From Snow Knitting to Spring Knitting

In my last post (almost a month ago!) I promised to share some of the projects that I was working on during the February Snowpocalypse. Now that we are almost two months removed from all that snow, I have a few other projects to show you, too.

First, the snow knitting:

This is the Rowhouse Hat that I showed you in progress in the last post. I loved knitting the pattern, but I made the mistake of choosing the wrong size. It is pretty snug on me, so I will save it to give to someone with a smaller head than mine. Next time (and there will be a next time), I'll knit the medium.

I also did a bit of charity knitting during  the Snowpocalyse.

Can you guess what I was knitting?

Here is the finished project: Mother Bear #15. I gave her to the Mother Bear Project at Stitches West in late February.

Another snow knitting project were these Woodacres Mittens. They were put to good use almost immediately, because even though the snow stopped falling, it stayed cold for several weeks.

The cold made for good knitting weather, so I cast on a shawl, some socks and a cowl.

My Aloft Shawlette has not made much progress beyond what you see here, but I anticipate that I will be picking it up again soon.

The socks are the Shell Cottage Socks, the first pattern in Helen Stewart's second year of the Handmade Sock Society. I knit four of the six patterns from the first year, and they are among my favorite socks ever; so pretty and they fit so well! I photographed the socks a few days ago with the project bag that Mr. D gave me for my birthday. It depicts the bridges and skyline along the Mississippi River in my hometown of Minneapolis. 

Finally, the cowl. I knit the Bluet Cowl for the second time (the first one was a gift), in a gorgeous purple yarn that I got in Colorado almost four years ago. High time that I knit with it, don't you think? 

I have other projects still on the needles, but with a road trip and the NoCKRs retreat coming up, I expect that some of those projects will be finished shortly.

I'll leave you with a little hint of one of those projects, but the reveal will have to wait...

Adventure #1: Colorwork Socks

I'm sure you have been waiting with anticipation for my first "Word of the Year" Adventure, and I am finally going to end the suspense and tell you about my first knitting adventure of 2018.

As you know, I love, love, love knitting socks. You may or may not know that I also love knitting colorwork. Surprisingly, I have never combined these two loves into a pair of colorwork socks. That changed about a month ago, when I cast on Bonnie Sennott's Rowhouse Socks. This fun pattern has just enough colorwork for someone who hasn't done stranded knitting on such a small circumference before, but also has a motif that is eye-catching. I knit my socks in Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in main color Crescent (one of my absolute favorites Hazel Knits colorways) and contrast colors Flicker and Conch. You can view the details of my project here.

I had so much fun knitting these socks that a future adventure may be to knit a pair of socks entirely in colorwork. I have had my eye on this pattern for years, but I'm open to suggestions. Do you have a favorite colorwork pattern to recommend? If so, please share in the comments below.

Photos of the Month: Following a Year-Long Project

I could start this post with what actually is the photo of the month, but instead, I'm going to put that photo at the end, and trace the progress of a knitting project across almost the whole of 2017.

The project started in early February with a big ol' pile of yarn. Most of the yarn was purchased with a 2016 birthday gift certificate, so thanks are due to Nancy, Jan and Pat for their generous gift.

I cast on Jared Flood's pattern, Grettir, on February 10th and by early March, I had the start of two sleeves:

In mid-March, the sleeves had grown some.

A week later, the sleeves were finished and I cast on the body of the sweater.

Almost two months passed, mostly filled with knitting on other projects, but in mid-May, I finally reached the colorwork.

It turns out that I like colorwork a lot more than plain stockinette, so the yoke progressed quickly from this point, despite the addition of many more stitches when I joined the sleeves to the body.

And not long after the colorwork was finished, so was the whole sweater.

Except it wasn't...

Over two months passed, with no activity on this project, but finally, on September first, this happened:

Yep, that is me, cutting a steek. But first, my dear friend, Martha, reinforced the stitches on either side of the steek on her sewing machine. She also basted the edges of the five stitches added for the steek—that's the white yarn you see in the photo.

There was still more that needed to be done to turn the sweater into a cardigan, but first, I just had to try it on.

And it fit!

Next, I followed that white yarn that Martha put in on either side of the steek stitches and picked up stitches for the button band.

After getting the button band knitted, I practiced the two-row buttonhole technique—from Anne Hanson's excellent Craftsy class, Button Bands and Buttonholes—on a swatch, and I even sewed  buttons on that swatch. I opted for a slightly narrower button band than the one on my swatch, a great reason to swatch before knitting the real thing on your sweater. Here is a photo showing my swatch and two of my buttons. I purchased six of them three years ago at Danforth Pewter in Middlebury, Vermont. I've been waiting for just the perfect project to use them.

Finally, in November, I sewed on the last button, sewed ribbon onto the inside of the button bands to cover the steeked edges, and blocked my cardigan. I even took it with me on our annual Thanksgiving trip to the East Coast., and wore it several times, including on Thanksgiving, when Dave took this photo of me.

If you would like more details—and more photos—follow the link to my project page on Ravelry:  Colorwork Challenge Cardigan.

Christmas in July (Or: My 2015 Stranded Knitting Project)

For the past few years, I have picked a pattern and knit a stranded knitting project each year.  You may remember seeing my Shades of Purple Beret (2014), my Winter Twilight Mitts (2013) and my Slow and Steady Selbu Modern (2012) here on the blog.

This year I was tossing around several ideas for a stranded project, and then I heard about the knitalong for Wendy Gaal's Winter Funderland Stocking and Hat. Wendy is the dyer behind Knitters Brewing Company, and she was offering kits for the pattern, so I jumped in, ordered the kit  and decided to knit the stocking. The beautiful array of colors she offered made choosing difficult, but I eventually settled on red, green, light gray and white.

Wendy provides a number of motifs in the pattern to use on the stocking, but the knitter chooses which motifs to include and in what order to knit them. At first it was daunting to think about coming up with my own combination, but once I got knitting, it was pure fun!

Here is the final result, my Spring and Summer Funderland, which will be hanging by the fireplace come Christmas.

I'm already pondering what stranded project to choose for 2016. Any suggestions?