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First thing’s first:
That’s right people, FEATHERWEIGHT IS DONE. My longest wip EVER (since October) is finally DONE. I settled for 3/4 length sleeves instead of the full length ones I originally planned for, BUT STILL. IT’S DONE. It’s currently laid out on my bed, drying after a soak and I can’t wait til it’s dry. It fits beautifully (before blocking at least), and I’m so pleased with it. AND, the thing I’m most pleased with is this:
When I started Featherweight, I grabbed the pound cone of the yarn and hand-wound a ball of it that kind of looked like the 100 g of lace weight that the pattern calls for. I totally guessed, having only a 100g ball of worsted weight wool to compare it to. That little ball of yarn up there is all I had left of my original hand-wound ball after knitting THE ENTIRE SWEATER.
I’m so good.
Anyway, I’ll have a proper FO post of this sweater on Thursday probably.
Clearly April is raglan fever time (Featherweight and Seafoam plus…), cause I started a new sweater. It’s just going to be a little shrug, so it shouldn’t take that long and it will be perfect for wearing over tube tops (I always feel awkward in them). It looks like this so far:
I’m using some Regia Silk sock yarn I got in a destash on Ravelry, and ohmigod, it’s SO SOFT. I love this stuff.
While I was soaking Featherweight earlier today, I got around to another craft project I’ve been meaning to do. I went from this:
to this:
A bit of scrapbook paper and some buttons make for a much prettier pencil cup than the plastic cup I’ve been using. It was super easy and took all of five minutes. AND because of where the paper joined, the seam is practically invisible:
I mean, you can see it if you look up close, but if you’re just glancing, you can’t see it at all. : )
I received a swap package from icebyrd67. She claimed me for a thread catcher, and it’s great:
I’m highly pleased with it. The sand bag bit is attached to the bag with velcro, which will make it easier to clean/empty. At any rate, it’s much much prettier than the plastic cup I’d been using.
In other news, I made another OWS claim (for wrist warmers and a soaker), which I’ll be starting soon. Also, I’ve been working on my Featherweight. It currently looks like this:
I started sleeves! I finished the body and the collar and am working on sleeves! I’m so excited. It’s like the light at the end of the tunnel. The sleeves are taking forever, of course, but STILL.
Sooooo….. Remember how I said that besides swap stuff, I was just going to work on Featherweight because I wanted to just get the damn thing done? Well…
I’ve had a serious sock craving for the past several days, and I decided I would just give in. The yarn is Premiere’s Serenity Sock Weight in Aquamarine and the pattern is Footies (though I basically just threw the stitch pattern into my own toe-up sock). They’re coming along nicely, and I think they will be nice summer socks. Though I’ll probably wear them in the winter too, or at least in the fall.
I will finish Featherweight eventually, by the way. I’ve just decided it will be a long term project. Whenever I finish something and have no swaps on the schedule, I get a little anxious deciding what to knit next. Featherweight will be a nice go-to project so I’ll have something to knit while I decide what to cast on for next. Also, I’m making a resolve to knit a couple of rows on it at least once a week (preferably more). If I space it out with more interesting knits, I’ll feel less bored with it.
Hey, hey, remember this cardigan I made?
Well, now it looks like this:
Or more accurately, some of it looks like this:
I decided I needed a light spring/summer cardi that actually fits (since Hey Teach came out way too big for me, comfy though it was). I’m thinking short raglan sleeves, scoop-ish neck, hip-length. I will almost certainly have enough yarn, and I’m considering doing the button bands and ribbing in a darker blue that I had left over from knitting Lelah in July.
Anyway, it’ll be cute and lightweight and perfect for summer.
