So Many WIPs…

Generally speaking, I try to avoid having too many projects in-progress. I don’t like thinking about all those things that I’ve started but haven’t finished yet. Unfortunately, right now I have quite a few WIPs–many more than I would prefer to have ongoing. It might not be very many for others knitters and crocheters who live for the thrill of a new project, but it’s too many for me. Unfortunately, I’m not at a good point to finish any of them up!

My oldest WIP is from July 2014–the tiny wild rose hand puff. It’s a Tiny Owl Knits pattern: tiny violet hand puff. I haven’t made any progress on this since April of this year… because I ran out of yarn and haven’t bought more. It’s easy for me to stall when I have a project that needs more yarn, since I’ve been trying to work down my stash of yarn. I know that it probably would be a good idea to buy more yarn and finish this, but every time I start to buy the yarn I need I can’t go through with it.

That’s the same problem I’ve had with this other muff: forest leaf muff. It dates from the same period as the other hand-cozy, although it’s been on hiatus longer. I also ran out of yarn and haven’t had the motivation to buy more.

WIP Wednesday: Eternal Scarf

This scarf project originated at the yarn toss for last year’s Vogue Knitting LIVE event. It bounced near my feet in its little organza bag, and a woman standing near me motioned for me to pick it up. At first, I planned to use the yarn included for some other pattern, but then I started to feel a little bit bad for neglecting the free pattern in the bag. Instead, about a month later, I cast on the Robin Scarf.

Now, I’m not sure if that was such a good idea. I have been working on this scarf off-and-on for nearly a year. It is knit on size 0/2mm needles. The yarn is a light fingering. The lace pattern is fairly simple, but it starts to really make my hands hurt after a few hours of it. I’ve made very little progress, always sneaking along a bit at a time, sometimes barely completing a full repeat in one session. I don’t want to pull it out now, but I sometimes wish I had opted for socks instead of this lace scarf. It’s not something I plan to keep for myself; hopefully whoever gets it in the end will love it. They’ll get a lot of my time and effort, that’s for sure.

I finished two pattern repeats for Wednesday. That was all I could stand before I needed to move on to something else. (I also crocheted some coasters and started a hair ribbon.)

WIP Wednesday: Button Time

This Wednesday I finished up the doll wrap that I was working on~! ♥ The buttons that I ordered arrived during the day, and I spent the evening sewing them on and adjusting the length of the fringe. The only buttons that I had on hand in the correct size were either standard 4-hole black plastic circles or 2-hole circles of transparent plastic with pink or silver glitter. They were leftovers from other projects, and as much as I really think the glitter buttons are cute, they were too childish for the colour of the yarn and the style of the finished project.

I decided to order dark shell buttons, as I thought they would coordinate well with the colours of the yarn. The Opaline colourway is a really lovely rainbow with a dark brownish-gray over-dye. There’s something similar in the way that shell buttons reflect light with an iridescence. When the buttons arrived I was happy to find that they had exactly the look I was hoping for.

Doll Knitting Interlude

I took a break from socks before I jumped on the next pair. I didn’t start the sweater, however, and I didn’t buy any more yarn.

A little more than a year ago I knit a ear-covering headband for cold weather. My ears really can’t take it when it’s cold. Even well above freezing I generally still need to wear a hat or my ears get very red and painful. Sometimes I don’t really want an entire hat, and as much as I appreciate the functionality of earmuffs I’m always hoping for something cuter. I saw the pattern Portsmouth: a skating hat and thought it was a really cute look in the pictures. I had some leftover yarn from a skein purchased during the Madelinetosh Black Friday sale in 2011, so I used it. I wore the finished item maybe once or twice and then forgot about it until I found it at the bottom of our “cold weather accessories” bag in the closet, when trying to organize the scarves. As cute as it looked on the model, it just would not lay flat on my own head regardless of blocking.

When I discovered it again, I thought about how much yarn it probably contained, totally wasted in its current state, and unraveled it.

Brightest Scarf Ever

I spent my weekend working on the Safety Scarf by Stephen West (WestKnits)~ Somehow, amazingly, it’s already done! I stayed up crazy-late to cast it off last night. When I get to a point in the project where I can so clearly see the end of the project, sometimes I can’t let go! I know that I should go to bed…but I can’t. Just one more row. Honest. Just one. Oh, maybe just another row. I’ll be done so soon. A few more minutes; that’s all it will take me. Next thing I know, it’s after midnight and I still have so many stitches left. (It wasn’t quite as dire last night as it could have been, at least! And I am really happy that it’s done!)

