Cape Ann Wedding Blanket

What a crazy week! I know I made a huge deal about how difficult and time consuming packing would be, but it turned out to be not so bad. That's probably because my process of packing is to throw everything is boxes/bags and cross my fingers that nothing will break. You can definitely tell which boxes I packed versus those that Michael packed --- Michael neatly bubble wrapped fragile items whereas I wrapped our diningware in sweaters.

Michael and I enjoying Lobster Martinis after a long day of moving.

Because packing didn't take as much time as I thought, I was able to squeeze in enough time to finish the Cape Ann Blanket in time for the wedding!  You can tell I'm proud of this one by the number of FO pictures I took.

First picture right after finishing!

This closeup picture is truest in color.

Blanket on the hotel bed

Blanket on another couch... Seriously I took pictures of this blanket everywhere!

After "modeling" the blanket, my roommates also wanted to get in on the action....

Where's Michael???

Dave in his element. I gave him $8 in quarters for letting me post this picture.

Although, there were a few snags. I finished the blanket on Thursday afternoon, and then hand washed and blocked the massive thing that night. I thought 36 hours would be enough to time to let the blanket dry, but I was wrong. Unfortunately I didn't have a fan as it was packed in the moving truck, which I'm sure would have helped. I mean the blanket was dry, but not completely dry in a few places. Fortunately, I had my partner in crime help me blow dry the slightly damp spots in the hotel room a few hours before the wedding.

After packing up all of our stuff, Michael and I had to sleep on the floor next to the blanket being blocked. #knitlife

T-minus two hours until the wedding... 

And the wedding! Luckily we got there early enough to watch the Nepali ceremony before the Western ceremony. The bride, Bijaya, looked absolutely gorgeous (as did her new husband Brendan of course). I'll admit that most of the time I had no idea what was going on, but Bijaya would occasionally provide commentary --- my favorite being when she turned to Brendan and said nonchalantly, "Now we're married". The reception was a ton of fun too. Michael and I had such an amazing time danced our butts off with friends. I definitely took some notes for the wedding that I have to start planning one of these days.

Nepali wedding ceremony.

Close up of the bride and groom.

The guys partaking in the tradition of bargaining for the groom's shoes.

Getting back to the knitting... Now that the blanket is done, I'm jumping into the Caramel cardigan I mentioned last post. I feel like I'm skipping summer and jumping right into fall knits, but I'm okay with that. It means I'll be able to wear the project soon after I finish. But then again, maybe I'll cast on Celes by Jared Flood in the next few days too. I've been eyeing this pattern for a while now. What a gorgeous spring/summer/fall scarf this would make!

Packing Up!

By Friday, my fiance and I will officially be residents of Salem, MA! I assume that also means we will officially be witches too. Now that I'm back from a conference in Charleston, South Carolina, majority of my time this week must be dedicated to packing. Now this presents a bit of a conflict as I also need to be knitting, not just for my sanity, but to finish a gift for a wedding on Saturday. That's right, we are moving Friday and then leaving for a wedding in New Hampshire on Saturday... it will be a very busy weekend. Although to make up for all of the stress, I plan to end my day Sunday with a nice cold Lobster Martini at the Lobster Shanty in our new neighborhood.

My fiance Michael enjoying a Lobster Martini at the Lobster Shanty.

Okay so the Cape Ann Blanket... As I'm writing this, I'm realizing that I must officially give up on bringing it to the wedding. I mean, I'll bring it to the wedding so I can knit it on the car ride, but I won't be able to give it as a gift at the proper time. It's not that I have a lot left to do. In fact, I am 87.5% there --- I've used 21 out of the 24 balls of yarn already! It's that instead of knitting, I'm forced to spend all of my non-work time packing. Can you tell that I'm not bitter/frustrated at all by packing???

This project is borderline unportable at this point, but that's a sign that I'm almost done!
Plus at least it's packed and ready to go now haha.

Well, I guess one can only plan ahead so much. At least I know that the end is near with this blanket and that I'm getting better at ALMOST making deadlines. I am guessing that the gift will be a week late for time to soak, block, and unpack in there too. Wish me luck!

PS - Here's Millie, the three-legged, cancer surviving cat. I know it is a faux-pas to be
a knitter and not like cats, but now I can officially says that at least I like one cat.
This girl here stole my heart!

Greetings from Charleston!