Today, I’ve got one small FO to show you and a couple of wip’s. First, the FO:
Pattern: None, just a square of linen stitch
Yarn: Handspun Miss Babs BFL
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm
My lining is sort of shoddy and it’s not wide enough, but it fits my phone and ID card fairly easily, and that’s what I use it for. Plus I get to look at my pretty pretty handspun even when it’s not cold enough for Saroyan. : )
Currently, I’m working on a hat that will probably be finished today or tomorrow. Currently, it looks like this:
(it’s rather difficult to photograph a half-finished hat, by the way)
Almost done. I’m using the same orange vintage Grants Wool I’ve had for ages and am slowly making my way through. The color is a lot less obnoxious than the bright orange it originally was, but I still don’t love it. This hat is for a swap. The swap is called “Yarnies Vs. Sewers” and is partnered based on craft, a yarnie (spinner/knitter/crocheter) with a sewer. Sign ups aren’t technically over until next week, but another person and I decided that we needed to be partnered based on the (probably rude) thing I wanted to make for someone. So we insisted, and the mod complied, and we’ve already gotten started (even though the send out isn’t until Mary). I’m making a total of five things, none particularly complicated, and will probably be finished quite early.
I am also sort of working on spinning this:
Or half of it anyway. I got 8 oz. of Crown Mountain Farms superwash merino in a Ravelry destash, and I’m spinning 4 oz. into what will hopefully be a 2 ply worsted that I’ll knit into the yoke of a sweater.
Also, I am waiting on some mail–an OWS swap which I am incredibly excited to receive, and some roving I ordered which is RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME and gorgeous, and I’ll definitely be showing it off here. I expect to get both things on Monday or Tuesday, so stay tuned for that.
…about this Ravelympics sweater thing. I steeked it. And it was scary. And I’m still not convinced the whole thing won’t unravel.
Before steek:
(Nice and safe.)
After steek:
(Holy Christ, it’s all gonna come apart.)
Hot hot steek action:
(I shouldn’t even touch it.)
Hot hot colorwork action:
(Awww yeah.)
Ahem. Anyway. So. Let’s snag a peek at the calendar. It’s Thursday, February 25. This sucker is supposed to be DONE on Sunday. Cast off, finished, caput. Wearable. And my thought on Tuesday, when I did the steek, was that it would be. Except for one thing.
I BOUGHT THE WRONG ZIPPER A MONTH AND A HALF AGO.
Cause I thought I could fiddle with it and make it work. I though I could fix one side of a regular zipper and make a separating zipper.
Turns out, you can’t.
So I have a sweater with an OPEN WOUND.
Fortunately, I was able to get to Walmart and get a new zipper. It’s not the color I wanted, but I suppose it’ll do. And it means I’ll still be able to get gold with my sweater. Cause that’s totally happening.
Look for a FO post on Saturday or Sunday cause this sucker is gonna be DONE.
I know all of you guys do. And I am all too willing to oblige:
One sleeve totally done and attached and the other sleeve up to my elbow. Which means I have about 8.5 more inches of sleeve to knit and I will finally be up to the colorwork. O hai thur, gold medal. You’re so gonna be mine.
So I claimed for another round of OWS, as I said before. This round, I claimed luckdragon for Domo-Kun fingerless mitts and some amiguruimi, both of which turned out to be for her daughter. So this is what I made:
Pattern: My own, which I based on pictures of mitts on Craftster.
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash in brown and some random red wool.
Needles: US 7/4.5 mm
They’re cute. The eyes were a pain to sew on. The teeth are quilt batting since I didn’t have felt. They were also sort of a pain. Also, I tried out a new thumb gusset on these, and I think I’ll be using it from now on since it makes more sense.
And now the amigurumi (which I knitted, mostly):
Pattern: My own, which I made up mostly on the spot.
Yarn: Cascade 220
Needles: US 4/whatever metric size that is
He’s a little top heavy, but super cute. I started him before the Ravelympics started, then took a break from my sweater on Saturday to finish him up. I like him. His body and head/trunk were knit in one piece, and I crocheted the ears and legs. It was much easier that way than dealing with five dpns to knit four little legs.
Pattern: My own, which I totally just made up.
