Yarn Along

When I'm not reading, one of my favorite things to do is knit. This page links to all of my yarn alongs, FO (finished object) posts, and any other postings that may be related to knitting or working with yarn.  You can also find me on Ravelry.


And I Swear We Were Infinite: Yarn Along - Wildflower, Weeks 5 - 13

To read the post you want, click on the link title. They are listed in reverse chronological order. You can also search the tags in individual posts.

Yarn Along - Lila's Tallulah, Week 9

I got a lot of knitting done and I'm now working on the button/button hole bands for Lila's Tallulah cardigan. It's really amazing what I can accomplish when I set my mind to it and have no real weekend plans. 

My hope is that by the end of the week I can get Lila's sweater washed and blocked and then sew the buttons onto both of the cardigans. Then I can get them wrapped and tuck them away until Hanukkah.


Yarn Along - Lila's Tallulah, Weeks 7 & 8

So after finishing my pumpkins, I decided it was time to stop dithering and get back to work on sweet Lila's Hanukkah cardigan. Since Hanukkah begins the second week of December this year, I should probably get to finishing it! I finished all the increases and divided the sleeves over the weekend and started the 4.25 inches of stockinette I need before the ribbing at the bottom. Since mindless stockinette is one of my favorite things, I can catch up on TV shows or listen to audio books while I do it. 

 

Yarn Along and FO: Pumpkin Army

My army is complete! There are 15 of them in total. It felt like there were lots more but I guess not. I've been working on them for almost a month and I think my favorite thing about them (aside from how cute, easy and addictive they are to make!) is that they cross over beautifully from Halloween/October to Thanksgiving/November. That's two whole months of use! I mean, arguably I could put them out in September next year when I put up my fall leaf garlands but it's always too hot in September to really put autumn decorations up.


Yarn Along - Pont Neuf, Weeks 4 & 5

Well, I successfully met the deadline last night! I finished all of my increases and separated the back from the sleeves. Now it's just straight stockinette for about a million miles (~4.5 inches) and doing some waist-shaping. I'm so madly in love with the color I chose, still, and this yarn is truly delicious. Still. 

 

Yarn Along - Pumpkins? Pumpkins!!!


Instead of working on my Pont Neuf, I made... PUMPKINS! Yes, I have been making a small army of adorable little crochet pumpkins for the last week and they are so much fun to make! I'm making them in a variety of colors and I've been playing with sizes by changing hook size and the number of pattern repeats.


Yarn Along - Pont Neuf, Week 3

My Pont Neuf sweater is coming along beautifully and I'm almost done with the yoke increases. About 8 more rows to go and then I get to divide the body and sleeves. My goal is to get there by the end of the weekend so I can work more on Lila's Tallulah and get to work on a few other crafty projects I have going on right now...(more on that later - maybe next week if you're lucky ;) )

 

Yarn Along - Pont Neuf, Wk 1&2; Lila's Tallulah, Wks 4, 5, 6


Y'all, I've lost track of how long I've been working on Lila's Tallulah cardi. But I'm still trucking! I seriously struggle with pattern fatigue and I always always forget that.
We started our Pont Neuf sweaters last week at Jaimie's house. We initially picked a different pullover-type sweater but since none of us were wild about it we decided to find one that we all actually really liked. I really like the pattern so far - it's interesting without being impossibly difficult, which I think is an important balance. Also, I just love this color. It's not a color I usually wear so I think it'll be really really pretty when it's done.



Yarn Along - Lila's Tallulah, Weeks 1, 2, & 3

I started working on the second Tallulah about a week after I finished the first one. Then I let it sit on row 2 for a week and a half. Now I've picked it up in earnest and I'm chipping away at it. I'm not marathon-knitting but my goal is to be done with it before Halloween. Shouldn't be overly strenuous. I still adore working with this yarn and the pattern is still very friendly and interesting without being too hard. I like having a small project to work on when it's this hot.

 

Yarn Along - Tali's Tallulah, Week 9

So, so close to finished! I have to finish weaving in all these pesky ends and then decide on buttons. I think I might also hand stitch around the buttonholes to reinforce them a bit for little fingers. Does anybody out there have any suggestions on that? Also, I tried the sweater on Talia on Saturday and it fit her perfectly. Just enough room for her to grow into it which is exactly what I intended. She was very excited which gives me hope that she'll insist on wearing it a lot.

