Same Girl, New City

And the wayward yarn whore returns!

Well, I'm still here. And still knitting. And still voraciously buying yarn faster than I can knit it. But I'm in Philadelphia! For a few weeks, at least. Holed up in the fabulous Rittenhouse Square area (and it is a beautiful area), but my days are spent alone and I seem to have lost my knitting mojo a bit.

Le Sigh.

It's...different. This is my first time "living" away from home (yeah, three weeks isn't exactly living) and it's very nice. Very, very nice. Part of me wishes I could stay here forever, but I'm starting to feel homesick for friends and kittens. Already. And it's only been five (?) days.

Anyway, let's focus on the awesome here. Because, as bored as I can get sometimes, this has still been a pretty nice vacation. Did I mention that I am within walking distance of not one but TWO yarn shops? Loop and Rosie's Yarn Cellar are both within a ten minute walk from our place and I scoped them both out the first chance I got. As you may or may not know, Loop is one of the few flagship shops that sell Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter...and I got some.

Really? Did you think I would resist?

Three beautiful skeins (2 in Embers and 1 in Long Johns) came home with me and now I have no idea what to do with this precious stuff. The colors are phenomenal, the yarn is woolly and lovely, and how can you not love the names? I suspect my next purchase will be a skein of "Button Jar," but, seeing as I am not naturally a green person, I wonder if I may just be buying it for the name. And the girls who work there are really nice...I need some area yarn friends!

Happy Little Bins of Shelter

(Oh, and by the way, Philadelphia is a GREAT city for foursquare. I managed to score 10% off my first purchase at Loop just by checking in. How great is that? I also have gotten two free pints of Lager for checking in...nice!)

And even though I haven't posted an FO in MONTHS (how in the world did that happen?), I do have some ends begging to be woven in. And maybe, maybe, maybe, I will be able to share them soon. For now, here is a little glimpse into my first weekend in Philly.

Happy Knitting!

Tutorial: Karen Shawl right edging

I've noticed a lot of people have stopped by this ol' watering hole the past few days, scouring the internets for help regarding the Karen Shawl by Amy Swenson. I posted my FO in the last post I made a few afternoons ago, and decided to post a photo tutorial on how to finish up the right edging of the shawl. It is kind of intuitive.

(Obviously, this tutorial does not feature my Karen Shawl. I tried to recreate it as best I could :D)

My tutorial starts on page 3 of the pattern PDF, just after the main body part is worked and Amy instructs you to begin knitting the edging along the bottom of the shawl's edge. The first task is to work Row 11 of the edging chart (the bind-off row), leaving you with four stitches on your right hand needle. The next step, after removing your right edge marker, is to turn your work around (WS is now facing you) and slip that first stitch. For this part (and this row), you will only be working over those four stitches. You are now back to work the RS of your work.

Ready to go!

 Effectively, you will just be working through the right edging chart over and over again (well, 18 total time). The only exception to this is that you will be joining the edging to the "body" of the shawl as you work. Think of the RS rows as the joining rows.

Working row 1 of Right Edging Chart

 As the pattern instructs, here I have worked Row 1 of the Right Edging Chart (K2, YO, K2)...except I only K1 after the YO ("work to 1 stitch before the gap"). Here, I am knitting that last stitch of the Right Edging Chart together with the first stitch of the "body" stitches. This will join my edging to the "body" of the shawl and complete the first RS row. All WS rows throughout the edging are worked the same way: turn your work, slip the first stitch (purlwise) and knit until you reach the end.

After RW Row 2

At the end of (RS) Row 9

As you work, the stitch count on your needles should stay the same until Row 11 of the pattern, where you bind off. Even though you are K2tog at the end of each RS row, take into consideration that you are also adding a stitch at the beginning of each RS row.

Following Row 11 (The Bind-Off Row)

You end up working the Right Edging Chart a total of 18 times, ending at the center stitch. Amy mentions in her pattern that you may end up with an extra stitch or two (I think I had two), but don't worry because you can just K3tog instead of K2tog. The other side of the shawl edging is worked in the same fashion with only a few minor modifications.

I hope this helps some of you!

Planning ahead

As I posted in my last post, The Day of 95 skeins (v.1), I have a yarn hoarding sickness. I still plan on posting some yarn pornz from that haul, but the weather has been yucky, the lighting in my house stinks and I would like to capture the beauty that is Araucania Aysen in all of it's glory.

Sneaky peak

It truly is stunning. And, if you're in that big of a rush to see what kind of shenanigans I've been up to, you can take a stroll on over to my stash. Prepare to be disgusted impressed.

The trouble with having such an addicting hobby is that even when you dedicate hours to said hobby/addiction, it still never feels like it's enough. As much as I knit, I never get sick of it. Sure, I may get burnt out on a project (Matt's Urban Aran Cardigan...), but then I can just move on to something else for a little while.