Yarn: Red Heart Heart and Sole in Watercolor Stripes
Needles: US 1
He’s cute too, with his little button eyes. I took more pictures of him than the other things:
He likes to play the piano!
With his favorite movie!
HE WILL HAUNT YOUR DREAMS.
Or just be cute. Here’s one more:
Pattern: Monster Chunks, sort of. I made it up, but I based in on this pattern.
Yarn: Lily Sugar ‘n’ Cream in Hot Pink and Serendipity Tweed in Water Lily Leaves
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm dpns
I wasn’t going to do the teeth, but I cut them out and they looked so cute, so I left them in. : ) This little guy is my favorite.
So now I’m expecting two OWS packages (plus some various other things I’ve ordered which I’ll probably show you whenever they get there). One of them was sent out today. The other isn’t due for another week (though I haven’t heard from her either, even just about my address). I really dislike getting flaked on, but at least the people I sent to are productive swappers that don’t flake (as far as I know).
(By the way, here’s what the Rav sweater looks like today:)
Body is done up to the armpits. Now need to finish and attach the sleeves, then do the yoke. I am flyin’ through this baby.
Okay, not really. But the main crafty portion of the package I sent to spolowitz gave me some hell. I claimed her for a knitting project bag and a learn to spin kit.
First, there was a spindle and some roving, part of the stuff I ordered when I was first starting to spin:
And then there was a lovely little book of spinning instructions, which I drew and wrote by hand. The directions probably aren’t the best as I haven’t been spinning that long myself, but I tried, and I like how it came out, especially my little spindle diagrams:
And then there was this bag.
I tried to make a round-bottom bag with a lining and that turned out… poorly. For the sake of my sanity, we’ll leave it at that, but suffice it to say that it was bad. The finished version is cute though. I especially like the applique:
Yay, swappage.
PS: Here’s the Ravelympics sweater:
(I got bored with the long rounds and started a sleeve. The body is about halfway done (well, halfway to where I join the sleeves, anyway). It’s about 9″ long and I want it to be close to 17″.)
So I’ve decided that I will be participating in this year’s Ravelympics. The idea, as far as I know, started with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (the Yarn Harlot) and involved completing some sort of fibery thing in the 17-odd days of the winter Olympics. The Ravelympics operates in the summer now too, but as the winter Olympics are what’s happening, that’s what I’m talking about.
There are various teams you can join (I’m on a team for sweater knitters) and there are a whole list of events. I’ve already decided what I’m going to attempt to finish, and it involves this pile o’ yarn:
That’s two skeins of Fisherman’s Wool in Oatmeal and various skeins of wool in other colors. And also a zipper. I’ve decided to do the Sweaterboard Cross, the Nordic Colorwork Combined, and the Stash Compulsory Dance (some of those various other skeins I’ve had for a while). I’m making a colorwork yoke sweater using EZ’s Icelandic Yoke Sweater with a zipper. And I’m gonna STEEK IT. And it might be scary. Anyway, it’s worsted weight, so it shouldn’t take me that long and I might finish. If I do, I’m throwing my hat into the Lace Luge and the WIP-dancing and attempt to finish Featherweight. I won’t, of course, but I’m hoping the extra motivation will encourage me to get some of it done.
My cast on time was nine p.m. yesterday (Friday, Feb. 12), and I did cast on. Between last night and my post today, I managed to get all the way through the ribbing of the bottom band and begin the miles of stockinette.
And here’s where my steek is going to happen:
(It’s even marked off by my pretty pretty star stitch markers from the quotes swap I did a while back.)
Yes. Exciting. I’m so getting gold. : )
Oh, and also, I have a couple other things to post (a scarf I was working on, some swap things), so I’ll have non-Ravelympics stuff to post about while I’m knitting away on my sweater, but I’ll be sure to include a shot of the sweater in those posts so you can see how I’m coming along (and if I appear to have any hope of success).
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 