Tag Archive | WIPs

Darkness and Light Cowl

I’m steadily plowing through my WIPs. This morning I finished my mom’s rainbow cowl, and I’m delighted with it. If she doesn’t love it, I’ll keep it for sure! I used one strand of Done Roving Frolicking Feet DK in Pot o’ Gold and one strand of Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine in black. The pattern is the Hartwell Scarf by Karin Michele. It was a simple pattern, though I did have a bit of trouble with the last round of the repeating pattern and kept ending up with a slipped stitch where it didn’t look right. Not sure if I was supposed to hold the yarn in back maybe? Anyway, it was a minor thing and not noticeable unless you look for it. And I love the diagonal ridge. I’d definitely make this pattern again.

I’ve also got one more WIP that became a FO today. The girl requested a gray beanie with just a little slouch, so we chose the Violet Waffles hat with gray Preciosa Tonal. It was ready for decreases, so I had her try it on first to make sure it was the right amount of slouch. Once she deemed it acceptable, it got finished off pretty quickly. This is a nifty pattern too, one I want to make for myself. I’ll make it gray if I have enough left, or I have a lovely raspberry color I could use instead.

Finally, another WIP left the list via frogging. I’d started some fingerless gloves in August of last year with some Baah Sonoma Chocolate Cherries yarn. Then they got set aside for gift and craft show knitting. Now I’ve decided I want to use the yarn elsewhere. Since I had less than half of one mitt completed, the frogging was quick and painless. The pattern is lovely, but I wear so little red that I wasn’t sure I’d wear them often enough. I have a few black/gray/white shirts, and what I do see myself wearing is a scarf, one with a lovely lacy pattern of some sort. To that end, I’m even considering frogging this Chocolate Cherries shawelette. It’s an awkward length for me, not quite long enough to wear as a scarf, and it ends up hanging in my closet. I do think it’s beautiful, and I enjoyed knitting it, but again, I think I’d rather use the yarn for something I could wear often.

After all that, I’m left with only TWO WIPs! One is a blanket, so I’m content letting that be a long-term project. The other is a gradient cowl that’s simple seed stitch, so I’ll pull that out for my TV knitting, and I might allow myself to cast on something new. I’m working with another blogger on starting a bulky-cowl Knit-along (more details soon). Anyone else want to play??

Finally, yesterday was the anniversary of the day we got Grace! She’s grown up a lot in the last year, and we sure love having her around. She’s a pain in the butt at times, but she’s OUR pain in the butt!

Watch me WIP!

Oct23

I have SO many works in progress right now, it’s crazy. Maybe not, maybe everyone else has 10 unfinished projects hanging around. Do you? I tell myself it’s okay because one is in deep hibernation, and six are for me that need to be on hold while I finish some money-making projects. So really, that only leaves three, and that sounds a lot better!

I did finish the Royals gloves and earwarmer and delivered those yesterday, and I’m proud to say that for the very first time I was able to make two gloves that matched each other in size! Not only that, I did it TWICE. Whoooa, that’s serious knitting success for me. Fresh off that high, I decided to jump off the deep end and start my biggest project: a crochet mermaid afghan. I’m sure you’ve all seen the photos. Well, it’s my turn to make one. I’m using Knit Picks Brava Worsted in two shades of purple and one shade of teal. Funny story: I picked up my crochet hook and my yarn to make my chain…and froze. I’d kind of forgotten how to chain! I did two stitches like a knitting cast on before my brain was like, No, stop, I got this. Fortunately, once I got going, I realized it’s not really a difficult pattern. The hard part for me will just be keeping myself interested enough to make something blanket-sized! But I’ve got a deadline so I feel confident.

Of course, I’ve also got a couple of hats on the needles. My Knit Picks Preciosa has just started to become a hat. I’m trying the Spiraltini pattern because it’s a simple pattern that looks more complicated than it is. I’m not at the fun part yet, though. It’s still in the ribbing phase. Last night the girl had a choir concert and I needed something super simple and portable so I grabbed a skein of Cascade Eco Cloud and cast on for another Broken Rib Slouch hat. I love how the chained texture gives it such awesome stitch definition. I’ll probably finish this up today when I need a break from the mermaid. Gray and rainy day means a day spent with my yarn! Except I’m out of wine, and that’s a problem…

My NEW new favorite WIP

Mar11

Yep. Yesterday’s favorite WIP, the pink and gray infinity scarf, has been frogged again. 144 stitches was not long enough to double. And I kept going back to the pattern and the projects and I could not (can not) for the life of me figure out why my project is not working right. Everybody else was able to knit it with 50 grams or less of the accent color, so why not me?? Well, I did figure out part of it: I was using size 10 1/2 needles instead of 10; I just accidentally grabbed the wrong tips from my interchangeable set. Would that be enough to use up that much more yarn? Seriously. I don’t have a clue. Now, the pattern calls for sport weight, and I’m using DK, but other people have used DK with the same stitch counts and same amount of yarn, so I should be able to as well. So here’s my question: should I knit to the pattern with the 10s? Or should I go down a needle size? Will that use less yarn? You’d think I would know these things but I don’t so I’m counting on some of you knitting experts to help me out here.

