Knit Inn

WooHoo! I had a great time at the SC Knitting Guild's annual Knit Inn in Greenville, SC. Even though I didn't get in any of my classes I had a great time hanging out with knitting friends from previous years and making new friends. There was close to 200 women in attendance including Lynn from Minnesota who used to live in Columbia. I got to hang out with knit buds Lou and Lori from the Rock Hill area, saw Teresa aka Yargineer with her sweet little man, Deborah and Gail and a host of other knitters.

In the evenings we went to dinner with little bro' Byron and I must recommend City Range. The food was delicious and the service quick and excellent. We also hit PF Changs a usual stop for us on the knitting weekend.

I didn't make many purchases this year. I bought sock yarn and one beaded scarf kit from the vendors on site, Yes Yarn and Northwood Fiber and Farm. I was looking forward to purchasing some hand-dyedfrom Teri at Northwood, but sadly she didn't have any available.


I finished two sweaters. I finally got the buttons sewn on Mr. Greenjeans.


Specs:
Pattern: Mr. Greenjeans by Amy Swenson - Knitty Fall 2007
Yarn: Noro Silver Thaw 12
Needles: 7 & 8 Holtz & Stein circulars
Size: Large
Started: November 22, 2008 Finished: February 6, 2009

I made the sweater much longer than the pattern called for. I also extended the buttons a little further above the vee since the placement wasn't all that flattering on me and made the sleeves long. The sweater was finished for almost a full 2 months before I ordered the woolwash and blocked it. I've worn it and it is very warm and comfortable.

Seamed the Belted Wrap Jacket.




Specs:
Pattern: Belted Wrap Jacket by Shirley Paden - Interweave Knits Winter 2005
Yarn: Tebe Extrafine Merino by Filati Italian Collection
Needles: 6 & 7 Holtz & Stein circulars
Size: XL
Started: November 2007 Finished: February 7, 2009

I completed the back in November '07 and it rested until October '08. I had all the pieces completed in November '08 and didn't pick it up again until I blocked it the end of January '09. It was a pleasure to knit and I plan to make it again in a cranberry color using the same yarn.

I also started knitting one of the Kureyon sock skeins. I'm knitting a pair of plain toe-up socks for mom. The colors are a little funky but I'm going to match them as much as I can. My original plan was to knit it as it was skeined until I realized that I could match most of the repeats. I have enough to match the foot and leg but not the ribbing which will be hidden anyway.


There was a big surprise waiting for me when I got home today.


I ordered some Kauni and undyed Trekking from Astrid's Dutch Obsessions on Jan. 30th. I was expecting it to take a few weeks and the package arrived today. I'm waiting on a shipment of the Rainbow Kauni from a stateside store. It's currently backordered but when it arrives I'll be making the famous Kauni sweater in the rainbow and/or the pastel I ordered from Astrid.

I recently subscribed to Knitcircus magazine after seeing the Rosepole design by Elizabeth Morrison in Kauni Effektgarn. The jury is out as to which color I'll use. So big plans ahead with lots of finer gauge knitting. In the meantime I'll be finishing and clearing out other projects to make room for the new stash.

Closing In

Last weekend I was at the beach and from our condo you could see the turtles sunning across the lake/pond. There numbers continued to increase as the day went on. They were there for hours and then all of a sudden they dove into the water.


One of our lys's, the Hook 'N Needle, has Noro Silver Thaw, Iro and Kochoran on sale for 50% off. I didn't think much about it until I went to the Knitting Fever website and couldn't find the Silver Thaw listed. Mom went by the store today and picked up enough for two sweaters.


Noro Kochoran

Noro Iro
She pays more attention to the stash than I realized and saw that in one color of Silver Thaw I have only two skeins. She's going back tomorrow to pick up 5 more so that I'll have enough for a sweater.

I've been practicing project monogamy and it is working great. I've finished all of the pieces for the Belted Wrap Jacket with the exception of the belt. I completed the sleeves at the beach last weekend and wrapped up the collar yesterday.


There's lots of blocking to be done and I'm going to have to break down and buy some wool wash to get that task accomplished. None of the yarn shops in this area carry wool wash. I find that amazing given the amount of yarn they sell and the number of knitters in the area. If it gets here in time I plan to finish this sweater during the Thanksgiving break.

