July Mid-Month Progress Post

Finished:

Sweater # 10 - Oceanna Shell

This is the shell/top that I wanted to make out of Caron Simply Soft last month. I found a better 'brown' to go with the paint yarn that I wanted to use. The stripes came out quite interesting. This was a super fast knit!

Sweater # 11 - Striped T that I've been working on since the end of May. The ends? A complete nightmare. I tried knitting this three times before and carrying the yarn up the side, but I just couldn't get the edge where the yarns swapped to look right no matter what I tried. I decided to cut the yarns instead so I could 'fix' things when I wove in ends. Yeah. Oh, well. It's 'ok' - I don't 'love' the colors still. I shouldn't have even bothered, but I was having so much trouble finding 'good' yarn that I liked to work with that would work well with summer - and Patons Silk Bamboo is an awesome yarn for summery tops. I couldn't find sweater quantities, first. Then I could only find pastels. Since I bought this yarn and started this top ( and frogged it repeatedly last year )... I have since found some nice, deeper colors (like last month's top). Only those stores now don't carry that yarn anymore either... sigh. But at least I now have three tops out of the yarn I love, even if they aren't all in shades I love.  And - I might have enough for one more top stashed away still... depending on the pattern.

All-in-all - I also don't love the 'gathering' I have at the neckline either. This is a result of a bad decision on my part of altering the pattern to try to keep the neckline 'up' and knowing I was running out of yarn. As it was I ended up using white for the bindoff row (as I had six inches left of the tan after the last garter stitch row). I might end up frogging back to the last tan section and just working the garter stitch and bind off right there with the yarn I frog out.... the only thing keeping me from doing it right now is the fact that I'm still not in love with the colors. So, I am going to see about 'living with it' as-is until next summer and if I think I'll wear it more/like it better with the change - I'll do it. If not, I'm not going to bother.

Hat #1 for July (hat # 18 out of 40 for my 2012 goal) - no pic, it's black yarn and JUST LIKE all the others - lol.

On the Needles:

Masters TKGA Hand Master Knitter Level 1 - I have 14 out of 16 swatches completed (to my satisfaction) and have two swatches and a hat left to make for my submission. My hope is to finish the last two swatches and the hat either this weekend or next (preferably this weekend). And focus on the documentation in August with my goal of submitting it for review at the end of August. I have really struggled with the documentation side of things as while I tried to work on it while working the swatches (per recommendations) ... I just never got off the ground with it (sigh).

Sweater # 12 - Top down, raglan sleeved, white cardigan - covered in cables and dropped stitches. You will only be able to see the cables in the photos I'm posting - because the dropping of the dropped stitches happen near the end. Only about 25% complete (maybe a hair more) so I'd love to really focus on this as soon as I get the TKGA swatches and hat finished.

Hat #2 for July  - this is my 'carry around with me' project. I'm going to have a couple of hours a week (if not more) where I can't work on complicated projects... so I might cast on a couple more hats depending on how fast they go.

Planned, but not yet started:

Baby Blanket square - in red and gold for a Gryffindor baby... probably a mosaic pattern for a little bit of interest.

Teddy Bear - not sure yet the yarn, I'm sure I've got lots of options around the house and will go stash diving when I'm a bit further along on the cabled sweater.

AND THEN.... Ravellenics starts toward the end of July and corresponds to the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics.  I have ambitious plans for that my dears. So, I really do need to wrap up the majority of my 'other' projects before it starts. I initially plan to do seven hats - one complex hat and six basic, same as every other charity hat I make. Then I plan to do seven washclothes (minimum of about 50 yards each). Then I plan to do as many more basic hats as I can squeeze out before the end of the games... I'm estimating 10, but I'll be happy with less and I'll be happy with more. They'll all just go into my Homeless Shelter Charity pile which is getting quite big.

June addendum

How could I have forgotton this?

I didn't post that I finished a little dog sweater/costume in June.

My son and his fiance have been talking about buying MY dog a Halloween costume / outfit that she could wear tailgating.... silly Muggles. Why buy when you can make it?

Here's my little Hawkeye!

July Planning Post

On the Needles with plans to finish during July:

Silk Bamboo Striped T - Currently at about 55% done.

TKGA Master Knitter Level 1 Swatches - Currently at about 55% done.

New Projects:

• Seven Charity hats
• Oceana Shell - this was originally planned for July; but the brown yarn I had picked up was a disaster in color match/mis-match to the Paint color I wanted to use for stripes. I had already completed a bolero in the paint color and wanted to make a tank to coordinate. I found the *right* color brown just before I left for vacation in June. Very, very fast knit on size 11 needles (awesome drape).
• Summery Cabled Cardigan - a co-worker stopped by with a picture out of a sales flyer and said that she thought I would look fabulous in something like it - and asked me if I could make it. Being the type of person I am; I read that as a challenge. Challenge accepted. I found some lovely summer Bam Boo in White; I am winging a pattern for a top-down raglan sleeved cardigan with half sleeves. There are six-stitch basic cables separated by a single stitch which will later get dropped (hoping for an open look and hoping that the six-stitch cables aren't going to over-power the garment). Framed with simple garter stitch for neck, waist, fronts and cuffs. I'm not going to bother with buttons/button holes as I would never button it. It'll be great for leaving at work to throw on when the air conditioning gets a bit too chilly.
• Teddy Bear - still need to pick out yarns.
• Baby Blanket Square - am going to use Gryffindor colors for a 12" square. I like working with two colors with mosaic knitting for these... but want to try a new pattern so I might have to do a little searching to find a new free mosaic square pattern.
• Seven wash cloths

Not a small list. Busy summer month ahead of me. But, I've got three afternoons where I'm taking my son for two hour tutoring sessions (should be prime knitting time) plus four days towards the end of the month with no child at home (which will definitely lead to good knitting time).

