WIP Wednesday

It's been a while since I posted about my WIPs, so I thought today was a good day to get back into the habit!

I'm knitting the Gemini top by Jane Richmond. I admire her aesthetic and I think she also does a great job styling her photos. This is a shop sample for Warm 'n Fuzzy, and I'll also be teaching a class on the pattern. I'm customizing the pattern to have lace on all the sides, and I'm going to do elbow length sleeves since I don't think cap sleeves are very flattering on me. Of course in the class I'll talk about other ways to customize! I haven't decided yet if I'm going to add short rows in the bust. I'm knitting this one out of Classic Elite Wool Bam Boo. It's very soft, easy to work with, and I think it'll make a great top!

My other WIP is this poor shawl. I posted about it here. Since the last time I posted I started the lace, then I made a mistake, and the pattern is worked on both sides, and despite over an hour of trying to fix the mistake I couldn't get it to look perfect. After that it sat in time out until after Christmas, then I frogged back and did it again (this time with a lifeline!). The rows are very long, and I'm rather sick of the shawl. I will have to remember this post the next time I contemplate knitting a shawl in laceweight yarn! It is quite beautiful, I still love the pattern and the yarn, I'm just ready for it to be finished!

WIP Wednesday: Shawls & Secrets

I made some good progress on my Anteros Shawl these past two weeks, but all the photos I tried to take are really blurry and terrible, so I'll save everyone the pain of looking at them. I did unknit almost the entire thing on my flight to Portland, because the stitch count didn't match on both sides. I got some strange looks on the plane. Brian was very nice and helped me to wind the yarn as I pulled my shawl apart. Over 7 hours of flying I managed to unknit almost the entire shawl, and then knit back to where I was before I got on the plane. It's kind of like I accomplished nothing at all!

I also made some progress on the purple lace weight shawl that I've been working on. I took this to Portland with me, but I didn't touch it. It's just a little too tedious for travel knitting, despite that it's just stockinette. It is taking so long to knit I feel like I've made almost no progress, but now looking at the photos I see I am actually making some progress! Who knew!

Here's also also something new I'm working on. I can't say what it is just yet...

WIP Wednesday: Shawls

Shawls are one of my favorite things to knit. I'm flying to Oregon for Thanksgiving tomorrow, so I'm getting ready for the plane ride by casting on a couple projects that I know I'll enjoy knitting on the plane. 

I decided to knit the Anteros Shawl for the Mari Knits Knit-A-Long, but when I went to wind the skein I discovered that my yarn was super tangled, and the yarn was broken into over 20 pieces! It was a huge tangle, and a disappointment since I really love the color. I've contacted the company, and hopefully I'll get a replacement skein. I was really looking forward to knitting with it!

So I started with some Blue Moon Fiber Arts BFL Sport that I had sitting in my stash. This time I am working increases on both sides of the edge, to make this shawl wider than the original. This little bit has taken just over an hour.   

If you'd like to participate in the KAL, just pick any one of my patterns and post your project page to the KAL thread in the Mari Knits Ravelry Group. I'm going to be offering prizes, and for every 10 participants that join there will be an additional prize added, so no matter how many people join you have a 1 in 10 chance of winning! 

My other WIP is a shawl in lace weight yarn. This shawl is only slightly larger than the other one above, but has taken me a LOT longer. There's a big difference between knitting with sport weight yarn and lace! The Anteros shawl I'm knitting on a size 7, and this shawl on a size 2! It's going to take forever... 

WIP Wednesday: slippers and comics

I knit a pair of these adorable Not-So-Tiny Slippers by Ysolda Teague last week for the shop. They are super quick, and super cute! 

So I decided I needed my own pair. I started them a couple nights ago, and then I did the bulk of it last night, when I was tired...that was NOT a good idea. You'll see in the photo below that the cute little yarn over holes are not centered... I'm a little bit of a perfectionist, so I will be frogging these later. Oy.

My other, non knitting, crafts have been going better. Home made coasters out of tile and modge-podge have been all over Pinterest, so I had to join the fun and I made these comic book coasters over the weekend. I still need to buy felt to put on the bottom so that they don't scratch up the table, but I think they look pretty cool. Brian's a big fan too.

I was in a bit of a modge-podge comic frenzy, and I was irritated by the pile of mail on our kitchen counter, so I modge-podged myself a solution! There's some cardboard under the comics and glue too. The whole thing took about 20 minutes. 

WIP Wednesday: Pine Cone Shawl

I can't share most of the things I'm working on right now, I actually have two things blocking right now, which makes me feel very productive. Here's one of my WIPs, a shop sample of the Pine Cone Shawl. This is made with Frog Tree Pediboo, which is a merino and bamboo blend that is really nice to work with. It has the silkiness of bamboo without the splitty quality of 100% bamboo. I haven't gotten to the lace section yet, and honestly I haven't been working on it very much.

WIP

The original

WIP Wednesday

Ok, following the cue from many other bloggers I'm going to try to update on what I'm working on every Wednesday.

A lot of the things I'm working on right now are top secret, but here's one that is not, and I started a few days ago.

I blogged about the beautiful Swans Island Yarn a couple weeks ago, and I was going to make a second Miya Shawl, well, things have changed a bit and now I'm going to teach a class on designing your own shawl at Warm N' Fuzzy, so I've been working on a sample for the class.

I started with a garter tap, and increasing 4 sts every right side row in stockinette stitch. I got really bored, so I found an easy stitch pattern that just required an odd number of stitches, and now I'm striping that with stockinette. I haven't quite decided what the border will be, but here's a not great photo (it's rainy here in Raleigh today, and no good lighting can be found)