Knitsey Knitsum's Top 40 Knitdown

Have you spent time looking at the most popular patterns on Ravelry? How many of them have you knit? Why did you knit them? Why didn’t you knit them? Did you customize it?  I always found myself looking at these patterns, but never knitting them, I may be one of the few people on Ravelry who hasn’t knit a Monkey sock.  When I had String Thing Shop, I came up with the idea to start a group to talk about what makes these patterns so popular and to finally get around to knitting them to see what the fuss is all about. We had discussions and KALs. This series is a revival of sorts of the Ravelry group.  It looks to answer some of these questions while having fun knitting these popular patterns. When we started the KALs at the shop we started with the most popular, unlike Casey Kasem who started at 40 and counted down to 1.  I thought for the blog we'd start with 40. 
And I'll make updates to the list monthly, I think.
But for now let's get started with #40 Daybreak by Stephen West.  Incidentally, Stephen is the only designer to have 3 patterns in the top 40.  Several have 2, but no one else has 3.  Daybreak was published in August of 2009 and since then 5057 have been made.  It is a semicircular shawl in 3 sizes and it uses 2 colors, even more interest is added by using a striping or gradient yarn.  For my Daybreak I am going to use an unidentifiable ball of  Crazy Zauberball crazy and natural Heritage.
I am leaning towards knitting the medium size. 

I am going to revive the Knitsey Knitsum group on Ravelry so join us there to share pictures and discuss the patterns. 

Sunday Sockdown: Focus Pocus MKAL

So I've got some ideas for ongoing post series and this is one of them.  (be prepared to be introduced to all of them this week)

Sunday Sockdown is going to be all about... wait for it... Socks! Socks are the reason I wanted to learn to knit in the first place.  I remember becoming enraptured with all the pretty self patterning sock yarn a la Opal.  It was love at first sight, but alas I didn't know how to knit and crocheted socks just didn't cut it. So I learned to knit and not long after I was churning out pair after pair of socks.  My second pair of socks was a Cookie A pattern.  And my favorite and most popular class to teach is Intro to Sock knitting. 
Part of this year's plan is to knit 14 pairs of socks. So let's see what pair we are starting with.

One of my favorite knitting bloggers/teachers in Knit Purl Hunter.  Her tutorials, both written and video, are excellent: clear, concise, and fun.  Her knit-a-longs began a few years ago with the help of Skacel, when she designed and led the knit-a-longs to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Trekking yarn (a favorite).  She introduced new techniques and highlighted old favorites in a mystery knit-a-long format while utilizing a versatile and diverse line of sock yarn.  I really enjoyed knitting those 6 pairs of socks, they were some of my favorite to knit and to wear.
This year she is starting with a new sock MKAL, Focus Pocus.  They are knit cuff down 2 at a time using one of Skacel's newer sock yarns CoBaSi. CoBaSi is a wool free sock yarn, something that is rare in the world of yarn, but is much sought after.  CoBaSi gets its name from its fiber make up: Cotton, Bamboo, and Silk.  To be perfectly honest this is not my favorite yarn to knit with, but it is worth knitting with to see how the other side lives.  I find the yarn to be a little splitty and not spun tightly enough, that said, it is a good alternative to wool yarns. 

The first clue for Focus Pocus was released Thursday and well sadly, I haven't gotten very far on my socks.  I have gotten cast on but have only gotten a few rows in.  It's 2 at a time cuff down and that can be really fiddly in the beginning. I've already knit half a sock with the wrong skein of yarn.  But I will keep at it.  The next clue will be release on Thursday and I will have clue 1 finished by then.  Again, this is a really great KAL for anyone who wants to learn some new sock tricks or just beef up already familiar techniques.  Her pattern are fully supported with video tutorials or blog post explanations.  And she responds really quickly to emails and is very friendly.  You can also join the Ravelry group for the knit-a-long and find support there among your fellow knitters.  So if you want to try something new for the new year, jump in and join us for Focus Pocus, its never to late to start. 

And here's the sad little bit I have started:

2014, You're here already?

Happy New Year!
I can't believe it's here already, but it is.  I'm not sure how ready I am for 2014, there are some big things in store for this year, the biggest of all being the little one set to arrive in a little more than a month.  As if I haven't struggled to keep up with this blog before that, now I'm going to have 2 little ones to keep me busy.  But everybody needs an outlet, I'm really hoping and going to try to make this my place for sharing.  I have some ideas to help with that consistency including  club spoilers (yarn clubs being one of my favorite things).  I have signed up for 2 new clubs this year in addition to my favorites, including Cookie A Sock Club, Barenaked Knitspot, which has turn into a year long club instead of 6 months, and Romi's Pins and Lace.  The 2 new ones are WPKnits Mystery Club and Miss Babs Knitting Tour.  Miss Babs is one of my favorite yarnies and I have wanted to get in this club for a couple years, but I kept missing the sign up window, finally the stars aligned this year and I am in and am very excited. 
Other topics you can expect to see are progress reports on mystery knits, work on One Little Word with Ali Edwards, and trying my hand at project life.  Last year I started out the year with a word and made it exactly one month with it.  Let's see f we can't keep that word with us for more of the year. I will share my word in a future post.  I discovered Project Life memory keeping last year and loved the idea of it. I then had months of internal struggle where I couldn't decide if I was doing a paper version or a digital version, so I didn't do either. This year I am going with the paper version.  I'll talk more about it when I get my first layout finished which should be Sunday or Monday.
Back when I had my yarn store, I came up with this knit along idea: Knitsey Knitsums Top 40 Knitdown.  Basically it is a look at the 40 most popular patterns on Ravelry and knitting and discussing them, asking questions like what makes this pattern popular and would it be in our personal top 40 among other things.. I'd like to make this a weekly topic with a link up for those who want to join in knitting the projects or you knit them in the past. (There are one or two I might not reknit). 
I have set a goal to knit 14 shawls and 14 pairs of socks in 2014.  Since these are basically the only thing I knit consistently I shouldn't have any problem achieving this goal.  I just have to decide on some guidelines for myself. 
So stay tuned for some knitting adventures.

