Category: Knitting

Yarn Purchased at End of Year Sales

Say good-bye to the old year while saving money on favorite, or new, yarn. Like many other knitters and crocheters, the end of year yarn sales are something to look forward to.

Knitting for Olive

My end of year yarn sale purchases included, for the first time, Knitting for Olive yarn, a company located in Denmark. They offer free shipping – all over the world (I believe) – on a first time order. Along with that savings, the company offered 15% off on their Soft Mohair yarn, so I got a nice discount on this lovely yarn.

My order arrived the day after Christmas! That was fast, considering the holiday busyness and that the order shipped from overseas. I was impressed.

I bought enough yarn to make two sweaters. Still deciding on which patterns while I finish up knitting the gold Calliope pullover.

Dusty Moose yarn color
Dusty Moose in Mohair and merino
knitting for olive green yarn
“Pea Shoots” green yarn

*Update: Used the Dusty Moose color to knit the lovely Field Sweater.

Purl Soho

I took advantage of the end of year sale online at Purl Soho and ordered some new types of yarn. Good Wool is a light worsted weight / DK (per their yarn page) that comes in big, soft skeins of 383 yards. I chose a natural, undyed brown called Hickory Nut. I wound one skein by hand and found no knots or inconsistencies. It is truly very soft. This yarn is also affordable and is NOT Superwash. I will be knitting a sweater with it in the near future!

Purl Soho yarn skeins
Good Wool and Hedgerow
wool yarn skeins
Natural brown wool and Irish tweed

Almost all my hand knits in 2023 were sweaters and I was wanting to knit a new hat. The Hedgerow tweed caught my eye and I chose nice, neutral gray and blue (Woodpile Gray and Charcoal Blue) colors. It is spun from Merino, cashmere and silk and comes in skein lengths of 243 yards. 

This yarn comes from Ireland and is very similar to the Soft Donegal yarn I bought to make a poncho and Cobblestone cardigan. I’ve already begun a hat and learned how to do a tubular cast on for it! 

I’m excited to get knitting with all this beautiful yarn and will post my projects here, on my blog, as I go. I do have some knitting projects in the queue, but I tend to change my mind on the yarn I’ll use. Eventually, I will have to decide!

More knitting adventure stories…

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Knitting Magic Loop is Common Sense and Easy

If you have considered learning how to knit the Magic Loop, do it! This technique will help will all small circumference knitting needs.

For some reason I have not tried to knit using Magic Loop until recently. I’ve considered it, but most of the video tutorials I watched seemed to make it look difficult, or more difficult than it really is. Now that I understand how it’s done, it’s basically common sense.

Three Ways to Knit a Small Circumference

Magic loop is used when stitches are too few to knit with a normal size circular needle. When faced with knitting narrow part of a sleeve, or sleeve cuff, socks, hat crown, or any small circumference, there are three different ways it can be done. 

If there are enough stitches, a 16″ needle can be used. I usually use this size for the beginning of top down sleeves and also for beginning adult size hats. 

As the amount of stitches become fewer and won’t fit around the 16″, we must switch to a 9″ circular, or double-pointed needles (DPNs). But, knitting with a 9″ needle can be a challenge. Also, many of us (me included) despise DPNs with all their awkwardness.

With Magic Loop, all that can be knit with one long needle. It keeps knitters from needing to buy shorter needles and therefore can save money.

magic loop sleeve knitting
Using one long needle to knit this sleeve.

How to Knit Using the Magic Loop

Picture your knitting as you would using a smaller needle, or DPNs. You are knitting around the same exact way, just splitting the stitches on a long needle.

In order to do this you need a long circular needle – 32 inch or longer for a sleeve, but a 24 inch might work for smaller items. A bit of the needle sticks out of each side of the project, so figure it from there.

knitting magic loop
Calliope Sweater knitting project

Pull some of the cable from about halfway around. Now you have split the knitting into 2 sections. They don’t have to be exact for most items. Knit one side following your pattern (mine for this sweater is simply knitting around). When you reach the pulled out cord, figure the needles to continue knitting around as usual. It means pulling one needle out – the one where the yarn is hanging. Then, use that needle to continue knitting. Mark the beginning of round so you don’t get confused.

A video I watched mentioned holding the stitches tightly when starting that new row. This way there are no loose stitches where the needles split – which is called ladders.

Best Times to Use Magic Loop

  • Hat crown
  • Sleeve – part, or all
  • Socks – some people knit both socks at once using Magic Loop!
  • Mittens
  • Two at once – socks, mittens, mitts
  • Baby & kids apparel which is overall smaller.

Videos For Magic Loop

A Look Back at 12 Months of Knitting

As we move onward to 2024, I usually take a look at the knitting projects I have completed over the last twelve months. I find the list at Ravelry, where I post all my knitting works. They can be found in my notebook, projects and challenge. Each year we can set a challenge number of knits we’d like to accomplish.  I did not pick a number, but ended up doing 9 complete knits. This is not a bad number considering eight of them were sweaters! 

