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Knitvent Day 5 – Its a Mystery!

On day 2 I mentioned I knit a gift through a knit-a-long (KAL), well last month, I participated in an annual MKAL.  The MKAL is a mystery knit-a-long, where hundreds(thousands) of knitters around the world participate in knitting something that is a complete mystery to us.  We start out with suggested yarn, yardage, needle sizes and gauge that we’ll need to match for best results.  We either buy the suggested yard, or stash-dive for an equivalent yarn weight and test our gauge to ensure we match.  I generally need to drop 2 needle sizes, so this prep week is perfect for me.  In this year’s MKAL I had to actually switch yarns because the one I started with just would not behave and match gauge even after dropping 3 needle sizes (see yesterday’s post about what happens alot over the holiday knitting!)

We receive clues once a week over the month of November, and end up with a finished project.  Any MKALs I’ve participated in let us know the general category of what we were knitting (ie hat, shawl, socks, etc), so it’s not like we have no idea what we’re knitting, its just we don’t know what style or stitch pattern nor what it even looks like!  I love the MKALs as I get a surprise at the end myself before it becomes a gift!

Knitvent Day 4

It happens a lot at this time of year.  Distractions, not being present, lack of focus and I have to rip something back.  This is nothing compared to the pile of yarn I ripped back last evening…

Mistakes happen, miscounting stitches, purl instead of knit, miscounting the two colour pattern, or having a dog at your feet suddenly get up and take the yarn right out of your hands because it caught on her tail.

It happens, just a bump in the road, no need to panic…..yet

21 knitting days

Knitvent Day 3

I easily get distracted during the month of December.  I usually have a ‘plan’ for my gift knitting but I see some wonderful ideas from following others on Instagram and Ravelry.

Yesterday was a distraction day!  I’ve seen a number of these knit stars popping up in my feeds, so it gave me the idea I could “whip up” a dozen of these for the school holiday market.

I made 2 failed attempts before my gauge seem tight enough for stuffing – and managed 2 stars in one afternoon. I am faster now that I know what I’m doing with these, but the distraction is now deluding me into knitting a bunch for my own tree and maybe extra gift knits.

Pattern is Stjarna and is a free download on Ravelry

Knitvent Day 2

This is only a sneak peak so the recipient doesn’t know what it is!  I’m posting just a closeup of the brioche stitch that makes up this particular knit.

This was from a knit-a-long (KAL) back in the spring (for the non-knitters – a KAL is where hundreds (thousands) of knitters around the world knit the same item over a specified time period and chat/share their tips, problems & progress)

This was a brioche stitch KAL over the US Memorial Day weekend. Sometimes these KALs help me learn something new as well as set things aside early!  I do try to spread out the holiday knitting across the year, and periodic KALs help me to do just that!

Knitvent Day 1

Countdown to #knitmas – day 1
As anyone who knows me is aware, I try to knit a small gift for family members, as well as a bunch of knits for my son’s school Holiday Market. So as I go crazy with getting things completed, I’m going to post sneak-peaks of how much I actually get done – one post per day as my “advent calendar”

For Day 1 – I’ve completed 20 of my candy stripe facecloths which have already gone to the school and I have another 3 to wrap around soaps for neighbour gifts…I’ll likely be knitting at least another dozen – fast last minute gifts for when I run out of time 

I’m trying to get pattern tech edited and posted in time for others to do quick last minute knits!

Ahhhh Cashmere

Cashmere is sooooo soft. I knit cashmere baby booties for a baby gift and it was all I could do to not snuggle with those booties & yarn.

But I guess moths love that softness too, or because it is such a soft, gentle yarn it gets snagged too easily – because the most oft sweater I receive to repair is a black cashmere sweater.  I wondered today if the moths like the black better than other colours or if people just happen to buy & love their black cashmere sweaters more?

Although I did have another black cashmere to fix, I also had a lovely grey cashmere and a beige merino, so it was a nice change of pace for the eyes 🙂

PomPoms!

Happy belated New Year!  I was not feeling very happy January 1st, so I tried my best to stay off the internet.  But, I still managed to cast on a new project to start the new year and if it weren’t for my arm, I would have finished it on the 1st…instead it finished January 2nd, and included remembering how to make pompoms!

