Toes up! Needles to the side.

Hello dear Ramblers!


I have been put on a standstill for my sweater because I am on my last ball of yarn and alas, I have two whole sleeves and the neckband left...not enough. But an amazing person on ravelry had some for sale! Yes, she saved me about 15 bucks, lucky me!

But moving on to the exciting news, it pertains to the title of this post.

Toe up socks!

You read that correctly folks, Ashley has finally decided to do some socks and toe up! For those of you who don't know you can either start your socks at the top (cuff) or the bottom (toe). There are positives and negatives to each but for me the choice was clear - toe up!


Ashley's Reasoning (I know I usually don't have any but bear with me)

• Toe up allows you to try on the sock as you knit so you'll know if it fits!
• Never run out of yarn again! If you run out simply end the socks and get a shorter cuff
• I think toe up socks look cooler when someone runs up to you and said whatcha knitting?

See, that wasn't too much reason!

Anywho, I'm doing a very pretty pattern by Maureen Foulds and it is her new sock pattern Captain Hastings. I'm doing it to enter in two different knit-a-longs(KALS) and one is her KAL and the other is part of Eat Sleep Knit 's Yarnathon! For the Yarnathon a person needed to go beyond themselves and do something they have never done, I did it doubly because I have never done socks nor toe up! Very excited for these KALS and for the socks in general.

I know it doesn't look like much but great things have humble beginnings, like little baby Jesus :) 

That's about all I have for everyone today besides I'm sitting here waiting for a huge package today, I'm very impatient! I will let everyone know what is in it when it comes :)


Keep on rambling,

~Ashley

Warning : Sweater Update ! Okay warning over :)

Alright so I finally made decent progress - I have a couple more rows of the body left, sleeves, and edging.

Good Picture of my progress 

Goofy picture of my sweater :)




Alrighty, update over :) Hoping to finish at least the rest of the body tonight. Sadly, I have a ton of hours at work the next week so knitting and time with Thane will be minimized :( Ah well, money money money.



Keep Rambling Everyone,

~Ashley

The blog is not dead , I repeat the blog is not dead (Okay maybe CPR is needed)

Hellooooooooooo ,


Oh Ramblers I missed you so! There are a couple reasons for this terrible hiatus. One, the major one, is because I have had nothing new to report about. Same old, same old, I'm knitting hats for the store....I'm still knitting hats for the store, hey! I'm knitting hats for the store! And by the way - I really am still knitting hats for the store. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel - I have 3 left and am in no hurry now, which is a huge relief. A giant shout out to Machelle who is the best  person to work with, she hasn't rushed me one single time and is so kind!


Big News : The continuing story

Okay so test knitting right? I finished it! I sent it out to the designer on Friday and she hopefully got it today! Woot woot! It ended up being a different yarn than what I talked about last time because let me tell you : LOFT and I just don't see eye to eye and I will avoid that yarn like the plague. The designer was so kind and so amazing as to let me send the yarn back, PAY ME for the work I did correcting the pattern even though I did not finish, send me new yarn and let me do a different pattern that I adored! An amazing experience and I would wholeheartedly do it again! Also if anyone reading this is a designer and would love a test knitter, let me know and I can give you my references :)


Starteritis - Definition - The disease where you start way more projects than you should...and you start more. 
Cure : Start more projects

Some of you might think that this "disease" is a problem, well let me tell you right now, it's not! It's a wonderful thing that I have and I enjoy it, it's a lot of fun to start something new every other hour haha. Also if you pair it with finishing things every once in a blue moon you suddenly have a lot of things done!


Here's my list of Starteritis projects :


1. Sprig - Beautiful sweater I've talked about a few times, I just finished putting the sleeve stitches on scrap yarn!


2. Vampolka - I have recently decided on yarn for this and will be doing it as part of a KAL. I will be using yarn from Alexandra's Crafts that I bought at STITCHES Midwest (denim blue + white) and then a nice grass green alpaca that I won at STITCHES as well!

3. Clay's gloves - My poor amazing friend has been asking for half fingered gloves forever and  I finally found some grey yarn in my stash to use! I'll be using this pattern but altering it for half fingers.

4. Heliotrope hat -This beautiful cable hat struck me when I was looking through the magazine in the store and was the reason I bought it. Now I did end up deciding I like about 3/4 the patterns in it but still. The hat is so pretty and I'm using Knit Picks Biggo for it in the colorway Haze Heather

Those are all in addition to the hats that I should be doing, the old projects I should be finishing, and of course all the other patterns I should start soon!


