I'm a sucker for a good KAL

My friends, I have a problem, and I can admit it.

I am a sucker for a good knit along (KAL).

I just can't resist.

Mason Dixon Knitting and Fringe and Friends are running a Log-Along..... so of course I joined in.

I don't know if it's because I don't have a local knitting group. Or because I don't want to miss out on the fun. Or maybe I just like to drink the cool aide. But none of these things stopped me from caking up 4 skeins of yarn to cast on a Hearthstone (pattern by Ysolda Teague from the Heart on My Sleeve Collection) for the Tin Can Knits Heartfelt KAL .... although I haven't cast it on yet.

I'm not sure how many sweaters I think I am knitting this February (my 30th birthday month btw) but I am currently working on 4 adult ones, 1 toddler sized one, and have yarn caked up for 2 more.

So when Kate Davis and Mason Dixon Knitting announced a February, Bang Out a Carbeth KAL, I initially said, oh no, I can wait. Besides we're in Crowsnest Pass all month, I should just knit the yarn I brought with me.

But have you seen the Carbeth sweater?

I mean, maybe it's Kate's husband Tom's amazing photography (check out her blog for more increadible photos), but how could you not want to knit this sweater.

Plus, knit at a big gauge (bulky weight on 6.5 mm needles) you can fly through the 700 or so yards in half a minute.

So I said, no Sara, you don't need to knit this sweater right now. Work on the projects you have.

Which is why I'm not sitting here next to two skeins of Cascade Ecological Wool in Chocolate.

Thank you Nest Of Needles Wool Shop (in Blairmore, AB), I know what I am doing this weekend! What KAL's are you joining in on? Maybe I need another one?

2017 Recap

Hello again. And welcome to 2018, just shy of 18 days in. January has been the strangest blend of busy and slow so far. That feeling the can only come in winter, when you are cooped up indoors most of the time, and are spending your days either hanging out with your kids or writing in your office.

I've pretty much been doing only those two things so far this year. And playing with yarn, always playing with yarn. And it has kept me both busy and bored.

Busy, because over the last month I've put most (so close only a few straggling figures) of my data into my thesis, as well as writing over 100 pages of it. I've played blocks, and books, and kitchen and chase and tickle fights and cars..... with Alex and Dom. We've planned out the first half of our year, with Kevin working Locums that will shuffle our family all over Alberta (again). Oh and I dyed a big old pile of yarn.

Bored, because I've watched more of the Wiggles than anyone should. Same goes for Little Baby Bum and Word Party. I have dredged through my thesis writing (so hard to put your brain in the game after so much time off to focus on babies). And I spent a literal week without leaving the house (Kev was out of town for work and where am I taking two toddlers by myself in -30 weather?).

Anyways, all of that and more has kept me away from writing a blog post, but today I feel in the mood. So let's do it, and recap some of my yarny creations in 2018.

This year, for the first time ever, I kept an Excel spreadsheet and tracked my projects and yarn consumption. The idea was inspired by Mina Phillips (the Knitting Expat), and originally the goal was to use up my stash, at twice the rate I added to it.


Oh I'm sorry, I just fell off my chair laughing. Yeah that plan fell to pieces by March, and by June I had just stopped bothering to track incoming yarn... it was just too shameful.

Anyways here's the stats.

I finished 60 projects. Which included:

14 hats
2 cowls
6 shawls
16 pairs of socks
5 pairs of mits
4 adult sweaters
6 child's sweaters
4 stuffies
and 1 full size blanket.

My total grams of yarn used for the year was 8302 and that was 22 308 yards.

4 projects were chunky or heavier, 26 were worsted, 7 DK and 22 fingering weight (Clearly sport and lace weight are lacking in my stash).

I also dyed a fair bit of yarn (you can find it in my Etsy Shop).

Sewed a fair bit (project bags also for sale on Etsy).

And got back to spinning my own yarns.

Overall it was a great year for the Yarn Lab, and once I get this pesky thesis out of the way, I've got even bigger plans for 2018.

