WIP Wednesday - Two FO

I have two new finished object since last week :)

I managed to finish the Swirl Tee over the weekend :) There were a surprisingly high number of errors in the pattern, and despite getting gauge, mine ended up being more of a tunic rather than a t-shirt, so I'm starting to wonder if my size was ever tested. I don't mind terribly though - I'm quite fond of tunics, and I love the fit of this one :)
I actually haven't blocked it yet... For one thing, I was too eager to wear it, for another, I'm slightly worried that blocking it will make it grow too much as it's slightly loose-fitting as it is, and I wanted to wear it at least once first - just in case. But I'll be blocking it tonight, so fingers crossed.

My second finished object is another pair of socks. I bought this yarn while in New Zealand, and absolute love it! I used less than half the skein for this pair, so now I'm wondering what to do with the rest, because it's gorgeous and soft and yummy :D
The pattern is "Whirlpool Socks" by Laura Nelkin.

WIP Wednesday - Back into Spinning!

I never got around to posting last week, so I've got a ton of stuff to share with you today :)

Inspired by the PrairieGirls Knit and Spin podcast, I decided to give my 9" circs another chance - taking their advice to do the cast-on and ribbing on magic loop and then not switching to the 9" until I reach the plain knitting part. It certainly did make it a lot easier, but I'm still not a huge fan. It just doesn't seem to go as fast as with magic loop and is a lot more fiddly. I think part of it may be that the 9" circ is too large(!!!) for my small leg, so I should really go down to an 8" in order to prevent having to move the stitches around all the time (one of the PrairieGirls mentioned that as being a challenge as well)... not sure I'm going to go out and buy one just to test the theory though. As it is, I'm going to keep at it for a full pair of socks to give it a proper shot... and then we'll see if that's the only pair ever I knit like that ;)

Perhaps that's why I also felt the need to cast on another pair of socks for the June challenge ;) I finished these in just 6 days! I think that's a personal record :) The yarn was a gift from Lars and the pattern is Cookie A's Wanida (with the FLK heel substituted in). Very potato-chippy indeed :) I never did learn the pattern off by heart, but it was extremely easy to read, so a quick knit regardless.

This weekend I FINALLY finished the Professor McGonagall blanket. Casting off took me nearly 2 hours! But so worth it in the end. It's knit in acrylic yarn, and probably at a looser gauge than it should have been, but I don't care - I love it! :D

And finally, I'm back into spinning :) Mum and Dad had bought me some lovely rainbow coloured corridale from New Zealand, but I'd kept telling myself that I had to finish my current spinning project before I could start it. This weekend I finally accepted that just wasn't going to happen anytime soon, and that I should let that stop me from playing with some nice, new fiber, so I sat down at the wheel and went nuts! It's the first time I've been back at the wheel for quite awhile, and the beginning of the yarn is accordingly lumpy, but the fiber was so much fun to play with, that I just couldn't let it go, and got it all spun and plied up in just 3 days! (I wonder how many calories you burn from that kind of spinning! ;) ). It's the first time I've ever done anything close to that amount of spinning on my wheel, and I've come to the conclusion that I really love it :-D I am SO grateful to Mum's friend for gifting it to me :-) :-) :-)

The fiber went from this

... to this...

... to this! (plied with commercial yarn to make the yardage stretch - a tip from the lovely Laura of the KnitGirllls Podcast (lalaknits on instagram))
Forgot to take a photo of it all skeined up after its bath, but I ended up with 137 grams and 155 meters :-) Now to decide what to knit with it!

WIP Wednesday - Finishing all the things!

Stashdash started last Friday, so now I'm finishing all the things!!!

First thing I finished was the second security blanket for Nora, as I wanted to bring that along with me when I saw Mixi on Saturday. Of course I then promptly forgot everything about it, so it's still lying at home. *sigh* Ah well, she'll get it this weekend instead.

Second up was the "Imagine When" shawl. Just goes to show how big a difference the right pattern makes, as I finished this in just 2 weeks! Played a nice little game of yarn chicken near the end too, but came out of it victoriously, with just 8 meters left! It's still blocking, but I think I'm going to love it :) It's a merino-cashmere blend and SO soft :)

Sunday I finished my May socks. They only needed a bit more ribbing and binding off, so that was a quick FO :) Of course, I finished it on a day where it was above 25C, making Lars laugh at my awesome timing ;)

... then work began again, and I could no longer finish an item a day, so the next finished item wasn't ready until yesterday when I finally finished the Film Reel Cardigan for Rosa! It's currently blocking so hopefully the weather will remain warm enough that I can give it to her on Saturday :)
I love the little pocketses :)

WIP Wednesday

Last WIP post before StashDash2016 begins! Starting this Friday I can finish things again!

Last week I frogged my "Change of Heart" cowl (appropriate name!), and repurposed the yarn for Jojo Locatelli's "Imagine When". Progress on this is going absolutely swimmingly, and in less than a week I am more than twice as far as I ever got with the cowl! Frogging it was obviously the right choice!
The pattern is made up of 6 parts - I only have the last part (and the last skein of yarn!) to go. I hope to finish within the next week or so :) (keeping my fingers crossed that I'll have enough yarn. I should... but you never know).

I've also gotten another 2 swirls done on my Swirl Tee. I think I'll do the arms next, so I know exactly how much yarn I have left for the rest of the body, so I'll have to see if I can find an extra circular needle in the right size :)
I wish the lighting was better, but I'm loving how this is turning out. Can't wait for it to be done :)

WIP Wednesday - Getting ready for StashDash2016

Less than 10 days to go before StashDash2016!

