There are no Resolutions in this post, only ideas.

Posted on December 31, 2013 by MissCarlotta

I don’t really make New Years Resolutions… more because people seem to think its a great thing to think of and then don’t take them all that seriously. So I always have ideas and things I want to do and I do list them out as goals. In 2012 it was a new Christmas Stocking each month from January to October with a goal on selling them. I exceeded that plan in the crafting department, but I wish I’d done a bit better in the selling. In 2013 it was sweaters, gloves, and working on my Star Quilt.

Well I did get the Sweaters part done… I made 3 this year.

The Ben

Luscious Post Op

My Spoke Sweater Finished just in time to make the 2013 cut off

I didn’t get any gloves made and the only mittens were for a 6 month old which didn’t really have separate thumb holes so I am not counting them towards the original goal, and not much work on my star quilt so those will just have to move into 2014.

Instead I tackled some lace shawls.

First Spring Thaw

Evening Grosbeak inspired Gamayun

A second Spring Thaw

And doubled the amount of quilts I’ve made with four more. (BONUS: A Christmas gift of a quilted table set that I designed and hand appliquéd)

Endless Stairs

My first ever Dresden Plate

Disappearing 4 patch Star Trek

Half Square Triangle Star Trek

Technically just table set, but hand appliquéd presents

I also made up some great plushies, custom curtains and finished my first ever double knit scarf… so there was certainly quite a bit going on in 2013.

So now its time to think about all I want to achieve in 2014….

I have six quilts on my list this year!

A movie inspired gift quilt (lap size)
An Art Quilt (3-4ft square) Inspired by one of Ben’s favorite Artists
A Commissioned Baby Quilt
My Star Quilt (Back again! – King size)
A Christmas Cathedral Window Quilt
An as yet to be determined 2nd quilt for the family room. Ben loves our VideoGame quilt, but thinks there should be a second quilt, because after all there are two of us.

In the knitting front I’ve got some other unique projects planned.

A Scarf and Shawl from my wonderful new Alpaca yarn! I’m debating making my own patterns for these, but we shall see!
Gloves are still on the list! I’ve already got the conductive thread to make them Smart Phone capable!
I’m going to tackle a second pair of socks. I think with my skills I’ve worked on I might be able to do some patterns that won’t make me so bored by sock #2 (aka Second Sock Syndrome)
I’ve got a few more shawls planned. Including one bird inspired based on the Stellars Jay

These Jays from the PNW are vibrant Blue and Black!

I’d also like to tackle Brioche stitch as a new stitch this year. Perhaps I’ll use up my “Action Green” from the Seahawks Stocking on that.

So its a bit of a list looking at it all at once… but if I can tackle 3 sweaters, 4 quilts and learning so much about lace in a year… I out to have a good start on some of these… RIGHT?

Know your fiber and the animal it came in on – Alpaca

Posted on December 29, 2013 by MissCarlotta

Ben’s mother, Dale (the Sunflower quilt lady), always finds really creative and new things for us to do when we visit Kansas. We’ve been to the Omaha Zoo, the Cosmosphere Space Museum, and even to a tiger rescue ranch (since closed).

Tiger Tongues feel just like really big cat tongues when they lick your hands btw.

A most interesting experience!

And this holiday visit we went to an Alpaca Farm called Alpacas of Wildcat Hollow. Dale also knits, so naturally we made some yarn purchases. (Fellow knitters, and friends of knitters know this was inevitable! Non-knitter Ben got socks instead.)

So this Christmas I received two beautiful hanks of 100% Alpaca in fingering weight with which I plan to make an amazing shawl. I am presently debating if this will be a good excuse to build my own pattern or not.

A variegated Rose color

AND… she picked up a sport weight skein for me to knit her a wonderful scarf. Going for a more textured than lacy design as Kansas is cold, as in hide yo’ ears! hide yo’ toes! We gettin’ frostbite up in here!

Violet and Teal

So let’s talk Alpaca fiber.

Alpaca does not have lanolin like Sheep wool, which is apparently where most people with wool allergies run into issues! It also is less prickly, naturally water repellant, and a better heat insulator. Alpacas are closely related to llamas, but have finer fur for making yarn (It seems the llama, being larger with less fine fleece, is more of a pack animal, whereas the Alpaca is more of a fleece production animal). The fur is shorn from the animal much like sheep wool, but has a greater yield per fleece than sheep. There are 22 naturally occurring colors of Alpaca, and it maintains a nice luster even after dying!

