Where has the time gone?

It has been far too long since I have posted. Plenty has happened on the knitting front but I have been too busy to post about it. I'll start with two of my completed projects.

The first is a pair of Leyburn socks which I knitted in Patonyle. I decided that I didn't like the heel with these socks so I substituted with the short row heel used in the Kellswater Socks.

I worked on this while on holiday at the beautiful Wilson's Promontory.

When I got back I worked hard at finishing my Vitamin D. I knitted this is Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 4ply in Ghost. This was a great cardi to knit and has become my favourite cardi to wear.

More knitting news in my next post!

Boo Knits

Ever since I saw the first design of Boo Knits I have been wanting to knit one of her shawls. Her designs are so ethereal and I was waiting for the right yarn and the right frame of mind to knit one of her delicate shawls.

Some  time ago I participated in a colour swap on Ravelry, the red swap, and I received a cone of ColourMart 2/28 Merino. The perfect yarn for a delicate knit. So when the time was right I cast on Almost Autumn.

And here she is:

I knitted the shawl as directed but omitted the picot cast off and did my usual stretchy cast off instead. The lace section is knitted on 4.5mm needles and the stocking stitch section on 4mm needles. The shawl used a mere 24g of yarn!

Gradients

Many months ago I got the itch to try some gradient yarns but I was having difficulty in finding yarns in the colour and weight that I wanted. I then did a deal with a Ravelry friend (who now has a great etsy shop, Ozifarmer's Market) to dye some yarn for me. The base is a very fine merino which is almost a cobweb weight.

And then a few weeks ago she very generously gifted me two more skeins of her lovely gradient dyeing.

Ever since I received the first lot of yarn I have been looking for the right pattern. I finally decided on Longing for Robins Return for my first attempt. This is a shawl that has long been in my queue and I was very happy to finally be able to knit it. I thought the very fine yarn would be ideal for this delicate pattern.

Once I had finished this shawl I was eager to give another one a go and this time I decided on the Leadlight shawl using the Bendigo Woolen Mills 2ply base.

I'm eager to try a few more shawls using gradient yarns, any pattern suggestions?

Almost forgot about this one

Way back in June I cast on Bakau. I thought it would be a quick and easy knit and one that I could take with me on my travels.

And it was indeed quick and easy and while we were in lovely Murramarang I very nearly finished it but ran out of yarn while casting off. I set the shawl aside while I looked for a solution and over time I forgot about the shawl.

Then, a few nights ago, I was knitting Longing for Robin's Return using a gradient yarn dyed by Ozifarmer when I realised that the colour I had reached would matched my Bakau. Now Bakau was knitted in a 4ply Bambaroo and I was using a very fine laceweight for Longing for Robin's Return, so I merely held it double and cast off my Bakau. And I am happy to say that the difference in yarn is barely noticable.

I used 4mm needles and 155g of hand dyed Yarn Workshop Bambaroo.

Sangria anyone?

Way back in July I joined the Sangria KAL. It started well and I shot through the first couple of clues but then we started travelling and my time with the shawl was severely compromised. But whenever I got the opportunity I worked on it. It was a fun shawl to knit and using knitCompanion on my iPad really enhanced the experience. One of the great things about knitCompanion is that it allows you to add whole or partial PDF files to your original file. This is great when knitting a KAL where the charts are released in installments.

But back to the shawl. The KAL was designed so that you had flexibility in the number of chart repeats as well as the the number of charts you wanted to knit. I only repeated Chart A and knitted B to E once each. I knitted the shawl on 3.75 needles but in hindsight I think 4mm or even 4.5mm would have been better and would have given me more drape. The yarn is BWM Classic 2ply hand dyed by Emylly123. I added clear size 8/0 beads.

And notice that spring has come to our garden!

Travel Projects

I think most of us have a favorite type of knitting project we like to take with us when traveling. I tend to take a sock project or two with me. I find they are small enough to carry with me or pack away as needs be. A few months ago I received a lovely project bag through a Karma swap on Ravelry which is ideal for my traveling sock project.

I really like the fact that I can zip the bag shut and therefore keep everything secure regardless of the circumstances. The bag is large enough to take my yarn as well as a Namaste Buddy case and a few other bits and pieces.

So this little bag has had quite a bit of use over the last few months with the various trips I have made. Two pairs of socks have been carted around in it.

The first pair was a pair of Kellswaters Socks.

 The yarn is King Cole Zig Zag and should be hard wearing. I knitted these two at a time on 2.5mm circulars.

The yarn is really too busy to see the detail of the pattern but I find it too boring to knit vanilla socks.

The second pair was a pair of Scylla socks.

These are knitted in Zwerer Garn Opal. And again I knitted these two at a time on 2.5mm circular needles. I like the way the slipstitch shows the colours off. The pattern also incorporates a bit of a gusset which makes for a very comfortable fit.

Both pairs are toe-up. I find these days that I prefer knitting toe-up socks and I will never go back to knitting one sock at a time. No more second sock syndrome for me!

Finally!

I haven't been blogging for a while but I have been busy knitting and traveling.  I joined the Ravellenics over on Ravelry for the duration of the Olympics. This time I entered 2 events: the Toy Toss and the Wips Wrestling.

For the Toy Toss I knitted this sock monkey from Itty-Bitty Toys.

But my main project was for the Wips Wrestling event for which I entered my Summer Squares blanket aka The never ending blanket. Although I officially had time till the closing ceremony to finish the blanket, I had to finish it by 9 August because that is when we flew to Perth. So I knuckled down and knitted like a maniac.

4608.7m later I had this:

The blanket is knitted in Bendigo Woollen Mills 4ply Cotton on 4.5 needles. The pattern is based on The Blue Quartet. I am so pleased to finally have this  off the needles. It also meant that I could take extra enjoyment out of our Perth holiday.

The wildflowers have just started to make an appearance so here is a brief taste.

Back to knitting

Its been quite some time since I had any knitting content on my blog but that doesn't mean I haven't been beavering away on a variety of projects. Today I will share just a couple that I have finished. Both are shawls.

The first shawl is one I finished just before going on holiday but which had to wait for blocking until I got back. Its the Sand Dollar Shawl from Evelyn A Clark's Knitting Lace Triangles. This is a great booklet that allows you to mix and match lace patterns to create your own shawl.

The yarn is Moda Vera Fern and I knitted the shawl on 4.5 mm needles. I'm looking forward to experimenting more with the lace designs in this book. I just have to find out how to create more time!

The second shawl is Wingspan. This is a free pattern download from Ravelry. I started this shawl while we were away and spent most of the journey from Canberra back home knitting it in the car.

The yarn is Wisdom Yarns Poems Socks which I was fortunate to pick up in Canberra. I knitted this on 4.5 needles and managed to knit all 8 triangles and still had 12g of yarn left over. I could have tried for another triangle but I didn't want to have to play yarn chicken again (more about this another time).

At the moment I am participating in another of BadCatDesigns KALs. This one is called Sangria and I have finished chart B. The photo is just of the start of chart A.

All Andrea's patterns are a delight to knit and this one is no exception. Very addictive knitting!

Fond memories

I had such a lovely time away in beautiful Murramarang. So much so that I am still finding it hard settling down to my normal routine. So in this post I am going to indulge myself with some photographic memories. I hope you enjoy them.

I walked in beautiful Spotted Gum forests.

I met the friendly locals.

I spent hours watching the changing moods of the sea.

I was constantly amazed by the beauty I found on the beach and in the rock pools.

And of course I was enchanted by the bird life.