Needlework Tuesday - Knitting and knitting

Needlework Tuesday is an occasional post detailing my needlework and/or crafting projects.

This week I have a quick update on two projects.

The first one is the shawl/wrap, Sand Layers, from my local yarn store, Wolseley Wool. I'm about a 1/3 of the way through. It's still not laying flat, but that might change once it's off the needles. 

Speaking of needles, I've been reminded of why I dislike knitting on circular needles. It's hard to explain, but I just can't seem to hold it the right way without it curling in a direction I don't want it to.  I'd love to buy an identical one and just use them as really long needles.  However, since this shawl has already cost me $85+, that won't be happening.  I'll just have to continue to fight with it. 

Other than this, I'm loving the shawl.  The pattern is really easy to follow with lots of straight knitting, which is great because I like to knit while watching TV.  It increases 2-4 stitches EVERY row, though, so it's getting quite wide very quickly. Now that it's growing, I'm not sure how I'm going to keep up with that number of stitches (+500 by the end). I'd rather not keep counting them all, so I'm going to have to come up with a system, but since the pattern adds stitches on both ends, it'll have to start in the centre. Hmmmm....

Anyway, here's a shot of the shawl so far, followed by a close up of the slip stitch and garter sections.
 

Notice the stitch marker in the first photo.  That's marking the right side of the piece.  It's something I picked up from a previous project.  Such a simple thing, but it never occurred to me to do this.  Since much of this project is garter stitch, it's really handy.   

I also have an update on the second temperature scarf (mentioned here in a previous post) that I started back in June of 2014.  Sometime in February of this year, I discovered that I wouldn't have enough orange to complete the project. Get more orange you say? Sure. If only it were that easy. *HUGE SIGH*

First off, I checked my local yarn store. They don't carry the brand anymore, so it would have to be special order and they couldn't just order one skein...I'll have to take and pay for 10 skeins...of bright orange yarn. That didn't sound right to me, but whatever. I wasn't going to argue.

Second, I figured I'd find some online instead, even though I don't shop online. Well, as it turns out, that the colour is discontinued. Not the end of the world yet because some websites still had a few (very few) left in stock. When I looked around, I discovered that the price of shipping was more than the yarn!!!! In fact, quite a bit more than the yarn.  Crazy!

I hummed and hawed for a couple of weeks unsure of what to do. I had already completed 5-6 months of the scarf and had lots of yarn left...just no orange. Darn! When I went back to a few of the websites, they were sold out. If I wanted to finish the scarf, I had to act fast. Finally, I decided to bite the bullet and pay the outrageous shipping price. I went to a website where the price was the most reasonable, but when I tried to place the order, something wasn't working properly and it just sat there spinning. I contacted the website administrator, but didn't hear anything back. However, a week later, I did hear from my bank saying that someone was charging thousands of dollars to my credit card. Sigh. I can't prove it was that website...I guess I could have a virus on my PC, even though I have antivirus software installed. Luckily, my bank caught it and I wasn't responsible for any of the charges. Needless to say no more online shopping for me. And the scarf? Well, I'm going to rip it out and make something else.  ;)  

Next week, I'll have an update on a Christmas item I started last year....I just have to finish it first.
 
Needlework Tuesday is hosted by Heather over at Books and Quilts.    If you'd done any crafting this week that you'd like to share with others, please head over to Heather's blog and use the Mr. Linky to link up your post, so others can enjoy your creations.  

Needlework Tuesday - Two Completed Projects

Needlework Tuesday is an occasional post detailing my needlework and/or crafting projects.

This week I have an update on two projects from the Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month.

Here's the shrug featuring dropped stitches that I mentioned last week.  The dropped stitches run almost the whole length of the shrug (48"), except for 2-3" at each wrist.  There were only 10 stitches that were dropped for the whole project, but surprisingly it took a lot longer than I thought it would to make them "run" as far as they needed to go. I really took my time with that though because I wanted to be careful not to stretch the piece too much.   

