You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘wip’ tag.
So if you read the subject, you’ll know what I’ve been up to lately in the craft world. Mostly, I’ve been working on my Girl Friday sweater, which now has half a sleeve:
I also started spinning the superwash merino I got from my boyfriend for my birthday:
(Yes, it’s hella pretty)
My goal for this is about 400 yards of a fingering weight single. I’d like to make a shawl, probably something Ishbel-like (with a stockinette section and a lace edging). I might even just buy the Ishbel pattern and knit that.
So that’s what I’m working on currently. I also just finished a pair of fingerless mitts, but I’m going to wait on showing those to you because I want to at least mail them first. But they’re really pretty. : ) Knit Picks Palette in Fog and Heart and Sole in Spring Stripes (I was seriously worried I wasn’t going to have enough contrast color, but I did).
So I’m knitting a sweater. It looks like this:
(Well, it’s a little farther than that now–I finished one of the fronts too.)
It’s Girl Friday from the Fall 09 Knitty. The yarn is Valley Northampton, which was originally earmarked for a Berocco pattern, Mayer. I didn’t really care for the waffle stitch, though, and the ribbing was written oddly–it has you cast on for a ton of stitches then just says “decrease 45 stitches evenly” across a 118 stitch row. No thank you. Frogged and debated over other cardigans before settling on this one. I think it will be nice. I am changing a few things though, most notably the lace pattern. I don’t really care for the purl stitch tabs, so I’m changing all the purls to knits. Makes my wrong side rows nice and easy–they’re just purled all the way across.
I’m knitting the smallest size, even though my bust measurement is 32″, and not the 29″ that is the smallest age. The designer says the lace is stretchy and I presume it’ll open up when it gets the severe blocking I’m planning for it though, and I’m going for negative ease anyway. I’m hoping for a longish sweater coat style that I can wear as a jacket or under my winter coat or when I’m chilly (kind of like how I wear my owls cardigan). I’m highly looking forward to wearing it. : )
Here’s something I do not have on the needles:
It’s a sock. Yep, one sock. One little cabled ankle sock. Why am I showing you this sock, and not a pair of socks in an FO post when I usually don’t bother with WIP posts? Because it’s only one sock. And it will be a while before the second sock is completed. Why is this?
Cause I freakin’ lost the rest of the yarn.
Yeah. I brought the socks to knit at Seaworld in lines and such when I was in Florida over Christmas and New Years. I finished the first sock in a line for a roller coaster (the new Manta, which, by the way, is AWESOME) and must have left my fanny pack open somewhere in the park and the ball rolled out. I mean, I bought the yarn at Michael’s with a 40% off coupon so it was only like, $3.50 and it’s definitely not difficult to find more, but I’m totally bummed because of the rigmarole. It’s doable, just annoying.
So that’s what I’m knitting. In addition to that Featherweight Cardi which is taking FOREVER. It’s definitely not my only project. I don’t think I could ever be in a serious, monogamous relationship with a cardigan knit in lace weight yarn in stockinette. Can you say boring? The finished thing will be awesome… I just have to finish knitting the damn thing.
Thing number one: A chapstick cozy:
Pattern: Chapstick/Lip Balm Holder
Yarn: Lily Sugar N’ Cream, colorway was like, strawberry or somesuch.
Hook: F/3.75 mm
Mods: Probably? Added a loop to attach to my keychain.
It’s functional, and that’s great. Whee, always having chapstick! I’m totally addicted.
Thing number two: A spinning FO!
Fiber: Random wool I got with a spindle on Etsy. An ounce.
Weight: About sport, I think. 2 ply.
Yardage: About 88 yards to my rudimentary measurements.
Colorway: Raspberry
Probably this will become some sort of lacy cowl because I love lacy cowls. Probably with buttons so it doesn’t have to be wide enough to get over my head. The yarn actually came out quite soft, probably due to its SOAK bath. I bought the Ravelry edition from the minimart, and I LOVE the scent. Really, it’s great.
Thing number three: A WIP shawl:
I’m using some yarn I got in a swap (the Rainbow Swap if you recall). It’s a combo yarn with strands of cotton and silk. Here, look:
The true green is the silk, I think, and the white and the teal/blue are cotton.
