Poke-Mitts

 It's no secret that I adore Another Crafty Girl's yarns. A lot. Especially her Poke-colours. In fact, I may need all of them...
I've had some leftover Bulbasaur from that awesome beret I knit a while back.
And I've had the Dustland Mitts pattern by Stephen West in my queue.
Perfect combo!
A quick and squishy knit, I managed to get all the way to the end before running out of yarn.
And while the generous Sarah of ACG offered to help me out, I needed the mitts done *right nao*, so I finished them off with some Malabrigo in Solis.
I love how they look, and I wear the mitts all the time.

My Girl Robot Shawl

Yarn love.
Sometimes, a yarn comes along that so perfectly encapsulates what you need right at that moment. Then it's a matter of pairing it up with the perfect pattern and make something glorious.
With this Camp Loopy project 1, I have achieved the yarn, if not the pattern. It's Akimbo, by Stephen West.
It's a fine pattern, don't get me wrong. I'm just not excited by triangular patterns. They're kind of eh to wear for me.
But the yarn.
Ooooh, the yarn.
It's Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in the much-coveted Steam Age colorway. it's not only brilliantly named (who doesn't love a bit of steampunk romance?), it's also gorgeous. It's a complicated blend of purplish grey with blue and pink throughout. So gorgeous.
I've added some Malabrigo Finito in the Archangel color to the bottom. So wonderfully soft and luscious. it s a shame tha the yarn's softness gets lost in the edging, but I've got a bit left over to make something else. methinks some tiny wristers, perhaps?
Overall, I'm not madly, deeply in love with the end product, but it's turned into a wardrobe staple simply because the colors go perfectly with both me and many of my essentials. It's just fabulous with my Best Hoodie, which is a muted, cool yellow.

Dark Vulpix

Cast-on

I didn’t have the needles called for, so I went down a size. I knit loosely anyway, and if the fabric comes out a little dense, that’s just fine by me.

Part 1

This is an addictive knit. In section 2, I had some trust issues because I couldn’t visualise what was going to happen, but I followed the instructions, and a few more lines in, it becomes clear what the overall effect will be.

I’m loving how the colors are coming up, dark and kind of goth. No idea what I’ll wear them with, but they look dramatic, no?

floats

Finished section 2. The colors and pattern together remind me of Voltron. O_o

In section 3, I started with the Japanese short rows as per the pattern, but I don’t have enough stitch markers I could use, so I’m switching to shadow wraps (as explained here) on the 7th stitch before each previous turn (so the same stitch is the wrapped stitch). I’m liking how it’s coming out.

looks like Voltron!

After section 3: 
Color 1 - 77g left 
Color 2 - 127g left

short rows

Started section 4. It’s hard to tell what the overall effect will be, now that the shawl is all scrunched up on the needles. I like the short rows, from what I can tell.

Final yarns left over: 19g color A, 29 g color B

Measurements before blocking: 
Centre spine: 37 cm 
bottom wing tip to centre: 115 cm 
wingspan across top edge: 207 cm/2.2 yrds

finished shawl

Measurements blocked: 
Centre spine: 53 cm/ 20 in 
bottom wing tip to centre: 128 cm 
wingspan across top edge: 220 cm/ 2.4 yds

What's on the needles?

 It's all about new things on the needles in March for me.
Some call it startitis, some call it stash-down, but for me, it was a matter of shaking things up.

I've still got projects languishing on the needles, like the colorwork mittens I started in Hakuba, or the intricately twisted, gorgeously bright pink Wollmeise socks.
Never mind my plain-ish ribbed striped socks.

But I started the Vivian. A complicated cabled cardigan out of a gorgeous Madelinetosh DK. The color is called Maple Leaf, but it reminds me of apples. You know, real apples. Not that fake apple red of coloring books, or the bright red of hand-turned pretty-but-tasteless apples. Real apples that taste of crisp fall mornings.
I love it.
I've already finished the sleeves and have made a bit of progress on the body.
The Vivian is supposed to be my birthday sweater. I splurged on the yarn and the pattern, and knitting it is all about me. I wasn't expecting the yarn to get this quickly to me, but the elves at the Loopy Ewe worked some miracle magic. So how could I resist?

I even swatched, and things are turning out great.

And then the new Stephen West shawl club pattern got sneak previewed. It's called Vulpix, after the adorable six-tailed fox pokemon.
I haven't been too wild about the patterns in the shawl club so far, but this one, I had to knit.
I love the way it looks, but I really got sold on the name. I'm a sucker for names, as we all know.
So I cast on a Vulpix in Wollmeise in Sanguinella and 47Ag. it's a very bright, in-your-face combo, kind of movie Goth or vampire-y. It's striking, but I'm not sure if it's really me. okay, I'm pretty sure it's not, but hey. Don't let that stop me!

So yeah, these two are taking up all of my knitting time.
Well, not *all* of my time. There's also a little something I'm designing right now, but that's a secret for another time.

