WIPs increasing daily! or too many things to try, no time to finish!

Several things have conspired to increase my number of WIPs, despite my good intentions on January 1 to finish one before starting another!

Firstly, I was seaming the 112 squares of the Diagonal Diamond Wrap. I had only 2m (80 inches) of seam left (of 23.15m/28yds approx). In other words, I had two panels to attach and the wrap would have been complete. It was then I realised that I had sewn two of those 5x5 in squares in the wrong place. Now my whole design was off! Worse still, I had sewn in all the ends and the yarn I was using was the worst kind, a sticky kind of mohair that just will not unravel! I was so disheartened I folded the wrap (or its component parts) and put them neatly on the (rarely used) piano stool. My new friends at Knit4Charities made soothing comments like: "a man on a galloping horse won't notice". But I'm not on a galloping horse, I'm sitting here, trying to ignore the cries of those two misplaced squares as they are separated from their family! (Blues should be with blue, purples with purple - you know what I mean). I know the purpose of the wrap is to keep "cold humanity warm" but I want my designs to be right. Each wrap is designed to test a new colour pattern I'm thinking through. And there is so much work in this one! 112 squares, all that seaming, at least 672 ends sewn in! Trying to unravel the seams will be at least another couple of hours work, I may end up destroying the squares and I don't have enough yarn to reknit them! (I was knitting to use up odds and ends). If only someone would come and take the wrap away so that I don't have control over it anymore! :-(

The arrival of my parents for DD's 21st birthday and party meant I had to find simple projects to knit because mum, DD and I knit and talked quite a bit and it's hard to concentrate on a complicated pattern while talking. That accounts for the red scarf and the purple rolled brim hat referred to in a previous post. When they went home, my parents found an article in their local newspaper about a lady knitting jumpers for Aids babies in Africa. I started one last night and will hopefully finish it at the Blue Mountains knitting group today.

Having recently joined Knit4Charities, I am inspired by all the other interesting things that are being knitted. All these little projects can be completed in a very short period of time (compared to 6-8 weeks for a wrap) and have the potential to use up odd balls of yarn.

Then there are new techniques to try - yesterday I knit a coathanger cover with lace edging. The day before that WM, DD and I unravelled a ball of Knitwise Pricewise #001 into it's two strands: the lashes and the baubles. I made two child-size coathanger covers - one from each type of yarn. There will be another post about those when they are completed. I'm thinking about knitting i-cord (a new technique for me) to go over the hook of the coathangers instead of using plastic tubing. Earlier in the week I knit a ball in six segments, now I want to try to knit a ball in one piece!

And what about my 'dormant' WIPs? I completed the right front of the summer cardigan but had not done enough rows for the sleeves before casting off (I'm knitting from the top down) so now I have to frog most of it! The baby shrug is still waiting for a button (when I figure out where to put it - I think I'll take it with me today and get some help). I need to buy adult size coathangers for the two lace covers I've already made - I mistakenly bought child size! The socks are still waiting for Kitchener stitch toes and the Large Flying Geese wrap is just waiting because I'm bored feeling jaded with knitting squares and sewing them together! As yet I haven't felt inclined to pick up those socks I started in the seventies!

When will I learn to prepare properly**?

If I had knitted a swatch I could have weighed it and used that to work out how much yarn I needed, since the pattern didn't give any indication of how much yarn is needed to complete the shrug.

It was coming along well - although I notice that I have slightly uneven tension on 3mm needles using 4ply (fingering) yarn for garter stitch. Anyway, I was almost halfway when I realised I didn't have anywhere near enough yarn to finish it! Having knitted about 17cm of the 40cm body, I was reluctant to frog! What to do? Use another colour - what else? My baby shrug now has yellow stripes and is certainly different! And I should use up most, if not all, of the blue yarn and about half of my yellow yarn - knitting from my stash is what stashalong is all about! :-)

I will post photos of my stripey shrug as soon as it is finished. I am using it as my Lint for Lent project so I am knitting at least 30 minutes every day - hopefully it will be finished before Easter. LOL