 

I wish that the sleeves tapered a little at the wrist...they are a bit too wide for my liking...but otherwise I like it.

The other Mary Maxim project I finished was a quick cowl, which can be worn as a long circular scarf in the fall or twisted twice (as shown) around the neck in colder weather. The ball of yarn apparently can make 5 of these cowls, but I don't like it enough to make more of them. The pattern, which alternated between lace and cables, wasn't that complicated, but since it's hard to see either of them in this yarn, I'm not sure the work was worth it. In fact, when I made mistakes I didn't even bother to go back and fix them. I just made sure I had the correct number of stitches and continued on.  Even I'd be hard pressed to find the errors.  Also, the colour, called Plum Pudding, isn't a favourite. It contains dark brown, light brown and purple. Do these colours even go together?  Unless I can find a more suitable pattern for this yarn, I'll probably make a scarf out of the rest and put it in the donation box.  

 

As for new items, I started the project of the week, Sand Layers, from my local yarn store, Wolseley Wool. It's a fairly easy pattern, but I somehow messed it up and was short one stitch. Also, it wasn't laying as flat as I'd like. Since it was knitting up quite quickly and I only had a couple of inches done, I decided to start again. If all goes well, I'll have a photo of the progress next week.

If I remember, I'll also provide an update on my second temperature scarf (mentioned here in a previous post), which caused a small disaster.

Needlework Tuesday is hosted by Heather over at Books and Quilts.    If you'd done any crafting this week that you'd like to share with others, please head over to Heather's blog and use the Mr. Linky to link up your post, so others can enjoy your creations.  

Needlework Tuesday - Where did the time go?

Needlework Tuesday is an occasional post detailing my needlework and/or crafting projects.

l can't believe how long it's been since I've posted about my knitting. Then again, considering that I've mostly been ignoring this blog this year, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Maybe one day I'll post about what been taking up all my time. For now, here are some of my latest knitting projects.

I'm still receiving projects from the Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month. Some of the projects I received over the spring/summer were not really that thrilling and not to my taste at all. However, I couldn't bring myself to cancel my subscription. I kept hoping that the next month would be better. I'm glad I stuck it out, because the last few have been awesome.

The latest one, a wrap, showed up on Friday. It looked like a really easy knit, so I decided to start it right away....and Ta-Da, it's done! Here it is: 

 

The pattern mentions that it's a small wrap and they weren't kidding. If I make this one again, I'd probably add a few more rows to the back to make it a little bigger. I bet I could even cast on a few extra stitches at the beginning and adjust the pattern accordingly to make it a bit wider. I'm getting ahead of myself, though, because although the wrap is small, it still fits okay.    

The other project I just finished (mostly anyway) is a shrug that featured dropped stitches. This worried me quite a bit because I hadn't done them before. I'll do the final unveiling next week, but for now, here's a sneak peek at the piece. The first photo shows the pattern before dropping the stitches; the second, after.

I was foolish enough to think that once the stitches were dropped they would run all the way down to the end or in this case where they were designed to stop. You know, like they do when you are knitting that you don't mean to drop a stitch, but you do, and it runs through several rows before you notice what's happened. Nope. Not here. Not in this case.  Every dropped stitch had to be manually undone. Once you see the whole project (hopefully next week) you'll see why this was sort of a big deal.
 
Finally, I decided to try the project of the week, a wrap/shawl, called Sand Layers, from my local yarn store, Wolseley Wool. I adored the look of the wrap because of the colours, yet when I got to the yarn store (after seeing it online) I picked completely, I mean completely, different colours. I'm having a wee bit of buyer's remorse, but I'm hoping it's going to work out anyway. I hope to start it this week. Here are the colours I chose:

Needlework Tuesday is hosted by Heather over at Books and Quilts.    If you'd done any crafting this week that you'd like to share with others, please head over to Heather's blog and use the Mr. Linky to link up your post, so others can enjoy your creations.