Pucker up, round 2

My lovely friend Ashley designed Pucker Up back in January, and I eagerly knit one up from my stash -- Lily Sugar & Cream in Rose Pink.  The project itself displayed the pattern well, and the color of the yarn certainly added a pop to my wardrobe, but all in all it wasn't the best yarn choice.  In these harsh economic times, we must cherish frugality, careful not to spend where we don't need to.  That's why stash knitting is so great -- we get to craft new and beautiful things using what we already have.

Earlier this month, I made some purchases at KnitPicks and bought the yarn for my beloved Cladonia shawl and some Comfy Worsted to remake Ashley's design.

Round 2 is so much better.

Pucker Up by Ashley Aguilar in Knit Picks Comfy Worsted, Fairy Tale colorway

Ravelry Project Page

Comfy Worsted is unbelievably soft, I want to make a blanket out of it and stay wrapped up for hours.  I love the color, although I admittedly have a thing for jewel tones.  Unlike Sugar & Cream, Comfy shows off the pattern more and can hold the picots without losing definition.  The drape is amazing, and the hat turned out much slouchier than I anticipated.

Mods:

I used size 6 needles throughout because I still can't find my interchangeables.

I cast on for the medium size and knit the body in large because I wanted it slouchier.  It turns out that wasn't necessary.  Tip: If you knit the hat in yarn that can be blocked, there is no need to size up to get a slouchy hat.

Worried about yarn shortage, I knit the pleated sections two rows shorter than written, but it turns out I had some extra yarn anyway.

The pattern is quick and unique, and it can hold my giant curly lion mane so that's always a plus.  The construction is simple but the result is super sweet.  I was so grateful to size up from fingering yarn.

Cladonia

I have nicknamed Cladonia Yarnie: the yarn baby.

This pattern held my attention really well.  Especially in a fingering weight shawl, knitting through the body can be dreadful.  But this pattern is different; with color changes every two rows, you're constantly switching up what you're doing.  As far as yarn choices go, variegated is tops.  Watching the colors change adds a new component to the knitting project.  Golden Glow changes from a pale, near white yellow to warm, honey yellow with bits of bright, intense yellow.  The pink changes from pale, near white pink to cool, pastel pink and deep, near almost purpley pink and of course, it has bits of yellow.

Combined, there are spots in the shawl where the pink and yellow are nearly indiscernible.

In the edging, though, I didn't like the yellow bits in the pink.  I feel like it took away from the overall look of color completion.  But maybe I'm thinking too much about it.

Yesterday Eddie and I took a bunch of photos of the baby in action (after busting it out at the theater while watching Captain America).

I knit the pattern as written, except on 6s instead of 7s (can't seem to find my interchangeable needles).  I was apprehensive to do the looped picot edging, but it's really not that bad and the end product is beautiful.

I really, really love my yarn baby.

My new yarn baby

I picked up my knitpicks yarn on Monday and oh my god, it is glorious.

Stroll Tonal in Golden Glow and Queen Anne

I feel like these colorways were made for each other; the yellow has bits of pink, the pink has bits of yellow.  I started a new project with this yarn, Cladonia, and it is beautiful:

Cladonia by Kristen Kapur

More on the actual pattern later, but I'm really loving that the colors switch every two rows.  It keeps the pattern very easy to memorize and the variegation of the yarn holds my interest (especially with the pink, I am really interested in how the colors knit up).

Knitting so many beautiful things makes me want to keep designing, but I oh-so nervously dip my toes into the waters of design.   But this makes me happy:

Look at all those hearts!  I hope people make more projects though, I'd really like to see what people can do with my patterns.

I wonder what I should design next...

Summer Flies

And so I am done with the first trimester of my senior year of college.  Only two more to go before I graduate in March.  This March.  In nine months. Wow.

When finals roll along, I have an unrelenting "No knitting until you're done" policy, so this yarn and this project served as an incentive to get all my work done (it's a good incentive -- I stayed on Dean's List all year!  Whoo!).

Eddie got me some beautiful yarn in Royalty from Sun Valley Fibers for my birthday. I normally buy fingering yarn in 440 yard skeins, but this skein fell short at just 400 yards.  But alas, there are plenty of beautiful shawlette lacy patterns under 400.  I decided to make Summer Flies by Donna Griffin.

The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn, so obviously my fingering weight finished product differs from the sample.  Most notably, the gorgeous knotwork section doesn't show up as clearly as it would in worsted weight.

I had trouble with the first butterfly section, and I ended up having a few extra stitches at the end of the butterfly sections, but it wasn't really a big deal, I just made up for the stitch count (skipping the m1s, ssk when there were extra stitches, etc).

The bind off took super long, but I'm glad it's done.  Blocking helped bring out the pattern.  The color is most accurate in the first photo.

Ravelry Project Page

Clouds over moorlands

...sounds like a poem title.

Eddie got me a skein of Tosh Merino Light in Moorland over spring break.  I want to work with more green yarn, but I didn't want to make a hat out of fingering weight yarn.  So, I went to my go-to pattern, the Storm Cloud Shawlette by Hanna Breetz.  Given that Tosh Merino Light comes in skeins of 440 yards and the Storm Cloud Shawlette is written for 210 yards, obviously some adjustments needed to be made.  

To start with, I used a size 6 needle (smaller yarn, you see),  and followed the pattern was written up to row 38, where I made rounds 50 and 70 increase rounds.  I knit until row 85, then I did the ruffle end, knitting 7 rows before binding off.

I did a modified bind-off (kfb, ssk) that made the ends fluffy and strange.

I still ended up with leftovers, which I used to make Leonidas and I still have more.  Oh well, I like having extra tosh around.

The finished product was a little too large as a neck-shawlette, so I sewed up the ends to make it a shrug.  Of course, it's not written to be a shrug, so the ends were way too long and I had to sew a few inches of material just to get it to lay flat, but now it has a whole new life!

Ravelry project page

Om nom nom

 One of my professors is an Iowan, and the Heartland is certainly known for its corn.  While I usually stick to knitting goose-accessories for this professor, I decided to deviate a bit to incorporate his homeland.  Who doesn't want a little bit of home with them?

I decided to knit Corn by Kimberly Chapman.

Mods:

• I used 4s instead of 3s
• I knit the corn in seed stitch (it looks all kernel-y!) and adjusted the increases/decreases accordingly
• I completely misread the pattern and didn't lengthen the leaves of the husk at all before decreasing.  What a bummer.
• I embroidered a happy face, closed the corn up, then decided my embroidery looked stupid.  My corn is face-less.  

Thanks to Ashley for giving me a might sack of extra yarn way back in the day.  The husk is knit from that stash!  

I used acrylic for the whole project, but I might want to knit another Corn-guy with cotton just so it's a bit cuddlier.  Although I doubt my professor will be cuddling this corn. 

The Guz

The term's almost up...back to professor knitting!

So some background, the professor for whom I made "The Guz"'s last name rhymes with Goose.  Also, he has an iconic mustache.  Obviously the two need be combined.  Ta-da!! The Guz.

The Guz is a rather modified version of Mama Duck and Ducklings by Susan B. Anderson from Itty Bitty Toys.  Itty Bitty Toys happens to be one of the three, count 'em three knitting books I own.

I knit the mama-sized duck/goose.  I switched the color scheme, obviously.  I also embroidered a Guz-esque mustache above the beak once I attached it.  Rather than doing a kitchener stitch, I did an inside-out 3 needle bind off the close the body before starting the head.

Ravelry Project Page

Guz liked it!  He said it would sit in his office for many, many years.