Work in Progress Wednesday 145

Hi everyone! I hope all is well with you. Today I have an update to my Stephen West, Herbivore shawl and a few new yarns in stock at Candy Skein to share.

I've completed the first part and have a few rows of the second section. I actually almost screwed up (or did a little but not big deal). I forgot that I was only supposed to do the first part for 5". Once I remembered (at knit group last night), I already had 5 1/2", but decided to go with it and just start the second section once I got the full 4 rows completed of the portion I was doing. I figured if I have to, I can just make the second section a little smaller since it's by inches as well (12"). No worries. I like the way it's turning out so far. It's funny to see it in picture form. I think the bright red and pink areas are way more prominent in the picture than they are in real life.

This is a new colorway to Candy Skein, Sugar Snap Pea! It's currently available in Candy Skein Yummy fingering, which I also updated in several other colors on Monday.

 I also updated the Sweet fingering section of the shop! All of these colorways are now available, from left to right starting at the top: Poppyseed, Foil Wrapper, Grape Soda, Tardis Tart and Watermelon.

All yarn shown (and listed as in stock on the website) is available to ship today!

That's it for me today. I hope you have a great rest of the week.

For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

FO Friday 138

Happy Friday everyone! I have my Sweet Summer Rays shawl as I promised to share this week. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any pictures of me wearing it as my husband worked a lot, so I was never able to get him to take pics. I did however get a lot of other pictures of it! I hope you enjoy! I have to say, I love love love it.

I thought this picture showed the great texture change between the purls and knit stitches. Please excuse the bird poop...lol

  

Materials:

Pattern: Sweet Summer Rays Shawl by Holly Priestley 

Yarn: Candy Skein Sweet Fingering in colorway Foil Wrapper

Needles: US 6 (4.0 mm)

Share your FOs!

Work in Progress Wednesday 143

Hi everyone! Happy hump day. I hope you're all doing well. Thank you for the kind comments on Friday for Candy Skein/Milo's birthday. They were much appreciated. :) We had a great time at the Defiance party. I'll have a picture on Friday for you as I ended up knitting something quickly for my outfit!

Today I just have my Sweet Summer Rays shawl to share with you. I haven't had much time to work on much of anything else. I just started the border tonight, so I don't have much more to go. It will definitely be on the blog as a FO next Friday. I can't wait to finish this and then move back onto my sweater! I also have a few other things I want to work on, but haven't had the time. Sorry the picture is so blown out! If you're interested to see some amazing versions of this shawl, many made in Candy Skein yarn, check them out!


That's it for me today! I hope you all have a great rest of the week and I'll see you on Friday!

For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Work in Progress Wednesday 142

Hi everyone! Happy May 1st! I hope you're having a great week. Today I get my haircut and styled and am very excited about it! I usually go to the cheaper places, but this time I actually have an appointment at a real salon. I'm nervous and excited..we'll see how it goes! That's all that's going on here other than yarn dyeing, knitting and cross stitch! I guess it's time to get to WIPW!

I started this new cross stitch for my husband's studio/guitar room! It's steampunk based and is going to take me FOREVER. It's really big (I think 10"x16" or a little bigger) and the WHOLE thing is filled in, not just the main image. That's a whole lot of thread and stitching. So far it's fun and almost feels like a puzzle. I'm coloring in the chart with a blue pencil as I got so I don't get confused on what I've already completed. You'll be seeing this thing grow slowly but surely and for a very very long time. I apologize in advance. I'll only show it when it changes a lot.

Sorry for the awkward picture, but my kitty is sick and I'm holding her while trying to take this picture sideways. Not an easy thing to do! This week I've also worked a little on my shawl, but haven't had a ton of knitting time lately. I didn't pick up any knitting at all this weekend! Crazy, right? This is the Sweet Summer Rays shawl and the KAL is still going on on Ravelry. You're welcome to still join in!