So there’s a few bits about Alpaca, and something to look forward to working with in the coming new year!

Double your Pleasure with Double Knitting Fun!

Posted on September 24, 2013 by MissCarlotta

So several ages ago (also known as last December) I decided to learn how to double knit. This is where both sides look like the stockinette or “v” side of the knitting. You may recall a post in January or April on this project.

Well I’m pleased to report that I’m finally done!

Green and White is always Right!

A full nine snowflakes make up this baby! There are 5 differently patterned flakes. Two larger and 3 smaller patterns.

Like the force there is a dark side…

And a light side

To me double knitting is very beautiful, but it seems like it takes so much more time, basically its like you are doing a 1×1 rib, but you also have to pay attention to the detail of which stitch in the pattern facing you and the edges so that the two sides are hooked together and not open at the edges.

From WIP to FO in 1 batch of extra determination!

And that’s one project that can go on the Christmas gifts completed pile!

Speaking of things completed… I also knit up a second Spring Thaw for a friend of mine who was admiring the first. I believe it is now presently touring part of Canada.

A shawl knitted for Sporks, but not on sporks. (which might be possible but probably insane)

An August Spring Thaw

Posted on August 20, 2013 by MissCarlotta

Did you ever have those moments when you look back and say to yourself, now if only I had done this in a different order…..

Such as… if only I had started with the Spring Thaw Shawl instead of the Gamayun Bird, I’d at least have finished one of them on vacation. And I totally could have managed it on the plane.

So without further delays… allow me to present a completed Spring Thaw Shawl!

Spring Thaw… just in time for fall chills

This pattern is actually pretty easy to follow along, and available in both written and charted if you want to get your toe in the waters of lace so to speak. I went with 12 leaf repeats down the center spine, primarily because of how my yarn colorway was working I decided I wanted to end as I began.. in the dark smoke.

Perfect for a gentle breeze like the one today!

The yarn I used was Patton’s Lace in Woodrose, and it took me just under a skein from start to finish….. which means I have another skein of it. To me, the browns and greys make it more interesting than just a simple pale pink.

The mohair in the mix gives it a nice soft fuzz to the pattern.

The mohair in the mix gives it a nice soft fuzz look.

I was rather surprised at how quickly this came together… from cast on to fully blocked and photographed in just 6 days!

Full view

Heading into Charted Waters with my Evening Grosbeak Gamayun Shawl

Posted on August 16, 2013 by MissCarlotta

So a few posts ago, I was talking about my troubles with my Gamayun Bird Shawl and even before that I was posting about the planning of it to have a colorway similar to the Evening Grosbeak female birds we get here, because I find their grey and yellow to be rather lovely.

I am ready to say that I finally finished my shawl!

Normally I post inside, but today was just too nice of a day to not get my bird in the sun!

Normally I post inside pictures, but today was just too nice of a day to not get my bird in the sun!

This was the first charted lace knit project I’ve ever tried. And so I made one kind of major mistake… I read the chart left to right, as I would read a book or a cross stitch chart. But in actuality, knit charts are supposed to be knit right to left, the opposite way. Now I was fortunate in that this is a fairly symmetrical pattern so when I discovered my error as I was about to forge onto chart three… I was able to read stitches and adjust my pattern to turn out and not frog back for the bazzillionth time.

Here’s a bit of an indoor close up:

Mirror, Mirror Gamayun on the Wall

So technically speaking this is a mirror version of the pattern, but I have this rule that if you can look at it with the eyes of someone that didn’t knit it and it and the issue is not noticeable, then you should just chalk it up to the field of “one of a kind” and not a mistake of epic proportions.

This pattern did give me a good opportunity to use life lines (which are a separate contrast yarn you thread through your rows every so often in case you have to frog back some so you don’t drop any of those stitches) which I am certain I will use when I take on the task of fixing the Luscious sweater. (No, its not fixed yet. Be patient… its my second sweater ever and I’m spending quite a bit of time figuring out the best way to fix it with my limited skill.)

