About 6 weeks ago, I posted about the Kveta Hat that I had the opportunity to test knit for Monika Sirna. I also had the pleasure to test knit the matching cape, but I just realized that I never posted about it! Bad blogger...

The Kveta Cape is a sweet little accessory than any girl would love. I made another Kveta Hat to match the cape - because, really, who can resist? The cape has a lot more finishing than I typically go for, but it was well worth it. The pattern has you hand sew ribbon and snaps onto the ribbing for closure.

April has been a busy month for me, in life, but especially with regards to knitting. Over the course of the month, I've finished 6 projects and I'm darn close on a 7th. I have no idea how I am managing to finish so many projects, though I guess they're all relatively small items. I feel like I'm constantly fighting the urge to cast on ALL THE THINGS. At least it seems to be working for me.

I had the honor of test knitting Carthamus by Kirsten Kapur at the beginning of the month. I knit it out of Tosh Sock in Gossamer. I was an absolute pleasure (and challenge) to knit. I say challenge only because I learned at least one new technique while knitting it - it wasn't hard in the traditional sense. I've never knit something with this construction before. It was a lot of fun, and on more than one occasion I had to tell myself "one more row" only to find several rows and a half an hour later, that I was finally putting the project down. I also finally, and fully, overcame my fear of charts.

It has been unseasonably cold here, so I've already worn it a few times and I love it. It's kind of a scarf/shawl hybrid (scawl? sharf?) and I find it really easy to wear. I've wrapped it around my neck like a scarf; looped it around my shoulders like a shawl using a shawl pin to secure it; draped it around my neck and just let it flutter. It's pretty any way I've worn it. You can see more details and pictures on my project page.

Project Details:
Pattern: Carthamus by Kirsten Kapur
Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Gossamer
Needle: US 6 (4mm)

I knit mine out of Cascade Heritage in Anis and Cerulean. I love these shades of blue together! The yarn is soft and light. The entire shawl weighs only 96 grams, which makes it perfect for Spring and even into Summer where I live. I have enough of each color left over to knit the inverse, so don't be surprised if that's my next color combo.

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Happy Friday!

We're halfway finished the #colorblockKAL and we already have 4 FOs! Congrats to the following Ravelers: WoolDiaries, oocha, joha123, and SarahElana on some spectacular shawls.

I've made a bit more progress this week. I'm about halfway through the MC (Cascade Heritage in Aris). With the holiday weekend, we did a lot of visiting family and this has been the perfect project to bring in the car. I was also able to mindlessly knit on it while catching up with family. I've worked on a few cable-heavy projects recently (here and here), so it was really nice to bring my knitting with me and not have to worry about keeping track of rows, stitch counts, etc. I'm still loving these little bird stitch markers.
And just as a quick reminder - you don't have to finish the KAL to enter the prize drawing. The only requirements are that you cast on before April 12th and leave me a comment telling me what yarn you're using. All of the other entries (emailing me photos to post here, posting a picture on Instagram with the hashtag #colorblockKAL, following me on Twitter or BlogLovin', etc) are all optional, extra entries. And each time you post a photo on Instagram with the hashtag, you can come back to this widget for another entry! To make it easier to enter, I've added a KAL tab to the top of the blog - just click there and it will take you to the newest KAL post with the widget.

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It's been a while since I've done a WIP Wednesday post. Earlier this year, I knit Cladonia by Kirsten Kapur. I absolutely adore the FO and wear it all the time. But I do have a few very minor "improvements". They're not even really improvements, just things I would change if I knit it again. I wish it were a tiny bit bigger, just a few inches longer in both directions. And while I love the yarn that I knit the first one in (Madelinetosh Sock in Well Water), it doesn't go with my wardrobe all that much. So, I'm knitting another one.

This time I'm using Tosh Merino Light in Luster, alternating skeins every 2 rows. Luster is a really complex tannish ivory with some medium brown tones in it. I don't wear a lot of brown, but it's neutral enough that I think it will work well with my wardrobe. I also wanted a lighter color so I could theoretically wear it year round. The TML is so incredibly soft and light. It's a single ply yarn and has an amazing halo.

