crochet calamari!

last week, with the skein of the purple trilli, i started my first crochet project!

(follow me on instagram: kkpwnall)

the pattern is Squid by Maffers on ravelry, who's got some really adorable designs! i think it was a great first pattern, it almost solely uses single crochet, with occasional increases and decreases thrown in. the increases and decreases are simply and perfectly explained in the pattern directions.

invaluable in teaching myself to crochet have been these videos by the Crochet Geek aka Teresa on youtube, that were recommended to me by a customer in the shop a few months ago. her videos and explanations are clear, and i love how after showing the method at normal speed, she shows it again in slow motion, so you can see it really clearly.

it really is purple like the above picture, somehow this one turned out blue!

i bought the e-book of the Squid and Deep Sea Diver, and i think i'll start on that one next!

oh, and this'll be 164 yards of july's mile!

lace cardi

this cardigan is the Celery Cardigan, by Veera Välimäki. i love what it does for the gorgeous kettle-dyed manos lace, especially the garter stitch sections. it's impossible not to like manos' colors! and the short rows were a lot of fun, though i did feel like i needed to do a whole section at one time so as to not lose my place.

this project took me two months of on and off knitting to finally finish (and still needs a name!). partly because i was in italy, partly because this summer has been incredibly hot already, and my hands tend to sweat anyway, and this would make the yarn tight on the needles, no matter how loosely i tried to hold it, and end up making me really frustrated when i couldn't get my stitches to move.

i also had a problem with laddering. it seems that i can't avoid it on cardigans that have markers separating the fronts and back, that no matter how tightly i pull the yarn across the marker, it ends up creating a mess. so i used purl bee's fake seam tutorial again. and it may have made it worse... i really hoped that it would all even out in blocking, but i've been having a hell of a time with that too. i got advice from my boss, from my mother, and from knitty, but it hasn't really helped. i lay it out on my yoga mat, and spritz'd it with some water, but i don't think it looks any different, and the laddering/fake seaming is still evident. this blocking didn't seem to make these stitches relax at all. does anyone have some advice? the yarn manos lace, and it's a baby alpaca/silk/cashmere blend.

i wrote a haiku to this lace weight cardigan:
two double fake seams
fingers crossed you will block out
messy, messy knits.

i might just stick to sock weight or bigger...

EDIT: i soaked it with some yarn wash for 15 minutes, and rolled it out in a few towels to get the water out, then layed it out for a few days. it seems to be pretty ok, but that seam is persistant. might just have to live with it.

april/may/june's mile

i made Cassy Dominick's Tuxedo socks from spud and chloe fine, a wonderful wool/silk blend that's delightfully springy! cassy's pattern is really great, with a stitch pattern that's easy to memorize after a few repeats. love love love the texture! (400 yds)

i also made up Stephen West's Dustland hat from st denis nordique. i added a few extra repeats to make it slouchy. i love this wool, it'd make a lovely sweater! (225 yds)

i used Vernoica O'neil's bourough pattern to make a set of convertible fingerless gloves for my fabulous study abroad roommate, nina. all the pics i took of them turned out blurry, hopefully she'll send me a good pic! (200 yds)


and finally, i finished Veera Välimäki's Celery Cardigan in manos lace. this gorgeous yarn was a gift from my family last christmas, and i love this color! (1095 yds)

so, out of 3 miles, i did 1.09! woo... in the mean time, i did have finals, graduation, and studying abroad in florence! i think that's a pretty good excuse ;) i'll just have to make it up with all the fancy new yarn i got from italy!


i apologize for the lack of action shots, my honey/photographer is abroad for another 3 weeks :)

yarn from firenze!

before i set off for my month abroad, my lovely sister looked up some yarn shops there for me! (warning: photo heavy post! and rather drool-worthy!)

my favorite by far was Campolmi Roberto Filati at #19red Via F. Portinari (protip: when in florence, residences are numbered in blue, and businesses are numbered in red). 

the first time i went, i was so overwhelmed, i just looked at everything and bought a few skeins of sock yarn (plus a skein of worsted wool/acrylic and a set of needles to make my roommate some gloves). 


after that, i looked up projects that had been in my ravelry faves for a long time, and made sure to take down their yarn requirements in meters, as well as the needle size requirement in mm, as this shop didn't use worsted/dk/sport/etc like i'm used to.

it was a gorgeous shop! and the woman who helped me was so nice and understanding, and put up with my incessant questions about what colors were available, meterage, and cost. she also told me that at this shop, they import the wool from scotland and australia, and "places that have sheep." then, they dye it, spin it, and package it there in the shop! buying there reminded me of watching my boss buy from yarn company representatives that come around every few months. instead of wandering the shelves of yarn, i looked at color/sample cards, and then was brought the yarn when i had made decisions. and the price was none too shabby either!