For my next project I'm going to knit the Mr. Greenjeans from Knitty in Noro Silver Thaw, color 12. Mom, like Kathy, thought this would be a good color. I wear jeans a lot of the time and this will work perfectly with my current wardrobe. While I was selecting colors for this sweater, I found two 15 skein bags of Kureyon that I'd completely forgotten about. They are similar colorways and one seems to be a more toned down version of the other. My next couple of sweaters will probably come from the Noro stash. It's a good way to add color to your wardrobe, so don't be surprised if this becomes a Noro Knit blog for a while.

Smooth Sailing

Last November I started on this sweater...


the Belted Wrap Jacket from Interweave Knits Winter '05.

For reasons that I can no longer remember this sweater went into hibernation. I picked it back up after finishing the February Sweater and have been steadily working on it for the past few weeks. Even though I don't knit on it every day I've managed to make good progress.





I casted on the last sleeve yesterday and though it's a year late I'll have this completed before Christmas which brings up another dilemma.

I'm struggling to decide on what the next sweater will be. Mom has given orders that next project must be for me and socks are excluded. I don't know what the problem is but I get bogged down in color choices and pattern details. Do I knit a cardian versus a jacket? Patterned yarn or plain? Textured, lace or smooth? I've got oodles of yarn choices which further complicates the problem. In the end, I may end up dumping slips of paper in a bowl and pulling out one.

I'm trying to narrow my yarn choices and at the moment I'm considering the following:

1. Silver Thaw
2 & 3. Noro Silk Garden Reds or Purples
4 & 5. Plymouth Galway Sage or Plum
6. Debbie Bliss Merino Aran Mauve or Olive

This is where the tendency to purchase yarn in sweater quantities makes for an obscene number of choices. How in the world do you narrow it down? I still have others under consideration but these are top choices for the moment.

At the recent halloween sale at the lys I purchased most of Elsebeth Lavold's books, so the alpaca that's in the stash is also fair game. One sweater that I like in particular is Zarah. It is knitted using EL's Angora which the lys has on sale. I'm considering subbing some of the Indicieta Alpaca that's already in the stash therefore another choice for the list. Either way I go I'll have made a decision by the weekend so that I can have another project to take to the beach.

If you have any suggestions for cardigans I'd be happy to here them. I've added several to the Ravelry queue which didn't facilitate this process. The more choices you have the harder the decision making becomes.

Winding Down

I've come to the conclusion that I will not have mom's sweater ready in time for Xmas. All this hat knitting has seriously compromised my sweater time. Once again it has cooled down and Skyline is still not ready. I've also managed to knit a hat for almost everyone except me.

The Sideways Spencer is blocking and tomorrow I'll tackle the ribbing. Today at work I realized I was about to make a grave mistake that would prevent the sweater from being ready Christmas day. I forgot that it closes with buttons. Very large buttons.



It's kind of hard to buy buttons without taking the sweater. The spencer should be finished by Sunday and ready to go on the button search. The niece that I knitted this for lives out of town so it's important that I have this finished on Christmas day.

Still working on the hats, haven't gotten much down on Skyline, but I'll attempt to finish it sometime between the day after Christmas and New Year's Eve. I'm already on the hunt for the next project.

Sniffle, sniffle

The fall allergy blues have begun to make their presence known I find it difficult to knit while either constantly wiping and blowing me nose or having my view somewhat obstructed by a piece of tissue stuck up my nose with eyes swelling at the same time. It hit me like a ton of bricks this weekend and Benadryl has been my constant companion.

I'm well into the second sleeve for Skyline and have managed to finish one of the Marokko Color socks. That's not a big accomplishment considering it's a sport weight yarn.


I've started the Sideways Spencer for my niece for Xmas. I've been slightly biased against bolero-type sweaters, but may end up making one of these for myself.


My favorite project at the moment is the Belted Wrap Jacket.


The pattern is easily remembered and rhythmic which makes it a fun knit. It's intended to be a Xmas present and I don't see any obstacles at the moment, but that doesn't mean some won't sneak in. Each time I say that something happens to knock me off schedule so I'm adding a little "knock on wood" to that statement.

I've got a couple of other small items to add to the Xmas knitting that I wasn't planning to do. Next weekend will be a long one which means plenty of extra knitting time in between the pigging out on the Thanksgiving goodies.