For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Work in Progress Wednesday 141

Hi everyone. I hope you're having a great week and that the weather shapes up for those of you who are still getting snow in the northern part of the Midwest! Unreal!

I have a few things to show you this week, a few new things in fact.

 

As you may remember from Friday, I finished March, so I thought I would show you the little bit of April I've worked on, as well as how it's all laid out so far on the sampler! For those asking about cross stitch patterns last week, I'm pretty new to cross stitch and don't know too many books/mags to recommend. I buy all of my patterns from Etsy and The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery! There are amazing Etsy cross stitch patterns out there.

 

 

This is my Sweet Summer Rays shawl for the KAL we're doing. It's knit out of Candy Skein Sweet Fingering in Foil Wrapper. So far it's going great! I think I'm on line 25 of the pattern if I remember correctly.

I obviously just started this tonight. This is my first time trying out two at a time socks, so I decided to just do something basic. I'm doing a 3x2 rib using a size 0 (I didn't have a 40" cable in anything else I could find that would work) needle. I normally use a 1.5 needle so I cast on 70 stitches to allow for the smaller needle. We'll see how it goes. Next time I might just try a 32" cable. What does everyone else use when doing two at a time? The yarn is Candy Skein Yummy fingering in Tardis Tart Ombre.


That's it for me today. I hope you have a great rest of the week and I'll see you on Friday!

For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Work in Progress Wednesday 140

Hi everyone! I hope your week is working out to your liking. I just wanted to take a moment for those in the Boston area, or who have friends/family there, my thoughts are with you. What a terrible
 tragedy. :(

As far as WIPW, I have progress on the sweater and a new project to share:

 In this picture, I was an inch away from finishing the 1x1 ribbing, and I actually did tonight after this picture was taken. The body is now bound off and tomorrow I'll hopefully have time to pick up the neck stitches and knit the collar band. I can't believe how fast this sweater has progressed. It's amazing what worsted weight yarn can do after using fingering so often. Again, I'm using Candy Skein Yummy Worsted in colorway Watermelon (though it's a slightly lighter version of the colorway. The pattern is the Ladies Classic Raglan Pullover by Jane Richmond.

This is the start of the Sweet Summer Rays Shawl by Holly Priestley . I have to increase until I hit 30 stitches between the markers and then move onto the main pattern/body of the shawl. I'm using Sweet fingering in new Candy Skein colorway Foil Wrapper. I thought the rays of the shawl would look beautiful in silver (gray). Due to the content of the yarn (50% merino/50% silk), this yarn really does look like it's silver thread. It's gorgeous! I'm making this for an ongoing KAL we have over at Holly's Ravelry group. It's ongoing until May 15th, so there's still time to join in!

That's it for me today. I hope you have a great rest of your week.


For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

FO Friday 129

Happy Friday! Today is a good day, as I did my taxes yesterday and had an appointment with my accountant today. It's always good to get that off one's shoulders, isn't it? I know I feel better without it in the back of my mind!

Today, as you all know, I finally get to share my Color Affection Shawl. I will say, it was a beast, and it got what I wished for. I did a few changes to make it bigger, and did I! I didn't expect it to be quite THIS big, but I wanted a shawl I could cuddle with on the couch on cold days, or even if the air conditioning was on in the summer and I was a little chilly in a tank top, for example. I certainly got that, and more!

 

This is the shawl draped over a banister in my back yard.

 

I thought this was pretty amusing. I stood on a step stool to get the shawl onto my patio cover. Here it is hanging down as I stand on the ground. Crazy, right?

Draped over my fence in the front yard. I think this shows you JUST how big it is! This is a normal style picket fence.

 I wanted to show this picture since the one earlier you could see through it with the slatted fence.

