Best Year Ever KAL, January–March 2017

At the start of this year I said that I would join in on only one knitalong this year, the Best Year Ever KAL being hosted by Nikki of the Tea and Possibilities podcast. I know I haven't managed to stick to that, and joined in the Sockmatician Sockalong in March, but I did actually complete those socks, so I'm glad I did (and that yarn definitely needed knitting - the finished socks are lovely!). Now we're a quarter of the way into the KAL, so here's a little update.

At the start of the KAL I aimed to knit an Antler jumper, a Lush cardigan, a purple shawl and a reindeer head (if you want to read the whole list you can find it here). That hasn't quite gone to plan...

My list has had a complete reshuffle. Item one on my Best Year Ever KAL is now my Dotted Rays shawl. I am really enjoying working on this. The rows are now LONG - over 300 sts, though now I've memorised the pattern the stitch count isn't critical, so I have given up counting the number of stitches (I gave up when there was a discrepancy between my numbers and those in the pattern; I am certain I am correct, but don't wish to question Mr West's maths...). I am a little way into the third of five balls, and suspect that when I sit down and work on it I will whizz through it. The Easter holidays are coming up, and the amount of mindless garter stitch makes this a pretty perfect soft play knit.

The second item on my list is my pink socks. They do have a planned name for when I release the pattern, but if that falls through I might just go with 'Whhheee!!'. I struggled a bit with these socks at first; they're part of a collection of three patterns and the first two went really smoothly. This pair was meant to be the easiest, but that turned out not to be the case. To make matters worse I started these off as two at a time socks and it messed the gauge up, so I had to start again. But as soon as I had sorted out the pattern and fixed all the early glitches I started to really enjoy them; the spiral nature of the rib means it really does feel like you're going whhheee! as you're knitting them! And the pink is so wonderfully vibrant; these socks have made me very happy.

I am undecided on my Antler jumper: I had been having gauge problems, so when I got to the end of the sleeve it wasn't long enough. I could just about have coped with that, expect that I am wondering whether the yarn might be too itchy for me to be able to wear it. I fished it out this morning to photograph and I am wondering whether it might be salvagable. If not, it's not the end of the world - I am considering casting on a new jumper for myself in the next few months, possibly a Pavement by Veera Valamaki, which looks like it might be a good transitional season jumper.

Have you been joining in with the Best Year Ever KAL? How are you getting on? It's not too late to join in the fun; if you want to know more, head over to the thread in Nikki's Ravelry group.*

*Ravelry link, you must be signed in to Ravelry for the link to work.

A loose end

Yesterday I finished both a sock and a baby blanket. Woohoo! Free needles! Time to cast on something new.

Ends? Must mean a finished blanket! I'll share the finished pictures soon.

But I can't decide what to cast on.

The things I want to cast on (two jumpers to match the blanket I've just finished and a cardigan for a friend's new baby) require (1) yarn to be ordered and delivered, (2) the patterns to be written (or at least the maths to be done and charts drawn). The sock I finished needs its mate to be knitted, but I just don't fancy it at the minute and I need to make sure I've finished adding the corrections to the pattern before I cast on.

I worked on my Antler cardigan/jumper at the weekend, but the gauge on the sleeve doesn't match that of the tension square (I'll wash it and see; worst case scenario is that I have to mess about with the maths for the rest of the jumper, which I was going to have to do anyway to do the cardigan-jumper conversion; actual worst case is that I have to start again. I'm not going to think about that).

I considered casting on a shawl in the Malabrigo Worsted I got for Christmas, but I haven't had time to wind it yet. Maybe that's a job for this evening. Or another day.

 It would appear I am at a loose end. Maybe the best idea is just to sit on the sofa and work on my sock yarn blanket for a day or two: I think I got to day eleven on the advent squares...

But a big tick in the box for positivity: the sun shine today, all day! For the first time in months. Spring might be on its way!

*This post contains affiliate links. See my Disclaimers and policies page for more information.*

A week in the life: 8th January 2017

I've decided that this year I will try and post a few more progress shots of projects, rather than just declaring them done before I show pictures, so thought I would start by trying a little round-up post for the week.

This week has been a busy one, with the kids going back to school and nursery, and I've had lots of little bits and pieces to catch up on that didn't get done over the holidays. I have enjoyed being in one place for the whole week and not having to travel the length of the country.

My main project this week has been a sample for a new design for a magazine, so I can't show you more than these two pictures (it's seamed, and is purple), but now that's done, and I have been working on some things I can show you.

I've been working on my Toft chameleon. Progress is a little slow as I can't work on him while I watch TV (I have have to look at crochet all the time, and as every round is different, it takes a lot of concentration). I have made it to the neck, and finally made a start on stuffing him yesterday, only to realise that I really ought to have started that step rather earlier! I had to use the blunt end of a knitting needle on the inside of the piece to poke the stuffing into the tail, and then the pointy end of the knitting needle to shuffle the stuffing around from the outside of the tail to give it a good shape. So fiddly! But worth it; the tail looks pretty fab now.