On a more positive note: I did a swatch for my summer cardigan, and carefully divided my yarn, with slightly more for the fronts than for the back. I am knitting it from the top down with the sleeves as part of the body, that way I can make it as long as possible with the yarn I have, rather than making it a certain length and then realising I haven't enough yarn to finish; or, worse still, that I have a silly little bit left over. I'm knitting a simple lace pattern (K1 *sl 1, K1, psso*, repeat from * to * to end of row, K1) on size 8mm (US 13) needles so it's knitting up quite quickly (much faster than the shrug!)

**Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance!

Lynne Johnson workshop

Yesterday I attended a full day workshop with the very talented and inspiring Lynne Johnson
called "Feral and Odd Ball Knitting". Lynne is writing a book so it's not fair to publish pictures of her finished work but here is an appetiser! There are three articles shown in this photo: a vest in autumn tonings in the background, a red and black shawl in the foreground and a small part of an article in super garter stitch in the middle right.

Lynne taught us super garter stitch: here is a small sample of her work.

Here I am concentrating on my multicoloured knitting It was so nice to knit with wool again, it has a very different feel to acrylic. However, I'm not too impressed with my sample so I probably won't continue with it. Anyway, at the moment I am determined not to cast on for any new projects until I have completed the list in my sidebar!

You can find more pictures on our knitters' group blog.

Update: This last link has been amended - thanks Stacy for pointing out my error lapse of concentration! :-)

Is it a waste of time?

I was going to post today about my excitement at finishing the back of my summer top (see sidebar and footnote) - including a new technique (for me): short row shaping. But...

Twenty rows into the front I realised that I don't have enough yarn to complete the project - and since it was yarn I bought in the early 80s there's no chance of getting any more! I only have 350g from the original project (which I knitted and wore but I'm too old now for sleeveless, baggy, shapeless clothes and the yarn was still too good to throw away).

I frogged it all, and now it is waiting for another moment of inspiration!
The colours are all wrong for a winter garment (eg scarf) but the yarn knits up on 6.00mm (US 10) needles, so any yarn used with it needs to be quite thick too and that makes for a heavy summer garment. It gets really hot here in Sydney (last Sunday was 40C - 109F) so we need cool clothes! So, it's back to the designing process. I'll let you know how it works out! :-(

WIP #2 completed

I finished Wrap #1 last night - 6 days ahead of schedule! Woo-hoo!! A great deal of thanks to the Australian Open Tennis Tournament. However, sad to say, my constant presence in front of the tv was not enough to get the Australian players into the finals! ;-)

Here it is - 2007 FO #2:

Here is a close up:

And here is the detail of one diamond which were included to keep me interested with all those rows of garter stitch.

I am building quite a collection for "Wrap with Love" (see sidebar) - when I have finished the other two wraps in my WIP list I will send them off so they can be used by people who really need them!

And... here are my next two projects: one to knit when the family is around, and one that requires concentration.

If you look closely, you can see the diamond pattern on this strip (which shows that it was originally part of the previously mentioned FO)
This is the front (or the back) of the top which I am making from Cotton Kandy, a yarn I first knitted in the 80s.
Needless to say this yarn is not available anymore! The garment I originally made was a sleeveless top on oversized needles. Now I'm older more mature, I want a top with sleeves so I have supplemented my 350g of Cotton Kandy with some 4ply (fingering) cotton - two strands, a soft yellow and a creamy white. These swatch differently so I am knitting two rows CK (size 6.00mm - US 10 - needles) and then 2 rows of the double stranded cotton (Size 4.50mm - US 7 - needles), increasing one stitch in every 15 (and of course decreasing one stitch in every 16 when I return to CK).

I am knitting without a pattern, and am now up to the armhole so I have to decrease at the same time as remembering to swap needles and increase/decrease. Hence the need for concentration. This garment is lovely and soft to knit after months working with acrylic. I think it will be heavy and too hot to wear in summer but we shall see...