Game of Thrones – mystery knit-along – clue #2

This clue gave me fits. The first time I did it, I followed the same process I’ve followed before for doing short rows and I wound up with a bunch of gaping holes. So I ripped back and started over, but the second time I followed the suggestion of several of the other folks doing the knit-along and tried the shadow wrap method of doing short rows. SO much better. (Thanks Socktopus tutorial!)

There are still some areas that I’m not entirely happy with, but I haven’t decided if I’m going to rip back again or not. I still have one very large hole and I don’t know where it came from…it’s not from a dropped stitch. Also, the center stitches of this section are really loose and look, I don’t know…weird.

On the up side, I’m enjoying the knit-along itself thus far. It’s fun to be making the same thing as other people at the same time. Plus I’m learning all kinds of new approaches and ways of accomplishing even the simple parts.

A VERY pink Sea Princess

It’s done! I can’t believe it, but I finished the Sea Princess sweater early.

And, like so many of the knitting challenges I’ve taken on before, it wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be. (Really, you’d think I would have learned by now.)

I was really overwhelmed & nervous about the prospect of having to use charts for almost the entire thing…especially the cables. The only charts I’ve done before were for washcloths (non-cabled washcloths, mind you). Once I got into though and figured out a way to keep myself on track , the charts were super easy. The cumbersome part of this project was actually flipping between the charts and following the written directions at the same time. The trick? A 3-ring binder and post-its.

Being able to flip through the 3 charts and keep the directions out & off to the side made it much easier to work. And also easier to pack back up when I needed to. (Not so easy to keep the cat off of though…seriously if you put a piece of paper down, you may as well be providing an engraved invitation for her.)

So, much to my surprise, I managed to finish this sweater about 2 weeks earlier than I anticipated. And it’s a good thing too! All of a sudden, it’s decided to be spring here. After a wishy-mostly-washy March, it’s supposed to finally be warm all week. At lease the Kiddo got in one good wear before it warmed up.

I guess it’s good that we have more little girls in our extended family.

Game of Thrones – mystery knit-along – clue #1

Okay – couple things you should know about this knit-along before I talk about the first clue.

1. Where can you find this knit along if you want to play?

It’s on the Jimmy Beans Wool blog if you want to play along (PS – Jimmy Beans is awesome!). Or you can find it on Ravelry.

2. What the heck is a mystery knit-along anyway?

A mystery knit-along is where a different portion of the pattern (called a clue) is revealed on a regular basis over the course of the knit-along. At first, you don’t even know what you are making. It is only by virtue of knitting up the clues that you gradually reveal what the end product is going to be.

Now…Clue #1!

From the Jimmy Beans blog post:

Materials:

-2 skeins of Lorna’s Laces Haymarket (or 430 yds of a worsted weight yarn – I’m using Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted)
-US 8- 24″ (or shorter) circular needles
-1 stitch marker
-Some episodes of Game of Thrones to enjoy while you knit!

Directions:

-CO 120 sts
-pm and join for working in the round
Rnds 1-6: knit in garter stitch (see above abbreviations for instructions on how to knit garter stitch in the round)
Rnds 7-14: knit in stockinette stitch (see above abbreviations for instructions on knitting stockinette in the round)
Rnd 15: purl

*Repeat rounds 7-15 twice more.

Now, I’ll be honest. There was a gauge swatch post as well, but I didn’t do it. Ordinarily I would, but time got away from me during Easter week since I was making the family dinner and then I got impatient to start the clue. BUT, I’ve checked my gauge against what everyone else is getting and I seem to be in the clear.

Here’s my finished Clue #1:

Winter is Coming

Game of Thrones and Yarn…what? How awesome is that?

And more importantly – The Starks and Yarn.

This is Winter is Coming from Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted and I’m going to be using it in my very first Mystery Knit-along.

First…the yarn.

I’ve used this yarn before in another color (one that I can’t get anymore and that makes me very sad). It’s soft, easy to work with, and washable…woo hoo! Still I haven’t been buying as much of it as I’d like because it’s about $20/skein. Not SUPER expensive, but not cheap either and when I’m crocheting and making things for babies, I generally stick to cotton blends or acrylic (cheap & don’t require much extra care). And believe me, if I could afford it, I’d have this yarn in 50 colors. First of all, there are so many to choose from. Secondly, they are so rich & the combinations are gorgeous. And third, it’s so smooshy and soft! I love it!!

Now, the knit-along.

It’s a Mystery Knit-along. That means that you don’t know up front what you’re going to make. Instead, you get a small portion of the pattern (called a “clue”) each week. And this knit-along is Game of Thrones inspired/themed. So, the piece is inspired by the show & books and the clues come out each Sunday to coincide with the new episode of the show on HBO.

So fun!! I can’t wait to see what I end up making.

Happy Pi Day!!!

Happy Pi Day!

It’s starting to look like a sweater

See!

This is the Sea Princess Sweater I said I was going to make for the Kiddo. It is, in fact, VERY pink. But the pink is actually quite pretty and not as harsh as I initially thought it might be.

Looking at the progress, I might actually be done a bit earlier than anticipated. In which case, the Kiddo has also requested a pair of matching legwarmers. I’m fairly certain I’ll have enough yarn to accomodate that request, but we’ll see. I hope so.

I still need to decide on buttons. I have to go through my button stash first to see if I have 6 buttons that will match and look pretty with this sweater. If not, I’m not sure where I want to look to try and find them….maybe Etsy, maybe Jimmy Beans (a new fave of mine that I’ll talk more about soon, by the way).

Ready for spring

I’m so done with winter. I have been for a while. I’m ready for spring. I think it might be the colors.

And I am ready for spring colors. And flowers. And plants (I keep thinking about what veggies I’m going to plant in my container garden this year).

But since spring isn’t here yet, I decided to create a little bit of spring for myself.

How about some flowers?

Pretty, pink, and functional too…flower dishcloths.

The pattern is Flower Power Dishcloths by Doni Spiegle and is a free Ravelry download. It’s an easy-to-follow crochet pattern and it works up super fast.

I think I’ve figured out the two things I like most about crocheting.

1. I can make a crochet project much faster than the same thing if it were knitted.
2. I find it to be much easier to do shaped things – like flowers, Mickey ears…etc. (There are plenty of ways to do the same things with knitting, but they don’t come as easily to me.)

And bonus, the dishcloths are made from my stash of cotton.

Project Use Up All The Cotton Totals: 54g for both flowers

468 grams of yarn used, 618 grams to go

Rainbow hands

I finally managed to get a few hours to knit up a pair of mittens for the Kiddo. You’d think that she would have plenty of mittens, but it’s been one of those things that always gets pushed to the back burner…especially since she has one pair already and it hasn’t been overly cold this winter.

BUT now she has “Rainbow Hands” and she’s pretty happy about it.

Playing in what’s left of the snow on the shady side of the building.

The Valentine’s Day Surprise

I have been working on a Sooper Seekrit! project. I cannot hope to convey how excited I was to make this.

One of my Ravelry friends posted this pic & link to a pattern a little while back.

From the moment I saw it I knew exactly what the Hubs was getting for Valentine’s Day. I can’t really explain it, but he enjoys the Gangnam Style song far more than is reasonable for a grown man.

So, I made this:

And, oh yeah, it plays the Gangnam Style song. That’s right! I put a chip in it to make it play music.

Who is super awesome? (And quite possibly, a bit weirder than necessary?) Yep…I AM!

Woke up this mornin’

Smiled at the rising sun