Greetings from Charleston, South Carolina, the land of heat and humidity. As a girl with frizzy/curly hair, of course this was the first thing I noticed. 

I have only been in the South for 24 hours, and its not necessarily bad, but it has been thundering up a storm. I also think there was a tornado warning last night... Even worse though, there are no yarn stores here! I guess that's a good thing. I won't be tempted to add to my stash or start a new project. But let’s be honest, it’s highly disappointing.

In the meantime, I've been doing some serious work on the Cape Ann Blanket — only 9 balls of yarn left! I made some good headway on the plane, but I need to make a conscious effort to stay on time with this project.

Making a lot of progress!

Isn't this AirBnB room so adorable?
I also have to remember to take a picture of Millie, the three-legged, cancer-surviving cat!

Despite what I said about needing to be disciplined, I have started to think about my next project already. I’m thinking of making Caramel by Isabel Kraumer in solid navy blue. I’ll use the same the Baby Camel/Merino/Nylon blend yarn that I did in the Guernsey Blanket. In fact, I'm planning to add a similar chevron pattern along the front band, inspired by the blanket and the Guernsey Wrap by Jared Flood. Now that I think about it, I'll pretty much be remaking the Guernsey Blanket as a cardigan. Given how cozy and cool the blanket came out, I'm totally okay with that.

I even did swatch of the herringbone pattern for the frontband...
I need to stop procrastinating and finish the blanket first.

The Verdict

In my last post, I driveled on about the Cape Ann Blanket and my growing concern for coming up short on yarn. I forgot to mention that yes, I did do a swatch (although it was small and no, I didn't block it -- consider this lesson learned). Anyway, I finally pulled myself together and measured the blanket to find out once and for all if I was short on yarn. And the verdict is...

The CO edge is so long it wouldn't even fit in the picture!

....I'm not short!! But I'm not totally in the clear. It turns out my cast on edge is longer than I expected. Because the proportions were off, I thought I was short. Originally, the cast on edge was supposed to be 45" and then the cables would run horizontally for 60". It turns out that the cast on edge is more like 55".

The fix? Blocking, I hope lol!! For now, I'm going to keep knitting away to make the deadline, which I've decided needs to be April 26th to allow time for blocking and drying. This Sunday I leave for Charleston, South Carolina to attend a week-long conference for work. Fortunately this means lots of uninterrupted knitting time on the plane. Wish me luck!!

Falling Short

Finally, we are getting the beautiful Spring weather we deserve after that bone-chilling winter! Michael and I spent Sunday going on a long walk around Jamaica Pond and the Arnold Arboretum. This is our go-to outing when the weather is nice and we both have off work. That means I didn't get much knitting done on Sunday, but on Saturday, I managed to squeeze in some work on the Cape Ann Blanket.

The whitest, brightest tree I've ever seen. It looked as though someone had spraypainted it.

Despite it being a gorgeous 60 degrees outside, some remnants of the snowy winter managed to survive. 

The blanket is coming along nicely! I love the texture from all of the cabling. It will make for such a lovely thick and cozy blanket. At first I was excited for being just about halfway through the 23 balls of yarn I planed to use, but now I am getting worried about running out of yarn. My target size was 45" x 60", and I'm not sure I'm going to make that 60 inches.

Close up on the cables.

Now, let me be honest, I haven't exactly measured it yet. I could be making a mountain out of a molehill. I haven't measured it yet because I'm too nervous that I'll come up short. Luckily I have the same bulky alpaca yarn in another colorway, which I can use as a "center panel". Although including this extra yarn would throw off my timeline. So much for making a plan....

I guess my best bet is to just measure the darn thing, right? I will force myself to measure it and decide tonight what to do.... Wish me luck!

The Gift of Giving

Happy Easter everyone!!

I received a care package full of holiday nerds rope and some cute spring attire from my mom yesterday, which inspired me to write about some gifts that I was finally able to give this week. Currently I have a pile of finished projects sitting on a coffee table in my room, just waiting for me to give them to their intended recipient. What happens is, it takes me longer than expected to finish a gift. Then I miss the opportunity to give said gift at the appropriate time. Instead, it sits on that coffee table until the next time I see the person (or in some cases, until the following year unfortunately). 

Recently, though, the pile shrunk by two! I previously posted about a test knit I did for a pattern called the Hive Mind Cowl. Note its not available yet, but as soon as it is, I'll post it because I love this cowl! While this was a test knit, the end product was intended for a girl at Michael's work, who was in fact the one who helped Michael get his current job. Michael finally had the opportunity to give her this cowl, and it turns out, she's a knitter too!  

