Too Early for the Victory Lap

Ahem.

Last week I thought I was about to stick a pin into the worsted weight stash down.

Then I swatched some vintage wool and shetland wool and found it worked to 20 sts/inch which is worsted. I have the same sort of vintage yarn by other makers and they work to DK gauges nicely. I did a bit more research and learned that this particular brand plays better as worsted.

Then I found a few friends in the worsted category that also had been hiding in the DK bin.

On the bright side, this is a really great color and I tried working it with KnitPicks wool of the Andes. They play together very well. I do have my next two projects already picked out, so this will go into the queue for a few months.

In the mean time, I'll be inspecting and resorting the stash. It got moved around a bit in the past few years and the hanks need to be placed back with their friends of the same weight. I need to also look out for more of this particular brand.

Almost There

FWIW, I have been on a quest to work through my stash of worsted wool for several years. I have strayed from that quest from time to time but since 2012 it has been the focus of most of my knitting projects.

I'm getting really close to calling it done. I've been thinking about what that really means as we all know that there is always that odd little ball of wool that is too large to put away, but not large enough to do much with.

I just evaluated the remainder, and bagged two sets of coordinating oddballs for another two toddler sized sweaters - about 250 grams a bag.

This bag was in the last stash photo. A parchment/tan, red and some dark brown.












I had a good amount of blue and I thought the orange would make a nice pop for edges or something.

After that, I think I'll call it done.

This guy is finished except for buttons:

I really like the slip stitch pattern here.

What day is it?

Like many, I'm losing time with this shut down. Totally forgot to update here last week.

Last I visited this blog I was finishing a little sweater. It is done now.

I made a note to not work this pattern again. The cables are nice but the shaping is not to my liking.











I'm working on another toddler sized stash sweater. This one uses five colors in a slip stitch pattern that I am enjoying very much.






I'm also pleased with the stash reduction. Here is a picture from September:

And this is the picture today:

So, I've almost finished a toddler sweater from the leftovers of my previous project. It is a pattern that I have used before - Trellis from Knitty.

I'm not feeling the mojo to take a photo of it. Perhaps next week when it is finished.

I have succeeded in learning bead crochet. I made a few bangles as a gift for a friend who is joining the D.A.R.

Other than that, I'm trying to manage grocery shopping in the time of pandemic. I had a small curbside order pick up today and did not get the rice or lemon drink that was ordered. Seems there has been a major run on rice in my area.

Still, most of my troubles are minor and we are all well still.

Another Finish

Smaller worsted oddballs make for the smaller projects I've been working lately. I still like the big sweaters, and here is a new finish.

Of note, this project represents the last over 300 gram worsted weight yarn left in my stash. 

Another note, I was so anxious  about yarn chicken that I overbought the background color. Drat!

Next week, you may see a child-sized cardigan made from the overage.

Yikes! I've been lazy about keeping up the blog.

I made a few more baby sweaters.

This first one was a remake of a baby puzzle sweater that I did many years ago. I made some notes about the pattern and I'm happy with the improvements. It's still way too small. I increased the stitches a lot and still ended up with a newborn size. I'm wondering if I'm interested enough to continue to tweak this pattern.


This one is an oddball inspired by the northern lights. It ended up about 24" so should be a 9 month-12 month size.







I also finished the grid jacket. I think it turned out pretty well.

Neck Trek

A few years ago I went through all my projects and finished, frogged, or tossed them all. I have been mostly monogamous since then. I like finishing things.

For a few reasons, I have strayed from that habit. I currently have three adult sized sweaters on the needles and a few baby/child sized projects in mind.

Last week two sweater bodies were at the neck stage and I discovered earlier a problem with the neck from a previous sweater. Thus, last week was neck week.

The problem neck was from the Milo sweater I made a few years ago. Not only was it too tight, but there was a dropped stitch right at the base. You can see the before and after pictures below. I probably ought to reblock it and give those rib stitches a yank. They look kind of sloppy.  I'm super glad that I still had a bit of that dark blue in the stash.

The Drops project was next. Alas, I did not take a photo of it with the neck, and I don't feel like taking out the sweater and the camera again, so a neckless body will have to do for today.

I also began a sweater in a yarn called Brilla purchased from Elann in my binge-purchase days. It is a cotton/rayon mix and is decent to work with. I became obsessed with a pattern called "Mulberry Grid" from Knitters magazine that came out while I was living outside of the U.S. I was able to backward-engineer the pattern so I could try making the little jacket. Since I have a limited amount of material and no reliable way to get more I started with the body and cropped it a bit. I feel that I have enough skeins to make full-length sleeves.

I was pleased with how fast the body of this sweater worked up. Logically, it makes sense since it is mostly big holes. If anyone is looking at this blog and wants to know how I did it I will discuss it here. You would have to leave a comment.

These two green beauties should be finished up in March.