Since that project stalled, I did go out to my LYS yesterday and it was very refreshing. I got to wander on my own for a while, and then the nice lady asked what I was working on. Well. I’ve been wanting a white and black striped cowl for a while now, and my SIL and I both want to make one with chevrons. I want to use a natural fiber. Well, she showed me every yarn she could think of that might work. Some had white but no black, some had black but no white. Some I liked, some I…didn’t. Some I liked but didn’t want to pay $14/skein. I told her I’d ponder for a while and kept browsing. This store is unusual in that it’s in a big warehouse, and it’s actually two yarn stores in one with a tape line dividing the two. I ended up on the other side (because you have to look at *all* the yarn, of course) and happened upon some Cascade Ultra Pima. DK weight, black and white, natural fiber, nice sheen, $10 for 220 yards. It was perfect for the warm weather cowl I’m envisioning. I felt bad buying from the other store when the first lady had spent so much time helping me but it was the right yarn, and that’s the most important thing, right? I did buy some Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande from her because it was on sale. It’s just awkward sometimes, having two stores in one place. We knitters are nice, thoughtful people, which means we are more likely to spend more so nobody feels bad. Maybe that’s their plan?!?

Okay, okay. I got home with my new yarn, and in talking to my SIL, we decided we both wanted a reversible cowl, one knit like a tube so the stockinette was all the way around. I played around with a lot of stitch counts and pattern repeats until I finally FINALLY ended up with something that pleases me. It’s fun, and it’s really cool that I just doing these simple things and out comes this nifty pattern. I mean, it’s just increases and decreases! How easy is that? Plus! Since it’s knit in the round, I don’t have to worry about carrying up the yarn neatly because it’s all inside. I did have to learn the provisional cast on, which was fine since I crochet and have picked up stitches before. And I will have to learn kitchener at the end to graft the two ends together to make a seamless circle. But I’m not thinking about that right now. So yeah, this is my new favorite WIP. It will travel around with me today on all my errands, and maybe tomorrow I’ll have lots of progress to show off.

Finally Finished: ToshDK Honey Cowl

Oct28

Whee, I’m in a finishing phase! Since finishing the wedding wrap, I’ve been on a roll. I finished a lingering scarf for a holiday order, I finished two sports-related earwarmers for friends, and I finished another Princess Anna hood. It feels so good to get some projects done.

After finishing so many little projects, I needed something simple for my waiting room knitting (I have lots of that kind of time) and came across another languishing project: my Madelinetosh Honey Cowl. The pattern is super simple, and it was so close to being done, that I decided I needed to just power through to the end. An hour later I was binding off, last night I wove in ends, and today was picture day. I’m in love with this cowl and it’s going nowhere but around my own neck. The yarn is actual Madelinetosh that I bought at Looped Yarn Works in Washington, D.C. My LYSs don’t carry Madelinetosh, so it was the first time I’d seen it, and at $22 a skein it was a pretty big splurge for me. But it was worth it. The colors are gorgeous, and the yarn feels luscious: it’s soft but springy, and knit up in this stitch the fabric is dense but still lightweight. It’s just fantastic, and I’ll definitely be making another Honey Cowl even if I can’t do it in Madelinetosh.

The relief I felt at finishing a WIP inspired me to pull out another one, so I’ve started on the second of a pair of seed stitch mitts that might end up being a Christmas present. As for waiting room knitting, well, I ended up starting something new. The life of a knitter or crocheter, right? Your pile of WIPs never really goes down!

