Tag Archives: yarn

Binding Off

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Hi friends,

This post has been a long time coming. 10+ years, really. It’s been so wonderful to “meet” all of you knitters, to write so many patterns that I’m really proud of (and a few that I’ve “learned from”). It’s been lovely to share my knitting thoughts and knowledge with you, to gush over beautiful patterns and lovely sweaters. I’m so pleased that I made the effort all those years ago to step out of my comfort zone and start writing.

That being said, I think it’s about time for me to take a step back from the blog. It seems like the next logical step for me. My knitting time has become much more limited over the last few years (can’t imagine why…), and my creative juices haven’t been flowing like they used to. It’s coming to the point where I have to choose between knitting for the blog, for my design work and for myself, which is really taking the fun out of my favorite pastime. Plus, I just started a new job that I’m so excited about (teaching preschool down the street at a school I love), but which is already eating into my already limited free time and creative energy.

That being said, I’m hoping that by making a little space for myself by stepping away from the blog, I will have more time and energy to experiment with my knitting. I hope to work on more designs, make more sweaters, and otherwise do things for fun that I haven’t had the energy to do in a while. I want to get back to the joy I found in knitting for all those years when it wasn’t my “job.”

I’ll probably be back here from time to time, to show you new patterns, or maybe a FO check-in once in a while. But even if I’m not, know that I’m still out here, still knitting, and still neck-deep in yarn.

Happy knitting!

-Allison

Road Trip Wrap-up

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We’re back! We had a fantastic trip down to Mt. Shasta (which is conveniently located exactly halfway between Seattle and LA, where our friends live). It is a gorgeous place- beautiful scenery, fantastic weather, tasty food! I’d definitely go back again.

And the kids even managed to hang the whole drive down. I got so much knitting done! I made it all the way past the gusset of the first sock in basically one go. It was fantastic.

However, the way back was a different story. Who knew that 2- and 5-year-olds didn’t want to 20+ hours sitting in the back seat of the car? Basically, what ended up happening was that my husband (the hero that he is) managed to wedge himself in-between the car seats in the back and entertain the kids the entire way back while I drove as fast as I could to get us home. So, obviously, I didn’t get the full knitting time I was hoping for. (Honestly, knitting on road trips is the only practical application I can see for self-driving cars.)

It was a fantastic trip, despite the lack of knitting time, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat (but maybe not for a couple weeks).

Do you prefer to be the driver or the passenger on a road trip?

And THIS IS WHY YOU SWATCH

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So after finishing my nice vanilla socks, I decided that I wanted to stretch my legs a bit, metaphorically speaking. I posted a while ago about this sweater (shirt? top? Not sure what to call it).

It’s the Calad Shirt by Jenny Tsung and I just think it’s super cute. Is it something that I’ll wear? Maybe. Have I ever actually, successfully crocheted a garment for myself? No. Do I find crochet patterns above “beginner” basically unreadable? Yes.

Is any of that going to stop me? Absolutely not.

Certainly nothing will go wrong.

Anyway, I dug into my stash and found a couple balls of lace-weight yarn that, honestly, I’m probably never going to use. (I had a big “lace” phase maybe 10 years back, but I don’t have the time or attention to make fancy lace shawls anymore. Maybe when the kids go off to college.) I pulled out a surprisingly tiny crochet hook and went ahead and got swatching. And man, I’m glad I did.

Here’s the swatch. Can you spot what went wrong?

That’s right. It’s supposed to be a rectangle. Not a trapezoid.

I honestly don’t know what I did. I definitely lost stitches somewhere along the line, but where? No idea. And maybe my tension changed, too? Who knows. I’m just glad I didn’t jump right in on the sweater before I got my sea legs. It’s definitely going to take a couple tries to get this pattern figured out. Cross your fingers for me!

Have you ever messed up a swatch as badly as mine?

Hello!

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I’m in-between projects right now, so I decided to take this opportunity to break out a toy that I got for my birthday: my Hello Loom!

It’s so cute- it’s a laser-cut wooden loom. Actually, it’s two looms! One is about the size of a credit card and the other is the size of a paperback book. It reminds me of the cardboard looms I’d make from cereal boxes when I was a kid. (I don’t think I ever actually finished a woven piece when I was a kid. Much like grown-up Allison, kid Allison was good at starting projects, but not great at finishing them.)

Anyway, I pulled out a big box of yarn leftovers and started playing around. It was super easy to set up, and before I knew it, I was halfway through. Then, after an evening of Star Trek, I was finished. So fun! It’s certainly not perfect, but I enjoyed playing with my loom.

Now, I only have two questions:

  1. What am I supposed to do with my little piece(s) of weaving? Or am I just making a bunch of coasters? And,
  2. How am I supposed to get it off the loom without messing it up?

Any of you weavers that can help me?

1.5

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I’m one and a half socks deep into this project, and I’m still making progress. Something that doesn’t feel like it happens much these days.

I did my best to match up the stripes, but my first try, I was wildly off. I ended up having to frog basically the whole leg portion and re-knit it, which is never my favorite. But I’m so glad I did!

They’re not an exact match, but if you look closely at the colors, they’re actually dyed slightly differently, so no matter how careful I was, I could never have matched them up perfectly. I guess that’s just how hand-dyed yarn goes.

I was a little bummed about it at first, but the more I look at it, the more I like it. That little bit of variation makes the socks even more interesting.

Do you try to match up your socks perfectly, or do you go with the flow?

Surprise!

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So, I guess I need to pay more attention to what I buy, because you know that gorgeous, variegated yarn that I got last week?

Well, I managed to get it all wound up this weekend, and I got a surprise!