Another gift I finally got to give was this Guernsey Blanket I made while I was in Germany last fall. The pattern was based off the famous Guernsey Wrap by Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed. If you have the pattern, I simply repeated the center panel over and over and over.....

Blankets are typically a lot of work because they take up so much time (and yarn). I know some knitters stray away from blankets for this reason, but I like to always have a blanket on the needles. Although for me, the blanket pattern must be an easy and repeatable. This is then the project that I work on when I want to zone out and watch The Wire or read a book. By the way, the book I'm currently reading is Do Your Om Thing by Rebecca Pacheco. I should also mention there is no coincidence that I made this blanket was for the talented author and her fiance for their (now not-so-recent) engagement.

[WIP] Cape Ann Blanket

I debated mentioning the current blanket I'm working on, given that it will also be a gift. This time a wedding gift for two dear friends of mine. I hesitated to write about it in case these friends read my blog, but I can't NOT write about it, since its what I'm spending most of my precious knitting time on. So as a compromise with myself, I am including the following disclaimer...

If you are getting married in May and want your wedding gift to be a surprise, don't read further! On the other hand, I won't be offended if you peek :)

Another thought I had was what if they actually don't read my blog haha? Anyway, this blanket is a modified version of the Cape Ann Stole by Julia Farwell-Clay in her book From Folly Cove, which I got at Fiber Camp. Instead of using the cabled pattern at the ends, I just repeating the cabled pattern throughout the whole blanket, which makes it very simple for me to memorize the pattern. The yarn I'm using is from a bulky blend of 50% merino wool / 25% alpaca / 25% acrylic, which I ordered online from Turkey when I was over in Europe. 

The deadline for this Cape Ann Blanket is quickly approaching, but with my goal of at least 65 yards (1 ball) of yarn a day, I think I can make it. Here's to no more additions to the gift pile!!

Apartment Hunting.... Witch Place Should We Live?

Yikes! It's been a little while, but life has been so eventful the past week or so. Let me skip to the most exciting news though... My fiance Michael and I went to visit Salem, MA on Sunday to start our apartment hunt, and it turns out we found a place already! I am so relieved that we found a place we really like AND that the apartment search is over. As anyone who lives in Boston can attest, apartment hunting, especially for a September 1 move-in, is an awful, stressful, and all-consuming process. Turns out Michael and I will be moving on May 1, so we will no longer be on the September cycle. That also means we will be moving pretty soon!

Michael and I on the commuter rail out to salem. I'm sporting my new Broken Ribbed Cowl.

So unfortunately I don't have any pictures, but we may try to see the place again soon. The place has two bedrooms with a big dining room and even bigger living room. The living room was so bright when we toured the unit. The house used to belong to our realtor's grandmother, so there are some aspects of the house that are old and grandma-like. I'm thinking particularly of the shower door which has swans etched into the glass and the old stove. BUT there is a brand new washer and dryer, with more options than just hot and cold water.

Downtown Salem is just so quaint and full of history.

We are extremely excited for our new place. Neither of us have much furniture, so it will be really nice to be able to decorate the place together. Luckily we have similar taste and its not halloween-themed thank god. We want the place to have traditional New England maritime look. Not quite sure what that means exactly, but I'm thinking navy and neutral colors and a whale plaque. I'm also hoping to commission a handmade coffee table and end tables from my talented brother Paul.

Coffee table handmade by my brother.

Before the excitement of moving turns into stress from packing, I'm making it a point to find some pretty house-related projects for our new home. I can start to look for new projects now because....

[FO] - Gloucester Baby Blanket

Finished Gloucester Baby Blanket! On to the pattern!

.... I finished the Gloucester Baby Blanket! This was a fun project for me, all the way from the design to finishing it. The design was not too complicated to develop. As I was looking through an old knitting book of fishermen sweaters, I found a herringbone motif that I really liked. I adjusted it slightly, then added a cable, and filled in with moss stitch, and Voile! The pattern was conceived.

Close up of the motif. It is so hard to photograph this lemon yarn color correctly.
The picture above is much truer to the actual color.

But now I have to actually write it up. Thankfully I was very good in taking notes, but I am experimenting with how to write and chart the pattern to make it easily understandable. You can expect this free pattern to be available soon... hopefully within the week.

