There are two sides to every knitting project. And some are worse than others.
The Tulips Baby Cardigan is finished.
With just that wee bit of teal, I didn't even try to do the I-cord ties and neck with it. I went to an alternate color. Now that I am finished, I almost wish I had gone with the purple, but instead I chose the pink. It is a bit too matchy matchy, but I guess it will do.
And the ugly side?
A bajillion ends that need to be woven in.
I guess I best get at it.
Even though I had a previous post today and have picked up another project, I wanted to share some preliminary pictures of Sandy's Traveling Woman Shawl.
Last night, I only had a wee bit of yarn before beginning the bind off. So I wound the yarn I had dug out of my stash to use for the final cast off only.
Gertrude graciously consented to model. She feels the heat much less than I do. Of course it needs blocking and I have already passed along the blocking frame boards to Sandy to see if Robin could make a frame.
A good firm blocking should work its usual magic, accenting the points and opening the lace.
I couldn't resist a quick try on. Even if the wool room doesn't get the benefit of the air conditioning.
And now on to some of my previously started projects.
No blogging today. I am in the middle of casting off Sandy's Traveling Woman.
More tomorrow.
As I realized that Easter is fast approaching, I decided I better get a certain cardigan blocked and delivered to the little Purple Princess. I don't want her to outgrow it before I get it to her.
I quickly put it in a small tub with some Soak wool wash and let it rest a bit. After wrapping it with a bunch of my dedicated blocking towels, I squished out as much water as possible. Then I set it out on the blocking mats.
The feline beasts have been rowdy today, so I decided some protective measures were necessary.
And not a moment too soon it seems.
For now, Lewie decided it wasn't worth the bother.
I thought it would perhaps be a good idea to check in occasionally on my resolutions to help me in at least try to work towards them. Of course I didn't really call them resolutions. More like goals, at least as far as my knitting was concerned. If you want, you can see my original post on these goals dated January 8, in the archives sidebar on the right.
I wanted to work on finishing the most active projects. I did finish knitting the Lilac Cardigan, even though at the time it was dangerously close to being abandoned. The lace was seriously slow going at the time. But it still needs washed and delivered before I can say it is truly done. I also finished the Stonehenge Shawl. And the back of my Navy Tweed vest is up to the arm shaping. Although as I reported recently, it is still stopped in mid-row. The other items I mentioned then haven't been touched. Oops.
The main reason for my lack of action on the other WIPs (Works In Progress) is of course my Bang Out a Freyja. The "Banging It Out" means it is supposed to be the only project I work on. I think before long, I will be reverting to putting something else in rotation. But, on the bright side, the Freyja does help my second goal of knitting one or more cardigans for myself. I did intend making them out of stash, but hey...a sweater is a sweater.
Socks? As I mentioned in the January post I need more socks. And that is more so now. I discovered another pair that needs darning. I started one pair of smocked socks, but....Freyja happened.
So three projects have been finished so far this year, not too bad.
I haven't finished any of my Craftsy classes yet either, but I have been dabbling with them.
There were two other goals that I noted in my Bullet Journal that didn't hit the blog.
The first was to try to blog more often. My exact words were "as close to daily as possible." I think I am doing fairly well with that goal. I deliberately left myself wiggle room.
The other goal is also one I have already taken action on. It was to explore finding a new church. I think that has been accomplished. I feel quite at home at the Catholic parish I am attending now. Classes for membership won't start again until September so I have time to settle in and make a final decision.
If anyone wants to know more about this big jump. I am blogging about it at :
thecontinousjourney.blogspot.com
I will not be posting there daily, but I just wanted a place where I could record the reasons I am making the change. I also hope to simply journal about how the change progresses. Feel free to bookmark the website because I will not always be sharing those posts on Facebook as I do this blog.
And now, just to finish on a cheerful note, here is my favorite small human again.
I love that kid.
I shared a couple photos yesterday of my Gertrude modeling my Stonehenge Hitchhiker that was finished yesterday. At Knit Night this evening I had the opportunity to have pictures taken while I modeled it.
I really love the drape of this. And it has plenty of warmth for me. Wool will do that. I especially like the crescent or boomerang shaping of the Hitchhicker too.
It goes well with my gray and silver hair too. Ha!
The more I look at this, the more I think I will be making another before long. Or at least sometime this year, after catching up on some of my other projects..
The Stonehenge Hitchhicker is done. I really like it. I may try it out for a while to be sure, but I think the reddish metallic rayon may become one of these, with the additions of eyelet rows.
First, after finishing the seven pattern rows, I had to play a game of yarn chicken.
As you can see above, I didn't have much left for casting off.
But I made it. Just a few inches lefty or weaving in.
It looks pretty good on Gertrude too. (I may need to replace the old girl this year, she has developed a definite lean.). Front...
The pattern is Hitchiker and I purchased it as part of a four pattern set. The yarn is two skeins of Stonehenge Mills, natural colored, mill ends. It was purchased several years ago from their stall at the Charlevoix Fiber Show. And, as you can see, I knit until the yarn ran out.
The last of my Christmas knitting did appear in a Fre preliminary pictures. But the pictures in no way resembled the final gift.