Turns out, it’s self-striping and it looks totally different than I was expecting! I had no idea when I brought it home. It’s hard to tell from just looking at it all wound up, but I think it’s going to have some cool super-long repeats. (Yes, I could have just looked at the website and I would have seen that it was self-striping… But I just didn’t.)

I’m so excited to get knitting on these socks! they’re going to be so pretty!

Have you ever been surprised with your yarn purchases?

A Roll of the Dice

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I started working on the second sleeve, and, well, I almost immediately ran out of yarn. I had managed to delude myself into thinking that I had enough yarn to make it through the sleeve. But, no matter how much I wanted it to be true, I had barely made it through the cuff when I was left with this much yarn:

So, I ran back to Webs and ordered another skein. I was excited when the package showed up yesterday, but then I suddenly realized- I had no idea if it was going to match. The color on the website vs. the actual color was so wildly different, it suddenly occurred to me that the new and old yarn might not match at all.

I crossed my fingers, held my breath, and opened the package.

And thank all the Knitting Gods! Not only did the color match- the new yarn was actually the same dye lot as the stuff I ordered months ago. I certainly lucked out!

Now all I have to do is… finish the sweater!

Did you ever luck out (or not) with a dye lot?

True Colors

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So you guys remember when I finally bought some yarn a few weeks ago? Well, it came.

To refresh your memory, I’ve decided to finally buy myself some new yarn for the first time in… years. I’ve been just stashbusting left and right since the pandemic began, and to be honest, my stash was never that impressive to begin with. Needless to say, I’ve been feeling less than inspired by my knitting of late.

Anyway, I ordered 3 skeins of Berroco Vintage (a favorite of mine for soft, cozy, easy-ish care garments) in the colorway Okra. A cute, fresh green that I thought would look good on my red-headed 2-year-old. Here it is:

Well, you can imagine how excited I was when I saw the package in the mail- new yarn for a new project that I’m actually excited about? What could go wrong?

Well, look at it:

It’s fully a different color! And this isn’t a case of “Allison doesn’t know how to take pictures!” It’s truly this gray-green sage color, not the cute, chipper Okra color I thought I was ordering. (And, yes, I’ve checked the label- they didn’t send me the wrong color by mistake.)

I guess this is just a great reminder of two things:

  1. Dyelots matter- a lot. There’s a ton of variation in colors, even with a big industrial dyer like Berroco.
  2. Buying yarn online is always a bit of a crap shoot.

Is this the color I picked out? No. Was I bummed when I opened the package? A little bit. Am I still going to use this yarn to make an adorable sweater for my kid? Absolutely.

What’s the wildest color mismatch you’ve come across?

Buying yarn

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I have been thinking about why I’ve been so uninspired by my knitting recently, and what I can do to help turn that around in the new year. And I realized something. I haven’t bought any new yarn since Covid started- almost 3 years ago. I bought a little new yarn when I made the stocking for my little kid (before he was born, 2 years ago). And I bought an extra skein to add to my big kid’s stashbusting sweater this summer. But that’s it. And I ordered them online.

All that’s to say, I was looking at my dwindling stash and I found what I thought was enough yarn for a sweater for my little kid- 1 whole and 2 half-skeins of Berroco Vintage, which made me decide to make a Ben sweater for my little guy. It’s one of my favorite sweaters- I made one for my husband right after we got married years ago, and since then it’s “mysteriously” ended up in my wardrobe. Funny how that happens.

I did a little swatch on smaller-than-called-for needles and measured a bit of the gauge, then ripped it out- I knew I was going to need every last inch if I wanted to make my 2-year-old an entire sweater. I did a bunch of math, and sketched out a simplified, toddler-sized version of the Ben sweater.

I was just about ready to cast on, when I realized two things: 1. There’s no way I have enough yarn for even a toddler sweater- it’s less than 200g, with both colors combined. Maybe enough for a newborn sweater, but not enough for my “robust” 2-year-old. And 2. I want to buy some new yarn!

So I called over my little guy and asked him what color he wanted, to which he of course said “Geen!” (Green is literally the only color he knows, luckily he looks great in green.) And I ordered myself some new yarn! I picked out “Okra,” this cheerful heathered “geen” colorway.

Now I get to wait impatiently for the yarn to come in the mail and I get to start working on my little guy’s sweater. I’m so excited!

What’s the last yarn that you’ve bought for yourself?

Alone

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You guys. I’m all alone in the house! It’s amazing. It’s so quiet. I’ve got a new knitting project and a plan to put on a TV show (that isn’t Paw Patrol).

It’s been a while since I was all alone in the house. Between me being a stay-at-home parent and my husband working from home, plus two little kids who aren’t in school yet, time alone is a rarity.

And if time alone is rare enough, time without the kids when I’m awake enough to actually work on something is rarer still. If I’m being honest, I usually pass out in front of the TV or zone out, scrolling Instagram as soon as the kids are down.

All that’s to say, it’s no wonder I haven’t been that excited about knitting for the last little bit. But today it changes! If only for a couple hours.

I’ve busted out my fanciest skein of yarn from my stash and started working on a top-down watch cap so I can use every last inch. It’s a chocolate-brown single-source alpaca that I bought more than ten years ago from a local alpaca farm, which has since gone out of business. But, if I remember correctly, the alpaca that it came from was named Electra, and she was very cute. It’s so soft, and so warm- such a luxurious yarn that I’ve never been able to bring myself to work on it. Which is a shame! Why have fancy yarn if you’re not going to use it?

Anyway, I’m going to head out. I’ve got a true crime documentary calling my name, and some coffee to drink while it’s still hot.

What do you like to knit when you’re treating yourself?