And We're Back

Well, I kept up with the knitting, but not with the posting.
I've recently been watching some knitting-related podcasts, and I like some of the segments in particular, so I thought that I may adopt some of them for catching up on my yarrny blog. The segments are: In Progress, FOs, Stash, Catch Up, and then Other. 

January on the 2013 Temperature Scarf

In Progress/WIPs: Right now I've got 3 projects going, although one of them hasn't been touched in a while; that would be my 2013 Temperature Scarf. The Bernat forum KAL/CAL this year has been these scarves, where you keep track of the daily temperatures for an area (I'm doing the high temperatures for where I live), and depending on the temperature, there is a corresponding colour that you knit 2 rows in. Obviously the earliest that the scarf will be done is the beginning of next year, so I've let it sit for a few months; my scarf is a simple garter stitch with a 4 stitch seed stitch edge, the kind of easy stuff best left to school time.  I'm using various yarns from my stash or that I bought for the scarf because I didn't have the colours (orange was very hard to find).
Next up is the Freya shawl. I've had the yarn since last year, and had it paired with this pattern since at least December of last year, since I'd printed it out to bring to Florida with me (I never got to it on that trip). I'm just at the beginning of the 3rd repeat of the main pattern (each repeat doubles the number of pattern sections). I've still got 90 g of yarn left, although it should be like 113 g- I was shorted 23 g of yarn on one of the balls of Patons Lace... I got 62 g when I weighed it at home, and it's supposed to be 85 g! Either way, I plan to keep going until the yarn is gone, and I hope that it makes it at least to the end of the pattern. 
My third WIP is the Olive Branch triangle shawl. This one is for a family friend, who picked out and bought the yarn, Malabrigo Arroyo. It's a sport weight yarn, but I've increased my needle size, and she got two balls, which is more than enough. I'm making it larger than the one used in the example the designer made, which had 3 repeats of chart one and 1 repeat of chart two. I'm currently partway through my 4th and final repeat of chart one. Chart two will get 1-2 repeats (or 1.5 if it works out the way I think it will), and then the edge chart and bind off. 

The Finished Object segment will start when I've finished some of the WIPs I mention here, so nothing yet!

For Stash, I've got quite a lot of yarn since I last updated this blog. I'm a little obsessive about keeping the things I like in order (books --> Goodreads, yarn --> Ravelry), and according to my stash, I've got 147 different types/colours of yarn, and an additional 5 used up. Much of that is cheaper yarn that can be found at big stores like Michael's, but since my trip to Florida in December, I've also gotten some higher end yarn from LYSs. Those and my sock yarns will be some of the first that I'll go through on here. First though, I want to mention a cool find I had. I was going through a drawer in my room, and I came across two balls of teal/purple/lavender/berry worsted, acrylic yarn by Bernat. I looked all over Ravelry and the internet for more information, but didn't find much. It was from an old kit I had about learning to crochet, from when I was much younger. The instructions and hook are long gone, but the best part is the yarn! It's called Bernat Knitting Worsted, and was made in May 1999. According to the ball band each ball is 42.5 g, although mine are 43 and 46 g.

Catch Up is for me to catch up on talking about finished objects from when I stopped updating last August. I figure I'll just continue in order from when I stopped. Today, I'll do the updates for the three projects I had in progress during my last post. 

First up was my crocheted star afghan. I was just working on the border, and I actually completed it later in the day, after my post!

Next, I was talking about the rectangular, red pom-pom blanket that I was making for my mom. It turned out very soft and warm! One issue I had was that some of the balls of yarn I had were actually falling apart between the pom-poms. I used 8 of the 10 balls I had, and I don't really know if the last two are usable, because they were the ones with issues. Also, most of the balls I did use were of different dye lots, which led to inconsistencies in the thickness of the strand between the pom-poms, and the pom-poms themselves. Using the same dye lot doesn't fully protect you from this either, as when I knit another blanket, I had the thickness of the yarn change in the middle of a ball (it was a new strand joined with a knot).
My third project was the summer flies shawl, my first shawl project. It took me what felt like quite a while, especially during the open knotted-work section (a pity because I qutie like the look of that kind of stitch). I did the picot bind-off that the pattern used. It's nice and frilly and probably warm too, although a little bit small. It would probably be a bit larger if I blocked it (although the yarn is 100% acrylic), but I opted not to, as it's pretty cute as it is. I may get to wear it this August to one of my cousin's weddings. I have a pretty blue/black/white dress, and although I've made other shawls, none would really match except this one. I did make it after getting inspiration at a wedding after all.

In Other today, I wanted to talk about an issue I had related to tensioning yarn. Originally, I would hold the strand of yarn in my middle, ring, and pinkie fingers, with the fingers curled up around the yarn against my palm. This did create some pain, and wasn't the best way to hold the yarn. After crocheting for a while, this past December I finally started wrapping the yarn around my pinkie on my right hand while knitting (like I do with my left hand while crocheting). This has now become how I always tension the yarn, however this morning, while working on the Olive Branch shawl, I felt some irritation on my pinkie finger. It seems that I've now developed a nice red ingrown hair right in the middle of where the yarn usually goes on the top of my finger. Ow. I was tensioning the yarn with my ring finger for a bit after that (a little tight), but when I noticed that I was subconsciously switching back to using my pinkie, I decided to take a break, and write this post instead!

I'm going to try to update this at least once a week during the summer. Next time, I'll post pictures of the two shawls I'm working on as well.

Happy Crafting!