Finished Knitting Projects of 2023

This list contains links to my blog page for each project. There you will find a link to the designer’s pattern page. Stars next to the pattern indicate something I enjoyed and would recommend.

  • January – *Goldenfern sweater pattern by Jennifer Steingass. A pretty colorwork pullover knit using fingering weight yarn.
  • February – *Arco Iris, V-neck pullover with short sleeves by Joji Locatelli. Good pattern, bad choice of yarn for me.
  • March – Easy V, pullover with colorwork yoke by Caitlin Hunter.
  • March – Joker pullover for my son. Knit in bulky Alafosslopi yarn. This is when I discovered that colorwork is not fun using bulky yarn!
  • May – Blue *Cobblestone Cardigan, my second one with changes made.
  • July – *Lakeland Tee, by Heidi Kirrmaier was knit as a summer top. It’s a great pattern, I just didn’t like choice of yarn.
  • August – *Blueberry Vodka Lemonade, by Thea Colman is a boatneck, 3/4 sleeve top knit in fingering weight yarn.
  • October – *Eva Cardigan, by Petite Knit is an oversize sweater with a v-neck and wide button band. I had trouble getting gauge, but finished up nicely.
  • November – * Aran Watch Cap, by Charlene Schurch with cables and folded brim.
Cable hat in light pink
Aran Watch Cap – yarn held double to use up some pink mohair.
Blueberry Vodka Lemonade sweater
Blueberry Vodka Lemonade sweater
hand knit Eva cardigan
Eva Cardigan

Of the nine knitting projects listed above, I was happy with most of them once they were finished. The Easy V sweater was a complete fail for me. It has a very wide, loose neck which makes the whole thing hang horribly. The bulky knit Joker sweater was a fine pattern, but tough colorwork to accomplish. In fact, I gave up after a few rows! 

I already have four new sweater patterns chosen to knit in the New Year and I’m excited to get started! What are you planning to knit in 2024?

Thank you for reading …

Beautiful Wool For Knitting From Sonder Yarn Company.

Here is a look at some new yarn I recently purchased from a new (to me) shop.

Sometimes I cannot resist a yarn sale. I’ve become much better at controlling my urges when it comes to yarn. I have narrowed my choices down to buying beautiful wool.

The Sonder Yarn Co. is located in Canada. I’ve been watching their yarn and knitting projects slip by on Instagram (I’m usually looking in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep), and I’ll tell you.. they have lovely colors!

You must spend a lot to get free shipping, and I just never wanted to spend the money. And then, I saw that there would be a sale on their pretty yarn. A very good sale too, at 20% off!

I had just finished knitting the Blueberry Vodka Lemonade sweater pattern and was seriously thinking of knitting another one. I needed fingering weight yarn for it.

My Wool Order

The Sonder Yarn company said there would be a bit of a delay getting all the sale orders out. I was in no hurry. Finally, I got an e-mail saying that my order had been sent to the wrong place. Instead of waiting for the order to come back to them, they were sending a replacement to me. So, altogether it took about three weeks to arrive.

The yarn did not come in the box you see in my photo – just stuffed into a bag. There was nothing extra, just a “thank you” on the order invoice. I am only mentioning this because some places add extras, like a free stitch marker, tissue wrapping, etc. – this place did not.

On the same day that the yarn arrived, another shipment of something arrived and came in this box, which fit the yarn very nicely. Perfect!

Sonder Yarn delivery with two colors and nine skeins.
Yarn delivery – (did not come in this box)

The Fingering Weight Yarn

The Sunday Morning 4 Ply yarn is fingering weight. It is made up of two types of wool; 75% BFL, or yarn from the Blue Face Leicester sheep, and 25% Masham wool. I ordered the color “French Press” which is a rich brown. Each skein has 432 yards!

Sonder Yarn Sunday Morning 4 ply in French press brown color
Color “French Press”

The DK Weight Yarn

The other yarn I ordered is Sunday Morning DK. It is made up of the same wool mentioned above for the 4ply. I choose color “Toast & Honey” colorway, and I love it! Each skein has 268 yards.

Already I have cast on and begun knitting a second Calliope pullover in this pretty golden color. My first Calliope came out too big, and the yarn was not right for it. I’ve been wanting to knit another for a while. I think this pretty wool will be just right.

sonder yarn skein in Toast and honey color way.
Pretty Toast and Honey yarn color.

Happiness

All in all, I am very happy with my yarn purchase. It’s tough buying yarn online but the colors shown on the website match very closely to what I got. The brown really caught my eye, but I ended up loving the golden color even more once I had it in hand.

I spent more money than I usually do, but I have gorgeous yarn and plans to use it. Also I got free shipping because of the amount, so that’s a plus. The wonderful color options may keep me going back for more, or at least keeping an eye out for sales at the Sonder Yarn Co..

more knitting stories

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