NOT my favorite WIP

Sep11

Dagnabbit. Another knitting failure. I refuse to blame it on not checking gauge, but it *is* my fault. So I got an order for these hats for Christmas presents, and I wanted to get an early start. Plus I love making hats so this is a fun project to have in my rotation. Unfortunately, when I went to cast on, I realized I didn’t have size 7 16″ circulars. I have 6 and 8, but no 7. I have size 7 in my interchangeables, but those tips with the 16″ cord are still a bit longer than 16″ and it’s more awkward than a true 16″. You can guess what I did. Yep. I thought, oh, I’ll just use the 8. They’re for slightly older boys so it’ll be okay if they’re bigger than the kid in the pattern’s picture. So I used the 8. Here’s where I am. It’s cute, I like the pattern, it’s knitting up quickly, blah blah blah. Whatever. Last night I tried it on my 11yo son. It’s too big. Not terrible, but loose. And it’s for a younger boy. And it’ll stretch a bit with use. So yeah. Too big. Sing along with me (to the tune of “Crying Time”. I hear Barbra in my head, but there are a lot of versions): “It’s frogging time again, you’re gonna leave me. I can see it by the way you lose your shape.”

My Favorite WIP

Sep10

There’s a lot going on in my life lately and I’ve been feeling a bit scattered, unable to focus too long on anything. Maybe that’s obvious, given that I keep starting new yarn projects without finishing the others. (Current WIP count = 9) Partly I’m feeling a lot of creative inspiration where I actually know what a yarn is supposed to be. That doesn’t happen often for me so I want to start them before I lose the inspiration. And partly I just need different kinds of projects for different moods and needs. I need waiting room knitting, TV knitting, football game knitting, and quiet time knitting. I’ve got them all covered now! Plus I’ve got three orders in my queue; one is started and the other two are next in line. Clearly, I’ve got enough knitting to keep me busy for a good long while.

But I’ve got a favorite right now. I know you’re not supposed to admit it, but I do. A few days ago I came across a post by yarnandpointysticks titled “The moment when something screams knit me” and the second project really did scream that to me. Look at this gorgeous shawl!

dokatron’s Quadratic on Ravelry. (Photo by Victoria Magnus)

This is the Quadratic published by David O’Kelly and Eden Cottage Yarns. It’s simple but striking. It’s also a lot of delightful squishy garter stitch, which I love, and just a tiny bit of stockinette to make the little stripes stand out. As soon as I saw it, my mind went to the two skeins of icy gray Quince & Co. yarn that I bought in DC this summer. A quick check in Ravelry told me it was a fingering weight, which is what the shawl requires. Plus, I only had *TWO* other fingering weight yarns in my entire stash, and they just happened to be colors that look gorgeous with the gray.Oh my, I just love those together. The only problem is that the shawl calls for 567 yards of the gray, and I only have 442. That didn’t stop me. I have a plan. I’m going to modify the pattern just a little bit. Instead of having all the larger sections be gray, I’m going to have one small one in the blue, and a larger one in the purple. I have no idea how much yardage those two sections will make up, so I’m really just crossing my fingers that this will work out favorably. If not, well, I’ll be begging for more of the gray yarn, I guess. I cast on the next day, and even though I’ve been working on projects for customers, I keep coming back to this one just a little at a time. I like it so much that I don’t think it will take me too long to finish. Check back for photos of the final product!

Make a new project, finish an old one

Aug26

Crafters have it bad. They’re always thinking of new things they want to make. They look at supplies and their brains light up with possibilities. It’s great to have all the ideas, but it does sometimes make it hard to get projects completed. I have seven WIPs but that doesn’t stop me from starting more. I’ve had some purple LaFurla yarn in my stash for months, but as soon as I got some purple Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca Grande to go with it, I’ve been dying to make another furry cowl. It finally got to be too much and a couple of days ago I broke down and cast on. I finished it that day (I *never* finish projects in a day) and love it! The furry yarn was kind of a pain to knit with. It doesn’t like to knot when you finish it off, and heaven forbid you drop a stitch: I don’t know if you’d ever find it! It’s worth it, though.

I know, the last picture is terrible. I’m sorry. I wanted a photo showing how nicely it drapes, and a selfie with my phone was my option.

Once that was done, I was happy, and I could switch back to a WIP. I decided to finish the Chiefs fingerless gloves for my friend, since I knew one mitt would go quickly. And it did. I got it knit in the morning and wove in tails last night. They’re fun. I like the reversed colors, I think. Not what I had in mind, but it works.

Having finished two projects in as many days, I thought I deserved to start another one. So last night during the Emmys, I finally cast on for the Honey Cowl, the Madelinetosh pattern that keeps catching my eye on Ravelry and that I tried to cast on twice already. This time it worked, and I’m six rows in. And that Madelinetosh DK yarn is a delight to knit with too. Now let’s see how long it takes me to finish it!