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.

May’s Socks – Or Are They April’s

I mention the Sock Knitters Anonymous Group frequently in relation to the socks I knit but I am not sure if I have said that the incentive to take part in their knit alongs is that there are prizes. Not Fake Internet Points but real prizes. I have been participating since early 2010, with a break from 2017 to 2019; and in that time I have won two project bags and a skein of yarn. This year I won a pattern for the socks I knit in February. (As the challenges are over two months and the prizes awarded at the beginning of the next month, I received the pattern in April.)

It just so happened that the designer who donated the prize was the featured designer for April but I had already started socks in April and, remember, I am not starting all the things so I didn’t cast on. Except… when May’s plans were announced at the end of April there wasn’t anything that interested me so I quickly cast on the socks before the end of the month so I would have socks to work on in May. (Oh, and that nothing interested me – total fail.)

The pattern is Nutmeg Socks by verybusymonkey and the yarn was purchased in the sale in 2021 and unintentionally is the same dyer as the socks I cast on at the beginning of April. 

Socks fresh off the needles.

 And after blocking and closer to the correct colour.

Oldest Project – Gone

Starting the month with a win – of sorts. My oldest project is gone, alas frogged and not finished.

I would like to say it was a quick finish but it took a while to frog as I wound the yarn on to a swift which was slower than winding into a ball by hand directly from the project. I wound it on the swift in case I would want to soak the yarn at some point. The yarn did not come out kinky but better to be on the safe side. I felt a little sad when I pulled the shawl from the project bag because I had been so keen to make this pattern. But evaluating it knowing I needed more yarn I reminded myself that I did not really like the colour and, to be honest, I did not really enjoy the knitting. So now it is gone and not taking up any more physical and mental space. (Well, the yarn is taking up space but not in my WIP bag.)

Before showing the small amount of yarn remaining from the first ball.

 

Start of the process

 

Finished

As I was taking photos of its new state I took the opportunity to take pictures of all my WIPs (mitred squares excepted) so that I have a record of their status at the beginning of the month.

A Mini WIP Along

 

Mini because it is just me and just for one month.

At the beginning of the year I said that I wanted to minimize the number of projects I have in progress at any one time. I have kept to this, except I conveniently ignored the two projects that were already on the needles at the the start of the year,  I created four year-long projects and along the way I had a couple of cheeky cast ons.

At the end of this month we will be half-way through the year, and it will be nice to have a few of these projects completed or well on their way to completion.

As I like to do, I lined up all the project bags in order of start date and took a photo. I will photograph each project as I start to work on it.

There are nine containers, although one has more than one project in it, so it is a little bit scary that despite my best intentions I have 12 projects. Although to be fair, I have included all my projects including the long term ones which I do not usually include in the annual WIP finishes. It could have been worse but I did finish a pair of socks this week.

 

From left to right:

1.      Mitred Square Blanket: - I wanted to get all the squares knit by the end of June so I could spend the rest of the year putting them together. I am not going to achieve that as I still have 1½ squares to knit. (OK, I could finish all the squares but I wouldn’t get anything else finished.)

2.      Scrappy Crochet Blanket – this is an on-going project as I add fingering weight yarn to it when I have finished a project. I have colours to add, so I will work on this throughout the month,

3.      Advent Shawl – I started this in January 2023 with the aim of working two clues each month to have it finished. Except, getting close to the end of the first ball of yarn, I realized I wouldn’t have enough to finish the shawl. I could not find more yarn. So the project was left. I just need to frog the thing to get it off my mind.

4.      Dress – I started this just before last year’s WIP along as I needed an easy project; I wasn’t concerned about finishing it before the end of the year. I should have just finished it so I could wear it. Although it is thick yarn, I am going to finish it so it is off the needles.

5.      Car Project – this is a simple crochet hat that stays in the car. I expected to finish it on a recent trip but that didn’t work out. I don’t have to finish this but it would be nice to complete all my 2023 projects.

6.      Year-Long Socks – with the minis set I get last December I decided to use a colour a month to create a year-long project. (Due to unknown forces, my yarn did not arrive until January so I was not able to use it every day in December.) I am behind on this as I have not started the fifth color. Although this was started before the hat I am working the hat before the socks.

7.      Year-Long Cable Blanket – a new pattern is released each month, so, obviously, this will not be a finished project but I should finish June’s square.

8.      Year-Long Hat – as for the socks but I have started the fifth colour.. As this was a mini Advent set I thought it would be fun to work a colour a month and have finished item(s) for Christmas. When I started the year-long projects I did not realize how much I would hate the stopping and starting. I plan to just work through all the colours as I feel like it and not wait a month to start the next colour.

