Photgraphic Evidence

 

And here you have it; pictures of the five projects that I completed in my mini finishing challenge. In each case I have placed the finished piece beside the photo I took at the end of May to show how much needed to be completed in the month.

 

A Quick Interlude

In my last post I mentioned a new cast on. After finishing the WIPs I was rushing to finish it and then came to my senses and knew I would be cutting it very close to finishing on time so I took a break. (And it turns out I had the date wrong for the next meeting and I had an extra week. The garment is finished in time but also meant I could have waited until I’d finished the WIPs to start it. The only difference it would have made to the WIPs is that I would have finished them earlier in the day.)

Once I realized I better get my act together and make something, I still couldn’t decide what I was going to make, and what yarn I was going to use. I could have made an Easy Baby Cardigan, I’ve only made four of them and without the hood it is a quick knit. But, no, I had to choose a new pattern.

I went for this free pattern - Méabh's Cardigan – I liked the shawl collar and the cable detail. I used the Lion Brand yarn I had used in this blanket. The main colour is Adobe and the contrast is Hazelnut. Neither of these colours were used in the original project. The Hazelnut because I only had one skein and the Adobe because it did not fit in with the other colours.

As it is a free pattern, I do not want to be overly critical but I did not like how this pattern was formatted. It is two columns like most patterns but the rows up to sleeve separation are so wordy that the instructions spread over several (10 or more) lines making them hard to read. Also the bottom ribbing was not symmetrical, which if I was not in a hurry I would have corrected. And a minor point, I did not slip the edge stitches as stitches are picked up along the edge for the bands.

I purchased the buttons at a yarn store when I was out with friends last week. They were available individually so no angst over being able to find the right number at JoAnns, plus I’m sure they were cheaper. And, I got them before working the buttonholes so I was able to make the buttonholes the right size.

I am happy with the finished item and hope the mother likes it.

 

 

A Quick Update

 

I haven’t mentioned my mini WIP along since I frogged the first project. My incentive for this challenge was to finish some projects especially those from last year. With four year-long projects I felt like I was knitting and knitting and knitting without anything to show for it. This was exasperated in May when the socks I started required quite a bit of concentration.

I had 12 WIPs. Three of those were not going to be finished as two were the year long blankets with patterns released each month and one was the crochet blanket where yarn is added as I finished other projects. Although these could not be finished I did want them up to date and I achieved that with the crochet blanket and one of the year blankets.

I had three projects that if I worked on that would have been the only project completed in June. Two of them were new WIPs so working on one of those would not have completed my aim to finish old projects. These three projects are my mitred square blanket, the aforementioned socks and my easy knitting project. I plan to finish the socks by the end of August and I would like to finish all the squares of the blanket by the end of September so that I have the final quarter of the year to join them.

This leaves six projects. I wanted to start with the oldest and work forward. Not only to get the old projects complete but so that I didn’t put off the two oldest projects. I have already posted about the oldest project being sent to the frog pond but the next project was a dress knitted in bulky weight wool; in other words not something that I would wear right now. But it was the next project and complete it I did. I am looking forward to wearing it.

I then went out of order as I wanted to finish the crochet toy but knew I couldn’t pick it up and work only on it exclusively until finished. I also threw a spanner into my own plans by casting on a new project – a baby gift. I have known about this baby for many, many months. I wasn’t going to cast on straight away but the time just flew and the baby was here. So in addition to finishing WIPs I was rushing to make a gift. Having finished the WIP challenge, I hope I can finish the gift before I see the mother again.

Anyway, having finished the dress, I then worked on the remaining projects in any order depending on what I was doing. I was in the last week hoping it would all work out but a planned outing where I thought I would get plenty of knitting or crochet done turned out to not be the case. Yesterday, it felt as if the remaining projects would be stitches away from being finished but I persevered. Firstly, I finished the crochet hat, then I embroidered the facial features on the toy and in the afternoon and evening I worked on the hat and socks. (And I managed to make lunch and dinner.) And, amazingly, the last stitch was cast off at bed time.