First Cowl

 This project was a balm to the wounds after those 4 frogs - it was fast, easy and looks awesome. I think I need one for me now :) It's done in Malabrigo Chunky that's not as soft as worsted but still very very soft and smooth. It doesn't bother my sensitive skin on the neck at all.

Foggy froggy days

  UGH!
  It's been a rough couple of weeks :( On the top of everything it's cold and foggy most of the time, in the best of San Francisco cold summer tradition and I had to frog 4 projects!
  First one is my attempt to make Crvena Zvezda (Red Star) hat for uncle. He is huge fan of that iconic Belgrade soccer club and I wanted to make vertical red and white stripes hat for him (star is too much for my abilities right now anyways). So I used Boy Hat pattern and did 4 knit in red, 4 purls in white.
  Well... first of all, it turned out too small, despite my best efforts to do do fair isle very loosely. It fits me but not uncle for sure :( And second, white stripes (purled) looks thinner and stand out (nature of the beast for colorwork as I've learned). And last, it's so hard to unravel this hat, I did such a good job of weaving ends that I am still struggling with it! Plus, I've just learned that to unravel the hat, you have to start from the top, if you knit from bottom up, you can't frog it from the bottom!!! Ask me how I know :(

   Then, I started with longies for DS and was 3/4 done when I checked for the size and realized that I've forgot to change needle size from 5 to 7 so longies are too narrow! I had to go all the way to the waistband :(

Then I was trying to understand how to do short rows heel on socks without making holes and turned out that my socks are way way too loose knitted and will be uncomfortable to wear, so I had to frog them too... I used  needles size 1 (2.5mm) and yarn is very light fingering, so I am planning to do them again with size 0.

 And the last one was the least painful , just 6 rows of ribbing. I am trying to do Pembroke Vest and pattern is not in the round, so I am still on the beginning, trying to figure out how to convert flat pattern to the one in the round...

 

Trio of hats

 3 hats in 3 weeks! Not bad for somebody who is not really a hat person. Yes, all knitted up in bulky yarn, but still - I never even wore a hat before I started to knit :) They are not for me - for my DH's uncle, aunt and their daughter who just weathered cold Belgrade winter. I hope that will help with next one.

 Lovely yarn, lovely patterns, I hope they will like them. I had fun making them that's for sure.

Top one is Snappy hat in Ember colorway Louisa Harding Rosetti yarn - merino/silk blend, very soft. I was afraid it will be too soft and not grip the head properly but that's not the case. Cables stand our nicely too.

 I've used about 1.5 skeins - yarn remainds me of Kyoto from Artfibers - also silk and merino and similar in softness, but it doesn't contain mohair like Kyoto, which is why I like it better. Mohair makes my nose itch for some reason, same as angora.

 Left one is The boy hat in Tree Irish Girls Lindon Merino - nice stretchy beanie for DH uncle - he liked the colors when he saw latest longies that I was making for DS. Of course, of all the wool he picked up something I wasn't sure I will have enough! I did - I've made longies and had enough for a hat with couple of decreases skipped but with a foldover brim. When laid flat like in the photo, it looks so skinny - DH tried it on and it stretches very nicely.

 Right one is for his aunt -she wanted brown hat, and well, I just had to add some cables, because that brown is very deep brown and I wanted something to make it nicer. Yarn is Valley Yarn Northampton Bulky, very nice springy yarn, excellent for cables. Pattern is Unoriginal hat form Stepahie McPhee, I think it's very original :) Maybe I need one for me :)

So many FOs!!!

 FO - finished object!
 UFO - unfinished object!

If you ever hear knitters talking about UFOs, believe me they are not talking about flying saucers :) They are usually gripping about how many unfinished objects they have on the needles :)

 Sometimes it's really just about needles - if you have scarf on size 9 needles, and you need those needles for a let's say a hat, well, either you buy new pair of needles or you finish your scarf :) Some people are more prone to "unfinishitis" then others also :)

 I discovered that my treshold for unfinished objects are 5 - if I have more than 3 I get antsy; if I have 5 I feel compeled to finish at least one or I can't work on the new project regardless what it is. That's why I am not too much into sweaters I think - they take long time to finish, even with bulky wool, so they take too much of my UFO list.

 So, I did finish bunch of projects lately, because I wanted to shrink my list of UFO to manageable size - I am back to 4 :) - 2 active ones and 2 that are waiting for me to figure out certain things.
  Here they are:

1) Butterfly hats - I've made 3 of them, 2 as presents and one for me! I really like that pattern - it's actually very easy once you figure it out, and looks very nice and gives a hat unique look. Plus, it looks good with variegated yarn, what is not usually the case with hat patterns.
  Here they are:

 First one and third one are done with Purewool colorway Cactus - alas, that colorway is discontinued, so I had to scramble to finish second hat. I knew I will run out of wool so I mixed it with brown cascade to make transition easier, so top of the third hat is mostly brown, but with cactus woven through. End result is very nice, I am even impressed how seamless that transition is.