I will be doing another post with my pictures of my new projects soon :) 

That's all folks, 
Ashley~

It's been a while

Well howdy there Ramblers,

I haven't been posting because a. I've been busy b. I haven't really had anything to write about and c. I'm lazy :)

However, I have two awesome announcements that I won't be able to actually post about until ...well a while from now .

1. I finished a scarf in three whole days and I feel very accomplished. It is a Christmas gift and I'm unsure if the person reads this blog so I am not going to post pics yet .

2. I am finally doing the most awesome hat for Thane :) To replace is very terrible first hat that I made him when we first started dating (we'll be dating for 2 years next week!)

3. I have a new job! That means knitting time will be halved....I am going to hold both jobs for about a month and if I like my new job (at applebees) then I will be quitting my other job.

4. Miss Babs yarn is so pretty and awesome and my friend / old co-worker got me some of her awesome yarn  ( thats the colorway I got!)

That's really all I have for this week sorry about being gone and then not even having things to post pictures of! If you realllllllllly need to see pics of the scarf or the finished hat email me :)

Keep on Rambling,

~Ashley

Alana, My Tunic, A Bag OH MY!

Dearest Ramblers,


I know you have missed my ramblings but never fear, my vacation is over, even as I am typing I'm keeping track of the time because, of course, I have to work today...Wah. Ah well, more money for yarn :)
Also a huge thank you to my friend's family for hosting me and the beautiful pictures and video you took for me :)

There were many amazing adventures that I went on during my vacation, the first and, to me, the most exciting : Meeting Alana Dakos!

I got to meet Alana, get my picture taken with her and then sit and talk with her for a while! Awesome lady and she signed my Botanical Knits book too :) My picture is on her blog twice 

Her class really helped me feel confident enough to finally seam my sweater up! Also I might have some amazing knitting opportunities with her in the future!

My tunic!

Top : Me posing with my pretty tunic on!

Above: Close up of the lace pattern 

My Oak Trail Hat : It's so soft and so much better than the first one I made. I used Cephalopod yarn that I bought from STITCHES! 

Also on my vacation my friend's mom taught me a little bit about sewing and I was able to make a knitting bag!

I have now stockpiled some fabric...Don't judge me, I like crafty things

Anyway,  I hope everyone has had a great week and I hope everyone enjoys my post :) I think I'm going to try to post every Monday in order to give me some structure! 

P.S : I'm going to do another post tonight or tomorrow about my fabric and yarn purchases!

Keep on Rambling! 

~Ashley~

The Post where Ashley goes a little yarn crazy

Oh Ramblers it has been a long while,

For those of you across the big puddle or those of you close to me who just never knew, I have been working two jobs : my serving job at Bob Evans and then I took an Americorps Member position. My Americorp term is almost over so I am finally finding time to blog and to knit!

So many things have happened since the last time I gave you a glimpse into my knitting world. A short summary and then I'll dive in.

• Socks!
• Tank top is blocked!
• MADELINE TOSH
• Smooshy
• Goals for the future

Alright so to start I have started my very first sock! Using some yarn that the boyfriend bought me during Rachel's Birthday Sale! Rachel is the amazing owner of  A Grand Skein which is my favorite yarn shop of all time in Grand Rapids Michigan.  For those of you who don't knit or just don't knit socks, you can do socks one of two ways. Starting at the top(cuff) or starting at the bottom (toe) hence the names Cuff down(since you are moving down the sock) or Toe up (since you are moving up the sock) 

Here is a lovely picture of my foot :) I am finally past the heel and I will be "turning it " soon to go down my foot. The yarn is actually an emerald green not blue..

My beautiful tank top made from Sultry Steps by GoodforEwe yarns (Paige is amazing by the way, she's the owner) is finally done! Everything is done, the crochet (done by my amazing boyfriend), the blocking (which means steaming or getting it wet and then putting pins in it so it'll "block" the dimensions that you want)

Beautiful yarn to work with and I also used it to knit the very first Hexipuff I've done to start the Beekeeper's Quilt

Okay! Now to the yarn part of this blog post. For those of you who don't know there are Yarn Brands and just like clothes there are high end "name" brands. Where some of you spend 30 dollars on a T-shirt, I can spend 30 dollars on one skein of yarn . 

