Lapis yoke sweater

The reason Tomten is not coming along faster is that I started a Lapis Yoke at the same time and it’s probably gotten 80% of my attention this past week. Although interestingly enough the more comfortable I get with lever knitting, the more time I am spending on Tomten.

Browsing through all the Lapis Yoke projects on Ravely, I was struck by how many positive comments there were about the pattern being well written, and how many people were making it with no mods, and how it seems to consistently deliver a very nice finished project.

Only a few more rows and the yoke will be complete

Gemini update

Gemini

My Gemini top is almost done, just have to weave in the ends and block. I ended up running out of yarn, I guess I should have paid more attention with quantity when substituting. Lesson learned! Because I am terrible at predicting how much yarn will get used up, I started the bottom rib a bit too soon and got a few extra rows out of it.

Lever knitting progress

Slowly coming along

I have worked on my Tomten a little bit every day, just a few rows, and can definitely notice a difference in speed and being more comfortable with the lever knitting movements. Although this project doesn’t give me the opportunity to practice purl stitches, I’m still happy with my choice.

Lever knitting Tomten

Last week I attended the Yarn Harlot‘s Knitting for Speed and Efficiency workshop put on by KnitSocial, which was a lot of fun. I left taking Stephanie’s advice to heart, that learning any new technique requires about 30 days of practice to allow muscle memory to form. She advised everyone to start a simple project like a scarf and work on it a little bit every day using the lever knitting technique.

Well I didn’t want to start a scarf. I don’t know what to do with scarves. I have never worn my lovely Noro striped scarf, and my mom, who lives in a city cold enough to use scarves has a enough scarves knitted by me that she didn’t even remember I had knit her a striped scarf too. Not to mention I am still suffering through a scarf/shawl project that will probably never end. Novelty yarns, never again.

Looking through my project queue, I realized that I have a strong penchant for seamless worked in the round projects which unfortunately are not ideal for a lever knitting practice project worked on 14″ straights. I toyed with the idea of making another EZ BSJ which would be a good lever knitting project, but in the end it hit me that DUH why not try a Tomten which was top smack at the top of my queue, added there some 5 years ago.

I have no baby in mind for it, but my friends seem to be producing them at a pretty steady rate these days so I’m sure it will eventually find a wearer. Then when I am done I will be so proficient at lever knitting and such a fast and speedy knitter that tackling an adult Tomten for DH will be a natural progression. He would like it ready by September please. I told him that will never happen. Unless we are talking September 2017?

In the meantime this is all I got. It’s going well, but my biggest struggle is with the stitches sticking to the needles instead of sliding along nicely. Having to force them along is interrupting my slow turtle rhytm. I’m trying to knit as loosely as possible, but that doesn’t seem to help. I wonder if trying to find some Addi Turbo straights would make a difference?

First few rows

My stitches are all bunched up tightly, as that is another technique to help with knitting speed, keeping stitches stacked up. And so I am off to do a few more rows.

Very first sweater complete

It only took for ever and a day, but I finally finished my very first sweater project. The knitting was done ages and ages ago, but it took me probably a year to motivate myself to weave in the ends! But now it’s done! When I originally swatched this yarn, I was very good about it and knit a swatch in the round and then put the swatch through the wash and dryer (gasp). I had read comments that this yarn really stretched after washing, but the dryer seemed to counter the effect nicely. After washing the sweater, I tried to block it but it was way stretched out. I let it sit overnight and it was still a bit damp this morning and still stretched out, so I threw it in the dryer for 20mins and it came out perfect.

Gemini in progress

My Gemini knit is slowly coming along…

Fresh cheese

A bit late as the cheese has long ago been eaten, but here are the after photos from the yogurt cheese making…

 

Yogurt cheese in progress

Organic plain yogurt in cheesecloth (a du-rag).

Will leave hanging over a pot to catch the whey for about 24 hours.

Knitting Gemini

I started a new knitting project a couple of weeks ago…

The pattern is Gemini by Jane Richmond. This is the first time I have ever tried anything resembling lace. It took me a while to wrap my head around yo twice (haha) but thanks to a youtube video, Yarnovers and Double Yarnovers (yo and yo twice), I got it figured out and it went really quick after that. I did mess up round 8 while watching the last Game of Thrones episode, but luckily it’s not really noticeable. I’m hoping this will be a relatively quick knit for me.

Cheesemaking

I randomly came across this video on cheese making while researching stuff to do on my upcoming trip to Portland.

The video is quite fitting because I actually just took a cheese making class this past week-end, and while I have not yet had a chance to gather supplies I am looking forward to trying my hand at making some chèvre!