Kninja Knitter

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” – Semisonic

Here we are on the last day of the month, which is also the last day of the quarter, and closes out the Year of Projects (YOP), too. I’m not going to do my final wrap-up of the YOP until I’m ready to also share my plans for the YOP that begins tomorrow. I’ll also do a wrap up of the quarter for my financial progress along with some of my plans for the coming months. But my standard update for Mondays continues as I mark my progress in my knitting adventures. Ready for this?

Stitched or Still-in-Progress

I have a finished object from last week – this probably doesn’t surprise anyone. I also ignored a couple projects while casting on some new ones. Sadly, I did not manage to prioritize the zigzag blanket, and instead I cast on another blanket pattern. This weekend I wore my newest FO to church which gave me a great opportunity to get a couple glamour shots.

The other project I put the most time into was the cardigan sweater. I took a look at some of the project pages on Ravelry after realizing that the sleeve length is shorter than I was expecting – particularly as I was approaching the end of the sleeve according to the pattern. Since this sweater is knit side-to-side, we don’t “knit to X inches” as is done in I other patterns. I did some math and determined how many chart repeats to add to get my desired sleeve length. Then I also looked at the front and back measurements and decided to add more stitches once I finished the sleeve section. Note that the construction method for this cardigan is unique – it starts with the right sleeve to effectively the armpit, but the underside of the sleeve will come later. Then cast on for the back and front, then the front and back are knit along with the shoulder lace pattern. I’ll split for the neckline and ultimately end up holding stitches for the back and side; repeat the process for the left side, and then join the right and left side with a lace panel and join the front to back along with the sleeves to form the side lace panels. Knitting magic! And yesterday I stayed up to cast on the stitches for the back and front. I have the sleeve/shoulder lace pattern pretty much memorized, so the next segment should go pretty quickly.

I made some progress on the shawl I started at ZK – again, it’s fairly easy to work since the pattern is very basic. I put some time into it on Wednesday while waiting for some car maintenance work to be completed. And I picked it back up yesterday for a bit, though I had to focus at first. I’d been working so much on the drop-stitch pattern, I almost started working the wrong pattern.

The other project that got a lot of attention in spurts this week was the Lake Hug Sweater Scarf. I counted up this morning, and I worked 59 rows on both wings. Given the stated dimensions in the pattern, I have less than 50 rows to go before I transition to knitting the sleeves. I will knit those two-at-a-time as well. It’s hard to photograph this project since there’s so much fabric here. I worked on it a bunch on Saturday when I participated in friends’ movie night fun on their patio. More on that later…

And the last WIP to share is the hat. I don’t get much time to work on this in favor of my other projects. But I’m closing in to the next color change and switching to plain stockinette! Then it can be good movie knitting again.

Cast-on Conversations

I shared a picture of the yarn for my next Camp Loopy project. That’s been wound up and is ready for tomorrow’s start! In the meantime, I started three more projects this past week.

Last week, Laura Nelkin released the toe-up version of her Larch Peds pattern, cute shortie socks. I knit up a pair of the original cuff-down pattern last year, but I do prefer to knit socks toe-up for a few reasons. I didn’t waste any time winding up one of the self-striping yarns I bought at ZK and casting on! I finished the first one in less than three days, and I’m doing my best to get the second sock to match (to some extent) the first one. The fact that I was able to complete the entire heel tab in solid white before the next color transition was extraordinary, as it makes a great contrast to the contrast mini! Right now it’s looking like the color changes are happening several stitches sooner on the mate, but I’ve got a ways to go before I can know for sure.

Once I finished the shawl, I decided to put the leftover yarn to use right away. I saw a few examples of this next pattern at ZK since Shana, the designer, is well known as a sponsor designer there. I’d also seen a recent interpretation in one of the Ravelry groups I’m involved with. I don’t know if I have enough yarn for the whole hat to be knit with it, but I can at least get half of the hat worked in these lovely yarns!

And lastly, we’ll see if I finish this or lose motivation, or maybe I’ll add a second color or two… but a simple Fisherman’s Rib blanket struck me as a good idea for some of my acrylic yarn stash.

This is a Year of Projects post. Officially the Group is in its 14th year, my first. If you would like to find out more about the Year of Projects Group on Ravelry, please check it out; it’s a very welcoming group, and we’re prepping for the 15th year that kicks off next month!

Bookish Banter

I managed to finish two books last week – I mentioned previously that I had started The Mirror: The Lost Bride Trilogy, Book 2 by Nora Roberts. It wrapped up faster than I would have liked, and I’ve already ordered the final book in the series, due out in November. The next day I started reading The Housemaid’s Secret, the second book in a series I started earlier this month. And I finished that on Friday. I’ll probably start up the next book in that series tomorrow to start the next quarter in the Kindle Reading Challenge series.

That’s about all I’ve managed to do this week outside of work, church, and my other responsibilities. I worked five DoorDash shifts across the week, and they were decently busy and securing income. I’ll share more about those efforts in my financial wrap-up in a couple days. We have a short work week due to the US holiday on Friday, so I’m hopeful that I can maintain my productivity in the knitting arena while also making progress toward other goals. So many topics coming up! But for now…

Knit on, 🧶