It’s Time to Finish All the Things

And here we are again, the WIP KAL which starts 22 September and goes to the end of the year. Although I have my preferred number of WIPs, at this time in the year I always seem to have around ten. This year I have 11. I am not sure how it gets so high but I can immediately dismiss three long term projects leaveing me with eight projects to work on before year end.

These photos show them all lined up in order of start date, including the long term projects but does not include the two projects in the car. From left to right are, mitred square blanket, lace cardigan, crochet blanket, jacket, crochet shawl, squares made from last December’s swap, Pi shawl, baby blanket, baby dress. (The mitred square blanket, crochet blanket and Pi shawl are my long term projects that I will not rush to work on.)

 

 

As usual I would like to work on just two projects at a time; one requiring concentration and one not. There’s just one problem with that, amongst all those projects there is just one that does not require concentration and that’s the project using last year’s swap yarns and even that isn’t hours and hours of mindless knitting as I am at the stage of picking up stitches, knitting a few rows and picking up more stitches.

I will work on my two oldest projects first - the cardigan and the jacket. After being on the needles for so long I can see the finish line for the cardigan; I am currently working the front band as a join-as-you-go to the body. I tried it on before I started the join and I am really happy with it. I would like to get it finished by the end of the month. The red jacket just needs button loops. I have been procrastinating about this for so long as my original idea didn’t work so now I just have to try some different loops. I tried this on at the same time as I was trying the lace cardigan and I do really like it; so time to get a move on so I can actually wear it. Once I have finished those two I can work on the crochet shawl. I don’t think it will take too long once I give it all my attention. The two hats won’t take long to finish either. One needs a load of ends sewn in and the other will be finished on the next road trip.

This leaves the baby blanket and the baby dress. It is unlikely that I will finish the blanket before the end of the year. This is the project that has lace on every row. I am not going to rush to finish it as I will be happier finishing the other items first. I thought I might get the dress finished before this KAL started and I am really close. But I remembered I want to redo the sleeve edgings, so it will be a few more days until it is completely finished. At least it doesn’t need buttons.

I like writing this out. At first glance I feel like I have loads of projects, but writing my plans and noting how close to finishing I am on certain items has me confident that I can finish seven projects by the end of the year.

What a Hike

We were away last week, and usually I’d be writing about vacation knitting. I might do that at a later date but today I want to tell you about a hike we did that was pretty amazing. For two reasons; 1. that I actually did it and 2. what was waiting at the end of the hike.

We have been staying in Tucson near one of the national parks. When looking at hiking options, we read many references to a cave; usually that the hiker hadn’t found it, also on one hike we bumped into some people who said they were now going to look for the cave and when I asked they said it was special because it had ancient paintings in it. (As an aside this family, parents and adult child, had recently moved from Minnesota because they didn’t want to do winter anymore. Totally in agreement with that.)

DH did some (re)searching and found a blog post that gave detailed instruction with photos as to how to find this cave as the trail was not marked on any of the plentiful maps throughout the park.

Off we went on our little adventure. We were able to find the trail which was an off shoot of the main trail and was well laid out but not signposted. After going up and around a hill we came to a wash, looked up and saw the cave opening. At this point I might have said something like I’m not going up there. Also at this part of the hike the trail was less marked out but still easy to follow.

What we’re aiming for.

 

 

The last part was a bit of a scrabble, but I made it. This is the view looking out from the cave. I definitely didn’t allow myself to think I have to get back down again. 

 

 

The entrance to the cave was wide and flat so it was easy to stand or sit and look at the paintings. It is amazing that they have not been defaced and nobody has added their own art or carving. My husband is sitting down in this picture so you can get an idea of the size of the cave. 

 

 

 

I’m really glad we did this and I decided to just go for it and not think about it.

WIPping Wednesday and Finished Friday

I am pleased to report that I have some finished items and I have not started anything new since I finished them. (But I did start a new item the day after my last post.)

I have finished a cardigan, a pair of socks and two hats. One is a baby gift and the other was the charity hat that was in the car that had reached the decrease stage. August was really for finishing and not starting new projects. The project I did cast on is a gift that I was hoping would be an easy knit but there is lace knitting on every row. It is fine for movie knitting. I am working a little each day on the lace cardigan and will soon be at a major decrease row; I’m hoping for a quick finish when I reach that point.

Having finished my easy knitting (cardigan and socks) I picked up the blanket squares from the yarn swap. The pattern is easy to memorize and makes for a quick knit. Couple more squares to go and then I have to make a decision about how I want to join them. I am pleased with how they are turning out and hope I do not have to buy any more grey yarn.

I don’t have any photos of the finished cardigan as it really has been too warm for modeled photos but I am really happy with the fit.

The socks were for July/August challenge. I made a pattern that I had started in 2015 and for some reason I had abandoned. The yarn eventually becoming a different pair of socks. The pattern is Coexist and the yarn is SSK Yarners Glitz which I won in September 2021 from Sock Knitters Anonymous.The pattern is divided into six parts with four choices for each part. I made slips of paper with the choices for each part and husband blindly picked. It just so happened that he picked the same leg pattern each time. Although this was a fun thing to do, I would exercise caution as some patterns are stretchier than others.

 

The hat is Turn a Square, an easy but interesting pattern. I started it at the end of December and it became my car project, which is why it has taken eight months to complete.

 

The other hat is a baby hat for my nephew’s baby. The pattern is Sylvi and became my Friday night convert knitting.It looks a bit strange as it is modeled on an American Girl Doll. This was another easy knit with easy to memorise pattern.