Uh, we had a slight knitting malfunction, but uh… we’re fine….finally updating on the Sweater and Travel knits

Posted on July 10, 2013 by MissCarlotta

So last post I was saying how I was going to probably not finish my Luscious sweater in time… but I will have you know that dedication and several seasons of TV episodes will certainly take you pretty far. I actually finished all the pieces to my sweater, and was starting to assemble on the 13th.

woohoo! Look at how cool it is looking!

I am not a tall person. I come in at just under 5ft 5in. And after assembling the main drape, I tested out the size and it seemed rather long. But ever the optimist… I hoped that it would just be a little long and some of that would be corrected in the rest of the assembly. So I added in the sleeve section and tried it on again. The tail on me would be dragging on the floor.

……*sigh*…….

Could it be that I was just too short? I pinned up the side drape…. and nope… it was just the right length. There is about a foot of difference between the two points. So needless to say… I didn’t take my sweater on vacation. So now I am working on garnering up the internal fortitude and creativity in an effort to try and fix it. As to what went wrong… well I can’t be certain, since I consider myself a more intermediate knitter. This is after all my second sweater. My theory, which is based solely on the errors I have found (first two were confirmed by the company that published the pattern – the remaining errors I have still to submit and figured I would collect them all in one email at the end) is that this sweater was not test knit in the larger sizes, and the issue lies someplace in that particular area. The details of my issues you can read about on this projects Ravelry page.

And so… I did say I was setting it aside while I was traveling and going to work on a shawl, and learn the art of chart reading anyway… right?

About that……. well starting a lace chart project at 3AM at the airport is probably not the wisest idea. I should have learned from the myriad of times I picked up and put down the Branching Out portions of the Family Tree Baby Blanket while on various flights. But no… I cast on and got to the second row of the chart and found I’d already made a mistake someplace. So in Amsterdam I frogged those few rows and cast on again. And I knit the first 14 rows between there and here right after we got back with our jet lag brain.

But in review… it looks like I have a mistake someplace. The first section feather points look all nice and pointy:

Kind of a terrible picture… but you get the idea here.

But when you get into the second section something has gone clearly awry… my feather points look like a pair of dutch-boy pantaloons.

Seriously?! ¬.¬

So its kinda looking like a second frogging. (For those not in the knitting know… its called frogging because you “Rip-it” out.) Which brings us to a new joke I heard while in Amsterdam…. You shouldn’t try to explain puns to kleptomaniacs. They take things literally.

I will see myself out….

Taking Flight: Knitting for the birds and airplanes

Posted on June 4, 2013 by MissCarlotta

So let’s say you find yourself in the enviable position of taking a vacation to foreign lands, and you find yourself facing a 5 hour flight followed by an 8 hour flight. And somewhere down the line of trip planning you decide that a fair portion of that 13+ transit hours could be spent knitting… and then you wonder about if they even allow knitting needles on flights.

Well first let me say that if you live in the US, the TSA has given the knitting needle OK; however, cutting implements are a whole other matter. But when one is planning an international trip, one has to consider the other countries… and that’s where it becomes a little more of a “maybe” situation. You can send your project off in a self addressed envelope if they turn your needles away, but if you’ve just spent a month knitting up half a sweater the idea you might find yourself waiting for the postman for the other half just doesn’t sound like a good time.*

So while I had high hopes when I started of actually wearing my Luscious Sweater on this trip, its time to admit that the project will need to wait until I return.

I did finish up the main drape section!

So now its time to pull out some back up plans. A project that won’t be too big so it only takes a couple balls… yet big enough to keep you occupied for several hours on a plane and during vacation down time. My solution… a shawl or two!

~ And thus we come to the bird portion of our knitting blog. ~

Not that long ago I was thinking to myself that it would be pretty amazing to have some bird colored yarn. The Stellar’s Jay Vibrant Blue and Black, the Kingfisher’s Teal and Rust… or the Female Evening Grosbeak:

Evening Grosbeaks are primarily monogamous, so Fellas if you like it you better put a chirp on it.

I am hoping that this Rock Candy Colorway by Sockease will do the trick.

Oh oh Oh!

And my plan is to make it into a shawl called Gamayun Bird out of it. Since I’m a bit of an optimist in my knitting (hence the unfinished aforementioned sweater) I also bought some other lace yarn for another potential project… but you will have to wait until I cast that on for an update.

