My works in progress this week are shenanigans. I thought it’d be easier to show you in a video but I think I went off the deep end – sorry folks!
I published my free pattern for shift knob covers in August of 2011 (crazypants!) and I periodically get requests from non-knitters to make some custom ones for their cars. The other week I got one such request – a black cover with a red pom on top.
I used some stashed Malabrigo Rios (look familiar?) and some stashed Malabrigo sock to make this request come to life.
These are a quick knit, especially if done in a single color, and are fun to make while using up small bits of stash yarn! Sadly, my car doesn’t have one yet – what is that saying about the cobbler’s kids having no shoes? That’s how my car is. I spend all my personal knitting time on garments and accessories for me and not my Suza-roo. 
What have you been knitting this week? Any fun finished objects to share? Do you knit accessories for your car?
Both my current garment WIPs have seen some progress this week!
The Kinton has been joined at the underarms and now I can just go round and round and work on the body. In another inch or two I’ll start some a-line shaping but for now, it’s just basic knitting and a little lace. 
The second sleeve of the Aidez has also grown – I love how the big yarn and needles means that just a little bit of knitting time shows actual progress. I may need to keep bulky projects on my needles at all times!
What are you working on this week? Garments? Accessories? Gifts? Big stuff? Small stuff?
Pros and Cons of having multiple projects going at once:
Pros:
Cons:
Clearly the pros outweigh the cons here and although I *did* finish a project last week, it still feels like I don’t have much to share this week!
I’m on the second sleeve of the Aidez, just barely past the cuff. The first sleeve knit up pretty quick so I’m excited to get this one done so I can start the body!
The Kinton Tee has seen some progress as well – I got to the underarm part of the back and started the front, joined the neckline there and now it’s just simple stockinette until I get to the underarms on that piece and can join them together for the body.
The socks have been neglected, sadly. They remain in my purse but haven’t seen any action in over a week.
I did start a new hat design that is coming along very nicely and I’m halfway done with the knitting on that. I’m hoping to finish it and gift it to Nick for Valentine’s and then release the pattern early next month so fingers crossed I can make that happen!
What are you working on this week?
This is a looonnngggg standing WIP that has finally joined the ranks of FO!
According to Ravelry, I started this on February 14th of last year and once I realized that, I kicked into high gear to have it finished before that 1 year mark. I made a quick little video showing how I blocked it and then a few extra words about how much I love it – I’m extra dorky and disorganized in this one so please forgive the goofiness.
Peony, by Kat Riddell, is a great shawl to use up a single skein of fingering weight yarn in a solid, tonal or slightly variegated colorway. I think knitting this up in a crazy speckled yarn would be cool but it also might detract from the textural details in the pattern.
There’s no reason this shawl should’ve taken this long, the pattern is clear and the project only requires 1 skein. I did get myself mixed up somewhere in the pattern and my halves weren’t equal numbers but I fudged it and just kept going, no one can tell but me anyways, right?
When I first bound off the project I was grabbing coffee with a friend and she remarked on how small it was (she is not a knitter) but I knew it’d grow with blocking and boy did it! It’s at least twice the size (60″ wide and 27″ deep) now that it’s blocked than it was when freshly off the needles. I love that! Because it’s fingering weight yarn knit on a US 8/5 mm needle, it’s still lightweight but warm, this will be perfect for early spring and the chill that lingers in the mornings.
Have you finished anything this week? Have you knit a Kat Riddell pattern yet or used any Hazel Knits yarns?
This week the projects I’m working on are kind of opposites.
One of them is a big garment knit with big yarn on big needles.
The other is a small set knit with small yarn on small needles.
(and there’s the other project which is kind of in the middle and makes Goldilocks happy).
As I’m sure you’ve guessed, the big project is Aidez. I mentioned last week that I started on the first sleeve in lieu of a gauge swatch and I’m cruising right along with that! Knitting with US 10.5 (6.5 mm) dpns for this part feels like knitting with trees and it took my hands a few rounds to get used to working with them. It’s so satisfying how quick this knits up though and I’ll hopefully have a finished sweater in no time!
The small project is a new pair of socks for me that I shared just the beginnings of on Instagram. These are the Traditional Gansey Socks from Wendy D. Johnson’s Socks From The Toe Up Book. The yarn is stashed Dream in Color Smooshy in the Amber Glass colorway. As I mentioned with the last socks, I wanted to get a new set of needles to see if that helped with knitting – I got some Chiao Goo US 1 (2.25 mm) and the join between the needle and the cable is *so* much more smooth! The knitting isn’t faster yet, probably because of the 100% merino yarn being a bit grippy, but I’m not fighting with the stitches when I move them around the cable.