The shawl is looking to be quite large, which I’m cool with. I want to do some lacy edging on the edge, but I haven’t found anything I like, so I might just have a boring triangle scarf. The yarn is the prettiest part anyway.
Coming soon: Probably the FO post for the shawl cause we all know I knit like the wind (Bulls-eye). Maybe those dino mittens. Maybe I’ll knit another hat. Who the hell knows. At this point, I’m thinking about my shawl and final projects. Classes are winding down for the semester, so I’ll be studying (sort of) for finals. Fun times. Don’t worry though: Crafting will happen. Plus there’s swap things. So stay tuned. : )
The awesome new mittens I’ve been working on? They look like this:
That’s right, folks, dinosaurs! I’ll be selling the pattern for these as well and will have several options for different dinos. The Triceratops is all written up, and I’ve got to figure out how to do the T-Rex so it actually looks like a T-Rex. I’ve yet to muddle out the stegosaurus, but that’s happening too. If you’ve got suggestions or requests for other dinos, just let me know! I want to have as many options as possible for these guys.
Like the sharks, the pattern will be in both adult and child sizes. I hope to get it up before the month is out, resulting in a pattern that will make perfect holiday gifts–I did the actual knitting of these (disregarding fiddling and figuring time) in like, three days.
These ones, in an adult size, are for the boyfriend, who love dinos and I’m sure will be noming on people all the time once I figure out the T-Rex. : )
I’m also knitting for me:
That’s a Classic Elite pattern, A Slouch for All Seasons, done up in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes left over from the sweater vest. I should have enough yarn, but it’ll be close. I’d be more worried if I hadn’t cut out two pattern repeats and only cast on 80 instead of 100. This hat looks to be done tomorrowish.
I’ve thrown my hat back into the ring for the Ongoing Wish Swap and claimed someone for a knit hat, so that’s coming up on the radar. I’m not doing Christmas gifts this year (except for my sister, which is a story for a later date). Stay tuned!
Thanks, Demetri Martin for that big of comedic gold. I think it’s funny at least.
Anyway, as the title suggests, I am knitting a sweater vest. Currently, it looks like this:
(sorry for the crappy photo–I wanted a post for today but was going to be too busy to write one, so picture and post writing happened Tuesday night.)
It’s this free pattern on Ravelry. I’ve had to make a lot of modifications because it only comes in a size large, and I am quite small. So I’ve basically disregarded the pattern except for basic directions for making a v-neck and where to cast off the sleeves.
In other knitting news, I’ve had a brilliant idea for both a knitted thing and a pattern that will be available with it. The pattern is largely knit up, I think, I just have to test a few things to make sure it will work. Trust me, it will be AWESOME.
To avoid the above problem, I made this cute little project bag!
Cute, huh? Just basic Walmart mystery fabric and a shoe lace (well, the lining is from a bed sheet), but I love how it came out! It’s small, so it’ll fit in my purse, but it’s large enough to fit a good size project. Maybe not a whole sweater, but it’ll at least hold my Featherweight-in-progress, which looks like this:
It’s going to take forever, but I think it’ll be super cute. Unfortunately, it’s not the weather for light cardigans, so this will probably be an ongoing project. In the mean time, I’ve started a pair of knee-high wool socks out of worsted weight to wear in my rain boots (regular size socks always fall off my heels and my toes get cold). I’ve also been working on a surprise for you all, to be revealed in a couple of days (probably). Stay tuned!
This weekend is fall break at my school and I also have Friday off due to midterms for those classes being earlier in the week. Which means I have FIVE WHOLE DAYS to my weekend, which means lots of time for knitting! For example, I’m knitting these fingerless gloves:
(Even though I’ll probably finish them tomorrow or something ridiculous.)
Funny story about those gloves, which I will tell you in the FO post. For now, just know the first glove was a pain in the ass, and the second one is going much more smoothly (I say, as though I’ve actually done more than two and a half fingers).
Also, I’ve finished owls, and it’s blocking nicely on my bed. And in case you didn’t know, bulky wool takes FOREVER to dry. I’m hoping FO pictures of that can happen over Fall Break as well.
My plan is to start one of several things once my gloves are done: a triangle shawl, a lace scarf, or a lace-weight cardigan a la Featherweight (which I’ll either make up because I’m cheap as hell or give in and just buy the damn pattern and actually make Featherweight). Basically, I’m working with lace weight next. Thoughts?
