New Yarns, New Project

Another Stitches has come and gone. I went on Friday with some friends from Ravelry, and ran into several more while I was there. It was nice to see so many familiar faces, especially considering that two years ago I didn't really know any other knitters in person. Ravelry has certainly changed that.

As for the shopping at Stitches, I pretty much stuck to my plans. Here's what I got:



(I rather like how all the colors go together.)

From left to right we have:

50/50 Silk/Merino fiber in No. 9 from A Verb for Keeping Warm. I know I said I wanted to try something other than merino or merino blends, but this was too pretty to pass up! I think it would be great as a laceweight.

Malabrigo Lace in Paris Night. Actually, I didn't buy this yarn at Stitches. As if going to Stitches wasn't enough yarn shopping for one day, R and I stopped by my LYS (Stash) afterwards. There had been some of the laceweight at Stitches, but I wasn't crazy about the colors, so I figured I was better off checking out my LYS, since they had just received a shipment of Malabrigo (both lace and worsted).

Malabrigo Dos in Indiecita. If you knew the password, the nice folks at the Malabrigo booth gave you a skein of yarn to try! I can't wait to knit this up, probably as a pair of fingerless mitts.

Toots LeBlanc BFL/pygora laceweight in Chocolate. This was the only thing I bought that wasn't on my list, but I figured it was okay because (1) I skipped purchasing something else on my list and (2) I walked the rest of the market first in case I saw something else I would rather have. Toots LeBlanc was my favorite new find (thanks to Stash and Burn); I love that their yarns and fibers are left their natural color.

Black Water Abbey worsted weight in Moss. I'm planning to make a vest with this yarn, and the color is a nice fit for the first color/theme grouping of Project Spectrum: Cardinal Directions, which starts today.

But before I begin my vest, I'm casting on for Malabrigo March! I started working on Ishbel this morning (using Malabrigo Lace in Paris Night).



My progress is a little slow since I keep stopping to pet the oh-so-soft Malabrigo. Mmmmmmm.

Shifting Elements

March is coming to a close and April is about to begin, which means Project Spectrum: Elements is changing from Fire to Earth. I've been playing with both elements.

Here is a fiery FO that was for both PS3 and Malabrigo March (Ravelry link).



Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted in Geranio (44), one skein.
Pattern: The Amanda Hat (pdf) by Gina House. I used the same modifications as I did for my first Amanda Hat.
Needles: US 8 (5 mm) for body of hat, US 7 (4.5 mm) for decreases.

With the leftovers, I'm making Evangeline (fingerless gloves) from MagKnits. I hope I have enough yarn!



I'm carrying around this project in my new box bag. It's the perfect size for small knitting projects (7 inches long, 4 inches wide, and 3.5 inches tall).



I chose brown and green fabrics for the Earth element of PS3.



I used Drago[knit]fly's box bag tutorial, with a couple of modifications. After reading around on some blogs, I decided to add tabs to help make zipping and unzipping the bag easier.



I also concealed the raw edges with the extra brown fabric. I love how the inside of the bag turned out.



Making this bag was a bit more time-consuming than I had anticipated, since I ended up ripping and redoing a number of the seams (my sewing skills are a bit rusty), but it was worth it!

mmmMalabrigo March

Over on Ravelry, the Malabrigo Junkies group is celebrating Malabrigo March. There are a bunch of knitalongs and contests going on, so it's going to be an exciting month! I'm co-leading two of the KALs with sweetfigs - one for Koolhaas (KAL here) and one for the Amanda Hat (pdf) (KAL here).

In preparation for the KALs, I was working on an Amanda Hat this week.



Pattern: Amanda Hat (pdf) by Gina House
Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted in Violetas (68), one skein
Needles: US 8 (5 mm), and US 7 (4.5 mm) for the decreases

The first time I worked through the pattern as written. However, the top ended up being a bit puckered and the hat was a bit too long. So I frogged back some, eliminating the last two rounds of the lace pattern. I worked the garter rounds, and then switched to smaller needles for the decreases. I also added an additional round of decreases (k2tog all the way around) before cinching off the top. The modified top ended up much smoother for me, and like how it turned out. I really enjoyed knitting this hat, and especially love how the combination of variegation and lace pattern worked out.



Time to cast on for more mmmMalabrigo hats!