I have finished one WIP mentioned last week. The baby cardigan was finished. I used a different colour yarn in my stash for the front bands and also used buttons in my stash. It was finished in time for delivery to the baby. So with that off the needles, an easy project was cast on. This will be a toy and no photo as it is just a yellow blob.
I am still working on the tea cosy. It is going slowly but I am more than half way through. I should try to finish it by the end of the month.
The shawl that was this close is now further away. But for a good reason. I wasn't sure if I had enough yarn to complete all the pattern repeats especially as the pattern and the info on Ravelry showed different amounts of yarn required and other knitters said they had run out of yarn. I had been weighing my yarn before starting pattern D and after finishing each repeat. Pattern D is worked three times and then there is a border pattern before casting off. After completing two repeats of pattern D I put in a life line and worked pattern E. I completed it last night and weighed my yarn. I had used less for pattern E than pattern D. So now I am going to frog back to the life line and work another repeat of pattern D and then work pattern E. It does not matter if I do not have enough yarn to complete all the rows of the border. So a project that I was thinking would be finished this week is still a WIP.
And this can be considered a pre-WIP. Yesterday I bought yarn so you will see that my totals are really messed up. But this is yarn designated for 2 projects. Just wasn't planning to start soon. A friend had made a baby jacket that I really liked and thought I would make a couple but later in the year. Yesterday I went to Michael's as I needed more yarn to finish the tea cosy and they had yarn on sale for less than half price. That's too good an offer to pass up so I bought what I needed for the baby jackets. So it will sit in my stash for a while but at least there is a definite plan to use it this year.
Knit Meter
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Finished Friday
OK, it's Saturday but I was side tracked by hockey yesterday. I was very pleased with myself. I managed to go all day without finding out the score of the US/Canada game.
Three projects to show off today. All simple and small but finished. Although these are all 2014 projects and I should be finishing my old WIPS.
First off the needles was this cowl. When I was looking in my stash for yarn to make hats last month, I cam across this yarn and decided it would make a nice cowl. The yarn is Pavlova by Stylecraft, and had been partly used in 2006. The pattern is Elis by Reiko Kuwamura, a Japanese designer and is available free on Ravelry. I cast on and cast off loosely but I think it would have been fine if the edges had been tighter but there was no way that I was going to unpick either edge. The yarn has a fuzz and clung to itself making any unpicking very difficult. The cowl is for my son's girlfriend.
Next off the needles (although that is not exactly correct as it was crocheted) was a hat I made for charity; another hat for Operation Gratitude. The pattern is called the Joel M Hat and is available for free on Cathy Wood's website. I used the right size hook for the yarn and followed the pattern and the hat came out too big for my head. But that is not a problem as it is for charity and there are people out there with bigger heads than me.
I used three different yarns in my stash. The blue is Waverly by Bernat. I had bought it on sale a couple of years ago as I thought it would be good for oddball blankets but it had not been used so far. The grey is Wool-Ease by Lion Brand which was left over yarn in my stash and the black is Simply Soft by Caron, also left over yarn.
The third completed project is a pair of knickers for a teddy bear. Originally, they were meant to be shorts to go with the sweater in this post, but I ran out of yarn on the first leg and as the point of making these clothes is to use up stash I wasn't going to buy more yarn. It was easy to turn them into underwear.
Here's teddy showing them off.
Three projects to show off today. All simple and small but finished. Although these are all 2014 projects and I should be finishing my old WIPS.
First off the needles was this cowl. When I was looking in my stash for yarn to make hats last month, I cam across this yarn and decided it would make a nice cowl. The yarn is Pavlova by Stylecraft, and had been partly used in 2006. The pattern is Elis by Reiko Kuwamura, a Japanese designer and is available free on Ravelry. I cast on and cast off loosely but I think it would have been fine if the edges had been tighter but there was no way that I was going to unpick either edge. The yarn has a fuzz and clung to itself making any unpicking very difficult. The cowl is for my son's girlfriend.
Next off the needles (although that is not exactly correct as it was crocheted) was a hat I made for charity; another hat for Operation Gratitude. The pattern is called the Joel M Hat and is available for free on Cathy Wood's website. I used the right size hook for the yarn and followed the pattern and the hat came out too big for my head. But that is not a problem as it is for charity and there are people out there with bigger heads than me.
I used three different yarns in my stash. The blue is Waverly by Bernat. I had bought it on sale a couple of years ago as I thought it would be good for oddball blankets but it had not been used so far. The grey is Wool-Ease by Lion Brand which was left over yarn in my stash and the black is Simply Soft by Caron, also left over yarn.
The third completed project is a pair of knickers for a teddy bear. Originally, they were meant to be shorts to go with the sweater in this post, but I ran out of yarn on the first leg and as the point of making these clothes is to use up stash I wasn't going to buy more yarn. It was easy to turn them into underwear.
