so sad!

Oof. I got so far with this sweater and then last weekend when I was to the point where I was binding off to shape the back yoke, I realized I'd made a rather significant mistake. My side marker was placed wrong. Like 10 stitches wrong. Because I didn't read the right line of the pattern. O. M. G. This is the problem with a) multitasking, b) patterns that just go along and say "knit to marker" instead of giving a count, and c) not double checking marker placement. Darn. 

I thought for a hot second (or two, or three) about how I could add columns of knitting to one side and remove them from the other and hope blocking was kind to me, but I decided that it would end up bothering me if the fit was even slightly wonky. I also talked it over my friend Madison who is a more experienced sweater knitter than I. While she appreciated that the approach might work in theory, she advised against it. She also shared a story of a time she had to redo a substantial amount of a sweater recently which was a bit of a comfort (misery loves company). So I ripped it back. 14 inches of knitting. So. Sad. I did not rip back the ribbing, that was unnecessary and would have been awful to re-do given my feelings about knitting 1x1 rib. I had just started my fourth skein of yarn and by now I have finished re-knitting the body to the end of one skein with just an evening of effort, so it will come back quickly, but wow. That was painful. Count your stitches, people. And then count them again. 

stripes ahoy

I've been making great progress on both sweaters so far this fall. Right now I've found myself drawn to the stripey fingering weight project. There are so. many. short rows. As I worked I remembered that the first time I knit this pattern I couldn't wait to be done with the short rows. It's similar this time. I felt myself itching to get to the easy in-the-round part not because of the counting, but because of the purls!

At long last I did finally finish them (complaints aside, they really do make for quite a cool hemline) and I got to my first stripe! At this point it's potato chips - when can I get to the next stripe?! It's been going pretty quickly. I must thank my past self for taking such good notes in the pattern with respect to row counts, when stripes started, etc. There has been minimal thinking required this time because of that. 

I should probably return to the sweater that needs to be done by Christmas soon, but just look at those stripes!

 

improvisational squares

I like watching Pin, Cut, Sew on YouTube when she's working on quilt projects, and a recent video was about wonky four patches. It got me feeling like I wanted to play a bit with some color, and I happened to have some pre-cut stacks of scraps to use. 

Since they were already squares I declined the wonky direction and just went with four patches instead. It was a fun (late!) evening of improvisational piecing, serendipitous pairings, and I kind of like what I ended up with. I'm not sure yet what these will end up being, but it was quite fun to take a break from all the knitting. I'm currently considering a wall hanging for outside my sewing room. 

 

two weeks of moss

I have been making great progress on the mossy green sweater. It has been so wonderful knitting with worsted weight yarn that I have found all the nooks and crannies of time to work on it. I am especially enjoying that I have a colleague at work who also knits, so we've been comparing projects. I started my third ball of wool yesterday, and am already nearly done with it today. Fourth ball start by tomorrow, I am sure. 

This is about 10 inches worth of sweater done already, which is pretty great considering I feel like I just started! It's been easy going with just one row of increases so far and otherwise basically stockinette in the round with a few ribbing stitches at the side seams. I snapped this photo below to send to the parents (it's for my dad) joking that I am just about finished with my tube top.... how itchy that would be! 

second sweater start

Am I crazy? I started a second sweater last week. Granted, part of the intention is to get a few projects going past the fiddly cast on/first few rows stage, but still. Do I bite off more than I can chew? There may even be a third sweater coming. Such hubris! 

This will be my second go-round with this particular pattern so I have some great notes in my margins. I am being cavalier and not gauge swatching despite using a different yarn. Part of me feels like it's an awful lot of work to do without checking first, but I also feel like having made this before I have a decent intuition of how the finished garment will behave and it's pretty forgiving. I may be learning some hard lessons about gauge this fall, but I am going to take what the universe gives me and either declare victory or be grateful for the "now I know better" moment(s). 

