WIP Wednesday: Week 11

Finished Objects
I was about to say I didn't have any finished objects since last time... until I checked Ravelry and discovered I have THREE!!! Just goes to show how rotten my memory apparently is :-P

So! My first finished object is the mittens I was knitting for Miriam. I loved how they turned out colour-wise, although the thumb is a tad tight - I've made a note for that, so I remember to increase further should I ever knit it again. She seems to like them though, and have been wearing them a lot.
Second up is a Star Trek insignia I knit for one of my colleagues. We had a sci-fi themed party back in the beginning of March, and he couldn't figure out what to dress out as - was considering just coming as a "Man in Black" - so I told him that if he had a blue, red or yellow shirt, I'd be happy to make him the insignia he could pin on his shirt, if he didn't mind it being crocheted. He LOVED that idea, and though he gave me back the pins I'd used, he kept the insignia! Whether that's because he accidentally threw it out, or if he actually wanted to keep it, I don't know - nor really care. It was awesome just to see him wearing it all evening!
Finally I finished a super-quick pair of socks for Henni. She wanted some cozy, thick indoor socks and knitting socks out of DK weight just takes no time at all! I sent her a photo of two different colours of yarn, and asked her which she wanted. "Green! No pink! No green! No... gah!" "I could also just make you one of each?" "YES PLEASE!!!" So that's what I did :-D

On the Needles
I am SO close to finishing the favourite things cowl!!! I just need a few more rows and then grafting it together! I really, really love how it turned out, and kinda want to cast on another! I've offered to make one for Liz (who hasn't taken the dive into fair isle yet), so that might have to happen... although I HAVE warned her that mine took more than two years to finish, so she'd have to expect something similar ;-)
From top to bottom: planes, books, jigsaw puzzle, dragons, mountains, witches, squirrels, music, theater masks, owls, kangaroos, Bibles, faith-hope-love, silver fern and kiwi (NZ - "Kia ora" means "Hi"), snow, coffee (or tea), maori pattern, cats, swirls (just a filler... I added some of those before I realized I had PLENTY of designs to add without them!), trains (=Lars), New York skyline, other swirls, piano, rainbow, dogs, hearts.


I've also come a lot further on Fading Point. I've finished section two, and am about half-way on section 3 (out of 4). The rows are now decreasing by 4 stitches every second row, so the last bit should go SWOOSH!! I can't wait to see it all blocked and done!
And finally, as always I have some socks on my needles. For once only one pair though! This is the Jaywalker pattern which is just a small step above plain vanilla, so they're quite easy to knit. I'm keeping these for commute/meeting knitting only though, so they might take awhile to finish.

WIP Wednesday - Week 8

Finished Objects
I have two finished objects to show off this week :-D

Since I have already shown Marie a photo of her socks, and they went out in the mail today, I can now show them off here as well!
Very busy yarn, so I wanted a "calming" pattern for them. I couldn't find one that was just right, so I made up my own! I think it turned out quite nice, if I do get to say so myself!

I also finished my test knit. It was a really fun knit and basically flew off the needles. I'm not too sure about the colour combination though... the colours look great together, but are a bit too "cutsey" for me... so this may end up being a gift to a niece instead ;-)

´On the Needles
I haven't even TOUCHED Fading Point since my last post, instead having focused on the two projects above, as well as a pair of mittens for Miriam. They're coming back to Denmark for a visit next week, and while we're having an unseasonably warm winter, that could change at any moment, so I wanted to have them ready. I've finished the first and am just about done with the cuff on the second.

Besides, this weekend I picked My Favourite Things Cowl back up. I haven't touched it in ages, but suddenly got the urge to do a bit more fair isle. You guys, it is SO potato-chippy!!! I've added another 6 or 7 sections since then and am actually almost done!! I want it to be large enough to wrap around my head twice, and it's almost there! Which is almost a shame - of course I want to finish it, so I can wear it and show it off, but it's such a fun knit that I just want to keep going! Also I have SO many more things I want to add to it! May have to knit a second one after all...