There was one picture similar to this:
And later it looked like this:
Yes, that is grafting being done there. I do it with a knitting method, instead of sewing method.
A few more items were needed.
And, after adding a peaked beak, it is nearly recognizable.
You got it. An owl , the big Beige Owl for Lil Farm Gal. The pattern is Big Snowy Owl on Ravelry and was made with Encore Mega, with scraps from the previously shown Mary Janes and Owly Hat.
Rather regal I think.
Originally I had planned other knitting, but in the name of sleep and sanity, I pared the list down. All in all though, not too bad a batch of knitting.
Another one of my gift knitting items also made a couple sneak appearances on this blog.
These slippers were from the pattern named Leethal Mary Janes and were made for my daughter-in-law. I made them to more or less fit my feet, but a bit longer. I think they should fit fine since the garter stitch which makes up most of the foot is very stretchy.
They were knit with one strand of Plymouth Encore Mega in a black/gray and two strands of Encore worsted in the same silver that has been appearing in the Scoreboard Cowl.
The strap isn't buttoned, but sewn down with a button merely for decoration. These buttons looked perfect on the card. But next to the yarn they looked more brown so were replaced with plain black buttons.
Notice the large button canister in background. The plastic box on top holds the buttons and other fasteners. You can see I do have a good stash of random buttons to choose from.
Another present that I do want to mention, even though I think I already showed them here are the boot toppers I made for a teenager at church.
More stealth knitting with the last present tomorrow.
One thing I have noticed since Lewie came here to live is that it is really hard to get a good picture of a black cat. Especially when he doesn't cooperate.
But the upside is that as time goes on, the growling and staring (glaring?) by Leo has greatly diminished. I have even seen them both on the bed at the same time. Yes they were at opposite sides of the bed, but they seem to be adapting well.
On the knitting front, I have finished another birthday present.
Isn't just the cutest thing? I am considering making one in my size. The pattern is sized from baby to adult large, and now that I know how it works, it would be easily adjustable.
That leaves me with some Christmas knitting to do. I have even thought about casting on for another vest for me, this time in garter stitch. As though I don't have a pile of WIPs (Works In Progress) already.
With both birthdays for grandchildren as well as Christmas fast approaching, it is time for gift knitting. Some is coming from the stash, but I did make a few purchases. Just as a supplement you know.
I started a cowl like my St Augustine Cowl finished early this year. This one though is in turquoise. I think I can find someone who would like that.
I have plans for a hat and possibly mittens too but they may be able to wait until Christmas, I hope. Hope is high for a pair of Mary Jane style slippers also by Christmas.
And then there is this, already started...a pair of fingerless mitts.
In navy tweed, from my stash, they are definitely daytime knitting.
But, with all this knitting ramping up I present this:
I finally sat down and added buttons to the Flo Oatmeal Vest.
Ta dah! Although I will need to see if I can get some better pictures, I think it isn't half bad. And enough left over for a hat.
That makes my tenth finished project for 2015! I'm doing better than I thought.
I needed a break from all the purple of this summer's knitting. The placemats are done, but the baby sweaters continue along. And the gray blue Spiral Blankie is not a big break from purple.
So I turned to something I had been thinking about knitting for awhile: a soap sack.
It was definitely quick. I finished the whole thing yesterday from cast on (twice!) to cast off. And that was after tinking back to fix a lace mistake in one sweater, and switching my car sock project to magic loop.
After poking around, I found this in my stash room and decided it was the perfect worsted weight for my soap sack.
I rifled through my patterns and found Sudsy Soap Sack on Ravelry. It called for size 10.5 needles but I really dislike knitting on large needles. I used size 7 needles, and cast a extra 4 stitches to compensate. Well, I first tried a extra 8 stitches. And after a couple inches, decided that was too big. So I ripped that all back and started with only 4 extra stitches. I also grabbed a bar of soap to measure it by.
It went much better the second time. Magic loop again. I decided I really do like that method.
I may make more. They would be nice gifts with a bar of fancy soap, but need to tweak the pattern more I think. It drives me crazy that the stockinette strip on either end spirals around the bag. I know, as someone said at Spin Guild today, that it is just going to hang in my shower. But that spiral is driving me crazy. I may also try a finer weight yarn.
The finished sack shown above has a bar of Dial, and two more soap slivers. It's is a bit long, but bigger bars of soap may need the length. I think I can live with it. If I don't look at the spiral.
Finished and delivered.
When I decided to make an owl for my owly friend, I searched and even purchased several patterns. But this one, available on both Craftsy and Ravelry as The Guardian Owl, was hands down the winning pattern. It last was seen here on the blog looking rather like a mysterious hat-like mound of wool. Or rather alpaca. It is knit from a bulky rose gray alpaca yarn I had ferreted out of the stash. And to make it even more personal, it is stuffed with roving from the llamas once owned by the recipient.
This is the pattern I mentioned I wanted to knit using the magic loop technique of knitting. After wrapping my brain around the concept, I think I may be using it often for sleeves as well as for socks. Especially when traveling with sock projects. It certainly eliminates the possibility of dropping a needle on the go.
Best of all with this little owly, I think it is well liked. I love knitting for someone who really appreciates the effort that is part of the gift. (Pictured here with recipient and friend, instead of Lizzy, for scale.)
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