Swedish Chef Hat

 The Swedish Chef is not just a Muppet, he's also the inspiration behind one of Another Crafty Girl's cuter colorways. She's got a whole series of Muppet-inspired yarn, in case you're curious.
But it was the wild colors (and fond memories) of Swedish Chef that spoke to me.
So much so that I custom ordered a skein to have it right NAO.

And it's adorable. Very Skittles in the sun, it's a pastelly yarn with tan to tame it a bit.
It had to be a hat.
I've made a hat from ACG's yarn before and loved how it turned out, but this time, I wanted to combine one of my favourite yarns with one of my favourite designers and some mods.
So I was going to take Stephen West's recently released Dustland Hat (originally written for worsted weight yarn) and modify it to work with fingering weight yarn for a lighter, slouchier transition weather hat.
After all, we still have quite a few warm days ahead of us, and hats are more fashion than function for a few months yet.

I cast on 120 stitches, going up from the largest size provided, but keeping my total divisible by 8, since that was relevant later in the pattern (well, ok it didn't really matter, but all the other sizes were divisible by 8, and I just wanted to belong).
After that, i did the ribbing to the same height as specified, then did each pattern repeat roughly 1.5 times to keep a similar height each time.
I did the crown decreases over two rounds to get me to the specified stitches, then worked the rest of the hat as written.

It turned out just like I thought it would. okay, it's a little bigger and slouchier than I expected, but it's all good. It works.
I couldn't quite decide whether I loved it or hated it at first, but I think it's a very fun, cheery hat, and I can't wait to wear it out and about.

Like Clockwork

Knitting shawls is popular, no doubt about it. There are stunning lace creations, squishy, brightly-colored winter accessories and everything from bold statements to classy cover-ups.
I've knit one shawl before that I loved deeply. Of course I knit it in early summer, so it hadn't seen much use until I travelled to Japan. There, it was a trusty staple while walking through fashion-fabulous Tokyo.

But I loved knitting the shawl, so I knew I wanted another one.
I'm not in a lace place right now, and lace shawls don't really fit with my wardrobe.
I like Stephen West's bold, geometric designs, so I knew I wanted to make another one. This time, in two colors.

After a bit of humming and hawing (too many great patterns!), I settled on Clockwork, with its garter stitch squishiness, simple stripes and slip-stitch steampunky detail.
And I was going to knit it out of two rockstar yarns, Malabrigo Sock (in Solis) and Wollmeise (in Feldmaus).
Could things get any better?
This would be perfect travel knitting. Beautiful yarns in pleasing colors, a simple yet gorgeous pattern and just enough size to see me through the trip.
And it sure did.
As an added bonus, I got to knit the first section twice, because I am brilliant and cannot remember directions for a whole row.
So I did only one set of increases, instead of increasing throughout the row, like I was meant to do. No wonder the first section knitted up so quickly!
Good thing I like knitting, so ripping back and reknitting wasn't much of a chore.
The yarn stood up perfectly to ripping and being re-knit, by the way.
Fabulous yarns.
And what can I tell you about the end result?
The shawl is squishy, it's large, and it's fabulous.
Unfortunately, it was also unfinished by the time we came back to Melbourne, so I haven't had an opportunity to wear it yet.

If you're looking for an easy-ish knit to use up two skeins of gorgeous yarn, you could do worse than try a Clockwork.
Mine used suprisingly little yarn all up, so now I have leftovers, almost enough to knit another one, if I so chose.

Knitting while Japan

 Happy leap Day, everyone!
I've finally gotten my act together after travelling to Japan.
I had grandiose ideas of how much knitting time I would have.
You know. A one-hour flight, one hour layover, then a mammoth 10-hour overnight flight, followed by two 1 1/2 hour train rides just to get to Nagano... I was feeling ambitious.
I packed my lovely fuzzy yarns I intended to use for my Deep In The Forest mittens, and a set of bamboo circular needles, just in case flying with knitting needles was on the no-no list again.
Turns out I can't count to 70 though, so I got to do the cast-on again.
And that was pretty much all I got done, since I managed to sleep for a surprisingly large amount of the flight, and once on the train, i was too busy taking photos of everything.

in the end, I got one mitten done. in fact, i closed the thumb while everyone around me was hustling for our waiting taxi.
I had to run, but hey, I can't just stop in the middle of kitchenering!

That wasn't the only project I had with me though. I didn't know how tiring/complicated doing a colorwork mitten would be (turns out, quite), so I had an easier project, too. A mainly-garter shawl called Clockwork, by Stephen West.
great pattern, but onca again, I failed at directions, and a bus trip's worth of progress was ripped back because I forgot to do increases when I should have.

I took some little birdies with me to take action shots in the snow. I also had ideas of taking more pics of my knitting and me knitting in the snow. Didn't quite happen. I only have this one shot.
there sure was a lot of snow...

Of course, once we got to Tokyo, I was on a mission to buy yarn. not just any yarn. i wanted Noro, and I wanted it in the colorway 95 that I'd seen in a knitting book a while ago and was in love with.
After I finally got the chance to duck into Yuzawaya, I found my Noro, and two little Melody skeins.
Success!

