Knitter in the Kitchen

Pattern: My own with Dutch Heel from Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: Yarntini Sock Yarn, Colorway Gimlet, 1 skein
Needles: US #1 / 32″ Addi Turbos for Magic Loop

I knit these socks top down and one-at-a-time. I made an effort to match the stripes, but they are off by a couple of rows. To change things up, I used the Dutch Heel from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush. I like the appearance of this heel more than my usual slip stitch heel, although I suppose time will tell which one is more comfortable and longer-wearing. The Yarntini sock yarn is awesome — it knits up very well and who can resist such fun colors? I have already ordered several more skeins from Jessie so I will have more stripey goodness to show in the coming months!

Of course, as soon as I finished these socks, I cast on for another pair. And even though I wrote previously that I didn’t care for toe-up, two-at-a-time, look what I’m doing anyway:

Apparently you can’t take anything I say here too seriously, huh? I’ve been wearing my Koigu toe-up socks, and I really like the short-row heel. So I decided to do another pair of toe-ups. The thing I did differently this time was that I started the socks separately and finished the toe increases before I put them together on one needle. That made the increases more bearable. The yarn is Claudia Hand Painted in Plumicious.

Lest you think that this has turned into a sock blog, I actually worked on something else for a change.

I started the Entrelac Scarf for myself back in November, and only knit a few inches before I became obsessed with socks. On Saturday, I actually wanted to work on this, so I ran with the feeling and got through the first skein. Now, it could be months before I finish the scarf, but at least there is a glimmer of hope that I might eventually recover from the sock craze!

While I haven’t posted much lately, I’ve been knitting a lot and it feels great. I’m really excited about knitting again and have been picking up the needles at every spare moment. I’m happy that I’m finally getting over my knitting blahs - yay!

First, I finished my sister’s replacement Karaoke Scarf. I didn’t wait for good natural lighting to take a photo, since it looks exactly like the original one. Let’s hope she doesn’t lose this one because I’m not up for knitting a third black Karaoke scarf.

As soon as I finished the scarf, I cast on for a hat.

Pattern: Ann Norling Spiral Ribbed Hat
Yarn: Filatura di Crosa 127 Print, color #19, 1 skein
Needles: Clover Takumi US 9 / 16″

I bought this yarn about six months ago, and I liked the colors so much that it survived my massive destashing. Considering how much I sold off, that’s definitely saying something! I started to knit a rolled edge stockinette hat with it, but found that the random color stripes bothered me a lot. I added the spiral ribbed pattern as a way of detracting from the stripes. I like the hat much better now. While the yarn was great to knit with, I’m not sure I would buy it again because of the odd striping.

Lastly, I finished my sister’s birthday present.

Pattern: Entrelac Scarf
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden, Color #224, 4 skeins
Needles: Clover Takumi US 8

As you can see, the 4 skeins did not contain all the same colors. The two ends of the scarf (shown in the first and third photos) look drastically different. Surprisingly, this doesn’t bother me. I think it gives the scarf a bit more character! I’m planning to cast on for my own Entrelac Scarf soon.

I have a couple of other projects on the needles, and hopefully the weather will cooperate for photos next weekend. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

You know when you are totally excited about a knitting project and just can’t wait to get back to it? That’s how I feel about this:

I’m using Noro Silk Garden in colorway 224, and the photo above shows the whole first skein. I’ve been knitting like crazy because I love watching the colors change. Ironically, I realized that I don’t want a scarf in these colors after I started knitting it, so this one will be a gift. I want darker colors for myself and ordered colorway 217. This scarf is essentially a smaller version of a very popular stole (without the fringe). Many thanks to Allison of Freckles and Purls for posting the pattern!

Also, I would like to thank everyone for checking out my destashing blog last week. Wow, some of those emails came in fast! In case anyone is interested, I still have four skeins of Cashmerino and two skeins of Jade Sapphire 8-ply cashmere up for sale.