The pattern was generally enjoyable to knit; I’m mostly glad that it’s done because I intended it for a Christmas gift. I didn’t want to keep putting it off long enough for it to qualify for this year’s holiday giving. XD

Finishing Mitts and Onward

I am thrilled to have finished Wednesday the mitts I began on Tuesday–and they turned out exactly as I had hoped they would! Both have thumb gussets–which I really prefer as opposed to thumb openings when it comes to mitts. I feel like they fit on a hand better and keep one’s hands warmer. They’re also not terribly difficult to do; I modeled the thumb gussets on these mitts from the thumb gussets on Catching Butterflies by Tiny Owl Knits, which I knit recently. They use a kfb increase for the thumb gusset, and although it is not exactly symmetrical in appearance (due to the nature of the kfb increase) I was satisfied with the resulting appearance. For the cabled mitts, the kfb increases look even better because they blend in with the waffle stitch. The “bar” created by knitting into the back of the stitch is similar enough to a purl bump that it’s not very noticeable.

My only real concern with the mitts is their size. I tried them only myself to make sure they weren’t atrociously small, but my hands are smaller than the recipient’s hands. I hope they’ll fit her well. I’m hopeful that even if they seem a bit tight at first, they’ll loosen up as she wears them.

My next step is to finish up the necklace kit I bought to make for her, and then I can send a care package to her university with all sorts of handmade goodness. ♥ I’d really like to have it done in time for ♥Valentine’s Day♥–I could theme the package for the holiday and include some cards and other trinkets, too~ ♥

30 Days of Knitting: Day 7

Day 7: What is your least favorite piece that you’ve knit?

I’ve knit more “least favourite” projects than I’d really care to admit. I’ve been on a constant battle to avoid collecting yarn. I try to knit yarn as quickly as I can manage rather than buying more and more of it. Even though I don’t buy much of it, though, it accumulates because I tend to get yarn as little gifts or “oh I was just thinking of you” from various friends and family members. It just seems to turn up! I had knit almost all of my current yarn stash, and then I inherited more yarn from my grandmother, so it more than doubled even after I sorted out the yarns I’d be least likely to use.

I’ve been trying to cut back on “obligation knitting,” particularly because I’m not obliged to anyone with my hobby–I’m forcing these obligations on myself–but sometimes I still slip up. If I have yarn, I feel like I must use it, even if it’s not really to my taste.

30 Days of Knitting: Day 5

Day 5: How long did it take from the time your learned how to knit, to finish your first project?

It didn’t take me too long to finish my first project. It was a simple garter-stitch scarf, and I knit it for the length of one skein of acrylic yarn. I think it took me a week or two, but I honestly don’t remember enough about it to be sure.

I wish I remembered more about that first project, actually. It would have been neat to compare it with the things I’m making now. I don’t even have a picture.

It’s at least nice to know that in the future as I look back on the things I started knitting since university, I’ll have pictures and written details to reference. 😎

30 Days of Knitting: Day 1

Day 1: What was your first finished project?

I first learned to knit when I was much younger. My grandmother made a brief attempt when I was in elementary school, and I had my first formal lesson from her when I was in junior high.

My grandparents liked to take my brother and I on summer and fall vacations to Door County. Either we’d stay in their fancy camper trailer or they’d rent a cabin or a suite of bedrooms in a hotel, and we’d spend a few days up there. My uncle Chris lived with my grandparents, as he was mentally disabled, so was there, too.

Old Blog: The Sapphire Scarf Continues

I found a few blog posts from an earlier attempt to blog about my knitting, back when I picked up the hobby seriously in 2010. I’m reposting them here for the sake of archiving.

I know I still have quite a bit of knitting to go, but it’s been quick so far.

The willpower to not go to the yarn store before class is something I did not have. Instead of eating a lunch (which was okay with me; I was too nervous about the exam to really want food) I rushed over to the nearest yarn shop to get a yarn to strand with the sparkly kind. I unraveled my progress, stuffed the awkwardly-rewound cake into my pocket, and hopped on a train. I thought this would be easy. I was wrong.

If asked to describe the colour I bought, I would quickly respond, “Navy.” It is exactly what I imagine as a generic navy. I expected it to match other navies.

Apparently it is not navy, but is instead some magical mystery colour.