WIP Thursday 25.04.24

Current WIP count: 6

It was going so well with the two-at-a-time sleeves, but I must have stopped paying attention for a round because the four tiny balls of yarn over two cables got into a terrible tangle. My breaking point came when I found one massive stitch in the row below, I’m talking a 3cm loop just hanging out for no apparent reason, and I undid the lot.  I went back to knitting them separately and the first one is finished, with only these tiny scraps of yarn leftover.

Fingers crossed I divided the yarn up evenly so there’s enough in the last two bits to make a matching sleeve.

The problem of the curly name badges has been swirling round in my mind for days, and I have a few ideas to try out before buying in even more craft supplies to fix them. Each badge only took about 15 minutes to make, so if I find a fix I’ll just frog and redo them the better way.  These little scraps are teaching me more about knitting than anything I’ve made before.

Hannah

xXx

WIP Thursday 18.04.24

Current WIP count: 6

Catmint is not very photogenic right now, as I made a start on the two-at-a-time sleeves with one set of needles significantly shorter than the other. It works so I’m rolling with it. The set up took some mental gymnastics and I had to start again a few times, but the actual knitting is easy peasy. As usual, I made it into far more of an issue in my mind than it really is.

I decided to make a name badge for myself after my friend’s badge went down so well. We use them at choir, writing our name on a sticker every week and then throwing it away at the end of rehearsal. Very wasteful. This one should hopefully last a bit longer as well as using up some tiny scraps that I can’t use for much else.

My camera can’t pick up the background colour properly. It’s actually neon green, so it shouldn’t get lost in my bag

My friend’s badge desperately wants to curl up no matter what I do to it, so this time I’m trying a tiny garter stitch border to see if that will keep things a bit straighter. We shall see.

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 10.04.24

Current WIP count: 5

This week I got a bit distracted by sorting and cataloguing my yarn. I’m trying to squeeze it into as few containers as possible ready for moving, and I figured I might as well update my stash spreadsheet at the same time. So now I know exactly how much I’ll be carting across Glasgow!

I did finish the body of Catmint but all I’ve done for the sleeves so far is split the remaining yarn in half.

My brain is very tired so it’s putting off learning the new ‘skill’ of two-at-a-time sleeves. Even though it’s just knitting with more than the usual number of circular needles. We’re going away to my favourite place for my birthday soon, and I’ve booked some days off work, so hopefully that will give me the headspace I need to get moving with it.

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 03.04.24

Current WIP count: 5

Long weekends are the best. I cleared out some unwanted magazines, packed a few boxes ready for moving, and made it to the bottom ribbing on my Catmint top. I got a bit too excited about reaching the end and made a mistake a couple of rows ago so I’m currently tinking back to fix it. Thank goodness I noticed now and not after casting off.

I think there will be enough yarn for the sleeves, since they’re so short, but as previously mentioned I’m not great at knowing how far it will go. The plan is to split the remaining yarn in half and try knitting the sleeves two at a time so I can just keep going until it runs out. Maximum top with minimum leftovers!   

My choir sock has also progressed. I’m on the heel, which needs a bit more attention than I can give while learning a Lithuanian weaving song so I’m working on it at home until I get to the foot.

Rainbows make me so happy.

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 27.03.24

Current WIP count: 5

I’m generally terrible at estimating how much longer the yarn will last when I’m knitting, which could be a problem for Catmint, as I got one of the skeins from backing a Kickstarter so I’m not able to buy more if it runs out. With that in mind, I’ve put the body on hold and I’m working on the neck band. If it ends up as a cropped, sleeveless top I can make that work, but it would be unwearable without the neck band.

I didn’t notice in the photo (or read the instructions) that the neck is not just plain ribbing; it has its own fancy chart. It looks kind of cool but if I ever make another one I think I’ll just stick to plain ribbing. As boring as it is, at least 1×1 goes much quicker than all this yarn over-ing and SSK-ing, all while trying to remember which line of the chart I’m on. 

Hopefully there will be enough yarn for a full top but we shall see.

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 20.03.24

Current WIP count: 5 (and 1 missing UFO)

I was horribly ill last week and got nothing done at all. Thankfully at the weekend I started to feel a bit better so I managed to work on my MeRo cowl, and I’m now up to the top edge and the final ‘bead’ of yarn.

I think I like doing twisted ribbing even less than normal ribbing, but the top and bottom need to match so that’s what it has to be. 

Catmint is chugging along. It’s only a tiny bit longer than last time so I won’t use up space with another photo. I’m thinking of making this my new choir project while I’m on the stockinette section, so it gets some dedicated time each week and doesn’t end up dragging on for months and months. I want to wear this top!

As for the missing UFO, I know for a fact that I put my Siobhan’s Crafts sock into the bag that the kit arrived in to keep all the needles and yarns together, but for the life of me I can’t remember where I put that bag. I’ve searched all my usual spots and it’s just not there.  Obviously, nobody has thrown it out of the window (unless Maggie learned how to open them without us noticing) so it must be in the flat somewhere and will turn up eventually. Until then, I’m taking it off my list of WIPs.