So I’m knitting another sweater, making my total for the year 14 once this one’s done. To be fair, some of those were tank tops. So maybe I’ll go through what I’ve done and let you know when I’ve done 12 legit sweaters, long sleeves and all. Actually, I’ve only done a handful of those… We’ll stick with 14.
Anyway, I’m knitting owls by Kate Davies, everyone’s favorite bulky yarn sweater. I’m modifying mine into a cardigan because I’ll wear it more. Right now, I have the body done up to the short rows and the sleeves both knit. I started this on Sunday. There’s a good chance this sweater will be done before the week is out. Or at the very least, not much more than a week.
So the sleeves of this thing are knit in the round, from the wrist to the armpit. Upon embarking on this sweater, it didn’t occur to me to check to make sure I had the right needles. Except for the ribbing, the pattern calls for 6.5 mm needles (I know, they’re fucking huge). I have 6 mm dpns, so that’s what the sleeves are knit on. But check out these needles:
THEY’RE SO LONG (that’s what she said; tee hee). Seriously. They’re like a foot long. They’re some plastic Susan Bates nonsense that came from a garage sale back when I first started knitting. I mean, they’re pretty smooth and work well with the wool yarn, but still. Huge.
As I said in my last post, I finished Watermelon, so I’ll have pictures of that soon, probably in a couple of days. So that will happen. Stay tuned for knitting. And maybe some other crafts if I feel like it (probably not).
So I’m still truckin’ on the Watermelon cardigan. It looks like this now:
Why yes, I do knit like a fiend. I tried it on, and thought it’s a bit smaller than I would have liked, it’s super comfy and fantastic. I hope to have it done this weekend (but who knows if that will happen).
I’ve also off and on been working on a spinning project:
That would be an ounce of random wool I got with the spindle I’m spinning it on. It’s probably going to stay a single, and I’ll make some sort of cowl or something with it. Only sort of related: light-fingering weight yarn spins up SO SLOWLY on a spindle. I want a wheel. Unfortunately, I have nowhere to put it, so for right now, I’m delegated to spindling.
Speaking of spindles: I want a lighter one for spinning lace-weight. Any suggestions? I want a fairly inexpensive one because A, I’m cheap as hell and B, I’m a poor college student that just spent $60 on yarn from WEBS.
I am obsessed with things that look like watermelons. I love the combination of green and pink, and I love when objects have that color combination. LOVE. So when I saw this while browsing around the Ravelry forums, I knew I had to have it (non-Rav link; to issue one of Petite Purls). Sized up to fit me, of course.
I bookmarked that just about when the pattern came out, though, which was several months ago. Seeing as I really should knit up the projects I have planned before I buy more yarn (college student budget and all that), it sort of fell by the wayside, despite how much I wanted to knit a tank top like that.
And then, last weekend, while happening past the local yarn store in Fredericksburg, Knitter’s Cottage, I noticed they were having a sale. So of course I went in. And found Serendipity Tweed on sale for six bucks a skein, so of course I bought three, two of green and one of red. And then, noticing I had a total of like 600 yards of yarn that I could knit on eights for a nice, drapy fabric, I realized I could knit a whole cardigan! I scoured Ravelry for inspiration, wanting (mostly) to knit something with raglan sleeves (because I haaaaaaate set-in sleeves). And then I found this cute little sweater.
So here’s what I’ve been working on:
The cotton/wool blend will be perfect for the last warm days of fall before it slides into winter (and, of course, it will be amazing for spring). And I finished my super secret knitting project, so for right now, it’s all Watermelon all the time. Probably it won’t take me a whole lot longer to do since I have plenty of knitting time in several of my discussion-based classes.
Next up on the needles is going to be a wool sweater for which I need to order another skein of yarn (Cascade Eco Wool, which I’m getting from WEBS along with Evelyn Clark’s Knitting Lace Triangles and some various other things, probably some Valley Northampton for a sweater and some Huntington sock yarn for some argyle socks). There’s still the inchies swap to be posted (one set was sent to my house instead of to me at school, so I’m waiting until it gets sent here to post). There’s also the super secret project, but that won’t get posted until December. But you will see it eventually, I promise! Stay tuned!
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 