Sunday, September 19, 2010

Colors and My Stash

For our "get to know your fellow" swappers post for this term of HSKS (this is the 12th, the 9th that I've participated in) it was determined that I have the largest stash in our group. You can see the post with my stash pictures here. (Or you can see a couple of the pics below... My Malabrigo cubby and my Wollmeise + Sundara FMC basket.)



A lot of the comments left on my blog were about how COLORFUL my stash is. I love colors. I love pretty much every color! I cycle for favorites depending on trends, seasons, my mood, pretty much anything. I can get triggered to a FAVORITE by seeing a shirt I like, or a flower, or a picture... ANYTHING!

Right now I am in love with ORANGE! I don't know if it's a subconscious want for it to be fall. I'm not sure where it came from. Normally I don't long for fall, being as it's the END of summer which is my favorite season.

 I have been fondling and staring at all my orange sock yarns. I cannot decide what I want to do with them or what I want to make. OR where to start. All I know is I WANT to cast on something ORANGE!

I've been looking at Stephen West scarves/shawlettes. Ronni gifted me the new one Pagona that is a preview for the upcoming West Knits book. Or maybe a Daybreak with orange and contrasted with a red or a yellow... Or a Red-Orange with a Yellow-Orange. Or maybe an Annis.
Not to mention a plethora of sock patterns that would work. I think making the Gin and Tonic socks in an orange and calling them my Tequila Sunrise socks. OR Anne Hanson's Flaming Desire, I've been in love with this pattern forever. OR MAYBE Phoebus Apollo, I've been hanging onto this pattern for a while.

In the meantime I'll continue to try and get some of these WIPs done while dreaming of the ORANGE project that's to come. (I'm heavily leaning toward Pagona.)

Friday, September 10, 2010

Finish 2, Start a New One

Recently I've been overwhelmed with all of my WIPs. I made myself a deal that in order to start a new project I had to finish 2 of those wips. So I did I actually listened to myself.

First Finished WIP:
Ozymandias, 
King of Kings
(AKA the never ending shawl from hell)

Pattern: Percy by Sanne Kalkman
Needles: US 7 / 4.5 mm
Yarn: Cosmic Fibers Ara Stellar
Color: Sweeney Todd
Edging Yarn: DIC Starry
Color: Midnight Derby

Beads: Size 6/0 
(replaced the nupps, and extended through the points)
Finished Dimensions:
55” across, 27” from base to tip
Modifications:
Beads added (see above), Ran out of my Sweeny Todd yarn so did a contrasting edging.

I am so very very very happy that this is done. I giggled like a madwoman when blocking it. I mean seriously this thing took me almost a year, and THEN I RAN OUT OF YARN... Well, actually now that it's done and I weighed the yarn I PROBABLY could have finished but when you have something like 20 rows to go and 6 or 7 grams or yarn, you start to worry. The end result is pretty and it makes me happy AND I'm pretty sure it makes other people jealous. Right? 

Second Finished WIP:

Knives Chau: 17 Years Old
My very first Scott Pilgrim Fandom knit. :D The scarf is just twisted rib, 17 stripes, each stripe is 5" long, so the total scarf is 85" long. I maybe could have gone longer but I was really stuck n wanting 17 stripes.

Details are as follows:

PATTERN:
  • Cast on 24 stitches
  • Using twisted rib create stripes
  • Each stripe is 5” (or 27 rows)
  • Bind Off after 17 stripes are finished
(NOTE: I did the math later on, and if I wanted the 10 foot long scarf, I'd need to make each row about 7" for 17 stripes, or have  23 stripes and be 5" short of 10 feet, or 25 stripes and be 5" over 10 feet. I debated doing 25 for a little bit.. Because then it'd be Lucy: 25 Years Old, but I just didn't like that as much.)

Needles: US 9 / 5.5 mm
Yarn: Cascade 220
Colors: 4002 (JET) & 8505 (WHITE)

AND FOR MY NEW PROJECT:
I cast on the Snapdragon Tam by Ysolda.

For some reason my brain wasn't functioning when I first cast this on Tuesday night. It took me 5 attempts:

  • Attempt one: CO too few stitches
  • Attempt two: Started knitting WITHOUT STITCH MARKERS and lost the beginning of my round
  • ATTEMPT 3: too MANY stitches… I need enough for 5 repeats, and I CO for 5 1/2
  • Attempt 4: I Twisted the G.D. stitches
  • Attempt 5: FRAKKING finally
Luckily I persevered and managed to get going. I'm looking forward to having a very pretty hat and flip-top mitten set. Which reminds me... I'll need to buy buttons soon.