Cabo Hoodie #1

Pattern: Cabo Hoodie by Wendy Bernard
size: 4
yarn: Malabrigo worsted weight in Indigo
needles: KP size 7 & 8 circulars

mods:
- added 1.5" more to the hood to make it longer though it could've been made wider too.
- attached the pocket while knitting the body a la Ribby Pulli so I wouldn't have to seam the top & bottom
- accidently continued the garter stitch edge of the pocket all the way down, so won't seam the pocket sides. Though from a practical perspective, it'll make for a better hand warmer for Monkey2. It's not like she's going to store stuff in there. Not that it's a good idea from a parental perspective.

Next up, Monkey1's Cabo Hoodie in Lanas Puras worsted weight in her choice of Cornflower.

Went to TKGA on Friday lunch time without either of my yarn buying partners in crime, but with Monkey1 who had the day off since it was teacher work day. I should know better since she's just as enabling at tapmouse and blogless L.

One of my TKGA splurge buys since the company whose booth I wanted to visit was a no-show was 4 skeins of Argosy Luxury Yarns Haiku 4 ply in Blackberry. I hope to make a small shawl at some point out of this yarn. Monkey1 tried to get me to buy some of their 100% cashmere, but I didn't bite. Aside from the fact that she wanted it for her. I believe I'm teaching her too well as she went for the softest, squishiest yarn there. I think if she went for the darker, deeper fall colors I might've been sunk, but luckily for me she aimed for the more cutesy pastels.

No, not new yarn. Just the STR medium weight mill end that I really am leaning towards for my Firestarters. I've got it opened up and soon will have it wound up for casting on.

eta: At first I thought it might be a chicken series color like a cross between Cluckers & Cockamamie, but someone on flickr thinks it looks like Marbles instead.

Attempting to stay focused

Finished seaming the hoodie (though I need to even out a few of the stitches) after extending it out 1.5 more inches (read on Ravelry that the hood is on the small side) and started a sleeve. I'm trying to finish this by the end of the week to meet the end of this year's Project Spectrum.


I did finish my first Siren sock though. I'm happy it fits and I didn't have to rip back along the way. Although I would have no excuse if I needed to since I can do it.

Love how the colorway knits up. (And I like it beadless, tapmouse. Thank you very much.)

And the one finished sock gives me the excuse to swatch my STR yarn from the stash for my Firestarter socks sometime this week, but I'm stuck on what color to go for.

I initially wanted to use my Fire on the Mountain (all colors discussed left to right), but it's in lightweight and the Firestarter sock calls for a 60 st count with a gauge of 8 spi. This would make for a really, really snug sock. (This also rules out the Wollmeise I just acquired based on what I've read being knit up by all the Wollmeisaholics out there.)

Then I thought about the variegated medium weights in my stash that would benefit from the Firestarter pattern and fit my foot with its larger gauge at the 60 st count. First there's January One. The colorway's almost fall-like in it's theme which I'm kinda in the mood for. Then there's Thistle which I forgot that I had bought in medium not lightweight, but it's more spring themed. Finally, there's the mill end that I bought off of Tapmouse's Camp Cockamamie stash. It's got that whole chicken and fall theme going too which makes it on par with the January One. It may even edge it out when I make my decision.

Oh, what to do, what to do.

Wollmeise bandwagon

It seemed only fitting that I pull tapmouse into my Wollmeise lemming urge. We managed to get our combined order in before Claudia closed shop for the month of September.

Gotta love that packaging:


Our combined order with samples of Pfauenauge and Campari Orange (We asked for medium intensity but that little note in Veilchen said she was out and gave us medium dark):

My loot (l to r): Zenzi (since tapmouse got Spice Market), Raku Regenbogen (great colorway!), Rhabarber (love, love, love this), Poison No#5 (yay!), and Veilchen (gorgeous, gorgeous blue).

Tapmouse's loot (l to r): Dornroschen, Raku Regenbogen, Spice Market (I so want this too! But sometime after her new online shop opens. )

Since I got both packages (sharing shipping with friends is fun), I'm also outing both tapmouse's and my latest STR buys due to certain colors being shelved for the season (all lightweight):

Olivenite (not as green as the minerals I once collected as a kid on a school hike, but still nice and unusual for me since I don't normally go for yellow):

Spring Fling:

Tapmouse's Foofaraw (more interesting than I remembered) and Gingerbread Dude (on my wishlist for later):

It's Random Wednesday

Most of my chest congestion has loosened up enough, so I headed back to work. But before that I got a lot further on my Siren sock. It clouded up today so my lighting sucks, but it's looking much better. Happier with it now and I love the Fleece Artist Sea Wool.

