Arbutus

I finished my Arbutus a few days ago and decided that even though I love the yarn, the colors don't look as good on me. So I have given it to Mum. She didn't want to model it. 

I don't like modeling either. But I wanted it modeled...

It was a relaxing knit. I did read that other people had trouble with holes by their short rows. I usually am fine, but encountered the same issue on half of my wrap and turns. I fixed it by picking up and twisting two extra stitches by the offending wrap and turn and then doing a k2tog twice. It worked perfectly.

Scooter was particularly energetic today. I moment I sat on the bench, he launched himself onto me. He got his usual two walks and an additional run. Running him involves two of us holding treats at opposite ends of the yard. We call him and he runs from person to person until there are no more treats. He usually tears around the yard a bit more before going inside for water and a nap. It worked like a charm.

Island Party

My Grace cardigan has been on time out for a month. I know it looks pretty good. I got the sleeves in. But as I put the first sleeve in, I saw that my gauge had changed a little. No matter, blocking would fix everything.

Blocking did not fix everything. I know that the gauge difference looks slight. But as a point of reference, I only blocked the sleeves.

I have to face the facts: these sleeves have negative ease. And while I don't have a problem with negative ease, I don't like that the sleeves push my shirt sleeves up. Realistically, I won't wear a cardigan I can only wear with a tank top, so these sleeves have to be ripped. I just haven't had it in me to do it because not only is the yarn fingering weight, but I also blended two skeins along each sleeve. That means I'll be untwisting 2 skeins from each other as I rip. The other problem was that I had given myself a deadline of finishing the cardi by February 15th, otherwise I'd have to put it aside to finish knitting for The Book. When I have some time, the new plan of attack is to go up two needle sizes AND add two extra stitches in the underarm. Am I overcompensating? Maybe. But I gotta get me some ease.

This left me with no "relaxing knitting". I had recently cleaned out my stash and found this skein of handspun that I had made a few years ago. It's one of my favorites and I finally found a project to match it with. It is becoming an Arbutus. 

Both patterns are from Jane Richmond's ISLAND book. So I'm having a bit of an ISLAND party.

Please Mr. Postman

Mr. Postman came today with some goodies I'd ordered. After seeing this Doctor Who project bag by Bag End Bags on etsy, I couldn't resist. I'm usually good about not impulse buying, but the inside had star fabric. When I knit up the southern constellation shawl, it will be living in the bag. The shawl is going to pretty big. And I'm sure as some of you might guess, the bag is bigger on the inside. My copy of Island by Jane Richmond also came. It is well laid out and plain old gorgeous. I've already made Renfrew. (Not today. I got the digital download a few weeks ago.)

I thought I had blogged about this already, but apparently not. I made it out of Knitwhits Freia Handpaints Freia Ombré Worsted in the Denim colorway. It is the nicest single ply yarn I have ever worked with. It was tightly spun without being kinky. And it felt really good in my hands. I will be getting more as soon as I have a project to go along with it. One ball was enough for the slouchy version of Renfrew. (Which, by the way, is an excellent hat pattern.) 

Last night I attended a baby shower. The gifts were a big hit. I made adult and baby Elven Hero hats out of Rimu. The rav project page can be found here. It includes the modifications made for the baby hat. That baby is going to have some great adventures.

I actually have two more finished objects, but I'm starting to feel like a show off. That and they are items that have yet to be gifted. They'll show up on the blog in the coming month or so, but if you are super curious, everything is on my ravelry project page.