My out and about knitting is the pair of socks I started during the holidays. I've not made much progress, but feel I ought to get cracking on them as they're currently housed in a Christmas project bag, and I don't want to hunt out a more seasonally-appropriate one.

Annoyingly I've injured my 'pushing finger' (the one that I use to push the stitch off the needle when I've finished the stitch, so I constantly have a plaster on that finger (it is healing, but very slowly, occasionally I forget about it, remove the plaster, then promtly stab myself again and am back to sqaure one), which is starting to get annoying. Hopefully it'll be better soon.

Yesterday I cast on a new project: a jumper for me! It's a reimagining of the Antler cardigan I cast on last year, then decided that I wanted it to be a jumper instead, and a bit bigger. I have knitted as far as the elbow on the first sleeve, but the only photo I have shows way to much of the chaos on my living room floor, so I'll wait until I've done a it more before sharing any photos.

I have managed to stick to my target of reading for 15 minutes every day (though not necessarily by going to bed earlier - I slept for longer into this morning than I meant to, oops), and have finished my first book of the year: The Christmas Surprise by Jenny Colgan. I started reading the book over Christmas, and enjoyed it. It's part of the Rosie Hopkins' series (not that it matters - there's a series summary at the start of the book), and is a light, easy read. The surprises start pretty near the start of the book, so there's not much I can tell you about the story, but it's lovely and heart-warming, defintely one of the better examples of chick-lit out there.

Hope you'vbe had a good week this week. What have you been up to?

Antler cardigan: Quitting while you're ahead

A few weeks ago I posted a progress shot for my Antler cardigan, and it was going well. I had very nearly a whole sleeve and was looking forward to speeding through the whole cardigan as fast as I could. And then I stopped, and then I thought. In the summer I wear a lot of cardigans, and they're all lovely, but they're all lightweight, shop-purchased cardigans (mostly from Debenhams and H&M) that I throw on over little tops when it's a bit cool for bare shoulders. And in the winter, I throw on heavier weight jumpers, nothing too crazy, but a DK or aran weight jumper is always welcome. The Antler cardigan is going to fall somewhere between the two camps: it's a cardigan, perfect for summer, but too heavy to wear in the summer months, and it's the perfect weight for winter, but I never wear cardigans in the winter as I find them a little draughty.

The progress so far: almost a whole sleeve

I'd also been having doubts about the fit. I had gone for the size closest to my chest size, which had 1 inch of negative ease. But having worn my winter jumpers in the past couple of weeks, I realised that I like my winter garments to have a bit of positive ease, so the cardigan is going to be a bit small. And even while knitting the sleeve I was questioning the rate of increase in the sleeves - every 6 rows is great on a baby-sized sweater, but I kept thinking it was a little fast for an adult cardigan (and yet still I carried on to the end of the sleeve; one day I will learn).

And so my conclusion is to rip it out and start again. A size bigger, with slower sleeve increases (every 8 or 10 rounds, I'm still undecided on that one), and I might try and convert the body to a jumper (which no one in the first 20 pages of projects on Ravelry has tried; how hard can it be?!). And then I think it will be a garment I love. But for now it can sit on the naughty step for a bit; selfish knitting can wait until after Christmas.

Half term hiatus

This week is half term (mid-term break), so knitting has taken a bit of back seat as I am distracted by other things. I do have two projects on the go though, both straightforward stocking stitch that can be done while entertaining children/being driven to events/whilst shattered and winding down in the evening.

The first project is a cardigan for me that I cast on last weekend, the Antler cardigan by Tin Can Knits. The cardigan is knitted bottom up, so I have a lot of stocking stitch to do before I get onto the cables. I've almost got to the end of the first sleeve, and once I've measured my arm and worked out how long I want the sleeve to be, I'll cast on the second as a few days of portable knitting.

 

The second project is, somewhat predictably, a pair of socks. I always have a pair of vanilla (non-patterned) socks with me that can be worked on whenever I am held up somewhere or have a few spare minutes. The current pair are knitted in Halloween striped yarn that I bought from Rosie's Moments at Yarndale. Purple is my favourite colour (you couldn't have guessed from the colour of the cardigan), and while I don't generally do anything Halloween-related, I couldn't resist these stripes when I saw them (going against my policy of looking at everything available at a big event, then making a decision). The yarn is lovely to work with, and I've used a Fish Lips Kiss heel (which I recommend, it's nice and easy to memorise) to avoid disrupting the stripes with a gusset. I'm at the very end of the first sock, and am about to cast on the second, so I doubt these will be done in time for Halloween, but really don't mind as these will get a lot of wear as soon as they're off the needles.

Do you also find that knitting with children around requires simpler projects? Let me see your current projects.