Iced Eucalyptus Beret

Ever heard of Craftsy? I hadn't until last August. It's actually a pretty cool website that hosts online workshops for quilting, sewing, knitting, cake decorating, art, photography and so much more. You can sign up for a workshop, ask the instructor questions and basically complete it in your own timeframe.

A few weeks before I left for Europe, my dear knittingholic cohort had brought to my attention that a mutual knitting friend was hosting a mystery knit-a-long for a pattern she designed on Craftsy. I had no idea what the pattern would be, but I just knew I had to participate and support her even though I knew I wouldn't be able to start with everyone else as I would be in Europe when the class started on September 1st. (Again, the one thing that appealed to me was that I didn't have to start, or finish, with everyone else participating.)

So, I clicked the linky that my knittingholic cohort tagged me on, signed up for Craftsy, enrolled in the class, forked out the cash and before I left on my trip, I received the yarn we all would be using for the project! Easy peasy.

Now ten whole months later, I can finally call it done and share it with you all!

Pattern: Iced Eucalyptus Beret (Ravelry Link) by Angela Tong
Yarn: Cascade Yarns Venezia Sport (Deep Sea) - 1 Skein
Needles: 4 and 6 circs/dbl pntd
Started: 09/13
Finished: 06/29/14

The pattern is really quite lovely. I made the smaller size, and as you can see, it covers my head nicely. If you had a big ol' hunk of hair to put under it, you wouldn't have a problem. As with beret's, I find they have a lot of breathing room.

There were two options for the brim. I chose to complete the folded over brim, as I thought it would provide some extra warmth during the colder months. Even though it was a bit of extra work, I am happy I chose that option. Since I like to wear my hats down on my forehead, I feel this brim adds a little bit of sturdiness.

At first glance, you would think this pattern is more complicated and advanced than it really is. The pattern included a bit of lace and cabling work, but nothing difficult for a newbie to those techniques. I would label this project as "easy" and great for beginners, even with the folded brim.

The only thing left to do is give it a good soak and blocking, but since the summer weather is in full swing (I was literally sweating buckets in these pictures), I will put this away until the cold weather returns.

Knitting Goal No. 2 is complete! I really could of had this finished months ago. When I sat down to complete it the other night, I had only10 rounds to finish. I know I stopped working on it last time when I realized I needed to order size 6 double pointed needles. However, when the new needles arrived back in February, my life was in total apartment renovation chaos and everything took a backseat.

Stay tuned to see what else I've knocked off the list! Until then, share with me what you have on the needles right now? I'm always curious to hear what everyone else is knitting!

Honey Cowl FO 7th Installment

Since my last post, I have been a busy knitting bee! I've managed to finish three projects since last night. What basement rock was my knitting mojo hiding under all this time? Give me daylight and I am off!

Today I will share with you another one of my Honey Cowl's. This was the seventh one I have knitted and I made it for myself.

Pattern: Honey Cowl (link to free pattern) by Antonia Shankland
Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss DK (Winter Night) - 4 Skeins
Needles: 8 circs
Started: 12/15/13
Finished: 06/28/14

When I picked this project back up Saturday, I was a wee bit surprised at just how little I had left to finish. I am embarrassed to say, but I think I finished in less than 10 minutes. I only had to knit half a row and then bind off the stitches. Not exactly sure why I didn't finish it the last time I had it in my hot little hands, but at least it's done now and my first FO of the year!

I absolutely love this pattern! I really must since I have made it seven freaking times, and most likely will not be my last. As with the previous versions I have knitted, I chose to knit the longer version so I can wrap it close around my neck. I like to keep the cold air off my neck so this is perfect.

The Knit Picks Gloss DK yarn was a perfect choice for it. It's soft, airy and warm! Plus there are many colors to choose from and it makes for a less expensive project. I did not have but a smidge of yarn leftover when all was said and done.

Goal No. 1 is complete!

Knitting

Back in January 2013, I wrote a post talking about my "Unfinished Knits of Years Past" (which you can read here). At that time I had 11 UFO's on the list. Today there are 14, as witnessed here in a screenshot of my Ravelry (angelny29) project list:

So are any of the original 11 still on this list? Yes, 11 to be exact. I know.

During the past year and a half, there have been some finished projects. I completed four Honey Cowls and one pair of vanilla socks. All were Christmas gifts.

Honey Cowl #1 - For my niece Ashley.

Honey Cowl #2 - For my sister MB.

Honey Cowl #3 - For my niece Kaitlin.

Honey Cowl #4 - For my sister Kathy.

Vanilla Socks - For my nephew Jeremy.



Back in the day (yes, I talk like it was 20 years ago instead of just six or seven) I was a knitting machine. In 2007, I had 21 FO's. In 2008, there were 47 FO's (my all time high). I was still going strong in 2009 with 23 FO's. Then it went drastically downhill from there for one reason or another.

While I am not necessarily looking to rock that many FO's in a year anymore, I am wanting to complete more projects than I have during the past couple of years.

So here I am setting some goals. I work well with goals. Goals help keep me going and motivated. I love being able to tick the completed section of each goal one by one. I'm a goal junkie.

Goal #1 and #2: Finish "Deborah's Honey Cowl" and "Iced Eucalyptus Beret" pronto. Both of these items are mere inches from being finished and sadly could of been done during the Polar Vortex so I could of enjoyed them.

Goal #3: "Bacon Socks" - I seriously need to finish sock number two so I can have the leftover yarn for my "Sock Yarn Blankie".

Goal #4: The "Boneyard Shawl" will be the next item to complete. I know it is also almost at the completion point. I believe I stopped because I was trying to figure out how many more repeats I could do and still have enough yarn left for bind off.

Goal #5: "Some Cloudy Day" legwarmers - One legwarmer complete, the other halfway done. Enough said.

Ongoing Goal: Complete at least 5-6 squares on my "Sock Yarn Blankie" each week. I have been working on this blanket since 2010 and know that this is a long term project. I would really like to finish it before I am in my rocking chair so hopefully this will help put a dent in it.

For right now, these are my top knitting goals. Once I check some of these off the list, I will update and revise accordingly.

To hold myself accountable, because really I want to finish so I can start new, I have decided I will dedicate at least one post a week to knitting. I honestly miss talking about and sharing my knitting. So I am going to change things up and get a little something of what started this blog in 2007 back. Stay tuned!