This was a particularly satisfying pattern to knit. It starts out so small and that first chart seemed daunting. It’s well written, but there was just So Much Going On that I needed to concentrate and I despaired of ever finishing with a toddler around.

But once I made it through the first chart, and there wasn’t some new thing appearing at the edge ask the time, I started to find my rhythm.

Rhythm, breast pump… I amuse myself.

And it just felt so natural that it seemed weird that I’d been thinking of this as a terribly technical pattern. Surely it was just obvious?

The pattern is Aroha Knits’ Whakairo Cowl done with the shawl variant. It’s really worth reading the pattern description about how it’s meant to minic Maori wood carving.

I can’t remember how many repeats I did of that 3rd chart, but it was enough that I had it memorized and didn’t even look at it by the end. Kind of amazing.

The yarn is Kupenda in colour “free range” by Fierce Fibers. It’s a super soft alpaca/silk/cashmere blend that is slippery and a little fluffy and oh so soft. I was worried about the stitch definition because of the halo but I really didn’t need to be. Even if it wasn’t a luxury yarn, this is the most luxurious gradient I’ve ever used. The colours are so saturated, the colour change is so perfect, and the yarn has been re-straightened so unlike most gradients it’s not in that “just unknit from the blank” stage.

I already bought more. (And got a personal delivery to my desk at work, but that’s another story!)

It very much needed blocking. It was a toddler-sized shawl when it came off the needles! I liked the tight lace with all those twisted stitches, but you could tell it would open up.

Even blocked, it’s not quite the right shape for the way I like to wear a triangle shawl: it’s really designed as a buttoned cowl. But that was easily solved with a shawl pin.

I’m super happy with the way this one turned out. It’s a very technical shawl but mathematically predictable and just feels satisfying to me. Plus, that yarn! This will see a lot of wear… As soon as I’m not worried about getting hair dye on it if it rains, anyhow! (Not pictured here, but my hair is dark blue/purple/pink now.)

Shannon Squire and Knitted Wit have my favourite summer knit-a-long: Socks on Vacay. My first pair of socks took me around two years to finish, but I liked wearing them, so I foolishly joined in last year and knit 3 socks in time, and I guess I’m a sock knitter now?

So here’s a few photos of my first 4 (!) socks for this year.

Yarn is the Talk Like a Pirate Day themed “Yarrrrn!” (From last year’s sassy holidays collection). I saved this for a whole year!

Pattern is Shannon Squire’s Short Attention Span. It doesn’t actually go down to toddler size, so I improvised those a bit to scale them down.

My baby Dread Pirate (who is also so named thanks to Talk Like A Pirate Day) was utterly pleased with the socks, which was rather a surprise to me since it was hot and I didn’t think he’d want to wear them even for photos. But I think after he watched me knit them, he was pleasantly surprised to find out they were for him!

I’ve got two more socks finished but no pictures yet, so I’m definitely beating last year’s record!

Knitted Wit did this neat collab with a pile of awesome designers It started with yarn…

Yarn: Glow Up Knitted Wit kit (with main colour Oregon Sky)

There’s a lot of great patterns in the collection, but I particularly loved this one.

Pattern: Oregon Sky by Michele Bernstein (Pdxknitterati)

I took it to Albuquerque for the mini Maker Faire. (see how it matches the rainy Oregon departure!)

I found the perfect project bag:

I took it to Cleveland for Pycon and it was literally bound off in the sky on the way home:

This is a great pattern for travel: visually stunning and a great conversation starter, yet with short and easily memorized lace sections so I could pick it up and knit while watching the toddler, attending conference talks, or pretty much whenever. I think I told more people the name of this pattern than anything I’ve ever knit!

I had some fun taking finished photos…

I’m not sure why, but my toddler particularly likes this one, so while i was taking photos he gestured that i needed to throw it on a tree then grabbed it and ran away giggling …

And before I’d even processed those photos, I was lucky enough to catch a rainbow and get photos with it!

How amazing is that?

Great shawl, great yarn, and my only regret is that it might be a while before I try the other patterns in the collection!

After the Rose City Yarn Crawl mystery knit, I decided that I’d had so much fun that I should try out Romi’s annual mystery knit too. I wouldn’t say that the mystery was hard because it’s extremely well written and well tested, but it’s definitely a pattern that requires concentration. I actually like that, but it did mean I made some mistakes.

Clue 1:

Knitting surgery with Dr. Terri/Clue 2:

The fixed clue 2:

Clue 3:

Clue 4:

Clue 5:

Done!

