Lotus Mittens

So I've been quite the slacker on the blogging front, but that's nothing new. I decided in early August that I wanted to do some colorwork, and after a lot of flip-flopping and ravelry pattern searches, I decided on the Lotus Mittens. I had the perfect colors of yarn, too. The pattern calls for 2 colors, but I really like the purple and green together. Unfortunately, they didn't create enough contrast when together, so I needed a grey color. Luckily, I had them in my stash.

Grey: Tempted Fiesty Grrl in Lost
Green: Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Jade
Purple: Malabrigo Sock in Violeta Africana

I originally started with US2 dpns, but the mitten was looser than I'd like. So I started over with US1 dpns, and I like it so far. I added a Latvian Braid to the cuff (tutorial here), and I like that better than the cuff in the pattern.

(^that pic is actually from the US2 dpn edition, but it still looks the same)

Moving right along, I really love working on this. It's quite addictive. I'm tying in any floats longer than 4 sts, and so far that seems to be sufficient.

This is how it looks today. Things are going pretty slowly now that school has started. I'm lucky to get in 5 rows/week. At this rate, I will have a complete set of mittens by winter 2015 lol.

I think that I will end up skipping part of the pattern. It calls for 3 flowers, but one flower is halfway down my hand. I'm going to knit until I'm 1/2 through the 2nd flower, and then I'll decide if I'm going to skip to that portion of the 3rd flower or not.

I decided to make the background of the thumb green instead of purple. It's made the base of the thumb a little bit thicker because I had to wrap the green around at the start of every thumb row. I hope that that won't be a problem, but I won't know until I'm done with the first mitten.

Ravelry project page: Lotus Mittens

DFW Fiber Fest

Last weekend was my 6th year to attend the DFW Fiber Fest with 2 of my friends. We had a fantastic time, as always! The Yarn Harlot was the Friday night speaker, but unfortunately we didn't buy tickets because everyone's budgets were a little tight this year (hello, new road bike. lol.) This is what I came home with:

The skein on the left is Western Sky Knits Magnolia Luxe, in the London colorway. It's a fantastically soft merino/cashmere/silk blend. The other full skein is Gynx Yarn Power Sock, in the Maverick colorway. That yarn is just so beautiful. I went by her booth 2x before I bought it, and I stood there petting the skein for a good 5 mins each time. Those 2 little mini skeins are some kind of superwash merino blend-I bought them for the sock yarn blanket that I'll finish roughly around 2050. I also bought that adorable little project bag (I can't remember the shop name... The tag does have Erin something on it, though). I also bought the little scissors because the guy at the booth offered us free candy and I felt obligated to buy something. They work pretty well on yarn, and are scarily sharp.

As for current projects, I decided that I needed a sweater for interpreting. I'm in an ASL interpreter program, and we have to wear dark solid tops when interpreting. I had some leftover yarn from mom's Argonath, so I started a Pull Me Over. So far, it's going quite well. I'm almost done with the waist increases, and then I don't think that there is much left after that. I'm going to do cap sleeves.

I also decided to start a pair of socks for a friend. I started the Stitch Surfer socks because I think the construction is cute. So far, it's going well. I tried to start them on dpns, but I had to switch to 4 needles way too early, so I started over with 2 circs. (My body/mind has rejected magic loop. I.Just.Can't.Do.It.) So far, so good. I think they'll be very pretty. I'm going to try to make mirror-image socks.

The Ravellenics are over

So the Ravellenics are finally over. Just like last time, I barely missed the deadline (by 35 mins this time). My project was Saroyan. I wanted a longer scarf, so I added 10 extra repeats to the straight section in the middle. Despite staying up until 3am on Saturday night, adding the extra length cost me a medal. Oh well. I like the way it turned out.

I finished my Geology shawl on Feb 7, but never got around to blocking it. I finally blocked it this weekend:

I also finished Roar. One of my best friends adopted a little boy, and I hope that he loves the hat. I had originally planned to do Terence, but I didn't like the way it turned out. I couldn't bring myself to finish it, so I switched projects. I like the way Roar turned out.

The 2014 Ravellenic Games started today!

I'm captaining Team Sprout for the 3rd time. This year, I'm in school, so I'm not going to try an ambitious project. I should have more time than I did in 2012 though (I was working 2 full-time jobs at the time). I've decided to do Saroyan. I'm going to use my Madtosh Tosh Merino Light in Betty Draper's Blues.

The mass cast-on was at 10am Central Time, and unfortunately, I'm at work. I managed to cast on and do the first 4 rows without being caught. We have a bigger team this year-22 members have declared projects, and we have 31 projects entered for Team Sprout. It's pretty exciting!

In other news, I finished a large project for my Mom's Christmas present. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it here, because there was always the chance that she could see it here. I started the Argonath in April last year, and finished a few days after Christmas. Luckily for me, Mom wanted to do Christmas on Jan 4, so I made it in time. I used Madelinetosh Tosh Sport in Norway Spruce, and bought the yarn at the DFW Fiber Festival last year. Here are some pics:

The color is the most accurate in the first picture. I really like how it turned out. Mom liked it too, although I can tell that she was hesitant to actually use it because of the intricacy of the project. I threatened to take it back if she didn't use it though lol.

I've had some serious startitis since I finished Argonath. Here is my latest clapotis, which is a slow-going project (schnauzer included for scale). I'm using Malabrigo lace in continental.

I really love the Geology shawl, so I started one of those too. I'm approximately 3 rows and the cast off from finishing, but now that the games have started, it might have to wait until March. I'm using Tempted Feisty Grrl in a lovely red color. Unfortunately, I don't have a more complete picture because it is impossible to stretch out the shawl all the way on the needles.

Lastly, I started some boot toppers. They're slow going too.

The startitis is rampant around here. :)