Yarny Prizes from the hkkal

So I was one of the lucky winners of a Grand Prize during the Holla Knits KAL earlier this month, and that prize arrived at my door today!

I picked the Lion Brand gift prize, which included a couple of balls each of four of their yarns.  I've never used Lion Brand before, so I was excited about this package.  I did a bit of research, shot off an email with my colour choices, and then promptly forgot about it.

Until today.

I chose white gold for the LB Gold Leaf after stalking the projects made from this yarn.  The silver grey was decent looking, but I thought that the lighter colour would look nicer.  I admit, it's a bit ugly - the gold leaf is pretty gaudy, more so in person than in the photos (it actually looks pretty good in the photos).

I suspect it'll look better knit up, and I think I'm going to knit up the Vermonter, a chunky hat pattern I've been eyeing up for ages now.  And I'll probably knit it up pretty soon too, because I'm curious if this yarn will look nicer in a project than in the ball.

I chose two colours for the LB Baby Alpaca with the intention to reknit a hat for a friend.

I'd knit yet another version of the fornicating deer toque for her a couple of years ago, but the colourwork was too tight making the hat too small, and the wool in the original hat was too itchy for her.  I'll have to adjust the pattern a bit to account for the finer yarn, but this stuff is beyond soft and fluffy, and the cream should pair well with the cowl I knit her this Christmas.

For the LB Merino Superwash, I decided on a bright read with the intention to knit more red accessories for next winter.  I'm loving red right now for winter things - my favourite winter boots are red felted wool, my car is red, and I'm itching to knit a pretty hat from this gorgeous tonal red a friend sent me for my birthday.  So maybe a pair of mitts and a matching scarf/cowl?  Something fun, anyways.  This yarn is quite soft and cozy, if much brighter than I expected.

The last yarn was the LB Silk Chiffon Ribbon yarn.  This stuff is a little weird, and is made up of shredded strips of chiffon.  Though despite the 100% silk label, I really suspect this is polyester.  (ETA: Silk it is!  It didn't feel like what I think of as silk, more like poly or rayon - but as Karlie mentioned below, it's illegal to misrepresent the fibre content, and a burn test suggested by MrsC confirmed it.  Thanks ladies!)  The odd part is that this 'yarn' doesn't have any colourways.  That means that what they have is what you get, and I don't think you get any say in the matter (not in ordering online anyways).  I requested whatever they decided to send me!  It's odd, but like the gold leaf, I'm itching to knit it up and see how it looks.

I'm thinking a small cowl or something.  Maybe the Three-Turn cowl?  It has to be a small project, because I only have one skein of this yarn.  I want something simple to let the 'yarn' shine, but I don't want just plain stockinette.  

I think, as of now, I am on a yarn diet.  I don't actually have any more places to stash all of the astronomical amount of yarn I've acquired lately.  I am working on it - I've started two projects lately that is using yarn that's been in the stash for over a year now.

Are any of you on a fabric/yarn/craft supply diet?  If so, do you count prizes/giveaways/presents in that diet?  I think those should be exempt, eh?

fo: The Cardboard Cafe Cardigan, Done at Last!

And I absolutely love it.  It's actually been done for a while, pretty much right after I finished seaming the thing, but I've been dragging my heels to get it photographed.  Sorry the photos aren't great - I sucked it up and took them outside despite the crazy winds we've had this week.  Hence why there's so many photos with my hand on my head - I'm usually holding down my bangs.  And I kept slipping on the wet dead grass, so I clung to that tree a lot.  I'm a stellar model, I know.

ANYWAYS, here's the details:

Pattern: Cafe au Lait by Klever Knits
Yarn: Classic Elite Yarns Mountaintop Vail in Adobe colourway (aka cardboard coloured).  This yarn is fingering weight, but knit on 4.5 mm needles, so it went much quicker than your average fingering weight sweater.
Size: 48" bust
And here's my Ravelry Project Page, for other little detail.

I'm not actually leaning in any of these pictures - my backyard slopes to the right, and I totally didn't account for that with the tripod.  It looked straight relative to the fence, and I totally didn't realize how slanty it was until I saw how tilted I was.  Oops.

I did a couple of mods.  First off, I'd planned to make this sweater end at the high hip area instead of the butt length the pattern is designed for.  My swatch told me that the length wouldn't change after blocking, so I knit to 15" or 16" total length from the armpit, which should've been the right length.  I also reduced the original batwing-like underarm by increasing the amount of stitches on the underarm from one pattern repeat each step to two pattern repeats (does that make sense?).

The sleeve length was perfect for me - I wanted them full length since 3/4  just doesn't work for me, too chilly!  These were knit to pattern for size 48, and I only added a 1" ribbed cuff.

While the sleeve mods worked wonderfully, as you can see the length...didn't.  If this had been knit out of wool, I think it might've.  But this yarn is 70% alpaca and 30% bamboo, and if you know anything about these fibres, you'll know that both of these fibres grow like a mo-fo.  I should've known better.  Le sigh.