The Grosbeak males are a much more vivid yellow.

*All that stuff about the Postman… well let’s be honest, earlier this month we received an envelope with no stamp, no return address, and the wrong zipcode. The vast majority of the time they certainly get it right!

Progress Updates, Future Yarn projects and a little bit more

Posted on April 3, 2013 by MissCarlotta

Firstly let me start out by saying… I have been knitting things since March… just they have been very little things… or not done yet things.

Little things like this cute doily out of crochet thread on needles I never remember the size of because my needle gauge tool only goes to the first 0. (You’d think a single 0 would be enough, but apparently the world is not prepared for negative numbers in needle sizing.):

Pattern is called Auge

This is not your granny’s doily though…. This baby is not soon to be draped over an armchair or under the candy dish. This is your first cup of coffee or glass of water by your bed… because that’s just how big it is.

That’s no doily! That’s a coaster!

I have also been working on my double knit scarf and I’m a bit further along than these photos as I am now nearly done with flake number six.

Side A: Delicate White flakes against a dark green background.

Side B: Powerful Green flakes on a snowy white background

So I think with my current progress I am at least past the hump of the middle of a scarf project.

Now I must confess I have still not gotten any further on my bird needlework project and every time I’m up in the library room with my sewing I remind myself I really ought to finish it up.

But in the mean time…. I did say I was going to make two sweaters this year, one for Ben and one for myself. And I’m only half done with that project… so I took the next step and… couldn’t narrow it down past two designs I really liked. One is called Spoke, and the other is called Luscious. Well I figured the easiest method since they took two different kind of yarns was to browse through my various yarn options and see if I couldn’t have the yarn decide. (Each take a different yarn weight)

Well the yarn decided alright…. it decided I was making two sweaters!

A Future Spoke Sweater!
(and a side of conductive thread for gloves)

Future Luscious. The heathered color on the left is the main body color, with the darker as the trim.

As if that wasn’t enough yarn… I got a nice reminder that I had Jimmy Beans Bucks from some yarn I bought when working on Debora. So I did what any good knitter would and bought a beautiful skein of lace weight yarn.

I am leaning towards the Frozen Leaves Shawl with this, but it means a full charted pattern.

And that brings us to the end of the updates and progress… and you are wondering what exactly I meant by a little bit more. Well…. I was contacted recently by someone that is getting ready to cast on a Debora blanket! And to me… well that’s pretty awesome! If you’ve ever watched Howl’s Moving Castle, then you will know what I mean when I say that’s the “I like your spark!” compliment.

Shawl we get this over with? – And some philosophy

Posted on August 24, 2012 by MissCarlotta

So you know that shawl I posted from my stash just the other day… well yesterday and this morning… I finished it!

Fanned out and on display

This shawl has been in my stash for a very long time… it had two of the half fans that form the top border on stitch holders and just hanging out because I ran out of yarn. It was the first modular design piece I decided to try. Since it was a learn to do it project… I used stash yarn that I picked up… likely from the clearance section of the yarn shop, and didn’t have enough as it turns out. So I ended up finishing it with a later not-quite match.

Here you can see where the new color row fits in with the old color

Now…. the philosophy ramble…. (skip to the end if you want the pattern link).

I don’t tend to worry about gauges when I’m testing out something to see if I can do it. I don’t plan nearly as much as I probably should… but since I am in more of the beginner stage of knitting, I don’t think that is a bad thing. I could see where this would be an issue later on when I want to make a sweater, or to get the right fit on socks and gloves, but for learning the principals of stitches and patterns on scarves and blankets it really doesn’t matter. If what I want to know is… can I figure out how to SSK/cable/double-knit something… it does not bother me in the slightest if its 30 inches instead of 36, or vise-versa. No one else but me has any idea how its supposed to turn out anyway.

Sure, I could follow the recommended yarn brand, which would have cost me about $60, and it would probably be worth it… but the whole time I’d have started the project I’d be fretting about cutting up that beautiful and expensive yarn. Or I can test out a pattern and not worry about the yarn for about $10 on the same project.

If you are learning and you see a pattern you like and want to try, don’t fret over having “Super-silk-cashmere-yarn-of-Amazeballs™” just bust open your yarn stash and get to work with what you have! Learn something new… and find what you love.

And with that… here’s the pattern.

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