Afflicted

I've been bitten by the bug that seems to have been going around the knitting community. Yes, I'm talking about the Colour Affection Shawl





The yarn harlot blogged about it. Diane of Knitabulls podcast spoke of it. And its been consistantly in the top 20 of Ravelry's 'Hot Right Now' pattern list since ...well, I'm not sure, but I'd be willing to bet since it was written. Veera V is an established pattern writer. This particular shawl has been well over 4 THOUSAND times on Ravelry!!

Well, who am I to resist. I think its the endless possibilities of colour combos that make this such an appealing knit. I started knitting this on my vacation to Niagara Falls. Kev hand wound the yarn for me. I purchased the three skeins of Mad tosh sock from Lettuce Knits in Toronto.






I thoroughly enjoyed knitting this. There is something soothing about garter stitch stripes. I'm not sure that I will keep this shawl for myself however. I did notice one thing about it when I had just about finished it. The colours, the stripes - the shawl looked very similar to my Daybreak. I love wearing shawls in the winter, but I'm not sure that I need two stripey shawls in the nearly identical blue and yellow colours.

And then there were mittens!

I finished my second pair of Cloisinee mittens from the yarn harlot. I'm much happier with this pair. I did the clusters much better. That is, I followed the directions properly instead of trying to do my own thing. I don't know why I thought I knew better than the yarn harlot. She's called the yarn harlot for a reason - she knows these things.

I also had another good mail day this week. I stalked this etsy shop - and I mean stalked. I was hitting the F5 (refresh) button every 30 seconds or so. And literally within 2 minutes of posting her update, her shop was empty. Thats how in demand these balls of yarn are. Well, who can blame people for wanting these gorgeous colours? I can't believe I managed to get two of them!!

The green one is called Green a Go Go and the other one is called Kaboom! I love them so much. I love the colours, I love the way they are hand wound, I love the way the stripes are exactly even. I've already cast on for a pair of socks in the Kaboom colourway. They'll be my purse knitting. But I want to knit on them all of the time, the colours are that fun.

And another finished object this week. This time in my handspun! Yay me for keeping my New Year's resolution

The pattern for the cowl can be found here. I did make a few changes to the patterns (mostly due to lack of yarn) but I also left out 3 edging stitches. And to be honest, I'm not sure why there were edging stitches there since this pattern was written and knit in the round. I'm happy with the result too. It might even be a gift for someone. Yes, I'm getting better at sharing the handspun love!

Again with the Mittens

Like I said in the last post - its mitten season. And Amy's birthday is coming up. She specifically asked for mittens for her birthday so here is another pair that I made. The pattern is the Yarn Harlot's and I like them a lot. I had a tough time with the little clusters on the cuff, and you can tell in this pair.

But I think I've mastered it on the second pair. I've not finished them yet, but need to get at it, since I want to give them as a gift on Monday.

I've also been spinning. Here is my latest.

Boy, did this stuff ever plump up when setting the twist. Its navajo plied BFL
combed top from etsy seller Mulberry Fibers. I only spun up half of this bump and I loved how it turned out. I've got a hankering to spin some other things so I wanted to clear up the wheel. The Knit Girllls are doing a spin along featuring different fibers and this month they are spinning Shetland! I've ordered some but haven't gotten it yet. I'll post pictures when I do. The point of the spin along is to sample different fibers. I've spun BFL, polwarth, merino, corriedale, targhee (see last post!) alpaca, and silk blends. This seems to be pretty much common fare in the spinning world. The most different thing I spun was tessewater and I'm thinking I should have done a bit more research to see how this fiber likes to be spun because what I ended up with was like rope.


I also finished up a hat!

Its another Icing Swirl hat by Ysolda. This is such a fast knit and the result is so on trend right now. (Like I know...hahaha) Probably another gift for Amy. I do like to spoil her with handknits. She does appreciate it. Since I've gotten something off the needles, that means I can cast on for something new. In keeping with my resolution it should be in handspun. I'd like to participate in Diane of Knitabulls podcast February KAL that she is hosting. Her viewers are knitting one of three valentine/heart themed knits. I do have some pinkish handspun that would be enough for the La La Love You Cowl. This is a cute cowl that would be a great gift for someone. We'll see!

The Knitting Olympics

The opening ceremonies are about to start...in about 20 minutes. And I will be casting on for this vest. This will be my first Olympics and I'm excited. I also like this vest. I somehow ordered two kits by mistake. Don't know how that happened. It must be the wool fumes. Wish me luck.

I am battling an injury, so I'm not sure that I'll be in peak condition, but I'm sure I'll be able to pull off a spectacular finish. Here's hoping.