In cooking news, we’ve enjoyed a few successes this week. I baked Apple-Date Bars (Cooking Light, October 2006) on Friday and they came out really well. I substituted raisins for dates, walnuts for pecans, and cut the sugar down to 1.5 cups. Next time I would cut the raisins a bit too, but other than that the recipe is wonderful.

The cover recipe for the October Cooking Light is Classic Beef Pot Roast. I have a brand new Le Creuset dutch oven that I’ve been itching to test, and this seemed like the perfect recipe. Oh. my. goodness. This pot roast is very, very good. My photo doesn’t do it justice. The meat is super tender and flavorful and the potatoes and carrots are delicious too. While the cooking time is long (about 2.5 hours in the oven), the actual cooking process is really easy. I can definitely see us making this again in the winter. The mods I made were that I doubled the garlic (which I do for practically everything because we like garlic) and I used a 2.5 lb piece of pot roast because that I was the largest cut I could find at the supermarket.

Someone please tell me that the stains on the Le Creuset will come off!

Lastly, Hubby put together this yummy pizza for us. The sauce recipe is from this book. I seriously considered making the crust from scratch but ultimately decided it would be too time consuming.

Food-wise, I think we’re set for the week!

Finally, a finished object.

Pattern: Clapotis
Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted, Color #162 Icehouse, a little less than 3 skeins
Needles: Addi Turbo US 8 / 32″

One reason why it took me almost two months to complete the Clapotis is that I don’t particularly like this colorway. I chose it because I was trying to move away from my natural inclination towards reds/purples/oranges. But these shades of blues and greens just aren’t me. I considered frogging the entire project multiple times because of the color issue. Ultimately I decided to finish it simply so I could have a shawl at work. My office is freezing cold whenever the outdoor temperature drops below 70 degrees, so at least now I can be warm as the weather continues to cool. And I love Shepherd’s Worsted — it feels comfortable against my skin.

Last month I also started a Karaoke Scarf for my sister. Currently I’m about halfway through with it.

If you’ve been reading my blog since last year, the scarf might look familiar to you. It’s because I knit the exact same scarf in the exact same color for my sister last year — here is the photo. She asked me to knit her another one because she lost the original. Sigh. But my sis is awesome so of course I’m willing to do it. This pattern is great for mindless knitting.

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about my yarn stash. I have decided to cut my stash drastically by selling anything that I don’t anticipate using in the next year. I’m just not inspired by most of my yarn anymore, yet I feel guilty about buying anything new because I already have so much. This is exactly how much I’m selling:

Please visit my destashing blog for photos and descriptions of yarns for sale. Thanks in advance for looking. In case anyone is interested, this is the yarn I’m keeping. This Rubbermaid container is a lot smaller than the destash container, though I must admit it’s hiding ten skeins of Kureyon and six skeins of Silk Garden. But this feels so much more manageable to me.

Finally, on the sewing front, I’ve been working on travel tissue holders as I will be contributing to the November Sampler.

I finished the Clapotis for my Auntie D. Here it is folded in half:

The “wrong” side:

Folded up and ready to go:

The next project for my Just Because I’m Thankful Project will be the Sheer One-Piece Shawl in Modular Knits by Iris Schreier. I won’t get started on this immediately because I don’t have any variegated yarn in the right color in my stash. I did end my yarn diet, by the way, but I also joined Rebekah’s Yarn Focus Challenge. This is not a yarn diet, because yarn buying is allowed, but only on one day each month from April through June. I think the purpose is to help cut down impulsive yarn purchases, which I think is a great idea. For the month of April, I’ve decided that my one day to buy yarn/roving will be April 22, when I go to the The Knit and Crochet Show.

The only project I have on my plate right now is Sockapaloooza. Since the socks are due in a month (yikes, time flies!), I am not allowing myself to cast on for any new projects until I finish these socks. That will force me to dedicate my undivided attention to them! I chose to put the Pomatomus socks aside and start fresh with a new pattern…more on that when I see whether this works out! Have a great week.