Last but not least, a close up of the three layers. Please excuse my shade in the bottom left corner

Project details:

Yarn: Candy Skein Sweet fingering in Fudge Brownie, Brain Freeze and Pumpkin (50% merino/50% silk)

Needles: Knitters Pride 4.0 mm, US size 6

Pattern: Color Affection

Notes: As mentioned, I did a few things different. I only did double increases for the first section and border. I also made it deeper by only going 2 sts past, instead of 3 in the short row section. This was a project that I followed for better instructions. Another thing I did (by accident actually, as I thought that's what I needed to do), I carried the short row section all the way across the whole thing, instead of only doing 9 repeats. It would be been nice to re-read the pattern, eh? Anyway, it definitely made it BIG! LOL

I hope you guys like it, as you've been having to see it's progress forever now!

Share your FOs!

Work in Progress Wednesday 134

Happy Wednesday! Thanks for the well wishes on Friday. The good news is it wasn't a cold, the bad news is I am SEVERELY allergic to something in my new neighborhood. Luckily, I started taking Allegra and that seems to be working for now. I can actually think, breathe and my sinuses don't feel like they're going to explode which is always good!

I'm sure you guys are getting extremely tired of seeing my Color Affection by now, as I'm getting super tired of knitting it. The thing is now massive. I feel like I'm knitting a freakin' blanket and am now concerned I'm going to run out of the brown yarn!! The good news on that is I have more skeins of it I can pull from Candy Skein, so I'm covered but it won't be in the same dye lot. We'll see what happens. I counted and have something like 13 stripes left total. Each stripe takes me a good 30+ minutes at this point, so despite not having a ton left to do, it's taking awhile. I then have to do the border in Pumpkin. Again, this is Candy Skein Sweet fingering, which is available for purchase!

That's it for me today! I hope you have a great rest of the week! Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the posts I promised you. I've been extremely busy and hope to get to them this week.

For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Work in Progress Wednesday 133

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a good week so far. It's crazy busy in my neck of the woods as we have the last push before handing over the keys to our condo to the renters. I'm so excited to get that monkey off my back of stressing about renting it.

I had a great time at Stitches and I'll write more about that later, as I'll just focus on WIPW. On the trip I got a chance to knit in the car, but not much knitting other than that believe it or not. I thought we'd have tons of time to just sit around and knit but we didn't have a moment to spare! Granted, we were only there for one full day and two days of driving.

I was happy to have an easy project like my Color Affection shawl to work in the car. The only hard part was trying to juggle three balls of yarn on my knees! As you can see, I'm working my way across the shawl with the stripes. I have a bit more to go, but I definitely made huge progress. I can't wait to bind off to really see it. It's so squished on the needles/cable, it's hard to tell what it really looks like.

This is a new project, as I was dying to cast on with new Stitches yarn and needles. It's Cephalopod Skinny Bugga! yarn in colorway Blue Ringed Octopus. I'm using the new Knitter's Pride Karbonz needles in size US 1.5 (2.5mm). I'll do a review of the needles soon! Anyway, I'm going to make the Hourglass Eyelet Socks which is a free pattern on Ravelry.

That's it for me today! I'll have more posts this week about my trip and hopefully the needles! Have a great rest of your week.


For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Work in Progress Wednesday 132

Hi everyone! It's been a CRAZY week over here, let me tell you! We rented our townhouse, so the past week has been all about showing the place, paperwork, Home Depot and plumbers. Add to that a lot of orders to fill and my undyed yarn got stuck in customs. Oh yeah, and I'm leaving for Stitches in a few days! I'm just a little stressed. ;)

Speaking of Stitches, a few of you have asked if I'll have a booth there. Not this year, I'm just going with a group of my best friends. I thought it was best to experience Stitches first, before jumping straight into the deep end. I hope to be a vendor next year. :) If you'd like to follow my group's trip up to Stitches, you can follow me on Instagram at @candyskein. I'll try to take lots of pictures for everyone.

My WIP isn't too exciting to say the least. The Color Affection shawl is growing, slowly but surely but it doesn't really look much different to be honest, so I'm not going to bother with a picture. I'm still enjoying the yarn/pattern and will at some point probably make another one. It will be great car knitting while we drive the 8 hours to Santa Clara.

