Recent FOs

My knitting has been a bit scattered since I finished the Icy Shetland Triangle in June. (I did block the three shawls, but haven't had photo sessions with them yet).

I like having knitting projects that are portable, because I knit away from home a lot - in the car (when I'm the passenger, of course), when I'm hanging with friends, and during several Wednesday meetings at work. I also want projects that are easy to memorize, because a lot of the time, I have to concentrate on something besides my knitting.

With Project Spectrum Air happening over the months of June & July, I decided to pull out the sampler blanket project that I put in the bottom of my stash bins over a year ago. Because this is the first project I ever knit, I am not into knitting it any more, so I decided to take the 25 squares I had already knit, finish off seven more, and make two baby blankets with 16 squares each. The grey & cream (& brown) colors were a perfect match for PS Air, and working on squares would be a portable little project good for summertime knitting. Except - each square requires closely following a pattern, so it turned out to be less convenient than I thought. I am happy to say I just finished sewing up one blanket, and have four more squares to knit for blanket #2.

So I've done a slew of quick little, portable projects. Many of which are actually good for Project Spectrum Water, which just started August 1. I finished the Falling Leaves Shawl:



And knit a Foliage Hat out of the same yarn (Berrocco Ultra Alpaca in Oceanic Mix) to match:



I found that the Ultra Alpaca was not as suited to the pattern as the Malagbrigo. It was way too long. After finishing the hat, I had to pick out the cast off, rip back the ribbing and a lace repeat, and then reknit the ribbing.

I knit a Scrunchable Scarf and a pair of mittens (cobbled together my own design) out of Malabrigo Chunky in the Vaa colorway to match the Foliage Hat I made for myself:



And a quick little Pro Bono hat in naturally dyed handspun from Tactile Fiber Arts:



I also was out of town for almost two weeks. I took along two one-skein lace scarf projects but was not engaged by either of them. And frankly, Hawaii is not conducive to knitting - I was either swimming, taking pictures, or reading (a lovely vacation indeed). I have already frogged the one I was trying to design and I suspect the other one will follow. Also, I frogged Birch - I knew I couldn't make it into what I wanted it to be. I do love the Morehouse Merino Lace yarn with the fern leaf lace pattern, so expect they will be paired again at some point.

So, the only WIP I have going right now is the baby blanket #2. I need a portable, easy to memorize project. Which means, ladies and gentlemen, that it is time to cast on for the Great Feather & Fan Shawl Project of 2008.

Foliage in Two Colorways

A long Thanksgiving weekend, and two Foliage hats done:


in Marron Oscuro, a lovely mottled brown


in Vaa, a lovely blue-green combination

Pattern: Foliage by Emilee Mooney from Knitty Fall 2007
Yarn: Malabrigo Chunky 100% merino wool in Vaa
Needles: US size 10.5 and 9

This is a great pattern. I love the lace leaf motif and wow, I am so in love with Malabrigo now. It's a very quick knit and was a joy the whole way through. The brown will be a gift and the blue-green is for me. I love it so much that I am considering getting some more yarn to make a matching scarf now.

My only complaint with the pattern is that the hat is so big that it almost reaches my eyebrows when fitting the crown of my head normally. However, I can fold the ribbed edging back if need be. I may also try re-blocking and let it dry flat rather than on a round surface to see if that helps it shrink up.

Foliage

Since I finished the scarf and am finally making headway with the blocks project, it seems like time to cast something else on. I decided on Foliage from Knitty. One for me, and one as a holiday gift, I'm thinking.



Really, I just wanted an excuse to try some Malabrigo yarn.


Malabrigo Chunky 100% merino wool in the Vaa colorway

I'm excited to give this yarn a try. It's soft enough to dive in to. (I'm picturing myself with a couch full of yarn to leap on.)


Malabrigo Chunky 100% merino wool in the Marron Oscuro colorway

I picked up a set of DPNs in the correct size today, so I'm all ready to dive in...