After four months of silence, you might imagine that I have piles & piles of knitting to blog about. As it turns out, I have two FO's, one project in hibernation & a pretty damn good excuse for all this inactivity. First, the FO's.
Over the last few years, the holidays have been getting progressively crazier & more last-minute, partially because of our extensive travel schedule (our families are in 3 different parts of NY & I try to hit them all each year) & partially because there is always a flurry of work in December & I hate to miss out on a single day of it. Due to this, last year I didn't knit any gifts at all & this year I only knitted one. While I started it pretty late in the game & it required learning a new skill, luckily it was still straightforward enough to be done with a few days to spare.
As soon as I saw the Incognito Cowl, I knew it was perfect for one of Dan's sisters. I already had the dark purple yarn (Cascade Eco+) & the black yarn (Bernat Satin Solids) in my stash so I just had to buy a skein of Cascade 220 Superwash in Wisteria for the body. The mustache is done using duplicate stitch, which I'd never done before, but I found it very easy & I'm happy with the results. The background color shows through in a few places but for the most part, I think it looks good. I even lost the chart for the mustache during the trip but since I had already done one half of it, it was easy enough to refer to the completed half, rather than the chart, when doing the second half.
After returning to Seattle, I cast on the Aviatrix hat, using the skein of Simplicity HiKoo that I won at the Skacel 25th Anniversary party last year. I've loved this hat since I first saw it, long before I had any need or desire to knit it. I don't particularly care for most baby items but this one always seemed unique & sophisticated. As it turns out, it was also a really fun knit with an interesting & unexpected construction. It knit up really quickly, even in a DK weight yarn, which was so nice after the endless saga of the Buttony Sweater (more on that shortly). My only complaint is that the yarn has a lot of plies, which made it split quite often during knitting. I often found myself having to go back & reunite errant plies with their rightful stitches, which got a little annoying. Overall though, it was worth it since I love the hat. Despite the minor frustration, I would knit with this yarn again if I had the chance.
I still need to attach the button to this hat but I have a little time before anyone will need to wear it so I think I'm going to let that be one of my Madrona purchases. Just 3 more weeks till Madrona! But who's counting?
You'll probably find me knitting a lot more baby items over the next few months, since Dan & I are expecting a kid in April. Like I said, I don't like a ton of baby knits but there are a few that I'm looking forward to casting on (Gramps cardigan!!!) And the instant gratification of baby knitting plus the ability to use yarn that I only have 2-3 skeins of is an added bonus.
The only downside is that I finished the damn Buttony Sweater just in time to not even remotely fit into it anymore. I have high hopes that it'll eventually fit me, as it seemed to be fitting well when it was in progress, but it'll definitely be a few months. For now, it's going into hibernation since quite frankly, I'm sick of it! Assuming that it fits, I love the way it looks & hope to get a lot of wear out of it, but right now I'm looking forward to not looking at it for a little while. Hopefully I'll be newly motivated to weave in the ends, sew on some buttons (which I also need to buy) & block it by the time it comes out of hibernation. Till then, I'll be indulging in a few more quick knits for myself & my new little buddy!
Over the last few years, the holidays have been getting progressively crazier & more last-minute, partially because of our extensive travel schedule (our families are in 3 different parts of NY & I try to hit them all each year) & partially because there is always a flurry of work in December & I hate to miss out on a single day of it. Due to this, last year I didn't knit any gifts at all & this year I only knitted one. While I started it pretty late in the game & it required learning a new skill, luckily it was still straightforward enough to be done with a few days to spare.
As soon as I saw the Incognito Cowl, I knew it was perfect for one of Dan's sisters. I already had the dark purple yarn (Cascade Eco+) & the black yarn (Bernat Satin Solids) in my stash so I just had to buy a skein of Cascade 220 Superwash in Wisteria for the body. The mustache is done using duplicate stitch, which I'd never done before, but I found it very easy & I'm happy with the results. The background color shows through in a few places but for the most part, I think it looks good. I even lost the chart for the mustache during the trip but since I had already done one half of it, it was easy enough to refer to the completed half, rather than the chart, when doing the second half.
After returning to Seattle, I cast on the Aviatrix hat, using the skein of Simplicity HiKoo that I won at the Skacel 25th Anniversary party last year. I've loved this hat since I first saw it, long before I had any need or desire to knit it. I don't particularly care for most baby items but this one always seemed unique & sophisticated. As it turns out, it was also a really fun knit with an interesting & unexpected construction. It knit up really quickly, even in a DK weight yarn, which was so nice after the endless saga of the Buttony Sweater (more on that shortly). My only complaint is that the yarn has a lot of plies, which made it split quite often during knitting. I often found myself having to go back & reunite errant plies with their rightful stitches, which got a little annoying. Overall though, it was worth it since I love the hat. Despite the minor frustration, I would knit with this yarn again if I had the chance. I still need to attach the button to this hat but I have a little time before anyone will need to wear it so I think I'm going to let that be one of my Madrona purchases. Just 3 more weeks till Madrona! But who's counting?
You'll probably find me knitting a lot more baby items over the next few months, since Dan & I are expecting a kid in April. Like I said, I don't like a ton of baby knits but there are a few that I'm looking forward to casting on (Gramps cardigan!!!) And the instant gratification of baby knitting plus the ability to use yarn that I only have 2-3 skeins of is an added bonus.
The only downside is that I finished the damn Buttony Sweater just in time to not even remotely fit into it anymore. I have high hopes that it'll eventually fit me, as it seemed to be fitting well when it was in progress, but it'll definitely be a few months. For now, it's going into hibernation since quite frankly, I'm sick of it! Assuming that it fits, I love the way it looks & hope to get a lot of wear out of it, but right now I'm looking forward to not looking at it for a little while. Hopefully I'll be newly motivated to weave in the ends, sew on some buttons (which I also need to buy) & block it by the time it comes out of hibernation. Till then, I'll be indulging in a few more quick knits for myself & my new little buddy! 