I've Been Busy

In Progress: I've got one WIP at the moment, although I plan to finish it today, and that is a knitted penguin for my aunt, who's favourite animals are... penguins. We're supposed to go visit them this weekend, however as of right now, the plan is on shaky grounds, and it appears that the trip will be postponed to who knows when. I've used Bernat Super Value for the black parts of the penguin, Caron Simply Soft in sunshine for the
yellowy parts, and what I believe is also some Caron Simply Soft for the white belly; it was a random, unmarked ball of white acrylic I had with other left overs, but oddly enough had never marked down on my yarn sheet (all the other balls of leftovers have their locations written down). The construction is interesting, although maybe a little more involved than it needed to be, but I think it mainly avoids more sewing, which is good. The tail is very cute! Take a look for yourself. The flippers and feet are done, but have yet to be attached, and I had to add an artsy effect to the photo for the eyes to show up well. They're 6 mm safety eyes.

Finished Objects: First off, the Olive Branch shawl blocked out very nicely, and was very well received! I gave the recipient the left over yarn as well, because she's decided to pick up knitting again!
I also finished the Freya shawl, with only 2 g of yarn left over! I have thus far opted not to block it, as the composition is 80% acrylic, and I really like the flirty ruffle along the bottom, and I'm worried that blocking it may remove that. Who knows though, I may block it some day.

French macarons, yum!

The next few FO's are some things I hadn't even mentioned on the blog yet. They're 3 crocheted macarons (the French kind). The family we may go see were just in Paris over Christmas, and gave me some good ideas for my own trip in May, such as suggesting that I try macarons (I'd wanted to anyways!), since my cousin adored them. So since my aunt who loves penguins is getting a penguin, I made my cousin and other aunt each macarons! I changed up the pattern slightly, but I've already written all of that out on the project page. I also crocheted one that followed the pattern for myself ;) I used just some left over Bernat Satin in maitai and banana, and some Caron Simply Soft in pistachio and soft pink.
My last FO this week is the socks that I'd just cast on before my last post. I finished them 2 nights ago, with only 1 g left of my yarn. I didn't think that I'd like the pattern as much as I do. I believe this may become my go-to sock pattern for using up amounts of sock yarn that are too small for a normal pair. They are super comfortable, and fit really well, even without any ribbing. And the yarn is super soft- I definitely need to get more of that next time I'm near a Hobby Lobby!

Stash/Future Knitting: I had all of the yarns I wanted to share here lined up in a certain order to talk about, however I think it'd be better to deviate slightly to talk about my more immediate future knitting when the opportunity arises. 

Blue Mix colourway

I love knitting socks, I think I've mentioned that before. So with my current socks finished, and thinking that I'd have a nice long car ride through which to work on more, I've already planned but not started my next pair of socks. I decided on the sock pattern Charade (it's a free pattern on Ravelry, as are almost all of the things I make), and then by looking through the finished Charade socks, picked out my yarn. I'll be using my Rico Design Superba Bamboo in the blue mix colourway. I ordered it, along with some other sock yarns, from an online retailer called Deramores. They're based in the UK, but you can change the prices to CAD or USD, and have very decent shipping rates to Canada.

Green Mix colourway

In that order, I also got the same yarn in the green mix colourway. Where the blue is a variegated yarn with a slight striping-feel to it, the green is more of a striping yarn, where you sometimes get an almost jacquard pattern as some of the stripes (you know what I mean, I hope). The yarn is 50% merino, 25% bamboo and 25% nylon. It comes in a 100 g ball, so I will have to wind it into two 50 g balls for my TAAT (two at a time) socks. When I do wind one ball into two for this kind of thing, I wind them as two center-pull balls, and leave the outside strands of each attached to each other, in case for some reason one sock uses more, or I didn't get them as evenly measured as I'd hoped. I did the same thing for another pair, and it was good, as I have enough for only 1 sock left, and have the option of making a pair of mis-matched socks without needing to join in the second ball because they're still attached. Case in point, for the socks I just finished, I'd started with two 50 g balls, and finished one of them well before the other, so I joined the other end of the second ball on that sock and continued on until it was almost all gone.