Madeline Tosh is one of those "name brands" to me at least. 30 dollars a skein BUT before any of you non-knitters say "What that is just too much" think of how much you'd pay for silk and cashmere, cuz that's what this yarn has in it! And my lovely co-worker at my Americorp site bought me two skeins of this beauty 

Andrew bought me enough to do a really cool shirt that I have been dying to do called Arbor and now I can do it in the fabulous Mad Tosh yarn!

Continuing on the with the yarn love I went to Spinnin' Yarns in Griffith which is a cute little shop that my other co-worker told me about and I went crazy with a new brand I had never heard of : Dream in Color.

Dream has beautiful colorways and what I really liked was Smooshy which is a fingering weight (like for socks) and I bought a lot. Also once I went through my buying spree there was another Smooshy that had : you guessed it Cashmere (a lot of cashmere in this post) so of course it is the softest thing you have ever felt besides maybe a newborn baby. 

Picture time of all my yarn :)  

 Starless Sky

 The only non Smooshy yarn : Cascade Ultra Pima Cotton

 Global Mix (cashmere )

 Giant Peach (totally looks like Sherbet though)

The above picture is my bag of yarn before I got home =]

Okay finally my goals for the future!

Blog on a schedule :  This is something I want your input on, how often do you want me to post? I need accountability people! Please leave a comment after you are done reading with how often you think I should do an update (once a week, twice a month etc) 

Find projects for all my yarn! This one is a long shot haha but I have started by identifying and starting a project using my new Smooshy Giant Peach yarn. 

Meet my very first cardigan : 

It's a bit bigger than that now but not by much. Plus the really cute penguin stitch marker the boyfriend got me a while back.

Anywho that is all I have for the moment, please please take a moment to comment about anything on here plus how often you'd like me to post! 

Keep on Rambling !

~Ashley

Yet Another Commission :) And other news

Dear Rambling Readers, 

Well, I have made significant progress on my 

sweater it is now 12 inches long! Yay, my hard work is starting to pay off, I finally have to start the 2nd ball of yarn. Not to mention while knitting it is a bit heavy, I swear I have arm muscles. Anywho!

To your right you see a very terrible photo (way too bright in here) of my sweater. 

Also in recent news I have received another commission! Yay, this time it is a very nice cabled hat. Have I mentioned my amazing fascination with cables? I've only done two things with cables but I love the technique and if anyone thinks that its hard, please somehow get in touch with me and I'd love to help you out via skype or email or anything. 

And yes, I've been working on the glove but not making as much progress as I should be, simply because I'm hypnotized by the stockinette miles of a sweater. Although I am very hesitant of seaming it all together... Oh well! I'll worry about it when I am closer to finishing.

Happy knitting to all and to all a good night,

Ashley

This is PROGRESS!

Hello dear readers,

Well, thank you for sticking with me this long and reading my knitting "ramblings" Haha, now you understand where the name for this blog came from! Aren't I clever? Don't answer that.... Anyhow, as I said in my last post, I have embarked on an adventure that is called Sweaters! And the progress on the sweater is minimal but at the same it is a lot of time and effort. I am finally at 6 inches on the sweater out of 20 inches. It is a bit daunting just because I have been doing little else and still not made much progress but it looks fantastic and I can't wait to continue on and finish it! The finished project will be amazing and I'll be very proud to wear it and say that I made it.

In the above picture the color is really bad...Stupid lighting. However that shows the length. So here's another one just focusing on color.

Its a super dark blue mixed with purple and black! Much more blue throughout. Anyway that's my update for the day!


Plus I really need to start on that glove...
Also! I have over 200 views now!! Very exciting for me and thank you everyone for reading this!

Keep Knitting (and reading the ramblings),

Ashley

The biggest project yet!

Hello Readers,

I, Ashley Frencl, have embarked on a quest. A quest for a sweater. This has been a daunting thing that I have contemplated for a long time, perhaps 2 or 3 years. Anyway it started with wanting to do a sweater pattern from The Yarn Girl's Guide to Simple Knits, but after figuring out that the size small is about 10 inches too big, I quickly realized that either I had to learn fast how to change a pattern that drastically or I needed to find a new pattern.
So onto Ravelry! I looked for a while but for one reason or another could not find the perfect pattern. It then occurred to me to look through my pattern books! Being the silly person I am I completely forgot about my actual books! So finally, after paging through all the books, I finally got to Stitch N Bitch and I found a perfect pattern! It is called Under the Hoodie and has a hood and  a pocket! Plus it is only a couple inches too big which is great for a comfy sweater. As I am typing I have swatched this about 3 times so far and thankfully now I am half done with my last swatch. I kept losing track of rows and one time I had too big needles, which was disappointing. I will never get to knit with big needles! With this sweater I will be knitting with size 6's and size 7's. Much bigger than the crazy 2 1/2 size needles I am using for the gloves. Anywho, this was a small update on my knitting life, and I will be posting pictures as I work on my sweater!