That's it for me today. Sorry to keep it so short. Have a great rest of your week.

For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Candy Skein Sweet Fingering is here and a Coupon!

Hi everyone! HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!! As a little treat, I'm offering a 15% off coupon on your total order for the rest of today (until tomorrow morning when I wake up and can deactivate the code really). Just enter the code VALENTINESWEETS at checkout to receive the discount!

If you didn't need any more incentive, I've released a new to Candy Skein base, Sweet Fingering! It's the yarn I've been teasing you about when showing pictures of my Color Affection shawl! The shawl is the first time I've used the yarn and I have to say, I love it! The twist is a bit like Delicious fingering, if you've used that at all. It's a little splitty at cast on, but after that it's amazing. It slides along the needles just right and has an amazing shine to it.

From Candyskein.com:

Sweet fingering practically glows in the sunlight with the gorgeous marriage of soft merino superwash and luscious silk. This yarn is great for every project, including socks, scarves, shawls, hats, mittens and even sweaters. You won’t believe how sweet this yarn is until you try it.

 

Here are the colors I've currently dyed Sweet Fingering in, but a few are already sold out! This yarn is going fast. (Click the picture to enlarge it)

You can purchase Sweet fingering, and all Candy Skein yarn at Candyskein.com!


Have a great night everyone!http://www.candyskein.com/

Work in Progress Wednesday 131

Hi everyone. I hope you had a great weekend and are having a good week as well. Also, a happy early Valentine's day! We took it easy this weekend, enjoying a nice dinner Saturday night with a Groupon to a restaurant we'd never been to. I love finding new places to eat, especially in our new neighborhood! We also did the not fun task of going through a bunch of boxes from our move that have been hanging out in our garage. Overall it was nice to just be home. I didn't get too much knitting done, but I did start the 3rd color of my Color Affection shawl.

Once I added the first few rows of the orange, I wasn't quite sure about it. Now that I'm further into it, I'm loving it. I was hoping to have it done by Stitches West, but considering we leave a week from Thursday, I'm not sure that's going to happen unless I find a LOT of knitting time. I really do love this pattern, as it's mindless, but not too boring, at least for me, due to the stripes/color change. I'd definitely consider making another one, but next time I might have it on a longer cable as It's hard to spread it out and really see the progress I'm making! I wanted mine really big (more deep than wide), so I followed someone's instructions on Ravelry to do this. I'll give more details later. :) I hope it comes out huge, as I want it to be more of a house wrap/comfy couch shawl more than anything. We'll see.

That's it for me today. I will be posting Sweet fingering for the first time (what my Color Affection shawl is made from) on the site/blog this Thursday, so be sure to check back then for that. I hope you have a great rest of your week and I'll see you again for FO Friday as well!


For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Work in Progress Wednesday 130

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend and are having a great week as well. I had a good time at TNNA. I actually learned a lot and it was great to see so much yarn being displayed so beautifully. It was nice to just relax and not have to worry about what to buy, as it wasn't a marketplace. It was very calm, which was what I was hoping, especially since I have Stitches West coming up soon.

This probably looks the same to you, but it actually isn't! I hope to get a better picture soon, but I worked on it all night, trying to get to the third color but I came up short. I'm only 3 rows (1 1/2 stripes) away from adding the 3rd color! I'm so so excited to get to the main, large section of this shawl. It's already getting really big, as you can tell from it bunched on the needles. The one thing I'm NOT looking forward to is juggling three balls of yarn at the same time. This is starting to turn into a project that isn't very easy to carry around. Luckily, I'm home for the rest of the week, as I've already had my two knitting groups this week.


That's it for me today. I'll see you Friday!

