The Almost FO

I've been a bit of an obsessive knitter this week, putting huge amounts of time into the Olive Branch shawl and only that. I also had a bit of a plan for how I'd go through my catch up projects, but now I think I want to skip ahead a bit, because it'd be relevant to what I want to talk about in the 'Other' section today. 

In Progress: I'm still working on the Freya shawl, but like I said in the introduction, I've been really focused on the Olive Branch, so Freya hasn't seen much action since my last post. 

Walk Away Bamboo in Tango

Last night, I cast on for a new project, a pair of socks for myself! I'm using a small bit of Yarn Bee Walk Away Bamboo in the tango colourway, which is a fun mix of blue, pink, orange and lime green with a white strand throughout lending some extra interest to the mix. The yarn is a light fingering according to Ravelry, and composed of 45% bamboo, 40% wool and 15% nylon- it's very soft! I haven't yet covered my sock knitting adventures and how my preferences came about, but I'm knitting these toe-up, two at a time with magic loop on a 47", 2.75 mm Chiaogoo Red Lace circular. I started out planning to make the Mouches pattern, as it is meant to be a small ankle sock and has lace, but I was worried that my ~180 yards just wouldn't make it, so I switched to a pattern that I'd been eyeing that was meant to use only one 50 g ball of sock yarn, and make an even lacier ankle sock. I have about 39 g of a 50 g ball of sock yarn to work with. There are a few reasons that I cast these on now, even knowing that I want to finish the Freya shawl soon. The first is that today (June 8) is world wide knit in public day (WWKIP Day), and I thought we'd be going to a park opening/BBQ today and wanted something a bit more portable and easier than the Freya shawl to bring with me (but I ended up staying home with my mom waiting for our new stove to arrive). The second reason is that the June challenge in the 13 socks in 2013 group involves knitting with fun, springy, variegated yarn, and an option is making them for yourself too, and I've been wanting to use up the rest of this yarn for a little while. It's nice to use some of your yarn, but I get extra satisfaction from setting it as used up in my stash on Ravelry, since so few of my yarn has actually been fully used up! (Still only 5 yarns in the used up tab).

Finish(ing) Object: You may have noticed the absence of the Olive Branch shawl in the In Progress section, and that would be because it is off the needles and currently blocking! I got it off the needles and onto the blocking mats last night, and it feels mostly dry now, but I figured it can't hurt to leave it on there for a few more hours to make sure it's completely dry. I'm also happy to report that none of the dye came out in the water while it was soaking. Here it is pinned out, you may notice a white thread along the top: that is my cheap blocking wire alternative, neutral crochet cotton my grandma grabbed me for free at a destash at the local senior's center. You've just got to make sure that it's threaded through before soaking (luckily I read that tip before attempting this method).

Stash: I've already talking about my Yarn Bee Walk Away Bamboo in the In Progress section, but I just wanted to mention that I got that yarn, along with many others and my first LYS yarn on our trip to Florida this past December, since we don't have Hobby Lobby in Canada.

Luxury Sock in Crocuses

While in Florida, I also got some Loops & Threads Luxury Sock in the crocuses colourway. We have the same yarn at the Michael's here, but it was at least $2 per ball cheaper in the USA (from $8/50 g ball to at least $6, although I don't remember for sure), so I finally got some. I believe it will be self-striping which should be fun, and it's pretty soft (although a bit more 'wooly' feeling than the Walk Away Bamboo), with a composition of 60% merino, 30% nylon and 10% cashmere. I have no idea what pattern(s) I'll be using with this yarn, but it'll be something that goes well with the self-striping nature of it.

Catch Up: I've decided against going out of order for now, so the next two projects I completed were both crocheted! The first was a pattern I'd had my eye on for a while, and decided to make so that I could wear it for handing out candy on Hallowe'en: a brain slug from Futurama! The Bernat Supersaver that I bought specifically for the green colour of the slug was pretty rough on my fingers (mainly the ones holding the project while I speared it with the hook), but I finished it pretty quickly. The antennae stay up for a little bit, but gravity eventually weighs them down, and I added a small crocheted square to the bottom of the slug, so that a headband can be slipped through for wearing it on my head (it worked great for Hallowe'en, and I got a few comments on it too!), but also removed for just displaying the brain slug. 
My other project was a request from my step dad, for another crocheted coaster, similar to the others I'd made, but that wouldn't let condensation from glasses seep through to the table. So using a technique I got from making teething biscuits before, I made two of the circular coasters, and then slip-stitched them together around the outside. I also used a nicer yarn, Bernat Handicrafter in the Neptune colourway, and gave the coaster to him for his birthday. When I first slip-stitched the two coasters together, it was cupped up a little, but most of that went away after a night under my laptop.

Other: I haven't really talked about knitting socks, but I've completed 5 pairs of toe-up socks so far, and I've consistently had a small problem with Judy's magic cast-on. Don't get me wrong, I love this cast on! It's very easy and makes a great looking toe. My problem is that the first stitch on the bottom needle (opposite the slip knot) is always very large and loose on the next round. I always end up taking the yarn tail at the toe and using it to firm up that one loose stitch. So for the socks I cast on last night, once I finally figured out my issue (I kept getting huge, loose toes, and then realized after attempt 5 or so that I was using a 4 mm needle rather than 2.75 mm), I decided to try to fix the loose stitch while knitting. First I tried making that loop really tight, but that did nothing since I always make all the loops as tight as possible. Next, when I came up to knitting it, I knit it normally, and then pulled the yarn over from the back, over the top of the needle to the front, and then in back again (under the needle, ready to knit again), which pulled that large stitch over the new one, and left me with 2 bars on the needle where normally one would be. This was intentional though, and on the next round, I knit both of those bars together. And you know what, there's no loose stitch to need to try to tighten later! It looks a little different on the toe if you really examine it, but there's no gap or anything, and it probably stands out more because of the different colours in the yarn. If my explanation of what I didn't isn't painting a clear picture, it's pretty much like making a double stitch for the yo-yo or German short-row heel, but instead of leaving the yarn in front to purl, I took it all the way around to the back again. In the future, I'll definitely be using this little trick for the loose stitch, although I may try the Turkish cast on at some point, as I keep seeing it mentioned.

That's all for now, I want to get back to my socks and get through the toe increases (one of the more tedious parts in my opinion).
Happy Crafting!