Category: Ravelry knit projects

specific content referring to a actual project I am making

Posted in notions, Ravelry knit projects, yarn

Hydrangeas

Posted on by kymhretz

I’ve never had a Hydrangea bush before. Luckily this house has 3! They are just coming into bloom.  I noticed the buds yesterday. Do Hydrangeas have buds? I guess the flowers just before they open are buds?

Any way. I noticed them yesterday. They range in colors from purple to pink. As you may know, I have a great love of all things Red, White and Blue. My dining room has fallen into that realm accidentally. But my front porch is all about the Red, White and Blue intentionally. So, these Hydrangeas clearly need to be blue. Off to Lowe’s we go.  [Max works there so we always choose Lowe’s over that other place with the orange logo.] I picked up fertilizer to add acidity to dirt around the Hydrangeas to encourage blue blooms. Among the fertilizer I also got several more bags of River Rock, it seems we have a never ending need for more rock. Did you know the more the soil is acidic they are blue, the more neutral they are purple, the more alkaline they are pink?

 

They have to be blue, am I right? We need more blue to offset the red. GO TEAM Red, White and Blue! (Side note; I’m thinking about adding my other bistro set to the  porch as well.)

 

With the current colors ranging from purple to pink,  definitely not blue, I’m hopeful its was not too late to add the fertilizer for this year. Next year I will get it out there earlier.

But this is not what is so interesting about my notice of the Hydrangea’s flowers…………The interesting part is actually all about the knitting!

 

 

Later in the day I was knitting on my Chevron Shenanigans shawl. And it hit me. The colors were the same as my Hydrangeas! I had no idea as the thought never occurred to me. I bought this kit last fall I think. While I still lived in New Mexico for sure. I’ve not given much thought about Hydrangeas or their colors previously. [How many time can I say Hydrangeas in one post!?!] Much less chosen colors of yarn for Hydrangeas. I’m using yarn from a Fade kit I purchased on Etsy from Woolfiend.

Well, I’ve decided I need to rename my shawl and henceforth it is the Hydrangea Shawl. I have a new perspective on creating color combos and project names. This shawl calls for five colors and you fade them into one another similar to how the Find Your Fade shawl is. Fading colors is exactly what the Hydrangea flowers are doing! Tip-Fading is super trendy still and can be great for stash busting.

I love to work chevrons and this one with short rows is fun and feels fast. I’ve developed a strategy using stitch markers that enables me to need to only glance at the pattern for reminders and to confirm stitch counts. There are 18 rows per section, and 22 sections for the large size I’m making. I’m currently about to start section 13. As you work the short rows, stitches are left behind, to be worked again later. In this case they are reintroduced in row 17. I use a stitch marker for each set of rows to make counting easier for me.

I’m using the small purple one to denote rows 1-2, the dragonfly one for rows 3-4, then the pins for each of the for consecutive rows3-4, then rows 13-14 & 15-16 are easily counted so I don’t mark them.  I use the pink locking marker to count where the short row stops as I work towards it, I then replace it with the previously specified markers. This is working great, I can stop at any point and know exactly where I am in the sequence.  And, unintentionally, the marker dish happens to be the Hydrangea colors as well! Bonus.

 

So this week I’m laying pretty low as I hurt my foot somehow a few weeks ago. Doing yard work probably. Since it’s still bothering me I’m trying to stay off it as much as I can. That’s giving me a bit of extra knitting time so I won’t be complaining. I do have a doctor appointment next week with a podiatrist if it’s not any better. Until then.

Happy knitting!

Posted in Ravelry knit projects, yarn

Entrelac

Posted on by kymhretz

It’s no secret that I love knitting more than just about anything else. I’m pretty fortunate to have a great LYS right here in Williamsburg. Flying Needles to feed my love. I really like the Wednesday knit-ins from 5-7pm. There’s a pleasant group of ladies that attend. I enjoy hearing about their lives, plus they’ve given me some great tips on other local places. Like the Carrot Tree restaurant. We’ve gone there a few times and will continue to. The last time we went we brought home a carrot cake that was delicious, it was moist and had lots of cream cheese frosting.

Now that we have begun too really settle into our new home I’m on a mission to refocus my knitting life. I am still working on my Find Your Fade KAL, I’m now well into the fourth color. I really need to get back into my all but forgotten socks, I dug thru all the -as of yet- unpacked boxes of yarn to find the specific skein of Wollmeise “We’re Different” blackish color I have been dreaming of. I’m going to use this to work the heels and toes on those socks.