I also managed to start my other Yarn4Sock club kit (June). The yarn is Seacoast Yarn's Panda (merino wool/bamboo/nylon) sock yarn in Melon Balls. Love the color, love the yarn. The pattern that came with the yarn is Anna Bell's Giotto socks.

Love the cuff detail. Don't love the lace pattern for the rest of the sock. The 3-stitch twist isn't too bad, but the kfb into a double yo is a total PITA. I totally have to fight the yarn to make that double stitch. I've only done one repeat of the 4-row lace pattern and I can't see fighting the yarn and pattern for 2 entire socks. I have a feeling that the Koigu yarn Anna Bell originally used will mean that if I do attempt this pattern again that I will need to use a similarly sproingy yarn like STR or Colinette if I don't use Koigu. So, I am going to happily rip back those 4 rows and re-knit the increase row to the correct stitch count and shameless steal her idea and do the Go with the Flow pattern for the rest of the sock.

Because the Giotto sock frustrated me so and the weather's cooled way off, I also cast on for Monkey2's Cabo Hoodie in the Malabrigo Worsted in Indigo I bought from Stitches West last year. The yarn is so, so, so yummy. Monkey1 will get a Cabo Hoodie too, but it'll be in Lanas Puras Melosa Worsted (she picked Cornflower). I'm enjoying the process of knitting of the Malabrigo so much I may make this my focused knitting for the week.


But I suppose it's a good thing I cast on my last 2 Yarn4Socks club kits 'cause my October one came in early with my eagerly anticipated Ann Hanson (knitspot) Merlot Lace sock pattern.


This kit'll have to wait though 'til I'm done with the Siren sock(s) at least.

Ribby Pulli

C'est fini! The ends are woven in, but no washing and/or blocking done yet. Which probably makes taking modelled shots (in my pajama pants no less) not the wisest thing. But I'll blame this horrid cold which has settled oh so wonderfully in my chest.

Unlike tapmouse, I went for the more fitted Michelin Man look 'cause my gauge tightened up way more than I thought it would despite swatching up 2 needle sizes. But I'm hoping blocking will help a little as I wasn't inclined to frog and start way over. Besides, that would mean I would need to buy more Cascade 220 as I don't have much leftover from the last skein.


Deets:
Ribby Pulli by Bonnie Marie Burns
Size: 37 lower body, 39 uppper body (sleeve count was the same for both)
Needle sizes: size 6 & 7

Modifications (aside from sizing up):
Added 2 inches of length to the body.

Omitted the bind off at the neck before starting the hood because I didn't want to eat up yarn doing it as I was concerned about having a yarn shortage. Luckily, I was proved wrong on the yardage, so I hope I didn't create any structural issues by not binding off the neck before picking up and adding stiches back in for the hood.

Omitted detaching the yarn and re-attaching the yarn after the first picked up row for the hood (again for yarn shortage concerns). I just moved the overlaping stitches onto a spare needle so I could shift the yarn over to the correct position.

Math interpretation challenges:
There was a typo in the sleeve count for the size 39, but no biggy. What I couldn't figure out was why I was 1 stitch extra in the fronts and 2 in the back despite the sleeve count being correct by the time I finished the raglan sleeve decreases & neck shaping. Since Tapmouse also had a count error in her size for the back when she was done with her raglan shaping, either we had interpretation problems with the pattern or there's more math typos. In the end, I decided to stop trying to figure it out and decreased the extra stitches away before doing the hood.

eta: I forgot to say I had plenty of CTH Twister left over for the hood. In fact, I accidently added 1" to the hood length before checking since I mis-remembered what it was supposed to be. The extra 1" made the hood long enough I think, so the leftover yarn will be made into a newborn hat for Hats for Alex. If you have any spare baby hats or want to use up some leftover yarn, consider Trillian's cause.

My first Wool Girl package didn't arrive in time for YPF, but it doesn't matter 'cause it's awesome.

I love extras! The little journal, pen, stitch markers, and the chocolate mint balm all with the Wool Girl label are great. I'll have to give the chocolate mint balm away however. While it's a great flavor in the mouth, the mint does a number outside my lips. Last but not least, the Waterfall yarn and same-named pattern are really lovely. I know tapmouse thanked me for leading her to Wool Girl, but it really should go to Carrie (and eventually Zonda) for introducing me to her in the first place. Awesome online store!


And all this focused knitting means I only have 1 WIP on the needles. A rarity indeed. But not for long. ;) In any case, I'm not sure if I like how the Fleece Artist Sea Wool in Sea Foam is looking in the Siren socks pattern. (The pattern is by Designedly by Kristi for the Yarn4Socks sock club.)

I hate to frog since all those k3togs & k3tbl were such a pain to do, so I'll plug on and see how the rest of the sock goes. The only reason I will frog though is if the sock doesn't fit when I try it on after the heel.

