Millwater...

This is a project that should have been cast on and completed a long time ago. I was originally asked to knit an infinity scarf, hat and mitten set in November. Well I had intentions of casting on right away but I had to finish up a couple Christmas projects. Not to mention I had to get going on knitting all those baby sweaters! Anyways, I decided that after I casted off the last Sunnyside that I  was going to get cracking on knitting it. I had decided on Millwater since I had it in my favs for a while. She wanted it to match the Reverb that I knitted and ended up giving her. So I had purchased 3 skeins of Tanis Fiber Arts Green Label in Lucky Penny and when the time was right, casted on. It only took 4 days to knit this baby and I enjoyed it alot. It was fairly mindless aside from the cable I had to cross every so often. So I was able to breeze through it. 

The only lesson I learned was if I'm drinking a bottle of wine, don't knit!! I was feeling all fuzzy and warm after a couple glasses and decided that it would be a great time to knit along on this scarf. Bad idea. I ended up seeing all my drunken mistakes the next morning. I'm sure that I've learned nothing from this as I always fall into the trap of imagining I'm that sophisticated knitter with a glass of wine within reach. Aside from that it turned out well.

One last FO photo:

In regards to my last Ravellenic's project, I'm finished a Thrummed mitten and I'm going to cast on the last one tonight and possibly try to finish it during the Gold Metal Hockey Game tomorrow morning @ 5am! We'll see if I'll be able to focus on my knitting. I'm not going to pressure myself to finish it but if it happens, it happens.

Happy Knitting :-)

Thrummed...

I've finally gotten going on my last project for the Ravellenic's as part of the Tanis Fiber Arts Group.

 

I casted on my Thrummed Mittens last night. I originally started dividing the roving braid into thrums at 10:30pm. Then I casted on and had to finish the cuff. Then a couple thrums repeats. I had to call it quits at 1:30am. In my experience any knitting done at ungodly hours usually requires frogging when I wake up the next morning. Ditto with drinking wine while knitting. More on that in the next post ;-) Anyways, I'm loving how it's looking so far. I'm going to keep plugging away on them while watching the Canada vs USA women's hockey game. 

My Millwater is soaking so I'm hoping to get some photos of it for my next post.

Happy Knitting :-)

Stripy Baby Sweater Disaster.....

I finished off my last Sunnyside sweater a couple weeks ago and had been meaning to share photos BUT.... I had a massive disaster of epic proportions. I decided that I was going to give it a good soak so that everything looked crisp for the FO photos and thats when I saw...... dark blue water. The Louet Gem's dark blue yarn leeched and bled all over the sweater. I freaked. I pulled the sweater out of the now "blue dye bath" and drained the water. I then proceeded to try to rinse out the blue under running water. A good portion came out but there was now a blue tinge to the white yarn.

In my epic freak-fest I forgot to take photos. My excuse? I was in an the throws of an epic meltdown. I washed the sweater in the wash about 5 times to get any residual yarn dye out and I fleetingly hoped that it would come out of the white yarn. It didn't. I guess I was hoping for a fricken miracle. It was a last ditch effort on my part for the day.

I went to bed majorly P-O'd!!

Then the next morning, I finished my coffee. Then when I felt I had an adequate amount of time to SIMMER DOWN, I figured I would Google it. That's when I found THIS.

So I decided to go out and buy some Color Remover. I found some Dylon S.O.S Color Run at my LYS (The Crafty Lady) and decided to give it a go. I was a bit hesitant at first because I worried that it would possibly remove all the yarn dye but by this point it was worth trying it. Really how much worse could it get?

I followed the directions and ran it through the wash 2 times. It removed almost all of the leeched dye in the white stripes. There was still a little in there and it drove me completely nuts. By that time I was beyond crazy and decided that since I didn't have anymore of the dye remover I was just going to add a cup of bleach to the wash. At that time, I was resigned to the fact that if it ruined the sweater I would deal with it then.

I went into the living room, grabbed a coffee and continued knitting on my 2nd Ravellenic's Project. I'll have more on this in the next post :-) Anyways, after my zen knitting session, I had finally come to terms with the sweater disaster. I decided that I couldn't deal with this any longer. I was going to either toss it or save it for fire starter for this summers camping season. I opened the washer, pulled out the sweater and the stripes were.... not blue. I checked all the creases no hint of blue. There was a huge surge of relief which was then followed up with the urge to jump up and down. I'm so happy that I ended up salvaging this sweater :-)

So now here's the FO shot of my last Sunnyside :-)

Pattern : Sunyside by Tanis Lavallee
Yarn : Louet Gems Grab Bag (fingering/sport yarn) from Paradise Fibers.They are no longer selling it.

Love the pattern but I'm so done with this yarn. I was going to add a zipper but I've decided that I'm completely done with this sweater. I'm going to box it up and mail it ASAP so it's out of my sight. I'm sure little baby Madison will love it even though it's an open sweater.

Now it's time for Happy Knitting :-)

3 down, 1 to go...

As you've probably figured out from the title, I've finished my 3rd Sunnyside baby cardi :-) I love how it looks but I'm a bit torn about the yarn. I originally got this yarn as part of the 2012 Woolen Rabbit Yarn Club. I love the depth of color in this skein but I'm not too keen on the base. It's a 2 ply yarn with thick and thin sections throughout. It's not totally noticeable once washed and blocked. Overall, I didn't enjoy knitting with it but I liked it once it was washed. It bloomed nicely and was soft to the touch. Which is quite a contradiction for me.

Anyways, I was quite worried that I would run out of yarn. I had finished the yoke and took a good look at what was left of my ball of yarn. It wasn't much at the time. So I decided to finish the sleeves first then use whatever yarn was left for the body. It would either work out to my favor or this poor baby would have a crop sweater. Which I was pretty sure wouldn't be well received by the mom. So.... I was very pleased that I had JUST enough yarn. I was sweating bullets while I was casting off. Seeing the yarn dwindle down to almost nothing. I was so happy when the last stitch was casted off and my plan worked in my favor.I literally only had about 6" left of it once I casted off.

Pattern : Sunnyside by Tanis Lavallee
Yarn : Woolen Rabbit Oasis in Violette (a 2012 club colorway)

Then I casted on another Sunnyside ;-) This ones going to be different though, No lace or cables. Just basic stockinette to focus all the attention on the stripes. So I guess it's loosely based on the pattern.

I'm not sure if I'm going to use all the colors in the picture but I'll fly by the seat of my pants and see how it looks once I start knitting. I'm using some misc Louet Gems yarns I got in a grab bag I bought from Paradise Fibers. They no longer sell the Louet Gem Grab Bag. Some of the yarns are sport and some of them are fingering. I'm going to make them work. I've got to get cracking on knitting since I'm suppose to be casting on my Ravellenics Projects with the Tanis Fiber Arts group.

Time to drink some tea and get knitting :-)