A Long Line of WIPs: Part Two

This post should actually be called "An Even Longer Line of FOs", but I can't have a Part One without a Part Two, so there you go. I'm planning to give you a bit of an update on some of those WIPs in this post, and then I'll share some finishes, too. All links are to my Ravelry project pages.

I have two long-term WIPs. One of them, which I cast on almost two years ago, has been hibernating for a while, and will be taken out of hibernation and, I hope, finished, sometime before the end of this year. The other one, Shades of Blue and Pink, was cast on almost exactly a year ago. It was supposed to be travel knitting on our New England trip last July, and I did work on it then, but then I didn't work on it for a long time. I have picked it up again, and I'm actually making good progress. In the photo below, you can see the tiny bit left from the second ball of yarn. I am not planning to knit the whole third ball, so I may have a finished scarf shortly.

I cast on my Summer Socks because I wanted socks with some cotton content for the cooler summer days we usually get here in the Northwest, days when it is too warm for wool socks, but lighter weight socks are still an option. The problem is that we haven't had any cooler summer days. It has been hot, sunny and very, very dry, and as a result, I haven't been much in the mood for finishing these socks.

Newer projects include My Own Hand-Dyed Shawl, which is a free pattern, Nurmilintu. The yarn is YOTH Yarns Little Brother, and as my project name implies, I dyed the yarn myself in a class I took last summer.

Another new project is my Summer Market Socks, Bonnie Sennott's latest pattern, Hulst. I am really enjoying this pretty textured sock, which has different, but related patterns on the front and back of the leg.

Finally, my Deepest Pink Cardi, which I shared with you last month, is still in the mix, but I have not yet progressed beyond chart A. That may happen very soon, however, because I just started the last repeat of that chart. The photo below was taken just an hour ago, so this is exactly what it looks like now.

As far as finished objects go, I have been surprisingly productive lately, and you can expect one more very special FO in a post all its own a little later this month. Here are the items that have recently come off the needles:

My Happy Handspan Cowl, knit from yarn spun for me by a dear friend.

An Easy Happy Birthday, Martina Behm's Easy pattern. I love how the Zauberball yarn striped!

That Red Robin is a Bit of a Tart: Helen Stewart's Red Robin shawl, which has been in my queue since it was published in 2013. The name of the project is a play on the yarn, Madelinetosh tosh merino light in the Tart colorway.

And finally, Simply Pink, the Simple Skyp sock pattern. They were simple, but maybe a bit too simple (or perhaps a bit boring). Bonnie Sennott's Hulst pattern was a nice change of pace for my brain after finishing these socks.

Well, that is the rundown of current and recently finished projects. There will be some hiking coming up soon, and as always, more knitting.

A Long Line of WIPs: Part One

There is a lot of knitting going on at my house, but not much finishing, I'm afraid. The problem is that I have recently cast on a bunch of projects, so almost everything is at the beginning stages, or not yet even halfway done. Because there are so many new WIPs, I am going to split them up into two posts, and I'll just share a few of them here.

I am currently obsessed with my most recent cast-on, Spring and Summer Funderland (all links are to my Ravelry project pages), Wendy Gaal's Winter Funderland Stocking. Even though I don't knit colorwork projects very often, once I cast one on, I'm addicted! This pattern is particularly fun and addicting because the knitter can choose which of a number of pattern motifs to knit, and in what order to knit them. The yarn is Knitters Brewing Company Sock-aholic Brewski, which I purchased as a kit especially for the stocking.

Here is what I have finished so far:

One of my older WIPs—though not the oldest—is An Easy Happy Birthday, Martina Behm's Easy scarf. Many thanks to my friend, Andi, who gave me the pattern back in March, for my birthday. I am knitting the scarf in a ball of Zauberball that has been in my stash since 2010, so I'm even working on one of my stash busting goals while knitting it. I'm now just past the halfway point of the pattern. This photo was taken a bit before that.

I cast on this next WIP a month ago, and I've been working steadily on it since then. It's my Deepest Pink Cardi, Hiroko Fukatsu's Hitofude cardigan. The photo below shows where I was about three weeks ago, with three repeats of chart A completed. There are now ten repeats done, with two more to go before the fateful moment when I undo the provisional cast-on and do a three needle bind-off for the sleeves. I am trembling at the thought, and I'll be very glad to be past that point and moving on to knitting the body.

There are, of course, other WIPs to talk about, but I'll save those for another post. I have actually finished two projects recently, both from the same yarn, Invictus Yarns Adventure, in the Undeniable colorway (which, by the way, I love). Here are The Red and the Black, a pair of socks for me. I used the Fish Lips Kiss Heel, which resulted in the cool geometric striping on the heel that you see in the photo.

After I finished those socks, I knit a baby hat, The Red and the Black, Hat Version. The hat is going to be included as part of a baby shower for the NICU at a local medical center that one of my knitting friends organizes with her work colleagues every year. It's always fun to photograph my baby hats on some of my favorite dolls and stuffed animals, but it's even more fun to think about this hat being on the head of a sweet little baby sometime in the future.