(I've done one more section since this shot, but forgot to take a new photo this morning).

WIP Wednesday - Week 5

I've been fairly monogamous these past few weeks, so actually only have two things to show off.... (well... three, but the last is a present, so I'll keep that secret for now ;-) )

Mostly, I've been knitting quite a bit on the Fading Point shawl. I love the yarns I picked out for it, and while they don't fade into each other quite as smoothly as I'd hoped, I still really like the way they look together. I've finished section one and am just about to start the first colour change on section two. It's a lot faster a knit than I had expected, but it DOES use 5 full skeins of yarn, so it'll take awhile no matter what.

Especially as I've put it on the back burner recently. This past weekend I was asked to test-knit a shawl that's up for republishing. I've been waiting for this to come back for sale for quite awhile, so obviously I was thrilled to do so, even if it meant setting Fading Point aside for awhile. It's a two-colour shawl, interchanging rows of garter with sections of lace, and while I haven't gotten all that far yet, I'm really enjoying it. Not too sure about my colour choices, but oh well - we'll see how it goes. As I know from experience, you never know until it's pretty much done! For now I'm just enjoying the softness of the yarn and the challenges of the pattern :-D

WIP Wednesday - week 2

Lots to show off today, as I forgot to post anything while off on Christmas vacation. However, I can finally show off two sweaters that I am THRILLED to have off my needles, and which I am incredibly proud of :-D :-D :-D

Off the Needles
I have been knitting two sweaters for my youngest niece and finally managed to finish both around Christmas, so I could give them to her when we saw each other at New Year's Eve. Fortunately she loved both, so even though she didn't want to try on either while I was actually there, I only had to wait until the next day to see them on. She asked her Mum to help her put them on, and my sister could send me these absolutely adorable photos.


(Michala also sent me a wonderful video of Nora playing dinosaur and chasing Frederik around the living room. Frederik's instant response was "woof woof woof!!!" ... but who are we to say that's not the right noise for them! ;-) )

I've also finished a Minecraft Pig for my brother-in-law. He'd mentioned wanting one, when I crocheted him a pig last Christmas, so when I saw it on his wishlist, I automatically assumed he meant a home-made one. However, his very first response when he opened it was to literally SHOUT with laughter and then exclaim, "I didn't think you'd MAKE me one!!!" Ch! Amateur ;-) He did ask if I would be upset if he bought a Lego one as well (which is what he'd actually meant), but he'd so obviously loved mine that there's no way I could take offence at that!
(Kinda ugly, and the head should have been on the side rather than the top, but I couldn't get it to balance that way - oh well).

And earlier this week I FINALLY finished the Chromatic sweater that I cast on in October 2016!!! I'd finished the body by that same Christmas, and then just hadn't touched it at all, despite only missing the sleeves. Now I know why - knitting sleeves in garter stitch takes FOREVER!!! But now it's DONE and is happily blocking. Hopefully it'll be dry soon :-)

On the Needles
As you can see, I've been on a bit of a finishing kick, so actually don't have all that many active WIPs. As eager as I was to cast on a ton of MKALs last year, I haven't worked on any of them at all recently (and in fact have frogged one of them!). Instead I've cast on something new!!! Because of course I have :-D Liz spent most of last week with me, and helped me find the perfect colours for a Fading Point shawl. I absolutely LOVE the way the skeins look next to each other, so hopefully they'll look equally lovely knit up. Granted, I haven't made it to the second colour yet, but hopefully tonight.

WIP Wednesday: Week 49

Finished Objects
Not as many finished objects this time around, but that's okay. I have a LOT of different things on the needles, so it makes sense that I haven't gotten that far in any of them.

I do want to show off Anne's sweater though. She came by to get it weekend before last, and to my great relief, it fits her perfectly! Yay! :-

I've also just finished my second Knit Your Love shawl, and it's currently blocking. I got so much use out of the first one I made (which I lost in a train :-( ), so I'm looking forward to this one being dry and ready to wear!

