Friday, May 13

Finished Object Friday! Multnomah Shawl

Wow, how long has it been since I've finished something? (I checked - December 14th, 2010.)

I've been on a bit of a stash-busting bender lately. I found this ball of Mark's and Katten Fame Trend, a Christmas gift in 2009 from my aunt and uncle, and decided it was next on the list.


stash yarn


I browsed the Ravelry pattern database to see what I could find. I came up with Multnomah. (Available free at http://helloknitty.net.)


Multnomah finished 1

Multnomah finished 2


My goal was to use as much of the yarn as possible. I left I tiny tail after casting on the 3 starting stitches:


Multnomah 1


I knit extra repeats until my yarn supply seemed dangerously low and did a k2tog bind off to keep the end stretchy. I had about 8" of yarn left.


multnomah 2


Let me tell you, I was seriously sweating that bind off! Here is a shot of the whole thing, pre-blocking.


Multnomah pre-block; cat for scale


The cat's odd sitting position is due to the fact that he was slowing inching his way closer to the yarn tail while feigning innocence.

Thursday, May 12

WIP's

I have many works in progress right now - more than the total number of projects I completed in 2010. I think packing and moving my yarn stash shook the dust off of my knitting mojo.

I am actively working on a pair of socks and two cardigans. I actually finished a lace shawl last week - more on that in another post.

Kai-Mei socks:


Kai-Mei socks in progress


I should have been finished with these a few weeks ago, but I found a mistake on the foot of the second sock. Not that it was hard to find; there was a large bulbous protrusion on one side of the lace pattern where I had apparently forgotten to decrease for twenty or so rounds. I ripped back to before the problem started... but haven't picked them up again. I probably could finish them in a night if I set my mind to it. Maybe tonight?

Vine Lace Cardigan:


(No Photo. How boring.)


This has been on my needles for months. I realized pretty early in that I had misread (or mismemorized) the lace pattern and was doing something completely different. Didn't feel like ripping it out, so I'm going with it for the rest of the cardigan. I think I put this down to work on holiday projects in December.

(Did I write 'actively working on' above? Well, it felt like it until I thought about those projects.)

Clara Cardigan:


Clara cardigan


I started this just last week. I've had this yarn (Cascade Sierra) in my stash for years and really wanted to find a pattern so I could finally knit it. The cardigan has an interesting side-to-side construction, with short rows creating the collar. I hope the cotton content doesn't make it too heavy and pull the garter stitch out of shape. Hopefully the vertical rows will help prevent that.

I have also gone a bit crazy and have started matching up all of the yarn in my stash to the project I will make with it. Somehow, this feels like it will help me knit faster and get through the stashed yarn quicker. At least it looks a little more organized!