I would love to get around to it this weekend, but I will be busy at the 2015 Fiber Camp here in Cambridge. This is an annual get together hosted by the Common Cod Fiber Guild. It is my first time going to one of their events, and I can't wait. I'm particularly anticipating getting my hands on a new book called From Folly Cove by Julia Clay-Farwell, as she will be there to sell/sign her book.  I've been wanting to start her sweater Natti Turtleneck, but I've been waiting until I can buy the book.

Our first trip to Folly Cove (plus another picture-taking tourist who refused to move).

Folly Cove was one of the first places Michael and I discovered on our frequent trips to Cape Ann. On our first trip to the north shore, we spent all day walking around Rockport, and the last stop on our long journey was Folly Cove. This was right after we finished eating lobsters at the famous Lobster Pool.

Michael and I on our first trip to Rockport. 

So more to come next week... a new pattern, a new sweater to cast-on, and a review of the cool new things I learned at Fiber Camp! Also, I'll be volunteering at the registration table both days 10:30am-12pm, so stop by and say hi!

Here's a bonus picture of Rockport, MA at sunset. The view is breath-taking.

Down To The Wire

Since moving to Boston four years ago, I've met a lot of great friends, and now two of these friends are having a baby! This has been a big year for everyone. Heck a big semester more like it! When I was in Germany this past fall, two couples got engaged AND married while I was gone. Plus, in one month we will welcome what will probably be one of the smartest little boys in Cambridge, if he's anything like his parents.

Before I moved to Boston, I lived in Dallas for two years, which despite the heat, was a great experience. In Dallas, it took me about a year before I started making close friends. Then when I finally got to the point where I had really strong friendships, I had to up and leave. While I don't regret living Dallas to move to Boston, I do wish I could have stayed just a little longer.

But again, I'm so happy to be in Boston, and I am enjoying being in one place for a while. It's amazing to look back over the past four years and see just how much we've all grown. I know eventually we'll all go our separate ways. In fact, many of us are already starting to move farther out of Boston. I'm just glad that we get to celebrate some big milestones this year!

[FO] - Baby Genius Burp Cloths

Plus with big celebration comes big knitting projects, so I'm excited about that too.  The Gloucester Baby Blanket went on hiatus this weekend as I wanted to make some burping pads for the new baby. We had a big dinner last night as a baby shower, and I wanted to give the expecting couple something hand knitted. This dinner was planned only a few days ahead of time, so I needed to knit something fast.

Three Baby Genius Burp Cloths

I've had this Lily Sugar'n Cream Stripes around forever, but never knew what to make with it. I like the idea of the striped colors, but when I did a swatch, I just didn't like how abrupt the color change was. In an attempt to go cold sheep and eliminate most of my yarn stash, I perused projects on ravelry made with the same yarn. That's when I found this project. She used two colorways of the striped yarn, denim and lime, and I loved the finished look. Using the two colors really broke up the striping, making the color changes more gradual and less harsh.

I only had the lime colorway, but I did also have solid white. So with these colors in hand, I casted on some Baby Genius Burp Cloths on Friday night. Now, the only bummer about this pattern is that it's not available online. Luckily, the Brookline Public Library has a vast collection of knitting books, including the book where the pattern is from, Mason-Dixon Knitting.

The impressive collection of knitting books at the Brookline Public Library!

The pattern itself is very easy being only a two row repeat. Nevertheless, it took me a while to knit. It was one of those patterns were I had to constantly look at my work in order to know what stitch to make. I spent most of the weekend up until the last night working on these three burp cloths. I wasn't sure if I would even have time to finish the third...

Despite being a simple pattern, it required a lot of attention while knitting.

Despite my doubts, I managed to finish all three in time! I took every chance I could to knit, even during a Boston College hockey game on Friday night and a long walk through the garden on Sunday night (aka during several episodes of The Wire).

Last home game of the season for the Boston College hockey team. Go Eagles!

For the rest of week, I will focus on finishing the Gloucester Baby Blanket. I hate letting projects hibernate for too long. Here's to hoping it'll be an FO in the next post!

Seriously... this snow is never-ending!

