WIP Wednesday: 31st July 2019: Was it the same dyelot?

Hello! Today is WIP (work in progress) Wednesday, my weekly look at what is currently on my needles. If you'd like to join in, let me know what you're working on in the comments section, or post a link to your own WIP Wednesday blog post.

This week is a two-project week: one garment and (inevitably) one pair of socks.

The garment is, as you would expect from last week's WIP Wednesday post, my Lush cardigan, and I have made excellent progress: I have completed the collar and yoke, and have separated for the sleeves. I have even sort-of tried it on and I think it fits! Hooray! I am really enjoying this pattern; the construction is very clever without being complicated, and the knitting is very satisfying. I'm not expecting to get the cardigan completed by Woolness this weekend (kids do tend to stop me from spending all my time knitting), but I am certain that I'll have it done by the end of August, just in time for autumn.

The socks are a new cast on (no, I have not finished my sock snake yet). I am knitting these for my aunt, and they were getting a little behind the ideal schedule, so I cast them on late last week and knitted on them all weekend. The first sock was completed by the end of Saturday, and I cast the second one on immediately. I did stall a little when it came to casting on the second sock: I stared at the second ball of yarn (the yarn is Bergere de France Goomy 50,* which comes in 50 g balls) for a good period of time before I realised that it had been wound in the opposite direction to the first. On realising this, I did try to find a centre-pull thread, but couldn't, so gave up and hand-wound the ball before casting on.

I'm working the heel of the second sock, and am a little disappointed that sock two is definitely coming out darker than sock one. I am certain the balls were from the same dyelot (but have lost one ball band, so there's a chance they may not be), so I'm not sure what's going on. Fingers crossed my aunt doesn't mind.

What are you working on this WIP Wednesday?

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WIP Wednesday: 23rd July 2019: Lush-ious lace

Hello! Today is WIP (work in progress) Wednesday, my weekly look at what is currently on my needles. If you'd like to join in, let me know what you're working on in the comments section, or post a link to your own WIP Wednesday blog post.

This week the summer holidays are in full swing, and I have cast on an indulgent project that I have been meaning to knit for ages: a Lush cardigan. I have been eyeing this pattern by Tin Can Knits ever since it came out (in 2013!), but it's taken until now for it to get to the top of my queue.

The cardigan has a really interesting construction: the lace yoke panel is knitted first (lengthways), then the collar, sleeves and body are picked up and worked from the lace band. I'm knitting mine in West Yorkshire Spinners Aire Valley DK, which has been discontinued, so I got it for a bit of a bargain price a few weeks ago.

I cast on the yoke band on Saturday, and it worked up really quickly. So quickly that I finished it on Monday evening! The instructions have you block the band before you pick up the stitches, so I am currently waiting (impatiently) for the band to dry so I can pick up the collar stitches. The lace looks absolutely fabulous, and I cannot wait to get on with the rest of the cardigan.

I had anticipated this cardigan being my 'summer project', which I would knit over the course of the six-week summer holidays, but at the current rate, I'm suddenly optimistic that I might be able to have the cardigan finished in time for me to wear it to Woolness at the start of August. Do you think I can do it?!

What's currently on your needles?

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.