Tag: stashbuster

Posted in knitting, Living Life Well

Travel Shawl Finished

Posted on by Laura Kate

This week I cast off this shawl, the last stashbuster of 2024. This shawl started life as a hurry-up project to accompany me on our trip to the Canadian Rocky Mountain coach tour in July of 2024. I found the easiest pattern I could lay my hands on quickly, gathered up a bunch of fingering weight leftovers and hit the road.

She was cast on in the Calgary hotel lobby.

Progress happened throughout the trip. I improvised the color and stitch changes.

Lake Minnawanka
Banff
Jasper

In late July, the shawl and I were in Northern Wisconsin for a week at the lake.

Shell Lake

With the passing of my father in August, we drove to Ohio, the shawl serving as a comforting activity on the long trip to and from.

In December, I sat with my friend who was dying, slowly knitting and listening as she told me what was in her heart.

In January, the shawl came to Iowa, where we signed the papers to purchase our new home. In March we were back in Iowa to visit with family – a joyous occasion.

I haven’t even worn it, but it is embedded with many memories. Memories of all the places where I have knit it, the people who were present and the emotions I felt. Each color change reminds me of the projects that I have made with that specific yarn, and who received the finished project.

This simple little shawl carries a lot of stuff for me. I guess I will keep it.

Linking up with The Unravelers, courtesy of As Kat Knits.

Posted in knitting

Cast-on Monday: A Kate Davies Sock

Posted on by Laura Kate

Summer is on its way, and that means knitting small, portable projects. Reaching into my yarn closet, I brought out a stashbuster bag all ready to go, using Kate Davies’ sock pattern Mary Delany.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mary-delany

I purchased this pattern on Ravelry a few years back when KDDesigns was offering a sale. This will be my second cast- on using it. The first time I followed the pattern pretty closely, but substituted a more “manly” looking chart, since I was knitting socks for dear husband. This time I happily followed Kate’s stranded pattern of little flowers. So far, it has been a joy to work.

My yarns are acquired from three different companies. The beautiful deep tonal blue is Malabrigo Ultimate Sock in a color called Azul Profundo. I purchased it from Jimmy Beans. The aqua tonal yarn is Knitpicks Hawthorne. I’ve mislaid the band and so don’t know the colorway. And the tiny bit of red to be used in the toe and the ribbing is from Hobby Lobby. The box store briefly offered a line of wool + nylon fingering weight yarn in various colors. It turned out to be not-so-good and has since disappeared from the shelves.

Here’s my start. I cast on using the winding cast on method. It is described perfectly in Kate’s pattern, and I had no trouble at all finishing the first toe.

Yesterday while watching PBS, I managed to get most of the foot finished. It now measures 8 and 1/2 inches long.

Front of foot
Back of foot showing the heel increases

This pair of socks will be for ME. Wearing hand knit socks makes me feel pampered. It is a small and affordable luxury.

What new project are you undertaking? Do share.

Posted in knitting

Cast-on Monday: Mindless Knitting

Posted on by Laura Kate

Here I am, in a new year dedicated to stash-busting. Opening my yarn closet doors, I see that there are now only two bags of stash yarn projects. That’s good. But it makes me want to get more projects queued up. I’m looking at you, cheap acrylic skeins purchased five years ago! You were rejected by my student knitters.

I pulled out all acrylics that appear to be worsted or bulky weight and assessed their total volume. Hm, looks like it’s enough to knit a lap blanket. Searching through my knitting patterns folder, I found this image plucked off the internet some time ago.

Garn Studio Drops Design offers it patterns for free on Ravelry. Unfortunately, I didn’t download the pattern or the pattern name. Conducting an advanced search on the Ravelry database using all possible combinations of search terms, I failed to find it.

My notes say that the design reminds me of a log cabin quilt block. So, I will improvise a knit pattern, using the log cabin technique of sewing strips around a center block. In this case, the starting block is in the lower corner, not the middle.

I cast on while watching All Creatures Great and Small on PBS. Here is my progress after the first session of mindless knitting. It is a good start.

This mindless project will be ideal for taking on a late winter car trip that Bill and I have planned. It’s impossible to screw it up, even while barreling down the interstate at maximum speed.

Posted in knitting, quilting, sewing

First Friday Finishes in 2024

Posted on by Laura Kate

I’ve spent the week productively, finishing my quilted border curtains and also a Seaglass hat. Finish 3 is the off-the-grid mitts that I gave to H at Christmas. All three projects are stashbusters ( a desirable trait likely to carry on with me in the new year.)

It’s been many years since I constructed curtains The only thing I had to buy for the project was lining fabric. The trick for this project was marrying the patchwork border with a king-size cotton sheet. I did this by attaching wide binding strips to both edges of the curtains. Was it a fun project? I would say mixed. Making that border was great fun. Wrestling with yards and yards of fabric, getting everything lined up correctly and stitching it together was not fun. But the result was very worth it. In addition to having an attractive surround for the large bedroom window, the lining I chose has insulation properties. This came in very handing with temperatures plunging. Our bedroom is now draft-free.

Henry happily received his off the grid mitts. They work beautifully for extra warmth over gloves, and, worn on their own, they keep his fingertips free to use his cellphone while wearing them. I was pleased.

At the last minute I decided to make a pom-pom for the top of the child’s Seaglass hat. Now that I have some practice with the 1 + 1 technique and understand how to work my gauge swatch, I can cast on the Seaglass sweater in confidence.

What are you working on this week? Oh, and how do you feel about it?

Posted in knitting, painting

1st Cast-on for 2024

Posted on by Laura Kate

Need I mention that this will be another stashbuster? While that’s true, this hat is a also a sort-of swatch for a much more ambitious knit project.

I’m knitting it up from scraps of yarn using a pattern offered by Wool & Pine. The technique is called 1 x 1 colorwork. It is just what it sounds like: Using 2 different strands of yarn per row, knit 1 stitch in color 1, then 1 stitch in color 2. Continue alternating colors to the end of the round. Then it’s up to the knitter on how often to change out colors throughout the project.

Here I am switching out colors once per row. After practicing on the hat, I hope I will be ready to knit the pull-over.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sea-glass-sweater-2

copyright Wood & Pine

Seaglass is the ultimate stash-busting pattern. It came to my attention from fellow blogger The Crafty Yarnster who is working on her own seaglass sweater.

  https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/152202665/posts/5052736941

In other news, five recipients of Christmas handknits expressed satisfaction with their new accessories. The balaclava/mitten combination can be seen here:

After trying it on, the child’s mother ecstatically called out for her own balaclava. It’s that warm! The adult version will be cast-on no. 2 for 2024.

Moving on to watercolors, I have promised my yoga teacher that I would do a watercolor portrait of her two little Havanese dogs. This is the photo she sent.

Irresistibly cute, don’t you think? This will be my first painting of a dog. I think it will be truly fun to do.

So, with these three projects, I believe that my plate for January 2024 is full. Hopefully I can squeeze in some work on December 2023 UFOs.