Shrug WIP

Take "The Shrug That Would Not Shrug," which I have been working on for most of the month of April. It is my April goal to knit this shrug, but I got a little burnt out. So this time, instead of pressing through it, and eventually hating it (like with the UAC), I set it aside and cast on for something else: The Karen Shawl by Amy Swenson.

Karen Shawl edging

I fought casting on for the Karen Shawl because, quite honestly, I need another WIP like I need a hole in my head. But, after starting it for 3 or 4 people at the shop and seeing Gretl's beautiful first and second attempts, I gave it. And bought myself some Madelinetosh Pashmina in "Port," which is a lovely color that I like to compare to my newly dyed hair (dark purpleish black with red tints). I've run into a few snafus since casting on, but I'm glad I did. Karen has saved me from hating "The Shrug That Would Not Shrug," which I really do love. And am excited to share (in May, probably).

I'm also excited to announce May's "knitting resolution" in this post: Ecuador (photos from Rav)

I've been a huge fan of Joji's (Rav username Jojilocat) for awhile now. Her designs are very cool and she uses some beautiful yarn. I mean, she's from Argentina! Land of Beautiful Yarns. Anyway, she posted her Ecuador design yesterday and inquired for some test knitters. I, of course, jumped at the opportunity. I've never knit a vest//swing cardigan before! My initial plan was to use some Noro Kureyon Sock, but I feel like that might be too busy and I would never wear it. So I've decided to use some Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in "Filigree." This knitting everything out of Tosh phase will end some day...won't it?

Joji used Malabrigo Sock in "Indiecita" for her prototype, so mine will be slightly lighterweight. I'm very excited to try this new garment style. I think it will be perfect for wearing over a short-sleeve shirt in the summer and versatile enough for the transition into fall. I'm hoping to finish it before our England trip this summer.

I'm gonna be a Pogona Shawl someday!

I also have the Multnomah KAL I started (and haven't cast on for) with my dear Cyborg friend, the Pogona I'm itching to knit using my new Socks that Rock AND the Golden Wheat Cardigan, another Cyborg KAL. AND I have a baby to start knitting for (not mine :p). It sucks jumping on the shawl/shawlette bandwagon so late in life.

The problems(?) with variegated yarns.

Recently, Little Knits posted a ton of Araucania Aysen on clearance for 81% off. Eighty One! That is almost unheard of and, most certainly, an unavoidable temptation for a silly little yarn hussy such as myself. This 81% discount applied to full bag purchases and I managed to snag up the last full bag of Aysen in color 826 and a lone skein of color 814.

Araucania Aysen in color 826

Aysen in 814

Beautiful, right? I was sad to see that some of the more exotic colors were sold out, but you can bet your sweet yarn-loving behind that I snatched up what I could. The yarn is incredible; softer than Malabrigo, with an incredible fiber content of 70% merino, 20% alpaca and 10% silk, it's hand-dyed and offers a generous 190 yards per skein.

Of course when the fine people at Little Knits unearthed more of this true gem of a yarn I had much more to snatch up...in the form of 3 (or 4?) more bags. This yarn hasn't arrived yet (my only true qualm with LK is that shipping can take quite a bit longer than places like Webs and Jimmy Beans), but this has given me plenty of time to start planning things out.

What the heck do I do with all this yarn?!

By the end of next week (I'm hoping) I will have 40+ skeins of hand-dyed yarn. I have yet to see many garments knit out of multicolored yarns (such as Noro, some Malabrigos, etc.) that tickle my fancy all that much. So what am I going to do with this stuff?

I started a thread over at the Little Knits group on Ravelry posing just this question. The ladies on yonder forum posted some great ideas. And some of them managed to walk away with more Aysen than this crazy loon did (some bought 8+ bags! Ay Carumba!). All photos are taken from Ravelry.

Imogen Cardigan

Abalone Cardigan

Tea Leaves Cardigan

Golden Wheat Cardigan (by my lady crush Veera)

Pole

These are just a few of my favorite musings, but what are some of your favorite garments (or larger projects) knit using hand-dyed and variegated yarns?

Something Completely Different - (Almost) Wordless Inspiration

I want to keep this as wordless as possible. The day 5 topic of Knit and Crochet Blog week is to challenge yourself as a blogger and post something you would normally not post. I post a lot of my own photos and whatnot, but for this post I'll offer some "wordless" inspiration on things that I find most inspiring and beautiful.
(Also, I'm on a bit of a time crunch).

Credit given where I can.

Holga photos

Vintage styles

Book Collections

Lonely Places

Metaphors

Organization

Bare Backs

I don't have links for these last few images. I found them on flickr or livejournal, I know, but they've just been stored in a folder on my computer.