Second hat was done in Ming, from Artfibers - absolutely gorgeous yarn, 50% merino wool, 50% silk, thinner than Purewool, but so soft! That one will be a present for a cousin :)

Oh and I've finally finished hat for Ivan - he doesn't like hats, but in December, when we had that cold spell, he actually mentioned that it's cold enough for a hat, so I've jumped in and started a hat for him. Unfortunately, I've run out of yarn, so project languished until I've got a skein from a friend since that colorway is also discontinued (Smoke):

2) Then, I've made 2 pair of socks - I've decided to learn how to make socks and I made one pair for me, one for Ivan and they are both awesome :) I've made them in thicker yarn (DK) with big needles so I could see better what I am doing, and that was the right decision I've made - I would never manage this on regular sock yarn with tiny needles. So now I am making third pair on fingering weight yarn and yes, it goes very slowly, but now that I know what I am doing, it's a matter of patience now, not so much issue of new skills.

Mine:

Ivan's dreamsocks:

3) Scarfs - I've finished 3 scarfs :) I could never understood why people think that scarfs are good beginners projects. They are not! They take ages to be finished and beginners do not have that kind of patience. My first project when I learned how to knit was not a scarf, it was a felted bag, and I am still grateful for that! Felting a knitted object erases all mistakes that you make as a beginner, and bag in relatively small project, and something that you can use immediately.

  Here they are:

ZigZag scarf:

 Ripple stitch scarf - in Kyoto, another awesome Artfibers yarn, present for my friend:

 Drop stitch scarf:

Twice the Joy of Winter

  I've made longies and shorties with Winter Joy colorway (Purewool of course).
  It's very interesting how different they look side by side, just because longies are done with dark gray trim and shorties with light tan trim - they do look like different colorway almost!

   Here they are side by side:

Art Fiber opened in San Francisco

  They decided to come back to the City, and I am so glad that I've gone to the opening! It's a such a incredible store!

 Yen from Fog City Knitter was always knitting with Ming from ArtFibers, and while it was nice to touch that yarn, I never understood why she was so into it. Well, now I know! Ming is blend of silk and fine wool, and it's such a joy to knit with. Silk give that wool sheen and color, and fine, soft wool just fly of the needles. Colors are amazing and I am in love with Ming, like 80% of our group :) They were sold out with Ming by the time I finally decided which color I wanted, so I've placed an order for next dying batch.

 But, about the store: it's absolutely great place to go for yarn. They manage to make it spacious by using Elfa shelvings undenath the benches, and putting all knitted swatches on the top. Such a brilliant idea! You can actually see how yarn looks like knitted, in different stitches, and since they have big windows on both sides of the place, you can see real colors properly.

  Selection of yarn is awesome - I've spent about 3 hours just looking for a yarn for my mom's scarf (and looking and testing everything!). They dye their own yarn, so everything in the store was new to me. Best thing is that you can swatch any yarn right there, and keep the sample :) I've tried :

1) Phyz - very interested yarn, feels cottony, it will be great for a lacy scarf.

2) Yaqui - YAK yarn. Yup, yak yarn. That thing is rarer than cashmire, and usually more expensive, but they sell it for 10c per yard, what is similar to all other yarns there (there are some more expensive ones, but I don't remember them :) It's thin yarn, I think fingering weight, and I've tried just a tiny swatch, and I liked it. I can see making a scarf or maybe socks, something that will be very warm. It feels very airy and soft.

3) Ming, color 21 of course - such a beautiful yarn! I've decided to make next sweater of it, even if this is not bulky yarn, meaning it will take me forever to make it. But I will do it!

4) Kyoto  color  23-  lovely blend of mohair, silk and wool - it's I think heavy worsted, and blue color is incredible rich and yarn is so soft. I've made a scarf for my mom in 4 days with it! I wish I have a picture, but I was in hurry to send it to her, so I do hope she will take a picture and send it to me.

 Cool thing is that they have us on their website now:
 

And another longies

 Yes, another longies! As I said, DS has only 2 pair of longies that he wears, and both are little bit too big (one is way too big, truth to be told), so I made another pair in hope that this time I will get them right.

  VOILA, they fit perfectly! I can't believe it yet, but they do fit him so well - perfect around waist, good rise and right legs length. And this was done with different wool - I've used Knitpicks Shamrock (Doyle colorway) heavy worsted yarn. It's stiffer and heavier than Purewool, but drapes nicely and looks like it will not pill much.

   I've CO 72 st, as for Medium size, but increased to 84 (half way between Medium and Large). Next time, I will make rise deeper and legs slightly longer, so he will wear those longer. Of course, I've ordered more of that wool :) I'm getting Conolly colorway next :)

 I've used 3 full skeins of yarn for those, about 240 yards total...