I’m doing the Smooth Operator Heel by Susan B Anderson

Last night I cast on a scarf that I want to knit with yarn I purchased at my LYS last Wednesday. The pattern is Magic Stripe Hot Pad or Scarf by Sarah H Baldwin.  It’s a four row repeat that has a few unique things. I have some tips to help remember the pattern, identify which row your on and how to fix mistakes. I’m hoping to teach this as a class coming up at the shop this spring. It’s a really cool striped scarf that has horizontal stripes on one side and vertical on the other. It will mystify everyone that sees it and make other knitters want to knit one!

you really want two skeins that don’t match or have any common colors for the most impact

Entrelac is one of my favorite knitting techniques. I plan to teach an Entrelac class using this really cute headband pattern from Knitty.com. It’s easy to memorize and once you have that “ah-ha” moment it can be really fast and fun. Especially if you use a self striping yarn like Noro. As a bonus, eveytime I use Noro I think of my dear friend, Raquel. She absolutely hates Noro as much as I love it. It was always fun to “discuss” the wonder of such a great yarn with her. I miss her………

this picture is taken directly from Knitty.com and the pattern Quant

Happy Knitting.

Posted in knitting, Ravelry knit projects, yarn

Two is Better than One

Posted on by kymhretz

I decided [since I had started my Find your Fade with a different color than I had planned] I may as well knit another shawl. The color order I had chosen can be found here. The  other shawl will be the same colors just in a different order.  This will be interesting.  I will have an excellent example of how colors can blend as well as a second shawl that can be a gift.

  1. Tosh Merino Light, Plaid Blanket
  2. Black Elephant, Acheron
  3. Malabrigo Mechita, 5 Aniversario
  4. Black Elephant, Sunflowers
  5. Dragonfly Fibers Pixie, Middle Earth
  6. Tosh Merino Light, Coquette Deux 341
  7. Malabrigo Mechita, 866 Arco Iris

 

 

I think I need to purchase only two, maybe three, additional skeins to do this. Which means I will use most of my yarn up. Always a win. I’m pretty sure I will need a second skein of Dragonfly’s Middle Earth and Madeline Tosh merino light in Coquette Deux. Everything else should be ok.  Maybe.  I’m going to concentrate on completing one and then I will weigh the leftovers and math to see where I’m at.

 

I’ve decided to put my traveling socks on hold. I’m using Wolmeise. I am making Hermione’s Everyday Socks by Erica Lueder. The heel is Susan B Anderson’s Smooth Operator Heel, so that my swirl will be maintained throughout the socks. I want to make the heels and toes with a blackish Wollmeise skein I have. Unfortunately that skein is in storage. Hence the on hold. I really like the way the yarn is knitting up and I totally can picture the black heels and toes as icing on the cake.

We have the moving truck delivering all of our stuff in less than a week. I doubt I’ll have much time to knit but I will be able to find that black skein of yarn!

Happy Knitting.

Posted in Instagram, Ravelry knit projects, yarn

Knit on

Posted on by kymhretz

I am super excited to be partaking in the Find Your Fade KAL with the Flying Needles Yarn shop. Unfortunately the weather was bad the night of the cast on party so it was canceled. I cast on at home as did others or they cast on at the shop on other days, posting to social media via Instagram, #flying needles2018KAL or Facebook.

I tried to find a moment or two each day to add a few rows. I started knitting on my color 2 four days into the project. As I was knitting along on Color 2, Madelinetosh’s Tosh Merino Light in the color Plaid Blanket, it hit me. I’m using Color 1 as color 2. [Insert image of me hanging my head head in shame here] I mislabeled them when I put the yarn labels together in order 1-7.

You can see I did it almost from the beginning, before I even took my official photos for my Ravelry project page. I guess I had a brain fart. I new what the swatch order was so I cannot explain it. Today I will be starting over, in the correct order.

