Periwinkle

Periwinkle has been one of my favorite colors for a long time. I made a sweater years ago that just turned out too big - (or it could have been that I lost weight). Anyway, I decided to rip it out and re-use the yarn for another sweater. The pattern I'm using is a modified "Brick". I basically cast on the number they used to cast on. I knit a few rows and started to increase at the front, sleeves and back for a total of ten increases. I did that on every right side row for about ten rows. From that I figured out my gauge. That would tell me how much increasing I would need to do. Since I want my sweater to be comfortable and not tight, I added a few inches to my total measurements. Now, I'm knitting until the sweater reaches that size and will separate the sleeves from the body of the sweater. At that point I plan on casting on another two inches worth of stitches for each of the underarms.

So far, so good.

Reyna Shawl

This shawl turned out better than I expected! I often wonder about a project's beauty when I see a skein of yarn. Will this make something beautiful? Or is the beauty all in the skein? What sometimes looks great all wound up often looks like a mess when knitted up. I think this one worked.

I don't usually like garter stitch but for this yarn I was pleased with how it turned out. The yarn overs and knit two together almost did me in but I persevered and was rewarded. 

P.S. Some day I will edit my pictures so that they all turn out the same color. It would help if I took them all at the same time and in the same room with no clouds. Alas, two were taken in BC and one was taken in SK - all with varying degrees of cloudiness, Say la vee.

I Fixed It!

So, I fixed the sleeves and now it's wearable. Still not happy about it but at this point I'm not going to rip it out and start all over. No, I'll just chalk it up to experience. Now I know to knit with a yarn that I like, i.e., 100% wool. Whenever possible. Also learned to stick with a pattern. I don't mean necessarily sticking to the shape of the garment but stick with the placement of the color. I would have liked this better if the stripes were a little higher - maybe two inches. Same number of stripes but placed differently.

Now, I'm worried about my next sweater project. I have the yarn all picked out but I'm using two different weights. One is a sport weight and the other is sock weight, Well, the only way to find out is to knit a swatch. And that I will do! Stay tuned.

Reworking WIPs

Yep, I'm doing it! I'm getting them done. It's like a food diet. You just have to bite the bullet and do it. So, I'm demolishing WIPs left and right and forcing myself to NOT start another project until these old ones are under control. To make myself feel better I have even consigned some projects to zzzz on my Ravelry page. That way they are out of the way at the end of my project page and then all I see are a few WIPs at the top. So, then, as things come under control I can bring up a few more zzz's and promote them to WIP's. What mind games I play!

That said and taken care of I have even decided to rework some done projects that I'm not happy with. The Brick/Ravello is an example. The sweater looked sloppy. Too sloppy. Now, I can deal with a little bit of sloppy but when I looked in the mirror with the sweater on it looked so wrong. Just plain wrong. I thought of ripping out the sleeves to the arm pit as well as ripping back all the grey (up to the armpit) But wondered if just redoing the cuff would work. Well, that's just what I did. I ripped out the "k2, p2" cuff and replaced it with six rounds of stockinette stitch in needles four sizes smaller and then just bound off. It worked! The reduced size of needle cinched the cuff just enough that made it pleasing without it being overly gathered. I think I'll wear it tonight.

I want to do another rework but that involves a steek and my brain is not yet up to it.

In fact, I have two sweaters that could be more wearable if I inserted a steek down the front. We'll see.

In 20 Minutes

In 20 minutes I will hop in the car and drive to the airport! No, this is not a spur of the moment trip. Ever since one of my girls called last week I had been hemming and hawwing about whether to go and visit them. Well, last night I decided it was time to go. I'm only going to be there for a few days but it's the weekend and both of them have off. Heidi even has this Friday off - one of her regular 2nd (or is it 3rd?) EDO or Earned Day Off. I'm looking forward to it and have brought my knitting. Nothing involved and an extra ball of yarn just in case.

"Reyna" in Ancient Arts "Landscape Artist"

And a little sustenance.

Now, there are only five minutes to go! Must put my bags in the car.