FO Friday- cardigan edition

It’s finished!!!!!

The OLAS cardigan of blue nuppiness is finished and…I’m kinda sad. It’s nothing to worry about, the usual end of large project meh-ness.

It has pockets, which in the end was awkward. I had forgotten to put in a row of stitches for an ‘afterthought pocket’, so I had to pick up stitches and cut the yarn for it (which low-key terrified Kita, but it was all good).

It also has massive sweater paws…as in larger than planned. I had planned sweater paws of a small measure, but in the end the sleeves ended up longer than planned, so the ribbing needs to be folded up more than expected. It’s all good though

The cables on it are awesome

Thoughts and planned mods for next time (aka my version)

-shorter sleeves. I dislike sweater paws, and so will plan for my sleeves to stop at the cuff. I might actually do a provisional cast on and do the ribbing down after to ensure they stop where I want them to

-good body length. I can’t remember whether I actually kept a record of when I started shoulder/neck shaping, but if I did, I want to use that length again on mine

-reflect all the cables. The small twisty ones don’t reflect, which makes them look strange at the shoulders. So I want to reflect half of them (although I can’t remember which half…)

-I kinda want to make the shoulder seams shorter- i.e. have fewer stitches on the shoulders. I’m not yet sure how to do this, since there isn’t a good way to remove any of the other cables in it…

-I would quite like to have  different pockets on mine. I want to have…I don’t know the right language for pockets, but I want more sideways one, with a curved edge. No idea how to do this, I might need to knit a few practice attempts…

 

However, my next attempt will have to wait for a while, I really want to get on and finish the wolf cross stitch, and then move onto the wedding sampler I have to do!

WIP Wednesday- everything edition (again)

So, apparently when I get busy this blog falls a bit by the wayside…in a bid to catch everyone up with what I’ve been doing, another everything WIP Wednesday!

1) I did, in fact, sew the sleeves into the OLAS cardigan. It’s now blocking by the radiator. Then I’ll cut the yarn ends and sew in the buttons and pockets. Still on track to finish for next weekend when my friend comes to visit to collect it!

2) The headband is nearly finished. I have a decision in front of me- do I use a couple of buttons to hold it closed, or just sew it??? I only have one button, so I would need to order another one online, which I think shouldn’t be a problem… (Edit to add: I can’t find the original button, so sewing it together it is)

3) I did a short row heel! My mother’s first sock is coming along swimmingly now! I also decided to go with a pattern, rather than make up my own which would need more attention. This is Hermione’s pattern, so it’s easy to get into the rhythm.

4) I (nearly) finish-finished my cross stitch (I guess this is a FO Friday but it can hide in here!). I gathered the fabric at the back, but I can’t stick the felt to the back because I appear to have misplaced my superglue…*facepalm*. Ahh well.

5) More spinning! On Saturday the spinning group met again and I finished off all the blue. Now to decide- do I start knitting the scarf now or wait until I’ve finished spinning all the yarn??? (Side note: could you please tell me what the spinning and knitting widgets on the side say? They’re coming up as innacurate for me, but I’m not sure if it’s because wordpress isn’t updaing the widgets or my laptop isn’t updating the widgets). (No picture because it’s just more cute skeins which I haven’t yet washed. Anyone want to give me some tips about washing handspun skeins???)

6) I ordered some things…the kingfisher sock yarn, more knitting needles and some sock yarn to get free shipping. And then some project bags for socks. Gotta keep knitting socks 😀 (No picture on this beause it hasn’t arrived yet 😦 )

7) I updated all the pictures on my ravely at the weekend, and in the process found a circular knitting needle I had forgotten I owned, in a scrap project. Naturally, this meant I had to knit some more squares on both my scrappy projects. They’re coming along nicely (but I still need to knit socks to feed the small squares one) (No pic because scrappy projects start looking the same after a while!)

8) No progress has been made on the wolf cross stitch. After the OLAS cardigan, this will become the main priority until it’s finished (or I get bored of it) I think. (No picture because no progress!)

