Monday, December 31, 2012

Color Affection

Like 7,000 of my other fellow knitters, I decided earlier this year that I wanted to knit a Color Affection shawl.

 I cast on this project with my just-purchased Signature needles and some stash Sanguine Gryphon Eidos while I was at Maryland Sheep & Wool back in May. It was a simple thing to get going, and I flew through the first two sections of this knit.

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The second color was some ShiBui Stacatto, a very nice yarn with a tight twist and a bit of sheen from its 30% silk content. I was still chugging along, and I was still happy.

Then, I added some Bugga! as my third color. And I hated it. There was no contrast, the lighter blue just blended. I’ve since seen lots (and lots!) of Color Affections with little to no contrast, but they really don’t appeal to me at all. So I’m very glad that I ripped and re-started with this wonderful Serenity 20 in Midnight Blue.

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Knitting garter stitch is one of my favorite things. I can zip right along and be productive while I’m doing a myriad of other things. Reading, watching sports on TV, pretty much anything. It’s very soothing to me, and I love it.

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The shape of this shawl isn’t my favorite, and I won’t knit another one. But I’ll probably (eventually) do another knit from this same designer. Hooray for garter stitch!

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Color Affection 

Pattern: Color Affection by Veera Välimäki 
Yarn/Color #1: Sanguine Gryphon Eidos/Euthydemus 
Yarn/Color #2: Shibui Stacatto/Rain 
Yarn/Color #3: Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20/Midnight Blue 
Quantity: 1 skein each. Had maybe 2-3 yards of leftovers of the Stacatto, plenty of yarns 1 and 3. 
Needles: US 6/4.0mm from Signature Needle Arts 
Started: 5 May 2012 
Finished: 29 July 2012 
Mods: Ignored suggested border width. Knit until I was ready to be done That took longer than normal because I loved the Serenity 20 so much.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Wiggle Wrap

If we start talking about projects that have been finished but undocumented for a very, very, very long time, we have to start with my Wiggle Wrap.

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I got the yarn and pattern for this project at TNNA in 2011. I started knitting it in February, and this was the pattern I took on my California softball trip way back in February. It was perfect travel knitting, especially since it meant I could easily take only one thing. No way I was going to finish!

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The pattern was perfect for a long-striping yarn like Kauni, and an absolute snap to memorize.

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It didn’t get boring or repetitive until I was well past the halfway point. Then it just took a ridiculously long time before I blocked it.

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I doubt I’ll knit this again. I do kind of wish I’d done the wider version, but really, this was fine. It lived in the store as a sample for a little bit, then it’s just been sitting around waiting for a blog post. So here you go.

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Wiggle Wrap 

Pattern: Wiggle Wrap by Sally Brandl 
Yarn: Kauni 8/2 Effektgarn 
Colors: EQ and EF 
Quantity: 1 skein of each color, I knit until I ran out. 
Needles: US 6 
Started: 5 February 2012 
Finished: 6 April 2012 
Mods: None, other than ignoring the length instructions.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

I'm Back

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After my quick succession of finished project posts back in October (yikes!), I ran into a confluence of issues that basically stopped my blogging cold:

• The LYS where I worked started a liquidation sales, and one of the first things to go were the mannequins. That made it tough to get finished project photos of my remaining finished projects.

• For pretty much all of October and Novemeber, I was at a full-sprint. Not enough time to sleep, let alone enough time to photo-edit or blog.

 • Photo editing takes time. I didn’t have any to spare.

But, today is a snow day, and I’m going to do a bunch of photo editing and prepping blog posts. I have had all kinds of adventures, so hopefully I’ll have plenty of stuff to show you over the next few weeks.

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And then, my Dad and Aunt Suzie can quit asking when I’m going to start blogging again.