To those not familiar with StashDash, it is the brainchild of Lesley and Laura of the KnitGirllls Podcast. In a nutshell, you challenge yourself to finish 3, 5, 7, 10 or 15km worth of knitting starting May 27th and ending on August 21st. WIPs count - you can count the entire yardage, as long as there's some knitting left to be done (i.e. you can't just weave in ends, but binding off and weaving in ends totally count).

I've participated in the 5k these past two years. Didn't manage to finish the first year, but managed something like 5043 meters last year. No reason to exaggerate ;)

Though I haven't quite decided yet, I'll probably go for the 5k again this year, so over the weekend I gathered together (almost) all my active WIPs, to see just what my brand of crazy looks like.
Top row, left to right:
Change of Heart cowl - has been frogged, and I'll repurpose the yarn for the "Imagine When" shawl by Joji Locatelli - ~460m
Vanilla Socks - only need a bit of ribbing to be done - ~210m
Third love blanket for Nora, about half done - ~200m
Secret crochet project - no clue yet
Swirl Tee - my favourite project these days. I LOVE how it's turning out! Can't wait to wear it. ~800m
Bottom row, left to right:
Professor McGonagall blanket - needs another 10 rounds of edging and the bind-off. Each round takes 45 minutes, so I hope to get this closer to done before StashDash starts. ~1400m
Whirlpool Socks - first sock is done, second is at the heel. Should be a quick finish. ~220m
Film Reel - first sleeve done! One more sleeve and a TON of ends to weave in! ~600m
Benny the Elephant - just need to make the trunks and sew everything together - 200m

Not shown (as I had COMPLETELY spaced out on it!): Symmetry in Motion - an estimated 2400m as I'm knitting this one with yarn held double. REALLY don't believe I'll finish this one though! It's been on the back burner for too long.

But if I finish all of the above (+ two extra pairs of socks for the Just One More Row sock challenge), I'm looking at somewhere around 6900 meters. That's only if I finish Symmetry in Motion though. But while 7K might be a bit unrealistic, 5K is looking very manageable :)

WIP Wednesday - Security Blanket, take 2

I finally, finally, FINALLY picked up the stitches to the first sleeve in the Film Reel Cardigan... and then promptly abandoned it for another project with a tighter deadline. Ah well, at least it's been started now, and it'll be a lot easier to pick up next time, with the sleeve actually started.

(I'm currently in denial that I'll have to do it all over again for the second sleeve. I don't know why I procrastinate so with picking up sleeves... it doesn't actually take all that long once I get started - but it's not something I can just pick up and do whenever either. It requires concentration.)
I'm a bit worried about getting the length of the sleeves right, though. I had Rebekka meassure Rosa's arms, and they're a LOT longer than the pattern seems to think they should be. I'm going to go with the actual measurements, of course. It just always confuses me when they're so out of sync.

As for the more important project - Mixi asked me to knit Nora another security blanket, as she'd accidentally shrunk the first one. As Nora had gotten very attached to the first security blanket already, I wanted to get that done as quickly as possible, to hopefully make the transition a smooth one. I found some machine washable yarn (normal wash - not the gentle cycle) in a bamboo/cotton blend (SO soft!) and got on it right away. I'm going to make two, so Mixi has an extra - just in case.

I'm almost done with the first one - only another 20 or so rows to go before the bind off.

I've also got a bit more done on my Swirl Tee, although I let the other projects take precedence. I've just separated for the sleeves and tried it on to see if the fit is alright. I may need to make some bust darts, but we'll see how it goes. The waste yarn for the sleeves makes for a good life line if needs be.

WIP Wednesday - When Knitting Attacks

Unfortunately both my knitting and my swatching has been attacking me quite a bit this past week :-/ Over the weekend I was in the mood to cast on something new, so I started swatching for a number of new projects. Not with 100% success though, as some swatches resulted in me being even more in doubt than before, what I want to use certain yarn for.

I came across the Swirl Tee on Ravelry Sunday and immediately knew I wanted to use my gorgeous skein of Unwind yarn for it. I only just have enough yarn, but have some ideas of how to stretch it, so I think it'll be fine :) I cast on Monday evening, and by Tuesday night I was already about half the way through the yoke.
Alas, it was not to be. At 9pm yesterday I discovered a serious error in the pattern, that no amount of fudging could make up for. Since the error was cumulative and started in round 2, I had to rip allllll the way back to the beginning and start over again, so right now my project looks more like this
At least the yarn is lovely to work with, so I don't mind too much. Still frustrating though. The designer has been made aware, and sent out an update a couple of hours later, so it should be fine now :)

My second swatch of the weekend didn't cooperate as nicely. Last year sometime a friend gave me a gorgeous skein of gradient yarn, that I just haven't been able to figure out what to make of. This weekend I discovered Ysolda Teague's Little Birds and thought it'd be perfect for the yarn.
It is - the swatch came out totally gorgeous - but it's also a hassle and a half to knit! I'm really just not good enough at fair isle knitting to manage a full-size adult sweater! So now I've gone back to the drawing board... wavering between trying to find another pattern I want to use the yarn for, manning up and telling myself I want to learn fair isle sooner or later anyway, so I might as well just get started, or returning to my original idea of using the yarn for another Butterfly Shawl
The yarn is not quite soft enough to wear next to skin, which also limits my options somewhat, but it should be fine for a sweater or a vest of some sort. Ah well. I've learned not to force yarn/pattern matches. It'll come in its own good time.