It also didn't help that the originally fairly snug (but still comfortable!) sleeves also grew, which helped drop the body below them down by a couple of inches.  But wow are these sleeves even more comfy now!  I'll have no problems layering t-shirts underneath these suckers.

Despite the epic growth, I'm not at all upset.  I'm not usually a fan of tops at this length, but I'll make an exception, because this butt-length sweater is my ALL TIME FAVOURITE GARMENT I'VE EVER MADE.  I don't care that it covers my ass, it looks awesome and it suits my style to a tee!  And goes with all of my casual tees.  I can honestly say that this is not only my most successful knitted garment, but also my most successful garment, period.  And that's saying something, considering that I've nearly worn my grey and purple Linden sweatershirts to pieces already.

Look at how the fabric changed with blocking!  Pre-blocked dense and squished fabric on the left, airy and light-weight fabric on the right.  What a difference!

Despite the lacy-ness of the fabric, this sweater is remarkably warm, but not overly so.  I think it'll be the perfect layering piece for Yukon summers, which can still be chilly in the evenings (which regularly get down to single digits Celsius), but still work for a daytime layer as well.

The buttons are probably one of my favourite parts.  They're made locally from caribou antlers!  No, the animals weren't harmed in their making - caribou shed their antlers, and they're not difficult to get a hold of.  I bought the buttons at our local yarn shop (LYS) last summer in a fit of pure love, with absolutely no idea what I'd do with them.  As soon as I started this sweater, I knew I'd found their mate!  Sadly, I only bought 5 of them, and discovered after the buttonband was finished that I actually needed 6.  Oops.  Luckily the LYS still stocked them, although the price had nearly doubled!  EEK!

I probably won't wear this sweater buttoned up very often, since I love it open - but I'm glad that it can button closed without any straining on the buttonband.

I'm pretty proud of myself, not only because it's an awesome make, but also because I managed to start and finish a sweater in almost exactly 2 months!  This is unheard of for me, and I'm pretty stoked.  It's been such a fun knit, especially since there have been a few of us knitting this one together during the Holla Knits KAL.  Have you seen Michelle's Cafe au Lait?  So pretty in purple!

And despite being quite sick of this stitch pattern, there's a tiny part of me that wants to knit this again, but in a dark neutral (navy? black? charcoal grey?) that actually ends at my hip this time.  AAHH THAT'S CRAZY TALK THERE HEATHER!

*~~*~~*~~*

I know there's been a lot of knitting on here of late, and very little rock/sewing/anything else (besides one little embroidery post).  Don't worry, you'll be getting an eye-full of sewing projects and plans for sewing projects soon!  I'm behind on my Make a Garment a Month, but they are coming, and I have a deadline I'd like to hit for one of my makes, so keep an eye out for those!

Seamin', Seamin', Seamin'

That's right, ladies and gents, we have seaming!

I was rather not looking forward to this bit, so after I found the front pieces of my Cardboard Cafe blocked and dried this morning, I grabbed a cup of joe and hunkered down to it.  It took a few tries to figure out the best seaming method, but I managed to get the once side of it finished.

Starting the second (of anything) can always be a pain, as I'm sure you can commiserate.  So I made myself a cuppa my favourite tea (vanilla Earl Grey), put on my favourite movie (Persuasion), and curled up in my favourite sunny spot near the flowers I bought myself for my b-day this week, and got to it.  By the time the movie was finished, I had the whole thing seamed.  WOOHOO!

It looks like it's going to fit really well too, although it's really loose at the back neck.  I think I'll just pick up less stitches across that section to tighten it up a bit.  I was worried about that, actually, since this sweater has a ridiculous amount of ease, and as with many patterns, the front and back are designed the same size - that doesn't work well when you carry more width across the front, with a larger bust and all.  But I'll figure it out!

I can already tell that this is going to be my best sweater yet!

wip: Quilts and Sweaters and Garment Sewing Plans (OH MY!)

I've got two projects on the go right now that I'm determined to get finished asap.  Because wow do I ever have a lot of wips!

The first is my quilt.  This thing flew through my sewing machine, and all it needs is the edges bound!  I tried making continuous binding for the very first time, and despite a lot of confusion and almost making a bunch of rings instead of one long strip, I managed to get 150" made up!  Now to make up another 150", and I'll be ready to finish this thing off!  It's looking so bright and cheerful, and I'm so glad it's nearly done, yeh gods I'm tired of man-handling this beast.  SO much more unwieldy than a sweater or a dress.

I should've learned this lesson already from the blanket I made my Mom this Christmas, but sometimes it takes a few tries before this aging dog learns something new.

The other project I'm stubbornly being monogamous with (for knitting, anyways) is my Cardboard Cafe.  I powered through the front right side with the help of a few late nights, and just cast on the front left side this morning.  I had a root canal done today though, so I'm distracted and achy and utterly useless for knitting.  So instead of knitting, I dug around in my pattern and fabric stash, and brainstormed some garments to make to go with my new cardigan!

