i said a knit knot the knitty the knitty to the knitknit knot

 

I finished a little shawlette! It's the "Just Knit it!" pattern on Ravelry by Susan Ashcroft of Stitchnerd Designs. It was given out free during the Olympics and is now a pay pattern. Super cute. Super easy. And I got to stashbust on this (mostly) which is super awesome!

 

I knit this out of mochi and Sheep(ish). For the edge I ended up doing a row of single crochet all the way around the entire thing in gray. Then I went down to the lower two sides (not the neck side) and did a row of double crochet all the way across in the mochi (colored) yarn. I was going to go back and frame it all in with gray again - but I loved how it looked as is - so I stopped.

It is the perfect length and width. I can use it to wrap around my shoulders if I am wearing a dress - or wrap it around my neck like Emma is wearing it below with a jacket in the winter for super snowy day warmth. The mochi and the sheep(ish) went together like a dream and it is just squishy and so warm! I really enjoyed working on it!

 



Nice to have a WIP out of my Queue on Ravelry. I have had start-itis lately. Like RAGING start-itis. It's been killer. I am bored with items I have started already and want to do something New and exciting! Fickle knitter am I! So yay for getting something finished! Now on to the next!

Hello! I am still here!

I have been rather quite lately but I am still poking around here. My Grandma died last week and we had to travel a little for the funeral. My energy level has been rather low and blogging just didn't appeal much over the last two weeks. Am trying to get myself back into normal though, so I thought I would talk about the shawl I started at the end of the Olympic games.

 

 

The Shawl is called "Just Knit It" by Susan Ashcroft of Stitchnerd Designs on Ravelry. It was offered free during the Olympics, but is now a pay pattern on Ravelry. I am really enjoying the shawl! I am knitting it out of Sheep(ish) I had left over in my stash in the color Gun Metal(ish) and some Mochi Plus I had in my stash and another ball I hunted down at a LYS. I love the colors and find this a very relaxing knit. I had about 5 hours of knitting time in the car the day of the funeral, and then I also brought this with to work on at my Brothers house when we went "Up North" for a visit last weekend.

 

I hit the point in the shawl where I am thinking about the edging. This is going to be more of a shawlette for me - I want to wear it wrapped around my neck this winter with my coats, so I don't want it to get too much larger. I really want to do a crochet edge, so I thought I would practice first. I went through my scrap projects in my craft room and found a shawl that I had abandoned years ago. Perfect for practice!

 

I did a single crochet around the entire shawl and then I practiced a shell stitch on either side. I did a 5 stitch shell on one side and a 7 stitch shell on the other. I like the 7 stitch shell better than the 5 - but am not in love with either. I am going to rip out all the shell stitching and try a few other things.

 

I have been chewing on this a lot this week, and this morning I decided to stop forcing stitch design and asked myself what I really wanted for an edge? Changing my focus from "Will this stitch work? Ok , how about this one?" to "what do I want my shawl to look like?" really  excited me and gave me all kinds of ideas. My crochet ability is not huge, but I think I found something that will work! I will be giving it a go on the practice shawl first to see if I can execute it, but I am excited. Hopefully I will have some happy finished shots to show off soon.

Three Day Weekends are awesome!

I have to keep reminding myself that it is Monday. Three day weekends ROCK!

Stick it & Stuck it.

So I finished my Snappy Hat of Doom this weekend. It was really hard to knit! I knit it in Bernat Roving and the yarn was very dense and knit tight. The cable row was a nightmare and I dreaded it every time. This was definitely a much funner knit in the chunky alpaca! Not a surprise there though. Alpaca feels like heaven on the hands and I love the feel of the yarn floating around. **Sigh** I heart me some Alpaca.


I tried to knit a second diagonal scarf out of Mini Mochi - but I kept loosing myself in the pattern and finding I was too short on stitches. So I ripped it out and cast on for a simple cowl in the Mini Mochi - ignoring my own rule about letting a yarn rest after you have to frog it - because I am trying to knit up stray balls that are rolling around in the open and that was definitely a stray! This will be my third attempt with these two balls. I think I have a winner this time. I am knitting up the Aspen Neck Cowl and it is so very simple. I followed another raveler's advice and I am knitting the purl rows and purling the knit rows - since this pattern calls for mostly purling. The end is curling a lot - and I don't see myself having enough yarn to get through most of the pattern - but I think it will still work out well. I am almost through the first ball of mochi and the cowl is close to 4 inches - so I am guessing it will be an 8 or 9 inch cowl when I am done.


I also finished another dishcloth over the weekend. I knit it out of Knit One Crochet Too Cotonade which is really fun to knit with. I really love the rich colors this yarn comes in. I get tired of knitting in the happy soft shades of cotton I find at JoAnn's and WalMart... so it's really fun to see some wash clothes that POP. We will see how they launder - how the dye holds in them and how they work in the sink on my dishes. But they were fun to knit. I could see making an afghan out of this yarn with no problem.

How's the Weather up there?

It is crazy warm here this weekend!!! We went camping up by Superior Wisconsin this weekend and it was significantly colder up there - but here near the Twin Cities it has been hitting the 80 degree mark. That is shockingly warm for October and I am loving it! I am so not ready for winter even though it will give me a better chance at showing off my knit wear. :) So having a weekend like this when normally we would be doing yard clean-up and winterizing - well it's straight up a gift!



Camping was really only an overnight - but it's the first chance we have had to get away in months so it was really nice. We took Emma hiking on the trails - which is a bit of a challenge in Wisconsin as they do not allow pets on most of the trails. This really pisses me off. We love camping and want to bring our dog with. Our dog is welcome to come with - but they frown on us leaving her in the camper alone. And we really don't WANT to leave her in the camper. We want to take her out with us and exercise her and have experiences with her. She is such a fearful dog - the more we can exercise her and get her outside the better. So it's really frustrating when we go to a park and try to take out dog out for a walk and are met with sign after sign that states No Dog. Argh! Not cool. Makes me want to stay in Minnesota where dogs are welcome on the trails.


ANYWAY - despite that we had a really nice time and we really enjoyed out get away. I am hoping we can still get one or two more getaway's in this year. With the camper having a furnace in it that is a definite possibility.

Pod People
I just finished listening to the last episode of SassyPants Knitter and MAN did I enjoy listening to those podcasts. I would recommend her podcast to anyone who knits or crochets. She is a HOOT! I hope she keeps podcasting.

My latest listen is BarknKnit. I am only on my third or fourth episode so far - and one episode didn't load on my pod well - so I haven't listened to much yet. But so far I am really enjoying it. I listened to a full episode while on my Treadmill today and listened to her talk about her dog's allergies. I can't imagine a dog with a cotton allergy! I would freak if Emma had that. Cotton is all over the place! So it will be interesting to listen to her figure that out.