European Pi Day

I have actually fully completed a shawl that I started on US Pi Day – March 14 - in time for 22 July.

This shawl is a half-circle but not a Pi shawl as the increases were not made by doubling the stitches as the rows were doubled but I really wanted a pattern that would not be obscured by the yarn that I was given way back in 2016. It is a lovely colour but the variegation and the black could easily obscure most patterns. It is lace weight from Tempting Ewe Yarns.

The pattern is Knitting by the Pool by Romi Hill which I have had since 2019. I’m guessing it was one of the patterns she gave away in her Easter Egg hunt. I used just over 500 metres of the yarn, my skein was 800 metres but I did not feel like making adjustments to this pattern to use more yarn. The end result is the main thing. I love the loops on the edge of the shawl, they were worked by making stitches into a yarn over on the previous row, neater than usual way of working picots. And a looped edge makes it much easier to pin out when blocking.

I cast on this project specifically for Pi Day but I will not be casting on anything new to replace as I have a few high concentration projects on the go.

 

A Pink Dress

You would think with a title like that I could just show you a picture of a dress I had made with details of the fabric and pattern.

But, no. There is a story, of course. A story of an, as yet, unfinished dress.

When I finished the last quilt, I decide that I should get around to making clothes with fabric I had. I cut out, sewed back seam, side seams, shoulder seams and neck band of a dress; tried it on, loved the style and decided I needed more dresses. A quick trip to Jo-Anns before coupons expired and I had fabric. I cut out the fabric and did all the serger work and now had two dresses at the same stage. I decided not to add sleeves to this one and add sleeves to the first one, which was the opposite of my original plan. I quickly neatened and hemmed the arm openings and violà, a dress.

Jo-Anns is my only local option for in-person fabric shopping. I had wanted a printed knit fabric but they only had knit in plain colours. So I purchased this jersey knit. I am pleased with the end result, it is very different from the “first” one although it will be interesting to see how long it lasts. 

 

I Like Big Shawls, I Cannot Lie

Yes, another post from me. A couple of reasons for posts being so close together. 1) I finished two projects within a day of each other and 2) I had a post mulling around in my head and then typed out that I ended up not posting but in the meantime nothing else got posted either.

Now for my latest finished project; which I love. It is a shawl design by Stephen West using five different skeins of yarn. Three of them are from two projects I frogged last year, one was yarn I had been given – Dancing Leaf Dyeworks and one was yarn that I had purchased to support a small business – Evergreen Fiberworks - and ended up working really well with the other yarns.

I decided to knit this pattern because I had seen one on a podcast in shades of pink and thought that would be ideal for me and I had two projects that I liked but never wore because they were not big enough. There was the dark pink yarn (Candy Skein) from this project finished in 2017 and reading my post it is obvious I was not sure how I was going to wear it, so I didn’t. And then both yarns from this project, also finished in 2017. The light pink is another Candy Skein and the bright pink is malabrigo.

In my last post I said I didn’t want to start projects just to get yarn on the needles but that was the case with this project. Having frogged two projects to get yarn for this specific pattern, I didn’t want to delay in getting it started. And I’m glad that I did as this became my easy project. This is why it took me six months to make, but as I was getting near the end and near the end of June I was determined to finish it. Even with my husband saying “I thought you said, this project was never going to be finished.” I must admit it felt like it at times especially when faced with picking up stitches around the edge. But here we are. And there is a much better chance of it being worn unlike its predecessors.

Complete with sneak peek of a dress I made.

 

Mid-Year Round Up

I usually do an end of year review and a start of year plan. I’m not sure if I have written a serious review during the year before.

The reason for one now is that I am feeling relaxed about my stash. It’s almost as if adding to it made me less stressed, not more. Also when discussing the recent LYS sale with my husband he said: it will get knit eventually. So now I don’t feel obligated to knit it all up quickly and not buy anything else. And the yarn I purchased for specific patterns has been used so I have no pressure from those.

I still have not used all the previous closing sale yarn. But I did start and finish one garment with such yarn this year and have chosen a pattern and gauge swatched for another cardigan. The yarn won’t all be used by the end of the year. I am OK with that as I would rather have fewer projects on the go and finish them than start projects just to get the yarn on the needles.

I still have two works-in-progress that were started before the beginning of the year. One of them I turned into a year-long project, so, obviously, no expectation of being finished before December and the other one gets pushed aside every time I start a non-easy project. Looking at you Pi Shawl. Speaking of which, that should be finished on time towards the end of July. It turns out that it is an easy lace pattern. Also, that project is my oldest 2021 project. This is encouraging because that means I am finishing projects that I am starting. (Yes, crochet project, even you will be finished.)

I have ten projects in progress. Hmm…haven’t I said four is the ideal number? Let’s see if I can justify this number down. Two are year-long projects, two are long-term blankets and one is vacation knitting. That brings it down to five. I have one easy project and one crochet project, which means that three projects are not so easy – i.e. require concentration. That is actually better than I was expecting.

Having written this out, it is not too hard to keep my WIPs in check. As long as I have some variety I should be able to keep it that way.

What’s Going on in the Knitting World

In my personal knitting world I have two finished items to show and have been working away on my long term projects. But, still, there has to be hypocrisy and nastiness in the crafting world. Three things happened last month that I was going to write about; I actually had an almost complete draft of a blog post. But I am not going to publish it at this time as it is actually quite negative and am I any better than the people I am writing about if I am pointing out their shortcomings?

In this post I will show off one of my finished items. As you might have noticed I have started knitting socks again and enjoying it, even if there is only a small window where I wear them. And in the last closing down sale I purchased quite a bit of sock yarn, to be used for socks or shawls.

For June I chose the designer Rose Hiver and the pattern Charivari as I had purchased some self-striping yarn. I followed the pattern as written including the short row heel, even though short row heels are not my favourite to wear but this was worked in a different way. I didn’t like the finished heel but when I worked the second sock I realized that I had worked the heel incorrectly the first time. Worked properly it is quite neat and I am repeating it on my Advent Socks.

This yarn was quite difficult to photograph, the website showed it as pink, on the two cameras I used, the red showed as orange. The yarn is darker than shown in this photo which was taken outside.