I have already made my way through the bottom band and much of the front short row shaping. Once that's done, it is on to the back short row shaping. If I didn't like the hem on this so much I would complain more, but here's my little vent. It isn't the short rows themselves, and wraps are fun and magical. It's the PURLING. Nothing makes my hands hurt more than purling. Ok maybe 1x1 rib, but it's up there on my least favorite maneuvers to do with sticks and string. This pattern is a heartbreaker because the band is garter stitch in the round which means loooots of purls to start with. When you're done, ordinarily that would mean flying through a stockinette body knitting in the round. But with short rows, one must turn. And when one must turn, one must purl. I'm enjoying working on this, but it does have a time limit because my hands start to ache. That will change once I get done with this hem shaping though! May it be soon. 

Ah and also the rest of the yarn for my dad's sweater came in the mail today. Just look at this pile! I will not consider how many stitches that represents.... oh boy. Here we go!

mossy green sweater start

Well, here I go on a sweater adventure! Just cast on Tuesday evening and have struggled my way through the first few inches. I quite dislike doing ribbing, especially when it is 1x1 ribbing, but in this case the magic of the tubular cast on looking so amazingly neat down there at the bottom was the consolation prize. It is wizardry, I tell you.

I have found a lovely new YouTube channel to watch with a very creative woman who makes beautiful quilts and things. Her voice, accent, and mannerisms are so relaxing and her aesthetic so charming that I find myself feeling quite cozy and peaceful. Between that and my favorite gardening channel, I have been feeling quite domestic in the little nook on this couch! I got a little over half way through the ribbing that first night and finished the final bit over lunch yesterday having decided that 2.5 inches was close enough instead of the 3 inches it called for. One more row and there would have been mutiny. My hands are a bit angry.

It was a delight to get to the stockinette rows, and I can tell this may go by pretty quickly if I can find the time for it. Worsted weight wool is so quick to work with! I'm a little nervous about gauge since I am using a needle size down. I did do a gauge swatch (well a few rows anyway), but did not block it so I am still guessing, but it seemed to be a good educated guess. I would hate for this to end up hilariously large, and this wool is so springy and tight right now I suspect it may grow in the blocking process. Though, of course as I am knitting in the round now I suspect my gauge is a bit tighter than the flat swatch I did... I may go for it and switch back to the recommended needle size. I don't think this first inch will end up looking weird if I do that, and given the finished measurements cited for the size I chose and the intended ease I may be overthinking this. Glad to have thought that out through my fingers here, good talk! 

I am enjoying the color very much and have already nearly finished one cake of yarn. I have another, but the rest is still on order so I may pause here until I can get the rest of the skeins to see if the dye lots are significantly different. In that case I'll figure out how to mix in this other ball with the rest so I don't end up with a weird color block at the bottom of the garment. I'll be calling the shop today or tomorrow to see if they've arrived. 

summer wall hanging, finished

Last night was a big night - I finished this wall hanging. I really love the colors I managed to pull together for this one and how they work perfectly with the beautiful print I used for the backing. It's a little bit late for summer, I had hoped to have it done by August 1, but it will look great on the wall for the remainder of what may be a steamy September before my pumpkin wall hanging appears in October. 

I had the top completed around the holidays, I sandwiched it up this spring, and it sat around for a while while I decided how I wanted to quilt it. The challenge I have many times is that when I have a lot of negative space I don't know what to do that will look good. This particular time I also paused because of thread color choices. I really did not want to use white thread on the saturated color but I didn't want anything to show on the white. And I was even more reticent to stitch over that amazing appliqué corner! In the end a simple crosshatch seemed like the way to go to just get it done, and I do like the way it works with the geometry of the blocks. I used a light gray on the front and had a bright magenta bobbin wound up near the machine, so I went with that for the back.

  

This was a Natalie design from a Missouri Star Quilt Co "triple play" day tutorial video, my favorites to watch. The theme of the episode was the rail fence block. The whole design has so much movement despite the simplicity and very traditional blocks, and I had a great time playing with the prints and choosing the motifs to feature in the appliqué. That zen pair of scissors just does it for me. I have just a small precious scrap of that print left. I ended up using every last square inch of the floral print for the back as well as the remainder of my ochre trees for the binding. I had just inches to spare! The thing that tickled me in particular about that print is that I have two projects where this unique color was the perfect thing to augment a stack of prints that I had assembled. Who would think? 

I hung it up in its spot this morning and it's going to make me smile every time I walk by! It's gorgeous.