I know that for the past year I was kind of a monogamous knitter but I’m enjoying have multiple projects on the go right now! It’s kind of fun switching between the two extremes 🙂
What are you knitting this week?
I’ve gotten some happy mail over the past two weeks for projects I’ve mentioned previously!
As I mentioned in my WIP Wednesday vlog last week, I did receive the yarn for my Aidez cardigan. I got 4 giant skeins of Cascade Ecological Wool from another Raveler who was destashing. This is probably twice what I need for the sweater but I couldn’t say no to a few extra skeins since she had them available, now could I?
This yarn is plump and wooly. When you look at one of the singles, it looks very airy and like it could break at any moment but I haven’t experienced that yet with this sweater, the staple length of the fibers must be long enough that this yarn is actually pretty durable!
I also received a big ol’ package from yarn.com containing all the yarn for both my mom and my’s Crosscountry cardigans!
Yea, that’s a lot of the same yarn. We’re going to be matchy matchy! We decided to go with Berroco Remix in the discontinued Merlot colorway. This yarn is a little thinner than the pattern calls for but a little swatch math will help us figure out which sizes to knit.
Have you gotten any new stash lately? Or worked with either of these yarns before? Please share!
The Never Ending Socks have ended! This is my first FO of the new year and I’m so happy to share them with you!
Details:
I worked these two at a time, toe-up using the magic loop method. I used Plymouth Yarn’s Happy Feet in the Blue Oreo colorway, US 2 (2.75 mm) needles and roughly, kinda-sorta followed the pattern for the Go Your Own Way Socks (basically I followed the numbers through the feet, added ribbing to the top part of the foot and literally Went My Own Way for the legs of the socks, doing 2×2 rib all over and increasing for calf shaping).
Now, wanna see something silly?
It might be a little hard to see in this picture but see that little bit of grey yarn in the center with a slightly different twist than the rest? I ran out of yarn binding off the last few stitches of each sock! I wanted to use up as much yarn as possible and see how tall these babies could be with just a single skein and I definitely used up every last inch of yarn.
Things Learned:
So, all in all, I’m happy with these socks and they’ve already gotten a lot of wear! I don’t think I’ll be signing up to do the Box O’ Sox KAL (you knit 12 pairs of socks in a year!) but I will be adding a pair of socks to my regular rotation of knits.
What are you knitting right now? Have you finished anything yet this year?
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was planning a new beginning for this project. That time has come and I’m on my way to having yarn to execute new ideas!
One thing I learned during the process is that I am a really thorough button sewer-on-er. Those pretty little silver buttons were worth saving but just removing them was a lesson in patience lest I ruin the yarn they were sewn into. And there were 11 of them.
After carefully removing all of the beautiful buttons, I came to the part of the project where I needed to frog the knitting. The best way to do this? In my opinion, use my ball winder and turn the thing back into cakes, ready to be knit.
I probably won’t be reskeining and washing this yarn before use – I know a lot of knitters do and it’s a great way to get that noodle-y look out of it. Having knit with frogged yarn many times before, I know it won’t affect my gauge all that much and I’ll be working up a swatch, washing and blocking before I begin re-knitting anyway.
What do you do when you frog projects? Do you re-wash and de-kink the yarn? Or forge ahead into noodle knitting? (Also, what do you think of the video? I don’t do video often but want to play with it a little more so any feedback is appreciated!)
If you follow me on Instagram, you might’ve seen this cute little project earlier this week.
Last weekend I came down with some sort of stomach bug and spent most of Sunday in bed. I don’t like sitting still and not doing productive things (especially knitting) but wanted something that would be fun, quick and simple (and wasn’t 2×2 rib). I’d favorited the Tiny Window Cat Pattern just recently and decided that would be the perfect project!
It’s a free pattern and clearly written. I didn’t make any mods except the needle size. I used US 0 dpns and some soft stash yarn from years ago – no tag or idea what the fiber content is. This little cat took probably 2-3 hours to work up, even in sick mode – a super quick gift! I may have to knit a bigger version for my niece!
Have you finished anything lately? Do you knit toys or small things? What’s your favorite way to get over an inconvenient illness?
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