Yarn and Kool-Aid

What do you get when you combine yarn and Kool-Aid? Some pretty amazing colored yarn. Like spinning, I never thought I would get into hand-dyeing, but now I find myself fully intrigued by the art and science of it. It's another avenue for me to stay connected to the industry that I love and the subject matter you can't shut me up about.  I had pinned and read numerous versions of "How to dye yarn with Kool-Aid" articles and blog posts, and in my usual fashion i have multiple books on the subject do dyeing.  So I took all that I had read, mashed it all together, and winged it.  I used my crockpot.  I added some water turned it on high and added some Kool-Aid.  I had soaked the yarn in some plain water to get it saturated first.  I used some KnitPicks Stroll Bare and some Cascade Heritage in natural to play with.  I wanted my yarn to look like it was sprinkled with confetti when it was done.  

I filled my crockpot with just enough water to mostly cover the yarn, I wanted a little bit sticking out of the water to get, what i thought would result in, the best speckles.  Before adding the yarn I added a base color to the water. I used 3 different colors and left one skein natural.  I let the yarn sit in the 'dye' until the water was clearish and the yarn had soaked it all up.  Then the fun began. I just started shaking different colors one at a time onto the yarn. I would shake some color on then wait for the water to return to clear, then added another color.  Once a color had set I would move the yarn around a little to make sure all sides were covered evenly.  I didn't like how the orange went on and really only used it for the first skein, i found the orange to dissipate and not speckle like the other colors.  I would still use it for a base on future skeins, but not for speckles.  The whole process didn't take very long per skein, but overall it was a good hour or 2 because I did each skein seperately.  After I was happy with the color on the yarn, I squeezed out as much water as i could then ran it under clean water to make sure all the residual was off, then I hung it over a plastic hanger and hung it in the shower to dry. In hindsight, I should have soaked it in some wool wash before hanging it up to dry.  I can't wait to wind it up, and knit with it. 

30 Day Sweater

Who doesn't like a good challenge? And this one is right up my alley: knit a sweater in 30 days and same take it a step further and sign their own. Of course, I need to take it that one little step further, but I have thinking about starting to design for at least a year it have been scared to take the plunge. So I am considering this my shove into the deep end. I am going to design my sweater for the 30 day challenge.  It is going to be a cardigan and that is momma-to-be friendly.  I pretty much have it sketched in my head and need to start playing with some yarn and stitch patterns.  I am not completely pulling this from thin air the folks behind the 30daysweater.com have an ebook to hold your  hand through the process even giving you daily goals. Tomorrow, day 1, is all about swatching, gauge, and math.  Stay tuned! 

Catch Up

Ugh, sorry didn't mean to be absent for so long.

I have gotten my butt in gear somewhat and started a new exercise program and I am pretty stoked about it.  First off I have a confession to make: I am addicted to buying workout DVD systems. I am a devotee of the Firm and Beachbody.  I think I can safely say I have 90% of all the Firm videos and I have most of the big Beachbody programs, namely P90X (which I bought under cover as a gift for my husband, truthfully he does use it most everyday) P90X2, Chalene Extreme and my newest acquisition TurboFire.  I am on my third day which happens to be a rest day and so far I am loving it. Can I do all the moves? Not quite, but I keep moving. They are pretty intense... so intense that I decided to follow their prep schedule instead of jumping right into the normal rotation calendar.  It's not all HIIT cardio, there is also yoga, strength training and core work.  My goal for February is to follow my calendar and not skip a day.  Along that line, I actually didn't rest today.... I did my run workout from the Galloway 10K trainer and it was not my best run... I had the Princess in the jogger and it just throws my rhythm off and I couldn't get into it.  It was lovely out, but oy not a good run.  I plan to do a 10 min yoga video later this afternoon. 

In crafty news, I have been on a knitting tear. Finishing projects left and right.  I've finished 2 hats, a pair of mitts, a sock, and a shawl that had only 8 rows left since September in the last 2 weeks.  I am halfway through another pair of mitts and have new socks cast on. I'm also working on a pattern for a toe up sock class I am teaching in April.  In addition, I have club packages arriving: I got my winter Pins and Lace, my first Cookie A of 2013 in one of my favorite yarns, my ami kit, and a new club for me Laura Nelkin's new knitted jewelry club from Patternworks.  I am eagerly awaiting the first installment of the Barenaked Knitspot Club for 2013, I already saw the spoiler on Ravelry and it is ah-ma-zing.  I cannot wait. I just hope my yarn comes before Sunday when the pattern is released.

Knitting has pretty much taken over my time. I haven't worked on any quilts or stitching or project life. I know I need to catch up on these projects as well but really I just want to knit right now. I might even have to go cast on another project I have been meaning to cast on since last March.

Shout Out

A big shout out and thank you to my personal photog and friend Debkm.  She's a one shot wonder! Get my awesome new headshot in one shot.