OhSewCrafty Blog

On October 1st, I realized it was just two weeks until Rhinebeck, and while slogging through the second sleeve on Sage, decided it might be nice to have a new sweater for the festival.  I stashdived on Ravelry and picked out a few projects that could be completed within the timeframe, and asked my friend Catherine (with whom I will attend the festival) her opinion.  She proposed something different: a WIP only challenge, which I had to admit, was a good idea!  I do have several which are more like UFO’s.  Of the cool weather projects, here are my goals:

1.  Selbu modern hat- about 40% complete when I picked it up, now about 70% after doing several rounds each day.  This is really fun to work on and shouldn’t take long to complete, but for some reason it just hasn’t kept my attention in the past.  About 30 rounds to go; soon I will begin decrease shaping for the crown!

 2.  Aoelian shawl(ette)- about 70% complete.  Excuse the terrible picture, this is scrunched up on a short cable for storage, but you get the idea….lace,beads,etc.  I was motoring along on this and expected to finish within 2 weeks or so, but then I brought it to knit night, and found that socializing didn’t mix well with nupps and beads.  Frogging ensued, I missed my (self-imposed) deadline, got discouraged, and set it aside.  But I’d love to finish it now.  The lovely alpaca/silk/cashmere will be light yet warm as the weather cools.

3.  “Bruyere”-needs seaming and buttons.  Knitting this was fun, but the crochet finishing with the splitty, sticky boucle yarn was pure torture.  Nevertheless I spent a few hours last Saturday to complete the crochet around the neckline.  The texture of the stockinette fabric completely disappears in the boucle, and conventional seaming would drive me batty, so I plan to use a zig zag stitch on my sewing machine. 

5.  Sage- about 90% complete.  Pictured is the second sleeve, possibly the bane of my existence.  I have been making steady progress (I started the sleeve on 9/30), but it is slog, with the (k1tbl, p1) rep across. After this, all that remains is the garter neckband, and seaming/blocking.  The shoulders are already joined via 3 needle bind off.  I’ve pinned this together and tried it on, I know I will love it.   But sweaters on size 3 needles-with sleeves, cables, fussy stitch patterns, etc, take forever.