9) I (badly) darned a sock! I think it was a knot in the yarn which had come free, but I darned a row above it as well as the row the yarn ends were on, and after a while it should start felting together nicely. And that will hold the ends in, so I decided to be lazy and not darn them in that well 🙂

What I’ve been up to…

…since it apparently wasn’t my to-craft list.

Well, there was a lot of work stuff we’ll just gloss over. I graduated (and consequently bought a lot of yarn). I knitted the best part of two (different) socks. Hmm. Maybe the afterthought heel isn’t the best bet for me. I started knitting new socks rather than finish those ones.

I went on long bikes rides. (I still need to clean my bike after the last one). Turns out it’s rather hard to knit whilst cycling fast. Shame really. Maybe when I start doing longer rides by myself I should bring knitting for breaks. Maybe that would mean the longer rides take a lot longer. Hmm, maybe not then.

I started spinning! This probably should be at the top of this list, but I forgot until now. There’s a spinning group just the other side of the park from where I’m living (hi to all the spinners who mentioned stalking my blog.). So I dug out my drop spindle and fibre, and firmly remembering why I wanted handspun yarn, I headed over. And had a wonderfully delightful time 🙂

I finished spinning some form of white yarn, and plied it, for a grand total of (wait for it)…85 yards

Isn’t it such a cute little skein???? I may have cooed over it for quite a while before getting around to the next bit of fibre, the bright blue from this pile:

So far I’ve got this much done

I started one of my mother’s new socks (the bluetit ones). No pic because I pretty much just got past the toe. I’m making up a clever slipped stitch pattern as I go, so it’s not completely mindless. (Second point about these- they’re actually the second attempt at starting socks. I started the owl (I think???) colourway, saw a pair done in a particular pattern I have, decided I simply had to do them in that pattern…and the pattern is in Salisbury. *facepalm*. I’ll do those later, if I remember to!)

I did actually do some knitting! I finished knitting the main stuff for Kita’s cardigan. I just didn’t get enough time to finish it for all the reasons listed above. That’t tomorrow’s job (I say that now…)

I did some other knitting (disclaimer, this actually happened yesterday so isn’t the reason why I didn’t hit my January goals, but hey, I knitted a thing. You should see it!). Whilst cycling, wearing a hat is rather problematic, so clearly I need an alternative. A headband can actually be removed (I think) without removing the helmet, so I started knitted one. Yes, the cables are going backwards- I prefer cabling forward without a cable needle, so why not?

Ok, I think I’ve caught you up to everything I’ve been up to. Now…I think it’s time to put those little nifty things down the side of my blog to keep track of how much I’ve knitted (and spun, since I’m now doing that!)

WIP Wednesday- Catch up from Chritmas edition

Phew! Christmas really went on for far too long this year (last year?), partially due to visiting friends, which generally I had previously avoided. However, it is finally over (or at least will be when I manage to shift this cough), and we can all get back to normal.

So, let’s get back to business! Kita’s cardigan is coming along a storm, I have 37 of the 50 cm before armhole shaping done now (and 4/5 of the buttonholes), although I still haven’t memorised the pesky back central cable.

The sleeves have been completely finished, but that’s a whole separate blog post (remember my issues with getting matching sleeves? Still got that somehow)

And two pairs of socks have been started. One pair you saw last Wednesday, and they haven’t had any more doing to them since then (just a toe and some of the pattern), but there is also a sock which is much further on, so I’ll show you that one instead.

I’ve finally had enough of vanilla socks, but strong stripes like this generally don’t go with intricate patterns very well, so I’m trying variations. This is a waffle stitch (wich you probably can’t see…I’ll try and get a better pic later on)- 3 rows stocking stitch, 3 rows 3×3 rib (3 because I do 66 stitch socks). Repeat ad infinitum…I’m also trying an afterthought heel, put in when the sock foot length is from the tip of my middle finger to the wrist joint. I’ll keep you all informed how it goes 🙂 This is actually my second attempt at a pair of socks from this yarn- I got through the foot and heel of a pattern which involved slipped stitches, but I hated it so I decided to start again. I am much prefering this pattern, and think that (provided I learn how to count to 3 reliably…) this may become my go-to ‘vanilla’ pattern. We shall see.