June End of Month Progress Post

Finished & Previously posted:

• Brioche Scarf
• One Charity Hat
• Double-Knit Hot Pad
• Bamboo Silk T

Finished:

• Felted Bag

Made with Kaleidescope yarn - very bright and colorful!!! I was going to give this yarn away; but I really, really wanted a felted (colorful!) bag for projects. I ended up breaking out in hives twice due to wool allergies and worked on it only in the evening so I could take benedryl to combat the allergies. I love the color on this tote!

• Secret X-rated Bridal Garter

No pics out on the web - sorry! Need to keep this secret until I can gift it at a bridal shower which hasn't even been scheduled yet. But look up PennyIA on Ravelry - and you should be able to find a pic if you're a member (and I know the giftee isn't).

• Second Charity Hat

Saving the pic space... it looks pretty darn identical to the last hat; only hot pink.  I was hoping for three more hats and only found time for one. Sadly. But, I've got high hopes for making up my charity hat knitting volumn for Ravelenics!

June Finished Sweater - Silk Bamboo Lacy T

I finished my purple Silk Bamboo Lacy T. I might not have added enough ribbing to the neckline; as it becomes a little revealing every once in a while with the slightly droopy neckline. I am thinking of coming back and adding a row of sc so I can 'scrunch up' the neckline ever-so-slightly.

But it's otherwise quite lovely. (shoddy pics; but a great top)

Color is more accurate in the first picture; but I didn't get a very good shot.

Here you see more of the top; but the color faded slightly.

I will be working on improving my photo skills.

TKGA Master Knitter - more swatches

I really do need to learn some things about taking decent photos. These stink, but I was so excited to get a few more swatches done - I took them in low light (evening) and the color stinks. These are actually a bright yellow - not that you can tell from these shots. I did work on getting more close up shots thinking it might help.

These first three are the swatches for Decreases:

For me, the most challenging was the SSK - I do the modified version in my regular knitting which isn't acceptable for the TKGA program. I think I did a fairly good job keeping it somewhat similar in sizing to the K2Tog (as it has a tendency to look bigger than the other)... but we'll wait for the Guild to give feedback for sure.

This next one is swatch #10 which includes basic Yarnovers with no decreases.

All of these still need to get blocked, but all in all, I'm pretty pleased with what I'm getting.

Until I did swatch #11.

I had to redo it a couple of times because I can't count... sigh. Thought I had it finished; but then I noticed my SSK was enormous compared to the other stitches. Since I know that it tends to get bigger because it's pulling some of the slack from the other stitches... I went in with my knitting needle to see if I could remove some of the slack from the SSK and allocated it across the other stitches. Which seemed to work - until I looked at the back. I was creating after-thought gutters in the back of my stitches - LOL! NOT going to be acceptable. Seriously?

So, we will be redoing Swatch #11 again and paying extra special attention to the SSKs while I'm doing it. I've got some references and suggestions for improvement if the extra attention isn't enough.

Bamboo Silk - Yarn yardage concerns.

Sorry I don't have any pics of this just yet. But I put my head down and focused on making some SERIOUS progress on it this last weekend.

I finished the body; have picked up the stitches from the waste yarn and am working the sleeves 2-at-a-time... and I have about 120 yards of yarn left. Since they are short sleeves I'm thinking I'm going to be in great shape for this after all!

So, then I got to thinking about my other top made with Bamboo Silk. The striped T has been in a project bag along with it's yarn for about 14 months. The bag has been toppled and picked up, yarn has been scattered and brought back. It's been frogged a couple of times. I realized today that I started off this final attempt with  2 1/2 balls of beige, 1 ball of peachy/pink, 1 ball of white, and 2 balls of medium blue. So about 650 yards. Um... the pattern calls for about 900 yards in my size. LOL. Ummm... might be an issue. I was SO SURE I had the right amount of yarn when I started it ages ago... but who knows what I might have been thinking/looking at... or if the yarn got 'used' for something else when I wasn't paying attention.

The good news is that I have finished the bottom-up to the top part of the body to the place where you set it aside and start working the sleeves 2-at-a-time; then you join all three pieces together and start the decreasing to the yoke all the way to the neck. Which means that the rows are going to get shorter pretty darn quick. The bad news is that I have NO idea where/when I bought this yarn and/or if I will ever find it again easily if I run short.

So, just when I thought I had it figured out and was going to be ok on yardage for one top - the other one started making me nervous. I'm about two days out from starting my vacation... so my plan is to set this aside until I get home. Then dig around under my bed (where my dog frequently hides things she wants) and see if there are a couple more balls of yarn that she had 'buried' for herself. If that doesn't turn up anything - I'll keep knitting away and wait and see. Maybe I'll get lucky and this pattern and the yardage I have will work out in the end. Though, you can bet I might just keep an eye out for it on my vacation and if I spy any (with or without the right dyelot) I will definitely be snagging it!