I absolutely adore this yarn and have already purchased 2 sweater quantities in other colorways. I have a few projects in the works (and a few deadlines in April), but after I finish them I'll be casting on a Bayside Pullover in TML in Wash. Can't wait - my fingers are itching to get started on that.

If you're ever curious to see what I'm working on, you can check my Ravelry page or the "Current Projects" section of the sidebar where I have all of my WIPs listed.

What are you working on? 

I've been hinting around on Instagram that I'm working on a pattern. Well, I'm beyond thrilled to say, it's live on Ravelry!

The pattern is for a colorblock shawl (and warning - I was really creative with the name). It's a simple triangular shawl, worked from the bottom up, using increases to create the shape. The pattern calls for approximately 400 yards of sport weight yarn - 100 for the contrasting color (the point) and 300 for the main color. I used Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk, which I highly recommend. It's so soft, has amazing drape, and is lightweight enough that I can wear this shawl well into the Spring, if not even into Summer. Hey, it's possible - I live in Pittsburgh and we have whacky weather here!

If there's enough interest, I'd like to host a KAL for the pattern. The KAL would be very relaxed - I'll do an update post once a week (likely each Monday) for a month and link out to all of the knitters working on it. We would start Monday the 18th and we would end April 15th. It will not take you a month to knit the shawl, I promise! I just want to leave the "deadline" pretty open. I'm definitely plan to knit another one, KAL or not, but I'd love to have company. Are you in?



The pattern is available on Ravelry (for free!). I'm pretty sure that this won't apply to anyone, but if you don't have a Ravelry account, you can download the pdf here.

Happy knitting!

Things are a bit backwards over here. I fully anticipated finishing my Calligraphy cardigan long before the Cladonia shawl, but that's not how it worked out. And normally, I'd save a FO post for a Friday, but I just couldn't wait.

Just as a quick update on the Calligraphy - I finished one side of the button band and am in the middle of picking up stitches for the other side. In the middle of that, I decided I wanted to take a break from all.that.ribbing. So, I started working on my Cladonia with real enthusiasm.

As I said in my last post, I had a few minor issues with the chart. Total user error. I also had some issues with the picot bind off. Looking back, I don't think I had had enough coffee to be doing what I was doing at that point in the morning. With a picot bind off you bind off stitches, then cast on more stitches, bind those off, cast on more, bind those off, cast on a few more, bind those off, and then a few extra. The pattern was well written, but it had a lot of parenthesis and well, I never was good at order of operations. So, I just wrote out the directions, one step at a time, including all repeats of cast on/bind off until I could really wrap my head around it. After doing a few repeats of the bind off, I had it mastered and didn't even need to read the directions to finish the rest of the stitches. It's really easy, once you figure out what the heck you're supposed to do.


Once I tackled the bind off (which by the way, took an entire afternoon) I blocked the shawl. It grew a lot after a good soak. I wish I thought to take pre-blocking measurements, but in my excitement to get it blocked, I totally forgot. I blocked it by painstakingly pinning out each picot and a straight egde along the top.

Please don't tell my other finished projects, but I think this one might be my favorite one yet. I can't wait to wear it!



Project details: 
Pattern: Cladonia by Kirsten Kapur
Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Well Water
Needles: KnitPicks Harmony, US 7

As the title suggests, this post is about overcoming my Fear (with a capital F) of charts.

I love the look of lace projects, but have shied away from them because, let's be honest, charts scare the crap out of me. The symbols confuse me. I get confused about which direction to read the chart - do you read all of the lines right to left, or are some left to right, or does it depend on what side of the work you're on? And why do you start at the bottom of the chart? Why wouldn't you start at the top, on the left, just like when you're reading a book? It makes no sense to me!

Plain and simple, I get intimidated by charts. But, I hope to someday knit a beautiful lace shawl, so I decided it was time to get over my fear once and for all. I am taking baby steps though. No need to get ahead of ourselves here. As I mentioned last week, I'm knitting a Cladonia Shawl as a part of the MadForMeSAL. It's a mostly stockinette semi-circular shawl with a lace border. See, baby steps - just a lace border to start.

