Two Cardigans

I finished the lace cardigan and took photos of it and the other cardigan I finished in August. I am very happy with them both and can’t wait to wear them.

The first one I finished is Aureed and I chose this pattern as one of the podcasters from the Yarniacs podcast made it in 2021. Her talking about it frequently and seeing the pattern page made me want to make one and I cast on on January 5^th. I used mademinetosh Tosh Sock and there were already some other projects made with this yarn, so I knew it would work. Funny story about this yarn. I had purchased four skeins on the 2014 Yarn Crawl for a specific pattern as I had calculated that would be enough. Worried that it wouldn’t be, the week after the yarn crawl, I went back to the store and purchased another skein – I ended up using all but 8g of the fourth skein. Also, after buying the yarn I swatched for my original pattern choice, didn’t get gauge and didn’t feel like messing about with gauge and pattern so the yarn just sat in my stash until I decided it needed to be knit up and I chose Aureed. Of course I didn’t get gauge but it was easy just to follow a different size.

The fronts are shaped with short rows and I was a bit worried about this as my short rows aren’t the neatest. I used Shadow Stitch short rows and they came out almost hidden. Blocking of the pick up row and the front band made a big difference to the look of the garment. the first photo is a bit goofy but does show off the fronts.

 

The other cardigan finished was a lace cardigan I started in March 2020. When I purchased a load of yarn in a going-out-of-business sale in 2019, my intention was always to have a project on the needles with sale yarn until it was all used up. This project extended that aim quite a bit. Although now I only have two amount left, one of which has a pattern chosen and swatched.

Anyway, back to this project. In the sale I bought two skins of Findley by Juniper Moon, a laceweight yarn that I knew would be enough for a cardigan. A search of Ravelry came up with a lovely lace cardigan, OregonCoast Cardigan and I purchased the pattern. This is not the best written pattern, for a start it is 19 pages (15 for paper saver pattern) and the pages are not numbered! The instructions about gauge are wishy washy and not for a new lace knitter. Comments on Ravelry said that the chart is confusing as it doesn’t state from which row to start the pattern repeat as it is not row 1. (I decided to use the written instructions.) The front band is finished by working the last stitch of the band with one stitch of the body. You do this all the way around until you reach the other side of the band at center front and then you graft (or weave as she calls it) the two ends of the band together. The problem is that you have a join right at the front which she states in the pattern will be half-stitch off. I marked the center back stitch, worked to that point and then rejoined the yarn to the other end of the band and continued the decreasing/joining so that I ended up with the seam at center back. No worrying about a seam showing.

One change I made which was due to personal style and not the pattern is that I wanted longer sleeves and I worked twice the number of rows before the shaping.

Despite these issues, I made a successful garment and am very happy with the end result. It is just annoying when you pay for a pattern and it has issues. I would not recommend this pattern to anyone who had not made a lace garment before.

 

A Little Bit of Shopping

I’m sure I am not the only one who wants to support small and/or new businesses but does not want any of the items they sell.

Last weekend was the Vista Fiber Fiesta. I have attended for a number of years whenever I have been in town but it has changed from a nice size festival with so much choice to a small event hanging on by its nails.

I would like the festival to continue and to grow, but growth is not happening. The organizing group changed this year and I hope with one festival under their belt they will start to promote this event to vendors.

This year I went with the specific purpose of buying to support vendors so that they will return and tell others to come and sell their wares. The difficulty of buying for the sake of buying is actually choosing something that is not going to weigh you down every time you see it in the stash. So I was very surprised to see amidst the sea of colour a skein of white sparkled yarn as I had this in my head as something to buy. The other yarn I purchased was a show special and it is likely that I will need it for my blanket.

There was a stall selling project bags – I do not need project bags – but they were selling packets of fabric left over from their bag making. These were a good price and fabric that you wouldn’t find in Jo Anns. I was very good and only purchased one pacakage.

So at the end of the day, what seemed like a tough choice because I didn’t really want anything, turned out to be good additions to my stash.

 

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.

 

 

Finished Friday August

After my last post I like the idea of Finished Friday as it gives me a sense of accomplishment especially as I already have a finished item to show. This is July’s hat. July for the month I knitted it and for the name of the hat. It could also be called Summer Concert Hat as the outdoor Friday concerts have returned and I worked on this hat during those events. It is an easy pattern but does involve reading a chart or pattern for every row. I used madeline tosh Vintage which I have used for two other hats. There is still some left which should be enough for the rib border of a hat.

 

WIPping Wednesday 2022 Style

As I haven’t been posting much I was going to do a six-month round up of all my WIPs. I have been doing this when there has been the yearly challenge of WIP finishing and at the start of the year but I think I was too embarrassed to say how many projects I have on the go.

Finishing projects I started at the beginning of the year has been slow as there has been so much gift knitting, all of it from stash, whether new yarn or leftovers. Plus I have four knitting projects and one sewing project that need buttons and I am going to have to go button shopping. Which involves waiting for a sale or coupons and then the agonizing search for just the right ones. Having these almost but not quite finished projects adds to the feeling of too many projects and never finishing anything.

I usually have a hat and socks on the needles, although I don’t start new ones at the beginning of the month unless I have finished the previous month. There is no specific challenge in August in the Sock Knitters group so I have another month to finish July’s cast on.I haven't started a hat for August yet and I think that is from the feeling of too many WIPs. I'm not even sure if at this point I will make a hat this month and just work on the gift knitting.

I stopped working on the blanket squares from the swap yarn when I had to order more yarn. I did not pick it up again as I decided it would be better to concentrate on the two cardigans. (One of which is nearly finished. The other is the lace cardigan, which I work on every week and am on the last part, although it is the biggest part because the sleeves and body have been joined.) I have used half of the swap yarns and just realized it is August, so I better get going if I want to get all the squares completed by December.

I have two easy hat projects in the car. This is because I got to the top decreases on one and the pattern said place markers. I could have done it without but chose not to. As we were at the start of a 2+ Hour drive I started a crochet hat.

I have one other project that I started at the beginning of the year which has not been touched for a long time. It is a crochet project which was put to one side when I started the Tunisian crochet make along: and there it can stay until I have finished some of these WIPs.

So there it is, a WIPping Wednesday update. All I have to do now is finish some things so I can have a Finished Friday.