 

And also, bonus update on the Wolf, even though I haven’t been working on it over Christmas. I stopped timing how long it was taking me, because it was starting to stress me out, but I have done quite a lot more than the last time you all saw it!I’m hoping to finish off the top by the end of January (including all the backstitching I haven’t yet done), but we shall see.

WIP Wednesday edition of stress (yes, I know it’s Thursday)

Hi all, so I realised that there is less than three weeks till Christmas, which is something of a problem since I haven’t started the satsuma costumes yet. That’s this weekend plan…Work is also somewhat hectic right now (I got hit with a massive pile of ~400 scripts to mark…), so this is going to be a splurdge and go.

Firstly: wolf cross stitch! Another 4 hours added, bringing the total to 20.5 hours. This is quite a bit less than 1/4 of the whole design, so my last estimate of 80-100 hours might be slightly optmistic. But then most of the surrounding is half cross stitch, so that should be faster…I’ll leave that as my official estimate for now, I think.

Second: sleeves. Still going strong. I think I’ve pretty much got the hang of the cables now, so that’s good 🙂 I am still checking the charts, but much less than I was. So yay for that!

Third: mitred square blanket. This is so easy to pick up and put down, it now has 7 squares. Lovely garter stitch squishyness 🙂

Fourth: umm…yeah…so I saw the abandoned cockatoo brae, and decided that I had to sort that out there and then (I was procrastinating on doing the hoovering). So I re-swatched, and have decided I need to move to 2.75mm needles. Which is what the pattern calls for. Using the suggested needle size for a project feels really weird, but ok. (This is why you need to gauge swatch people. Even if you usually knit so loosely you have to go down a size, sometimes you don’t. Just go with the flow…) (Full disclaimer: I haven’t actually measured this yet. But pre-washing, I was hitting the 7 stitches an inch (I know, I really shouldn’t measured a larger part, but oh well)). Needles are 2.25 and then 2.75 (I think??? It’s either 2.5 or 2.75, whichever I have).

Fifth: the Christmas shawl. Well, I got last week’s 10 inches done, but not really this week…ok fine, I managed 6 of the required 10 inches. Which I’m trying to not stress over, because I have quite enough other things to stress over! And I should be able to easily make up the time (assuming I stop knitting on other things…)

6 inches is a lot!!!!! So now I have 10 inches and then 11 in the next two weeks…riiiiight. Completely believeable…

Start it Sunday…oops?

So, umm, I might’ve started more than one new project this week…

But first, the cardigan sleeves! I did indeed cast on the first sleeve of Kita’s cardigan, and promptly got swallowed in the black hole of 2×2 ribbing for 7 inches…

Part way through I came to my senses, and remembered that I can’t be trusted knitting one sleeve at a time, so I cast on for the second sleeve and caught it up to the same point…knitting two sleeves somehow doesn’t make the ribbing go any faster unfortunately.

But then it was finished, and I got to start the main body of the sleeves. This was also not great, since the two sleeves have opposite cable patterns (and some matching cables too, to keep things spicy). And the main cable body started two rows after the little cables, so the row count is off whichever way I look at it. I’m happily pottling along though, and of course aran yarn always knits up really fast 🙂

At least, I thought I was happy, but then I got this in the post, and so I really can’t be held accountable for my actions…

This is 22 of the 24 miniskeins I got myself as an advent calender. I sort of sneezed, and lost track of myself, and came up with this.

Which, fortunately, isn’t square. (Half way through I remembered that I wanted to do mitred squares- knitting the blanket from the inside out, rather than bottom to top as normal, so the fact that this wasn’t square meant that I could figure out how large I should make the mitred squares. And so voila, a finished mitred square!

This had a cast on of 55 stitches (2*27+1). I decrease on the first row, because that makes the decreases on the wrong side as I prefer the look of the other side. It worked perfectly, and I used up pretty much all of the 20 yards I was given. 🙂 This might grow rather quickly, because it’s addictive. Such pretty little garter stitch squishiness!!!! Or I might actually go and do some work on the wolf cross stitch…