 

Yarn Along - Tali's Tallulah, Week 8

Y'all, thank the good Lord for my knitting friends because if we hadn't met up last night I would not have knit a stitch this week. I was stuck on the last few stitches for the neck band because I had to count them. We all know how much I hate counting... I got the button band/neck band/buttonhole band business almost all the way to done! Just a couple more rows and then I weave in all the ends. I also began swatching for our next group project, which is very exciting.

 

Yarn Along - Tali's Tallulah, Weeks 5, 6, & 7

Hooooooome stretch! I can't believe how fast this little sweater is going despite how much I've ignored it. I've picked up for the neck band and button bands and after I finish that there's just weaving in the ends and picking out the buttons. Talia has told me over and over that she wants purple buttons, though I may hold out on buying said buttons for a while longer since 3 year olds aren't known for their decision-making skills.



Yarn Along - Tali's Tallulah, Week 4

I got so much knitting done this week and I'm quite proud of myself. I had almost 3 hours of knitting time at my Saturday night babysitting job plus another 3 hours on Sunday night. Monday turned out to be quite successful knit-wise because I had to take my Oma to check-up with her optometrist and wound up sitting in the waiting room for about an hour working on the ribbing. Monday night was more babysitting so I got even more of it done and after a couple more rows I'll be ready to finish up the sleeves! So much knitting!!!

 

Yarn Along - Tali's Tallulah, Week 3

I haven't done as much knitting this week as I intended, since I've been doing quite a bit of writing instead (there's another book review coming your way!). In any case, I've been working diligently on the stockinette body since I separated the sleeves, and I'm coming up on a place where I will have to decide if I want more stockinette for the body or if I want to do it exactly to pattern with a large ribbed section at the bottom.

 

Yarn Along - Tali's Tallulah, Week 2

My purple Tallulah for little Talia is coming along beautifully. I'm remembering what I love so much about knitting sweaters for small people: they work up so quickly! I even measured the little one I'm knitting for on Saturday and her chest measurements for the size I'm making are dead on. I also got her measurements for the length of her arms from shoulder to elbow and then armpit to waist/hips just so I can make sure it's long enough in those places. 

 
 

Yarn Along - Tali's Tallulah

After almost 3 weeks of knitting absolutely nothing (a well-deserved break after the marathon of the Wildflower Cardigan), I've begun work on my next project: Hanukkah cardigans. My little girls in Venice Beach who I babysit on Saturday nights asked for sweaters of their own after watching me work on my Wildflower cardi. Who can say no to such a sweet request? Certainly not me.

 


FO: Wildflower Cardigan

Y'ALL.

IT'S FINISHED.

Exactly 4 months to the day that we started this project, we met up and celebrated the completion of probably the single biggest crafty undertaken I've ever embarked upon. This was a big deal. ...



Yarn Along - Wildflower Cardigan, Week 17
Seaming is taking SO LONG. But I'm all but done with the first side, then it's on to the other side, weaving in ends, and steaming. ...

 
Yarn Along - Wildflower Cardigan, Week 16
So close, we are so, so close to being finished! I have successfully picked up and finished my neckband (thank you, Karen!!!) as well as my button band, and I am all but done with my buttonhole band. After that I only have to set in the sleeves and seam everything up. Only. *sigh*



Wildflower Cardigan, Weeks 14-15
But I'm working on the neckband after finishing my sleeves and blocking my fronts properly. My hope is to be done with the neckband and at least partially through the button band by the time I go to bed tonight, because I want to catch up. .....

 



My cardigan is starting to look like a cardigan!!!

LOOK!!! I'm finished with my fronts! The chart was a bear, though. Those bobbles, man... I am not a fan. Thankfully by the time I was about halfway through the bobbles I figured out how to make them work a little better but they were still a major pain. The chart went a lot faster and was a lot easier the second time around...


The back is finished!!! 222 rows of stockinette plus 11 rows of shortrow shaping and the back is finished!!! (Well, it's currently blocking, unlike what is shown in the pictures, but loooooook!)