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 10.01.24

Current WIP count: 4

I can’t remember if this is a second sock or the start of a new pair. I need to have a dig around and see how many finished rainbow socks I can find.

The baby blanket should be finished this week if all goes to plan. I’m playing yarn chicken with this final grey block but I’m 80% sure I’ll win, then I’m going to do another block and the bottom border with the rainbow yarn. I don’t understand why I have so much more of one skein left when they both started off the same weight, but I’m going to make it work.

My brain is already skipping ahead trying to decide what I’m going to start next, and it’s a toss-up between a Glasgow skyline hat and a multicoloured cowl. Although my WIP list is quite small at the moment so maybe I’ll just start both!

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 03.01.2024

Current WIP count: 4

One of my friends at choir is going to be a grandma for the first time (although she’s pushing for ‘lola’ rather than grandma), and she is very, very excited about it. So I decided to make a baby blanket for them.

I don’t know if it’s going to be a boy or girl, or if they care about the pointless colour “rules”, so I went for some Stylecraft Special for Babies in grey/white and Stylecraft Sweet Dreams in subtle rainbow/white, officially named Mermaid. I think they look pretty together.

The pattern is Valley of Lilies (Rav link) by Sherri Hazen, which is interesting enough that I’m not getting bored but still simple enough to work on while watching NCIS. It’s a 12 row repeated pattern, so I’m just going to keep repeating it until I feel it’s long enough or the yarn runs out. Whichever comes first.

I have somewhat learned my lesson and went for colour blocks this time so I won’t have a million ends to sew in when I’m done. Progress!

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 13.12.23

Current WIP count: 5

It feels like forever since I did any crochet, so it’s nice to get back to it with this adorable giraffe amigurumi.

It’s turning out pretty tiny, I think he’s going to be smaller than my hand when he’s finished.

A couple of legs

I’ve also made a start on my second group of selbu mittens, which will not go quite as quickly as expected. I was thinking of this particular friend’s child as a wee toddler, since he was just learning to walk last time I saw him, but then I worked out that the last time I saw him was at least two years ago! How did that happen?? So these will be full mittens with thumbs rather than baby ones. Sigh. I do have another friend with an actual baby so I still have an excuse to make one more teeny tiny pair.

Hannah

xXx

WIP Thursday 07.12.23

Current WIP count: 4

I’m about three quarters through my first pair of children’s selbu mittens. There was too much time between the first and second mitten so I couldn’t remember exactly how I did the thumb gusset the first time, and I don’t think they match. But Christmas is approaching far too quickly to go back and work it all out properly so ‘close enough’ will do.

The next set will be for a friend who shares my love of a very particular shade of green, which has proven difficult to find in yarn form in the past. However, West Yorkshire Spinners came through for me with this gorgeous skein of 100% British wool in exactly the right colour.

It’s called Bottle Green

I even resisted the urge to take a look at all the other pretties in the shop – it must be the quickest trip to a yarn shop I’ve ever made!

The plan is to start on the child-sized mittens first this time so if I do run out of time before Christmas then at least the little one will have something to open from me, and mum will never say no to a book token or two instead.

Hannah

xXx

WIP Thursday 30.11.23

Current WIP count: 6

It’s soooooo good to get back to my usual multi-WIP ways. My brain does a little happy dance every time I pick up something different to work on.

I got back into my selbu mittens, working on the child-sized pair and lining up the pattern for baby mittens so I can get going straight away when these are finished. I strongly suspect that I won’t get through every pair of mittens I was planning to make for this Christmas, so some people might have to wait until next year. Oh well.

It makes no sense to sign up for a pattern test with Christmas so close and so many mittens to make, but I just couldn’t resist this one. It’s going to be a stocking with cute little skulls on. I had to!

And my latest pair of choir socks is nearly finished. They should just last me til the end of this term.

Ahh variety, how I missed you.

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 25.10.23

Current WIP count: 6

I had one false start with my child-sized selbu mittens when I forgot to include the thumb stitches, but the second attempt is going smoothly so far. I have no idea whether they’ll fit the intended recipient. I love giving surprise gifts and there’s just no way to surreptitiously measure someone’s hand.

My choir is celebrating its 21st anniversary this year with a big concert in November. We will be holding a raffle to raise some funds and I offered to make a scarf or shawl for one of the prizes, which I promptly forgot all about until this week. Argh!

I’m going to use this yarn cake from Hobbii because the colourway is gorgeous and will hopefully not be too much for people who don’t share my love of all the bright colours all the time.

Wendy’s Fern Shawl (Rav link) looks pretty straightforward so I’ve gone for that, and this is what it looks like so far.

I’m really going to have to focus to get it done on time, just when I was planning to work on my Christmas crafting as well. One day I will be an organised, grown-up adult person, but today is not that day.

Hannah

xXx