I'm still in love with my Coral Laurel (even if it's a wee bit too snug on me right now), and I'm thinking another tunic-length dress and a top would be perfect makes, since I mostly have the fit down.  I didn't take a photo, but a quick fitting showed that I need to do a small FBA and maybe add a 1/2" to the centre back to make it fit a bit better this time, so it's nice to know that in advance.  This pattern might become a TNT for me!

I'm thinking that funky orange for the shirt, and either the woven plaid-like shirting or the purple floral for the tunic-dress.  I'm SUPER keen for the orange, since I've been trying to find the right t-shirt pattern for it for YONKS, so I'll probably start with that.  I think it'll be fun with my Cardboard Cafe, don't you? 

What do you guys think?  Subtle plaid or loud purple for the dress?

So Many wips

I've been a little mia of late.  It's been a tough couple of weeks, mentally, and I'm doing a lot of thinking.  More on that another time.  The upshot of this is that I'm doing a lot of knitting.  Well, after I cleaned up the entire house from top to bottom after the boyfriend accidentially released a cloud of super fine black sticky ash while trying to fix the furnace, which settled as a super fine black sticky layer all over the house.  Fun times.

ANYWAYS, I have a ton of knitting wips to share!  No sewing, because the sewing room is still an ashy mess and I need a bit more time before I face it.

I finally got the back finished of my Cardboard Cafe.  I really procrastinated on the last dozen rows, but I got 'er done!  Despite needing a bit of a break, I immediately cast one one of the front pieces to make this a little bit easier to come back to.  HAHA I am brilliant!

Before I'd even finished the back of Cardboard Cafe, I started on a pair of Cedar Glen Mitts by Holla Knits - mostly because I don't know I was bored.  I'm hoping I have enough of the dark grey to do the palms of both mitts, but the pattern yardage says otherwise.  I'm going to finish one mitt and check the yardage before starting the second - otherwise I'll just reverse the colours.  The lace bit above is blocked and the palm is ready to start at any time, but I got distracted by another project.

Uh, I started another sock.

You might remember a sock I started while back.  I ran into a few problems and abandoned ship, and I thought that I'd never make another sock again.

But then I found this aran weight sock yarn at our LYS, and I couldn't resist.  I'm pretty sure I picked the ugliest colourway possible, but these socks are for my cousin who has been hounding me for a pair of handknit socks for years, so it's perfect!  I started this sock on Thursday and have been pretty dedicated to it ever since.  Since it's Rendezvous weekend here in Whitehorse, it's been my companion to a couple hockey tourney games and a few events.

I might've been bitten by the sock bug.  So much more fun in heavier yarn!

wip: Cardboard Cafe - Cast On!

Holla Knits KAL2015 has officially started!  ...on Feb 2.  I worked on this off and on throughout the day, and got about 5 inches of the back knit.  Considering that I'm shortening this cardigan to hip length and only need to knit about 15 or 16 inches before starting the arms, I suspect this sweater will take a bit less time than I thought. And in fact, tonight I've knit another 2 inches so far.  HUZZAH! 

#hkkal2015

 

It's that time of year again - time for the Holla Knits Knit Along!  I joined this last year and managed to knit my Eastwood Cardigan within the 3 months of the KAL (which was amazing for me - I'm such a slow knitter).

This year, I plan to knit Cafe au Lait, a pattern I've been in love with since Holla Knits showed a sneak peak of the cable and lace months before it's spring 2014 release.  Hell, I even went online and bought the yarn the day the pattern was released.  And then the damn yarn has been sitting in my sewing room for months, so it's about time to get this done.

I started swatching, using the recommended yarn and needles, and it turned out pretty good.  Preblocked, the length was dead on, but the width was 3.5 inches instead of 6.  A bath and an overnight stay on my blocking mat mostly solved this.  I wet blocked it to 6 inches, but it shrunk down to 5 3/4 inches once dried.  I didn't block it that aggressively though, and if needed I could get the additional 1/4 inch out of it.  But I did some Math, and I think this will reduce the width by 2 inches.  Considering that I'm making size 48", which will give me 9 inches positive ease from my upper bust, I'm okay with losing a couple of inches of width.

This pattern is a little hard to switch to though.  I've been working on another pattern with a ton of cables, and the added lace is throwing me off.  Glad I did the swatch though, not only because it gave me an idea of the sizing and gauge, but I also got a feel for the pattern before it needs to count.  I made a couple of mistakes in the swatch, but it's a swatch so I let it be.  Think I now have a feel for the pattern.

ANYWAYS, this is going to be a fun KAL.  I'm also considering knitting Hodgepodge mitts out of the colours above, and I'm itching to make that black version of Deco Daisies I mentioned a while back.  Ambitious plans for a slow knitter like me, but what the heck, it's worth a try.

Any knitters out there considering joining along?  Holla Knits has some really innovative and unique patterns available, and I know from experience that this KAL is a ton of fun!  Oh, and did I mention the prizes?