Friday, May 22, 2009

Crafts Update

Besides my Maryland Sheep and Wool haul, I have a few other projects in the works and a major completion.

Bamboo Clapotis

clapotis1



Pattern: Clapotis
Yarn: South West Trading Co. Bamboo, 3 skeins
Needles: US Size 6 (4.0mm)

I added in an extra increase section and worked a total of 21 repeats in the straight section. This one nearly killed me - I had to really force myself to work on it and get it finished. I don't really like knitting flat and this is one of those projects that doesn't need as much attention as a lace pattern, but it's not mindless knitting either. I did find this handy little pdf that has a nice chart where you can check off each row as you work it - Clapotis Chart.

Design-a-long: Lacy Tank

rayon_swatches

This is my first Knitty Keen knit-a-long, designing a lacy tank with bust shaping. I just posted the first installment which talks about some of the why's of designing your own and a bit on swatching so pop on over to take a look - Design-a-long: Lacy Tank.

Lacy Shrug Cardi
I bought a couple of balls of linen/viscose blend over the weekend with the idea of making some sort of cardigan/shrug. I made a swatch since the ball band had no needle suggestions and the swatch at my LYS seemed way too loose for my taste.

linen_swatch

The yarn seems very happy on my US Size 4 (3.5mm) needles, but I still needed a pattern. Monday morning was spent playing with several ideas, but nothing jumped out at me until I started surfing Ravelry and found a pattern from the Spring '09 IK.



I didn't renew my subscription to IK this year and when I did a quick scan of the spring issue, nothing really caught my eye - I definitely have to look at these things more closely in future. The Whisper Cardigan definitely fits the bill for what I want - a cardigan with a shrug neckline. The Ravelry pattern page has a link to the designer's website with a schematic of the cardi, so while I do intend to purchase the magazine once I track down a copy, I don't actually need it to make one. I have to do major mods anyway due to my body shape, so I'm taking what I know about my shape and the info I learned from knitting up two Mia Shrugs to make this.

Wooly Goodness

I was able to make it down to Maryland Sheep and Wool this year and here are long overdue pictures of my haul this year!

Zeilinger Wool Co.

Brown Wool/Alpaca


Fingering weight wool/alpaca mix


chartreuse_alpacca-wool


Light Fingering Wool/Alpaca
(this picture does not do justice to the depth of color on these skeins)


Brooks Farm Yarn

purple_wool


Solo, Sport/DK weight 100% Wool


I Love Yarn

blue-gray_rayon


DK Weight 100% Rayon
(another where the picture doesn't do the yarn justice)


Koigu Wool Designs

koigu_millends1


Lots and lots of KPPM mill-ends


koigu_millends2


subdued grouping


koigu_millends3


brights


Not a bad haul. Everything has a specific project in place for it. In the interest of full disclosure I will admit that the KPPM was just bought willy-nilly, but since it's fingering weight it doesn't count ;).

cross-posted on Knitty Keen