The Knitting Gardener: 2015

Sunday 8 March 2015

Pebble Beach shawl

I was drawn to Helen Stewart's Pebble Beach Shawlette and can see how it won in the Unwind Brighton competition 2014 last July.

I wanted it in the same colour, and just happened to have some gold Jaeger extra-fine merino I'd bought from my LYS in 2010. The yarn is lovely and soft and a a beautiful gold, not too bright. I love this colour with denim. The shawlette is done in fingering, but I like the idea of it in dk to get a more substantial shawl. It's a beautiful sunny spring day--I have the deck door open and listening to the birds and sounds of my neighborhood on a Sunday afternoon.

This is my first Helen Stewart design. Other favorites include Red Robin Shawl, Fresh Powder Cowl, and Fireflies Rising Shawlette

Here's my progress so far --

Saturday 10 January 2015

Yarns I Knit with in 2014

As part of my review of my 2014 knitting, I was curious how many and which yarns I used this past year. I discovered that I had the pleasure to knit with over 52 different yarns. (I currently have about 158 different yarn brands and bases in my stash).

Bases I used in 2014 included
lace fingering sport dk worsted aran bulky
Fibers included
wool merino silk alpaca mohair cashmere cotton nylon stellina

I knit with both commercial and indie-dyed yarns, purchased at my local yarn shops and online. Many yarns were knit with for the first time. I purchased 16 of the yarns in 2014 (marked with a *), so about 70% was knit from my stash.

Lace
Garnstudio Drops Kid-Silk
Lang Yarns Mohair Luxe

Fingering
Artyarns Ultramerino 4
Estelle Sockitome Heathers *
Fireweed Dyeworks Self-striping *
Madelinetosh Feather *
Madelinetosh Sock
Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Sock
Oink Pigment Sock *
Patons Kroy Ragg Shades *
Phildar Phil Folk 100 *
Phydeaux Yarn Chaussette *
Pinguoin Pingorex Baby
Quince and Co. Finch
Regia Desgn Line Kaffe Fassett
Regia Mosaik 4-ply
Rowan Fine Tweed
Shibui Knit Socks
Stimpylab Strong Sock *
String Theory Colorworks Continuum Self-striping *
Sunshine Yarns Classic Sock
The Plucky Knitter Primo Fingering
The Plucky Knitter Plucky Feet
Voolenvine Yarns Blitz *
Western Sky Knits Aspen Sock *

Sport
Madelinetosh 80/10/10 sport
Madelinetosh Sport
Manos del Uruguay Serena
ONline supersocke 6-ply *
Ornaghi Filati Malaga

DK
Blissful Knits Adore *
Duck Duck Wool *
Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool
Green Mountain Spinnery Sylvan Spirit
Knitting Fever Cashmereno
Madelinetosh DK *
Madelinetosh DK Twist
Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Suri & Silk
Zitron Zeitlos

Worsted
Cascade 220
Custom Woolen Mills 2-ply *
Madelinetosh Vintage
Malabrigo Yarn Merino
Noro Silk Garden
Stonehedge Fiber Mills Shepherd's Wool

Aran
Cascade Yarns Casablanca *

Fleece Artist BFL Aran

Manos del Uruguay Wool Classica

Mission Falls 1824 Cotton

Noro Taiyo

Bulky
Cascade 128 *
Lionness Arts Roar
Luxury Collection Baby Alpaca Sport
Malabrigo Yarn Mecha *

Saturday 3 January 2015

Socks in 2014

I don't often make goals or create lists, as they seem to put undue pressure on me. I like fly-by-the-cuff, follow-my-whimsy kind of knitting.

But lots of knitters on Ravelry were announcing goals for 2014, so I began to consider what mine might be. Buying less yarn and knitting from stash were definite goals. A considerable part of this stash was fingering, sockweight yarn as I wanted to make socks, lots of socks, but hadn't gotten around to it. So, I set myself a goal to knit 12 pair, which seemed a lofty goal, and joined a couple of the sock forums to motivate me.

I did it! I actually more than doubled my goal. 26 pairs in 2014. Some were works in progress and one is a baby pair, but still. Here they are: