are looking pretty cool- especially the ones with suction cups! Besides requiring a frustrating number of floats, this sweater is actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. It just requires a lot of concentration.
I’ll update you all again when I finish the body section. No guarantees on when that will be though. Classes start up again on Monday and I won’t have time to sit around all day and knit.
Here’s what the sweater should eventually look like:
I am deviating from the pattern a little bit. Based on people’s comments on ravelry, I decided to use worsted weight yarn instead of bulky and go down a couple needle sizes. I was a bit worries about it being too small even after swatching so I tried it on after about 20 rows of the colorwork and it looks like it should fit just fine!
I decided to save a bit of money on yarn since I have so many projects going so I’m using Lion Brand wool-ease yarn which is 80% acrylic and 20% wool. Usually I hate acrylic yarn but this stuff doesn’t feel too plasticky and it has the added bonus of being machine washable. I got it on sale at Joann’s Fabrics for about $3 per 85g skein (each skein is about 200 yards). I bought 7 skeins for a ridiculous total of $21 in yarn for the whole sweater. A pretty good deal if you ask me even if it did mean I set aside my inherent hatred of all things acrylic. Like I said though, this stuff is actually pretty nice- I’ve used it in sweaters before and it’s pretty soft and wearable.
All in all, I’m really excited to wear this sweater!!
FO: Min Ulla Scarf
After running out of yarn and ordering more, I finally finished the Min Ulla scarf on December 28th. This was such a fun pattern to knit- it took a long time but I never felt bored or tired of this project. The pattern is $6 on ravelry and it is worth every cent. There are tons of fair isle charts which I’m sure I’ll be able to incorporate into other projects down the line and the directions are succinct and well-written.
I loved working with this yarn as well. The darker color is Ella Rae classic heathers in Black-brown and the cream is Cascade 220. Both knit up really well and are pretty comparable (the Ella Rae wool is a bit cheaper). They’re also really soft after blocking.
Speaking of blocking, I had to use a ton of pins on this scarf. My tension wasn’t consistent so I had to block out the differences in width. Thankfully it worked really well and the scarf looks great now. It gave me a good excuse to try out the blocking boards I got for Christmas!
Overall, I loved this pattern and would definitely recommend it!
Afmaeli Sweater Update
I love winter break. Three and a half weeks of doing nothing but sleeping, knitting, and watching Netflix is wonderful. That, combined with the fact that I’m using bulky yarn, means that I’m almost done with the Afmaeli sweater. Unfortunately, I’m stuck at this point since I ran out of black yarn and am waiting on my Knit Picks order to get here so I have more. I’ve had to be a bit creative with this sweater. I also ran out of green yarn and it’s out of stock online so I decided to incorporate some yellow Donegal Tweed (the same type of yarn but a different brand) into the design. For a last minute fix, I think it looks pretty good. I’ve definitely learned my lesson though- I’ll be buying extra yarn for all of my projects in the future!
In the mean time, I bought yarn and started swatching for my next project: the Embrace Octopus Sweater. I’m so excited for this project!! The link on ravelry can be found here. This is what it looks like:
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Another one of my goals this year is to tackle some lace knitting. To start, I want to knit this beautiful scarf called Song of the Sea. You can find it here.:
As you can see, I’m planning to challenge myself and expand my knitting repertoire this year. I’m excited for what 2014 holds!
Afmaeli Sweater: part 1
After about a week full of knitting, I finished the main part of the body of the Afmaeli sweater! Next up are the sleeves. I can’t wait until I get to do the colorwork on the top. The body and soeeves involve a lot of stockinette stitch which gets old after a while.
Its been nice having so much time with nothing else to do but knit and watch Netflix. Classes don’t start up until January 13th so I still have plenty of time to work on this sweater. Im also planning to add a few more hats to my Etsy shop.
The next few days are going to be freezing here in Minnesota- the high temperatures are going to be below zero! My family is going up north to our cabin to celebrate New Years with my grandparents so Im planning to get lots of knitting time inside next to the fireplace where its cozy and warm.
Im also currently blocking the Min Ulla scarf so I’ll have a final post on that in the next week or so!
Happy knitting!
A Very Knitting Christmas
Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good holiday! I personally had a very knitting-filled Christmas. Besides spending a lot of time working on the Afmaeli sweater, most of the presents I received were knitting related. First off, my parents gave me the Knit Picks blocking boards and sock blockers so I won’t just have to pin things out on the carpet in the future.
I need to knit some socks now to try out the sock blockers! I also received this book:
It has tons of beautiful color pictures and the corresponding charts. I’m excited to try it out on a hat or another simple project.
