A FO(!) and New Things at KDR

Pleased to say I have a personal FO this week. I finished the Flax sweater (pattern by Tin Can Knits; link to the pattern page on their site) for Cousin's little guy yesterday and I'm really happy with it.

I think the stripes made it fun. I can say weaving in ends took a awhile though! So I'm going to be staying away from stripes for a bit.

As for my work knitting, the pattern for the Hornpipe Bag will be headed to my techeditor in the next week or so. And if you follow me on Instagram you know I'm doing something with a wide cable panel that needs shaping and I recently posted a photo of it on my head to Instagram:

Yes, this is for a new design and I admit I'm really excited about it. 

I've had the picture in my head for a few years (and copious notes hither and yon lol), for a hooded cloak with a cabled  panel running from the front of the hood, down the back of the neck, and then straight down through the body to the bottom edge. I'm finally getting the shaping of the hood down. 

And while I've made notes and calculations, I'm finding I really need to see how this is looking as it progresses so I grabbed a similar wool to the one I'll be using for the sample (hood swatch is in Briggs & Little Tuffy in the "Blue Mix" colorway) and started playing around. I really like how it's progressing, silly photos included. 

I'm calling this hooded cloak pattern Countess Cathleen, after the iconic slip jig piece in Riverdance, choreographed and first danced by the inspiring Jean Butler. It's my favorite dance/tune in the entire show. And eventually I was going to have a design inspired by Riverdance. One can't ignore a global phenomenon especially in its 25th anniversary season!

I have another design on the needles right now that I can't share with you just yet ;) My goal is to have it ready for announcement in late July/early August. I think it's going to be a fun way to get ready for colder temperatures ;) I can say I'm really pleased with it and it's knitting up fairly quickly. 

What are you working on this week? Anything you're sharing for #WIPWednesdayOffRav? I'm off to scroll Instagram and ❤️ a bunch of lovely projects!

Yours in yarn and cabled hood trying-on,

Síle

Finished Object Friday!

YarnTowers.comYes, really :) I can happily announce a finished project.

My Finola is off the hook! :) And I love how it's turned out. Now I need an occasion to wear it. Those sparkles say "Dress up, girl!" to me lol

And of course Jakey decided to photobomb. Little cutie.

(Finola was designed by Aoibhe Ní and can be found on her website YarnTowers.com along with all of her other clever and beautiful designs.)

Are you close to an FO? Or maybe you just started a new WIP? I'd love to hear about what you've got on the go

Yours in yarn and sparkles,

Síle

New Leaves on Old Plants

Do you ever get the feeling it's time to do things a bit different than you have been? Or return to a routine that made you feel good? That's where I'm at right now. I've just started on some new medicinals (with my doctor's input) that will hopefully have my energy back up and my pains back down. With those I'm also getting myself back into the routine of my physio passive stretches, and that's opened me up to having about an hour of me time every morning. Today is day one of this "new" routine so we'll see if it flows as smoothly as I intend it to.

And speaking of new, we can't have too many beginnings without an ending or two and I have an ending to show off! I finished my Simee Dimeh last evening :) I don't have the strength in my back at the moment to try to block it (why are floors so far down? In my dream craft studio, there will be an island with its top covered in blocking mats, and all kinds of storage below for pins and blocking wires, and maybe a sink towards one end for the actual "bathing" before blocking... I digress. A nice counter height blocking space to save my poor back having to lean over as much and crawl about on the floor.) but it is off the needles and looks quite nice, if you want my completely biased opinion. Here it is for your assessment:

There it is, my first FO of 2021 :) Which means I can soon cast-on my next me project! Yay! New cabled sweater for Síle! 

And with all this turning of new leaves, or should I say rejuvenation of older plants, I'm hoping to get the Hornpipe Bag finished up fairly soon. I'm aiming to have it in techediting by the end if February and testknitting in March. Keep an eye out for more on that soon!

Are you starting anything new, crafting or otherwise? I'd love to hear about it.

Yours in yarn and an empty project bag,

Síle 

Greetings from 2021!

That was a bit hectic! I'm so glad that so many knitters and crocheters enjoyed the Fasten Off Yarn Along :) It made for a very fun month! I love that we formed such an amazing community feeling in such a short time. 

Ah, but now the New Year's been rung in and things return fairly much to normal. Well, new normal anyway. I know some places are going into tighter Covid lockdowns again today. I hope all of the crafters have enough supplies to themselves through it all!

Are you a fan of goals at the start of the year? I don't mean the typically broken ones like losing weight or exercising X days a week. I mean fun goals, like reading X books this year, or learning to knit cables. 

I enjoyed the Challenge feature on R@v the last number of years, and I've done alright with it. I had a goal of 15 projects last year and I finished 17. We won't go into how many I started ;) I could still set a goal and track it here I suppose...

