R and R Shawl

I finished my R&R Shawl sample!

 It took one intensive week of knitting, and seven skeins of KP Galileo, which I raved about in the previous post. I am in love with this yarn; it is so silky and soft and warm.

And the color is true in these photos; this is what "Luminous" really looks like. On KP's website, it looks much lighter. Not that I'm complaining; it's a gorgeous color. It just wasn't what I expected. I can't wait to see some of the other colors in person.

Oh, and again, these photos were taken by Angel. Her photography skills are really coming along. She managed to not cut my head off, and to get a few good shots as well. ☻

The election is only a week away! Get out there and vote for R&R!

Yarn Review: Knit Picks Galileo

I haven't done any yarn reviews before, but I've fallen in love with this new yarn, and feel I must share.

Knit Picks recently introduced a new yarn: Galileo. It's a 50/50 Merino/Bamboo blend in a sport weight. I'm using it to make a large shawl. It's a wonderful yarn. It has the soft warmth of Merino and the silky coolness of Bamboo. The colors are terrific. I'm using "Luminous", which is actually a bit darker than the photo on the website; it's a rich teal. Galileo glides smoothly on the needles, and has great stitch definition even on the size 8 needles I'm using. I chose it because I wanted to see if it was similar to Caron Spa, which is a DK weight bamboo/acrylic blend. I like Galileo better, because Spa is a bit splitty, and Galileo doesn't have that problem. This yarn is $4.99 for a 50 gram ball. Considering the quality of the yarn, I think that is a very reasonable price. I'm going to save up and get enough for a sweater.

This photo is of my current project. It's not blocked, and the sun was shining on the piece. I'll post more pics of the shawl when it's finished and blocked.

Cathie is done!

I finally finished my Cathie scarf! 

 I decided to make it a bit shorter than I usually do for scarves. It was supposed to be done three months ago. Now the pattern is finished, and in the hands of Knit Picks.

Here's a closeup:

And now I'm on to other designs. I'm almost halfway done with my R&R Shawl sample; and should have yarn waiting for me when I get home, to make Hunter Socks. I've got a friend proofreading my Willow Carroldine pattern before I send it in. 

If I knit fast enough, can I count it as exercise?

Willow Carroldine

I finally finished my Knit Picks sample of Willow Carroldine! It's named after my brand-new niece, whom I haven't met yet, but hope to later today or tomorrow.

I'm writing up the pattern now, hoping to get it submitted before the girls and I head to Kansas to visit my family. We're leaving this weekend, and we're very excited. ☺

Hunter Socks

Hubby was a little jealous that I'm always making stuff for other people. He wanted me to knit him something. Specifically, socks. For hunting. Now, Hubby has enormous feet, which is why I hadn't made him any socks previously. But since they're for hunting, he wanted them thick. I decided I could use worsted-weight yarn and knit them at a very tight gauge. I asked Hubby what color he wanted. Orange, of course! As if you would use any other color for hunting socks! And he wanted them to be long enough to reach to the top of his boots. He didn't want them to be too fancy. He would probably have been satisfied with plain stockinette socks. But I wouldn't.

I have made one pair of "boring"(aka stockinette) socks. They took for.e.ver. I didn't enjoy working on them. I set them aside several times, in favor of more interesting projects. But patterns for worsted-weight men's-size socks are hard to find. I found one, on Knit Picks. It was a free pattern, and I discovered why after downloading it. It was a basic sock recipe, more of a tutorial than a pattern. It left all the math up to the knitter. I get that some people like patterns like that, but I don't. If I'm going to have to do all the math myself, I might as well design my own pattern. So I did.

I came up with a single-color argyle design, and designed Hubby's socks. Each sock took two skeins of Knit Picks Swish Worsted yarn. They turned out a little goofy-looking, as I adjusted the argyle design halfway through, but they'll do for the design proposal.

Now I'm working on tweaking the design and writing up the proposal. I'm going to write it for both worsted-weight in men's size, and sock-weight in women's size. I think I'll request green yarns, since they don't have anything that looks like camouflage...