On the Needles
Currently on the needles is Nora's Unicorn sweater. Alas, I'm not quite as close to being done as this photo would indicate, as I have to rip back the ribbing of the body and add another 5cm. For some stupid reason I decided to trust the pattern's measurements over my own! Not entirely sure about my logic there, and fortunately I stopped to have Mixi double-check before I finished it off. Anyways, I'm missing the ribbing of one sleeve and then the 5cm I have to add to the body. I'll have this done in PLENTY of time for Christmas!

Apart from that I've started not one, not two but THREE Mystery Knit-Alongs on Ravelry (a knit-along where you get the clues as you go, so you have no idea what you'll end up with). I've never done MKALs before, and now I'm doing three?? Go figure. Anyway, in order not to spoil anybody who doesn't want to be spoiled, I won't post any photos here, but just link to my projects on Ravelry:
Squishy
Sunshine
Advent Cowl
I was out of town when the last clue came out, so I'm slightly behind in all of them, but rushing to catch up! :-D

WIP Wednesday: Week 47

Despite it only being two weeks since I last posted a WIP Wednesday entry, I have SO many finished objects to show off this time! And I'm really proud of a lot of them too :-D

Finished Objects
First of all, I finished the second Happypotamous!!! So happy with how it turned out! I must admit, I'd forgotten just HOW much of a hassle it is to crochet together though, so I think I'll probably take a bit of a break before making another one. But they turn out so delightful that I'm sure there are more of these in my future.

I managed to stuff this one quite a bit better too, so it's more solid and has a better center of balance. I just HOPE Liz will like it :-D

The very same evening, I also finished the sweater for Anne! This was blocking last time I showed it off, and I just had to seam the pieces together. I'm really not a fan of seaming, but fortunately I could mostly use mattress stitch here, which helped a lot. It's both easier and looks better than most other forms of seaming, I find... at least the way I do them ;-P
I haven't had the chance to give it to her yet, so have no clue how it'll fit. Fingers crossed! Hopefully she'll let me take a modeled shot once she gets it.

This past weekend I finished the 14 Minikins I needed to make for the Christmas Party at work. The party is not till this Friday, so I finished in PLENTY of time, and even have a spare one for Henni! (as I made 14 and only afterwards realized that we'll be 14 people INCLUDING me! I already have one, so Henni can have mine ;-) )

Nina wrote me up weekend before last and asked if I would knit Christian another pair of socks as he wears the old pair pretty much daily so they'd gone VERY threadbare. They are leaving again next Thursday, so I didn't really think I'd have time, but fortunately I had a few days with pretty much no plans, so I got stubborn and ended up finishing them in just a week!!! Granted, I didn't knit much else that week, but now I know that I can finish a large pair of socks in 20 hours if I really, really want to! Hopefully, I don't think there'll be much call for that. I gave Christian the socks Sunday, and he put them on immediately! (in fact, almost the entire family were wearing my knitwear that day! Love it!)

And finally, I knit up a hat for myself in just two evenings. After having finished so many gifts, I felt like casting on something for myself, and when I found a newly released pattern for an owl hat, I knew I had to have it :-D Even better - it used up an old scrap of yarn I didn't know what to use for. Score! Love it when that happens. The owls were supposed to have seed beads for eyes, but I didn't have any in the right size, and was too impatient to wait till I could buy some, so I just ended up using Hama beads. Not nearly as elegant, but it worked nicely. Besides - it's just a hat!