As a side note - Glove number one is done! Thankfully. Now to start on the second one and just plow through it!

Keep Knitting,

Ashley

My first cabling project!

Hello Readers,


The gloves that I showed in an earlier post were my 2nd cabling project and (silly me ) didn't link to a picture of my first one which is a super cute headband!

Front ^


Back with buttons showing!

I would update more things such as my sweater...or the gloves but I have slacked off today and not really knit at all. Almost done with the ring finger of the glove though! Updates tomorrow I'm sure~


Keep Knitting,

Ashley

 

My dream knit~~~

Hello Readers!

So I was going through my knitting wants and needs and I remembered this amazing knit! Every girl dreams of her wedding day and for most knitters who happen to be women I'm sure the thought has occurred to knit their own dress, but alas it's a lot of time and yarn and craziness when YOU should be having the time of your life with your engagement and planning the wedding, however I still think it's a fantastic idea and would really like to do it for myself one day! Also a woman knit her gown and spent only 250!!! Yay money saver!

Click here to see the dress and the pattern :) It is a free pattern ladies! While I know most people won't ever achieve this goal I still think it is beautiful and romantic to think about~

Also an update on the gloves! The fingers were too small, however I was able to tear out the few rows and add a few more stitches and they feel much better! I am now onto the ring finger and I'm so glad!

Keep knitting,

Ashley

Sigh

Heyo Readers,

So that sweater I got the yarn for, I just looked up the size chart and a small is still very very big on me, it's a let down for sure. We shall have to see if I can find a way to change things although I have a feeling I will just look for a completely new pattern and add on things I want I suppose.
Oh well, I have the yarn and it's not like I won't find a pattern if I look hard enough!

It's just disheartening, when I waited so long to do a sweater...and then I find out even the small is too big ! Darn you patterns for using S, M, L instead of actual measurements!

By the way it is super snowy out and I'm very glad I don't have to go outside today !


Such a short and sad post~


Ashley

P.S. Here's a picture of a cat :)

THE YARN :D

Hello Readers,

I just wanted to make a special post pretty much dedicated to my lovely boyfriend, because the Cascade 220 yarn came today ! In other words that means I can start my sweater! I can have my very own sweater that I made by hand! This post has a lot of exclamations! I'm very excited though, and the colorway is beautiful!

And that is me holding all of my yarn happiness! The color way is Isle of Skye, a pretty name for this very pretty blue! and now I have 1100 yards of it! Excuse me while I go roll around in all my pretty yarn!

In other news I'm making progress on the glove I showed in the 1st post! Finally onto the fingers, but I had a bit of difficulty with the finger being too small, so I had to scrap that and restart, but now its much better, and I have decided that I will keep the fingers on scrap yarn so that the woman can try them on since I'm not sure if her hand is as small as mine, haha. We shall see~

I suppose that is all for today! Until I start knitting again~

Toodles,

Ashley

First post!

Hello readers!

So this will be my new blog for my knitting, perhaps this will work out well! First a little intro about me :) Also here is my Ravelry, feel free to send me messages on there or friend me!

My name is Ashley , I live in the US (Indiana) and I'm 20 years old. I have been knitting since I was 9 when my librarian taught me how, I still have the very first book I learned from! I took a few years off of knitting but now I'm in full swing now that I am out of school / looking for a job! I have a wonderful boyfriend named Thane and been with him for over a year now :) The picture is of us a couple weeks ago. He's going to school for engineering ^_^ Lucky me, I can buy allllllllllll the yarn once he starts working! Anywho I suppose I'll do a current project portion of this post :)

Current Projects ~~~~

Gloves for commission : 

I feel terrible - I was paid 20 dollars for these gloves a few weeks ago...still haven't finished them because when I first did them I was using a new pattern...which did not work out, turned out big enough for the abominable snowman! So I finally found a new pattern and they are great!
Also this is truly the only current project....since I've waited so long to do them I'm totally focused on them!

