Knitted tee and advent socks finishes and all the advent yarn.

 Before the end of the year I have 2 more finishes.

The Rievaulx tee by Josee Paquin from PomPom Magazine.  Knit in Orb Fine from Skeinz

It is a bit baggier over the shoulders than I expected, but otherwise I'm happy with it.  I can wear it either on its own or with a long sleeved tee under it.

I also finished my advent socks.

These are the advent yarns I received from Squishy McDo

I'm rather disappointed with these.  There are so many that are the same colour, I'm not talking about the same colourway but different shades - no the exact same shade, colouring etc.

The worst was the mid grey that had 4 skeins all the same.  Next worse was green, that wasn't sock weight as advertised but DK and I had 3 skeins of those.  I also had 2 of the same light blue and 2 of the same light green.  So in all out of 25 I had 15 different colours.  Disappointing.  I won't be ordering from this place again.

2020 dressmaking and cross stitching accomplishments

 Reigniting my passion for knitting has really put a dent in my dressmaking and cross stitching.

Last year I made 35 garments and 1 lingerie item for a total spend of $890 on fabric, average cost $25 per garment.

This year I made just 9 garments for a spend of $202.5 for a cost of $22.50 per garment.  

These are the items I made

From top left to bottom right

Lyric skirt, adapted from Lyric dress by Love Notions

Cadence dress by Love Notions

Pia dress by Tessuti

LDT by Love Notions

Sonya dress by Colette - failure!!

Vivace top by Itch to Stitch

Cayman pants by Love Notions

Archer Shirt by Grainline

Cape Cod Capelet by Itch to stitch.

I don't have any plans for 2021 for dressmaking.

My cross stitching has also slowed down, especially since October.  I've constantly changed my plans and discarded projects started.

I did finish one, Witching Hour by HAED

I've currently decided to stitch on one at a time.  I am close to a finish on one and have made good progress on another.  So first I will aim to finish Healing Rose

Once that is done I will work on Naida.  She is currently on the q snaps but this is a screenshot from Pattern Keeper showing progress

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2 sock finishes, yarn advent and knitting accomplishments for 2020 and plans for 2021

 Andrea Mowrey had a KAL challenge to knit her Spark sock between 25th and 30th November.  I didn't think I would be able to knit one sock, let alone 2 in such a short timeframe, but I did it.

These were knit cuff down with an afterthought heel.  Instead of my usual 64 stitcheson 2.25mm needles, her stitch pattern was 60 stitches on 2.5mm needles and they worked out just fine.  They are my first colourwork socks.  I started them on Magic loop, but found changing colours too tiresome when constantly flicking the needles over, so changed to my usual 9" circular needles.

Another pair of socks that I finished were an ordinary pair knit with self patterning yarn.  On the second sock I switched to flexi DPN's using VeryPink Knits pattern for flexi dpns.  The pattern called for a gusset and heel.  I made the gusset and heel and continued knitting up the leg to the cuff.  I then tried it on and didn't like the look and feel of the heel.  I much prefer the afterthought heel.  So I pulled it all back and knit as usual to get the afterthought heel.

I had some more haul.  I lost one of the pegs from my ChiaoGoo swift.  Kiwiyarna had a set of replacement pegs for just $5.  Well it would be mean to place such a small order, especially when it was coming all the way from Christchurch, even more so as I love her yarn.  So I bought some more yarn, a sweater stone for depilling and stitchmarkers.

This is an OOAK.

This is called Burnt Gold.  I thought both of these would go nicely for the Alaska hat.  The OOAK will hopefully look like a sunset.

This arrived really quickly.  I ordered it at 8.30am on Friday and it arrived 12.30pm on Saturday.

Not so quick to arrive was my Advent yarn from Squishy Mcdoo.  She advised on Facebook on Thursday 26 November that it had all been sent by courier.  On Friday I was concerned as others on Facebook were saying theirs had arrived, however I hadn't received any confirmation email with tracking details and on her website my order still showed as pending and boxes for Courier and Tracking were blank.  When I messaged her she assured that was normal and the courier hadn't been able to fit them all in his van.  In other words, they hadn't all been sent as per her Facebook post.  

So the point of an advent calendar is that you can start opening on 1st December.  Mine didn't arrive until the 3rd.  Frustrating.  Especially given how quickly my order from another island arrived a week later, and a week closer to Xmas so even busier for couriers.

However what I have received so far I am happy with.  All the 25 days were wrapped and inside a project bag that had other loose treats in it.  I'll probably forget some, but here goes.  A tupperware container for storing notions, 3 wooden buttons with sheep on them, a tape measure, a silk scarf, pen and pencils, couple of Xmas tree ornaments,  row counter and of course a pattern to knit the advent with.

And the yarn colours are beautiful.

The green received on day 2 and 4 appear to be the exact same colour.  Again a bit disappointing as I expected them all to be different, however it is a pretty green so I will use them both. 

Now I just need to decide what to do with them.  I think I'll wait until they've all been opened and then match the best ones with my existing sock yarn for heels and toes.  I'll use about half in a Habitation throw and use the leftovers for scrappy socks, mittens and hats.  Some of these may end up being Xmas presents in the next year or two.

So this year I have finished the following:

Not bad to have 9 items finished for someone who just picked up her needles again in March and really got passionate about it in September.

I'll do separate posts shortly on my sewing and cross stitching .

