Tag: black

FO: Snape Mitts

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Snape Mitts
Pattern: A mash up of Frankenfingers and Estonian Double Mitts
Yarn: Knitting Goddess 4ply British Wool and Nylon, Rowan Yorkshire Tweed 4ply
Needles: 2.5 mm
Yardage: 36 g / 157 yards Knitting Goddess 6 / 30 yards Rowan Yorkshire Tweed

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This is my very first skein of Knitting Goddess. It arrived in early January, and I was enthralled by it from the moment it arrived. It was shiny and silky but, not at all like silk, if that makes any sense. It feels very strong and robust and there is a definite sheep-y smell. So I jumped at the first opportunity to knit something with this yarn. This is also the first time I’ve used self-striping yarn. I always assumed that I would be driven nuts by the colour change not happening exactly at the end of a row; that it would be to obvious or stilted. I was wrong. Self-striping is so much fun. And these mitts were 52 stitches wide, not the the standard 64 stitches sock width. And the self-striping still works!! Magic.

Speaking of magic, I wanted to make a pair of mitts in remembrance of Snape / Alan Rickman. This colourway was perfectly Slytherin so off I went. I started with the picot cuff, knit up to the end, then I felt that it needed a little extra detail, so I picked up stitches on the inside of the palm, about 3 or 4 cm down from the bind off, using some extra Rowan yarn I had. I then did a tubular bind off to preserve the ribbing on both sides.

I have been wearing them a lot. I was a little worried that my skin (which is disagreeable) might not like such a sheep-y wool. Wrong again! The wool is very nicely co-existing with my eczema prone skin. Can’t wait to knit up more stuff with this yarn. So glad I signed up for a year-long club. It is a wonderful thing to know I will be getting more and more of this yarn.

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WIPs 2 March 2016

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Why yes, green is one of my favourite colours. I’ve only been working on a couple of projects recently, not for lack of knitting but one them is a demanding knit. I’ll let you guess which one.

Snape Fingerless Mitts – These are coming along nicely. I really love the yarn, Knitting Goddess 4 ply British Wool and Nylon. It is soft and supple, yet strong. I can’t wait to see how it wears. I’m not following a particular pattern for these; I’m consulting one for the gusset and another for the picot edging. I think I will also do a little fringe with some leftover Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift in Mooskit.

In Dreams Shawl – I’m happy to finally pick this up. I haven’t worked on it at all since autumn 2014. It’s slow going, which I find very frustrating. But the elation when I finally finish a chart is what is going to keep me on track. I have set a goal with myself to finish this by the end of the month. I have 3.5 charts to go, but one of the charts is so big it’s split into two pages. I’m more than a little worried about getting it done on time, but I will try my best. It really is lovely, just very hard to photograph on the needles have it not look like a lumpy mess.

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Wednesday 14 August 2013

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I finished this hat a few weeks ago, and promptly cast on for a second one since I have enough yarn leftover. It will be red hat with a grey dragon, though, since the yardage might be a little tight.

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This hat is for my son, and I have been working (slowly) on his neckwarmer, I should be done before the snow arrives. If I actually get all the the winter stuff done before winter begins, that will a first for me!

Thursday 18 July

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Thyrniros

I finished the Thyrniros cardigan, all that’s left to do is the installation of the zipper and blocking. I still love icelandic knits, even with the lopi yarn being as itchy as it is. I started another cardigan right away, of course. I’m going to make Shalder; the yoke pattern reminds me of design elements in the Dwarves’ armour/costumes in The Hobbit.

I’m also working on a hat, mitts, and a neckwarmer. The mitts are for me, the hat is for my daughter and the neckwarmer is for my son. I am so glad I feel like knitting again.

Autumn Has Arrived!

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At the bus stop

So I’ve been working on winter accessories. (Okay, when I’m not working on Sanagi, which is a lovely pile of straight stitch at the moment, but I should it finish soon.) I made this hat for my son according to his specifications. Since I couldn’t do a detailed picture of The Hulk, he settled for words instead. It turned out quite well, I improvised the pattern but kept it simple for once. It’s a little too big which means I might get two winters out of it. I knitted his name into the inside of the brim, so hopefully it won’t get lost at school.

The Hulk

I have another hat to finish, plus I’ll need some mittens for myself. Something super warm so I can grip the steering wheel of my car first thing in the morning without my hands falling off.

