CAL: week 15

September 7, 2013 by 11 Comments

Hello everyone!  We’ve got a shorter week this week — only 6 rows instead of 8.  This is in part to give anyone behind a little chance to catch up, and in part to just give us a small rest.  We’ll be using US terms, as usual, and last week we stopped on row 110:

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row 111

With new color, hdc across.

row 112

With new color, dc across.

rows 113-116

Work the chevron pattern (original instructions here).  Here is a closeup of this week’s rows:

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That’s all for this week!  Short and sweet.  Thanks for stopping by!

Filed Under: announcements

new KnitPicks items

September 1, 2013 by 7 Comments

I took advantage of the sale KnitPicks had last week, offering a free skein of their new Wool of the Andes Superwash with any order.  I got the bluish-grey shade, Cadet:

knitpicks wool of the andes superwash in cadet

At $3.49 per 50g/110yd, I’m not sure I’d actually purchase this.  I suppose it’s still a good deal for superwash wool… what do you think?  Well, it’s still 100% wool and thus not the softest yarn I’ve used.  Not sure I’d want this as a hat or scarf.  I don’t really know what to do with this single skein; any suggestions?  Since it was free, I can’t complain.

The items that I ordered so that I could get the free yarn are ones that I think will be very useful:

knitpicks new tools

I do love KnitPicks’ needles, and I didn’t have any that were 16″.  The 16″ needles are my favorite way to make hats, and 7 is a common size.  It’s too bad that the 16″ cables aren’t available for the interchangeable set that I have, but it is what it is.  It’s worth purchasing the 16″ needles, I think.  The coiled wire thing next to the needles in the image above is a wire yarn stranding guide, supposed to be handy for colorwork.  Unfortunately it is too big to fit on my finger the way it does on the hand model in the picture on their site, but if I slide it further down my finger it will be fine.  I’ll just have to adjust my knitting angles, I suppose, because I do intend to use it.

That’s all for today, I suppose.  Nothing too exciting.  Well, thanks for stopping by!

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CAL: week 14

August 31, 2013 by 4 Comments

Alright everyone, let’s beast out week 14!  Using US terms, last week we ended on row 102:

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row 103-104

With new color, work the star stitch pattern (instructions here).

row 105

With new color, hdc across.

row 106

With new color, dc across.

row 107-109

With new colors, work the granny stripe pattern (instructions here).

row 110

With new color, dc across.  Here’s this week’s rows (sorry about the color/quality — I don’t know what happened this week!):

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And this week I have a picture of the whole thing:

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Hopefully everybody is still enjoying our crochet along!  I’m still enjoying everyone’s pictures on facebook and everything.  It’s really amazing to me that there are so many people participating!

That’s it for today, hope you enjoy!

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finished the hat!

August 28, 2013 by 10 Comments

What a day!  After working a long and hot (95 Fahrenheit) lunch shift out in the sun, all I wanted to do was get clean and cool and relax!  My hands still wanted something to do though, and as a result the knitted hat for my friend Tara is finished!

Hat for Tara 1

 

It turned out great!  The seed stitch was fun and the inside looks just the same so it’s totally reversible.  I added 8 stitches to the recommended cast on number and also went up a needle size from the recommended one (both because the pattern writer knits very loosely and because my friend has lots of lovely thick hair, although the extra stitches turned out to be unnecessary).  The hat can be worn slouchy, like that, or it can be worn with the ribbed section rolled up like this:

Hat for Tara 2

 

It’s still roomy this way and it is big enough to where either way it can cover one’s ears.  I thought about lining it with polar fleece for extra warmth, but I’ve never done that before and don’t want to try it out on a hat I’m planning on gifting (but if anyone has any tips on that, I’d love to hear them so I can try it out on one of my hats sometime!).  I think I’ll be working with my friend on Thursday so hopefully I can give it to her then.

This hat used about 3/4 of my 220 yard ball of Aslan Trends Royal Alpaca, and the free pattern can be found here.

That’s all for today!  Just wanted to share the finished project somewhere (I can’t put it on Instagram yet because Tara and I follow each other and she’d see it)!  Thanks so much for stopping by.  Now I’ll get to work on the CAL installment for this Saturday!

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CAL: week 13

August 24, 2013 by 11 Comments

Week 13 is already upon us!  Are you ready to dive in?  Let’s get started, and remember we’re using US terms!

Last week we finished with row 94:

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row 95

With new color, hdc across.

rows 96-99

With 2 new colors, work the Catharine wheel pattern (click here for original instructions).  Here’s a picture so far:

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row 100

With new color, dc across as instructed in the original Catharine wheel instructions.  You might want to count your stitches here, just to be safe.

row 101

With new color, hdc across.

row 102

With new color, dc across.  Here’s this week’s rows all together:

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Don’t forget to weave in those ends!  For me it really does help make the whole blanket more manageable when I don’t have ends getting tangled everywhere, which is becoming more important as our blankets grow in size.  This week I don’t have a picture of the whole blanket — again I forgot to stop crocheting in time and didn’t remember until I was a couple more rows in, and I can’t give that big of a spoiler away!  😉

Can you believe we’ve done over 100 rows now?  That’s a lot of stitches.  I know that a few of you aren’t too fond of working the Catharine wheels, but I hope that the other fun stitches compensate adequately!

That’s all for this week — thanks for stopping by!

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