My next future knitting/stash is some yarn that I got while on vacation in Europe. It's madelinetosh tosh sock in the Baltic colourway, which I got for a much higher price than it would have been here, but oh well, it was vacation yarn! I plan to make an

madelinetosh tosh sock

Annis shawl with it and some 6/0 Toho beads I got at Michael's. The Annis shawl is made from the bottom up, a technique I haven't yet tried, and has nupps. I'll be replacing the nupps with some matte blue/green beads, and possibly also putting those beads down the points. I've also got clear/rainbow beads for use on the center of these 'ladder' type things you get from yo's and decreases. Originally this shawl had no deadline, but now I've realized that the dress I plan to wear to my cousin's wedding in August is black, white and blue, so I can wear the Annis!

Catch Up: The next project I have for this section is a present that I crocheted for one of my oldest friends, who also happens to crochet (I didn't find out until after I'd learned how), hadn't yet joined Ravelry, and is working on her Master's degree in Chemistry. So when I saw this pattern, I knew I had to make it for her: it's an Erlenmeyer flask! I made it with Bernat Handicrafter in hot pink because I know she likes pink, and the same yarn in white for the stem. I'd seen others add some stuffing to the outside for a smoke effect, but with kitty cats around, that's probably too much of a temptation for them. The construction of it is very clever, and if you look down the stem of the glass, you can see the pink 'liquid' inside. I found some of those decorative glass balls in an old vase, and put some on the bottom inside for weight, so it'd stand on it's own. I really love the measurements on the side of the flask, and how I did the mouth, but the eye's were really tricky for me since they were curved. I found a video on youtube that helped a bit, but it was a learning curve for sure, and embroidering features like that continues to be a bit of an issue for me. 

My next project was a bit intimidating for me, and I took three breaks along the way before certain finishing touches. It was my first hat, the Kittyville Hat pattern. Most of it was actually completed in July (although I don't think it was mentioned on the blog), but it wasn't fully done until September. I used the Bernat Super Value in black (some of the leftovers of which were used on the penguin) and it was my first time using a circular needle (16" Chiaogoo bamboo) for circular knitting, or any circular knitting for that matter, as I finished the hat part before I'd even started the hamsterbean. Once I cast on and joined in the round, it was pretty easy. My first break happened before I added the ear flaps and I-cord tassels. During this break it became pretty intimidating, but I pushed through and picked it back up, and it was fine! When it was time to add the ears I took another break, as you did so by picking up stitches along the top of the hat. I'd picked up stitches before, but not along a flat fabric before... but again, once I did them, it wasn't too hard. Finally, I wasn't even sure if I'd add the pom-poms at the ends of the tassels. Most of the tutorials I'd seen had used cardboard or actual special plastic cut-outs for forming them, and it all seemed too complicated. I didn't add them until I was on Facebook and saw a video from Bernat about making pom-poms with only your hands, yarn and scissors. I haven't had an occasion to make any more, but if/when I do, I will be referring back to that video.
In the end, I finished the hat in time for winter, and I love it. I wear it about half the time I wear a hat (I've got one other I usually alternate it with).

Baltic madelinetosh wound on my nostepinne

Other: You'll notice that the yarn I plan to make my Annis shawl with is in a skein. I've used fancier yarns from skeins before (3 times so far), but it's always been wound into a ball for me at the store. Now you can wind for yourself at home with a ball winder and swift, just like at the store, but I don't have a job and would rather spend money on yarn that fork over more than $60 for a ball winder. So I got a nostepinne. I've wound balls of yarn by hand before, once I got one into a cake, but it's almost always a ball, and usually a bit hard to get it even because you have to turn the yarn on your fingers. With the nostepinne, you turn it, something you can't do with your hand. It's also super easy to make center-pull cakes on. The one I got was handmade, and cost about $10 from Etsy. It's a very nice walnut wood, with notches for fastening the center-pull strand to the top or bottom. If you go on google, there's all sorts of videos for making yarn cakes on them, and using alternative materials as nostepinnes, such as the tubes from paper towel rolls and toilet paper rolls, dowels, or PVC pipes.
When I first got my nostepinne, I practiced by winding center-pull cakes out of leftover balls of acrylic. It's pretty fun to do! Then a few days ago, I wound up the yarn for the Annis on my nostepinne. In my opinion, it looks just as good as something you'd get from a ball winder. 

Quite a lot to mention today, but I did go almost 2 weeks without an update. I'll try to be a little more punctual next time, but we did have some flood-related havoc to occupy my time.