i stuffed my carry-on suitcase full (along with some other souvenirs too)!

in no particular order, here's the breakdown!

this trilli is 100% wool, knit on a US 2 to 5, and it's got 150 meters per 50 grams. for a stateside comparison, i'd look at sublime dk in softness and sheen. and with this green, i'm going to make the Pomme de Pin Cardigan, by Amy Christoffers. this green was really hard to photograph, it kept coming out grey, and this blurry picture best captures the color.

i also got a skein each of purple, sky blue, tan, and brown in order to seriously learn how to crochet. i've had a few stops and starts in teaching myself, but i've long been enamored with the whimsy of these designs by Maffers, and i'd love to try my hand at them!

and i picked up two more skeins in cream and navy to make some totoro mitts from this formula by brella. they're just adorable! i might make them fingerless...


this sock weight yarn, baby irrestringibile, is a 100% merino wool, in gorgeous jewel tones! and at 400 meters to 100 grams, it'll be great for socks and cardigans!

paulie by isabell kraemer will be lovely in this gold and wine red!

i'll get just the simple, cozy, solid-colored cardigan i've been wanting from the Division Cardigan by Amy Christoffers.


i also picked up some svezia merinos irrestringibile, a worsted weight of 50% wool and 50% acrylic with 250 meters in 100 grams.

i'll make myself a nice Hendreary Hat by Ysolda Teague with this mustard and heather blue.

out of the same mustard, i plan to make the Levenwick Cardigan by Gudrun Johnston.

and, in a nice heather grey, i'll make the Creature Comforts Cardi by Madelinetosh. 

and last but not least, i got this huge skein of a cotton and linen blend to remake a sweater that i designed last winter (have i still not posted about that?)! i think it'll be great for summer!

my fingers are itching to start knitting with all this, but i can't decide where to start!!

what's your favorite yarn, brought back from a vacation?

a stitch-travelouge

last week, i returned to fayetteville from a month-long study abroad in florence, italy! i was studying art restoration, and worked on cleaning a 16th-century oil painting in the classroom, as well as restoring the guilding on a massive alter piece up five floors of scaffolding in a church in rocca imperiale, calabria, southern italy.

needless to say, it was a whirlwind! i had every intention to blog while i was abroad, but it kept getting away from me while i was visiting the uffizi, the accademia, the pietre dure, the pitti palace, climbing the duomo, finding the best gelato in all of italy, and a fabulous yarn shop! time has a curious way of getting away from me...

so, here's a bit of a montage of my favorite things i did while abroad! i took over 1500 photos, but i'll share a few gems here:

the church of santa maria del fiore, and the iconic duomo of bruneschelli: right down the street from my apartment, i walked around this awe-inspiring architectural marvel every day on my way to class. if you turn right down this street, you'll get to the yarn shop. if you go right around the dome, and take your next right, you'll find the world's best gelato.

there's also good pizza and wine if you keep going around, right next to the swatch store.

view from the top of the dome: quite a hike, but absolutely worth it.

there are great vistas all around the city. this view is from the bardini gardens.

spent a weekend in rome, and my roommate for the night took this awesome picture of me throwing my coin into the trevi fountain. you can see the coin if you look straight up from my hand, it's right above the water/winged horse's head.

the town of rocca imperiale, with a 13th-century castle on the top. it was the height of apricot and tomato season while we were there, and i ate myself sick on citrus fruit. the food here was some of the best i've ever had! i spent a week here with my classmates and professor, doing restoration and laying on the beach.

the church of st francis where we worked on the guilding, matching the colors with tempera paints.

the painting, freshly cleaned.

on the flight back, my can of coke was only a little taller than my small ball of yarn.

and i spent the night in a 'cabin' hotel room in heathrow. it. was. adorable. the word i came up for it in my sleep-deprived state: adorablesome.

stay tuned for the yarn i brought back with me, and what i plan to do with it, as well as a post about all the things i've finished in the past months!

march's mile

ok, ok, ok, fine, it's april. i'll just have to get used to it. for another 3 weeks...

but! despite march being even more busy than february (again, senior year, hectic time), i still knit a little bit! especially on spring break. remember this cardigan i told you about last time? yeah, still working on it... but, i got those 2 fronts done over spring break using about 3 skeins, which is, like, record time for anything being done in terms of that cardigan. and i may have just started the sleeves today (including skein #6 of 10 of the MC...), but i had a chemistry test, and other things that came up literally RIGHT after spring break. this is a slow going sweater. i can't wait til it's finished.