Just for the official record the color order is as follows;

  1. Black Elephant, Acheron
  2. Tosh Merino Light, Plaid Blanket
  3. Malabrigo Mechita, 866 Arco Iris
  4. Tosh Merino Light, Coquette Deux 341
  5. Malabrigo Mechita, 5 Aniversario
  6. Dragonfly Fibers Pixie, Middle Earth
  7. Black Elephant, Sunflowers

At least this way I get fun extra knitting on this project. Really get my money’s worth out of the yarn by knitting it twice. Get the chance to start the KAL again! Just trying to get enthusiastic about restarting…..

Happy Knitting.

Posted in Ravelry knit projects, yarn

Hanna’s Exoskeleton and a KAL

Posted on by kymhretz

This sweater isn’t charming or sweet. It’s odd. It’s definitely quirky. It was a fun knit. I’m smitten with it.  So is Hanna! The Shusui Shrug by Susanne Sommer

Hanna looking radiant
I rarely use black yarn because it’s so hard to see the stitches. The contrast for white and black Brioche works really well. I can easily see the stitches as the Brioche technique combines both colors for each stitch. This is great for all the inevitable mistakes that happen when knitting a big project.  I certainly had my far share of those!
Knitpicks Hawthorne Speckle
When I first saw this project on The Woolshop Podcast I went directly to Ravelry and bought the pattern. Immediately starting the search for yarn.  Find read more about that on this previous post. I have the yarn to make one for me and I really want to start that now, I’m going to hold off so I can instead focus on a KAL I want to participate in.
Hanna was excited to have a fun photo shoot for her Exoskeleton on a super cold day in the snow. She likes it, she really, really likes it.


Hanna, Hannah [Hanna and her BFF do indeed share a name] and I went to my local yarn store. Which is unbelievably exciting. I am so happy to have a LYS. It’s a great shop. The store is The Flying Needles and the owner Susan is wonderful! She is fun, charming and you can tell she has enthusiasm for the yarn she carry’s. There are so many samples in the store. It’s a feast for your eyes, bright colors in every corner, and it gives you an irresistible urge to touch all the things. Susan has a large variety of big brands, Indie and local yarns.  I’ve had no shortage of things I wanted on both occasions I visited and therefore came home with new yarns.
The first time we went in I had mentioned I was looking to add to my own yarns to knit another Find your Fade and amazingly Susan was planning a KAL for the Find Your Fade and Free your Fade patterns by Andrea Mowrey. The casting on party is January 17th during the knit in, these take place from 5-7pm every Wednesday. I attended my first one this week. There’s a nice mix of ladies and there was lots of laughter and sharing.  I was thrilled to see the different color combos shared for the KAL. I am sure these evenings will brighten my life. I’m really looking forward to being a part of the knitting world here in my new little corner in Virginia.
My Find your Fade colors
I’m actively trying to look ahead to all the wonderful things our life in Virginia is presenting. If I spend too much time dwelling on what I’ve left behind in New Mexico I might not put myself out there and find good things like the LYS. I really miss my Tuesdays and Thursdays supporting people in their knitting journey. I reallllllly miss my Monday afternoon knitting with my friends who all met at my house. I miss starting my days with Raquel, who was Tim’s caregiver, but also my friend, if I had a sister it would be her…….it is her, she will always be my sister of my heart.
Onward and upward!
Happy knitting.



Posted in knitting, Ravelry knit projects

Patterns

Posted on by kymhretz

I’m trying to be more adventurous on my life these days. I love knitting and even though Ravelry has an unbelievable amount of patterns, I can’t always find exactly what I want. So I improvise. I decided today, I should list a couple of such items as patterns. Who knows, maybe one of my patterns is exactly what someone else is looking for.

I’m starting with my Wee Hats. If the amount of comments and messages I received is any indication this will be a success. Hope you enjoy!

Wee Hats

I used an assortment of left over sock yarns. not much is needed. Less than 5 yards for each hat.

I used size US #0-#1 needles.

Cast on 24 stitches, join in the round for knitting. Knit 4 rounds in 1×1 (K1, P1) rib. Then knit 14 rounds in plain knit, stockinette. Decrease round; *k3, k2tog* around. ( I ended up with 1 extra stitch, I knit it. In the 3rd round this corrects itself.) Knit 1 round. Decrease round; *k2, k2tog* k1. Knit one round. Decrease round; *k1, k2tog.* DO NOT knit a round. Decrease; k2tog around. Draw yarn through the last 5 stitches to close and weave in ends.

I love these little hats, I hung them on my small Christmas tree along with wee socks and sweaters.

Happy Knitting!