What have I learned form this first big trip with knitting?
It's good to pack enough knitting, but don't be too ambitious.
Chart reading and following directions may be harder than it looks.
Always take a garter or plain stockinette project for long bus/train rides where you still want to see what's going on.
Have a yarn plan to make sure you get some crafty shopping done while travelling with non-crafty people.

And finally, Japan = awesome. But we knew that already.

Japan! WIP Edition

Like all good knitters, I plan for my vacation.
Not just where the good yarn stores are (one of them in walking distance of our hotel in Tokyo, natch), but also, most importantly, what projects to take.

It's going to be cold in Japan. Really cold. Especially for softened-up, oh-noez-5-degrees-mornings Melbournite me.
So project number one? Mittens. More precicely, colorwork mittens, my first time trying either colorwork or mittens.

I'm making the Deep In The Forest mittens by Tuulia Salmela, out of some New Zealand yarn with possum fur in it (a present from an awesome Raveller) and a pale blueish alpaca blend. They're going to be warm and fuzzy.
They're going to be my plane knitting flying to Japan. Hopefully, the small circular bamboo needles will be allowed on board or I will be one cranky flyer...
My kind-of-mindless knit while in Japan (for evenings when the body is tired and the brain is meh), I'm making Clockwork, an arch-shaped shawl by the inimitable Stephen West. I'm making that out of a brown Wollmeise yarn that is the color of twigs (the ball reminds me of a nest, for some reason) and a beautiful Malabrigo in a color that reminds me of my mum's SeaSilk cowl.
And then there's project three, probably for the flight back.
It's going to be mittens, it's going to be colorwork, it's going to be in Another Crafty Girl's pumpkin orange and Tosh sock dark green. it's going to be designed by Laura, aka LaLa of the Knit Girllls podcast.
Apart from that? No idea. It's a mystery KAL!
I'm excited though, and I might just have to cast them on while resting from hard, cold days on the slopes, who knows? I'll play this one by ear. Or needle, as the case may be.

Is this enough knitting? Too much? It's going to be several weeks *and* the start of another round of Nerd Wars. Maybe I'll pack one more project. You know. Just in case...

Pogona - or: gummy bear hugs

Casting on

 You may recall my everlasting love, my true dedication and complete devotion to my skein of Bugga! in the Wandering Glider colorway.
My One True Love had to become something special. No lingering longingly in the stash until the perfect project came along. No, this affair had to be consumed right now.

I knew I wanted to keem my OTL close to me. Around my neck and face, preferably.

the color of gummy bears

A hat then? No, then my hair would be between me and my OTL. Although I chould shave my head...
But no.
Some kind of scarf then?
Yes, a huggy, buggy scarf. But what kind? A traditional, long and skinny rectangle, wrapped around the neck once or twice, then the ends tossed into the wind, free to snag on anyone or anything? To get caught and perhaps be my demise?

in progress, not abandoned

Not likely.
How about a cowl then? I could keep my OTL close to me, hide it away under coats and jackets, like a scarf permanently tucked around me.
Frankly, Melbourne is not cold enough to warrant a cowl for much of the year.
What's left? What displays a luxurious yarn perfectly while still being light and airy or warm and comforting as the opportunity requires?

finished, but scrunched on the needles

Yes. My OTL could not become anything other than a wonderful shawl.
With a color reminiscent of gummy bears and a softness so sublime, I wanted the pattern to be simple. not open and lacy, but smooth and continuous. Something graphical. Something that would be bold in its simplicity.
Bold, simple, geometric shawls.

finished, unblocked

Yep. I heard it around the podcast world. Stephen West was the person to look to.
It wasn't a hard decision. My OTL was going to transform into a Pogona, an iconic shawl with an interesting construction.
It would give me drape when worn as a shawl, but it would also be practical enough to be a scarfy/cowly warm hug when needed. Perfect.

blocking

The knitting went well at first. The rows are short, and the placement of stitch markers makes the work flow easily without being mind-numbingly boring.
I adored working with my OTL just as much as I thought I would.
But then stuff got in the way (okay, Nerd Wars got in the way), and as the rows got longer, my Huggy Buggy Sunshine saw less and less love.
Also, it turned spring.

But I really love this pattern and this yarn, so when Nerd Wars Round 3 had a challenge involving finishing your WIPs (hilariously entitled Fermat's Last Theorem), I knew this was going to be Pogona-time.
I put all other knitting aside as I powered through rows of 400+ stitches.
And I finished it.
My first shawl! Glorious.
It already looked good, but I knew blocking would make it look great.
Time for a bath.
Ooooh yes.
I thought this yarn was soft and luscious before, but after a relaxing soak (in Soak), my One True Love bloomed and blushed and became so soft and drapey and wonderful!
I pinned it lovingly, and it is now the most wonderful shawly creation you could imagine.
Shame it's scorching summer weather here right now, and I won't get to wear this beautiful creation until I travel in a few months' time.

Huggy Buggy Sunshine Pogona

 One true love yarn. One love pattern. One perfect match shawl. What more could a knitter ask for?