Finally, “Santa” gave me a project bag to carry my current project around in. This will be so much better than the paper bags I’d been using until now.
All in all, I had a great Christmas and was blessed to spend the holiday with family. This winter break has been great so far- I’m slowly recovering from the semester and I’ve been getting lots of knitting done! I’ll post an update on the Afmaeli sweater in the next day or two. Happy knitting!
Afmaeli Sweater: the beginning
Well, I ran out of yarn for my Min Ulla scarf yesterday and I haven’t had the chance to make it to a yarn store yet so I started my next project: the Afmaeli Sweater. It’s a beautiful faire isle yoke sweater made with Aran weight yarn. I’m using the pattern that corresponds to the blue sweater in the picture below
The yarn I’m using is Knit Picks City Tweed Aran. It’s 55% Merino wool, 25% superfine alpaca, and 20% Donegal tweed. It’s a beautiful yarn that is incredibly soft. It’s wonderful to work with in my experience so far and I’ve had no problems with it being splitty like the yarn I’m using for the scarf.
This sweater is for my roommate who kindly offered to buy the yarn since she doesn’t like the feel of normal wool. We got it on sale during the Big Sale on Knit Picks! She picked out three colors: black and cream for the details on the yoke and an emerald green for the main body of the sweater.
The sweater is knit in the round bottom-up which is nice. I’ve been using circulars so much (the knit picks interchangeable circs are amazing by the way- the cables are nice and flexible).
Also, sorry if this reads a bit like an advertisement for Knit Picks. They don’t sponsor me or give me anything to say nice things- I just really like getting nice yarn for cheap!
I’m really excited to work on this sweater! I think it’s going to turn out really beautifully!
Another Hat: Knit Picks Reverie
Ive found that hats are the perfect way to try out new yarn. Today I tried out Knit Picks Reverie yarn in wine. It’s an incredibly soft yarn made of 80% baby alpaca and 20% acrylic. It’s categorized as worsted weight but I think its a bit on the thinner side.
Overall, I really like this yarn. It knits up nicely and it seems like it’s going to be nice and warm. My only complaint is that it’s very difficult to undo stitches as the yarn has a haze that likes to get tangled up. All in all, Reverie is a nice yarn. I’d love to make a scarf out of it!
Mustard Stripe hat
Well, its finals time. With no class and tons of studying ahead of me, its difficult not to ignore school and spend all my time knitting and watching Netflix. Unfortunately, I really need to do well on all of my finals to get decent grades in my classes so not much knitting has been happening. I did knit another hat though! Its loosely based off of a couple generic hat patterns on ravelry but its mostly my own creation- I happened to have some bright mustard yarn and some of my own hand-spun cream yarn laying around so I decided to try to use them up. This is the result.
In other exciting news, I decided to set up an Etsy shop. Stocking it is going to be my project for winter break- I’m planning on knitting lots of fun hats for it. Check it out here. Right now the only item for sale is my mustard stripe hat which I tried to price comparably to other hand knit items on Etsy. Im not planning on being able to support myself off of selling hats but I thought it might be kind of an interesting next step for my knitting.
In other news, sadly, I lost my moose hat somewhere- probably the Target parking lot- so Im in the process of knitting myself another one. I ran out of yarn half-way through so I had to order more. Im hoping the dye lots aren’t too different; the whole thing has been a bit of a fiasco. Its definitely a great hat pattern though!
Min Ulla Scarf: part 2
Well, after a month of knitting, I’m about half way done with the Min Ulla scarf. The colorwork takes forever- I usually like to memorize my charts too so this bothers me a little with all of the different patterns even though I like how they look. As frustrating as it can be, the scarf is turning out to be quite lovely in my opinion. I’m just trying to fight burnout as I have a lot of knitting left to do. We’ll see if I manage to finish it by Christmas…
FO: Another Hat
I love knitting hats! They’re so addicting- they don’t take very long to knit and they are really practical for winter. I definitely like the instant gratification. It’s a good break from the Min Ulla scarf which I’m almost halfway done with. It’s beautiful but the colorwork takes forever and I’ve been having some difficulties keeping a consistent gauge.
Hats on the other hand only take a day or two to knit! There are so many fun patterns out there from simple ones like the one pictured here to incredibly intricate lace hats. I love adding my own touch to the simple ones with various colors or stitch patterns. I think everyone in my family is probably going to be getting a hat this year for Christmas…
The hat below was knit loosely off of the free Strib hat pattern on ravelry
A Knit's Tale 