So that is all I have of WIPs and finishes for this post, but as there seems to be a never-ending supply of both, more will be coming soon.

Old Year, New Year

Happy New Year! This is usually the post where I talk about my goals for the year, but with a couple exceptions, I don't plan to do that this year. What I want to do instead is give you an update on the projects that I finished in the MySister's Knitter finishing WIPs KAL that I wrote about back in October. I had intended to post an update in November, but blog posts have been few and far between lately, so that update never happened.

When I first posted about the KAL, I had finished three of nine WIPs, and shared in-progress photos of two others. My final tally at the end of the KAL: seven of those nine projects are complete, and both of the unfinished projects are actively being worked on, so I expect to have two more FOs in the not too distant future.

Started on August 31, I finished Little Pumpkins for My Feet on October 20, in plenty of time for Halloween. I wore them to a pumpkin carving party, as well as on Halloween.

 

Next up in the finishing category was a rather embarrassing project that had been on the needles since November 21, 2013, and which I finished two days short of a year later. I had originally intended it to be a birthday gift in March for my friend Elizabeth, instead, it was her Christmas gift. Here is my Better Late Than Never Shawl, modeled by yours truly.

I cast on my Time to Experiment Socks way back on May 15. I wanted to experiment with a different heel that would work well with self-striping yarn, so I pulled out some sale yarn from WEBS to use for my experiment. Initially, I thought I would try an afterthought heel, but then I started hearing about the OMG Heel, and decided to knit that one instead. The heel was quite easy to knit, with very clear instructions, but when I tried on the in-progress sock, it didn't fit my narrow foot very well. At first I thought I would just finish the sock and try another heel on the second sock, but I ultimately opted to rip back and try the Fish Lips Kiss Heel instead. I got Mr. D to trace my foot and then did all the measurements that the pattern requires, and Eureka—an amazing, great-fitting heel!  Here are those socks, finished on Christmas Day:

Finally, I completed what was probably the biggest slog of all of these projects, my Crescent Candelia, which I cast on back on May 2, and finished, just under the wire for the KAL, on New Year's Eve. I have to admit that the long wait for the FO was worth it—I love this cardigan, especially the gorgeous Hazel Knits Artisan Sock Crescent colorway, which was named for Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park. The lake is this exact shade of deep blue-green.

Okay, that's the latest on the WIP-knitting front, but what about goals for 2015? I just went back and read last year's goals and they were pretty much a repeat of the goals from the year before. I noted that I gave myself a pass on photography, hiking and reading goals, and all of those things were a part of my year, although there was not nearly as much photography happening as in 2013. Because I did manage to take photographs, hike and read without specific goals, I thought I might try a more relaxed approach with knitting goals this year. I do have two goals—one for knitting and one for photography—I want to tell you about, however:

1. I want to significantly reduce my stash in 2015. I know, I know, I say this every year, don't I? In 2014, I spent less money on yarn than I did the year before, but the size of my stash still grew. (I'm not sure how that happened!) I'm starting the year by participating in three knitalongs devoted to knitting from stash, so that should help use some yarn up. I am also attempting to limit my purchases to yarn for charity projects (Click for Babies hats) and one souvenir yarn (at the knitting retreat I'm going to next week) until I attend Stitches West in February. I don't expect to not buy yarn at Stitches, but I do want to go into the market with a detailed list of projects I want yarn for (the successful strategy I  followed at Stitches in 2013), rather than just drifting from vendor to vendor with no plan (the disastrous strategy that I followed last year).  Anyway, this is the initial plan. I expect it will be updated as the year progresses. I'll try to post about how I actually get along, both my successes and failures, throughout the year.

2. I want to make a concerted effort to take photographs and post them on the blog. Back in 2013, when I was doing a Project 365, I was regularly posting my photographs to the blog. For a while, I was even posting a photo a week. That type of frequency is very easy to burn out on—ask me how I know this—but I do want to share some of the fun and interesting pictures that I find and capture in my everyday life, and you can expect to see them posted here from time to time.

So that's it for now. I'm looking forward to sharing the events of my year with you in the weeks and months to come.

Knitting to the Finish

Like most knitters, I love to start new projects, but I don't always finish them quickly. Is this a problem for you, too? Do you have projects that have been lingering in unfinished status for a few months or even a few years? I certainly do. One of my favorite bloggers, Andi, of the My Sister's Knitter blog has a solution to this problem. She is hosting a Tackling WIPs knit along in her Ravelry group. The KAL started September 1, and runs through the end of the year.

I have to admit that I started two projects right before the KAL began so that I could include them on my list of WIPs, but I also had seven projects that had been on the needles for considerably longer. My plan is to finish at least two (and preferably three) projects per month in both September and October, leaving November and December for finishing the remaining projects.

September was a very successful month. There were three KAL projects that came off my needles. (All links are to my Ravelry project pages.)