9.      Year-Long Lace Blanket – I am behind on this as I have not finished May’s square. I will try to catch up.

10.   Crochet Toy – a pattern I started because I had finished my other crochet projects. I am about 1/3 of the way through but it is slow going because it is tight gauge with cotton yarn. I was working a little each day and I will go back to that when older projects are finished.

11.   Socks – another cheeky cast on. I ought to finish these by the end of the month as part of Sock Knitters Anonymous challenge. I doubt that will happen as I have not completed one sock and I want to work on the older projects.

12.   Cardigan – another extra but necessary cast on. I needed an easy project for vacation knitting. I could have taken the dress but didn’t because, it is heavy so not good for by the pool knitting and would take up a lot of luggage space plus I did not want to finish it and have nothing easy to work on, so this project was born. I will work on this after I finish the dress and need easy knitting but it will not be a priority. (Apart from one row out of 12, the hat is also easy knitting.)

So there you have it all my WIPs. If you exclude the two year-long blankets whose patterns are released on a monthly basis, the two scrappy projects and the car project, I still have seven projects in progress.

At the start of the year I said my projects had to fit five categories, so where am I doubling up? Actually, it is not that bad. There are two year-long projects (which I allowed myself) and two easy projects, one of which I will finish this month.

My Other April Finish

I finally finished my easy project, a hat, that I started on 1 January. I had commented in a January post that the ribbing seemed to be taking forever. Not helped by frogging a whole load and then again pulling out a couple of inches at the top of the hat. This project took so long because it was not my main project and there was a lot of knitting with fingering weight yarn plus the aforementioned ripping back.

Last September I purchased a skein of yarn with two minis. It would have made lovely socks but I wanted to make something different so decided on a hat. But not just any hat, a double layer hat to use as much of the yarn as possible and both the minis. I found a pattern – Double Layer SockyarnHat – which was published in 2002, way before this style became popular. My plan was to use all the mini skein for the ribbing but realized too late that this would have made the hat all rib, hence the first ripping. The second ripping was because I knitted more than I needed to before decreasing on the hat.

Yes I do love this hat; shame that it will be quite a few months before I will actually wear it.

 

And Here Are the Socks

In my last post I wrote about a knitting pattern and today I am showing off the finished socks made from that pattern. Once again I knit a pattern from a book I own but have never used. The book is Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn published in 2008. Although there are many lovely patterns I could not say that all of them specifically highlighted hand dyed yarns.

The pattern I chose - Escher Socks is a simple 2x2 rib pattern with all stitches cabled every six rows. The comments on Ravelry either said it was a stretchy pattern or a tight pattern. Rib would make it very stretchy but cables tighten up a pattern. I’m glad I can cable without a cable needle as it would have driven me crazy to have used a cable needle on these. The yarn was part of the big sale purchase in 2021 but the dyer is no longer dying.

And a couple of photos to show the difference blocking makes.

 

Let’s Critique a Knitting Pattern.

 

This month, I once again made a pattern from a book I owned. The book, Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn is one I purchased myself but had not knit any patterns from it. There are 21 patterns by 18 different designers.

The sock pattern I chose had a 4-stitch repeat and came in two sizes;- 52 stitches and 60 stitches. No problem there, the pattern repeat is worked 13 or 15 times each round depending on size. But when it came to the heel divide, all the pattern says is “worked back and forth over 26 (30) stitches”. Remaining stitches (26/30) will be worked later for instep. But that number of stitches is not divisible by four and if the pattern directions were followed exactly, the stitch pattern would not be centered on the foot. Would anyone have noticed? Probably not. But still a simple fix; just need to move one stitch so that the pattern stitches on the instep are centered and have a border stitch at each end which I purled. Was this an editing or a pattern writing problem?

The other issue I found was at the end of the sock. After completing the heel, the start of the round is in the middle of the sole of the foot. After completing the toe increases the pattern says “use the Kitchener st to graft sts tog.” Except someone has forgotten that after working all the decreases you are in the middle of the foot so you have to work to the edge of the sock to be able to join those last stitches. Not a big deal for an experienced sock knitter – I do it without even thinking what the pattern says  - but if you are new to sock knitting you might think that you have to graft half the stitches and then rejoin the yarn to graft the remaining half.

As I said, I do not know if these were omitted by the pattern writer or removed in editing; either way they are small things which make a big difference to the satisfactory and successful completion of a sock.