Battle to be this Friday's FO

The socks won of course. However, it did have the distinct advantage of being a smaller, more easily portable project to take to Monkey1's soccer practice:


Summer of Love Lace by JC Briar, the August Rockin' Sock Club pattern
Socks that Rock lightweight (currently my holy grail of sock yarn) in Flower Power
size med
KP size 1 (2.50 mm) circs
gauge 8.25 spi
no mods otherwise to pattern

Not too thrilled I didn't get the cuffs to match, but not annoyed enough to rip and start my cast on all over again. And apparently sitting on the ground, even w/one of those stadium cushions, does weird things to my tension in the eye of partridge heel on the right sock. But again, too lazy to rip and re-do.


Contrary to all my worries before, I may, just may have enough CTH Twister to finish the hood. We'll see. This will get done something this weekend, but not today. Monkey2 gave me her cold and I am too congested and pissy to crank through the hood today. Even after a nice esoteric discussion with tapmouse on the yarn placement on slipping the first stitch on the hood edging, I still made the mistake of having it on the wrong side 4 times. Thankfully I made the effort to fix those offending spots.

No YPF today as I didn't get my Woolgirl package yet. Maybe tomorrow. And tapmouse & I got our combined Wollmeise order in before she closed for the month of September so I'm looking forward to that package arriving State-side.

Rockin'

I got nominated by Carrie! How sweet. I totally wasn't expecting one of these.

And since turnabout is fair play, here's my list of nominations in no particular order:

Tapmouse - Aside from getting me hooked on STR by cleverly giving me a few yards of her leftover Rolling Stone and Cedar Creek (?) to play with, she introduced me to knitting by loaning me her SnB book. So hats off to my STR & knitting enabler.

Batty - I had to check her blog first to see if she's been nominated already, but nope. So I'll nominate our favorite bat-loving goth knitting blogger. (Only she can wear a bat print dress with elan!) Unless I didn't go back far enough. Anyway, I can't remember meeting her online through my first KAL (the Lotus Blossom Tank - LBT) or through the knitty board, but then that is where I first found out about the KAL.

Knitting Betty - the founder of the LBT KAL, great photographer, budding knitting designer, and mother of the totally cute Young Man.

And last but not least, Kel - I met her through the LBT KAL too. I get my Big Isle fix from reading her blog(s) and she's a STR club member too.

And in the rockin' theme, the first Summer of Love Lace sock is done. I used size 1 (2.50 mm) KP circs to get a tighter gauge though not as tight as the pattern (8.25 vs 8.5 spi), but it works for me. Otherwise, the medium size would've been too snug.


And before I forget, my last Scout's Indie Swag from my 3-month subscription came in last weekend. The color is Chuck T's by guest dyer, Yarn Nerd. I love how the Go Knit pouch coordinates so well with the colorway. And from looking at Nell's skein, I think mine doesn't have as much charcoal in it:


It's a good thing I only signed up for 3 months, 'cause I am woefully behind on knitting any of the swag I got. I love them all, but I think I've overloaded myself.

I got stupid

I was all excited over the long holiday weekend 'cause I was bookin' along with my Ribby Pulli. I finished the second sleeve and added 2 more inches to the body. I thought for sure I can finish in time for the end of Project Spectrum and for Purlescence Yarns' 1 year anniversary next month.


Then we came home and proceeded to wind up my CTH Twister Jewels that I bought from the Knit & Crochet Show last year. I won't go into detail on what I did, but I will say only that patience is a virtue:

And to add to the challenge I found 6 knots so far, 3 clustered at one end of the skein, 2 at the other end and one in the middle. It figures they wouldn't be evenly spaced to help me with the untangling process. Even worse is the fact that all these knots mean I'll lose around a yard of yarn in weaving these ends - yardage I can't afford to lose.

The Ribby Pulli tapmouse & I saw at Purlescence already has what I thought was a short hood. Then tapmouse ran short by 6" on her hood, but she had the option of buying more STR Puck's Mischief if she wanted to even though she chose to use the rest of her Cascade 220 to finish. Me - I've got a potlucked dyed yarn that's essentially a one-off and not enough Cascade 220 leftover to cover it as I didn't buy an extra skein. I'm hoping I have just enough since my Ribby Pulli is a size smaller than tapmouse's.

My other options would be to change direction and do the mock turtleneck (blech) or a big wide collar. Then again, being short on yarn would be a great excuse to go shopping at Purlescence. Maybe I can find a couple STR Twisted hanks that'll match the Cascade 220 Regal I used instead. Hee.

So while I untangle my skein and figure out what to do, I started the latest Rockin' Sock Club pattern:


It's definitely a fast knit and all the stockinette stitches help me calm down from the mess I made out of the CTH Twister. (My Blue Moon sock blocker is so cute!)