Overall, this was definitely a more technical knit than I’d done in a while, but in a good way: it was nice to do something complicated and succeed at it. I even finished the MKAL in the allotted time!

I’m torn now: this is always going to fall near the Rose City Mystery-a-longs, but they’ve been hit or miss for me because they’re geared to be accessible to beginners and also include cowls which experience tells me I won’t wear. Do I plan to do this mystery instead, or do I do both, or neither? I guess I’ll just play it by ear for next year!

Finished objects

I finished my second sock!

I’d hoped to finish this for the lotsofsocks downs syndrome awareness kal, but alas it was not to be. Still, I love it, and I think I’ll be not matching my stripes on future socks either. It’s freeing and also out turns out I just like them this way.

My 2018 JBW Tosh Shawl is also finally finished!  I already did the half year post, but here’s a picture again:

So going back to my work in progress week post, here’s where I’m at:

1. Little Box of Crochet Advent Calendar – untouched, but not hoping to complete until December-ish
2. Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery Knit a Long – done!
3. Cascadial Wrap – I actually finished another colour before switching to the JBW shawl, so it’s progressing!
4. Flickering Light Shawl – planned after the Cascadial wrap, but maybe only not around my toddler this time since he loved the drop stitches a bit too much
5. Sock – done!
6. JBW Tosh Shawl – done!
7. JBW British Invasion Kit – in hibernation. aka, after looking at my queue I’ve decided I’m not excited enough about this one and I’ll save it to be a grab-and-run kit when needed

New Objects

So of course, now that I’ve finished some and have mentally put a few in hibernation, I started my two knit-a-longs!

Romi Mystery KAL 2019 (clue 1):

Oregon Sky Shawl for the Glow Up Knitted Wit CKAL

The Oregon Sky shawl helps me fill in the gaps when I run out of MKAL clue, and it gave me a nice project for Albuquerque Maker Faire on April 6-7 so I wouldn’t fall into the same pattern of starting something new and then abandoning it. I don’t know that I’ll have enough left by May 2nd when I head to PyCon, though!  But for now, I’m enjoying the Glow Up hashtags on Instagram for the knit along. People have such different rainbows!

The Queue Curation

I finished my cull, and the queue is hovering around 90 items. Not bad! Of course, now that it’s only 3 pages long, it’s much easier for me to see what was missing. For example: I have yarn for Shannon Squire’s That 70’s Shawl (I even have several options to choose from) and Composition Book Mitts but somehow never queued either pattern. And I bought a Space Cadet yarn kit for the Bubbles of Joy MKAL but somehow never queued that pattern either. Nor did I start it; I was a bit over-optimistic in my ability to finish the RCYC MKAL and missed the boat entirely on this MKAL. But it’s an absolutely beautiful pattern that I’ll definitely be knitting eventually, so I pushed it up near the top of the queue.

It’s been really fun matching stash yarns to projects. I also think I finally have a pattern for my one unassigned sweater quantity of yarn. We’ll see if it’s still my favourite when I get to casting on, but I bought the pattern so I’m pretty convinced. 

Other fun finds: I had queued a pile of sock patterns, which was kind of weird since I wasn’t really a sock knitter until I got hooked during the Socks on Vacay knit-a-long last year. But now that I actually enjoy knitting socks, there’s some great skill-improvement patterns in there, something I now want as I mentioned right back up at the beginning of this post. Thanks, past me!

I’m not what one would call a monogamous knitter: that is, I don’t do one project at a time. But things have gotten a little out of hand because I start a new project with every trip, and I’ve had a lot of trips since the fall with not enough time in between to finish things. So my normal “one bigger/more challenging at home, one for in my purse” has ballooned to… I don’t know, maybe 7-9 projects?

It’s a bit silly of me to start a mystery knit a long, especially when I’m probably not even going to get to do the full yarn crawl this year (J is traveling, my friend who usually comes down to visit can’t make it this year, and I’m not up to toddler wrangling through 11 incredibly busy stores on my own. I’m planning maybe 2-3?). But I was watching from afar (literally: reading the Ravelry threads from New Zealand) and people were saying that this year’s knit was challenging and had unusual construction, and I was curious enough to try.

I managed to get my yarns out of my stash:

The gold colour is what I chose for colour 1. I love this yarn so much. This was an impulse buy at Knotty Lamb maybe during last year’s crawl, and it’s from Farmer’s Daughter yarns.

Colour 2 is Madeline Tosh and I might not have enough of it, but I liked the two together so much that if i have to bind off in colour 1 to make this work, so be it. I picked up that one at I think Knit Purl (now closed) a few years ago in the crawl.