Stalled / Start-overs ~~~~

Sasha's Entrelac Hat :Also a link on what entrelac looks like :

Sadly this is one that I have to rip out because I realized (after blaming the pattern and swearing to rip it up) I had switched the way I was knitting....so I was knitting backwards for a couple rows...So I'd rather just redo it than try to figure out where I need to rip to. Also the entrelac turned out kinda funny...so it's best just to redo this. Not to mention Sasha doesn't need the hat anytime soon :D

Yep...It looks funny...oh well I'll restart it and keep focused on it! Then I won't be so confused.

My gloves :

Alright well these gloves were amazing to knit! I loved the cable pattern and as my second cable project it was a bit complex for me. My first cable project was my headband and the cable was very simple. Then as I was knitting this glove my friend messaged me to let me know the pattern was off and would make a thumb gusset that would be HUGE on anyone so not to follow the pattern and just keep the amount of stitches I have. While my friend was right (I was totally fine with the amount I had, which I have very small hands indeed) what he didn't tell me was that my cable would be messed up....The cable now went up the thumb instead of up the middle. I was disheartened but thought it looked neat. When I posted a picture of it on my tumblr many people thought the "thumb cable" looked interesting and loved it! I have yet to even start my other glove...because of the current commissions and all :) But the 100% Peruvian  Wool (Canopy Tonal discontinued) I used from KnitPicks is so beautiful and I'm very glad I got 2 balls of it! I don't believe it is being sold anymore, think I got the last 2 balls! Hope to do the 2nd glove sometime soon but who knows!

Thane's Hat : 

So I had this great idea : Let's make matching hats for my boyfriend and me. He agreed and even bought me the prettiest yarn for it Elfin (discontinued ) So I set out to find a pattern and a pattern I found! Swirl Hat fit what I wanted, it was cute, interesting and my boyfriend loved it too! So I knit mine...over the course of a few weeks, it didn't occur to me that fingering weight yarn + size 5 needles = not a quick knit. But oh well! I started his hat and I think I'm on row 2. Not very far, not even past the ribbing (brim) of the hat! So here is a picture of me wearing my hat and a pic of Thane's hat in progress.

 My cowl : 

 I really like the Thorny Cowl and I was curious if I would like cowls in general so this looked like a really good first one! It's only an 8 row pattern repeat and and then you have to connect it (it's not in the round) I still haven't finished it and it was quite funny, my aunt came over and asked me to make her "stuff" when I inquired what she wanted she wanted a cowl so I showed her the Thorny pattern that I was doing and she loved it! The best part? The yarn she wanted it in only cost 3 dollars :D Woohoo! Anyway here's a pic of the cowl for me (red one..random crappy yarn) I don't even know if I'll like it once it's done...the color is too...red. Oh well we will see!

It looks washed out, but believe me its a very deep red color!

Anywho that is about all that is really worth sharing , I have to finish up a glove for the boyfriend's step brother but that's about it!

New stuff *Yarn,needles,other stuff~~~~~

The only new thing really worth mentioning right now is my HUGE package of DPNS (double pointed needles) I sold out and just bought them from China on Ebay, well excuse me that I got 11 sets of size 0-9 dpns for 4.80 , free shipping! And they work wonderfully :) I'm using them for my gloves right now! And truth be told they feel sturdier than the ones I bought from Michaels, which is sad. Oh well! Great deal for the poor knitter! and they each have there own resealable case ! Great for me :)

 
 

In other news~~~~~ 

My beloved boyfriend bought me enough skeins of Cascade 220 from WEBS to make a sweater that I've wanted to make from the knitting book The Yarn Girl's Guide to Simple Knits 
It's a super comfy, wear around the house or out sweater - had a hood and I think I'll look up how to put a pouch in the front too! Need those pouches! Very excited for this and so glad my boyfriend did this for me <3 
Yet another absolutely wonderful thing Thane is doing for me is pre-ordering  Botanical Knits by Alana Dakos,who hosts NeverNotKnitting podcast and blog at (you guessed it) Nevernotknitting.blogspot.com  All of her patterns are so beautiful but I fell in love with this book and all the beautiful leafy patterns! Cannot wait to get it! 

I think that is about it for my first post! Leave comments on here anytime or email me at ramblingknits2012.gmail.com !

Toodles,
Ashley