Remember when I said I was in no way sick of snow? Well, I changed my mind. Now I'm kind of sick of snow. New England is bracing itself for yet ANOTHER blizzard. Neptune I think it is? And on a sidenote, since when have we been naming blizzards? I thought it was just hurricanes... Anyway, Michael and I had plans to venture to Salem tomorrow and spend the day drinking tea, strolling in and out of little shops, and make a visit to a new LYS called Circle of Stitches for their soft opening. Unfortunately, public transportation, which we refer to here as "the T", is officially shutting down  from tonight through tomorrow night, making us postpone our day trip.

When the T shuts down, there is not much going or doing around Boston. Yes you can walk, but there is already a ton of snow on the ground plus another foot to come, making it quite difficult to walk around unless you have cross country skis or snowshoes -- which people, including my roommate and friends, have actually been doing. I am not a big skier, as in the first and last time I went skiing, I ended the day by faking an injury because I was too scared to go down the mountain and wanted to be sledded down. That means I'll be snowed in at home yet again. Fortunately, I get to be snowed in with Michael, and we will indulge in a day filled with tea drinking, knitting, reading, and foodmaking (my vote is for pizza and tacos) while wearing our flannel pajamas. I guess snow days aren't THAT bad.

WIP - Gloucester Baby Blanket

So I felt very productive with my knitting this week, and I'm hoping to keep that up tomorrow. I'm still test knitting my own pattern for the Gloucester Baby Blanket. This blanket is knit sideways so that "stripes" are horizontal. I am a third of the way done now, and I'm hoping to make some serious progress on this tomorrow. I'm eager to finish so I can finally share the pattern!

FO - Slouchy Fisherwoman's Hat

Besides working on the blanket, I started and finished this Slouchy Fisherwoman's Hat last night. This hat is basically twisted ribbed throughout (K1TBL, P1 repeated), and you can find this very easy pattern here. It was such a quick knit, especially since I used this bulky alpaca yarn I brought back from Germany. I originally made this for the etsy store that my mom and I have called Huber Stitch Originals, but I love it so much that I might keep it for myself and make a few more later on.

Well I'm off to catch the T home before this blizzard starts yet again. On a much a lighter note, happy Valentine's day to everyone! Charles Schulz said it best that "All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt." He did forget to mention wine though :) Hope your day is full of love, chocolate, wine, and yarn!

A Never-Ending Snowstorm Means Never-Ending Knitting!

For those who haven't been keeping up with the New England weather, we are amidst the most epic and never-ending snowstorm of all time. No exaggeration. Since my last snow day post, we've had three snow days, and it takes a lot of snow to shut down Boston. Most of Boston is exasperated with the weather, but I must admit, I've enjoyed living in a winter wonderland. Fortunately, I can say that because I don't have a car or driveway shovel out, and I have a job that allows me to easily work from home. Plus the snow days allowed me to sneak in a few extra hours of knitting, so I can't complain.

Before I get to the actually knitting, I just want to take a second mention two other feats I accomplished this week: stash organization and blocking! These are on my list of bottom 5 knitting activities (along with weaving in ends, grafting, and frogging). Even though I dislike the process of organizing and blocking, the end results are worth it.

Blocked - Hive Mind Cowl

Here is a test knit for the Hive Mind Cowl that I finished knitting last month. The pattern is not available yet, but when it is, I'll let you all know. It's made out of this bulky alpaca/merino/acrylic blend, and the brioche stitch makes this even softer and squishier. The cowl is a holiday gift for my fiance's friend, but I didn't want to give it without blocking. Now the gift is very late, but I'm so glad I waited. It looks so much better.

FO - Eugenia Mittens

I also managed to finish the Eugenia Mittens started on the last post. I mostly followed the pattern as is, but I did the following modifications:

• used a 4.0mm needle throughout, 
• worked rows 1-16, 1-16, then 1-10 in the cable pattern, 
• started the thumb gusset at row 7 instead of row 5, 
• only worked thumb gusset until there were 13 stitches, and
• picked up 4 stitches when working the thumb, then k2tog twice on the next round.

Overall I liked how these mittens turned out. To be honest, I have a love-hate-love relationship with mittens. I love how they look, then I hate making the thumb, and then love how they turn out. These will also be a belated gift. One day I will catch up with all of these gifts!

WIP - Gloucester Baby Blanket

This weekend I also started drafting a pattern for a baby blanket, which I will share here once its done. I'm calling it the Gloucester Baby Blanket, as its inspired from an old fisherman's sweater. 

Now I'm off to get ready for work tomorrow. I almost forget what that's like!