Gift knitting progress report, I might be a little insane

I like to do Christmas knitting. A fair bit of it actually. And last year I didn't mail my box of gift knits to Ontario until well after Christmas (I blame 6 month old twins, moving twice in December for Kev's work, once to a house with no dishwasher, and Kev working literally around the clock in the ICU). This year, however, I am determined to be on time for Christmas, and so I started well in advance.

So far I have finished:

1 shawl. 1 pair of socks, 1 cowl, 3 hats, and 4 pairs of mitts.

I have on my to do list still:

1 baby, two toddler, 1 child, and 1 adult sweaters.

2 toddler vests.

3 dog sweaters.

1 shawl.

1 scarf.

1 pair of mitts.

1 colour work hat.

1 pair of socks.

Oh and the rest of my thesis to finish before Christmas.

Clearly some of the things on that list are going to have to go. But it's still December, and I am still optimistic (ridiculously so) and ambitious (overly). But I am spurred on by the fact that some of those items are already underway, and others will be knit with bulky weight yarn (which practically knits itself).

Yesterday I cast on that child's sweater. I swatched for it way back when.

It's the Little Boxy by Joji Locatelli (pattern page, project page), and it's stockinette knit flat. Borring knitting, so I have set myself a 4 inches a day goal, to force my way through this project. So here's hoping this sweater manifests itself quickly.

A Tale of Two Yarns

You ever order a skein of yarn because you saw it on Instagram and knew you just needed it. And when it arrives in the mail you think it is beautiful and unique and amazing. So you hang it on your inspiration peg board and it lives there for months waiting for the right pattern/project. And it stays there until one day, when you have to pack the whole thing up, so into the stash bin it goes, but what, inside that bin there is a skein almost exactly like it!

Now I don't quite remember which of these two skeins came home with me first, but I do know that that very story happened to me back in March when we packed up shop to move down to Crows Nest Pass, and I didn't want moths to eat my yarn in my absense.

But here are the two skeins, both by Alberta indie dyers, both purchased sometime in 2016. Don't believe me on  just how similar they look?

Sure one hase more pink and the other is a pinky tan, but come on!

The Vivid Yarn, which is on the right is Hello Fox, and the Yarn Ink, on the left, is Calypso.

And there was just no way I'd be knitting these two separately, it'd be like knitting dejavu.

Luckily for me, I have a project in mind for the Joji Fall KAL that needs two skeins of fingering weight yarn. Oh, and did I mention they appear to be on the same base as well, both are 463 yards/100g, 75% Merino, 25% nylon, 4-ply sock yarns.

Here it is all caked up, and I know, you can tell the difference. The one on the right (Now the Yarn Ink, you think I would have kept things consistent for 3 photos, but nope, flippy floppy I go.) clearly has more brown and pink, but when I knit them up into a swatch...

You'd never guess I was alternating strands of two differnt yarns, by two differnt dyers. Plus, I think alternated them (two rows of each) really minimizes the pooling.

As for the project, this will of course become a Little Boxy, but I won't be casting on until I finish one or two other WIPs.

Joji Fall Knit Along Plans

Did you know that Joji Locatelli runs an annual fall knit along for any and all of her patterns?

Neither did I.

Well I didn't until a couple weeks ago Instagram let me know about it. (Oh the enabling power of Instagram, what a beautiful and terrible beast you are.)

So anyways, I've knit a couple of Joji's patterns before.

My 3 Colour Cashmere Shawl.

The Girl from the Grocery Store.

My almost finished Granito.

And have about a dozen or so more on my wish list.

So this KAL is a perfect way to encourage me to knit some of them (plus it didn't hurt that she also had all of her patterns on sale for it too).

Anyways, you had to lock in your project choices in advance of the September 1st cast on date. Joji had a form to fill in in her Ravelry group.

The projects that I have chosen to knit are:

The Starting Point wrap (which was a mystery knit along this year) and which I will knit out of

Fleece Artist Merino Slim (the bottom most skein has been swapped out for a pinker, more tonal one) that I picked up at Olds Fibre Week when I wasn't supposed to be buying fingering weight yarn.

The BA Cool hat.

Which I will knit from Estelle Alpaca Merino Chunky.

And the Little Boxy.

Which I will show you the yarn for in the next post. Cause I'm excited.

Are you knitting along? What Joji Patterns have you knit/are on your wish list?