Yarn Along - Wildflowers Cardigan, Week 3

Our goal is to be completely finished with the back by next Thursday. My personal goal is to be done a bit sooner than that. I've started the armhole shaping and making sure to count my stitches and mark my rows off very carefully because this is one of the parts that I really don't want to screw up.



 Yarn Along - Wildflowers Cardigan, Week 2

Week 2 of the Wildflowers Cardigan looks like this:

Maybe someday I'll get decent light in my living room so my pictures suck less...

That's 49 rows of stockinette, people! 10 inches! I've been averaging 10-20 rows a night when I put on my serious face and buckle down on it (which has been about 5 nights out of 7 in the last 2 weeks, so not bad). Tomorrow we meet for our 3rd official session at Karen's and I plan to either start decreasing for armholes then or by Saturday morning at the latest....


Yarn Along - Wildflowers Cardigan

I cheated a little by casting on some of my 222 stitches the night before (in my defense, I can't count worth anything so I knew I'd need to count and count and count again once I'd cast on), and I also started knitting one of my pocket linings. The others got their stitches cast on and we began working on the edge since the sweater is bottom-up. 



Yarn Along - "I Left my Heart in Hogsmeade" Cowl

This week, in knitting news, I've started working on yet another cables & eyelets cowl, this time for myself. I initially intended to use this yarn to knit up a hat to go with my cousin's Christmas cowl but I instead decided to keep it for myself.  The yarn is super soft and knits up really nicely and feels a little bit heavier than a worsted weight but every time I say that people assure me that it's not.




Yarn Along - Scarlet Mitts

So I got this gorgeous baby alpaca over a year ago with the intention of making the Malabrigo Hand Thingies (I can't make this up). The whole shop was making them and the baby alpaca yarn was the ticket. It's so soft, knits up so nicely, and feels so good. The pattern is simple but not boring so it's a great project to step you into starting more intermediate projects if you're ready to move past scarves.



Yarn Along - Churchmouse Feet


I took a brief break from the Christmas knitting crazies! I needed to do something small and light and fun for a while before I jumped back into hats and cowls and mitts and nonsense. Since I know someone who is due to have her first baby at the end of November, I figured now is the perfect time to whip up some cute booties in a bunch of colors. 


Yarn Along - Too Coowl for School
 
It's a darker, cooler red than this. The light was wonky. Mea culpa.
I met the Cables and Eyelets Cowl a few years ago, and it started with the hat which can be found here. I love the hat, I love the pattern, I love that a Harry Potter superfan figured out how to knit something our darling Hermione wore in one scene of a movie... And I love that it so perfectly modifies into a cowl. It's great. The first one I made was meant for a friend but I wound up keeping it and sweet heavens it is the most delicious thing to have around one's neck! I'm very excited to make one for my darling cousin, C--------.


Yarn Along - Keep (Jaclyn) Weird


I'm doing J's hat in cream, a dark coral/rose, and a light, springy green. I'm praying it doesn't look too Christmasy. Does it look too Christmasy? I was originally going to do it with a dark tweedy green but it definitely looked like Christmas. I switched to the darker blue from M's hat and it started looking like the 4th of July or a berry cobbler hat. Argh! So I went with a Kramer Perfection wool blend in a lighter green and so far it looks more like spring than Christmas. 


 Yarn Along - Cedar Leaf Shawlette

I knit a bunch of stuff over the winter it felt like, but I slowed down in the spring and early summer and spent more time writing letters and taking Gatsby for walks. I did knit up this sweet little shawlette in the last two months which is quite nice. I'm a bit bummed that I didn't go for the full sized shawl (I had enough yarn, I just neglected to buy that pattern) but this is so pretty and lovely that I don't particularly mind. (I mean seriously? ALL of Never Not Knitting's patterns are delicious. Alana is brilliant.)



Yarn Along - Snowflakes Checked Slouch

Last week I started working on Christmas knits! I know it sounds crazy, but there are only 15 weeks until Christmas and I basically stop all Christmas knitting after the first week of December because I'm busy making Christmas decorations and other crafts in preparation for probably my favorite holiday. We'll talk more on Christmas later.