As promised, some interesting construction. Can you see the yarn overs at the edges?

And here’s Clue 1 complete to those last two stitches:

I’d never done a “reverse” icord bind off!

And then on to picking back up for clue 2… Clue 3 is already out, so I’m quite behind! But, life, toddler, and if you look in the back of that photo, I’m learning pcb design too. Sometimes the must amazing thing about being an adult is that I hardly ever have to be bored!

Pattern

Willamette Falls Shawlette by Shelia January from the 2015 Rose City Yarn Crawl collection. Note that there is errata for this one.

Unblocked:

My project

My project on Ravelry

I added another section just before the end so that I’d use more of the gradient, because it seemed a shame to finish it early and I wanted the “waterfall” edging in white. I haven’t written up great pattern notes, but you can see the extra section in the photo below. It’s the one with the V shapes just before the waterfalls start.

As it was, I just barely made it work:

Cast off and won at yarn chicken! ? #knitting

A post shared by Terri Oda (@drterriko) on May 27, 2017 at 5:14pm PDT

Yarn

Wollelfe Fingering Merino/Silk, 65% merino 35% silk.

This stuff is glorious, and less kinky than other gradient yarns so your knits look pretty decent even un-blocked. (I hear Fierce Fibers really has the straightest gradients, but I haven’t had a chance to knit one of hers up yet. There is one waiting in my stash, though!)

I’m a sucker for silk blends because of the softness, and this yarn definitely does not disappoint in the softness department. It was also easy to work with, has a really nice gradual gradient that appealed to me, and as one might expect, it’s a bit lighter than a pure merino which makes it a great weight for wearing in my office as the weather warmed up.

Summary

This was a great spring knit for me after I got back from India and was very much enjoying Portland-style May weather. (Even February in India was too hot for my Canadian blood!) Beautiful yarn, interesting and varied pattern. I wanted to get some posed pictures with it by the waterfalls, but alas, a busy summer followed by the Eagle Creek fire devastating the Columbia River Gorge means I probably won’t get those for a while. Still, one day! In the meantime here’s an in-progress photo:

So much for the miserable cold and rain in the forecast! ? oh well, even if I didn't go to the coast, at least the backyard hammock is a pleasant alternative!

A post shared by Terri Oda (@drterriko) on May 13, 2017 at 4:31pm PDT

This was my second rainbow for pride month, because once you’ve accidentally started such a great theme you might as well stick with it! Here’s the two projects together:

Yarn

Bling Bling Sister, a sparkly rainbow gradient from Alexandra’s Crafts. Probably acquired at the Oregon Flock and Fiber festival. You can’t see the “bling” in all my photos, but there is a little thread of silver sparkle in there and it looks great especially as it catches the light.

I’d been saving this yarn for something special and it didn’t disappoint. It’s a bit more kinky than the last gradient I used from Wollelfe (I haven’t written up that project yet, sorry!), so it really really needed blocking when I was done. Here it is looking lumpy in the PDX airport:

However, even a slightly inadequate travel “block on a towel in my mom’s living room” got it looking great:

Pattern

Go Tell the Bees by PDXKnitterati.

PDXKnitterati’s been one of my favourite designers since I first cast on her Fern Leaf Shawlette, which is still the bit of knitwear I wear most. (If you’ve seen me at a conference in the past year, I’ve probably been wearing it!) Her patterns are always beautiful, easy to read, well-tested, and she’s got lots that are in that perfect balance of complicated enough to be fun or to teach you a new skill, but with simple enough bits that I can still get lots done during standards meetings, on commuter rail, or hanging out in the hammock in my backyard. Or in this case, on the couch I gifted to my parents when I left Canada:

Also, if you ever get a chance, she runs really great knit-a-longs on ravelry for some of her new pattern releases. Her fans produce beautiful inspiring work and she encourages us all to post pictures and even awards prizes! (I even won some beautiful bee stitch markers and candles!) It’s really fun to be part of her community there for a few weeks. Here’s a picture to commemorate the excitement of my first bees emerging from the pattern:

I’ve got quite a few more pdxknitterati patterns in my queue, and just going through these photos again has me itching to cast on something else from her catalog!

Project

This one was cast on in Oregon and finished in Ontario, and it gathered comments from people across the continent because of the bright yarn and the great pattern.

From those first few rows:

Through realizing I had a perfect honeycomb bag for my project thanks to my friend M:

To taking finished object pictures in the light rain in Ottawa:

This one was a super satisfying project, and a beautiful finished object that is quickly becoming one of my favourites to wear.