Here's teddy showing them off.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
WIPing Wednesday (2)
I haven't posted photos of finished projects but that doesn't mean there haven't been any. This week I finished the hat I was crocheting for charity and an item of clothing for a teddy bear - also for charity. This is my car project and I have put new yarn and pattern in the car but nothing cast on yet.
I have finished both fronts and the back of the baby cardigan. I started the second ball of yarn about half-way up the back. I might need more yarn for the front bands but I will deal with that when I come to it.
As mentioned yesterday I started the tea cosy for February
but nothing else was started - this is good. The shawl is still this close to being finished as I have been working on the baby cardigan. It would be nice if next week I can report that I just have the bands left. Although I have in my head plenty of other baby things I want to make; with two babies in the family and stash yarn I can keep busy for quite a while.
I have finished both fronts and the back of the baby cardigan. I started the second ball of yarn about half-way up the back. I might need more yarn for the front bands but I will deal with that when I come to it.
As mentioned yesterday I started the tea cosy for February
but nothing else was started - this is good. The shawl is still this close to being finished as I have been working on the baby cardigan. It would be nice if next week I can report that I just have the bands left. Although I have in my head plenty of other baby things I want to make; with two babies in the family and stash yarn I can keep busy for quite a while.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Tea Cosy Tuesday
I mentioned in a recent post about joining a new group that is making tea cosies. The person who started the group is calling it Tea Cozy Tuesday as she is updating every Tuesday. Here is her blog post about the pattern for February.
It looks like another one that can be made from left overs. I changed my mind a few times about the yarn I was going to use as I was not going to start this until I had finished my charity hat for the month. (It's bad enough that I have 2013 projects unfinished but I don't want to start having projects started in 2014 that take forever to be finished.) I actually started it on Sunday but changed my mind about the yarn as I did not want to run out like I did with the last cosy. So I restarted with a different yarn yesterday. It looks like a quick project, although, it will appear in tomorrow's WIPping Wednesday it should be completed by the following week.
It looks like another one that can be made from left overs. I changed my mind a few times about the yarn I was going to use as I was not going to start this until I had finished my charity hat for the month. (It's bad enough that I have 2013 projects unfinished but I don't want to start having projects started in 2014 that take forever to be finished.) I actually started it on Sunday but changed my mind about the yarn as I did not want to run out like I did with the last cosy. So I restarted with a different yarn yesterday. It looks like a quick project, although, it will appear in tomorrow's WIPping Wednesday it should be completed by the following week.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
WIPing Wednesday
Don't know what a WIP is? It's a Work In Progress. I don't know when it entered crafting lexicon but most crafters know the acronym.
It has been a frequent complaint of mine just lately that I have too many projects on the go and looking back at my posts I see that it was last April I expressed my concern.
One of the problems with having too many WIPs is that I don't have a finished project to show off. I was going to start WIPing Wednesdays last week to show projects I started as starting projects does not necessarily mean that I have previously shown a finished item. At least I can say one of the projects I would have shown last week as new is now finished. One thing I have noticed about WIPs that I haven't mentioned before is that when I get close to the end of a project I tend to work on it exclusively (depending on complexity level) because I know I will soon have a finished item to show off.
So this week on the WIPing front, I completed one project, a cowl using old stash. It was a quick knit for a gift. Photographs and details to follow as I'm not sure how I am going to photograph it to show it to its best. And then I cast on a baby cardigan, again using old stash. I have two 50 gram balls of baby yarn that I wanted to use while the baby was small. I chose a pattern that requires 100 grams with the idea that the bands could be worked in a different colour if I ran out of yarn, but having worked one front so far it doesn't look like that will happen.
I also have a hat that I am crocheting for charity that should be a finished item for next week's update. (I am also this close to finishing a shawl but I will finish the hat first.)
It has been a frequent complaint of mine just lately that I have too many projects on the go and looking back at my posts I see that it was last April I expressed my concern.
One of the problems with having too many WIPs is that I don't have a finished project to show off. I was going to start WIPing Wednesdays last week to show projects I started as starting projects does not necessarily mean that I have previously shown a finished item. At least I can say one of the projects I would have shown last week as new is now finished. One thing I have noticed about WIPs that I haven't mentioned before is that when I get close to the end of a project I tend to work on it exclusively (depending on complexity level) because I know I will soon have a finished item to show off.
So this week on the WIPing front, I completed one project, a cowl using old stash. It was a quick knit for a gift. Photographs and details to follow as I'm not sure how I am going to photograph it to show it to its best. And then I cast on a baby cardigan, again using old stash. I have two 50 gram balls of baby yarn that I wanted to use while the baby was small. I chose a pattern that requires 100 grams with the idea that the bands could be worked in a different colour if I ran out of yarn, but having worked one front so far it doesn't look like that will happen.
