wip: seahawk nillas, garter squish blanket

Here's what I find are hands-down needs for me as a knitter, at least for right now anyway.

1. I absolutely need a pair of socks in progress at any given time.

2. I need a mindless scrap-eating blanket knit going on in the background.

These are two such WIPs I've got going on to preserve the natural and right order of life in this apartment:

This would be a pair of plain stockinette socks made from my first-ever purchased skein of Manos Del Uruguay yarn that I bought a year ago in my new favorite LYS, The Nifty Knitter. It's in Issaquah, WA which is decidedly not local for my Los Angeles-based self but the pleasant, inclusive spirit of that shop is enough for me to hold off on certain purchases until I make the flight/drive up there. I LOVE the place.

The hank of Alegria used

was full of surprises. I initially bought it as sort of a joke. In Seattle, I show myself up as an Angeleno in a lot of ways, like calling it The 405 instead of I-405, or sporting the accidental tan that one gets just from working so close to Venice Beach.

My plan was to make a Seahawks cowl or hat or something with this squishy yarn to help camoflauge me a little more effectively while in this city. I liked the concept for this fun little knitting project but wasn't really in love with this yarn at first--it looked cute as a hank but...as a sock or hat? I...dunno.

But then I had it wound into a skein. and then I casted on.

As someone who's a bigger fan of more muted looks, even for things like socks, I might have to eat my mean words about yarns like these. Variegation and stockinette go together here like --this project is gonna be really cute, and when done and worn, I might pass as a Seattleite from 100 or so yards away in them (but not much closer than that).

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This guy over here is a Garter Squish Blanket in progress, right now being made with a combination of gifted red heart worsted, and some other big-box craft store yarn. It feels really hypocritical to cast on such a thing after reading something like Slow Knitting, but I don't know! They're gifted! I'm filled with knitter's guilt, and they need to be something!

On top of that it just feels good to have something mindless to work on while watching something in the living room. This blanket will probably need to have the crap kicked out of it in a dryer before it's amenable to touch, but I respect and value its role in the WIP rotation. The mindless trash blanket will probably be here to stay.

fo : clarke, rhubarb show-offs

2017 has been a year focused on a lot of other things, like the surprising turn my career took, the first apartment I moved to (with a partner I never thought I would meet and grow with). I lost a lot of good knitting time this year being swept up with a lot of that but still managed to get a few things off the needles.

The problem (?) with taking so long to blog about something you've knit is that it's likely that you've already spent some time incorporating them into your life and putting them into use.

pattern : Clarke Pullover by Jane Richmond

yarn : Knit Picks Swish Worsted in Cobblestone Heather and Garnet Heather

needle : US 6, 7 [4-4.5mm]

size : 40

My Clarke sweater's already a little rough around the edges. I haven't really felt the push to block the garment to make this look as attractive as possible for the blog, I hardly even wove the ends in! As soon as it was bound off I wore it and continued to whenever the weather deemed it appropriate to. It can't be that heretical to admit that, right? I don't block that often at all!

The first pullover I knit was a Jane Richmond pattern. It was such a simple and enjoyable process that I sank my teeth into the Clarke pattern expecting the same straightforward, highly customisable design. I was not disappointed and might make another sometime in the future. So far the Swish Worsted has been soft and very comfortable--no scratchiness at all. One issue I see is that it pills quite a bit. The pilling makes me wonder whether this batch of skeins I bought from knitpicks would suffer the same unfortunate fulling effect post-wash that I read complaints about on ravelry. It would suck to see such a fate from a sweater I love this much.

pattern : Show-Off Stranded Socks by Anne Campbell

yarn : Regia Hand-Dye Effect in Rhubarb

needle : US 1 [2.5mm]

size : medium, 10"

This whole sock project was a nightmare, and it was entirely because of the yarn. I had this in the time-out pile since 2014 and didn't pick it back up until 2016. I was determined to finish it. Ignoring the general convention of knitting both socks with the same types of needle to ensure gauge is the same, I just picked some aluminum dpns and sped through the last sock.

With the frustration of the yarn behind me, I can enjoy these gorgeous colors and how the Anne Campbell's pattern has let them shine. To give the pattern a good faith effort once more with less annoying yarn, I casted on once more with a Zauberball skein instead. Anne Campbell kicked ass with this design.

wip : gd

GD is 53" wide and about 57" long now! I'm getting so impatient about finishing this blanket that I'm closing up the bottom edge and single crocheting the sides to feel like more 'finishing' is getting done I found a few skeins in an old plastic bag in a closet, so it's not time to bind off just yet.

wip: gd, slide, scrapsocks

I haven't posted about GD in a little while, and it's mostly been because I work on it extremely infrequently. I'm extremely grateful to the two kind ravelers who sent me their scraps, because therapy-knitting them these last few weeks (last week especially) had been a simple process. GD has grown to be 53in(~135cm) thanks to all your yarn scraps! That's about underarm height for 5'9" me, so I've still got a ways to go before it reaches a good enough length.

I'm only a tiny bit anxious to see this bound off, but it's for three little reasons here:

• it's getting cold, and a trusty blanket we already use has had to be retired because it's disintegrating

• the wealth of interestingstashprojects out there to cast-on

• I think I might be a product knitter

If it doesn't happen for another while, I won't sweat it. It's entirely gratifying to see how little stash I have to my name now (not counting planned-and-spoken-for stash). I've been unravelling the less relevant Bapsicrafts items (remember Ipod sleeves?!) to free up that kind of room. Also, needless to say, I broke my No Cotton rule eons ago, so this thing is gonna be interesting to see out of the dryer.

Updates of my other WIPs: (I know, I'm a bad non-monogamous knitter right now)

My scrap pair #1's done and has been bound off! I didn't weave in those ends yet, because one of the socks needs to be re-bound with something a little more stretchy. This is my remaining fingering-weight yarn (minus the 78 yards of my eggplant Regia), which will transform into my next scrap pair once the WIP-count's gone down a bit.

That last photo of my NaKniSweMo project here was completely frogged! I thought I would luck-out without swatching but I absolutely didn't. When I tried that WIP on over my shoulders to gauge how far I'd gone, the sweater fell through to the floor--it was absolutely massive. So after frogging the thing, I swatched like a good knitter, and sized down to a 5mm needle. Today marks finally reaching un-crinkly, brand new yarn, so it might be smooth sailing from here on out.

The Slide socks have unfortunately been ignored. I reached the heel flap on the first sock, and might not really attend to it until I'm on-schedule again with this sweater project.

With the holidays around the corner, I might consider going for a hand-knit round of gifts for my loved ones. An example: my Cocoon hat knit in time for Canada turned out to be too thick for comfortable on-ear headphone use for me, but will definitely be perfect for a friend of mine who lives somewhere cold (and prefers in-ears!)

I'll have to see how I'll handle other gifts, but I'm looking forward to joining the rest of the knitting community in a rush for midnight Christmas.