I can’t stop trimming the pompom #cirro #woollywormheadhats

A post shared by Katherine Caughran (@stringandbeans) on

I had an old set of Pom-po-Nette from my grandmother, but the pompom would only be 1.75″ and this called for a 3″ pompom.  So after digging through recycling for plastic yogurt lids, I managed to make 2 3″ circles with a 1.5″ centre as per the pattern.  My steps were to create a manual compass out of cardboard, then I drew the circles, then realized it might be easier to cut if I used the tip of an exacto knife in the ‘compass’.

creating 3″ circles from yogurt lids
Thumbtack centre, cardboard compass, golf pencil to trace
Exacto knife cutting w compass
Finished circles

After all this I wanted to figure a speedier way to make pompoms so last evening I went Pinterest searching and found a couple of neat tricks:

The classic cardboard circle method I learned as a child:

Two toilet paper rolls (much easier imo) & a fork for smaller ones:

And of course the commercial version that would be very speedy indeed from Clover:

One method I may try when I need a bunch of gifts done would be this method:

Happy pompom making!

Not so tense gauge…

I have finally given in to checking gauge and doing gauge swatches for every project I make.  Partly because it is an easy way to keep ‘spare yarn’ for my projects if I ever need to mend them; and partly because recent projects weren’t turning out as I had expected.  I learned some lessons in the last few months:

three gauge swatches for the Must Have Cardigan
  1. I beta-tested a new circled hat pattern by Woolly Wormhead.  Previous to this beta test, I had knit Dulcie and the hat was slightly larger than I expected.  I didn’t do a gauge swatch for Dulcie, but for the beta test, I was going to be accurate…it took me 3 tries to get gauge.  I didn’t realize that I knit so loosely!  I was shocked.
  2. I wanted to knit a shawl with a handpainted yarn I recently purchased, and I swatched with a smaller needle than asked for, assuming that I was knitting loosely so would need smaller needles.  Wrong again, I actually had to go up a needle size from the suggested size to get gauge.
  3. I’m having my Twin Rib Baby Hat pattern tech edited next week because I’ve designed a matching bootie set to go with it.  My original design in 2011 listed a different needle size and stitch count than what I am using now?  My knitting has changed?  Both hats used the same yarn though!  Maybe I made a typo on the original post(?)  I’ve double checked my current swatch but the original hat has long since been given away.

So the lessons I learned was I knit more loosely than Woolly Wormhead; I knit tighter than Karie Westermann; and I’m now knitting looser than I did 6 years ago.

Designers and experience knitters have always said to “Do gauge swatches”, and its finally sinking into my brain.  Its crazy to think needle sizes and stitch gauge will be standardized across all patterns and yarns when even your own knitting tension may change over time!

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It’s just math…

This past weekend my son was playing hockey up-island (Courtenay, BC).  Now, if you aren’t a hockey mom, it might surprise you that not only do we drive 3 hours to & from this away game, we also arrive 1.5-2hrs in advance of the game (and the game itself is 1.5-2hrs).  I love my child, and love what team sports teach him, so I instead of ‘complaining’, I’ve made it my mission to seek out tourist spots in the areas he’s playing.  This time, however, I made a plan to search out a local yarn shop.  I found one only 7 minutes drive from the arena so I could go there and back before the game.  We carpooled, so another hockey mom came along with me to Uptown Yarns.  What a lovely store, nice little space, and plenty of room for classes.  The owner’s mother chatted with us about the recent sock knitting class and her current project on the needles.  My friend exclaimed she wished she was that talented…to which I replied, “its just math…” So, being an accountant, math isn’t so hard, so she’s thinking about when she’d have time to learn.

Yesterday, I was a Canadian Blood Services donation clinic and of course I brought out the knitting to pass along the time.  Three different people approached me to watch, “wishing” they could knit.  Again, I explained it’s simple and they were intrigued.  Two had learned when they were much younger, but had “forgotten”, one had attempted learning online but really wanted a person to show her.

So, after having 4 people in 2 days talk to me about learning to knit, I believe its time for me to start up my classes again. I’ve been in touch with Westshore Parks & Recreation (where I used to teach), so I’ll keep everyone posted.  I may just do the Beginners class in spring and do sock knitting via private/semi-private sessions until the fall.Now to play with my patterns that I’ll share/teach…

Happy Holidays & a new Christmas Eve tradition…

It all started with a pinterest post that I didn’t even read –

The socks gave me a new idea for my family gift knitting!

After some pinterest Ravelry searches for both Christmas and Holiday Socks…I found that Drop Design (Garnstudio) has a number of Christmas socks

And so begins a new Christmas Eve tradition…
#knitmas

Merry Christmas – Christmas Eve socks – #knitmas

A photo posted by Katherine Caughran (@stringandbeans) on

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All the best to you & yours this holiday!

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