however, i did manage to start AND finish some things! for christmas, my loving family got me a skein of madelinetosh tosh sock in 'baltic' (*drool*). this. yarn. is. gorgeous. i absolutely adore it! when it was on my wishlist, i thought it'd be a great pair of socks, but once i got my hands on it, i couldn't just hide it away in my sneakers, only to be seen at winter!


luckily, i found this pattern, granary by Kirsten Kapur, that perfectly fit the bill. i went up to a us10, and finished with 2 yards left over. also, be sure to print your pattern out in color, or else make note of where the repeats are, or check your pdf first before you email the designer about how you just can't figure out the chart, otherwise you might end up feeling like a dumbass... (that said, if you ever have problems with one of Kirsten Kapur's patterns, i highly recommend emailing her, she's very sweet and patient.)

anyway, i called it 'eyes like the sea,' because when i wear it, my honey says it brings out the blue in my eyes. :)

'i don't know what to do with my hands...'

i also started Flamboyan by Stephen West, using dream in color smooshy in 'strange harvest,' and spud & chloe fine in 'hippo'. stephen west snuck in some intarsia, which i didn't realize until i was knee deep in it! but oh well, goodbye fear of that technique! it's a good pattern, well-written and thorough. but holy smokes, this thing goes on and on forever! on the RS, you increase by 4 stitches, on the WS you increase 2 stitches, it gets gigantic! i'm so glad its done... the s&c is always a pleasure to work with, though i think i could have gotten away with half what was recommended, i have quite a bit left over. i really enjoyed the smooshy. i think the smooshy would be great for a fingering weight cardigan, but it might be too big for a pair of socks, in my opinion. 

i really like mustard and grey, and turns out they were quite in vogue this past fall, fingers crossed next fall too!

i'm such a model, you guys don't even know.

so, i think my total for march (including the flamboyan, even though i finished it today... ) is .94 miles. honestly, i expected it to be a lot less... hopefully in april, i'll be able to blog more. but, these last 3 weeks of class will surely be hectic.

february's mile

happy valentine's day!! wait, no? happy st patty's day!! wrong again? happy spring break? damn, how is it already april!

february was a really hectic month. senior year is a hectic time...

i got some knitting done, though. i finished the Larch Cardigan by Amy Christoffers. and i LOVE it! the fit is fantastic! her attention to detail is spectacular (though some of it could have been explained a little better. i mean, i understood the techniques, i just really wanted to know the reason for doing that particular thing in that spot. make sense?)

i ended up only using 15.5 skeins of the 17 my mother has had in her stash for more than a decade. mum said she wanted me to make something beautiful with it. i hope this fits the bill.

the pattern notes called for 1728 yards, and i was 300 short. knowing that i planned to modify the sleeves at least, i figured being 300 yards short wasn't going to make for very happy knitting. so i substituted some Classic Elite Fresco at the cast on edge of the bottom hem and the sleeve cuffs (the white bit). and then i got finished with the body, and started picking up for the collar, and thought i just might have enough to do the entire collar and front ribbing in the blue. and then had the brilliant idea that since the cuffs weren't joined in the round until after the hem, and that both that portion and the bottom hem had been bound off, then picked back up and worked, they could easily be taken out and redone... but then i took a good, hard look at how many stitches big my collar was going to be, and how many stitches i'd need to pick up on the fronts, and how long that bind off was going to be (the part around the neck has some stitches knit twice, then bound off). and i just didn't think i could risk it with only 83ish yards left, and do all that nonsense at the hems. though i have to say, that in my case, even with the sleeve modification, the yardage estimate is ridiculous! i made it with less than 1400 yards. just a heads up.

but, i really love it. it's completely unique. not only because i knit it and made the sleeves fit me, but because almost every other cardigan that people have made with this pattern has been a single color. sure, maybe in a few years it might be nice to remake it in a single color, but i adore my little two-tone! now if only it were still sweater weather... the angora in the blue fuzzed out like CRAZY!! and yeah, angora does that. but this is waaaay more than i expected (my theory is that because of its age, it's gone a little off its rocker). i might have to comb-shave it...

i highly recommend this pattern, for a good, all-purpose, gorgeous cardigan. and i'd love to try some more of Amy's designs (i've got my eyes on this one. might have to wait a while though...).

SO! my count for this sweater is approximately 1,369.5 yards. but, i'm also plugging away at this cardigan whilst at work (check out designer Mel Clark's blog for better pics). i knit those striped side panels, and the back, using approximately 3 skeins. at 175 yards each, i'm up to 1894.5 yards, or 1.08 miles!! yay february!