On the Needles
With so many things finished, I actually only have a couple of things currently being worked on. The most important of those is still the Unicorn sweater for Nora. I made a few modifications to the chart, as I was getting SO tired of colourwork, but I really don't think you can tell. And now that I've split for the sleeves, I'm at the main part of the body, so the next MANY rounds will just be knitting round and round and round and round and... Lovely mindless knitting :-D

Other than that I'm pretty much only working on a pair of vanilla socks and my cozy memories blanket - neither of which have seen enough process to show off here. I'll probably cast on something else for me soon... have been doing a LOT of gift-knitting lately, and feel like being a bit selfish with my knitting for awhile ;-)

WIP Wednesday - It's a long one!

Apologies for the length. I have done a LOT of crafting in October! Hadn't realized how much until I sat down to compose this post. Might be time to go back to posting these updates a tad more often again - once a month gets a bit overwhelming if I've been working on a lot of different things. Anyway, I'm sure you all are hugely interested in such musings of mine ;)

Finished Objects
I had hoped to have quite a number of finished objects to show off in this post, but as it turned out I could manage only two pairs of socks. However, I have a lot of things almost finished, so next update should be better :-)

My two finished objects are the second Kinda Magic socks from Wool and the Gang and an ooooold testknit where I finally got the second sock done. I decided to make the two socks fraternal, as I found the original pattern a bit too busy for the yarn (although it was deliberately designed for a very varigated yarn, soo....). The original pattern had every second diamond be purl bumps, but I decided to make a no-purl version for the second sock. Hard to tell the difference, as the yarn pooled vastly differently as well, but it was certainly a lot faster to knit, as I didn't have to consult the pattern as often!



On The Needles
I've been working on a LOT of things this past month. Almost all presents too! Although I have added a few pairs of socks for myself too.

Mostly, I've been working on Anne's sweater. I just cast off the neckline which means the knitting is DONE. It's currently blocking and then I just need to seam and weave in ends! The end is in sight! Anne tried on the body of the sweater last month, and it fit her really well :-) So hopefully it will do so after blocking too!

Next I've been working on the Unicorn Sweater for Nora. She was so excited when she heard I was knitting her a sweater - stood perfectly still while I took her measurements, and kept asking me when it would be done! Such enthusiasm is great motivation for me, so though I should really have been focusing on Anne's sweater, I cast it on last week and am slowly working my way through the colourwork of the yoke. The yarn is a DREAM to work with, so as soon as the colourwork is done, the rest should go WHOOSH! But I'm really not sure I'm ready to embark on an adult-sized sweater with colourwork anytime soon - it's sloooooow! Of course it doesn't help that some rows have FOUR colours at the same time! Three I can handle (2 in left hand, 1 in right), but 4? Gah! It's a hot mess. I just HOPE I'm leaving the floats long enough so it doesn't pucker up too badly. I'd hate to have to rip back...
(Actually - I've just finished 2 rounds with just 3 colours and it is SO much easier that I'm considering just doing the rest with 3 colours, and then going back to add the few stitches of the fourth colour (~12 sts per repeat) with double knitting. Might make the stitches "pop" more than what is intended, but it will also make me not want to rip out my hair constantly... probably worth it).

I also decided it was HIGH time I finished the Steggie cardigan, so have finished the back and the left front and am half-way through the right front. I decided to just do a button band instead of sewing in a zipper - hopefully that will make me actually finish it sometime soon!

The second Happy Hippo is almost done! I've joined all pieces together but the very last one and it's currently blocking, which means that as soon as it's dry I can stuff it and add the last piece! Can't wait to see it all done :-D

We have a Christmas lunch coming up at work. Usually I don't bother attending, but this is a tiny one just for my current project. I really like all my coworkers there, so not only am I attending, I'm knitting a Minikin for everybody on the team :-D We're 14 in total, and I've knit 9 so far. It's not for another 3 weeks, so I should have NO problems finishing!

And finally (I think) I've cast on two new pair of socks. Once is an intricate lace pattern that is slow going, but will look AMAZING when done, and the other is just a plain pair of Vanilla Socks. I needed something to knit at work meetings, and vanilla socks are by far the most unobtrusive. This is the Pairfect yarn by Arne and Carlos from Regia.



Phew!