These Silky Green Mitts are, by far, my oldest WIP. I cast on in February 2011, knit one mitt on double points fairly quickly and then threw the project into the back of the closet, because I really couldn't stand the thought of more dpn knitting. A few months ago, I even considered frogging the project and using the yarn for something else. I am so glad I didn't! It only took me a few hours—this time using two circular needles—to finish the second mitt. I am so happy with how these turned out, and I can't wait until it's cold enough to wear them.

Next up is my A Little Streusel on the Cake, Bonnie Sennott's lovely Streusel pattern. I started this  shawl on July 31, to participate in an informal KAL in honor of the fifth blog anniversary of another of my favorite blogs: Girls in Sheep Clothing…and a few boys, too. I finished knitting this project on September 13, and along the way I got to be a guest blogger! (You can find links to my two posts on my project page.)

My last FO for September is Racing Upstairs and Downstairs in My Red Cowl, Paula Emons-Fuessle's Upstairs Downstairs cowl pattern. I started the cowl on August 22, and finished it on September 27. This was a very fun knit, and I'm thinking of knitting another one in the near future.

You may be wondering what I'm working on finishing this month. I have a pair of socks that are nearing the end. Here's a peek:

There is also a cardigan that is a few inches farther along than this photo shows:

Once these two projects are complete, I will be focusing on the shawl, two scarves and one pair of socks that still remain on my WIP list. I'll post an update to share my progress in November, so stay tuned!

Knitting, Knitting, Done!

I know, I know, it's been forever (well, two months, anyway) since I wrote a knitting-related post. I had intended to write a review of all of my current WIPs shortly after I wrote the post about all of the things I had finished knitting in the first quarter of the year. That post just never got written, and instead, I've decided to give you shorter posts with just a couple of WIPS and/or FOs. That way, there might even be a few more knitting posts than there have been lately.

So, what am I currently working on? First up is what started out being called the Top-Down Tryout, my first top-down cardigan, Bonne Marie Burns' Eyelet Cardi. I cast on for this project in January, and progress has been very slow. So slow, in fact, that I have renamed the project The Interminable Cardigan. Here is what it looked like in April:

I'm not a whole lot further along; I just separated for the sleeves about a week ago. I hope to make faster progress now that there aren't so many stitches on the needle.

Even though my progress on this cardigan has been slow, it can't compare with one of my recent FOs. I cast on for the Selbu Modern hat in September 2009, and named the project the Slow and Steady Selbu Modern. A more accurate name would have been Slow and Not-So-Steady Selbu Modern. I was so frustrated with two-handed stranded knitting that I put the project into hibernation only two months after casting on, with only 12 rows of the 62-row chart completed. But guess what? In the intervening years, I've gotten more practice with colorwork, and this February I pulled the hat out and started working on it again. I finished knitting it on May 26, and I am so proud of it!

The big bonus, in addition to having a wonderful new hat, is that I am looking forward to my next stranded project. I have my eye on the Winter Twilight Mitts. I hope to cast on for those later this summer.

I have more in-progress and finished projects lurking, including one that has been super-secret. The secret will be revealed very soon, and as soon as that has happened, I'll be back here to tell you about it.

Some Socks, and a Couple Bits of Mystery

It's finally time for the obligatory knitting post, so I can say this is more than just a photography blog. What have I been knitting, you ask? The answer is: socks. A while back, I decided that I would knit a "family of socks" for my California sister-in-law, her partner, and their son, my six year-old nephew. The partner has narrow, but pretty big feet—size 11, to be exact, so I started on her socks first, casting on in June. I've already written about those socks as they were in progress, but last weekend, I finally finished them. So, here, without further ado, I give you Karen's Crow's Feet:

This is the second pair of Linda Welch's Crow's Feet socks that I have knit. I love this pattern! It's simple and easy to memorize, and I think the result is spectacular, especially in this lovely shade of green, Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in the Euphorbia colorway.

Now that the Crow's Feet are complete, I have picked up my Hearts for Evi socks, which I started on September first. I'm knitting Laura Chau's Slip Stitch Ridges pattern, and it is moving along pretty quickly now. Here is a peek at the first sock in progress:

I'm knitting these in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Mediumweight in the Bleeding Hearts Colorway.

A few days ago, I cast on for socks for Olin, my nephew. They are in the early stages, so no photos of those socks yet, but here is a picture of the yarn I'm using:

Definitely colors that a six (almost seven) year-old will love!

Other than socks, I finished Gwen's Garden, a pattern by Sharon Dreifuss, and one of two designs that were part of the She-Knits Mystery KAL #8. I loved working on this project! The pattern was well-written, and there were sections of it that were almost meditative to knit. In addition, the pattern included beads, and I love working with beads in my knitting.  The finished object was beyond stunning, in my humble opinion. Kudos to Sharon for a wonderful design!

There is also another mystery project that has been in the pipeline. The mystery involves something to go on one's head, but that is the only clue you will get for now. You will just have to wait a few days until I tell you about that one.