Summer Round-Up

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Simmer Dim knit with STR Lightweight in Thraven
Simmer Dim knit with STR Lightweight in Thraven

My plans to be a productive knitter during the summer months exploded in my face (yet again). The summers here are as hot as the winters are cold.  I love the cold and hate the heat. Once it hits 30 C, I am done; I just lie on the floor waiting for the heat to end.  I got off to a good start in June, with Nerd Wars to motivate me, but that is where the good times end.  I finished Simmer Dim in 2 weeks for a Nerd Wars challenge. I just love it. It’s going to get a lot of use this fall and winter. Then I made a Milo tunic for my daughter. I got it finished on time and thankfully it is knit top down because I ran out of yarn, so it is a short-sleeved sweater in the end.

I got more done in July than August, but I missed my deadlines and didn’t submit anything for Nerd Wars. I started the Pod of Cetaceans Cardigan, which is a great pattern, but I since I was working with a cotton blend yarn I didn’t entertain the idea of a steek for a second. I had no trouble modifying it for straight knitting and it was going really well, I’d reached the yoke when my deadline ran out, and the WIP has been sulking in a corner ever since. Same thing happened with my August WIP, I didn’t make the deadline and I’m too mad at myself to pick it up right now.

I should really be a responsible knitter and sit down and finish what I start. I went to do just that and then I stumbled upon the Sanagi dress pattern. I’ll just make a swatch to get it out of my system…

Back in Canada

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I’m back from my trip to China. It was amazing. Except for the internet. The internet does not work there anymore, at least if you want to access sites that are not based in China. Since I don’t read Chinese, I was stuck in 1995. I travel to China regularly, and this was the most aggravating internet experience yet. In 2009, I was able to access Facebook no problem. This time, no Facebook, Twitter or Goodreads (?!) nor any site that had blogspot or wordpress in the url. My last post, saying I was in China, was written in mid-January when I tried to post via my iphone app. It only worked once I arrived back in Canada. At least my google reader worked, but I couldn’t click-through to an actual blog post.

I gave my father-in-law the St. Enda sweater and he wore it everyday. My non-existent photographer skills didn’t allow me to get a great shot of it. The cables came out really well, but it’s hard to see in the photo because, well, me, and I have it on good authority that the flash on the iphone 4/4s is no good.

St. Enda

I didn’t get much knitting done, but I did discover JKnit and it is incredible.  There is a website, knitpoint.com, that sells patterns that are formatted for the app. I used the Pro version of the app to completely re-write the pattern for the Sutton-Hoo Hat I started before I left. I frogged the whole thing because it wasn’t turning out the way I saw it in my head. JKnit really helped me to organise my thoughts into a pattern and now it’s turning out the way I expected. I’m using this baby hat as a rough template:

Rough template for Sutton-Hoo

 Jet-lag is no good for getting knitting done. I’ve been spending my days in an awake yet not-awake haze since I got back last week. It’ll take me another week or so to be completely back to normal. Next week cannot get here soon enough.

Happy New Year

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I haven’t posted in forever, but I’ve been knitting. Steadily working on St. Enda. I should actually be done on time as long as no-one gets sick. Considering the amount of sickness this family had during December, I feel kinda confident that we’ve caught pretty much everything there is to catch this season.

This a progress shot on the sweater. I’ve finished the sleeve and I’m half-way through the back now. Once I finish the back, I just have the other sleeve, collar, sewing up, and I’m done! We are going to China for the Lunar New Year in 2 weeks, so I’ll be able to give this to my father-in-law in person. I haven’t been to China since 2009, I’m very excited about going back.

Okay, so I have one thing to admit about my St. Enda. Something blasphemous. I am knitting this sweater in acrylic yarn. A Starmore in acrylic. I feel guilty about it, but it’s not for me and I know the washing machine it will be washed in regardless of actual garment instructions. It destroyed 3 of my under-wire bras. So acrylic it is. But I feel ashamed to be using it because I really hate working with it. It is stiff, inflexible, and plasticky and I miss working with a nice yarn made of non-plastic fibres. My only way out is to finish this, I guess.  The pattern is quite simple, but there are some mistakes, as in stop at row 28 for neck shaping, then the next line instructs you to continue from row 19, etc… It’s pretty easy to figure out  that I should stop at row 18. As long as you read through the pattern thoroughly before knitting it should all work out. (I hope!!).