For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Work in Progress Wednesday 128

Hi everyone! I hope you had a lovely weekend and a great start to your week. The weather here has been glorious. Blue skies, a light breeze and around 77-80F during the day. It's great for a break in the cold and rain, but I do want my winter back. The good thing about warm weather is it speeds up the drying process on the wet skeins in my studio. :)

I haven't had too much knitting time lately, as I've been working on my cross stitch and savoring the fact that hockey is back! I've also been keeping up on one of my new year hopes, to read more. If you want to read a good book, make sure to check out Libba Bray's first book in a new series, The Diviners. It's awesome. I can also recommend Beth Revis' trilogy that starts with Across the Universe if you're into light sci fi.

Anyway, you aren't here for book recommendations or to here me talk hockey. You want to see what I've been working on!

As mentioned last week, I started my Color Affection shawl for the Yarniacs Podcast self indulgent KAL. I'm using Candy Skein Sweet Fingering (coming soon to the website!) and I'm so excited about it. The yarn is so soft and drapey with a beautiful shine to it. I just started on my second color, as you can see. The first color (or main color) is Fudge Brownie, the second is Brain Freeze. Can you see the yarn just shine?! That's because it's 50% merino/50% silk. I can't wait to get a little further into the stripes to see how they really work together.

Speaking of the Yarniacs podcast, right now I'm giving a 15% off discount with the coupon code Yarniacs through the month of January over at Candy Skein. It's off your total purchase, not just one skein! Enjoy!


For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Work in Progress Wednesday 127

Hi everyone! I hope all is well in your neck of the woods. I'm doing okay. Today (Tuesday), I had one of those days where it started out not how I expected, throwing off the whole day. Half way through, I questioned if I should just quit working for the day and take a nap. Have you ever had one of those?

 Instead, I decided to work a little longer and then go inside and work on my Color Affection shawl. I stopped working on it (and actually started it a few times) because I wasn't sure if I wanted to follow the pattern exact, or change it a little as others have done. Right before I got sick, I decided not to do YOs between the k2 on the pattern (I want it to arc a lot), but instead of m1l and m1r, I am doing kfb. We'll see how it goes. If you've made this pattern, as I know a lot of you have, and changed it up a bit, let me know in the comments! I want mine to be really big and snuggly.

As far as yarn is concerned, I'm using a new Candy Skein yarn, as mentioned previously, Candy Skein Sweet fingering (50% merino superwash/50% silk). This colorway is Fudge Brownie, and the other two colorways I'm using will be Brain Freeze for my second color and Pumpkin for the third and final color.

That's it for me today. I hope you have a great rest of the week and I'll see you on Friday!

For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Work in Progress 125

Seriously? It's Wednesday again!!?? How did that happen? I feel like I just panicked a few days ago about almost forgetting a post due to a holiday. LOL I hope everyone had a safe and fun New Year's celebration. I just got finished with my New Year's Day dinner of prime rib, baked potato and peas. MMmmm, it was fabulous!

Since last Wednesday, I started a hat! Actually I started last Wednesday. It's the Hinagiku Hat from Ravelry. It's super easy, but tough at the same time. It's the Daisy stitch which I've never done, and let me tell you, it's hard to knit three together and then knit those SAME three together again! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the way this is knitting up. It's a new Candy Skein yarn base called Juicy Sport, but I'll have more on that soon. I'll be releasing the new yarn Thursday and let me tell you, you'll want to check it out. This might be my favorite base I carry as far as the Merino yarns are concerned. Oh, I almost forgot! The colorway is Robin Egg Malt Ball!

One of my favorite podcasts, the Yarniacs, is having a Self Indulgent KAL that starts January 1. You can make anything, as long as it's for yourself! How great is that? I decided to start my Color Affection shawl for the project. I'm using another new yarn (coming) to Candy Skein in the next few weeks called Sweet Fingering. It's a 50/50 merino/silk base and so so soft. It has the same twist/ply as the Delicious fingering. The colors I decided to go with are Pumpkin, Fudge Brownie and Brain Freeze (which looks bluer in the picture than it actually is. It's more of a teal).


That's it for me today! I hope you have a great rest of your week!

For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!