So looking ahead to 2021 knitting plans.  These are what I would like to do as a knit 9

Left to right.

Rainbow connections mittens.  On my needles

Andrea Mowrey Spark cardigan

Alaska Hat

Hakea Hat

Sparky Jumper.  Or any jumper with a yoke pattern

So Faded Jumper

Socks.  On my needles

Stephen west mkal

Rievaulx top.  On my needles.

Slipstravaganza finished, more haul

 Slipstravaganza is finished.

I had so much fun knitting this, I will definitely do next years mystery knit along.  At times I had doubts about my colour choices, mainly because of seeing other knitters beautiful choices, but once I tried it on, I love it.

I almost ran out of the main colour for this and had to unravel both swatches I'd made.  I used all one swatch and had about 4 rows left of the other swatch once I finished - talk about yarn chicken!  However as I knew I was running out I went to Loopine Yarn Co, my local LYS and bought another skein of the main colour.    Well of course I couldn't just buy 1 skein.  I really like Kiwiyarn-a so bought another 2 skeins of their High Twist.

This is Under the Sea

And this is Penzance.

One of the most popular designers is Andrea Mowrey.  I have a number of her projects in my queue, including the So Faded and Spark in my last post.  She announced a KAL starting on 25 November and ending 30 November to knit a pair of socks called Sparks.  

It will be a challenge to knit an entire pair in such a short time frame, but I decided to take part.  As I managed to eke Slipstravaganza out of what I had left and didn't need any of my new skein, the new skein will be the main colour and the contrast will be Two Bare Hands "I Wasn't Expecting That"

While I was at Loopine I also bought my first HiyaHiya needles set. I bought some 2.25mm interchangeable needles with an 80 cm cord for magic loop.  The needles are a lot longer than my ChiaoGoos and I'm using them on my current sock project and think I'm finding them easier on my hands and the cord is nice and flexible.

This week the last of my Lightfinger Gang Subscription from Vintage Purls arrived.  

So there was a full skein of yarn and 3 minis and a pattern for a lovely Fair Isle cowl.  I love all the colours and the pattern, so I will definitely be making the Egidia cowl - it is in my queue.

At the end of the week I had a message that Ribbon Rose was having a popup shop with greatly reduced prices.  So of course I had to go.  Amongst other things they had DK 100% Australian wool for just $15 for a bag of 10 50g balls.   On my list is another Andrea Mowrey pattern, Spark.  This is meant to be be 10 ply, but I should be able to do it in 8 ply.

  Also in the back of my mind is I would like to try Stephen Wests Starflanket which is also DK

So I bought enough wool for both projects.

For the cardigan I would need more than 10 50g balls, so I bought two bags of the first one which is a Heather green.  I'm not too sure about the colour, I had been thinking more a light grey for the main colour, so I may yet buy some more!  Also rather than the starflanket I may make hats and mitts for gifts next year.  We'll see.  This is why you can never have enough yarn - who knows what you may want to make in the future.

I really mustn't buy any more yarn though until I start finishing some projects.  Maybe I need to make that a rule - it would also be an incentive to finish something if I said once a project is finished which used x much I can buy that same amount.  Nice resolution but I doubt I'll stick to it!

Double yarn haul, Plans for the haul, Slipstravaganza and sock progress

 The last 2 weekends there have been two different yarn shows giving me the chance to expand my stash.  The first was by a vendor that travels the country selling yarn from NZ indie dyers.  From her I bought:

Summer stitch markers:

Yarnsen - no name

Purrl Kitten " We're all mad here"

Two Bare Hands " I wasn't expecting that"

Purple Sprouting "Park Life"

 The second show was held by a spinners guild and opened to the public after the first couple of hours.  From there I bought

Strawberry Patches "Aubergine"

Strawberry Patches "Pine Forest"

Dye Happy"Josephine" - super sparkly bright orange - Loove

Gumtree Gully Alpacas "Monarch"

 I'm loving how some of these look together.  It wasn't until I got them home that I realised how well the Aubergine, Pine Forest and Park Life looked together, along with Sweet Sixteen and Liberty already in my stash.

These are the perfect amounts and weight to make Andrea Mowrey's "So Faded"

This pattern has entered my queue at number 1.

Also I love how the Byte and We're all mad here look together.  

I've had my eye on the Alaska hat for a while and at the back of my mind I've been keeping an eye out for a yarn that would work for Northern Lights in the background.  I think We're all Mad here will do the job and there will be some left over for some matching mittens in a similar pattern.

And I'm thinking Monarch and Josephine would look good together in a Spark sweater by Andrea Mowrey, possible with a grey as the contrast.

So onto progress.

I've been working exclusively on Slipstravaganza and hope to have it finished in around another 10 days.  I took my last progress picture at the end of clue 3.

A lot of people have finished their Slipstravaganza and it looks spectacular.  I saw it 'in the flesh' at this weekends wool show - amazing.  The last clue takes a very long time as there are over 900 stitches per row and to make it full size there are 48 rows, though there is the option to make it smaller.  I am going for the big option - provided I have enough of the main colour yarn - it is going to be close.

I don't think I've posted a photo of my Rievaulx sweater.  This has been on hold since starting Slipstravaganza, but the back is finished

I've made a little bit of progress on my sock.  I'm still working on the second sock of another pair but am up to the gusset, I wanted a sock I could just knit mindlessly so I cast on another.  I did a little bit when I needed a break from the very long rows of slipstravaganza.