FishyKissKnits

Rainbow Progress

Here's a updated photo on the progress of my sweater/cardi.  I'm pretty sure it's going to be a cardi, or else I'll have to gift it because it won't fit me as a sweater.  I love the colours together, although I had to do a bit of tinking, because I didn't like the way the light pink knit up with the other colours.  I do like the results now.  I've also altered my original idea to work strictly with a fibonaci sequence.  I have to be a bit more particular about the colours that have larger stipes.

Knitted Wordle

My son put me onto this site.  He did a post on Wordle on his site Redbudd.  I was intrigued and wanted to see what it would do with a website of words, so I used my own.  Here are 3 different versions of what it came up with.  It's customizable, and I didn't spent very long putting any of it together - like changing colours.  All I did was randomize it.  Very cool.  I think it's so interesting that the 2nd image it came up with is in the shape of a fish - seeing as the name of my blog is fishykissknits!

Colourful Progress

I'm sitting at Chapters having my latte, and decided to give my hands a rest.  Progress is good on the cardigan.  I've used 5 of the 10 colours and am planning to steek the front to the armholes.  This is in keeping with my plan to use at least one new technique with each project in 2011.

The photo is of my progress so far, using my iPhone camera.  Colours are very jewel-like in reality.

Rainbows of Colour - Please help me Choose

a.

b.

c.

d.


So here's the dilemma.  I have 4 different layouts of graduated colour for my next project.  It will be a ripple stitch cardigan or sweater, with the colours as shown in the above photos.  I photographed them making only one change in each.  At 4 o'clock - either a red or orange.  At 11 o'clock either a teal or aqua.  It's difficult to decide, but if I use all of the colours, it's too much, so 2 of them have to be eliminated.  Let me know what you think by commenting and voting either - a, b, c, or d.  I'd appreciate the help!

THE PLEASURES OF BULKY KNITTING

 

After knitting so many fine gauge projects over the past year, I have finally given in to the urge to knit something quickly.  INSTANT GRATIFICATION.  Feels soooo good.  In one day I have completed almost 10 inches of a large cardigan which is knit from side to side.  Your basic rectangle with sleeves.

The pattern is called Yoga Wrap, by Adrienne Vittadini, and it was published a couple of years ago in a Vogue Knitting issue.  I have had this item in my queue for some time, but it only just occurred to me yesterday while searching for a new project, that the yarn I needed for this project was already in my stash, and is gorgeous.  To get gauge, I have combined Sundara Aran Silky Merino, colour Aged Oak Barrel with Hedgehog Fibres Silk Merino Singles, colour Whisper.  They look spectacular together.  There is the slightest hint of pink in the Whisper, which just softens the AOB so subtly.  I have posted some photos of the work so far, as well as a photo of the completed wrap and the two yarns.  The yarn photos are the most colour accurate.  The others were taken at night, and the light isn't very good.  At this rate I hope to be finished in under 2 weeks.

Three's a Charm

I seem to be doing things in threes lately.  Here is the 3rd finished Citron by Hillary Smith Callis that I've knitted.  It's for my friend Susan, who lives in Athens.  She sent me the yarn, and I knit it up in just over a week.  As I've said before, I love this pattern for the mindless knitting it provides and the speed with which it knits up.  The yarn used here is Sundara Yarns Fingering Silky Merino in the colour Brilliant Response.  1 1/2 skeins were used in total and I did 7 repeats of the pattern, then the frill and castoff.  The photo is taken prior to blocking.  I should have this off to you this week, Susan, with love.

Three Little Mittens

I love Lucy Neatby.  She is a wonderfully talented knitter/designer who has come up with so many fabulous patterns.  One of my favourite is her Paradoxical Mittens.  This pattern was in my queue for quite some time, but because I have never knit mittens, or done fairisle before they had 2 strikes against them before I ever got them on the needles. 

But something kept drawing me back to them and this past month I decided to 'get it out of my system' once and for all.  I was on vacation at the time, in Florida.  Probably not the best place to be knitting with silk and wool, which was my first choice for this project.  I had taken with me a wound skein of Viola and another of Black over Violet in Sundara Yarns Fingering Silky Merino.  I was caught up right from the beginning.  My hands hurt, by back hurt, I was tense and probably irritable, but I couldn't put the project down once I got started.  I was so proud of my work, and when I got to the thumb after several attempts at actually working with 2 colours, ripping, recasting on and starting again, I couldn't believe how gorgeous the mitten looked.  It probably took me 2 days to finish the first one, without doing the thumb.  Then the try-on.  It was too tight, too short for my fingers, and the thumb should have been farther down the mitten.  Rather than rip it back, I decided to try it again on larger needles make the appropriate changes to the pattern and take more care with the fairisle which was messy in some places.  Glad I did.  The finished product is something I'm very proud of.  BUT....

There is so much yarn left over.  So, now I'm working on another new technique for me - double knitting.  I have tried this before and always found it to be a brain twister.  I think it is something that should only be attempted if you are prepared to concentrate ALL THE TIME.  The photo shows my progress on my version of the pattern used as fairisle in the mittens, using the double knitting technique - it represents my progress for 1 weeks worth of knitting.  I have knit, ripped, and recast on 4 times, but I think now I finally have the hang of it.  I'll work the scarf until the yarn runs out, then trim it with the same yarn as I used for the cuffs of the gloves. 

When this is finished, it fill be nothiing but 'dummy' knitting for me for a while.

One Side

Other Side

Scarf w/Mittens