One thing I had decided on a bit ago was to knit myself a sweater each year; cardigan or pullover, didn't matter. As you know if you were following along, I knit a Harvest cardigan last fall (link is to the pattern's page on Tin Can Knits' website). This year's sweater is a pattern I bought during the Fasten Off Yarn Along: Twist Again by Robynn Weldon (link goes to the pattern page in her Payhip shop). I just love all those cables!! And I have a lovely dark lavender yarn for it :) I haven't started it yet. I've been tempted to, but I decided I need to get at least two projects off the needles first.

I did finish a project during FOYAL (although I only swatched one officially, the aforementioned Twist Again)! I finally got my G'night Cap by Sarah Schira (link is to her website) finished; I only cast-on in January 2019! I only meant to set it down for a week or so to finish up something else and... Anyway!! It is done, it is fabulous, and I love it! Picture? Why of course!

I used just a bit over 1 hank of Briggs & Little Heritage in "Light Green". It's cute and oh so warm :) Let January throw another Snowmageddon at us! Ok, not really; I don't want to that much snow at once ever again. But my new hat is warm and wonderful.

What am I working to finish up? So glad you asked! I started Simee Dimeh by Romi Hill (Sorry, no safe link at the moment. I know Romi is getting her website set up, and I that you can email her to get her patterns via email instead of through R@v at this time) last May and I'm in the midst of chart J. It ends after chart K, so I'm very close to finishing. I chose to use the rainbow for my 7 colors and ordered 7 hanks of Briggs & Little Sport from Wool Trends, one of the lovely lys' in St. John's aka Town. Here's where it's at currently:

How's that for colorful?! I've used red, orange, yellow, paddy green, light blue, blue heather, and violet to make my rainbow, and I'm really pleased with how it's coming along. 

So that sums up my personal knitting, let's look at my work knitting!

I published two patterns last year, the Treble Reel Toque and the Treble Jig Legwarmers (links are within this blog. You can also visit the Patterns tab near the top of this screen)

This year I'll be publishing the Hornpipe Bag and the Slip Jig Shawl. I'm continuing to work on the samples and tweak the wording of the patterns as I do so. (Behind the Scenes info: unlike some (most? probably most) designers, I first outline the pattern and swatch and make notes, and then I write the pattern as I knit the sample.) I hope to also publish at least one of the two other samples I have on the go currently. These are Hap-Hazard (my twist on a hap shawl), and Gone Feising (pronounced "feshing"; an Irish dancer's outfit for an 18 inch doll).

I'm also at work "translating" the charts from Rínce Fada into line by line instructions to make a low vision accessible pdf to go with the standard one already available. Because I charted it for reversible double-knitting (standard double-knitting gives you a mirrored image on the backside that gives you backwards facing letters and words), each and every stitch is represented, and when I choose the written instructions option from my charting software I get "KMC PCC KMC PCC KMC PCC..." instead of "(KMC, PCC) 3x..., so I have to manually edit each row, which isn't easy on my eyes, and yes, I'm taking regular breaks to rest them. I'm about half through chart B and the charts go up to I so it'll be a bit before I have it ready but I am working on it, and hope to have it ready to go for you summerish ideally. Watch this space! There will be fireworks* when I announce it's ready! *Not really fireworks. A photo of some most likely. No animations will be on this site. 

I think that's all I have to tell you about today. Happy 2021 to you, again :) If you'd like to tell me about your crafting goals for this year, please leave a comment. I'd love to hear what you've got planned!

Yours in yarn and to do lists,

Síle

Home again, home again

Getting my things together this morning for my return home after a doctor's appointment in Town yesterday.

I finished my Harvest Monday evening! I had all but the left pocket done on Sunday night so I wore it in. Here it is; not the best light I'm afraid:

After my appointment yesterday, I headed downtown. Downtown St. John's is a treat to walk around. I got lunch as takeout and thanks to a brilliant sunny day I walked up to Harbourside Park to eat.

And I suddenly had the urge to have my friends Newfoundland and Labrador ;) "model" my sweater. 

Aren't they great sports?

From Harbourside Park I headed for a bit of a walk. I captured some prettiness near the Newfoundland War Memorial.

Then I caught this one of the Newfoundland Chocolate Factory's whimsical mural.

This is part of the Angels Corner memorial, which is part of a national initiative, recognizing female victims of violence and creates awareness of the need to end violence and abuse against women on the corner of Duckworth and Prescott Streets. Sadly, Newfoundland & Labrador has some of Canada's highest rates of domestic violence and violence against women in general.

There's a little slice of St. John's downtown for you! I like to refer to St. John's as "pretty city"; I think you can understand that now.

Now that my sweater is done, I'm back to focusing on my own designs. I'm feeling a bit renewed. I have the Hornpipe Bag with me for some shuttle knitting, as well as a swatch (that I'm calling a coaster) for something new that popped into my head last week.

Yours in yarn and (at this moment) Town,

Síle