I also have a hat that I am crocheting for charity that should be a finished item for next week's update. (I am also this close to finishing a shawl but I will finish the hat first.)
Saturday, February 8, 2014
I'm Still Joining Groups
This is a reference to this post. Although I am doing slightly better with group joining than yarn buying. I have left the dishcloth group mentioned. The last mystery dishcloth I knit with this group was in 2011. I recently left the group because I had not joined in for so long and they were starting to repeat patterns.
As we know, nature abhors a vacuum so I had to fill the space with another group. At the beginning of the year a new group started on Ravelry for making tea cosies. One a month, alternating knitting and crochet. Umm, yes that does mean 12 cosies, and, no, I don't need 12 cosies. But, I'm hoping that I will be able to part with some of them and gift them. I'm also hoping that I will only use stash yarn but that is likely to become more difficult as the year goes on.
January started with a knitted cosy from Patons Canada. I actually had the recommended yarn in my stash left over from a project made in 2006. Amazing that it survived the pre-move clear out. As it turned out, I didn't have quite enough yarn to make the complete cosy; I worked fewer rows of ribbing at the top and didn't work the ribbing at the "armholes". I was tempted to buy buttons but if I'm using stash yarn then I must use stash buttons. And I had just three of these so no odd button left over. As good as completely using yarn.
The good thing is that I really like this cosy - the bad thing? I want to make another!
As we know, nature abhors a vacuum so I had to fill the space with another group. At the beginning of the year a new group started on Ravelry for making tea cosies. One a month, alternating knitting and crochet. Umm, yes that does mean 12 cosies, and, no, I don't need 12 cosies. But, I'm hoping that I will be able to part with some of them and gift them. I'm also hoping that I will only use stash yarn but that is likely to become more difficult as the year goes on.
January started with a knitted cosy from Patons Canada. I actually had the recommended yarn in my stash left over from a project made in 2006. Amazing that it survived the pre-move clear out. As it turned out, I didn't have quite enough yarn to make the complete cosy; I worked fewer rows of ribbing at the top and didn't work the ribbing at the "armholes". I was tempted to buy buttons but if I'm using stash yarn then I must use stash buttons. And I had just three of these so no odd button left over. As good as completely using yarn.
The good thing is that I really like this cosy - the bad thing? I want to make another!
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Left Overs of a Different Kind
These are really left overs. Having completed November's challenge in the Sock Knitters group on Ravelry, I was gung-ho to start a challenge for December. One of the challenges in December has always been using left overs. Meaning knitting a pair of socks entirely from yarn remaining from previous projects. Not necessarily socks but it must be a project knitted by you (no helping other knitters by using their left overs) and they must be partial skeins. (For example if you bought 3 skeins of yarn for a project and used 1 3/4 the partial skein of 1/4 would count but the whole skein would not.)
I have never partaken in this challenge because why knit with left overs when I have plenty of virgin skeins? But 2013 was different. Maybe I felt it was time to knit a pattern that I downloaded years ago. Who knows? Anyway I emptied out my bag of sock yarn left overs and sorted them into piles of yarn type and then chose three colours I thought would go well together.
The yarns are all by Regia - regular and stretch and are left over from these socks.
I didn't use up any of the three yarns but I could not knit another pair from the left overs.
I decided pretty early on that I did not want the pattern on the sole of the foot and changed it to stocking stitch, also I decided to work the gusset decreases on the sole of the foot, I liked the way this came out and am likely to incorporate it into other sock patterns.
The overall project time was 1 2/3 months but I was not knitting these all the time and they sat untouched for a while when it came time to sew in the ends.
Although I knitted socks for Novembers and Decembers challenges, I didn't cast on anything for January and I haven't made up my mind for February. Probably because I have got enough (too many?) projects on the needles.
I have never partaken in this challenge because why knit with left overs when I have plenty of virgin skeins? But 2013 was different. Maybe I felt it was time to knit a pattern that I downloaded years ago. Who knows? Anyway I emptied out my bag of sock yarn left overs and sorted them into piles of yarn type and then chose three colours I thought would go well together.
The yarns are all by Regia - regular and stretch and are left over from these socks.
I didn't use up any of the three yarns but I could not knit another pair from the left overs.
I decided pretty early on that I did not want the pattern on the sole of the foot and changed it to stocking stitch, also I decided to work the gusset decreases on the sole of the foot, I liked the way this came out and am likely to incorporate it into other sock patterns.
The overall project time was 1 2/3 months but I was not knitting these all the time and they sat untouched for a while when it came time to sew in the ends.
Although I knitted socks for Novembers and Decembers challenges, I didn't cast on anything for January and I haven't made up my mind for February. Probably because I have got enough (too many?) projects on the needles.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)