Lucky for me, the lace portion is charted and written out. I'm really, really glad it's displayed both ways in the pattern. I want to learn charts, but I really do need it written out to help me if I get stuck. And boy, did I get stuck! I wasn't even halfway through the first row when I realized something was wrong. I had no idea what, but something was wrong. I dutifully tinked (that's knit backwards) to the beginning of the row and started over. This time, I made it to the end before realizing that something was still wrong. Again, I tinked. And this time, I decided to read the written instructions. It was like a switch flipped and I think I may have even said out loud "I'm an idiot!" while frantically trying to re-knit the row. I realized I'd missed a k1 in the middle of the repeat. DUH! What a rookie mistake.

So, once I conquered row one, I figured it was smooth sailing, right? WRONG! Starting row two - which way do you read the chart again? Do you start on the left or the right? Cue panic. Wait - just read the written instructions. Oh, you start on the right again this time. Okay. Whew, I just did that, I can do it again. And I did.


Then I got to row six and realized one of my sections only had 16 stitches - it's supposed to have 17. Cue panic, again. I started to work my way back to the beginning of the row, when I realized I'd dropped a yarn-over. Thankfully, that's an easy fix. It could have been a lot worse, but of course I started to doubt that I could even work from a chart. In reality, dropping a single stitch happens to everyone and they're usually easy to fix.

I'm about halfway finished with the lace section now. While I still prefer written instructions, I think I finally figured out charts. Except for maybe next time, when I have to read all of the even rows left to right and all of the odd rows right to left.

So, where do you stand on the great chart debate? Are you strictly a written instructions kind of knitter? Or do you use charts?  Please tell me I'm not alone in my fear of charts.

Quick Note: If you haven't entered my project bag giveaway, click here to go enter!

As of January 1st, I'd never done a KAL (knit-a-long for those that are unfamiliar). I'm still a relatively new knitter, I guess. I learned 2 years ago and while I've knit a lot (A LOT) in those 2 years, I'm still new to the knitting world. I'm in a number of groups on Ravelry, several of which host KALs regularly. I'd never participated before because let's be honest, I was intimidated as heck. How would I stack up against more experienced knitters? Would I finish in time? What if I made a mistake, had to rip it out and start over? What if I hated the project? I really could go on and on with my worst case scenarios.

However, I vowed to be more adventurous with my knitting. I want to grow with each project I complete. So last year, I entered the MadTosh ToshDown (and won a prize!). I figured it was kind of the first step to KALs. Since I conquered that without issue, my next step was to actually join an active KAL (or SAL, as to not leave out the crocheters). Since I don't do anything half-way, I joined two.

For the Yarniacs Self-Indulgent KAL I'm knitting a Calligraphy Cardigan. Worsted weight sweaters knit up so quickly. I started on January 1, as per the rules and I have about a third of the sleeves and the button bands left to finish. I may or may not have done nothing but watch a ton of Downton Abbey and knit for the last few days. My goal is to finish by my birthday, which is February 8th. I have 2.5 weeks to finish so I think that's pretty do-able. However, this KAL runs until March 10, so there's still plenty of time to join in! The only rule is that you have to be knitting something for yourself.


The second KAL I joined is the MadToshForMe SAL, which runs from January 15-February 28. This is another "knit something for yourself" KAL. It must be the post-holiday knitting revolt. Either way, I don't mind. For this one, I'm knitting a Cladonia Shawl by Kirsten Kapur. I posted a few pictures on Instagram last week asking which shawl to knit - this one won by a landslide. In fact, it got all of the votes. I'm using Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Well Water for this project. I cast on yesterday and managed to complete about half of the increases. I'm planning to put this on hold while I finish the sweater, but I wanted to cast on with everyone else at the start of the KAL.

I also have a gift that I'm working on that I can't really talk about here for fear of the surprise being ruined. I've already made that mistake once and I don't want to do it again. I guess I should never assume someone does or doesn't read my blog. My deadline on that is the end of the month. So needless to say, I'm a little busy in the knitting department this month.

What are your current WIPs? All are mine are listed in the sidebar, if you ever want to see what I'm actively working on. Are you doing any KALs in 2013? If not, you should!