Yarn Along February 2018
If you follow me on instagram then you'll know I have been knitting like crazy lately! In the past two weeks I've finished 2 hats, my sweater (more dets on that below), and a pair of gloves. I'll admit I am crazy about hats right now. I don't know what happened except the Mister and I were talking about fishing and I decided I needed a ton of hats and gloves to wear on the boat this season. So I started with hats. Once I'm done with the hats I'll have to decide on gloves (and possibly scarves) to go with the hats. But for now let's discuss the knitting and reading.
I've been working on my kimono that I plan to turn into a poncho. The pattern is by Melody Hoffmann and I'm using wool Finnish Wool and Mohair Blend from Will-O-Wool . It is so yummy! The pattern is super easy. It's an 8 row pattern repeat with simple cables. But because it's about 260 stitches I need smaller projects in between. I'm a slow knitter too so hopefully I'll get the poncho finished before next winter!The other project pictured above is my first conversationalist hat, pattern by the Plucky Knitter. In the picture it's not finished, but it is finished now and awaiting a pompom. This hat was knit using the Will-O-Wool yarn mentioned above plus some Knit Picks Wool of the Andes worsted weight that I hand dyed with kool-aid. I love dyeing with kool-aid. It's so fun and the results are always different. I haven't dyed in a long time. I'm hoping to learn more about foraging and natural dyeing.I'm currently reading my Master Gardener text book and Practical Organic Gardening by Mark Highland. If you recall from this post, I would like to start reviewing the homesteading books that I have in my collection or that I check out from the library. I'm starting with Practical Organic Gardening because it is 1) the current read in the Homestead Skills Book Club and 2) rather timely with planning for the upcoming growing season.
The hat above is the first thing I've ever knit in 24 hours. Seriously. I am a slooowww knitter. And it's only the second color work knit I've ever done. The pattern is Petoncle by Alex Tinsley. I love this pattern. It is so easy to follow and easy to adapt. For example, if you didn't want the scallops to be different sizes, you just knit the same amount of rows before changing to the next color. And the overall pattern is only 56 rows so it's very easy to multiple and figure out how to evenly space your rows. I'm actually using this pattern to do a striped hat. And I'm no mathematician so if I can do it anyone can do it! I'm all about the easy knitting patterns! As for the yarn, I used a combo of yarn and didn't really pay attention to the weight of the yarn and it turned out fine. A little blocking and it's perfect. The picture is pre-blocking. I highly recommend blocking and changing the needle size for the ribbing. But basically I used Border Leicester Natural Yarn from Will-O-Wool, Quince & Co Lark, and Stitch Nation by Debbie Stoller, which is discontinued.
And the gloves. Oh boy the gloves. The pattern is Cranford Mitts by Jane Lithgow and is super easy. And the finished product is nice. But boy oh boy. I broke 3 needles knitting these suckers. I'm not sure why. And I ripped the second glove out numerous times because I kept making mistakes. I blogged about these mitts here for January's Yarn Along. I love the yarn, I love the pattern, I love the finished product. 
And finally, my beloved One Way Tee. I love this guy. I love how easy it is to knit. I love the yarn. The colors. I love everything about it. Except I'm approaching 2 full years with this guy on the needles. But all the pieces are knit and now they await blocking and then seaming. I was hoping to get it all done before the end of the 2 year mark, but that's probably not going to happen. But soon. It's short sleeves so I can wear it any time of the year. I used Ella Rae Lace Merino DK yarn that I bought 2 skeins of while visiting Cape Cod back in 2015. Then the pattern called for 5 skeins I think and of course this colorway is discontinued. So I had to search online for the yarn and ended up with 3 skeins of a different dye-lot. But guess what? I only ended up using 3 skeins so far. Now I have a surplus. I'll figure out what to do with the other 2 skeins.Now on to more knitting of hats. And gloves. And blocking my sweater. And reading. And homesteading. And..........I'm linking up with the monthly Yarn Along over on Ginny Sheller's blog Small Things. One of these days I swear I'm going to learn how to insert the Yarn Along button!!