I thought I was going to show you my 2 new WIPs, but it turns out I’m only going to show you one.

1. Clapotis – I’ll be honest – I’m not loving the knitting, but I think I will like wearing it as the yarn should match with a lot of my clothes. It took me until I reached the “work even” section to feel like I had any rhythm to my knitting, and even so I’m not finding the knitting pleasant. I don’t really know why.

2. Lichen Ribbed Socks – These are a Christmas present and I’ve decided not to show them here. They are the complete opposite of knitting on the Clapotis. I have a nice rhythm and speed, and the knitting is completely pleasant.

Finally, it’s done (and has been done for several days, I just didn’t have time to post). This took many nights of finishing even after the knitting was done as I just tackled one thing at a time: side seams, sleeve seams, re-blocking the sleeves, i-cord ties, and finally sewing on the snap.

Pattern: Dragon Scale Wrap from Interweave Knits, Holiday 2007
Designer: Angela Hahn
Yarn: Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo
Needle: US 6
Notes: This pattern almost got the better of me. I knit the right front and ripped it out before I realized that I *must* use a stitch marker to ensure that I decreased properly. What I did was put a marker between the dragon stitch pattern repeat, note how many stitches I had before decreasing on that row, and then count again to be sure I lost a stitch. After that it was smooth sailing, but lots of finishing for such a small garment.

Wednesday WIPs coming a little later today….

I’m dubbing it my Karnasta hat because it uses most of the Karn pattern and part of the Asta pattern. As it was, I still had to frog back the last few rows of decreases because Asta was getting too pointy too! I swear, I would think heads are easier to fit than feet, but I still haven’t mastered hat sizing.

I am happy with it now! Round top, light and fluffy stitch pattern, seems stretchy enough that it will stay on and yet loose enough that it’s not going to try ride up on my head. While I did prefer the non-spiraling decreases that Karn had, I was impatient to finish this and took the easy way out of spiraling decreases.

Pattern: Combination of Karn and Asta from Norah Gaughan Volume 1
Yarn: Knitpicks Swish in Coast Grey, 2 skeins
Needle: US 9
Notes: The row gauge as stated in the booklet for Karn must be wrong and I had to modify the decreases to get a non-pointy hat. To get my round topped hat, I added 4 additional even rows and then I followed the decreases for Asta. To get the correct multiple of stitches, my first decrease row only decreased 4 stitches rather than 6. Then once I got to the 3rd to last decrease row I began knitting in the round and I left out the even row between decreases.

How crazy is that? I know I haven’t shown you the finished Dragon Scale Wrap yet, but I will. It needed additional blocking after the arm seams were sewn, plus it deserves a post of it’s own.

1. Karn Hat – It was done, but I’ve frogged it back to where the decreases start. The pattern is from Norah Gaughan Volume 1. I love Norah’s patterns and have been itching to knit many of them. The only thing holding me back is having the right combination of yarn and pattern, and since I’m currently doing the majority of my knitting from stash that combination isn’t happening.

I’m sorry, but the pointed top is just not working for me. I already look like a dork in hats; I cannot pull off a pointy top. What annoys me about this pattern is that the booklet photos DO NOT show it being a pointed hat. On the website you can see it’s not a perfectly round top, but it is not pointed like a chocolate kiss. There was no errata for this pattern. I checked.

The yarn and stitch pattern is light and fluffy, and the hat is comfortable to wear. For that reason I’ve ripped it back and will try to re-knit it with the decreases of a rounder topped hat.

Yes, another finished object. This was quick, easy, and a fun diversion from my existing projects. My apologies for the terrible photos. Dark yarn color + self portrait = worse than normal photos.

Pattern: Fishbone Lace Cowl from Ocean Breezes by
Yarn: Misti Alpaca Worsted in Aubergine
Needle:
Notes: Winter is coming so warm accessories seemed like a good knitting choice. I find that scarves can be a little bit fussy to wear, I’m hoping that a cowl will keep me warm and be easy to wear.

I wrapped these babies up on Saturday, but it took me until today to get a decent photo.

Pattern: Hourglass from Knitty
Yarn: Opal Uni-solid
Needle: 2.5mm Addi Turbo and 2.5mm Knitpicks Circular
Notes: I believe I followed the pattern exactly as written, except possibly for foot length and lengthening the heel flap a few rows. The real trick to knitting these and not going insane is to cable without a cable needle. It’s a bit tricky with the small, tight stitches of a sock, but I found that if I released the stitch from the left needle while pinching it against the right needle, I could get the stitches swapped with successfully.

It’s been a busy week. Work has been stressful and I have an end of week deadline that is LOOMING since today is already Wednesday.

1. Dragon Scale Wrap – Blocked and dry. I just need to buckle down and do the finishing.

2. Hourglass Socks – While Dragon Scale was drying over the weekend I knit exclusively on these. As you can see, I’m well into the foot on each sock.

3. Fishbone Lace Cowl – After putting hours into Hourglass I needed a little break. I knew I wanted to start some type of neck warmer, but I tried several other patterns with this yarn before finding success with the Fishbone Lace Cowl from Ocean Breezes. The funny thing is that this pattern was #1 on my Ravelry Queue so if I had just started with it I would have saved myself some trouble!

Pattern: Fishbone Lace Cowl (Ravelry link)
Book: Ocean Breezes: Knitted Scarves Inspired by the Sea
Author: Sheryl Thies
Yarn: Misti Alpaca Worsted in Aubergine

I’m actually about 80% done with the cowl, but this photo of it with the book photo in the background gives you a better idea of what it will look like than the unflattering pic I took today.

The WIP list is getting short since I finished Sunrise Circle and the Little Girl’s Bolero over the weekend. With all these things finished I’m starting to think about what’s next. Not that I don’t think about this all the time, but now I feel like I am free to make the decision with the weight of UFO’s lifted.

1. Dragon Scale Wrap – How crazy is this: I cast on from the beginning on September 30th and I am almost finished! I have cast off and now all that’s left is a few hours of finish work.

It certainly helped that I had already knit and ripped out one entire front panel because I had a feel for the dragon scale pattern and I realized that I must mark my repeat to be sure I decreased correctly. Sorry about the awful night time photo.

2. Riverbed Master Pattern Socks – On hold. I think I’ll take these off the list until which point I have the measurements I need to know they’ll fit.

3. Hourglass Socks – In my desire to wrap up the other projects I have not touched these for days. No bother though, I’m thrilled that I’ve wrapped up these other projects.

I also finished the Little Girl’s Bolero over the weekend. This was a fun diversion project. It was meant to be a quick knit, but when I ran out of yarn it got set aside for a few weeks.

Pattern, yarn, button, and (I’m pretty sure) the needles I used for this project were ALL purchased at Linda’s Knit ‘N Stitch. This is my LYS when I’m in Washington (and well, truth be told, it’s still my LYS even though I’m in Missoula). THANK YOU Heather for the inspiration and Linda for finding me the additional skein of yarn!

Sunrise Circle is DONE and WEARABLE! There was a period of time that I didn’t know if this sweater (really more of jacket) would ever be wearable. It’s first hurdle was coming out too large. This was overcome by lightly felting it in my gentle front loader. Next, the bottom was still way too big around. I corrected that by machine sewing darts into the two side seams. Finally, it seemed as if it would be wearable. Toggle buttons were purchased yesterday and sewn on today. DH was roped into marking the position of the buttons and taking a few photos.

I am so excited that it’s finished and successful. I can’t wait to wear it out in public. Not to mention the huge weight that’s been lifted to take this off my WIP list!